I'm just curious about how I understand the rules and if this is allowable. You can declare an attack on an opponent and if they are outside of Range 3, the attack misses by default. R3-A2 has no range stipulations on it, only that the declared defender must be within your firing arc. Can you then fire at someone far outside your range but within firing arc and pass them off a stress (potentially as in stressing an opponent during the first round)?

You cannot attack out side of Range 3 for any non-Epic ship.

No you can't. Check the relevant rule from page 10.

1. Declare Target
During this step, the attacker (the active ship) must declare its target (the ship he wishes to attack). The target ship must be inside the attacker’s firing arc and within range. A player may measure to verify that these conditions are met before declaring a target.

And this bit too, also from Page 10:

If the ruler is not long enough to reach the target
ship, the ship is considered out of range and cannot
be targeted.

I'd always played that you 1) Declare a target ship to attack, 2) Measure range, 3) Roll Dice. During 2) you apply range bonuses if applicable and if you are at greater than range 3 your attack misses (is a wasted shot). Is this actually incorrect and I should 1) Measure range to see who I want to attack, 2) Declare my target, 3) Roll Dice?

Yep. You're allowed to check range before declaring a target, but if you don't and your chosen target is out of range you get to select another one. The exact sequence of events is spelled out in the rulebook.

Yep. You're allowed to check range before declaring a target, but if you don't and your chosen target is out of range you get to select another one. The exact sequence of events is spelled out in the rulebook.

I don't know how I got on it but I've been doing this wrong for months. I'm glad you guys set me straight!

In your scenario, Hadak, you could (in theory) set up a ship with R3-A2 in the corner of the board, angled towards the middle. This would put the firing arc over essentially the *entire* board. That'd be one hell of a droid if it could stress a ship on the opposite corner of the map...

I don't know how I got on it but I've been doing this wrong for months. I'm glad you guys set me straight!

As a bit of advice (and this applies to everyone, really), you should probably take ~20 minutes to sit down and just read the rulebook from start to finish, rather than just looking things up in-game, to make sure you have a really solid grasp of them. You have no idea how many questions it answers in advance.

I'd always played that you 1) Declare a target ship to attack, 2) Measure range, 3) Roll Dice. During 2) you apply range bonuses if applicable and if you are at greater than range 3 your attack misses (is a wasted shot). Is this actually incorrect and I should 1) Measure range to see who I want to attack, 2) Declare my target, 3) Roll Dice?

Do you play 40K at all? Because it sounds like one of their usual rules that once you've chosen your target, if it's out of range the shot is wasted. I've always hated that with their rules. Thankfully X-Wing is a lot more forgiving.

Do you play 40K at all? Because it sounds like one of their usual rules that once you've chosen your target, if it's out of range the shot is wasted. I've always hated that with their rules. Thankfully X-Wing is a lot more forgiving.

No, don't go there, Parravon. Don't pollute the X-Wing threads with 40K rules talk.

Besides, from 6th Edition, 40K has allowed players to premeasure everything. No more wasted shots.

I'm not about to start quoting 40K rules at all. Gave up playing back in Rogue Trader days, but most of their games featured that mechanic for many years. It seems to have become a standard in a lot of gamer's minds when playing other games. Some habits are just hard to break I guess.