Element of Surprise

By Corellian Luck, in Imperial Assault Rules Questions

Had this come up.

My opponent had a figure blocking line of sight to another I wanted to target at the start of my elite saboteurs activation.

Can I use Element of Surprise to remove my targets defense die, then still shoot through the blocking figure using my natural ability?

Priority Target: Figures do not block line of site for this figure's attack

Element of Surprise: Use when you declare an attack. If the target figure did not have line of sight to you at the start of your activation, remove one die from the it's defense pool.

Priority Target is always on basically. So you would most definitely be able to target a figure that is being blocked by another. When you declare your attack is when you play Element of Surprise and remove a die from their defense pool.

Element of Surprise has kind of a weird timing (I understand why). You use it when you attack, but it has you refers to LoS at the start of your activation. So, you could move first, next declare an attack and use Element of Surprise, then have to go back to the space where you began to check LoS from there.

How many times have you forgotten where your figure started? "I move, 1, 2, 3, 4... no, 2, 3, 4... no, wait. Where did I start again?"
I'm bad at forgetting that.

I had the same thing happen to me, I think. Mind you, this is my first time playing Imperial Assault.

Here's the situation. I had a Stormtrooper hugging the wall at corner. The target: a E-Web Engineer, whose back half of the model (only one square showing?). I know I have line-of-sight to the that square, but does the E-Web have line-of-sight to me, behind the corner. I think NO. Can you clear this up.

Thanks in advance

Would need more info to determine the los of that e web to you.

Maybe use a picture using letters to show where the wall is and where the figure are.

Okay. I'll give it a shot.

E ________________

E| |S |

(This is the the best I could come up with. :-) ) Thanks again.

Edited by SteveSpikes

Or use a Fizzgrid™!!!

[ E ][_][_][_][_] [_][_][_][_][_]
[ E ] [#] [#] [#] [#] [#][#][#][ S ][_]
[_][ # ][_][_][_] [_][_][ # ][_][_]
[_][ # ][_][_][_] [_][_][ # ][_][_]

In the above example, both figures have LOS to each other (The E-Web can trace from its Northeast corner to the Northwest and Northeast corner of the Stormtrooper)

In this example:

[ E ][_][_][_][_] [_][_][_][_][_]
[ E ] [#] [#] [#] [#] [#][#][#][_][_]
[_][ # ][_][_][_] [_][_][ # ][ S ][_]
[_][ # ][_][_][_] [_][_][ # ][_][_]

Neither figure would have LOS to each other.

However, in this example:

[ E ][_][_][_][_] [_][_][_][ 1 ][_]
[ E ] [#] [#] [#] [#] [#][#][#][ 2 ][_]
[_][ # ][_][_][_] [_][_][ # ][_][_]
[_][ # ][_][_][_] [_][_][ # ][_][_]

The E-Web has LOS to Figure 1, but NOT to Figure 2.