I was reviewing a recent article on Bell of Lost Souls, and came across a claim that I believe is totally bogus. However, I'm not as versed in all the FAQs and clarifications, so perhaps I'm wrong.

The card text in question is this:

At the start of the Combat phase, if you have no shields and at least 1 Damage card assigned to your ship, you may perform a free evade action.

The claim was that since the free action is in the combat phase, the stress gained from Push the Limit is irrelevant, and that Isard could then perform the free Evade action. I think the implication is that since it isn't in the Perform Actions step, it can still be done.

My understanding is that if you have a stress token, you may not perform any actions, even free ones. The text, on page 17 of the rule book, doesn't specify that you skip your action step: it says you may not perform actions.

So the question is: If a ship has a stress token, can that ship perform free actions outside of the Perform Action step of the Activation phase?

I was reviewing a recent article on Bell of Lost Souls, and came across a claim that I believe is totally bogus. However, I'm not as versed in all the FAQs and clarifications, so perhaps I'm wrong.

The card text in question is this:

At the start of the Combat phase, if you have no shields and at least 1 Damage card assigned to your ship, you may perform a free evade action.

The claim was that since the free action is in the combat phase, the stress gained from Push the Limit is irrelevant, and that Isard could then perform the free Evade action. I think the implication is that since it isn't in the Perform Actions step, it can still be done.

My understanding is that if you have a stress token, you may not perform any actions, even free ones. The text, on page 17 of the rule book, doesn't specify that you skip your action step: it says you may not perform actions.

So the question is: If a ship has a stress token, can that ship perform free actions outside of the Perform Action step of the Activation phase?

You are correct - you may not perform actions - even free actions if your ship has a stress token

unless you are Tycho

Pretty much universally within XWM any exceptions to rules are stated very clearly and explicity - such as in the case of Tycho.

The rulebook says you may not perform actions if you are stressed and gives no exceptions.

If a particular upgrade was designed to allow you to get around this exception it would state it clearly.

Isard says nothing about this, so the general rule stays in effect

The claim was that since the free action is in the combat phase, the stress gained from Push the Limit is irrelevant, and that Isard could then perform the free Evade action. I think the implication is that since it isn't in the Perform Actions step, it can still be done.

No, stress prevents you from performing any action, at any time, free or otherwise.

You can't perform an action from a upgrade, you can't perform an action that another card gives you either. You quite simply can not perform any action if you have a stress token.

That's what I thought. Thanks, guys!

Are you referring to the following segement from the X-Wing Tactics: Top 10 Upgrades in the game! article?

5. Ysanne Isard

In my honest opinion, this one single card took the Decimator from an okay ship to an amazing ship that is viable in the competitive scene and all thanks to her. Similar to what C-3P0 did for the Falcon when it was released, Ysanne did that in spades for the VT-49. The ship has one glaring weakness in its stat line and it is those zero evade dice. The ability to help plug that hole with a free Evade action in the combat phase, meaning even if the ship overlapped that turn it still get the free Evade action, helps to overcome that really big hole. Not to mention that since the Evade action is taken in the combat phase, you can do silly things like Push the Limit and then Engine Upgrade to boost out of arcs in the combat phase. Crazy! This card should be a given on any VT-49 builds, period!

If this is what you are referring to, then the article is correct. You simply misunderstood what they were implying.

Here's what they're saying: Since Ysanne grants an Evade Action (as opposed to an Evade Token), it allows you to triggering Push the Limit and Boost at the start of the Combat Phase.

The following sequence is totally possible:

1. Stress-less Decimator activates, takes a Target Lock Action
2. Everything higher PS activates
3. Start of Combat phase
4. Ysanne Isaard activates, grants Decimator a free Evade Action
5. Decimator triggers Push the Limit off of Ysanne's Evade Action and Boosts out of arc (thanks to Engine Upgrade).

You simply misunderstood what they were implying.

Looking at the quote, yeah they're not saying what the OP thought they were. Which makes more sense, because that's a pretty big mistake to make.

IF actions get to ignore Stress outside of the Activation phase consider this:

Have a ship with Isard, PtL, EI, and something else to benefit from EI. Now saying that actions outside of the Activation phase ignore stress you could enter the combat round stressed and have Isard trigger giving you the free Evade Action. That it turn triggers both PtL and EI allowing you two other actions while piling on two more Stress Tokens (or maybe even more).

The Rebels can be even crazier when they've got Cracken to give anyone nearby a free action which could turn that entire series on as well. I guess we could also look at what a stressed Phantom could do utilizing ACD.

IF taking actions outside of the Activation phase ignored Stress you could easily see many ships running around with a pile of Stress tokens on them that aren't really being affected by them because they are taking all of their actions away from Activation.

The idea that you can perform 'free actions' outside of the activation phase even when stressed should have been killed long ago. I don't recall anything in Wave 1 having combat phase actions but I know Wave 2 brought us Turr and his Interceptor who would boost or roll after shooting; back then we should have learned that if he was stressed when the time came those things wouldn't happen.

Edit: Added "stressed" to the qualifier when entering the combat round. I know that EI and PTL both can be triggered off of Isard and finish normally BEFORE the stress starts mucking things up but I was considering the ship already stressed otherwise the "outside of the activation phase" stuff wouldn't matter as much.

IF actions get to ignore Stress outside of the Activation phase consider this: [...]

Yes, it would make for pretty ridiculous combos.

However, no one in this thread was implying that was how things work. Even the OP's understanding was correct, he simply misunderstood what the article he read was trying to say.

IF actions get to ignore Stress outside of the Activation phase consider this:

Have a ship with Isard, PtL, EI, and something else to benefit from EI. Now saying that actions outside of the Activation phase ignore stress you could enter the combat round and have Isard trigger giving you the free Evade Action. That it turn triggers both PtL and EI allowing you two other actions while piling on two more Stress Tokens (or maybe even more).

You can do this anyway.

Have a ship with Isard, PtL, EI, and something else to benefit from EI. Now saying that actions outside of the Activation phase ignore stress you could enter the combat round and have Isard trigger giving you the free Evade Action. That it turn triggers both PtL and EI allowing you two other actions while piling on two more Stress Tokens (or maybe even more).

As Dracon mentioned, you are allowed to do this. I think what you meant was that you could do this every turn and not have to worry about clearing the stress, and that that would be broken. But you didn't actually say that.

Oh, I did completely miss that. That's pretty crazy: kind of the final opportunity to move, since it's completely outside of the activation phase. Nice.

You can do something similar with Cracken (z95 rebels) with a granted action in the combat phase.

IF actions get to ignore Stress outside of the Activation phase consider this:

Have a ship with Isard, PtL, EI, and something else to benefit from EI. Now saying that actions outside of the Activation phase ignore stress you could enter the combat round and have Isard trigger giving you the free Evade Action. That it turn triggers both PtL and EI allowing you two other actions while piling on two more Stress Tokens (or maybe even more).

You can do this anyway.

Edited my original post to clear things up. I was working under the assumption the ship started the Combat Phase with Stress. The discussion seemed to point out an idea that Stress only mattered on Actions during the Activation Phase but if you had it during another Phase it wouldn't matter.

Even in the section quoted the "piling on two more Stress" should indicate the ship already has Stress before starting the entire process. It's subtle but going in without any Stress I'd have just said something like "gaining two stress tokens".