Hi all,

I'm trying to understand the rules behind the auxiliary firing arcs, especially on Ghost because I'm planning to purchase one eventually and depending on the rear arc, that might make me more likely to buy it sooner.

1) - came up last night - Firespray's rear firing arc - does it trigger Autothrusters if the other ship is IN the rear arc, and WITHIN range 2? My friend and I were unclear so last night to keep the game going we agreed to allow it to trigger AT and then follow up today on it. I'm looking in the FAQ and I don't see much but I do see on the Outmaneuver card entry:

The auxiliary firing arc of the Firespray-31 is a firing arc.

So if that's the case, then it shouldn't trigger AT if it is within the rear arc + within range 2 right?

2) - Ghost's rear firing arc. What is it? I can't find much on it, is it a secondary weapon only firing arc? Only active with the shuttle docked? An auxillary firing arc for primary weapons with a special rule on it? Please advise!

Thank you!

You're correct - this has been answered fairly recently, but the secondary firing arc is still a firing arc so autothrusters would not activate at range 1-2 of that arc.

The Ghost's rear firing arc is the same as the Firespray's - unless you have a docked phantom, at which point it behaves like a primary firing arc until the phantom is deployed. That means you can fire secondary weapons from it, and any other abilities that are typically locked to the primary firing arc and exclude a secondary one.

The Ghost's "special arc" is not an auxiliary arc.

All arcs (primary, auxiliary, special) count as arcs for the purposes of cards that say "in arc" like Tactician, Autothrusters, Outmaneuver.

Auxiliary arcs can be used to fire the primary weapon, but not secondary weapons.

The Ghost's special arc (without a docked Phantom) cannot be used to fire primary weapons, but can be used to fire torpedoes.

With a docked Phantom, the Ghost's special arc can be used to fire the primary weapon as well. This wouldn't make it count as a "primary arc" for the purposes of cards that differentiate between primary arcs and other kinds of arcs, but no such cards currently exist, so that's not important right now.

Edit: I see this thread is getting a lot of attention here in October 2016, and now there are cards that differentiate between primary arcs and other kinds of arcs, e.g. Tail Gunner, Shadow Caster.

Okay - I just want to confirm so I know. If I run ghost, and do not run Phantom, I cannot shoot my 4 red dice primary weapon from the rear arc, only torpedoes. In order to shoot from the rear, I would be required to run Phantom, docked in order to do so?

Sorry I just want to make sure I understand the rules properly before purchasing Ghost and finding out it isn't doing what I wanted it to do.

Okay - I just want to confirm so I know. If I run ghost, and do not run Phantom, I cannot shoot my 4 red dice primary weapon from the rear arc, only torpedoes. In order to shoot from the rear, I would be required to run Phantom, docked in order to do so?

Sorry I just want to make sure I understand the rules properly before purchasing Ghost and finding out it isn't doing what I wanted it to do.

You've got it. If you run a VCX-100 without the Ghost title, you cannot dock an Attack Shuttle to it, and your special arc is only for torpedoes. If you run a VCX-100 with the Ghost title, you must dock an Attack Shuttle with the Phantom title to it, which confers, among other things, the ability to fire your primary weapon out of your special arc.

Okay - I just want to confirm so I know. If I run ghost, and do not run Phantom, I cannot shoot my 4 red dice primary weapon from the rear arc, only torpedoes. In order to shoot from the rear, I would be required to run Phantom, docked in order to do so?

Sorry I just want to make sure I understand the rules properly before purchasing Ghost and finding out it isn't doing what I wanted it to do.

You're correct, you could also equip a turret that would let you attack in any direction, any ships that you attack inside of the special firing arc with the turret would still be considered in arc.

Okay - I just want to confirm so I know. If I run ghost, and do not run Phantom, I cannot shoot my 4 red dice primary weapon from the rear arc, only torpedoes. In order to shoot from the rear, I would be required to run Phantom, docked in order to do so?

Sorry I just want to make sure I understand the rules properly before purchasing Ghost and finding out it isn't doing what I wanted it to do.

You've got it. If you run a VCX-100 without the Ghost title, you cannot dock an Attack Shuttle to it, and your special arc is only for torpedoes. If you run a VCX-100 with the Ghost title, you must dock an Attack Shuttle with the Phantom title to it, which confers, among other things, the ability to fire your primary weapon out of your special arc.

Bummer - I'll mess around with it and see what I can come up with, I was hoping to have a non-phantom rear shot but that's okay I appreciate the clarification

Revisiting this topic:

Does Old Teroch trigger in a VCX-100's special arc if the VCX doesn't have the title or the shuttle docked?

Revisiting this topic:

Does Old Teroch trigger in a VCX-100's special arc if the VCX doesn't have the title or the shuttle docked?

The arc still exists, so absolutely he would.

Just to add: the currently "active" mobile arc on the Shadowcaster also counts as an arc for all relevant rulings.

Just to add: the currently "active" mobile arc on the Shadowcaster also counts as an arc for all relevant rulings.

Definitely worth noting the active part since it's a minor (necessary) deviation from the typical "any printed arc is an arc" thing.

Just to add: the currently "active" mobile arc on the Shadowcaster also counts as an arc for all relevant rulings.

Definitely worth noting the active part since it's a minor (necessary) deviation from the typical "any printed arc is an arc" thing.

The Shadowcaster is all special kinds of special.

The shadowcaster has 4 quadrants (not arcs), it also has a special arrow on it's base tile that points to one of the quadrants and makes it a "mobile firing arc", which as you say, means this one qualifies as an arc for abilities.