Apologies. My first post and I am a real novice (hence the forum name). I was just looking at the description of the StarViper on the front page and read this:

Autothrusters are a boon to StarViper pilots and to any other highly skilled pilots who fly “arc-dodger” ships like the A-wing or TIE interceptor. For two squad points, it allows you to convert one blank result to an result, so long as you’re beyond Range 2 of the attacker or outside of its firing arc.

My question is why would you care if the attacker is outside its firing arc?

Firstly, beyond range 2 the defender gets an extra green die? Nice. I can appreciate the but if the attacker is outside its firing arc surely I can't be shot at in the first place. Can I?

I understand that if the attacker has a laser turret it has a 360degree arc of fire. Therefore I'm in its arc.

Can anyone help?

Cheers,

John

The ships with a turret primary weapon (or turret upgrades) do not have a 360 degree arc. They have a normal arc and a weapon which can fire outside of the arc.

Aha! Thanks. So the secondary weapon upgrade has all-round defence. Does that mean that one could convert one blank result to an result, so long as the ship is outside of the primary weapon's firing arc irrespective of whether or not it is a secondary weapon firing? Or am I over-thinking this?

Autothrusters don't care what kind of weapon is firing. You get to change a blank to an evade as long as you are either at range 3 or outside of the attacker's firing arc. Whether it's the Falcon using its primary weapon or a Y-Wing with the ion cannon turret, if they're attacking outside of their firing arc you'll get the benefit.

Side note: the Firespray's rear arc is still a firing arc so you don't get your blank-to-evade against it while in the rear arc (unless at range 3).

Brilliant. Got it now.

Thanks all.

Glad I could help, and welcome to the forums!

Question: How did you get the evade icon into your post?

Include the image:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/x-wing/news/preview1-combat/White-Defense01.png

That's going to be a pain - it would be awesome if FFG would expand the emoticon selection to include common icons from their games... but I may still have to start doing that

Also note that Autothrusters don't say at Range 3, because they also work against attacks from Huge ships at Range 4 and 5.

I copied it from the front page. I would imagine it works for all the icons.