If I hit an obstacle and lose my action can I still use push the limit?

No, ptl lets you perform an additional action after you have already taken one.

Push the limit triggers off of taking an action. You have to perform an action in the first place before you can use PTL. Since hitting an asteroid causes you to skip your normal action, you would need some way of performing another, free action before you could trigger PTL.

No, ptl lets you perform an additional action after you have already taken one.

Lets say I boosted or barrel rolled onto the obstacle, then can I use ptl?

Your not allowed to boost or BR onto an obstacle, it's against the rules. Rulebook page 8 for BR and the boost rule card for boost. It is also made clear in the FAQ.

The narrow, technical answer to your question is that no, neither of the current obstacles actually blocks you from performing an action. Asteroids cause you to skip your Perform Action step, but you can still perform free actions if you can find a way to get one (Squad Leader will do it); debris clouds cause stress, but (for instance) that doesn't stop Tycho from doing whatever he wants.

But those are corner cases. In the normal course of events, hitting an obstacle is likely to mean you don't get an action that turn, even if you have Push the Limit.

Ok sounds like its a no, but here is what happen tonight.

I moved Darth Vader and took evade since I was in my opponents firing arc. I then barrel rolled next to my wingman howlrunner. I was able to place my ship next to him with out the bases overlapping, but they were touching. I then wanted to use push the limit to boost to escape being in my opponent's fire arc. He said I cant perform an action because I touched the base of Howlrunner. I told him PTL is not an action, but does provide one...

In the end I did not use push the limit. Was that the right call? Was the barrel roll legal if bases touch, but don't overlap?

Ok sounds like its a no, but here is what happen tonight.

I moved Darth Vader and took evade since I was in my opponents firing arc. I then barrel rolled next to my wingman howlrunner. I was able to place my ship next to him with out the bases overlapping, but they were touching. I then wanted to use push the limit to boost to escape being in my opponent's fire arc. He said I cant perform an action because I touched the base of Howlrunner. I told him PTL is not an action, but does provide one...

In the end I did not use push the limit. Was that the right call? Was the barrel roll legal if bases touch, but don't overlap?

Well, when a barrel roll is a really tight fit, you'll need to agree with your opponent that it either overlapped, or it didn't. If it's too close to call, roll a die or flip a coin for it.

Then, one of the following will happen:

• If you decided that the ships did overlap, the barrel roll is illegal. You return the TIE Advanced to it's original position and can perform a different action instead.
• If you decided that the ships didn't overlap, the barrel roll is legal and you are in no way considered to be touching the other ship (ie: same scenario as if you were 2cm away). You can use PTL for a third action if you want.

The game definition of "touching" requires an overlap to have occurred. The 2 bases simply being in physical contact with each other does not count as "touching" as far as the game us concerned. Since you can't overlap another ship when performing a BR, a BR cannot cause you to "touch" another ship in the game sense.

Overlapping a ship causes you to skip your perform action step. It does not prevent you from performing actions that you are allowed to perform at other times. So if you were to move and overlap a ship, you loose your perform action step, but if you have a special ability that allows you to perform a free action, you can still do that.

Push the limit can trigger whenever you perform an action and allows you to perform an extra action.

So, in the situation you described, vader moves, does not overlap anything and so may perform actions, focuses, then BRs into physical contact with howlrunner. Since he was BRing he cannot have overlapped howlrunner so even if he was in physical contact with her they are not "touching" in the game sense (which isn't actually very relevant in this case), vader can then push the limit (there isn't anything preventing him from performing actions in general, he just performed his normal 2) to boost and then receive a stress. That all is perfectly legal.

The things you want to pay attention to are the differences between performing an action in general and the "perform action step" of the activation phase. Some things, like overlapping, cause you to skip the perform action step, but don't prevent other actions, while some things (such as having a stress token) will prevent you from taking any actions at all (unless your Tycho).

It is also important to understand the differences between a "maneuver", (what you set on your dial and 1-2 upgrade cards) and a movement based action like boost or barrel roll. Maneuvers and actions react differently to overlaps and stress and such and those differences have a lot of repercussions on other stuff in the game.

TLDR: yes, you can have boosted.

Thanks for clearing that up. Sounds like we did some weird hybrid move when he allowed the roll but counted it as hitting. We had fun anyway. We'll now know for next time. Game on.

Another thing to be on the lookout for are things that provide the effect of actions without being actions. There are some abilities that allow you to perform a target lock action, there are others that say "gain a target lock". Something that interferes with actions (like stress) doesn't have any effect on the latter, likewise, something like push the limit that triggers when an action is performed can't be triggered by the latter. That's a real common point of confusion for new players.