Played someone this evening and found the new wording on the expert handling card caused some disagreements in interpretation.

The wording has changed from "ACTION: Perform a barrel role..." to "ACTION: Perform a free barrel role...".

My opponent interpreted this as Expert Handling being a free action, hence he took a falcon with engine upgrades, boosted and then performed a barrel role, and could have done this every turn after a green manoeuvre.

My interpretation is that it is an action. Doing a boost first means that you have no action left, doing expert handling first uses your action. I can't believe that for 2 points you can get two actions and shed target locks every turn that has to be a misinterpretation.

very ambiguous wording though, why the change? What is everyone else's take on it, and what's the official take on it?

It's an old rule correction.

You are correct. Your friend is wrong. The current FAQ explains it.

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_minisite_sec.asp?eidm=174&esem=4

Expert Handling is an action that allows you to perform a Barrel Roll, even if you do not have the BR in your Action Bar. Taking EH as his action would be his one action that he can perform that turn. Unless he has something else that allows a second action, he would not be permitted to Boost as well.

There is also an update for the way a large ship uses the Barrel Roll as well, with the edge of the 1-Straight template, and not the length. That's in there as well.

To further clarify.

Expert Handling itself is the action that is being performed. The fact that part of its effect is allowing a free barrel roll does not change the fact that it is an action.

Dang, I was using that card incorrectly since the very beginning (good thing I was only playing against myself during that time, it's less embarassing)!

Guess it really shows how much reading each and every card carefully is important.

To further clarify.

Expert Handling itself is the action that is being performed. The fact that part of its effect is allowing a free barrel roll does not change the fact that it is an action.

My understanding is that the clarification resulted from pilots like Vader who had 2 actions (or other pilots gaining a second action by using PTL) and had the barrel roll available in their action bar.

The argument was that as you are performing an expert handling action - not a barrel roll action - therefore you could use barrel roll as your second action.

By changing the wording to "Perform a FREE barrel roll Action" as part of the EH action, this blocked players from barrel rolling twice as per page 9 of the core rules set.

Guess it really shows how much reading each and every card carefully is important.

We've all been there.

It wasn't until it was brought up on here recently that I realised that you can score critical hits with the Heavy Laser Cannon.

If you read the card carefully and go through the sequence of play it's obvious - but if you just read the card without thinking of how you are actually applying the rule it's not so obvious

My understanding is that the clarification resulted from pilots like Vader who had 2 actions (or other pilots gaining a second action by using PTL) and had the barrel roll available in their action bar.

I was clarifying (not very well, apparently) the explanation in this thread, not commenting on the errata to the card. Your quite right why the card was changed. I just wanted to make sure the OP was aware that EH itself is an action, just like any other. It just happens to have a free action as part of its effect.

My understanding is that the clarification resulted from pilots like Vader who had 2 actions (or other pilots gaining a second action by using PTL) and had the barrel roll available in their action bar.

I was clarifying (not very well, apparently) the explanation in this thread, not commenting on the errata to the card. Your quite right why the card was changed. I just wanted to make sure the OP was aware that EH itself is an action, just like any other. It just happens to have a free action as part of its effect.

my comment was more directed towards the OP to give a little background for the ruling and perhaps aid in understanding the use of the card within other contexts

so I'm not sure why I hit the quote button to your post

I'm sorry but your reasoning does not make any sense. Expert Handling is just the name of the card. The action is a barrel roll. The new wording/FAQ says it is a FREE action. According to the rule book

If an ability allows a ship to perform a “free action,” this action does not count as the one action allowed during the “Perform Action” step. (Page 8, Actions)

Therefore you can play two actions. One has to be available to the ship, the second is the barrel roll provided by the upgrade card Expert Handling.

I'm sorry but your reasoning does not make any sense. Expert Handling is just the name of the card. The action is a barrel roll. The new wording/FAQ says it is a FREE action. According to the rule book

If an ability allows a ship to perform a “free action,” this action does not count as the one action allowed during the “Perform Action” step. (Page 8, Actions)

Therefore you can play two actions. One has to be available to the ship, the second is the barrel roll provided by the upgrade card Expert Handling.

You see the bit at the start of EH that says ACTION that means it takes your 1 action to activate, it then grants you a free action

I'm sorry but your reasoning does not make any sense. Expert Handling is just the name of the card. The action is a barrel roll. The new wording/FAQ says it is a FREE action. According to the rule book

If an ability allows a ship to perform a “free action,” this action does not count as the one action allowed during the “Perform Action” step. (Page 8, Actions)

Therefore you can play two actions. One has to be available to the ship, the second is the barrel roll provided by the upgrade card Expert Handling.

Expert Handling also has the Action: header, which means that you use your action to activate it, so you may not use another action unless you have another way to get one (ie. Push the Limit or similar). Refer to "Other Actions" at the bottom of page 9 of the rulebook.

I'm sorry but your reasoning does not make any sense. Expert Handling is just the name of the card. The action is a barrel roll. The new wording/FAQ says it is a FREE action. According to the rule book

If an ability allows a ship to perform a “free action,” this action does not count as the one action allowed during the “Perform Action” step. (Page 8, Actions)

Therefore you can play two actions. One has to be available to the ship, the second is the barrel roll provided by the upgrade card Expert Handling.

Nope. Expert Handling has the ACTION: header so it requires your action to activate. That then allows you to do two things: 1. Perform a free barrel roll action; 2. Remove a target lock from your ship.

The free barrel roll action is one of the effects of the Expert Handling action. Expert Handling is not, in itself, a free action (and that is very clear if you read the card).

@Tanktracks.

You need to look at it as performing an "Expert Handling" action, then it makes more sense. Just because it mentions a free action, doesn't change the fact that the card is an Action card itself, hence the "Action:" header.

Thanks guys for your replies. I'm usually pretty easy to convince if I have a rule wrong, and I may be wrong here. Expert Handling was changed In the FAQ. It is an upgrade card that you buy to add additional abilities to your ship. The only change was the addition of the word FREE. So why did they add the word FREE if it is not granting you something different than the original wording?

So what you are saying is that EH is a two part action--the barrel roll and the removal of the TL, and the barrel roll is the free part. That makes sense. I'm willing to go with that.

However just note there isn't a single card that says Free Action in bold print. Squad Leader is the only upgrade card I can find that is an action card that grants a free action. And it doesn't even grant your ship a free action it grants it to another one.

Quite some time ago when I was still new to the game, the same query popped up in our group. We were playing it as an extra action because it said "free" on the card. After some debate within our group, we couldn't decide which way to rule, so I wrote to FFG. Here's the email. I hope it explains it:

In response to your question:
Rule Question:
Expert Handling: Does use of the Expert Handling card give you an additional action (the free barrel roll) on top of your Perform Action step action, or is it considered your sole action for your Perform Action step?

Using a card with the "Action:” header requires an action, such as the action you have during the Perform Action step. For example, if you had Luke Skywalker equipped with Expert Handling, during his Perform Action step he can either use the Expert Handling action (which results with him performing a barrel roll), perform a focus action, or perform an acquire a target lock action.

The errata to include the word “free” was because rules as written, Expert Handling would require you to somehow have 2 actions; 1 to perform the Expert Handling action and 1 to perform a barrel roll. By including the words “free action” allowed a ship to use the card as intended.

Hope that helped and thanks for playing,

Frank Brooks
Associate Creative Content Developer
Fantasy Flight Games
[email protected]

Quite some time ago when I was still new to the game, the same query popped up in our group. We were playing it as an extra action because it said "free" on the card. After some debate within our group, we couldn't decide which way to rule, so I wrote to FFG. Here's the email. I hope it explains it:

In response to your question:

Rule Question:

Expert Handling: Does use of the Expert Handling card give you an additional action (the free barrel roll) on top of your Perform Action step action, or is it considered your sole action for your Perform Action step?

Using a card with the "Action:” header requires an action, such as the action you have during the Perform Action step. For example, if you had Luke Skywalker equipped with Expert Handling, during his Perform Action step he can either use the Expert Handling action (which results with him performing a barrel roll), perform a focus action, or perform an acquire a target lock action.

The errata to include the word “free” was because rules as written, Expert Handling would require you to somehow have 2 actions; 1 to perform the Expert Handling action and 1 to perform a barrel roll. By including the words “free action” allowed a ship to use the card as intended.

Hope that helped and thanks for playing,

Frank Brooks

Associate Creative Content Developer

Fantasy Flight Games

[email protected]

Expert Handling also has to specify that the Barrel Roll is a free action to stop anyone from taking two barrel rolls in the same turn. If the EH card said ACTION: You may perform a barrel roll and then remove 1 target lock, someone like Darth Vader who can take two actions could take the Expert Handling action, and perform the barrel roll specified in the text of the card, then he could perform another barrel roll action as his second action. That's something we all want to avoid. So, in order to prevent the double barrel roll trick, the EH card specifies the barrel roll as a "free barrel roll action". This way once someone has used EH as their action, they have already performed a barrel roll action, and since no one can perform the same action twice in the same round, they cannot barrel roll again, even if they were vader with a second action.

However just note there isn't a single card that says Free Action in bold print. Squad Leader is the only upgrade card I can find that is an action card that grants a free action. And it doesn't even grant your ship a free action it grants it to another one.

The term "free action" actually shows up all over the place. Off the top of my head, you have Push the Limit, Experimental Interface, and Lando Calrissian. All that "free action means" is an action that is not taken as your once-per-turn action in the Perform Action step; that is, it is an action that is either in addition to your "regular" action (e.g., squad leader), or it is performed at a time when you normally could not perform an action (e.g., Advanced Sensors).

In the case of Expert Handling, when you use the card, you are using Expert Handling as your action. The effects of Expert handling are (1) perform a free (that is, it does not take up your regular action, which you have already spent) barrel roll action and (2) remove a red target lock token from your ship (don't forget this part; I have forgotten it so many times).

Thanks guys for your replies. I'm usually pretty easy to convince if I have a rule wrong, and I may be wrong here. Expert Handling was changed In the FAQ. It is an upgrade card that you buy to add additional abilities to your ship. The only change was the addition of the word FREE. So why did they add the word FREE if it is not granting you something different than the original wording?

They didn't just add "Free". They also added "Action".

Original: "Action: Perform a barrel roll. If you do not have..."

New: "Action: Perform a free barrel roll action. If you do not have..."

That's the change. Previously, Expert Handling allowed you to barrel roll, but that was NOT an action. That meant that Darth Vader could use Expert Handling to perform a barrel roll, and then use the barrel roll action to do a second roll. By changing it to an action it came under the "no double actions" rule.

As for "free", basically, any action granted by an ability will be a free action. The bold really doesn't matter, but if you take a look through the abilities, every single reference to a granted action is "free", because the only action that isn't "free" is the one in the Perform Action phase.