Locking Obstacles

By Myotismon, in X-Wing Rules Questions

What is the point of locking obstacles? I've been searching everywhere to find specific rules about why one would lock onto an obstacle and I have yet to answer my questions.

If I lock onto an obstacle can I fire ordinances at them like missiles/torpedoes? If I do that will they explode and what happens when they explode? Or is the only way I can destroy obstacles by dropping bombs near them?

Edited by Myotismon

So far it's only useful for Qi'ra.

12 minutes ago, gjnido said:

So far it's only useful for Qi'ra.

Not entirely true. Someone pointed out in a different thread that if facing a jam list, it could be worth taking a TL on a rock turn one. That way you might manage to lose a worthless lock instead of hanging onto the jam token and making it impossible to focus/etc.

Yup. Mostly pointless at the moment, but expect that not to continue for long.

1 hour ago, SpiderMana said:

Not entirely true. Someone pointed out in a different thread that if facing a jam list, it could be worth taking a TL on a rock turn one. That way you might manage to lose a worthless lock instead of hanging onto the jam token and making it impossible to focus/etc.

Yup. Highly situational, but it's a very small way of gaining an advantage over jamming lists... and as @thespaceinvader said, you can expect more cards to pop up that reference locking friendly ships, obstacles, and/or devices for various effects (speculation follows)...

  • We could see a return of M9-G8 , perhaps with the caveat that you need to spend the lock to force the reroll.
  • A "Demolition Crew" card could ignore friendly devices you have locked.
  • A Seismic Torpedo could have a similar effect to Seismic Charges , but only on an obstacle you have locked.
  • An Elite Talent called something like "Bullseye Blaster" could allow you to roll an attack against a non-ship object in your bullseye, that you have locked; if you score 2+ damage results, remove that object from the game.

Design space really.

technically you can lock a bomb/mine too. Why? No idea but you can. They are objects lol

2 hours ago, SpiderMana said:

Not entirely true. Someone pointed out in a different thread that if facing a jam list, it could be worth taking a TL on a rock turn one. That way you might manage to lose a worthless lock instead of hanging onto the jam token and making it impossible to focus/etc.

Hmm... Clever.

Its also evolves around the failed actions concept and how they changed the locking rules. If you could take a lock only on ships it would be easier to fail the lock and trigger abilities that happen "after you fail an action" like composure. Locking on rocks means its gonna be a rare occasion that this action will fail, so people wont be able to abuse the check for lock to every ships currently in play.

2 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Yup. Highly situational, but it's a very small way of gaining an advantage over jamming lists... and as @thespaceinvader said, you can expect more cards to pop up that reference locking friendly ships, obstacles, and/or devices for various effects (speculation follows)...

  • We could see a return of M9-G8 , perhaps with the caveat that you need to spend the lock to force the reroll.
  • A "Demolition Crew" card could ignore friendly devices you have locked.
  • A Seismic Torpedo could have a similar effect to Seismic Charges , but only on an obstacle you have locked.
  • An Elite Talent called something like "Bullseye Blaster" could allow you to roll an attack against a non-ship object in your bullseye, that you have locked; if you score 2+ damage results, remove that object from the game.

Lattz Razzi's Pilot ability enables you to boost or barrel roll a small base squad mate she has a lock on at the cost of the lock and reducing their agility by one. Just a current example of a use for the changed Lock rules. :)

1 hour ago, Vineheart01 said:

Design space really.

technically you can lock a bomb/mine too. Why? No idea but you can. They are objects lol

It'd be wicked cool if they created a device like "Decoy Buoy - Enemy ships cannot lock objects other than a Decoy Buoy, if they can lock a Decoy Buoy. This device may be attacked. It has 3 agility and 1 hull." Maybe I'd allow the device to be launched instead of just dropped natively on the card, too.