First, let me apologize if this is obvious or has already been answered. I did a search but had no luck (at least in terms of specificity). My friend and I didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on an issue regarding acquiring tokens and spending tokens when stressed. I saw some technical discussions examining the action from the perspective of what the game phase is (e.g. Activation or Combat).

Our case is this:

If you have a tie fighter who is stressed, (1a) can Vader give him a focus or evade token if Vader has Squad Leader? (1b) If yes, can the tie fighter spend the token? I interpreted action as the acquiring step, so I would interpret it as (1a) being a non-valid move.

The other discussions I saw were regarding Garven and Dutch, but those seemed like a different case because those were the pilot card abilities, which I would interpret as "passive" abilities versus an "action."

Stressed ships cannot perform actions, including those granted by cards like Squad Leader. Stressed ships are free to acquire and spend tokens, such as those from Garven and "Dutch".

Squad Leader doesn't give tokens, it gives actions to nearby ships. A ship cannot perform any actions if it has a stress token. Thus, squad leader is useless to stressed ships, since they can't perform the action granted by it.

You have to differentiate between getting actions and getting tokens. It is not the same thing. For example, Wedge uses squad leader on a stressed Biggs. Biggs cannot perform any actions because he has stress. Later, Garven Dreis uses a Focus Token, and passes it to Biggs. Since Biggs doesn't have to take any action, he can receive the token, and can spend it later normally.

Receiving and spending tokens are not actions. You can always spend tokens, even if you have stress. Also, you can freely receive any number of tokens from other pilots/abilities. You are never limited on how many tokens you may have. You are only limited on how many "actions" you may take.

There are actions that grant you tokens. For example, performing a Focus action nets you one Focus token. Other actions don't grant you tokens, but may allow you to execute especial abilities. Squad Leader is an action that grants a nearby ship the ability to perform one action outside its normal activation. You can use that action to perform an evade action and gain an Evade Token, or you can use it to perform a barrel roll, for example.

Read the cards. If it says perform a free focus ( or evade etc.) and you are stressed, you can't do it. I f the card says acquire a focus (evade, target lock) token and you're stress, it's not a problem and you receive a token like a gift.

Thanks! That gives much clarity. We often spend absurd amounts of time on the diplomacy and interpretation of some of the more particular cards and situations (though I concede that it could just be due a poor understanding of even the basic game mechanics).

Thanks! That gives much clarity. We often spend absurd amounts of time on the diplomacy and interpretation of some of the more particular cards and situations (though I concede that it could just be due a poor understanding of even the basic game mechanics).

I'd suggest re-reading the rulebook again as it seems there's still some concepts that have been missed thus far. And as Clayjay said: Read the cards, and read them carefully.

It depends on the token. You can only have one target lock.

Weapons Engineer?