I haven't seen this questions to be asked, perhaps it obvious, but want to be double sure.

Do you have to activate first/give tokens to ship which Bail is on? Card text reads:

Quote

"After deploying fleets , you may place 1 round token on this card. At the start of the Ship Phase of the round matching that round token, if you are the second player you must activate, if you are the first player , you may gain up to 2 command tokens of your choice."

So I know that according to rulebook if card says "you" it means the ship which has it equipped. But this card actually refers to player first ("if you are second player") so it is a little bit confusing. I would say you have to use it on ship which has it equipped, but my friend suggested otherwise during today's game.

45 minutes ago, noggin said:

I haven't seen this questions to be asked, perhaps it obvious, but want to be double sure.

Do you have to activate first/give tokens to ship which Bail is on? Card text reads:

So I know that according to rulebook if card says "you" it means the ship which has it equipped. But this card actually refers to player first ("if you are second player") so it is a little bit confusing. I would say you have to use it on ship which has it equipped, but my friend suggested otherwise during today's game.

You "may" place a token, but you dont have to.

But if you do, you "must" activate that ship first if second player or take 2 tokens if first player.

I think it's a good question taking into account all the discussion the "you" term now is bringing, above all with Strategic Advisor. The most logic way to go would be that Bail's effect is to be applied on his ship, but as there are really valid arguments that indicate that Strategic Advisor can be used even if the ship it is on is already activated, I can see maybe good arguments for why Bail's effect can be used on other ship, although I don't think that works that way.

If the player gains tokens, rather than the ship, o mandate that the player must place two tokens on his head and play the game with them there.

As there is no mechanic for the player to use or discard them.

Hiwever, in situ: If you place Bails token (which is a May), that generates two possible effects:

If you are second player that ship MUST activate first.

If you are first player, then that ship MAY gain 2 tokens.

the only thing that is mandatory is activating first is if you are second player and you elected to place a Bail token.

all other parts of the card are optional.

I think the OP's question is not about whether the effect is mandatory, but about whether the ship that gets to activate first is the one with Bail equipped.

To which the answer is YES.

...having said that, it's a very awkwardly written card:

"After deploying fleets, [this ship] may place 1 round token on this card. At the start of the Ship Phase of the round matching that round token, if [this ship] is the second player [this ship] must activate , if [this ship] is the first player, [this ship] may gain up to 2 command tokens of [this ship's] choice."

In my opinion, "you" must be resolved as "this ship" whenever possible , and as "this player" otherwise. You don't have a choice: if it can be resolved as "this ship" and still work, then it must.

EDIT: In this case, "if you are the second player" can't really be resolved as "this ship", so it reverts to "this player". I believe that it's a similar issue with Strategic Adviser, where it's debatable whether "your turn to activate" can resolve as "this ship", since only players get turns.