So almost everyone who knows me well, knows I have been playing my mind of battle list since Manaroo came out. I have done reasonably well 2nd in an SC and made the final 16 in a regional as well at a good record over all.

The question is with Manaroo's ability and passing target locks. I have always assumed when you pass a target lock and focus to a ship; the target ship is forced to take the target lock, even if they have someone else target locked (Meaning they must change their lock if the Manaroo has a different ship target locked then the ship the focus is being passed too. ) A disadvantage of the the ability. In fact I lost in a regional due to this and it really pushed me away from the list in competitive play.

I was playing someone the other day and they had Manaroo who had target locked my Zeta Leader. Manaroo then passed a target lock and focus to another ship, which had my Soontier target locked. He choose to not accept manaroo's lock and stay locked on my Soontier. I figured he had to switch the lock to my Zeta if he passed his tokens, but the judge ruled no.

So what is the ruling here: Can a ship that has a target lock on another target and then get passed a target lock and focus from Manaroo (Who has a different target locked then the ship being passed too) ignore Manaroo's target lock and keep his own?

Does anyone know?

Official from Frank:

Rules Question:

Regarding Manaroo's ability to assign her tokens to a friendly ship: if the ship already has a Target Lock and can only maintain one Target Lock, must it discard the old Target Lock in favor of Manaroo's (as indicated in the RRG under Acquire a Target Lock) or can the new ship decide which Target Lock to discard (since the new Target Lock is "assigned" rather than "acquired”?

If a ship already has a target lock, since the ship is assigned all of the tokens from Manaroo, the ship must discard the old target lock rather than getting a choice of which to keep.

Thanks for playing,

Frank Brooks

Associate Creative Content Developer

Fantasy Flight Games

This needs to be FAQ'ed Next. I wish they would have done it in the Last FAQ

Well, not really needed to FAQ, since the Rules Reference already reads: "If a ship acquires a new target lock, it must remove its old target lock" ("Acquire a Target Lock", page 3). But if a specific call out is needed for Manaroo, sure.

Well, not really needed to FAQ, since the Rules Reference already reads: "If a ship acquires a new target lock, it must remove its old target lock" ("Acquire a Target Lock", page 3). But if a specific call out is needed for Manaroo, sure.

Either way, I've seen this question asked frequently enough that there is little excuse for them not including it in the FAQ, especially considering Manaroo is one of the most popular pilots in the game currently.

Well, not really needed to FAQ, since the Rules Reference already reads: "If a ship acquires a new target lock, it must remove its old target lock" ("Acquire a Target Lock", page 3). But if a specific call out is needed for Manaroo, sure.

I don't think that text applies because the ship receiving the tokens is not "acquiring a new lock." I can totally see this going either way and I think I would have gone the other way.

IIRC, Manaroo's ability reads "at the start of the combat phase, you may assign all of your fpcuse, target lock and evade tokens to another friendly ship".

ALL, not ANY.

So you wouldn't get to pick and choose which. You take everything Manaroo has got to give, and leave the poor girl empty handed.

Well I agree. But some judges don't. This is where the disconnect is.

Im not a fan of Dengaroo but that is sort of big.

Obviously Manny does not get to hang on to any tokens but I would have guessed that the receiving ship that now has two blue target locks gets to choose which one to discard.

Well the new target lock is "assigned" no acquired, as such, that part of the rules does not apply.

The words "may" or "choose" are not on her card. The target lock is passed and the old one discarded. Time to get a new judge.

Well the new target lock is "assigned" no acquired, as such, that part of the rules does not apply.

assigned and acquired mean the same thing.

When you're assigned a target lock token, you've acquired a target lock.

Absolutely not. If it did then a range of 1-3 would be required to the target ship.

Edit-. Rereading, I'm not as sure. Tracers and other effects are not range dependent. I am totally on board with the ruling. Manaroo does not need any help.

Well I am sure there has been other threads here about us peasant gamers not knowing as much as a judge. May have even been in spectator participation. I am sure someone could have pointed out to the judge of his incorrect judgement as corrected by the designer of the game.

I would have gone with what Frank said, even before the clarification, the way this judge ruled it leaves it open if someone has Manaroo locked and she passes all tokens, do they then decide that they don't want to be locked by the enemy?

Losing because of ignorance is a sh*tty way to lose.

IIRC, Manaroo's ability reads "at the start of the combat phase, you may assign all of your fpcuse, target lock and evade tokens to another friendly ship".

ALL, not ANY.

So you wouldn't get to pick and choose which. You take everything Manaroo has got to give, and leave the poor girl empty handed.

Wow, way to entirely miss the question being asked.

Absolutely not. If it did then a range of 1-3 would be required to the target ship.

Edit-. Rereading, I'm not as sure. Tracers and other effects are not range dependent. I am totally on board with the ruling. Manaroo does not need any help.

Colonel Jendon is similar. He can "acquire" a target lock at any range (if he has ST-321) but "assigns" his end of the target lock to a friend at range 1 of him, regardless of whether that friend would be in range to "acquire" a lock themselves.

IIRC, Manaroo's ability reads "at the start of the combat phase, you may assign all of your fpcuse, target lock and evade tokens to another friendly ship".

ALL, not ANY.

So you wouldn't get to pick and choose which. You take everything Manaroo has got to give, and leave the poor girl empty handed.

Wow, way to entirely miss the question being asked.

Wow, way to contribute something meaningful to the discussion.

Personally, I think the designers should simply post all email responses on a webpage so we all can get these questions answered. If they don't want to update the FAQ every other day then just post and number the email rulings so they can be referenced.

I fly Manny from time to time, and I would not personally object if receiving her blue TL meant a ship had to drop a previously maintained one (even it was disadvantageous to do so - after all, if it was played that way you'd only do it if the net benefit of the other tokens was still in your favor) .

I consider it taking the good with the bad - allowing the receiving ship to choose feels like it's against the spirit of the enforcement of Manny passing "all".

I've played it under the assumption you must replace existing TL with the one from Manny - and distinctly remember agonizing over whether to pass as I'd lose the receiver's TL (seems like I hadn't needed to).

This sound less of an issue with FFG's FAQ and more of the players and judge not being familiar enough with the Rules and the FAQ. I find most of the people in my group who have trouble with these interactions have never read the FAQ when I question them. Which is really annoying because it's almost always me who gets asked to pause their game and make a ruling.

Absolutely not. If it did then a range of 1-3 would be required to the target ship.

Edit-. Rereading, I'm not as sure. Tracers and other effects are not range dependent. I am totally on board with the ruling. Manaroo does not need any help.

But Tracers are range dependent from my understanding. If you fire a tracer on a ship, and one of your ships which is in range 1-2 of you is not in target lock range of the target, it does not receive the target lock. Unless I'm misunderstanding your reference to Tracers.

Tracers allow friendly ships to acquire a TL, so they need to be in range. Manaroo just passes over blue and/or red TL tokens.

This sound less of an issue with FFG's FAQ and more of the players and judge not being familiar enough with the Rules and the FAQ. I find most of the people in my group who have trouble with these interactions have never read the FAQ when I question them. Which is really annoying because it's almost always me who gets asked to pause their game and make a ruling.

When a new FAQ comes out, I print them out and bring it with me for players such as these. I know it doesn't help with the Manny question, but it should. There isn't a reason as to why these sort of things can't be in the FAQ.

Oh, and I agree the this should be codified in an FAQ - I don't fancy saying to an opponent: "But someone on the FFG forum posted that Frank says ..."