Something in reading the rules for this guy has raised a question in my mind:

"When you perform an attack that hits, before dealing damage, you may cancel 1 of your crit results to add 2 hit results."

What determined whether someone is hit?

A) Are you hit prior to rolling defense dice?

B) Or is "hit" determined after defense dice?

I'm too new to know.

I know that with the Z95 rebel Lieutenant Blount, you are hit regardless of damage (which implies to me that "hit" determination is made after defense dice)

Because most every YV-666 player just turns the crit into two hits before I roll. But I think if I roll 3 evade dice on 2 hits and a crit by Bossk, I'm not hit. Because his attack must hit prior to his cancelling the crit, he has not hit, thus he can't convert the crit to two hits.

The way I have seen Bossk pilots doing this looks hinky.

You are hit if, after rolling attack dice and defense dice, there are one or more uncancelled hit or crit results. So Bossk's ability triggers at the same time as Ion Cannons, as another example. Ion Cannons don't give the target an ion token whenever they roll a hit result on the attack - they only apply their effect if one or more hits get through the target's defense dice. In the same way, Bossk can only trigger his ability if there is an uncanceled crit result after the defender rolls and modifies.

Because most every YV-666 player just turns the crit into two hits before I roll. But I think if I roll 3 evade dice on 2 hits and a crit by Bossk, I'm not hit. Because his attack must hit prior to his cancelling the crit, he has not hit, thus he can't convert the crit to two hits.

The way I have seen Bossk pilots doing this looks hinky.

You are correct, and you should probably point this out the next time you start a game against someone flying Bossk, just to make sure they know how to play his ability.

You are absolutely right, and it would seem you have played opponents that need to re-read the rules. You are hit if there are uncancelled hit or crit results. This is determined in step 6 of combat. Ion weapons are also examples of weapons with effects determined by being hit. So if someone doesn't understand bossk it might help comparing with that.

A lot of the confusion comes from referring to the "*" symbol on the red die as a "hit". So people think just rolling one of those counts as a hit, when in fact it does not.

I don't mean to throw my opponent under a bus. He was newer than I. We actually both puzzled our head around the 666:s weird primary arc and concluded it was 45 forward and 180 rearward. Both of us looked at the shaded area in its rulebook and interpreted it that way. Did I mention I lost? Heh. Hard to arc dodge 270 degree firing arc

I don't mean to throw my opponent under a bus. He was newer than I. We actually both puzzled our head around the 666:s weird primary arc and concluded it was 45 forward and 180 rearward. Both of us looked at the shaded area in its rulebook and interpreted it that way. Did I mention I lost? Heh. Hard to arc dodge 270 degree firing arc

The primary arc is the same for every ship - 90-degrees forward. The 666's auxiliary arc is actually forward as well, not to the rear. So it doesn't have a 270-degree arc, just 180-degrees forward. That's just another mistake to chalk up to inexperience. And it's a common mistake, so you're not alone there.

If this was during a tournament, you should ask the TO for assistance. If it wasn't then, I suppose you have to just muddle through as best you can until you get a more definitive answer, as long as you both think the conclusion is fair.

Just a friendly game on pick up night where only 2 newbs came

That's not so bad then.

The best thing about this forum is that it's global. So if you're in the middle of a friendly game, you can post a question, and someone, somewhere in the world is likely be reading it within minutes, so you're likely to get an answer pretty soon.

I don't mean to throw my opponent under a bus. He was newer than I. We actually both puzzled our head around the 666:s weird primary arc and concluded it was 45 forward and 180 rearward. Both of us looked at the shaded area in its rulebook and interpreted it that way. Did I mention I lost? Heh. Hard to arc dodge 270 degree firing arc

The primary arc is the same for every ship - 90-degrees forward. The 666's auxiliary arc is actually forward as well, not to the rear. So it doesn't have a 270-degree arc, just 180-degrees forward. That's just another mistake to chalk up to inexperience. And it's a common mistake, so you're not alone there.

If this was during a tournament, you should ask the TO for assistance. If it wasn't then, I suppose you have to just muddle through as best you can until you get a more definitive answer, as long as you both think the conclusion is fair.

Technicaly, the YV-666 has two auxcilary arcs of about 45 degrees each, directly adjecent to the left and right side of the primary arc.

Not that it maters for any current card/ability I can think of but still

Rules Reference under "Hit":

"During the “Compare Results” step of attack, a ship is hit if there are any (hit) or (crit) results remaining after canceling dice."

It would be nice for you to check also the "Attack" entry...

Regarding Bossk, I want to put Marksman+Mangler on him, but I don't have a clue how the abilities interact.

Can someone explain this?

Both marksmanship and mangler can produce a crit result. This makes it highly likely that Bossk has an uncancelled crit result he can convert into two hits results.

Regarding Bossk, I want to put Marksman+Mangler on him, but I don't have a clue how the abilities interact.

Can someone explain this?

Personally I prefer recon specialist and calculation, it's cheaper than the mangled cannon option and still makes full use of the 180 degree arc.

The new'ish Rules Reference Guide clears it up. Pages 4-5.

ATTACK

1. Declare Target

2. Roll Attack Dice

3. Modify Attack Dice (Defender first, then Attacker)

4. Roll Defense Dice

5. Modify Defense Dice (Attacker first, then Defender)

6. Compare Results

7. Deal Damage (Pilot Bossk activates right at this step - converting 1 uncancelled Crit result into 2 Hit results if the player wants to)

Marksmanship is basically an enhanced Focus for all of your attacks that if you declare it as your Action, during the Modify Attack Dice step, one Focus roll becomes a Crit, and all other Focus rolls become Hits. Then the Defender still gets a chance to cancel them like normal.

Mangler Cannon allows you to change one Hit roll to a Crit, also during the Modify Attack Dice step

Calculation is another useful EPT for Bossk to use, but it allows you to change on Focus roll to a Crit during the Modify Attack Dice step. No other Focus rolls are modified. However, if you had a 2nd Focus token to spend (such as from having Recon Specialist), you could then use that to change all the other Focus rolls to Hits. Done this way, it's like Marksmanship but if you get a good roll, you may not need to use two Focus tokens for the result.

Mercenary Co-Pilot can be useful, and again during the Modify Attack Dice step, it would allow you to change one Hit roll to a Crit, but only when the Defender is at Range 3.

After all of this, the Defender does their rolling, Compare Results and cancel Hits then Crits based on the Evades rolled.

Then, at the beginning of Dealing Damage, Bossk can change one remaining Crit into two Hits. Good if you're trying to knock down shields or finish someone off. Maybe you want the Crit to hit if they have lots of hull and you'd like them to have that face-up damage card.

This works:
Bossk — YV-666 35
Marksmanship 3
"Mangler" Cannon 4
Gunner 5
Mercenary Copilot 2
Ship Total: 49
Take Marksmanship as your action then make your first attack with Mangler Cannon, changing Crits as appropriate for one Hit automatically from Mangler, one Focus to Crit & rest to Hits from Marksmanship, and one more Hit to Crit from Merc Copilot if at Range 3. Trigger Gunner if all results are cancelled (or you just plain miss), and Marksmanship and Merc Copilot triggering again if possible.

Fantastic job explaining that, Sluggo. +1 for you.

I agree, could you reiterate and confirm on the multiple focus spend? I used calc in exactly this way against an opponent the other week and he seemed to think that I could only spend one focus per attack. I rolled eyeball eyeball hit blank and changed one of my eyeballs with one of my two focus tokens. I then wanted to use my second focus to convert the other eyeball, my opponent didn't think I could.

I did argue that it kinda makes recon specialist a bit sucky if that is true.

There's no limit on the number of focus tokens you can spend during an attack. However, you can only use Calculation once per attack. So you'd spend one focus using Calculation to change to a crit result, and then spend another focus to change any other focus results to hit results.

I agree, could you reiterate and confirm on the multiple focus spend? I used calc in exactly this way against an opponent the other week and he seemed to think that I could only spend one focus per attack. I rolled eyeball eyeball hit blank and changed one of my eyeballs with one of my two focus tokens. I then wanted to use my second focus to convert the other eyeball, my opponent didn't think I could.

I did argue that it kinda makes recon specialist a bit sucky if that is true.

Pg 5 Rulebook: Attack point 3 & 5

Modify Attack Dice: The defender can resolve any card abilities that allow him to modify the attack dice. Then the attacker can modify his attack dice in one or more of the following ways as many times as possible: Focus, Target Lock, Card Ability

Modify Defense Dice: The attacker can resolve any card abilities that allow him to modify the defense dice. Then the defender can modify his defense dice in one or more of the following ways as many times as possible: Focus, Evade, Card Ability

People confuse performing 1 Action per turn & spending tokens, spending tokens is not an action it happens in the combat phase

hope this helps

To add to Parravon, you can spend up to as many tokens as you have, as he said. However, you can only take an action once per round, so that may be where your opponent's confusion came from. You can be given as many Focus tokens by other ship/card effects as possible during the turn too.

This is why Recon Specialist on the HWK with Palob as your pilot, and with the Moldy Crow title and a Blaster Turret can be awesome. If I use that, I typically bank 8 to 10 Focus tokens before engaging, and then use them on the BT with Calc. It's easy to use up to 3 tokens per turn (one to fire BT, one to change Focus to [KABOOM], and one more to change any more Focus rolls to [bOOM] rolls. But Palob can steal one, and RecSpec gives two, so it's easy to reload the tokens.

This raises the question, that I think I did correctly:

New player rolls 3 attack dice. Focus Focus Hit

His ship is equipped with Calculation (spend a focus token to convert a focus result into a critical hit)

The ship also had a focus token.

As I understand the rules, the player can ONLY spend his (single) focus token on one or the other. Either he chooses to spend it to turn 2 focus results into 2 hits, OR he chooses to spend it to turn one of the focus results into a critical result.

Correct, yes?

If the attacker had had 2 focus tokens (such as Recon Specialist) he could have both converted the one focus to a critical hit and also the other focus result into a hit, but he would have to spend both focus tokens.

Correct