Based on the new text regarding Dash declaring his ability before a maneuver or barrel roll, does this mean I have to actually say that I am using the ability before every move??

Or can I just say at the start of the game that I will use dash's ability every time unless I say otherwise? Obviously for casual games it doesn't matter so much but please help me understand the brutal letter of the rules in case I run into a jerk at regionals...

In theory yes, you should declare it every move. In practice, I don't expect any players even at major events to be a jerk about it. It's just not something you would EVER choose not to do*, so I'd never have a problem with assuming it.

*I suppose, if you had Dead Man's Switch and REALLY needed that last point of damage on Fenn or Soontir, maybe?

1 hour ago, thespaceinvader said:

In theory yes, you should declare it every move. In practice, I don't expect any players even at major events to be a jerk about it. It's just not something you would EVER choose not to do*, so I'd never have a problem with assuming it.

*I suppose, if you had Dead Man's Switch and REALLY needed that last point of damage on Fenn or Soontir, maybe?

*If your barrel roll or boost takes you onto a rock and you have no way of getting off of it with further actions, using his ability is not a good idea.

Shouldn't they have stated in the FAQ that you need to announce if you're NOT going to use his ability because his ability is so very great to have ON all the time? That one surely made many a mate scratch their heads to be sure.

21 minutes ago, AlexW said:

*If your barrel roll or boost takes you onto a rock and you have no way of getting off of it with further actions, using his ability is not a good idea.

For rolls or boosts you've always theoretically had to declare. For MOVES, there's no reason* that you'd not use it.

3 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

For rolls or boosts you've always theoretically had to declare. For MOVES, there's no reason* that you'd not use it.

You've been able to declare after, iirc, but it has been awhile I played him.

Should I have to declare before using Vader’s ability? Soontir’s?

....man, I’ll be in hot water if so, I’ll get my moves/tokens called back all the time.

You already declare that you are using Vader when you take the second action, if you don't take it, you are assumed to have voided it... Same thing with Soontir...

Not the same thing as Dash, but this is a really weird way to rule it... I mean clearly, I will always use it before moving... there is no reason that I can't think of right now that I would not want to use it during Wheel Movement !?!?

1 minute ago, muribundi said:

You already declare that you are using Vader when you take the second action, if you don't take it, you are assumed to have voided it... Same thing with Soontir...

Not the same thing as Dash, but this is a really weird way to rule it... I mean clearly, I will always use it before moving... there is no reason that I can't think of right now that I would not want to use it during Wheel Movement !?!?

I'm trying to come up with one and can't. I'm guessing it's just for consistency's sake, unless someone can come up with a legitimate situation where you wouldn't want it on during regular movement.

The one I quoted - you have 1hp left and dead man's switch and want to trigger it against something when you end your move.

Still... declaring this every time is stupid. This was a dumb FAQ ruling for something that was NOT a problem in the meta or out of it at all.

It completely is a waste of copy space on the current FAQ.

A Dash player would choose NOT to use his ability possibly 1 out of 100 times or more on average... if that. For the most part it is extremely dependent on a specific few upgrades that he would choose to not have his ability active.

I think I remember hearing about this at a canadian or maybe australian tourney. Someone wanted to barrel roll and would have landed on a rock and not been able to shoot. So he said "I can't barrel roll onto a rock, so I'll do something else instead" and that round of combat either won him the match or was defining enough that the match went his way. Had he landed on the rock, possibly taken damage and been prevented from shooting that round, he very well could have lost. So I imagine this ruling is coming from the perspective of you either must use it for the entire round or not use it at all, which prevents some of the shenanigans.

5 hours ago, Jimbawa said:

I imagine this ruling is coming from the perspective of you either must use it for the entire round or not use it at all, which prevents some of the shenanigans.

This is an interesting idea. But I don't think it is that way.

When declaring a barrel roll or boost or before executing a maneuver , Dash Rendar must choose whether or not to use his ability before measuring if he would overlap an obstacle

Any speculations on "what change may come" so this would make sence?

This change was made to avoid the BR/Boost thing - you declare if you are using it at the start of your move and if you choose to use it and end up BR/Boosting onto an Asteroid because you thought it'd clear - you get no attacks that turn. Instead of calling "well I wont use the ability so if I hit the rock with this BR I'm safe".

There merely changed the timing to avoid Dash players cheating themselves out of hitting a rock
Basically its not an "on/off" ability during the same turn, you either use it the whole activation phase or not at all that turn.

8 minutes ago, Kalandros said:

This change was made to avoid the BR/Boost thing - you declare if you are using it at the start of your move and if you choose to use it and end up BR/Boosting onto an Asteroid because you thought it'd clear - you get no attacks that turn. Instead of calling "well I wont use the ability so if I hit the rock with this BR I'm safe".

There merely changed the timing to avoid Dash players cheating themselves out of hitting a rock
Basically its not an "on/off" ability during the same turn, you either use it the whole activation phase or not at all that turn.

The FAQ indicates you get a declare-ability point before you execute a manoeuvre, BR, or Boost. WHich implies, but doesn't explicitly state, that you can decide before EACH one of those that you perform.

Yes, stop trying to bring that, this added sentence does not imply that is on for all the activation phase at all... it just clarify that it can also be turned off before your maneuver ... the problem being, is it on by default or off by default if you forget to say it... The wording being must choose and not may chose to turn it off

I guess I have no problem with forcing a player with Dash to declare prior to executing a maneuver or an action that he is NOT using his ability.

But as stated earlier... 99 times out of 100 a Dash player is assuming to have his ability active for a given maneuver or action.

Maybe we ought to have a Dash token. JUST like we ought to have a Biggs token now. For Dash I think I'll make a token that has two sides. On one side it will say "Dash On" on the other, "Dash Off." The token will rest on his large ship base and I'll leave it with the "Dash On" side up most of the time. And the one time I choose (every 2 or 3 years of game play) to turn it off, I'll flip the token over first and verbally declare it at that point.

Then I will feel like Mr. Miyagi. Dash On. Dash Off.

So, it seems like the consensus, if we are being TOTALLY LITERAL.... is that the Dash player must declare before every individual move and repositioning action... otherwise his opponent can cry foul and call a TO over.... what a pain in the butt.

to be clear:

Dash player: I'll reveal a one straight and land on this debris field.

Opponent: OK roll for damage and take a stress.

Dash player: Nah, its Dash so I won't do those things.

Opponent: Well you didn't declare you were using Dash's ability before the maneuver so you gotta roll.

Dash player: .....

To me it seems Dash's ability should be declared on for the turn or not before maneuvers begin. I'm certainly no fan of the idea that he can have it on, then off, then maybe even on again all during the same turn.

IMHO it's a pretty weird ruling, and definitely one that brings up more problems than it solves. For instance, if I move before Dash and drop a Rigged Cargo Chute on him, does it affect him or not? "When you have a RCC dropped on you" is not called out specifically as one of the cases in which he's allowed to declare his ability, so does that now mean that he can't use it then? I doubt that's the intention, but the whole ruling is way too murky in terms of what is effectively a passive ability now being implied to have triggers...?

Not to get too off-topic but the ruling on Sunny being able to spend a TL to reroll 0 dice and thus trigger her ability is cute, but also opens up some theoretical rules ugliness. What now constitutes a passive ability to reroll dice? At what points is that allowed to be active and thus trigger the ability? Similar craziness with Rebel Nym sitting on a bomb at the start of a turn, etc. Without clear triggers and timing windows this stuff gets extremely convoluted really quickly!

2 minutes ago, punkUser said:

IMHO it's a pretty weird ruling, and definitely one that brings up more problems than it solves. For instance, if I move before Dash and drop a Rigged Cargo Chute on him, does it affect him or not? "When you have a RCC dropped on you" is not called out specifically as one of the cases in which he's allowed to declare his ability, so does that now mean that he can't use it then? I doubt that's the intention, but the whole ruling is way too murky in terms of what is effectively a passive ability now being implied to have triggers...?

Not to get too off-topic but the ruling on Sunny being able to spend a TL to reroll 0 dice and thus trigger her ability is cute, but also opens up some theoretical rules ugliness. What now constitutes a passive ability to reroll dice? At what points is that allowed to be active and thus trigger the ability? Similar craziness with Rebel Nym sitting on a bomb at the start of a turn, etc. Without clear triggers and timing windows this stuff gets extremely convoluted really quickly!

Dash's ability has a timing window, it doesnt last the entire turn...

3 minutes ago, Kalandros said:

Dash's ability has a timing window, it doesnt last the entire turn...

If that's your interpretation, then pretty clearly he should be affected by RCC then given the latest FAQ, yes?

The confusion here is the card says "during the activation phase" while the FAQs seem to imply it's a separate window/trigger for each thing he does. They really should have picked one (either declare it at the start of the phase for the whole phase or not).

It does last during the Activation phase, though, which is most often when you'd be dropping a RCC on him.

2 minutes ago, DR4CO said:

It does last during the Activation phase, though, which is most often when you'd be dropping a RCC on him.

You're answering me as if I simply don't know the card text... I'm quite familiar with it

Are you missing the point though that based on the latest FAQ, there's no opportunity to declare whether you are using his ability before it gets dropped on you? If you're not declaring it at the start of the activation phase (as per the FAQ, you declare it before doing a maneuver or action), then you simply are stuck taking the effects of it, right? If not, when would you be allowed ot declare you were using his ability and how would you justify that based on the FAQ now?

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but I hope you can see why it's needlessly problematic FAQ...

1 minute ago, punkUser said:

Are you missing the point though that based on the latest FAQ, there's no opportunity to declare whether you are using his ability before it gets dropped on you? If you're not declaring it at the start of the activation phase (as per the FAQ, you declare it before doing a maneuver or action), then you simply are stuck taking the effects of it, right? If not, when would you be allowed ot declare you were using his ability and how would you justify that based on the FAQ now?

The FAQ merely specifies that you have to declare his ability before each move or barrel roll, it doesn't deal with other situations or change his card text any more than Quickdraw's entry changes how his ability works outside of an attack. I'd justify it by saying it's the Activation phase and I am thus using his ability to ignore the obstacle.

3 minutes ago, punkUser said:

I'm playing devil's advocate here, but I hope you can see why it's needlessly problematic FAQ...

On this, we certainly agree. This change seems to achieve nothing beyond explicitly legalizing an unsporting "gotcha" moment of the kind PGS used to brag about.