Recently reading the rule book brough up an interesting scenario. On Page 17, 1st paragraph says:

"While a ship has at least one stress token, it may not execute red maneuvers or perform any actions (even free actions)"

Ok, seems clear. Then the second paragraph:

"If a ship already has a stress token assigned to it and it reveals a red maneuver during the activation phase, the opposing player chooses any non red maneuver on that ship's maneuver dial for that ship to execute"

Ok...wait. This gives me two possible thoughts for this rule to even exist.

1: If you have stress, you can't execute a red maneuver but for some reason you can still set your dial to one anyway, knowing that your opponent will get to drive. Why would you possibly do this though? It would seem to make more sense to me that a red maneuver is simply not an option if you have a stress token.

2: There is a condition or situation or action that gives a stress token to another ship BEFORE the combat phase, so you could use a lower PS ship to give stress to a guy, then he activates and if you are lucky he was gonna pull a red maneuver.

??? I'm having a hard time figuing out what is more likely to have been the thought process when they wrote the rule. Thoughts?

People sometime "forget" they have Stress and set red maneuvers on their dials. I mean some people will set their dials to just fly off the board so plotting a red maneuver even when stressed isn't too far fetched. You can't perform a red maneuver while Stressed but that doesn't mean you couldn't set one up. Accidents happen and trying to perform a red while stressed in an accident you probably want to avoid.

I can't think of anything during the planning/activation phase that will give someone else Stress but there ARE ways to gain Stress before revealing a red maneuver. The best known example of that would be to use Advanced Sensors and Push the Limits off that action giving you Stress before it is time to reveal you dial. Maybe you forgot you had a red maneuver dialed when you used PtL and now you suffer because of it.

Building off of StevenO's post. I suspect what is really tripping you up is the fact that if some one DOES accidentally set a red maneuver while stressed they can't just change it to a legal maneuver when it is discovered (probably when they reveal it). Doing so would be a HUGE advantage for high PS ships since you would then get to see where the enemy ships moved before you decided your own maneuver. Since accidents happen and people DO occasionally screw up, and since it is not possible to fix the error when it is discovered, some rules needed to be in place to cover what to do. FFG decided on something that would severely punish the player for making the mistake, but is unlikely to result in the automatic destruction of the ship in question (unless it was flying close to the edge of the board).

Actually saw this happen for the first time yesterday. Young kid (around 10, I think?) missed that he had a stress token. The ship was more or less out of the fight for about 3 turns. (The kid ended up winning anyway, his opponent didn't have much more experience that he did.)

Ok...wait. This gives me two possible thoughts for this rule to even exist.

1. If you have stress, you can't execute a red maneuver but for some reason you can still set your dial to one anyway, knowing that your opponent will get to drive. Why would you possibly do this though? It would seem to make more sense to me that a red maneuver is simply not an option if you have a stress token.
2. There is a condition or situation or action that gives a stress token to another ship BEFORE the combat phase, so you could use a lower PS ship to give stress to a guy, then he activates and if you are lucky he was gonna pull a red maneuver.

You forgot one:

3: Using an upgrade to give yourself stress before revealing your dial.

I call this the "Nope" button, and it is an occasionally useful tactic with B-Wings.

Y'see, with Advanced Sensors, you can take an action before you reveal your dial.

With Daredevil or Push the Limit as EPTs, that can result in gaining stress before you reveal your dial.

What use does this have?

You thought you were being clever by revealing a red 1 turn, and it turns out your opponent guessed you'd do that, and that is now a terrible move.

You slam the Nope button to change your position, and hopefully facing.

Now, of all of the possible maneuvers you have, none of them can be red, as you're already stressed. If the worst position your opponent can put you from this new facing is better than the set you could have had from your red turn, congratulations! You've "Noped" correctly!

Less insanely, just make sure you only do red maneuvers when you aren't already stressed, or bad things can happen to you. The penalty is largely put in place to fill a hole.

If there was no penalty to doing red maneuvers while stressed, other than "You can't do it", what happens when you try? Do you get to pick a new maneuver? Do you get to sit still? Do you do it anyway, and get an extra stress? Do you lose?

Recently reading the rule book brough up an interesting scenario. On Page 17, 1st paragraph says:

"While a ship has at least one stress token, it may not execute red maneuvers or perform any actions (even free actions)"

Ok, seems clear. Then the second paragraph:

"If a ship already has a stress token assigned to it and it reveals a red maneuver during the activation phase, the opposing player chooses any non red maneuver on that ship's maneuver dial for that ship to execute"

Ok...wait. This gives me two possible thoughts for this rule to even exist.

1: If you have stress, you can't execute a red maneuver but for some reason you can still set your dial to one anyway, knowing that your opponent will get to drive. Why would you possibly do this though? It would seem to make more sense to me that a red maneuver is simply not an option if you have a stress token.

2: There is a condition or situation or action that gives a stress token to another ship BEFORE the combat phase, so you could use a lower PS ship to give stress to a guy, then he activates and if you are lucky he was gonna pull a red maneuver.

??? I'm having a hard time figuing out what is more likely to have been the thought process when they wrote the rule. Thoughts?

Your solution in option 1 would make sense in a video game where the programmers can easily take away the option to choose red maneuvers if the ship is stressed.

But this isn't a video game and the red maneuver is still on the dial, so the possibility had to be addressed. What happens if you are stressed but reveal a red maneuver, for whatever reason?

And who knows, perhaps we will get upgrades or EPT's that cause stress if you ram one ship into another.

Part of the strees + red dial is a timing issue too. Theres been a few times where I've screwed up flying Yorr. I'll give Yorr a red maneuver to get back into the fight and set his dial. When activation starts, I'll k turn an academy, Yorr will soak the stress, then Yorr tries to move and gets screwed. Only done it twice out of maybe 15-16 games. Never thought about it until it actually happened

My friends and I were playing 2 weeks ago and my friend was able to stress my ship during the activation phase. So when I set my dial I chose to do a red koigan 4 and was not stressed. His ships went and somehow he was able to put a stress token on my ship. Then when I revealed the Red maneuver He took my dial and flew me into an asteroid. Is that how the rule works?

Then when I revealed the Red maneuver He took my dial and flew me into an asteroid. Is that how the rule works?

Yes, but I'm not completely sure how he did that. I can't think of anything off the top of my head that lets you do that.

My friends and I were playing 2 weeks ago and my friend was able to stress my ship during the activation phase. So when I set my dial I chose to do a red koigan 4 and was not stressed. His ships went and somehow he was able to put a stress token on my ship. Then when I revealed the Red maneuver He took my dial and flew me into an asteroid. Is that how the rule works?

DG Medic, I really want to know how this happens exactly... I have a suspicious your friend is playing something quite incorrectly.

My friends and I were playing 2 weeks ago and my friend was able to stress my ship during the activation phase. So when I set my dial I chose to do a red koigan 4 and was not stressed. His ships went and somehow he was able to put a stress token on my ship. Then when I revealed the Red maneuver He took my dial and flew me into an asteroid. Is that how the rule works?

Yes, that would be how it would work, but how did he stress you during the activation phase? I wasn't aware there was currently anything that did that.

edit: double

The only thing I can think of is Saboteur flipping a Thrust Control Fire damage card face-up.

Proximity mine crit into thrust control fire is the 'easiest' way I can think of