Pretty sure I might be overthinking this one but figured I'd pose it to the Rules Forum:

Cassian Andor pilot says:
"At the start of the Activation phase, you may remove 1 stress token from 1 other friendly ship at Range 1-2"

Inspiring Recruit says:
"Once per round, when a friendly ship at Range 1-2 removes a stress token, it may remove 1 additional stress token."

Based on the interactions of the 2 cards could I remove 1 stress token from 2 other friendly ships at Range 1-2 (i.e. split the second stress removal from Inspiring Recruit to a second ship using Cassian's ability since he is the one removing the stress)?

My gut says you are only able to remove 2 stress from the friendly ship Cassian selects but the only thing I can see preventing the first interpretation is the fact that Cassian's ability explicitly calls out "1 other friendly ship".

Can anyone clarify the RAW break-down of why the first interpretation won't work?

Because Inspiring Recruit says "it may remove 1 additional stress token," not "it may go ahead and do something, anything really, again, so long as that thing somehow involved removing a stress token."

An additional token would be from the same source on the same target, rather than using the ability again.

The only breakdown of why it won't work is that there is no justification for doing it.

Because Inspiring Recruit says "it may remove 1 additional stress token," not "it may go ahead and do something, anything really, again, so long as that thing somehow involved removing a stress token."

What I don't get from Inspiring Recruit (in this context) is the source of the stress token as Cassian is removing a stress from another ship not his own in this instance.

Sounds like the part I initially mis-interpreted is that the second part of Inspiring Recruit is predicated on the source of both stress tokens being the same?

It's easy when you think about it.

Cassian reads:"At the start of the Activation phase, you may remove 1 stress token from 1 other friendly ship at Range 1-2"

When you, as told by inspiring recruit, remove an additional stress token, that ability kind of becomes: "At the start of the Activation phase, you may remove 2 stress tokens from 1 other friendly ship at Range 1-2"

You add 1 to the tokens removed, not to the ships you are removing them from

I think my initial example gets shut down by the fact that Cassian can only select 1 other friendly ship and the fact brought up that Inspiring Recruit doesn't allow you to re-proc Cassian's ability.

In discussing/thinking about this further though I'm not convinced Cassian's ability with Inspiring Recruit based on RAW wouldn't be able to first remove a stress from another friendly ship at Range 1-2 triggering Inspiring Recruit and since Cassian's ability reads "you" (as in Cassian) remove the stress from the other friendly ship, Cassian would then have the option of removing a second stress and Cassian's valid options to remove stress from are the friendly ship he used his ability on and himself. I can't see why he wouldn't be able to remove the second stress from himself.

Am I grossly misinterpreting/overthinking this?

I think my initial example gets shut down by the fact that Cassian can only select 1 other friendly ship and the fact brought up that Inspiring Recruit doesn't allow you to re-proc Cassian's ability.

In discussing/thinking about this further though I'm not convinced Cassian's ability with Inspiring Recruit based on RAW wouldn't be able to first remove a stress from another friendly ship at Range 1-2 triggering Inspiring Recruit and since Cassian's ability reads "you" (as in Cassian) remove the stress from the other friendly ship, Cassian would then have the option of removing a second stress and Cassian's valid options to remove stress from are the friendly ship he used his ability on and himself. I can't see why he wouldn't be able to remove the second stress from himself.

Am I grossly misinterpreting/overthinking this?

Cassian Andor pilot says:

"At the start of the Activation phase, you may remove 1 stress token from 1 other friendly ship at Range 1-2"

Inspiring Recruit says:

"Once per round, when a friendly ship at Range 1-2 removes a stress token, it may remove 1 additional stress token."

Your options are limited because Cassian must choose 1 other friendly ship, so it can't be his ship, and his ability only allows him to remove 1 stress token. Inspiring Recruit allows the chosen ship to remove 1 additional stress token. The stress tokens are not being removed from Cassian's ship, they're being removed from the other ship chosen, so there's no way he can remove the second one from himself.

Are you grossly misinterpreting this? - Yes.

Inspiring Recruit isn't targeting Cassian in this instance. It's targeting the ship that Cassian helped.

ETA: Nope. I forgot the Kyle/Wingman clarification from the 4.2.3 FAQ:

The ship with Wingman equipped is the ship that is removing the stress token. Therefore, if a ship with Wingman removes a stress token from another friendly ship that is equipped with Kyle Katarn (crew), that ship is not assigned a focus token from Kyle's ability.

Inspiring Recruit isn't targeting Cassian in this instance. It's targeting the ship that Cassian helped.

That said, I agree there's nothing that suggests Cassian gets to pick a second ship. Here's a representation of what happens:

Start of activation

-- Cassian triggers

---- target is Biggs who is double stressed at proper range

---- Cassian removed 1 stress from Biggs

------ inspiring recruits allows 1 additional stress to be removed by the ship removing stress

------ one more stress is removed from the place it's already being removed from by the ship already removing stress

------ recruits is done

---- cassian is done

-- activation continues

Inspiring recruits is always a contextual ability. It allows whomever is removing a stress to remove one more stress from whomever they were already removing stress from.

Inspiring Recruit isn't targeting Cassian in this instance. It's targeting the ship that Cassian helped.

That's not quite true, it targets the ship doing the removing, which is Cassian.

Which means that you could use Cassian to extend the range of the Recruit.

RE--CA--RK

Here we have Raging Ezra, Cassian Andor, and a Random K-Wing with Inspiring Recruit all in a line. Each ship is at Range 2 of the next. When CA removes a stress from RE, the Inspiring Recruit triggers to allow CA to remove a second stress from RE, despite RE being way beyond Range 2 of the ship carrying the Recruit.