Played a game last night with my son, and we had a discussion about Expert Handling.

He believed that it was simply a free Barrel Roll, whereas I pressed that it was an Action.

I've since found by searching the forum that I was right, so not seeking an answer to that.

My question relates to something I read while getting that answer: You can't do two barrel rolls in a turn.

I believe I have been doing something very wrong in this case and wanted to check.

I often use Jake Farrell, who can perform a free boost or barrel roll action after being assigned a focus token or performing a focus action. So far so good.

However if I have PTL on him which allows me to perform 1 free action, does this mean I can't do another barrel roll if opted for a BR from his pilot ability?

One more question regarding Jake. Given the wording of his ability is the following situation correct:

Jake is fired upon first, at, say Range 2. He uses a Focus token to reduce damage done. As the wording says the boost or barrel roll action may be performed after .... performing a focus action, could he now boost, potentially to Range 1?

I've not tried this, it's just occurred to me.

Thanks in advance for your help.

1. Expert Handling has the ‘Action:’ header, meaning anything that follows requires you using your Action to perform it. I’ve seen this confusion come up a number of times, so don’t worry.

2. If Jake performs a barrel roll action, free or otherwise (So through Vectored Thrusters, his ability, or Expert Handling) he is unable to perform another that round.

3. Jake’s ability triggers on receiving a focus token or performing a focus action. Spending a focus token is neither of those things.

Hope this helps!

OK so where to start:

Taking a focus action and using a focus token are not the same thing. Taking the action assigns the token to your ship, and that's it.

You can only perform an action in your perform action step, unless an upgrade card or pilot ability specifies otherwise.

You can only perform each action once per round.

So if Jake has used his ability to perform a free barrel roll action, he can't then perform another barrel roll action that round, even if he meets the conditions (e.g. is assigned a focus token from an outside source, or has Push the Limit and Vectored Thrusters. Note that Jake doesn't have the Barrel Roll action on his bare, so the only time he can normally perform a barrel roll action is from his ability.

Expert Handling is an Action: header upgrade card - so, you can use your Perform Action step* to perform the Expert Handling action. That allows you to clear a TL from your ship, and perform a free Barrel Roll action. But you have to do the Expert Handling action in the first place to do any of it. This is one of the most commonly confused cards, for technical reasons we really don't need to go into here.

Jake spending a focus token is not the same as Jake taking a focus action or being assigned a focus token, and it has no interaction with his ability.

*Or any other source of generic free actions, including but not limited to Coordinate, Lando pilot, Airen Cracken, etc, or specifically Action: header upgrade cards, such as Experimental Interface, but NOT Push the Limit which specifies that the action has to be from your action bar.

Expert Handling was errataed in the FAQ . As originally written you WOULD be able to perform a Barrel Roll Action and the Expert Handling Action because the original EH card said "perform a barrel roll" it did not say "perform a free barrel roll action ." However, viewable in the FAQ on page 3 , the card is now treated as saying "perform a free barrel roll action ." With the errata Jake cannot use Expert Handling and his ability (for a barrel roll, boost is fine) in the same round, without the errata he - technically - would be able to. This may be where your confusion has originated, if you are looking at the original printed card there's no reason why Jake cannot perform two barrel rolls in a round as he's only ever instructed to perform one barrel roll action and free barrel rolls are not actions and therefore can be performed regardless as to whether or not you've performed a barrel roll action already in the round.

In short:

As Originally Written: You would be performing a focus action, using Jake's ability for a free barrel roll action, using push the limit to perform the expert handling action, and then doing a barrel roll.

With FAQ Errata: You would be performing an focus action, using Jake's ability for a free barrel roll action, using push the limit to perform the expert handling action, and then trying to perform a free barrel roll action. As you cannot perform that free barrel roll action due to the barrel roll action taken earlier in the phase you may choose a new action (other than Expert Handling) per FAQ clarification entry on page 18 .

You could never PTL to do Expert Handling, it's not an action on your action bar.

13 minutes ago, thespaceinvader said:

You could never PTL to do Expert Handling, it's not an action on your action bar.

You know what I mean, you can do it the other way around [Expert Handling - PTL - Focus - Free Barrel Roll]. The point was the card has been errataed and THAT could be the source of the confusion.

@Innese @thespaceinvader @ZealuxMyr

Thank you all for helping this hopeless noob!

Confirmed what I thought about EH, and set me straight on doing (or should I say not doing) two barrel rolls with Jake (or anyone else for that matter).

Didn't think my last question was actually viable but wanted to ask the question to make sure.