HI folks!

Does Ackbar allow a CR90B to shoot at long range?

Per the RRG:

If the attacker cannot gather any dice appropriate for the range of the attack, the attack is canceled.

Ackbar: Before a friendly ships attack phase... it may add two red dice to its attack pool while attacking a ship.

From the FAQ

Q: If a ship’s attack would not include any dice, but the ship can add dice through a card effect, can it perform the attack?

A: No. If a ship does not gather any dice during the “Roll Attack Dice” step of an attack, the attack is canceled

To expand on what Lyraeus said... The "before a friendly ships attack" clause on Ackbar is related to deciding what arcs you will be using. He does not change the battery armament like expanded launchers or enhanced armaments. Due to the order of operations for attacks you will roll your attack pool based on the battery armaments, and then Ackbar tosses in 2 more reds.

In the case of the CR90 B, at long range there are no dice to roll in the battery armament, so the pool is never created, so the attack is canceled and there is nothing for Ackbar to add to.

If it says increase it happens before the roll. If it says Add it happens after the initial roll

Ackbar: Before a friendly ships attack phase... it may add two red dice to its attack pool while attacking a ship.

It is what you cut out that is important and shows timing. What you do before the friendly ship's attack phase is declare whether or not you are only attacking from side arcs. Then you begin your attack phase - at this point nothing has changed.

While you are attacking the ship - you have already declared your target and seen whether or not you can attack it with your armament - then you can add 2 Red dice. If you couldn't attack it, such as a CR90B at long range, you cannot use Ackbar.

In fact, the Torpedo Frigate variant of the MC30 even had it pointed out that it has Turbolasers so that it could take Enhanced Armaments, increasing (not adding) 1 Red to its side armaments, allowing it to be used at long range with Ackbar.

While "increase" vs "add" might work on all the cards we have now, I find it a poor explenation.

The important distinction is not the word "add" or "increase", but wheter or not it is the battery armament that is added to or increased or if it is the dice pool.

A card that said to add to your battery armament would still work the same as one that said to increas your battery armament.

It will likely stay this way.

Rapid Reload has increase as well.

Remember the modify step specifies "add and modify"

Smuggler is correct - the key difference is between "battery armament" and "attack pool", not between "add" and "increase".

RRG p.2, Attack:

2. Roll Attack Dice: Gather attack dice to form the attack pool and roll those dice. Gather only the dice that are appropriate for the range of the attack as indicated by the icons on the range ruler.

- If the defender is a ship, gather the attack dice indicated in the attacking hull zone’s or squadron’s battery armament .

- If the attacker cannot gather any dice appropriate for the range of the attack, the attack is canceled .

3. Resolve Attack Effects: The attacker can resolve attack effects as described below:

- Modify Dice: The attacker can resolve any of its effects that modify its dice. This includes card effects and the [CF] command.

Ackbar, Slaved Turrets, Opening Salvo etc all add red dice to the attack pool and resolve in step 3. But if the ship's battery armament only contained blue dice, the attack was already canceled at the end of step 2.

However, cards like Enhanced Armaments change the ship's battery armament, so resolve early in step 2. An MC30c Torpedo Frigate with Enhanced Armaments can attack at long range and add Ackbar's extra dice to that attack. But without the EA upgrade, it can't attack at long range at all.

Luckily all the victories have red dice else Dominator would be in the same boat too.