Hi there. I'm not an expert player and wondered when the 'when defending' text kicks in.

For this I'm looking at Elusiveness but also Sensor Jammer.

Looking at the FAQ 'Timing chart ...' does the 'when defending' text kick in after you have gone through the Attacker roll steps in red box, i.e. once you start with the resolution of the Defenders green box?

If so Elusiveness could force the attacker to reroll 1 attack die. Once done the attacker would no longer be able to modify the die with a focus token or other abilities that can take place in the red box. Also what happens is all attacker die were rerolled once in the red box due to a target lock reroll, can Elusiveness still kick in?

For Sensor Jammer a similar question. If it changes 1 hit die to a focus die the attacker would no longer be able to use a focus token to change it back to a hit.

Thx. for the help and some further insight into how usefull these upgrades can be.

As a general rule the person rolling the dice gets the final chance to mod them so both sensor jammer and elusivness trigger before the attacker has a chance to mod his dice

You are defending for the whole attack sequence from Declare Target onward. You mods happen in the relevant step - defender modifies attack dice in the case of elusiveness and sensor jammer.

Thx. Why would I bother with these upgrades than? Seems like the attacker has the option to change back the die/dice if he has right tokens or abilities. Perhaps not with target lock since you can only reroll once but locks are hardly used in my experience.

Because they force the attacker to spend tokens which makes later attacks of yours more effective or theirs less. Or because they synergise with other things in your list like hotshot copilot. But elusiveness in particular isn't worth taking so...

And that's assuming they have the relevant token to begin with. This can mean that they can't spend focus on attacks – or were forced to spend it on defence before they attack – or vice versa if used in defence. Then there's HotShot pilot forcing ships to spend a focus token, meaning they can't use one later. Or hell, just stress them so they can't take actions and profit.

Juke is a pretty popular card for a reason.

On 4/22/2017 at 3:13 AM, Slade said:

Thx. Why would I bother with these upgrades than? Seems like the attacker has the option to change back the die/dice if he has right tokens or abilities. Perhaps not with target lock since you can only reroll once but locks are hardly used in my experience.

These days Elusiveness is pretty much never used. It's not that great for the points and causes you stress. A die can only be rerolled once, so if you elusiveness and they reroll into a blank they are stuck with it even if they have a target lock. An eyeball they could fix if they had the focus.

Sensor jammer is not used a lot due to it's cost but it definitely sees play. Yes it is directly countered by simply having a focus but that's still useful. If they spend the focus shooting they won't have it to defend. If they don't have a focus because they K-turned, bumped, or did another action like a barrel roll or something then you are essentially getting a free evade. Or if you combine with something else like a high PS Hot Shot co-pilot to strip the focus they are stuck.