Ok, so I've seen guys online do this in different ways.

during combat, when those icons are rolled, what exactly happens?

1. Can you only use tactics cards if you get these or 2. do they allow you to draw additional tactics cards during combat which u can always play during the appropriate step? or 3. something else?

Hi Scoundrel, they allow you to either draw a tactic card from the relevant ground or space deck depending during which battle the symbol was rolled. They also allow you to play a tactic card that has the symbol printed on it. Two purposes effectively. They count as a miss in terms of damage dealt though.

can you draw a card AND play one per icon? or do you have to chose for each icon?

You have to choose to either play a card or draw one per crossed light abreast symbol rolled. You can't do both.

Seconded. It is an either/or thing

From what I've seen cross lightsabers and tactics are a mechanic to throw in some chaos to what would be a predictable outcome to combat saving some units or destroying others. Now a single lightsaber icon is designed to be some what unreliable as you could draw a non lightsaber card or you could be out of luck if you don't commit a leader to the battle.

The tactics system I think works fine. it adds some more randomization elements so large scale combats can be more than just a dice roll.

You have to choose to either play a card or draw one per crossed light abreast symbol rolled. You can't do both.

To my knowledge this isn't strictly correct- you can play a card that you draw, assuming you still meet the requirements for that card. So if the card you draw also requires a crossed sabers, you would not be able to play it without a second die with that result.

Spend a 'Crossed lightsaber' dice to draw a tactic card.

or

Spend a 'Crossed lightsaber' dice to activate a tactic card with that symbol.

once the dice is spent i take it off the table.

Spend a 'Crossed lightsaber' dice to draw a tactic card.

or

Spend a 'Crossed lightsaber' dice to activate a tactic card with that symbol.

once the dice is spent i take it off the table.

They count as a miss in terms of damage dealt though.

Do they?

****! We were counting them as double damage like you do when resolving missions!

The rebels might have taken down the Death Star in my game! The imps rolled 10 dice during the attack and had 7 of them, I was cursing my opponent's good luck!

They count as a miss in terms of damage dealt though.

Do they?

****! We were counting them as double damage like you do when resolving missions!

The rebels might have taken down the Death Star in my game! The imps rolled 10 dice during the attack and had 7 of them, I was cursing my opponent's good luck!

Nope no double damage although they could do double damage or prevent damage.

Think of them more like the focus results from X-wing or the accuracy results from Armada. Like a focus if you have no focus tokens they do nothing. However crossed lightsabers do allow you to draw a tactic card which may do something like the accuracy on Armada. Still if on a single crossed lightsabers you draw a card with a crossed lightsaber icon it is essentially.for all intents and purposes, a miss.