I have a question, and I am sorry if it has been answered before.

"The Setup" I was playing a K-Wing equipped with a TLT and Advanced Slam. (Don't lecture me about underarmed K-Wings, I was just tinkering with a fun list! =)) I slammed to bring myself back into the battle area (we all know the K-Wing is a pig to fly) dropped a Weapons Disabled token, then used my free action to gain a target lock on a nearby enemy ship. My opponent tried to argue with me about the target lock saying, "Free actions are actions that are specifically granted by a card, such as the die rolls on Lando, and the actions on the action bar do not count" I protested his reading of the rule saying that free actions are ones that are granted that do not cost the ship its "take action" step. I know the wording is vague, but that is the best I can explain it. Can I get someone to explain this a little so that I have a better understanding? The rule book is maddeningly vaguely worded to me!

Thanks!

You are right. Your opponent was wrong.

https://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/40/b4/40b44d5f-7a06-406c-ae6e-183c5297e796/swx36_rulesreference.pdf Page 3, Actions:

"Ships can also perform free actions as instructed by cards or mission rules. The actions available to each ship are listed in that ship’s action bar."

And Page 12, "Free Actions":

"A free action is an action granted to a ship through a card ability or other effect. It does not count as the one standard action that a ship performs during the “Perform Action” step."

If your opponent still doesn't like that, ask him how the Dauntless title is supposed to work. Or Airen Cracken. Or any other card that grants an unspecified free action. None of those cards require you to combo it with an "Action:" header card to make it work.

Even better counterexample: Push the Limit.

Push the Limit explicitly grants a free action and requires it to be on your action bar.

Comparing some similar cards could help.

Push the Limit : Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action shown in your action bar. Then receive 1 stress token.

Experimental Interface : Once per round, after you perform an action, you may perform 1 free action from an equipped upgrade card with the " Action: " header. Then receive 1 stress token.

Advanced SLAM : After performing a SLAM action, if you did not overlap an obstacle or another ship, you may perform a free action.

All three of these grant a free action.

For Push the Limit it must be an action in your action bar.

For Experimental Interface it must be an action from a card.

For Advanced SLAM it can be any action that is available to the ship, whether shown on the action bar or from an equipped upgrade card.

Unless specified by the effect granting you the free action (or prohibited by a separate effect, e.g. Carnor Jax ), a "free action" can be any action that you could perform during your Perform Action Step (still limited to 1 of each action per round).

Perhaps your opponent confused Advanced SLAM with Experimental Interface ?

Note that ASLAM can also allow you to perform actions on damage cards, but neither PTL nor EI can.

Not much more to say about this.

"Free Actions" can be anything unless SPECIFICALLY stated otherwise. Sometimes that is restricted to a single choice (Expert Handling tells you to do a Free Barrel Roll) or a limited selection of choices (PtL or EL) but if not you can perform any action the ship could normally take provided it hasn't already used that action or has Stress in most cases.

Also the last line of text on the slam action says that a slam can not be done as a free action....

While there's no doubt re: the choice of free actions- it's been thoroughly covered- one thing did jump to my eye:

On 3/18/2017 at 0:19 PM, mattman75 said:

I slammed to bring myself back into the battle area (we all know the K-Wing is a pig to fly)

It is a pig, but your wording's a little vague here. If you mean "I slammed to stay in the general vicinity of the action on the board", that's cool. If you mean "I slammed to bring myself back into the 3x3 area set aside for fighting", well, I have some bad news for you, pilot:

Quote

If a ship is placed outside the play area as a result of executing a maneuver, the ship flees the battlefield and is immediately destroyed. It cannot perform an action or execute a maneuver to move back within the play area. (Rules Reference, pg 11, Fleeing the Battlefield )