A question came up in a casual game the other day.

When I am using Blount with IPM, his ability insures the hit with all dice canceled, resulting in 1 damage and 2 Ion tokens.

Assume I'm in a tournament situation, where I've shared my list info, given my opponent time to ask any questions for clarification, and done a reasonable job sharing pertinent info before play commences.

Suppose I roll attack dice with the IPM and get 3 hits, while my opponent rolls 3 focus and announces he will use a focus to change his dice to evades.

- Am I under any obligation to let my opponent know that he will be wasting a token?

In some cases I likely would - especially if I know the player is fairly new and it is a small tournament - but maybe not in an event like a Store Championship.

Thoughts?

The rules don't put you under any obligation to explain the effects of an opponent's decision to spend a token or not. In fact, your opponent is expected, especially at Regionals and above, to know how the game's various elements function--and if he or she doesn't, your copies are available for examination at any time.

Whether you're under such an obligation according to your own principles is a separate question, of course, and as you imply it's likely sensitive to context.

In a tournament, I'd make sure my opponent had an opportunity to know my list. When it was the appropriate time, I'd state my attack as "Lt. Blount will now fire his Ion Pulse Missile at <insert target>." and then roll my dice. Whatever they do after that is up to them.

I think it would be polite to note to your opponent what Blount's ability is when firing. After all, you're there to play him at his skill at x-wing, not his ability at remembering what all of the pilots in the game do. But you wouldn't be obliged to.

...

Suppose I roll attack dice with the IPM and get 3 hits, while my opponent rolls 3 focus and announces he will use a focus to change his dice to evades.

- Am I under any obligation to let my opponent know that he will be wasting a token?

...

Thoughts?

You are under no obligation to remind him that he will be wasting the token. For all we know maybe he WANTS to spend the Focus token or will have no further use for it anyway so why not.

Now in all honesty I'd probably remind him of Blount's ability when I announce the attack and ask if he wants to go through the dice rolling at all. It may not be the technically correct way to do things and if I noticed anything were rolling the dice may be important I wouldn't ask but I figure it should be a time savings as the results are pretty much set when the attack happens.