Does a ship leaving the battlefield count as destroyed? And if so does it activate Scavanger Crane? What makes me wonder this is the new Chewbacca wording, because it specifies that the destroyed ship hasn't left the battlefield.

According to the 5 times it says destroyed in the RR in reference to fleeing the battlefield I would say yes. However the RR also says you can flee the battlefield as a result of a repositioning action which the FAQ says you can't.

7 minutes ago, Orcdruid said:

According to the 5 times it says destroyed in the RR in reference to fleeing the battlefield I would say yes. However the RR also says you can flee the battlefield as a result of a repositioning action which the FAQ says you can't.

Ok, thanks Orcdruid. It's good to know, now it won't be so bad when I throw a ship off the mat.

I would say no, because you have nothing to measure from, to see if its in range of the crane

26 minutes ago, Willy Jarque said:

I would say no, because you have nothing to measure from, to see if its in range of the crane

Correct. Unlike being destroyed during the combat phase, in which destroyed ships are removed in Step 10, fleeing the battlefield removes the ship immediately.

There's no range to a removed ship.

13 hours ago, Orcdruid said:

According to the 5 times it says destroyed in the RR in reference to fleeing the battlefield I would say yes. However the RR also says you can flee the battlefield as a result of a repositioning action

"A ship cannot barrel roll if this would cause the ship to flee the battlefield." (p. 6)

"A ship cannot boost if this would cause the ship to flee the battlefield." (p. 7)

"A ship cannot decloak if this would cause the ship to flee the battlefield." (p. 8)

The Rules Reference does specify that a ship is destroyed if it flees due to either a maneuver or an action, but that's only to try to cover future cases. The only action in the game that can put a ship off the board right now is Daredevil (AFAIK).

3 minutes ago, Quarrel said:

Really? Where? I only see these:

"A ship cannot barrel roll if this would cause the ship to flee the battlefield." (p. 6)

"A ship cannot boost if this would cause the ship to flee the battlefield." (p. 7)

"A ship cannot decloak if this would cause the ship to flee the battlefield." (p. 8)

FLEEING THE BATTLEFIELD
When a ship executes a maneuver or performs an
action that changes its position, if any part of
its base is outside the play area, that ship has fled
the battlefield. A ship that flees the battlefield is
destroyed.

1 minute ago, Orcdruid said:

FLEEING THE BATTLEFIELD
When a ship executes a maneuver or performs an
action that changes its position, if any part of
its base is outside the play area, that ship has fled
the battlefield. A ship that flees the battlefield is
destroyed.

Yep. Saw that. Please see my edit.

1 hour ago, Quarrel said:

"A ship cannot barrel roll if this would cause the ship to flee the battlefield." (p. 6)

"A ship cannot boost if this would cause the ship to flee the battlefield." (p. 7)

"A ship cannot decloak if this would cause the ship to flee the battlefield." (p. 8)

The Rules Reference does specify that a ship is destroyed if it flees due to either a maneuver or an action, but that's only to try to cover future cases. The only action in the game that can put a ship off the board right now is Daredevil (AFAIK).

SLAM can too unless it specifies otherwise on its reference card.

4 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

SLAM can too unless it specifies otherwise on its reference card.

SLAM counts as executing a manoeuvre, and as such, it could cause you to flee the battlefield if you chose the wrong manoeuvre.

8 hours ago, Parravon said:

SLAM counts as executing a manoeuvre, and as such, it could cause you to flee the battlefield if you chose the wrong manoeuvre.

Same for Daredevil. But if somehow Daredevil and SLAM were both errata'd such that they worked exactly the same but the movement didn't count as executing a maneuver, they'd still enable you to flee the battlefield, because they're actions that change your position and they're not among the things specifically called out as not being permitted if they would cause you to flee the battlefield.

On the original question, I thought I remembered there being some mention of Dead Man's Switch on a fleeing ship in the FAQ, but I must have been thinking of something else. The closest I found to a precedent was the thing about bombs dropped outside the play area (ignore the portion of the bomb token that's outside the play area, which presumably means if a bomb winds up completely off the board it just does nothing).

If we accept that as a relevant precedent (and I'm not sure that I do), that would point to Scavenger Crane working on ships that flee the battlefield because part of their base is off the mat but not on ships that leave the mat completely.

I think it's more likely that the devs would say no Scavenger Crane on fleeing ships, but until they do, we've got a question.

13 hours ago, digitalbusker said:

On the original question, I thought I remembered there being some mention of Dead Man's Switch on a fleeing ship in the FAQ, but I must have been thinking of something else. The closest I found to a precedent was the thing about bombs dropped outside the play area (ignore the portion of the bomb token that's outside the play area, which presumably means if a bomb winds up completely off the board it just does nothing).

If we accept that as a relevant precedent (and I'm not sure that I do), that would point to Scavenger Crane working on ships that flee the battlefield because part of their base is off the mat but not on ships that leave the mat completely.

I think it's more likely that the devs would say no Scavenger Crane on fleeing ships, but until they do, we've got a question.

There was a bit of debate about this when the crane came out and I don't recall any firm answer ever being determined. My personal take was to count it as destroyed and allow the crane to proc as the rules do say "the ship is destroyed" but based on the bomb rule you ignore the part out of bounds so if you go completely off then the crane wouldn't trigger.

On the other hand, in the example of a ship with Dead Mans Switch fleeing the battlefield it does NOT trigger and damage other ships because when a ship flees all of the upgrades are lost and cannot trigger. So one could argue that they also shouldn't be able to trigger abilities on other ships with "when a ship isn't destroyed" abilities but that's maybe a bit of a stretch in my opinion.

Anyway, my vote is yes the crane triggers but I can see some wiggle room in the rules so I wouldn't be surprised by an official ruling to the contrary and as far as I know we do not have one either way.