When selecting an action, may I deliberately choose a stance with a different color so that the modifier is ignored and I do not have to use a modifier? For example, The Carrion Lancer blue stance modifiers have nothing that goes with a normal straight movement action - the modifiers are wheels and a charge.

My understanding is that modifiers are not optional. If you select a modifier, it will resolve. I don't see anything in the rules saying that you "may" or "can" use a modifier.

The only penalty for choosing a modifier with a stance that doesn't match the action is that the modifier is ignored, so it seems that deliberately choosing a modifier of a different stance is completely within the rules.

[Personal opinion: I think that we may see more penalties imposed later. In the case of the Carrion Lancer, it feels like the choice of blue modifiers was intended to give it a slithering movement with a quick, straight, strike -- somewhat reminiscent of a snake. To allow you to ignore that, seems to go against the intended design. As more units are released, we'll see that command tools are one of the major ways to make units behave differently. If modifiers are easily ignored through this mechanic, it may go against the design intentions of the command tool options. However, I would just ignore this speculation for now and choose your deliberately un-matching stances in the most tactically sound way. Let FFG fix it if it's a problem, but play with the rules as written which state that you just ignore the modifier if it doesn't match the action's stance -- there are no other penalties.]

That's what I was thinking too about the Carrion Lancer's hard to control movement - slithering and not agile. I'll play with the rules that you must use the modifier for now. I'm guessing the "ignore modifiers" if stance is different rule is to catch people who made a mistake with matching action and modifier stance colors.

Thanks for the reply! This game is awesome IMO.

I think that being able to set a non-matching modifier is intended and not merely an afterthought to allow for player mistakes.

I wouldn't be surprised if units with a Lance Corporal frequently set a modifer that has a non-matching stance and then decide at the time of activation that it's not worth exhausting the card to make the modifer white.

Rules Reference: 78.2

During the Activation Phase, a player can only resolve his selected modifier if it matches the stance of his select action. If the stances do not match, the modifier is ignored.

So yes, you can set a modifier to a color that doesn't match the action, but it is ignored for the sake of resolution unless it's white. Also you can set the modifier to blank if it exists on the modifier dial if your unit has it blank. It seems out of place to have to always modify every action.