So earlier today I played my friend in a mission he created in which the Transport had to pick up two cargo and then escape off the board. At one point during the game, he had a target lock on the Fore section of the GR with a Decimator, and then attacked the aft section with Vessery in his Defender.

According to Vessery's card, he can gain a target lock on his target after an attack, but we disputed the capability of this ability. Since the two sections are targeted/attacked seperately, I argued that he could not use Vessery's ability because he was targeting the Aft section, while it was the Fore section that had the Red lock from the Decimator. He argued that since its the same ship, it still counted.

Thoughts?

From the FAQ "Huge ships count as a single ship consisting of two bases, one ship token, and one or two Ship cards."

The key here is "single ship", I think.

Rulebook's wording on targeting is that the ship being attacked becomes the defender.

Vessery's wording requires the defender to have a red TL token.

So, Vessery targets a section of the ship. The entire ship becomes the defender. The defender has a red target lock token. Vessery's ability triggers.

There's nothing in the FAQ that I can find that would define the individual section only as the defender

Fair enough. The way I read it was that the Aft Section of the ship is the specific target, considering that when you acquire a target lock on a Huge ship, you have to specify if you are doing so on the Fore or Aft section.

Edit: Didn't matter....

FAQ Page 7

FAQ Page 7

Target Lock Tokens

A ship that acquires a target lock on a huge ship must acquire that lock on a

single section of the huge ship. The closest point of the chosen section must

be within range. The red target lock token is placed next to the chosen section

of the huge ship and its effect only applies to that section.

Vessery isn't spending the existing TL, he's creating a new one (on the section he's targeting), but the requirement for him to create that TL is that the defender has a red TL.

The defender is the ship, not the section.

Following the FAQ the Aft section must have a red target lock for Vessery to be able to use his ability. Since the target lock only affects the section not the whole ship.

Huge ships are an exception from the normal rules and abilities. I think it was always intended that another friendly ship had to have the target lock for Vessery to gain one. If he was allowed to use his own target lock, then he would not be able to because you can not target lock a ship you already have a target lock on.

I don't think Vessery's ability was ever in doubt. It was just where the target lock had to be, that was the question.

Following the FAQ the Aft section must have a red target lock for Vessery to be able to use his ability. Since the target lock only affects the section not the whole ship.

This is what I assumed. it was the Fore section that had the target lock, while Vessery was attempting to create a new TL on the Aft section.

This is a pretty though one.

The key here is determining if the term "defender" on Vessery's abiliy refers to the whole huge ship or only to the targeted section.

My guts tell me that in the case of huge ships, Vessery cannot use its ability if the targeted section doesn't have a red TL, since for targeting purposes (when declaring targets), you must choose a section, and each section is treated as a different target, and thus it would be (theoretically) a different 'defender'.

This is a pretty though one.

The key here is determining if the term "defender" on Vessery's abiliy refers to the whole huge ship or only to the targeted section.

I agree. Let's try:

Rulebook page 11:

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.

A ship cannot target a ship if their bases are touching (see “Overlapping Other Ships” on page 17). Once declared, the target ship is now the defender, and players proceed to the “Roll Attack Dice” step.

FAQ page 5:

Targeting a Huge Ship

To target a huge ship, choose a section (either fore or aft) of a huge ship that the attacking ship can target normally. Then, measure a line from the exact center of the attacking ship’s base to the exact center of the base for the chosen section of the huge ship. If this line is not obstructed by the blue center line on the huge ship’s ship token, the attacker can declare the chosen section as his target.

According to the rulebook, the defender is the "target ship", i.e. the ship the attacker declared as the target.

According to the FAQ, the attacker does not declare a ship as the target. He declares a section as the target.

I think that the defender is whatever the attacker declared as the target. That means the section.