Can a Hero incur 2 strain to move 2 spaces and then attack twice?

My son asked me about this last night actually. I said NO.

I have always thought NO, because regular(non-strain) movement is one of your two actions on your turn, and straining merely ADDS movement points to your movement point total, not grant a TOTALLY free movement of up to two spaces for no action cost.

But I saw boardwars.eu play it that way on Twitch today, and maybe I am wrong and he is right! Would make the game a bit easier, but also funner. I dunno, how do you play?

Gaining movement points with strain is not an action, so you can in fact strain twice for movement points and attack twice.

Quote

RRG, p20: There are numerous methods by which a figure can gain movement points...

• Spending movement points is not an action and may be done at any time during the figure’s activation. They can be spent before or after performing any action but cannot be spent while resolving an action.

Movement points are not tied to actions. There are many abilities in the game that grant movement points without ever having to spend an action.

Being able to move up to 2 spaces without spending an action allows the Rebel heroes to better leverage their inherent ability to attack twice per activation and allows them to make up for the fact that the Empire often has many more figures on the table than the Rebels. It's an important balancing aspect to the game.

Keep in mind that Rebel allies such as Luke Skywalker or Rebel Troopers cannot use this ability as they are not heroes and lack an Endurance value which means they can't choose to suffer strain.

This does make the game quite a bit more enjoyable actually! I played 5 missions of the non-app campaign not knowing this. In hindsight, the Rebel players often felt like they didn't get "to do enough" on their turns. Now I see why!

Thanks guys!