When declaring the target of an attack, can you measure the range of every possible defender? Or do you have to declare a target first, check for range, and, if possible, attack that target?

When declaring the target of an attack, can you measure the range of every possible defender? Or do you have to declare a target first, check for range, and, if possible, attack that target?

The latter.

There's never an opportunity to measure the range against a ship you do not intend to affect, unless you know you're measuring against a ship you cannot affect, and use that as a mental marker.

^This is called a loophole.

Can you cite that in the rule book, FAQ, or errata somewhere plz?

When declaring the target of an attack, can you measure the range of every possible defender? Or do you have to declare a target first, check for range, and, if possible, attack that target?

The latter.

There's never an opportunity to measure the range against a ship you do not intend to affect, unless you know you're measuring against a ship you cannot affect, and use that as a mental marker.

^This is called a loophole.

Can you cite that in the rule book, FAQ, or errata somewhere plz?

Yes I can!

1. Declare Target: The attacker may measure range to any number of enemy ships and check which enemy ships are inside his firing arc. Then the attacker chooses one of his weapons to attack with. Then he chooses one enemy ship to be the target and pays any costs required for the attack.

A ship's activation in the Combat phase is the only time you get to measure to any and all other ships. This doesn't mean you can measure from multiple ships before deciding which one's going to attack first, or what they're going to attack, mind.

When declaring the target of an attack, can you measure the range of every possible defender? Or do you have to declare a target first, check for range, and, if possible, attack that target?

The latter.

There's never an opportunity to measure the range against a ship you do not intend to affect, unless you know you're measuring against a ship you cannot affect, and use that as a mental marker.

^This is called a loophole.

Respectfully disagree.

Can you cite that in the rule book, FAQ, or errata somewhere plz?

Yes I can!

1. Declare Target: The attacker may measure range to any number of enemy ships and check which enemy ships are inside his firing arc. Then the attacker chooses one of his weapons to attack with. Then he chooses one enemy ship to be the target and pays any costs required for the attack.

A ship's activation in the Combat phase is the only time you get to measure to any and all other ships. This doesn't mean you can measure from multiple ships before deciding which one's going to attack first, or what they're going to attack, mind.

Mea maxima culpa.

When declaring the target of an attack, can you measure the range of every possible defender? Or do you have to declare a target first, check for range, and, if possible, attack that target?

The latter.

There's never an opportunity to measure the range against a ship you do not intend to affect, unless you know you're measuring against a ship you cannot affect, and use that as a mental marker.

^This is called a loophole.

This leads to one of those "It's legal, but I think you're slimy if you do this" rules.

If a player declares an acquire a target lock

action for his ship and the enemy ship he wants

to lock is not at range, he may choose a different

ship to lock or a different action entirely.

I've had opponents declare they want to acquire a TL to a ship that's obviously out of range, but to see just how far out of range it is. They then do this with every target ship that's obviously out of range - like range 4 or 5 in a Standard Tournament match. Granted, they're not measuring the actual distance, but it's fairly easy to measure the full range ruler from their ship to the supposed target, and just gauge the distance that it's out of TL range. It's a slimy way to see exactly how far you need to move to keep Range 3 by guessing what the opponent ship will do, and figuring your move accordingly.

Anyways, I don't intend this to be a full-on sportsmanship thread, since we know how those end up - usually in tears, and someone banned - so lets not go there. How about we all just agree not to be slimers?

When declaring the target of an attack, can you measure the range of every possible defender? Or do you have to declare a target first, check for range, and, if possible, attack that target?

The latter.

There's never an opportunity to measure the range against a ship you do not intend to affect, unless you know you're measuring against a ship you cannot affect, and use that as a mental marker.

^This is called a loophole.

This leads to one of those "It's legal, but I think you're slimy if you do this" rules.

If a player declares an acquire a target lock

action for his ship and the enemy ship he wants

to lock is not at range, he may choose a different

ship to lock or a different action entirely.

I've had opponents declare they want to acquire a TL to a ship that's obviously out of range, but to see just how far out of range it is. They then do this with every target ship that's obviously out of range - like range 4 or 5 in a Standard Tournament match. Granted, they're not measuring the actual distance, but it's fairly easy to measure the full range ruler from their ship to the supposed target, and just gauge the distance that it's out of TL range. It's a slimy way to see exactly how far you need to move to keep Range 3 by guessing what the opponent ship will do, and figuring your move accordingly.

It's also a sneaky way to measure range on a completely different ship along the same line of sight. You check the clearly out of range ship for a target lock and see that another ship is Range 2 from you. Then you say, "Oh, well, can't target lock that ship, so I guess I'll choose another action, oh, I don't know, let's Boost. Hey look, I'm Range 1 from your ship now, how about that?"

It's worth noting that the original question was about declaring the target of your attack when you activate during the Combat phase. We've now veered into a discussion of the limited premeasuring the rules allow when you're acquiring a Target Lock.

If it were up to me, I'd let any ship with the Target Lock action measure range to any enemy ship any time it's active (either during Activation or during Combat). Call it a Heads-up Display. As it is, if somebody's clearly abusing the Target Lock premeasure at a tournament I'm judging, I'm not going to slap them down for it until and unless it starts to look like slow play or deliberate rudeness.

Slimey to some, smart to others...

Doing stuff by the rules is not slimy, if it was not meant to be done it would not be legal. It would be very easy to rule, for instance, that attempting the lock action always uses your action up regardless of whether you are successful in completing it. But that's not the rule.

In FAQ, Page 5, Under Measuring Range; first bullet:

" When a ship becomes the active ship during the combat phase, the active player can measure range from the active ship to any enemy ships before declaring one as its target. "

What gets people confused is that for a TL you are restricted, not in choosing your target.

Measuring Range; third bullet:

" After declaring the intended target of a target lock action, the active player may measure range to the intended target, and only to the intended target. "

Actually, I think what confuses people on this board more is that the regular rules and the tournament rules differ in what you can measure, when. People here know that there are differences, but not everyone has internalized (or cares) what the differences are.