PDSII

By CheffBoyardee, in Twilight Imperium

Hi,

If there is a fleet in a system adjacent to one of my PDSII upgraded PDS, can i fire at it (Yes, at the end of his movement phase, but in my turn, the rules says ship movement aren't mendatory)? How would i do that? I think i would have to take a tactical action (and then place a tactical token), but in wich system, the system where the PDS are stationed or in the neighboring system where the targetted fleet is stationned?

Is it clear. Thx guys!

In general you never do anything out from an activated system, always into.

Thus I'd say that you'd need to activate the system with the target fleet.

Firing PDS is part of the activation of a system. So if you activate the system, you can shoot. If anyone else activates it, you can shoot at whatever they're moving into. If he activates it, you can shoot.

Just don't forget you have to declare which of yours ships will move (if any), BEFORE you roll the dice.

Hey guys, noob here but our table ran into this same problem last weekend.

So player A moves into an astroid field adjacent to a planet that player B has PDS lvl2s stationed. Can Player B immediately (ships haven't left player A's hand) say "oh great! I'm firing on you!" and throw his dice? Or do level 2 PDS cannons really have the ability to fire into any adjacent system, out of turn, a different player moves into/through?

The game mechanics lead me to believe that player B would need to activate the system or be provoked by an attack to use a defensive weapon like the PDS.

Again, complete noob here. Any help is appreciated.

Your PDS can be used in another players turn, when he activates a system. Ships move into that system first though.

Edited by Dreepa

And you can only shoot at the Active Player when its not your turn. So you can't get Player C to activate a System so you can shoot at Player B, even if you have enough Hits to assign over his fleet numbers.

Appreciate the clarification!

On 2018-01-03 at 4:52 AM, Vilnic said:

And you can only shoot at the Active Player when its not your turn. So you can't get Player C to activate a System so you can shoot at Player B, even if you have enough Hits to assign over his fleet numbers.

Thank you for the clarification. Do you happen to have the source so I can show it at my table?

Edit: Nevermind. Found it.

Edited by RowUrBoatGently
found answer to my question
On 1/3/2018 at 4:52 AM, Vilnic said:

And you can only shoot at the Active Player when its not your turn. ...

Interesting, exactly what we discussed a lot. But we found no sentence in the rules, that support this.

Can you ( @RowUrBoatGently or @Vilnic or anyone else) please cite the rules part where I can find this?
(Or just name the chapter of the current "ti4_living_rules_reference_v1_1.pdf".)

Thanks and Bests, Björn

On 2/24/2019 at 4:08 PM, Thinkpositiv2 said:

Interesting, exactly what we discussed a lot. But we found no sentence in the rules, that support this.

Can you ( @RowUrBoatGently or @Vilnic or anyone else) please cite the rules part where I can find this?
(Or just name the chapter of the current "ti4_living_rules_reference_v1_1.pdf".)

Thanks and Bests, Björn

Step 1 of space canon offence.

The rules state (p. 22/23, 66.2 SPACE CANNON OFFENSE > 66.3 STEP 1) :

Quote

If a player has the “Deep Space Cannon” technology, he can use the “Space Cannon” ability of his PDS units that are in systems that are adjacent to the active system. The hits are still assigned to units in the active system.

It still does *not* clarify, if players with PDSII outside the active system have to assign their hits to the active player (attacker) - or if they are allowed to assign their hits to the other player (opponent) in the active system.
Or other way round: there is no rule that prevents other players to assign their hits to the "opponent" (the defender of the battle). This would enabled more tactical "transactions" : )

Example:
Player A (Attacker) activates System S, where player B (opponent) already has ships in. A moves ships into S, so A and B have ships in the active system.
Players C and D have PDSII on planets in adjacent systems, so they are allowed to use their Space Cannons. Imagine both C and D want to support A, so they assign the hits of their Space Cannons to ships of B.

Anyone a comment?

Going to play next weekend... 🙂

Edited by Thinkpositiv2
On 3/11/2019 at 11:34 AM, Thinkpositiv2 said:

Anyone a comment?

Going to play next weekend... 🙂

Step 1 of space canon offence. 

Which part you don't understand?

You can summarize PDS into 3 sentence:
1) PDS can only FIRE into active player (the one who has place token on board)
2) If there is ANY PDS II in range, go to step 1
3) If you are active player, you can active a system in/to which you want to FIRE.

Edited by Dreathan

My friends state, it is possible to assign hits of PDS II to the other/defender of the active system.

I was not able to proof them wrong by citing the rules.

As explained above, the rules say:

The hits    are still assigned to units in the active system  .

In the active system, there are units of the active player and of the defender. So from this sentence - as a third party player - I'm allowed to assign my hits to the defender as well.

Your friends are idiotic.

SPACE CANNON OFFENSE After the active player’s ships move into the active system, each player’s units in the active system may use their “Space Cannon” abilities against the active player’s ships in that system. The active player may also use his units’ “Space Cannon” abilities at this time. The “Space Cannon” ability is explained in detail later.


against the active player’s ships

Thanks for your answer and your patience. We know that part.

But if in question, we refer to the rules reference and give them prio over the basic rules.

ti4_living_rules_reference_v1_1.pdf m entions (especially for PDS II; page 22/23, 66.2 SPACE CANNON OFFENSE > 66.3 STEP 1) :

• If a player has the “Deep Space Cannon” technology, he can use the “Space Cannon” ability of his PDS units that are in s ystems that are adjacent to the active system. The hits are s till assigned to units in the active system.

Edited by Thinkpositiv2

Bad wording by FFG.
Someting like YIN brotherhood errata. "you can destroy ship in the active system, to produce hit" or something like this. Overall people wanted to destroy ships in home system to produce hits at mecatol, which is idiotic.

Living rules sentece
1) doesnt clarify if you can produce hits to only active player
2) doesnt clarity f you can produce hits to ANY units in the system. (which your friends are sticking to)

This is clarified in learn to play which ive already quoted.

If your friends still dont want to understand then join any group on facebook or redit which is themed around Twilight Imperium. All players will confirm "my" version of how does PDS work.
Otherwiste PDS would be the stongest unit in the game. More powerfull than warsuns.

Guys, you're overly focusing on Step 1. Look at Step 2 please.

"The active player must choose and destroy one of his ships in the active system for each hit result produced against his units."

There you go. There are no steps where the PDS wielder gets to decide who he's attacking; he just notes which PDS are firing and rolls the dice. Then the active player picks which of HIS ships to destroy/soak/etc.

(This is inverted for the active player's PDS, of course, as covered in the first bullet under Step 2.)

Even if you try to interpret Step 1 as letting you (a non-active player) fire at any ship, it doesn't matter, because in Step 2 only the active player will assign hits.

Edited by pklevine

n1