Here is a question that has arisen in my gaming group, and we haven't found any specific answer yet.

When you are in cover, the steps say:

"During the “Apply Dodge and Cover” step of a ranged
attack, a unit that has light cover can cancel one hit (?)
result, and a unit that has heavy cover can cancel up to two
hit (?) results."

Cancel states:

"When a player cancels a die result, that die is removed and
its result is ignored."

So say I roll 2 red, 2 black, and 2 white dice against a unit in heavy cover. I have a crappy roll and only manage to roll two hits on my red dice, blank everywhere else. Now I want to spend my aim token, here is where our disagreement comes in. Which dice can I reroll? If I want my best chance to hit, I want to reroll my red dice, but the question becomes were the hits on the dice cancelled, or were the dice cancelled? Does removed mean that the dice never played a part in the attack effectively so they can't be rerolled? Is it possible to reroll the red dice because the hits were cancelled on them? Am I stuck using my black dice because those will be my next best choice?

Reroll before cover I think.

So if you roll 2 red, 2 black and 2 white then you can reroll whatever you like.

As a general rule though, unless your're fishing for crits, reroll blanks or surges you can't convert.

Edit. Sorry for any typos. Damned phone

The rules clearly state the rerolls are done before any cancellations.

Rerolls from aim happens before "Apply Dodge and Cover" step of an attack, so it does not actually matter. When you cancel hits from Dodge or Cover, any rerolls had already happened.

Edit: but, to be more precise, you cannot reroll or change or in any way change or modify the result on the cancelled die. As OP quoted, the cancelled die is removed.

Oh thanks! We didn't realize the reroll happened before you apply Dodge and Cover. We have been playing it as part of Step 6! We also didn't realize that converting attack surges happen during Step 4 as well! We've been playing them as part 6.

Thanks again for the quick responses.

10 minutes ago, djscherr said:

Oh thanks! We didn't realize the reroll happened before you apply Dodge and Cover. We have been playing it as part of Step 6! We also didn't realize that converting attack surges happen during Step 4 as well! We've been playing them as part 6.

Thanks again for the quick responses.

A common mistake, due to poor wording on FFG's part. Step 4 is called "Roll Dice", yet it includes rerolls and surges. It's kind of counter-intuitive, especially compared to other FFG games, most notably X-wing, where rerolls are considered a type od die modification (and so is changing the result, similar to converting surges). Step 6 is called Modify Attack Dice, yet it currently involves only Impact and (probably, though it's not clearly stated) Guardian effects.

On 4/26/2018 at 8:11 AM, djscherr said:

So say I roll 2 red, 2 black, and 2 white dice against a unit in heavy cover. I have a crappy roll and only manage to roll two hits on my red dice, blank everywhere else. Now I want to spend my aim token, here is where our disagreement comes in. Which dice can I reroll? If I want my best chance to hit, I want to reroll my red dice, but the question becomes were the hits on the dice cancelled, or were the dice cancelled? Does removed mean that the dice never played a part in the attack effectively so they can't be rerolled? Is it possible to reroll the red dice because the hits were cancelled on them? Am I stuck using my black dice because those will be my next best choice?

In your example, why would you want to re-roll the red dice? you say they are your only hits. You don't 'bank' results. If your reds are the only hits, and you re-roll them then you are choosing to remove those 2 hit results. Your best chance to gain additional hits would be to re-roll your black dice.

This chart is straight from the rules plus updated cover information per Alex Davy's email:

On 4/28/2018 at 12:28 PM, xbeaker said:

In your example, why would you want to re-roll the red dice? you say they are your only hits. You don't 'bank' results. If your reds are the only hits, and you re-roll them then you are choosing to remove those 2 hit results. Your best chance to gain additional hits would be to re-roll your black dice.

We were mistaking when rerolling happens and when cover is applied. In my situation with the two red hits, we figured one of the red hits were cancelled to due to cover. Then when rerolling we figured we would reroll the cancelled red dice along with a black dice as the red would have better odds.

Now that we know better the question though is moot.

2 hours ago, djscherr said:

We were mistaking when rerolling happens and when cover is applied. In my situation with the two red hits, we figured one of the red hits were cancelled to due to cover. Then when rerolling we figured we would reroll the cancelled red dice along with a black dice as the red would have better odds.

Now that we know better the question though is moot.

This does bring up a second, equally important note though. Dice that are canceled for any reason are removed. You aren't turning hits into blanks, you are fully removing them from the pool. So if they were canceled by cover, they would not be available for re-roll as they would no longer be part of the pool. Just something to be aware of as, based on FFGs history with X-wing, in the future there may be abilities that cancel before the re-roll happens or things that turn banks to hits, or such.

8 hours ago, xbeaker said:

This does bring up a second, equally important note though. Dice that are canceled for any reason are removed. You aren't turning hits into blanks, you are fully removing them from the pool. So if they were canceled by cover, they would not be available for re-roll as they would no longer be part of the pool. Just something to be aware of as, based on FFGs history with X-wing, in the future there may be abilities that cancel before the re-roll happens or things that turn banks to hits, or such.

Not at all because rerolls are done before cover. It only changes things for impact and other determined changes where dice color doesn't matter since these rules apply to the pool, not the dice.

6 hours ago, Deuzerre said:

Not at all because rerolls are done before cover. It only changes things for impact and other determined changes where dice color doesn't matter since these rules apply to the pool, not the dice.

Yes.. please read what I wrote again. My point is that even if the order were different, you couldn't re-roll them because canceled dice are not subject to modification. The OP made a mistake when re-rolls occur but also in that they though they could re-roll dice that were canceled. So I am just clarifying if some rule or ability allows you to modify dice in any way after dice have been canceled you cannot choose the already canceled dice to modify. It is very possible we will see upgrade cards in the future which enable cancellation immediately after the initial roll, or upgrades which allow re-rolls further in the attack order.