Some of you may recall the Unofficial Huge Ship FAQ that I created a while back, originally I was waiting (and waiting...) for responses from my rules questions, they never came (after multiple submissions, and non-huge ship related questions being answered). So I'm hoping that together we can come up with reasonable (and rules based) answers. First up (and this affects a lot of abilities):

When attacking a huge ship, is the entire ship considered "the defender", or only the section that is the target of the attack?

For simplicity sake I would go with the section being attacked. This may not be realistic but this make it really simple to resolve effect like Boba Fett.

I believe that the whole ship is "the defender" but only the section you attack is affected by damage. The blue midship line determines which section can be hit. If your attack crosses that line then you can't hit that section.

While you can only target a section, I think you must consider the whole ship to be the defender. Otherwise cards that affect "the defender" or the "ship" would not have a proper trigger and a "rules lawyer" could argue that they now don't work. I don't think there can be any middle ground either. You can't really expect to make a list of all the cards that affect just a section and a list of all the cards that affect the ship as a whole.

I understand that we have a rulebook and basically every card in the game is in some way an exception to those rules, but I don't think we need to make exceptions for the exceptions.

A ship is a ship, no matter what the size.

I believe that the whole ship is "the defender" but only the section you attack is affected by damage. The blue midship line determines which section can be hit. If your attack crosses that line then you can't hit that section.

Ok, then you hit the Fore Aft with a Plasma Torpedo, where do you remove the shield from the defender. Attacker choice ? Defender choice ? One shield from each section.

Treating each section as there own defender is way easier to handle and you don't ask more question.

Edit: Lets not enter the flavor debate here... you hit the front but you remove the shield from the back.... ok why !?!?!

While you can only target a section, I think you must consider the whole ship to be the defender. Otherwise cards that affect "the defender" or the "ship" would not have a proper trigger and a "rules lawyer" could argue that they now don't work.

Why would it not work. If the rule say that each section are separate defender, you have your defender.

I believe that the whole ship is "the defender" but only the section you attack is affected by damage. The blue midship line determines which section can be hit. If your attack crosses that line then you can't hit that section.

Ok, then you hit the Fore Aft with a Plasma Torpedo, where do you remove the shield from the defender. Attacker choice ? Defender choice ? One shield from each section.

Treating each section as there own defender is way easier to handle and you don't ask more question.

Edit: Lets not enter the flavor debate here... you hit the front but you remove the shield from the back.... ok why !?!?!

While you can only target a section, I think you must consider the whole ship to be the defender. Otherwise cards that affect "the defender" or the "ship" would not have a proper trigger and a "rules lawyer" could argue that they now don't work.

Why would it not work. If the rule say that each section are separate defender, you have your defender.

If you hit the fore end then the fore end takes all the damage including the additional shield. The blue midship line is there to determine whether or not you can hit a particular section. If you are attacking a capital ship from the rear 3/4 view your closet to closest line to the fore section will take it through that blue line. That means you can't attack the fore section. All the damage has to be applied to the aft section.

If you attack from amidship, perpendicular to the capitol ship, you have the choice of the fore or aft section. The damage is then applied to the section you attacked.

Some of the cards used by capital ships only apply to the section that they are assigned to. You should check the FAQ for specific cards.

I believe that the whole ship is "the defender" but only the section you attack is affected by damage. The blue midship line determines which section can be hit. If your attack crosses that line then you can't hit that section.

Ok, then you hit the Fore Aft with a Plasma Torpedo, where do you remove the shield from the defender. Attacker choice ? Defender choice ? One shield from each section.

Treating each section as there own defender is way easier to handle and you don't ask more question.

Edit: Lets not enter the flavor debate here... you hit the front but you remove the shield from the back.... ok why !?!?!

While you can only target a section, I think you must consider the whole ship to be the defender. Otherwise cards that affect "the defender" or the "ship" would not have a proper trigger and a "rules lawyer" could argue that they now don't work.

Why would it not work. If the rule say that each section are separate defender, you have your defender.

If you read the section under damage for the Huge Ship Rules, I think that explains how damage is applied. So you can't target the front section and do damage to the aft section.

This is just my personal opinion, so don't roast me over it, but in the original rulebook and in the newer Learn to Play book, it states:

This is just my personal opinion, so don't roast me over it, but in the original rulebook and in the newer Learn to Play book, it states:

"In X-Wing, two players engage in an exciting, fast-paced dogfight in the Star Wars universe. Each player takes control of the galaxy’s finest starfighters..."

... which makes me wonder why they decided to include huge ships in a game of starfighter "dogfighting" in the first place.

They require specific mechanics for movement and combat resolution that just make them harder to use. I personally don't like the idea of having them.

You're missing out on some of the fun. Having a GR-75 steamroll a couple of you opponent's fighters because he forgot the activation sequence or turning and swatting an errant ship like a house fly is fun. Except when it's You that forgot the sequence, then not so much.

This is just my personal opinion, so don't roast me over it, but in the original rulebook and in the newer Learn to Play book, it states:

"In X-Wing, two players engage in an exciting, fast-paced dogfight in the Star Wars universe. Each player takes control of the galaxy’s finest starfighters..."

... which makes me wonder why they decided to include huge ships in a game of starfighter "dogfighting" in the first place.

They require specific mechanics for movement and combat resolution that just make them harder to use. I personally don't like the idea of having them.

You're missing out on some of the fun. Having a GR-75 steamroll a couple of you opponent's fighters because he forgot the activation sequence or turning and swatting an errant ship like a house fly is fun. Except when it's You that forgot the sequence, then not so much.

I've played with them. i just prefer the starfighters instead. But I've made this point about the damned Lambda shuttle as well, especially when it was quite a prolific inclusion in a lot of games.

I pulled together every rule that I could find that seemed potentially relevant:

Target and Defender definitions:

Rules Reference on declaring a target:

FAQ on declaring a target:

Huge Ship rules for targeting a huge ship (identical in every huge ship expansion, with the words “huge ship” replaced by the ship-type):

Rules for the Reinforce token (identical in every huge ship expansion, with the word “ship” replaced by the ship-type):

Effect of Assault Missiles (identical in every huge ship expansion):

The “whole ship defends” appears to be more in-line with the rules, the key piece for me was the wording for the Reinforce token (if the "ship is defending", the token works if assigned to the "targeted section"). This also explains why the rules for targeting a huge ship tell you how to measure range (with the whole ship defending, the standard rules for this could make an attack Range 1 even if the targeted section is at Range 2), and why the Assault Missiles measure range from the “targeted section” and not the “defending section”.

In other words, the Target is a specific section and the Defender is the whole ship.

So when you hit a huge ship with a Plasma Torpedo you can remove a shield from any section?

So when you hit a huge ship with a Plasma Torpedo you can remove a shield from any section?

No, only from the targeted section. If the damage from the plasma torpedo's initial roll removes all the shields from the targeted section you don't get to remove a shield from the un-targeted section. There's an example using Assault Missiles where, I believe, the aft section is targeted and the fore section DOES NOT take any splash damage.

So the defending ship is only the targeted section like I said in the second post. If all the ship is defending then you can choose the section loosing the shield on the Plasma Torpedo

So the defending ship is only the targeted section like I said in the second post. If all the ship is defending then you can choose the section loosing the shield on the Plasma Torpedo

No, the whole ship is considered the defender but you can only damage the targeted section. If you only consider the targeted section to be the defender, there's probably cards that would never trigger on the huge ship. See Firespy's post above.

If the whole ship is defending then there is nothing that prevent you from removing the shield from the other section.

Plasma Torpedo say the Defender loose a shield. And you say the Defender is the whole ship, not the targeted part.

More over, I would like an example of card that can't work with the Defender being one part of the ship.

If the whole ship is defending then there is nothing that prevent you from removing the shield from the other section.

Plasma Torpedo say the Defender loose a shield. And you say the Defender is the whole ship, not the targeted part.

More over, I would like an example of card that can't work with the Defender being one part of the ship.

I'll work on examples of cards not working but it's either in the huge ship rules or the FAQ that Assault Missiles targeted on say the aft section do not cause damage to the fore section even though it's within range 1. And that brings up the question of ships on the far side of the targeted section. Do they take damage?