Please explain how Gunner and Luke work then?

They may attack a different target, therefore they are "activating" or becoming "active" again.

The initial attack is finished and failed, now they get to perform and additional attack against either the same target or another target.

I'm not sure what there is to explain. The second clause from the first sentence, and the entire second sentence, does not follow from the first clause of the first sentence.

Gunner and Luke work because the same ship is still in the midst of its activation.

Attacking DOES NOT EQUAL activating. It's right there in the email. Normally you only attack during your activation but that is does not mean you must activate to attack.

Just like you normally perform a focus action to assign a focus token but Soontir assigning a token when he takes stress does not count as a focus action.

Please explain how Gunner and Luke work then?

They may attack a different target, therefore they are "activating" or becoming "active" again.

The initial attack is finished and failed, now they get to perform and additional attack against either the same target or another target.

I'm not sure what there is to explain. The second clause from the first sentence, and the entire second sentence, does not follow from the first clause of the first sentence.

Gunner and Luke work because the same ship is still in the midst of its activation.

Precisely this. It goes activate, attack, miss, trigger effects (like gunner), resolve effects (the gunner attack), trigger any more effects (like tactician), resolve those, end activation. You don't magically end activation after rolling attack dice for some reason.

Zeb would be activating at the end of Combat phase again, just like Gunner would trigger with the primary. This answer by Frank is odd.

Frank's right on this one.

"Each ship becomes the active ship only once during this phase." Combat Phase, p. 9, Rules Reference.

Yeah, the email is unambiguously correct. It's an easy rule to miss, and I'm happy to see it getting broader attention.

...also not sure how it ruins the Ghost and Phantom, either. That's tantamount to saying there's no viable Ghost build that doesn't include Zeb, which seems like a problematic argument to make.

Plenty of viable VCX-100s

Not so much Ghost/phantom anymore

It's real gimmicky to begin with and has now lost its biggest draw.

Rather it never existed to begin with

COMBAT PHASE During the Combat phase, each ship has an opportunity to perform one attack, starting with the ship with the highest pilot skill and continuing in descending order.

• If a player has multiple ships with the same pilot skill value, he can attack with them in any order.

• If both players have ships with the same pilot skill value, the player with initiative attacks with all of his ships of that pilot skill first.

• Each ship becomes the active ship only once during this phase.

• A ship may choose not to attack. Related Topics: Active Ship, Attack, Initiative, Pilot Skill, Round

Man, this gets old.

Unless you are Active, you cannot attack. If this ruling were true, the Ghost/Phantom Titles are useless. If you can only become active once and attack, then you can't attack again during the combat phase like the card states.

Page 4 of Rules Reference

ATTACK

A ship can perform one attack when it becomes the

active ship during the Combat phase. To perform an

attack, the ship resolves the following steps in order:

Therefore when you are attacking, you are the Active ship.

Page 4 of Rules Reference

ATTACK

A ship can perform one attack when it becomes the

active ship during the Combat phase. To perform an

attack, the ship resolves the following steps in order:

Therefore when you are attacking, you are the Active ship.

Negative, you do perform an attack once activating, yes, which is what the above paragraph says.

But that's not the only time you can perform an attack. You can also perform an attack without activating.

Remember the golden rule of X-Wing: "Do what the rules/card say to do, do not do what the rules/card do not say to do".

There is no rule that says you MUST be active in order to attack, just that activating is one opportunity to attack. Not the same thing!

COMBAT PHASE During the Combat phase, each ship has an opportunity to perform one attack, starting with the ship with the highest pilot skill and continuing in descending order.

• If a player has multiple ships with the same pilot skill value, he can attack with them in any order.

• If both players have ships with the same pilot skill value, the player with initiative attacks with all of his ships of that pilot skill first.

• Each ship becomes the active ship only once during this phase.

• A ship may choose not to attack. Related Topics: Active Ship, Attack, Initiative, Pilot Skill, Round

Man, this gets old.

Unless you are Active, you cannot attack. If this ruling were true, the Ghost/Phantom Titles are useless. If you can only become active once and attack, then you can't attack again during the combat phase like the card states.

Page 4 of Rules Reference

ATTACK

A ship can perform one attack when it becomes the

active ship during the Combat phase. To perform an

attack, the ship resolves the following steps in order:

Therefore when you are attacking, you are the Active ship.

Hmm. Now this is getting really interesting.

So, if the ship isn't active in its end of combat attack, does that mean effects like Tactician wouldn't trigger either? I honestly don't know why this would be the case, but from reading through the comments here, I got the feeling that might be the case, so I figured I might as well ask.

Edit: Never mind Xanderf's comment made it clear that activation and attacking are not synonymous. Question about tactician still stands though if anyone can clear that up for me.

So during a gunner attack am I still the active ship? Assume yes.

Zeb would be activating at the end of Combat phase again, just like Gunner would trigger with the primary. This answer by Frank is odd.

Frank's right on this one.

"Each ship becomes the active ship only once during this phase." Combat Phase, p. 9, Rules Reference.

Yeah, the email is unambiguously correct. It's an easy rule to miss, and I'm happy to see it getting broader attention.

...also not sure how it ruins the Ghost and Phantom, either. That's tantamount to saying there's no viable Ghost build that doesn't include Zeb, which seems like a problematic argument to make.

Plenty of viable VCX-100s

Not so much Ghost/phantom anymore

It's real gimmicky to begin with and has now lost its biggest draw.

Rather it never existed to begin with

COMBAT PHASE During the Combat phase, each ship has an opportunity to perform one attack, starting with the ship with the highest pilot skill and continuing in descending order.

• If a player has multiple ships with the same pilot skill value, he can attack with them in any order.

• If both players have ships with the same pilot skill value, the player with initiative attacks with all of his ships of that pilot skill first.

• Each ship becomes the active ship only once during this phase.

• A ship may choose not to attack. Related Topics: Active Ship, Attack, Initiative, Pilot Skill, Round

Man, this gets old.

Unless you are Active, you cannot attack. If this ruling were true, the Ghost/Phantom Titles are useless. If you can only become active once and attack, then you can't attack again during the combat phase like the card states.

Page 4 of Rules Reference

ATTACK

A ship can perform one attack when it becomes the

active ship during the Combat phase. To perform an

attack, the ship resolves the following steps in order:

Therefore when you are attacking, you are the Active ship.

Hmm. Now this is getting really interesting.

So, if the ship isn't active in its end of combat attack, does that mean effects like Tactician wouldn't trigger either? I honestly don't know why this would be the case, but from reading through the comments here, I got the feeling that might be the case, so I figured I might as well ask.

Edit: Never mind Xanderf's comment made it clear that activation and attacking are not synonymous. Question about tactician still stands though if anyone can clear that up for me.

tactician is after an attack and you are performing an attack.

So during a gunner attack am I still the active ship? Assume yes.

For gunner/Luke/Han/Y-Wing title/etc, yes - you are still an active ship during all of the attacks that end up getting made.

For Dengar/Corran/Phantom title/etc, the card specifies an attack outside your activation window, so no, you are not an 'active ship' during THOSE attacks.

Very few cards mention "activate" or "activation" which increases the confusion here.

• Gunner acts almost like an "interrupt" and grants you a second attack during your activation before moving on to the next ship.
• Phantom Title (or Dengar) grant you an attack opportunity outside of your activation window.
• Tactician simply requires an attack and will work any time an attack takes place.

Again

• focus action = focus token.

But,

• focus token != focus action

Likewise

• activating in combat phase = attack (once unless gunner etc.)

But

• attacking != activating

COMBAT PHASE During the Combat phase, each ship has an opportunity to perform one attack, starting with the ship with the highest pilot skill and continuing in descending order.

• If a player has multiple ships with the same pilot skill value, he can attack with them in any order.

• If both players have ships with the same pilot skill value, the player with initiative attacks with all of his ships of that pilot skill first.

• Each ship becomes the active ship only once during this phase.

• A ship may choose not to attack. Related Topics: Active Ship, Attack, Initiative, Pilot Skill, Round

Man, this gets old.

Unless you are Active, you cannot attack. If this ruling were true, the Ghost/Phantom Titles are useless. If you can only become active once and attack, then you can't attack again during the combat phase like the card states.

Page 4 of Rules Reference

ATTACK

A ship can perform one attack when it becomes the

active ship during the Combat phase. To perform an

attack, the ship resolves the following steps in order:

Therefore when you are attacking, you are the Active ship.

Hmm. Now this is getting really interesting.

So, if the ship isn't active in its end of combat attack, does that mean effects like Tactician wouldn't trigger either? I honestly don't know why this would be the case, but from reading through the comments here, I got the feeling that might be the case, so I figured I might as well ask.

You can attack without being the active ship, if you are granted the effect by a card that says to do so outside of the normal game procedure.

Cards that trigger after an attack will only not work if they stipulate that you're the active ship for them to work. Tactician makes no such provision, so it triggers after every attack, active or not.

Ynot's insistence that being able to do something in the rules means that it carries everything along with it is just plain faulty logic.

By the same logic he's using, you'd read that the "Evade" section says "Ships with the [E] icon in their action bar may perform the evade action," and says nothing about other ways to perform an evade action. A Decimator equipped with Ysanne Isard can perform an evade action. Therefore, you conclude the Decimator with Ysanne Isard has the [E] icon in its action bar.

No. That's not the way it works. That's not the way 'active ship' works, either.

Weird, but I can actually imagine a case where Dengar's ability could still work:

- Ghost attacks and misses

- Gunner and Dengar activate, but Dengar has initiative, so he activates first.

- Is Dengar's ability happening during either when either ships is active; yes?

Zeb would be activating at the end of Combat phase again, just like Gunner would trigger with the primary. This answer by Frank is odd.

Frank's right on this one.

"Each ship becomes the active ship only once during this phase." Combat Phase, p. 9, Rules Reference.

Yeah, the email is unambiguously correct. It's an easy rule to miss, and I'm happy to see it getting broader attention.

...also not sure how it ruins the Ghost and Phantom, either. That's tantamount to saying there's no viable Ghost build that doesn't include Zeb, which seems like a problematic argument to make.

Plenty of viable VCX-100s

Not so much Ghost/phantom anymore

It's real gimmicky to begin with and has now lost its biggest draw.

Rather it never existed to begin with

The Ghost/Phantom combo is still very viable, it just can't attack a "touching" ship twice with Zeb crew, that is the only interaction stopped by this "ruling"/email that isn't even truly official until it is added to the FAQ. The Phantom still grants an End of Combat turret shot & still allows the Ghost to shoot out of it's alt-firing arc, so a long way from not viable...not to mention deploying the Phantom out of the back of the Ghost.

Very easy to miss the detail in Activating the ship in combat.

It would be nice if when a new ability is created that the specifics are clarified with a card in the pack or some other means.

Since this one has specific wording it seems like there was some intent to it that could have been explained prior to someone using it incorrectly.

Most other cards are fairly straightforward, but every once in a while, we get cards that are not intuitive for most players to understand their full intent.

I also think this is ab ad ruling from frank. As for each ship only activating once in the combat phase, that doesn't bother me becuase cards override rules. If you aren't active with dengar's ability or the ghost's second shot, does dengar with gunner get to ignore simultaneous fire? Take this situation: Soontir, dengar and Vader are all PS9. Imp has initiative, so Soontir shoots dengar from in arc. Dengar shoots back and misses, then gunners to shoot Vader, and kills vader with the shot. Going by this ruling, based on the wording of simultaneous fire (During the Combat phase, all ships with a pilot skill value equal to the active ship have the opportunity to attack before being destroyed), if dengar isn't active then Vader would die immediately and wouldn't get to fire, which I highly doubt is the intended result.

Also, as others have pointed out, according tot he FAQ:

Players may only measure range and/or use the range ruler to determine whether a ship is inside or outside of a firing arc at the following times:

• 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.

• When a player declares a ship’s ability that requires another ship (or ships) to be at a certain range, the player trying to resolve the ability can measure range from their ship to any valid ships before resolving the ability.

• 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.

Going by that, if you aren't active, you can't measure range for the ghost's turret shot or dengar's revenge shot.

meh

I don't personally believe getting half a TLT or a crappy 2-die turret to be worth the 20+ (if zeb crew) points invested in a 4 health 2 agi ship

now four damage on auto-blaster? **** yeah that's nasty

it's just much harder to do now that you can't block boosting aces without giving up that double damage output, and if you block aces you run the risk of getting ground down much faster than you can kill them (esp if you're stuffing the poor ghost to 60+ with a docked phantom)

TLDR: Can't autokill a ship by touching it? Game's ruined, selling my stuff.

I also think this is ab ad ruling from frank. As for each ship only activating once in the combat phase, that doesn't bother me becuase cards override rules. If you aren't active with dengar's ability or the ghost's second shot, does dengar with gunner get to ignore simultaneous fire? Take this situation: Soontir, dengar and Vader are all PS9. Imp has initiative, so Soontir shoots dengar from in arc. Dengar shoots back and misses, then gunners to shoot Vader, and kills vader with the shot. Going by this ruling, based on the wording of simultaneous fire (During the Combat phase, all ships with a pilot skill value equal to the active ship have the opportunity to attack before being destroyed), if dengar isn't active then Vader would die immediately and wouldn't get to fire, which I highly doubt is the intended result.

Also, as others have pointed out, according tot he FAQ:

Players may only measure range and/or use the range ruler to determine whether a ship is inside or outside of a firing arc at the following times:

• 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.

>>>>>• When a player declares a ship’s ability that requires another ship (or ships) to be at a certain range, the player trying to resolve the ability can measure range from their ship to any valid ships before resolving the ability.<<<<<<

• 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.

Going by that, if you aren't active, you can't measure range for the ghost's turret shot or dengar's revenge shot.

See boldfaced text.

I also think this is ab ad ruling from frank. As for each ship only activating once in the combat phase, that doesn't bother me becuase cards override rules. If you aren't active with dengar's ability or the ghost's second shot, does dengar with gunner get to ignore simultaneous fire? Take this situation: Soontir, dengar and Vader are all PS9. Imp has initiative, so Soontir shoots dengar from in arc. Dengar shoots back and misses, then gunners to shoot Vader, and kills vader with the shot. Going by this ruling, based on the wording of simultaneous fire (During the Combat phase, all ships with a pilot skill value equal to the active ship have the opportunity to attack before being destroyed), if dengar isn't active then Vader would die immediately and wouldn't get to fire, which I highly doubt is the intended result.

Also, as others have pointed out, according tot he FAQ:

Players may only measure range and/or use the range ruler to determine whether a ship is inside or outside of a firing arc at the following times:

• 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.

• When a player declares a ship’s ability that requires another ship (or ships) to be at a certain range, the player trying to resolve the ability can measure range from their ship to any valid ships before resolving the ability.

• 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.

Going by that, if you aren't active, you can't measure range for the ghost's turret shot or dengar's revenge shot.

Actually, simultaneous fire would still happen from Dengar's return fire-gunner-to-the-other-target because Vader is PS9, which is equal the the Active Ship Soontir's PS.

The more complicated version would be a PS3 shooting Dengar, with another PS3 yet to fire. I think both PS3s would get to go because it doesn't make sense for Dengar to PS kill a ship while returning fire in a window that other PS3s are firing. If we follow strict RAW we don't need a FAQ entry that says Dengar's return fire is at the PS of the ship that shot him, because the ship that shot him is technically still the active ship.

I also think this is ab ad ruling from frank. As for each ship only activating once in the combat phase, that doesn't bother me becuase cards override rules. If you aren't active with dengar's ability or the ghost's second shot, does dengar with gunner get to ignore simultaneous fire? Take this situation: Soontir, dengar and Vader are all PS9. Imp has initiative, so Soontir shoots dengar from in arc. Dengar shoots back and misses, then gunners to shoot Vader, and kills vader with the shot. Going by this ruling, based on the wording of simultaneous fire (During the Combat phase, all ships with a pilot skill value equal to the active ship have the opportunity to attack before being destroyed), if dengar isn't active then Vader would die immediately and wouldn't get to fire, which I highly doubt is the intended result.

Also, as others have pointed out, according tot he FAQ:

Players may only measure range and/or use the range ruler to determine whether a ship is inside or outside of a firing arc at the following times:

• 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.

>>>>>• When a player declares a ship’s ability that requires another ship (or ships) to be at a certain range, the player trying to resolve the ability can measure range from their ship to any valid ships before resolving the ability.<<<<<<

• 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.

Going by that, if you aren't active, you can't measure range for the ghost's turret shot or dengar's revenge shot.

See boldfaced text.

Zeb's ability itself doesn't require a ship to be at a certain range. It's not like 4LOM crew that states "a ship at range 1".

I also think this is ab ad ruling from frank. As for each ship only activating once in the combat phase, that doesn't bother me becuase cards override rules. If you aren't active with dengar's ability or the ghost's second shot, does dengar with gunner get to ignore simultaneous fire? Take this situation: Soontir, dengar and Vader are all PS9. Imp has initiative, so Soontir shoots dengar from in arc. Dengar shoots back and misses, then gunners to shoot Vader, and kills vader with the shot. Going by this ruling, based on the wording of simultaneous fire (During the Combat phase, all ships with a pilot skill value equal to the active ship have the opportunity to attack before being destroyed), if dengar isn't active then Vader would die immediately and wouldn't get to fire, which I highly doubt is the intended result.

Also, as others have pointed out, according tot he FAQ:

Players may only measure range and/or use the range ruler to determine whether a ship is inside or outside of a firing arc at the following times:

• 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.

• When a player declares a ship’s ability that requires another ship (or ships) to be at a certain range, the player trying to resolve the ability can measure range from their ship to any valid ships before resolving the ability.

• 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.

Going by that, if you aren't active, you can't measure range for the ghost's turret shot or dengar's revenge shot.

Actually, simultaneous fire would still happen from Dengar's return fire-gunner-to-the-other-target because Vader is PS9, which is equal the the Active Ship Soontir's PS.

No, because soontir's activation ends when the attack finishes. Dengar's revenge shot is after the attack is over.

ACTIVE SHIP The ship that is currently resolving the Activation or Combat phase is the active ship.

COMBAT PHASE During the Combat phase, each ship has an opportunity to perform one attack

The final step of the combat phase for an active ship is dealing damage to the target. Once the attack is over, there's no evidence you're still active for dengar's ability. I would argue if dengar isn't active, no one is. If the ghost isn't active at the end of the phase when attacking with his turret, there's already precedent for there being no active ship at a given time (which I think is dumb, but if that's the argument).

Zeb's ability itself doesn't require a ship to be at a certain range. It's not like 4LOM crew that states "a ship at range 1".

That is true, but performing an attack does.

COMBAT PHASE During the Combat phase, each ship has an opportunity to perform one attack, starting with the ship with the highest pilot skill and continuing in descending order.

• If a player has multiple ships with the same pilot skill value, he can attack with them in any order.

• If both players have ships with the same pilot skill value, the player with initiative attacks with all of his ships of that pilot skill first.

• Each ship becomes the active ship only once during this phase.

• A ship may choose not to attack. Related Topics: Active Ship, Attack, Initiative, Pilot Skill, Round

Man, this gets old.

Unless you are Active, you cannot attack. If this ruling were true, the Ghost/Phantom Titles are useless. If you can only become active once and attack, then you can't attack again during the combat phase like the card states.

Page 4 of Rules Reference

ATTACK

A ship can perform one attack when it becomes the

active ship during the Combat phase. To perform an

attack, the ship resolves the following steps in order:

Therefore when you are attacking, you are the Active ship.

Hmm. Now this is getting really interesting.

So, if the ship isn't active in its end of combat attack, does that mean effects like Tactician wouldn't trigger either? I honestly don't know why this would be the case, but from reading through the comments here, I got the feeling that might be the case, so I figured I might as well ask.

No, it's not that interesting.

You can attack without being the active ship, if you are granted the effect by a card that says to do so outside of the normal game procedure.

Cards that trigger after an attack will only not work if they stipulate that you're the active ship for them to work. Tactician makes no such provision, so it triggers after every attack, active or not.

Ynot's insistence that being able to do something in the rules means that it carries everything along with it is just plain faulty logic.

By the same logic he's using, you'd read that the "Evade" section says "Ships with the [E] icon in their action bar may perform the evade action," and says nothing about other ways to perform an evade action. A Decimator equipped with Ysanne Isard can perform an evade action. Therefore, you conclude the Decimator with Ysanne Isard has the [E] icon in its action bar.

No. That's not the way it works. That's not the way 'active ship' works, either.

When you attack you ARE the active ship. Only the active ship can measure for attack targets, etc.

Being an Active Ship and Activating are different things. You can only be the Active Ship once in combat phase. Activation is only mentioned during Initiative for Activation Phase. You do not "Activate" during combat phase or rather there is no mention of activating during combat phase so maybe the card is useless altogether. You become the Active ship but that isn't the same as Activation.

The only place I see mention Activating is during Activation Phase.

The final step of the combat phase for an active ship is dealing damage to the target. Once the attack is over, there's no evidence you're still active for dengar's ability. I would argue if dengar isn't active, no one is. If the ghost isn't active at the end of the phase when attacking with his turret, there's already precedent for there being no active ship at a given time (which I think is dumb, but if that's the argument).

I see what you mean, but Dengar's ability specifically says you can shoot the attacking ship. Gunner lets you change that target if you miss, but that attacking ship isn't the attacking ship if it's activation has ended.

Wait.

"Once per round after defending, if the attacker is inside your firing arc, you may perform an attack against that ship."

There is a dependent clause there (or something, I'm not an English teacher) but the phrase "the attacker is" is present tense which is what I am basing my argument on. There is the argument that they should have written it "the ship that had attacked is" but that takes more room. Guess it will take a FAQ after all.