Hi all!

This just came up the other day during a casual game.

My opponent had Leia out of LOS of one of my Trandoshans. Han was also around with LOS to the trand (and the trand to Han).

He moved Leia and activated Battlefield Leadership to attack herself and then Han. Then he tried to play "Element of surprise" on Han's attack.

I've always asumed that Command cards can be played on non active figures (unless stated otherwise). So that was ok by me.

He was declaring an attack, so the 1st condition of the command card was met.

Now, how do we check LOS of my trandoshan to Han? The command card states "at the start of your activaction", but whose activation. The active figure is Leia. Han may have activated or not.

In the end we assumed he could not play the card (and the Trandoshan died anyways).

Several questions arose from this question:

- Can "Element of surprise" be played on not active figures? I assume yes, there is nothing in the card indicating otherwise. I think I have played it myself on Jyn Odan when executing "Hair trigger" on a figure that had not LOS to me.

- The second attack of "Battlefield Leadership" includes the "declare attack" step. I undertand yes. Otherwise you won't be able to play many command cards and abilities.

- If the 2 previous answers are yes, then how do you solve "Element of Surprise". Whose activation is it?

- I assume the same question could be made about other interrupt attacks (Elite Officials, Gideon...)

Thanks!

I'm not entirely sure, but I think in your example, start of activation would apply from the moment Han interrupted to perform an attack, and it would apply to his activation. But even if it started from Leia's activation, it wasn't applicable as Han always had Line of Sight to the Trandoshan. He could have used Element of Surprise on Leia but not Han.

It is Leia's activation during Battlefield Leadership. Only one figure can be activating at a time.

Element of Surprise has been known to be ruled as "at the start of this activation". Compare to the Aim ability of Rebel Troopers.

The next FAQ will probably tell you that.

We devised a theoretical situation with Jabba using Urgency to get away and give a mercenary figure line of sight, and then use To the Limit and Order Hit to allow the mercenary to perform an attack and use Element of Surprise.

To expand upon the "whose activation is it"

When you are giving another figure an attack or move in your turn, are they not gaining an activation?

I forget why I thought this was the case, but I might be confusing it with Campaign moments where a figure can get "special" activation rules as a part of the mission...

4 minutes ago, Majushi said:

When you are giving another figure an attack or move in your turn, are they not gaining an activation?

No. They are not even generally receiving actions. Usually they get to perform a move or perform an attack (or gain movement points).

The cases when you get 'mini-activations' is during end of round effects from events in the campaign when normally no figure is activating, but certain figures receive bona fide actions that can be spent for more than one thing. The justifications/pattern for this are not clear though. (And it's apparently only to make Jyn's Quick Draw useful during those missions.)

Just got clarification:

Quote

You can play Element of Surprise on an attack outside of the figure’s activation. When this happens, you would check if the target had line of sight to the attacker at the start of the current activation. If this happens during Start of Round or End of Round effects, it checks for line of sight at the start of that effects step.

Hope that helps!

Todd Michlitsch

Game Developer

Fantasy Flight Games

[email protected]

So in this case, you still couldn't play the card off of Han, because even though at the start of the activation is looking at Leia, the LOS in question is still looking at Han?

10 minutes ago, RogueLieutenant said:

So in this case, you still couldn't play the card off of Han, because even though at the start of the activation is looking at Leia, the LOS in question is still looking at Han?

That's what I gather. It checks the LOS (at the start of the activation) of the figure doing the attack

Which makes the most sense. Interesting that you CAN play it during Start of Round/End of round. So it works with Call of the Vanguard (move and then attack with element)

It depends on the situation. It is possible for Han to have non-reciprocal line of sight to his target at the start of Leia's activation.

And it is also possible for Leia to be blocking line of sight between the other figure and Han at the start of her activation, but Move action (or Fleetfooted) and move away, then use Battlefield Leadership, and Han will benefit from Element of Surprise, because the target did not have line of sight to Han at the start of the current/this activation (Leia's).

So another similarly worded ability is Jyn's Hair Trigger. It specifies an activation, but could it be used on Han's end of round, or Vader's end of round?

Hair Trigger: At the start of a hostile figure’s activation , you may interrupt to perform an attack that targets that figure. Limit once per round.

Element of Surprise: Use when you declare an attack. If the target figure did not have line of sight to you at the start of your activation , remove 1 die from its defense pool.

I'm not sure if this has been discussed on another thread, if so please point me in the general direction!

Abilities triggering out of the activation phase are not activations.

Also note that End of Round is not a phase, it is a single trigger. So, thematically there is no start or end, there is just one timing conflict resolution.