I figure this will be the general consensus, but I presume that you cannot use Chopper to discard an upgrade if you are at full shields .

With the latest FAQ on Pulsed Ray Shields and R5-P9, you can't pay the cost (receiving an Ion token, spending a Focus token) unless you can also regain a shield. I'd presume Chopper works the same way. I guess Gonk could stand to be clarified in the same way, but the precedent on PRS and R5 seems pretty clear.

There woudn't be too much use to it with Chopper, but it prevents you from bringing BTL-A4 (for the rare times when you might actually want to joust with a non-R3-A2 turret Y-Wing), and then discarding it on the first round almost every game.

Why would you bring the title to discard it right away on the first round every time !?

I think @theBitterFig probably meant "after the first round of shooting". Fly in with your warthog, firing all guns, then unlock your turret to get a shield back and be able to shoot out of arc during your long leisurely turn.

But Chopper is not limited to the shield maximum.

EDIT: But the shield Value is a hard cap for shield tokens as TFA-Rules say.

10 minutes ago, Hannes Solo said:

But Chopper is not limited to the shield maximum.

The limitation to the shield maximum is written into the base rules. It's not needed to be written on cards since the TFA rules came out, if not before.

E: and I'd assume that there's now a general rule that regen can't be done if you're at full shields, but I wish they'd just say that in the general FAQ section rather than putting it on specific cards.

17 hours ago, muribundi said:

Why would you bring the title to discard it right away on the first round every time !?

Contrary @digitalbusker I meant the first round-first round.

Lots of times, you won't necessarily want to joust with a Y-Wing. It might be preferable to have the flexibility of no-title. That's why most Y-Wings don't run the title.

However, if Chopper could discard the title and gain no shields, you'd have tactical flexibility. On the game where you just wanted to beat down something slow like a Lambda shuttle as fast as possible, you can keep the title. In a game where you didn't want to be arc-locked, discard it well before combat, since actions aren't going to matter after you start the game with a 1-straight or a 2-hard or something. If it cost you nothing, then it'd be added flexibility.

But I think the rules almost surely don't support that.

6 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

But I think the rules almost surely don't support that.

No almost about it.

After consulting the TFA Rules I would argue that Chopper can discard upgrades while having full shields.

- I can't find any reference in the rules to the word 'recover'
- Chopper has no limitation for the recovering of shields.

of course you can't have more shields when your maximum shields.

So in my opinion RAW would be

- Chopper uses action to recover a shield (discarding an upgrade as cost)
- The Shield tokens over the Shield value are discarded immediately.

An analogy would be how huge ships handle stress: You CAN put stress on them so you are allowed to pull of abilities that give them stress or pay for abilities by giving them stress. But as they cannot have stress stress is discarded immediately.

You are reading way too much into FFG's lazy wording.

How else would you answer rules questions?

Obvious precedent.

It's very clear that they mean the rules to be 'you can't regain shields when at full' given that they specifically reversed a previous ruling that DID let you last FAQ (Garven/R5P9) AND included a general rule in the rulebook that says you can't.

So you can't.

Whether they said 'regain' or 'recover' on the card, whether they included the phrase about not being able to do it at full on the card or not.

As ever, I really wish they would use standardised wording to avoid these kinds of debates, and I hope they will FAQ the card on release so TOs don't have to have arguments, but I'm not holding my breath.

7 hours ago, thespaceinvader said:

Obvious precedent.

It's very clear that they mean the rules to be 'you can't regain shields when at full' given that they specifically reversed a previous ruling that DID let you last FAQ (Garven/R5P9) AND included a general rule in the rulebook that says you can't.

So you can't.

Whether they said 'regain' or 'recover' on the card, whether they included the phrase about not being able to do it at full on the card or not.

As ever, I really wish they would use standardised wording to avoid these kinds of debates, and I hope they will FAQ the card on release so TOs don't have to have arguments, but I'm not holding my breath.

I am almost there with you. My Point would be that Chopper misses the (up to your shield value) phrase all other similar cards have. Now this might be a mistake but it could also be intentional (e.g. for discarding the Y-Wing Title). As long as we have no other information this is the Rules as Written and therfore Chopper CAN 'recover' a shield if he has full shields with the consequence that he does nothing but discarding an upgrade.

EDIT: I am wrong.

From the TFA rules, I bolded the important bit.

Quote

Shields allow a ship to suffer damage without the risk of being dealt faceup Damage cards. The blue number on a Ship card is the ship’s shield value, indicating how many shield tokens to place on the Ship card during setup.

• A ship cannot have more shield tokens than its shield value. If a ship has a number of shield tokens equal to its shield value, it cannot recover shields.

Well, that is pretty plain and crystal.