I have pretty basic, fundamental question here, but it caused some heated debate at the last game night, so I wanted to ask the community. The scenario is this:

I have an Academy TIE Fighter. I perform a maneuver, and declare my action as a barrel roll left. I place my R1 template on the front left of the ship base, and move the ship to the other side of the template as far back on the ship base as possible. Placing the ship here causes the front corner to overlap debris, so I am not able to complete the action. However, if I was to shift the TIE slightly backwards, it would not be in contact with the debris, and could thus be legally completed.

My question is this: Do I have to try all possible positions in order to legally complete the barrel roll, or can I declare myself unable to complete it if my initial positioning is does not allow it to complete?

Follow up question: Am I allowed to move the ship forward or backward on the template while deciding where I want it to be, or does it have to be kept where I initially placed it?

Thanks!

You have to try to complete the barrel once declared before abandoning it for another action.

You can move the ship back and forth along the template to your hearts content.

Hope this helps.

What I would do in this situation is put the ship back in it's starting position, slide the template to the back of the base then place the base's front edge at the edge of the template to get myself as far away from the obstacle as possible since I have now committed myself to making the BR to that side of the ship.

I have pretty basic, fundamental question here, but it caused some heated debate at the last game night, so I wanted to ask the community. The scenario is this:

I have an Academy TIE Fighter. I perform a maneuver, and declare my action as a barrel roll left. I place my R1 template on the front left of the ship base, and move the ship to the other side of the template as far back on the ship base as possible. Placing the ship here causes the front corner to overlap debris, so I am not able to complete the action. However, if I was to shift the TIE slightly backwards, it would not be in contact with the debris, and could thus be legally completed.

My question is this: Do I have to try all possible positions in order to legally complete the barrel roll, or can I declare myself unable to complete it if my initial positioning is does not allow it to complete?

Follow up question: Am I allowed to move the ship forward or backward on the template while deciding where I want it to be, or does it have to be kept where I initially placed it?

Thanks!

The FAQ says this about barrel rolls:

Performing a Barrel Roll

When performing a barrel roll, a player must first declare from which side of the ship’s base the action will be performed. Then, he measures to see if the ship is able to perform a barrel roll action to any legal area on the declared side, moving the template as necessary. If the ship can perform the barrel roll action on the declared side, it must do so. If the ship cannot perform the barrel roll action, the player may declare a barrel roll in the other direction, or he may declare a different action.

So if you declare a barrel roll to the right, and find the spot where you wanted to end up is going to put you on an obstacle or another ship, you must slide your ship and/or template forwards or backwards until it fits. If there's nowhere at all that fits, then you can choose another action.