For the Armed Station in Independent Station/Base Defense: Armed Station, do you have to have a valid attack in order to activate it in place of a ship?

I don't think you do. Activate the station, declare an attack on yahoo across the board, attack is cancelled because you can't gather a dice pool, done.

Right?

So, can the station only activate when it has a firing solution? Since the card says you may activate the station to perform an attack, I would say it's only when it has a proper target. But I've been wrong before.

You don't need a 'valid' attack. There is no such thing.

Activate the station. Make your attack. If nothing is in range, the attack is cancelled.

Problem solved.

To follow on from GK:

Its because Measuring Range and such happens after you declare a Target, in Armada.

Technically, by the rules, you don't know you are in range for an attack until the attack is underway.

Sure, you can measure it at any time, but for the purposes of the attack, you don;t until the attack is underway.

Thanks guys, I agree. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. Like Jukey said... I've been wrong before.

And here's another mark on the running tally lol I definitely could have used those extra activations in my last game.

Think that a cancelled attack is not the same as a not performed attack.

If you attack with a ship and the attack become obstructed and finally cancelled (I am not sure right now if scatter cancel the attack too) you don't have a third attack. EDIT: of course is something stupid as it is previsible if your attack will be cancelled.

I think the wording is that way because it is an activation but different to other as you don't resolve commands, don't move, etc.

I don't like the word "cancelled," here. When something is "canceled" is as if it never happened, leading to the confusion above. I prefer to say that the attack "ends."

Scatter cancels the dice, not the attack.

3 hours ago, JgzMan said:

I don't like the word "cancelled," here. When something is "canceled" is as if it never happened, leading to the confusion above. I prefer to say that the attack "ends."

Scatter cancels the dice, not the attack.

Eh... It doesn't bother me much, to be honest. And it's the wording in the RRG.

◊ If the attacker cannot gather any dice appropriate for the range of the attack, the attack is canceled.

Man, if "Cancel" bothers you, you can't really be happy with they way "Attack" is used to describe two completely Distinct things at the same time

Okay, this may be backwards thinking, or I may be forming this idea on wrong assumptions, but does an attack that's "cancelled" count toward the ships attack count?

Say I activate an ISD II and declare a target without knowing whether it's in range. I measure, and it's outside of red range, I'm unable to gather dice so the attack is "canceled". That canceled attack doesn't count towards my 2 attacks does it? I'm under the impression that it does not, the attack is cancelled and therefore never performed. In essence the cancelled attack never existed.

Therefore

With wording of the card:

"Once per round, instead of activating a ship, the second player can perform 1 attack with the armed station."

If the station activates to declare an attack but it cannot gather dice for the attack, the attack is cancelled, just as it would be with a ship, that attack doesn't count towards the numbers of attacks performed. It essentially does not exist correct?

To my understanding that means the station can't be activated?

No, the attack still happens. It was just "cancelled" - and in most instances, "cancelled" means: from this point, go no further.

You don't "go back" and start again.

You've still expended the effort to try .

(And if you did so without Pre-Measuring, and are Genuinely surprised, well, that's on you )

Same as with Dice.

When you cancel a die (or a die Icon), you remove it from the Pool.. You don't go back in time and stop it from being rolled in the first place

RL Corollary that has no instance or impetus or even relevance to Rules, but anyway:

When a TV Series is "Cancelled", they simply do no more. They don't make all previous episodes spontaneously combust as if they never happened... That is what Reboots are for

Very interesting Dras, thanks for pointing that out. I think my play group has used that incorrectly several times! lol

Learn something new every day!

If you think of "Attack" as a resource similar to a Token, it makes a lot of sense. You need to spend that attack token to make the attack, and consequently, "officially" measure Range.

If the attack is cancelled (for any reason), you don't get the Token back. You spent it to try.

Now, you should never be surprised on the range issue as you can check beforehand - but the attack itself, for lack of a better term, doesn;t do that, until you measure during it.

I guess it made sense in my mind as a loading bar on a computer.

Under attack is says

"To perform an attack with a squadron or ship, resolve the following steps"

My mind interprets that as "resolve all these steps"

So declaring the attack starts your loading bar, measuring range, LoS, gathering dice all the way to resolving damage are all progress ticks along the way of that attack loading bar.

If you have to cancel the attack at the "gather dice" spot on the loading bar then "resolve all these steps" isn't met and the attack is never technically "performed".

And since a ship may perform 2 attacks it wouldn't count against it.

Backed the usual bad argument of "well there's no rule that says that it does count against your attack count". lol

It made sense to me.

Again thanks for clearing that up! lol I'm not a word ninja