I had a question about timing on definsive tokens come up the other day. My Star Destroyer attacked a frigate from the front firing arch at long range. I rolled 3 red dice and got one blank and two with two hits each for 4 hits.

My opponent wanted to brace first, then evade to cancel a die and take no damage. I didn't think it could work that way since brace does not cancel a die, just halves the result. Essentially it seems to force the timing to be evade first and then brace resulting in 1 damage. The rules say that defensive tokens can be played in any order. Would the correct interpretation of the rules if the order is brace then evade be to halve the damage, then cancel one red die, but still count the total hits on the remaining dice for 2 damage? Not saying it would be smart to play it that way, just wondering what others think.

Thanks!

Gorthon

Brace says that it halves damage at the "Resolve Damage" step. Whether you declare Evade first and then Brace, or declare Brace first and then Evade, it doesn't matter a bit. Evade is always going to finish its thing before Brace does its thing.

You're also correct that Brace does not cancel dice. It only halves damage during the Resolve Damage step.

I don't think it works the way your opponent is thinking.

Evade cancels a die (or rerolls) when you say you are taking the action.

Brace is spent when you spend it, but doesn't kick in until you apply damage in the next step.

Check out Brace on page 4 of the rules reference and compare to Evade on the same page. The compare to steps 4 and 5 on page 2 under Attack

Cool. Thanks for the replies. The timing is clear enough now.

Gorthon