Alright, the meat of this is simple: when is a ship considered to be "Attacking" for the sake of card effects? For example, I was recently playing against Esege ("When another friendly ship at Range 1-2 is attacking, it may treat your focus tokens as its own.") and another ship with deadeye ("You may treat the "Attack [Target Lock]" header as "Attack [Focus]". When an attack instructs you to spend a target lock, you may spend a focus token instead.") He went to fire the munitions using Esege's Focus, and after looking at the timing chart and R4 Agromech ("When attacking, after you spend a focus token, you may acquire a target lock on the defender.") I said he couldn't as those sources would indicate that someone is only attacking after performing step 1 on the chart, seeing as cards that say "Perform this attack twice" only reference steps 2-7, until step 8 is reached. Thus, as the cost is not paid yet, deadeye and Esege don't work together. Am I right? Am I wrong? but more importantly, when is a ship attacking? Thanks.

I've always considered it to be that you're attacking the moment the active ship in the combat phase declares a target.

Attack is on pages 4 & 5 of the Rules Reference. If a ship is following those steps, it is attacking. Step 1 is Declare Target. The loop in the timing chart for "perform this attack twice" does not mean the active ship is not attacking at step 1. The active ship is attacking at step 1, but that step is only performed once by the attacker. So yes, a friendly ship equipped with Deadeye can use Esege's focus to perform an attack that normally requires Target Lock.

The use of R4 Agromech brings up a different rule issue. You're right that your opponent could not use R4 in this situation, but right for the wrong reason. The FAQ prohibits R4 Agromech from being used after spending a focus token to pay the cost of performing an attack. The reason is because on the timing chart "Pay Cost" comes before the target becomes the defender. The active ship is attacking, but at the point a cost (if applicable) is paid, the target is not the defender. R4 Agro specifies the Target Lock is acquired against the defender.

Historically, this arrangement of the timing chart was one of the defacto nerfs to Jumpmasters; part of a two-punch combo that included the errata to make Deadeye "Small Ship Only" in an attempt to breakup the Triple Jumps' dominance.

38 minutes ago, jmswood said:

Attack is on pages 4 & 5 of the Rules Reference. If a ship is following those steps, it is attacking. Step 1 is Declare Target. The loop in the timing chart for "perform this attack twice" does not mean the active ship is not attacking at step 1. The active ship is attacking at step 1, but that step is only performed once by the attacker. So yes, a friendly ship equipped with Deadeye can use Esege's focus to perform an attack that normally requires Target Lock.

The use of R4 Agromech brings up a different rule issue. You're right that your opponent could not use R4 in this situation, but right for the wrong reason. The FAQ prohibits R4 Agromech from being used after spending a focus token to pay the cost of performing an attack. The reason is because on the timing chart "Pay Cost" comes before the target becomes the defender. The active ship is attacking, but at the point a cost (if applicable) is paid, the target is not the defender. R4 Agro specifies the Target Lock is acquired against the defender.

Historically, this arrangement of the timing chart was one of the defacto nerfs to Jumpmasters; part of a two-punch combo that included the errata to make Deadeye "Small Ship Only" in an attempt to breakup the Triple Jumps' dominance.

Cool. I know about the R4 Thing, and that's why I got confused. so to make sure I've got it right: A ship is attacking as soon as it begins step one. It then performs steps 1-8 as the attacker, and is attacking. At step nine, you check to make sure that another ship does not become the active ship because of this attack (Dengar, Quickdraw) or if this ship becomes that attacker again (Starting at step 1 because of BTL-A4 or TIE/D) After this check, you remove ships for Simultaneous attack rule (Except Fels Wrath) then the next ship in PS order is now "Attacking" Mostly how I thought it was, I was just unsure on step one. Thank you!