Hello again, friend.

You may want to read part 1 of my mini-series before tackling on this public service annoucement post. Here it is:

Part 2:

Fact: When a ship has an auxiliary arc(s), it 'may' choose to use it, or it can simply use its front arc instead. It's always a choice, regarless of how good/bad these individual choices are.

Consequence 1: This particular situation can happen - your aux shot is range 1, while your in-arc shot is range 2. You can have the best of both worlds.

Take your aux arc shot at range 1 with a +1 ATK modification, while still triggering your Tactician stress effect, since the ship is in-arc at range 2. This has been known in the FAQ for a long while now.

Consequence 2: Consider the following situation:

Here, was have a range 1 aux shot shown in green, as well as a range 2 in-front-arc shot shown in red. Always take the range 1 shot, right? Sure, but sometimes you may want to take the range 2 shot:

if you're attacking a ghost with c3-p0, normally defending with 0 dice, normally not triggering c3-p0, but the green line would be obstructed, giving the defender the opportunity to use 1 green die, and thus try to guess the roll, thus possibly going up to an annoying 2 evades total. Take instead the range 2 shot, disabling any possibility of using c3-p0, despite the lack of a +1 ATK effect.

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When a ship has an auxiliary arc(s), it 'may' choose to use it, or it can simply use its front arc instead.

I'm not sure I agree...

Unless I'm mistaken, it is well established that a ship with a Turret Primary Weapon does not have the option of limiting its attack to its Primary Arc.

For example: If Biggs is out of arc, and your desired target is in your primary arc, you must still attack Biggs.

The wording is almost exactly the same as the Auxiliary Firing Arc.

From the Rules Reference:

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When attacking with a turret primary weapon, a ship may target an enemy ship inside or outside its firing arc.

So, FFG has to decide what players can do.

If a front arc shot and aux arc shot are at the same range, uses different lines, have the same obstruction-ness to them, no one cares.

If a front arc shot and aux arc shot have one of the following that is different from the other: range, obstruction y/n, can the player decide which one to use?

People were discussing this topic (before the days of the Auzituck) back in 2016:

If Han Solo in a YT-1300 has Wedge in his primary arc, but Biggs (with active ability) is at R1 of Wedge, outside of Han's primary arc at R2, can Han decide to say "I'm ignoring my Turret Primary Weapon" and target Wedge?

I thought we had a ruling or something in the FAQ about this that basically said "Nope, Turret Primary Weapon is not a choice".

Since Turret Primary Weapons and Auxiliary Firing Arcs share practically the exact same rules text, I don't see why one would allow a choice and not the other.

Isn't this answered by the requirement to always measure range from closest point to closest point, with the only caveat that it cannot be outside of a firing arc (for non-primary turret ships)?

The FAQ says this about turret shots, page 25

"Q: If a ship attacks an enemy ship with a turret weapon and
the defender is also inside its firing arc, can the attacker
choose to measure range using the rules for its firing arc
instead of the rules for a turret weapon?

A: No. When attacking with a weapon that can target ships outside of firing
arc, range is measured from the closest point to the closest point."

I think if FFG wants to clarify a similar situation with Aux arc shots giving an alternative range/modfication option, it should add it to that section. As of now, it's undefined, I think.

More reasons why this is an interesting question:

You may want to select a shot that is obstructed instead of not obstructed: to use Trick Shot

You may want to select a shot that is range 2 instead of range 1: Attacking Fenn Rau

Unless something specifically states that it is one type of arc only, then you must use the entirety of the arc. You don't get to choose one piece. This is true for turrets, mobile arc, or auxiliary arc. Yes the word may is there, that is simply stating you have the choice to attack or not.

Given the ruling that all arcs are arcs, the rules clearly define this in the Range section of the rules.

"When measuring range for an attack, the attacker measures to the closest point of the target ship that is inside the attacker's firing arc."

Emphasis not added.

edit: spelling

It appears the "may" listed under Aux firing arc and Mobile firing arc is in reference to the attack not which arc you are using.

edit: italics

I'm inclined along the lines of being able to pick what arc you want to fire from. For instance: spec ops training specifically references what arc you're firing from. Say your TIE/SF is alongside a large base ship so that it's in both arcs. You COULD choose to fire from your rear arc and not get the title (you wouldn't, because it's stupid). Or you fire from your front arc, trigger the title, fire again from the rear arc. It specifically says when firing FROM the primary arc, NOT just when attacking a ship in your primary arc.

2 hours ago, Klutz said:

If Han Solo in a YT-1300 has Wedge in his primary arc, but Biggs (with active ability) is at R1 of Wedge, outside of Han's primary arc at R2, can Han decide to say "I'm ignoring my Turret Primary Weapon" and target Wedge?

I thought we had a ruling or something in the FAQ about this that basically said "Nope, Turret Primary Weapon is not a choice".

Since Turret Primary Weapons and Auxiliary Firing Arcs share practically the exact same rules text, I don't see why one would allow a choice and not the other.

The difference with biggs is it's based on what WEAPON you choose for if that weapon is able to attack him

Path of enlightenment??? Someone needs some more auditing. Here hold these cans.

1 hour ago, VanderLegion said:

I'm inclined along the lines of being able to pick what arc you want to fire from. For instance: spec ops training specifically references what arc you're firing from. Say your TIE/SF is alongside a large base ship so that it's in both arcs. You COULD choose to fire from your rear arc and not get the title (you wouldn't, because it's stupid). Or you fire from your front arc, trigger the title, fire again from the rear arc. It specifically says when firing FROM the primary arc, NOT just when attacking a ship in your primary arc.

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The proper sequence of events when using this card is as follows: if the ship attacks with its primary weapon from its primary firing arc it can choose to roll an additional attack die; if it does not roll an additional attack die, it may perform an attack from its auxiliary firing arc. Therefore, if a ship begins by attacking with its primary weapon from its auxiliary firing arc, it cannot use the effect of Special Ops Training.

This doesn't say you can choose to shoot from your primary arc. I would argue if you back end was closer to the same target you'd have to fire from your auxiliary and miss your second shot all together.

Just now, Danath said:

This doesn't say you can choose to shoot from your primary arc. I would argue if you back end was closer to the same target you'd have to fire from your auxiliary and miss your second shot all together.

I think it's actualy 2 different things. I think you can choose which arc you fire from,t hough perhaps the RANGE would still be measured from the rear arc regardless as the closest point. That would go back to mu0ns example not letting you get the ragne 2 shot since the actual range of the attack doesn't care about which arc you pick, just which point is closest in any arc

I think the answer is plain not unanimous to this. It's ok, the path to enlightENment is the point. We walk on it together.

I sent the question to FFG with a link to this thread.

10 minutes ago, VanderLegion said:

I think it's actualy 2 different things. I think you can choose which arc you fire from,t hough perhaps the RANGE would still be measured from the rear arc regardless as the closest point. That would go back to mu0ns example not letting you get the ragne 2 shot since the actual range of the attack doesn't care about which arc you pick, just which point is closest in any arc

Maybe I'm a bit lost but where in the rules or FAQ does it say you get to pick your firing arc? All I can find is measuring closest points from your firing arc.

I personally think it's an edge case scenario that is pretty lame to enforce if you truly had a large base ship in both arcs and the rear is closer but that appears to be rules as written.

Super curious to see what FFG does with this one.

I would imagine they will go with rules as written to avoid extra measuring during firing which is just a pain to try and work out if one shot is obstructed and one is not and your trying to pick the more favorable one.

I'll admit, the Special Ops Training example has me a bit confused on where to go with it. If I had to judge in the moment at a tournament, I'd be inclined to just go with how people typically play and allow the double tap. I realize that may contradict my other comments, but that's a gut reaction in the moment.

I'm definitely putting some thought into this situation though. I tend to go Occam's Razor on these things, but it will be interesting to see how other judges land on it.

I found a new case that will throw a wrench into some people's opinion of the true answer:

-the ships are parallel

-multiple lines with the same range are valid in-front-arc

-multiple lines with the same range are valid in-left-aux-arc

the first bunch isn't obstructed, while the second one is. There's no way to extract only one Best Choice for the firing line according to length.

What do you do in this very corner case?

58 minutes ago, Mu0n729 said:

I found a new case that will throw a wrench into some people's opinion of the true answer:

[image]

-the ships are parallel

-multiple lines with the same range are valid in-front-arc

-multiple lines with the same range are valid in-left-aux-arc

the first bunch isn't obstructed, while the second one is. There's no way to extract only one Best Choice for the firing line according to length.

What do you do in this very corner case?

If an attacking ship is perfectly parallel to the defender such that there are multiple “closest points” on the defender’s base or the closest point cannot be accurately determined, the attacker chooses where to draw the closest point to closest point line.

Good point. Still, this influences how I show autorange options in Vassal.