So I think this has been asked at least partially before but IDK where. There are upgrades that say add a die when attacking (like slaved turrets). This I get, you can't add a die if you have a single die that is obstructed, or if you have no dice in that arc (HH rear).

But there are upgrades that say your battery armament is increased by one die (spinal). Why is this worded differently? Does it do the same thing or is it literately increasing the dice printed on the card? Does it let you attack from the rear of a HH, or get a side shot from an obstructed CR90, or attack at long range from an MC30 torp corvette? I kinda think the answer to all that is no, its just like the other dice adding upgrades but I wanted to check.

They're different things.

Something that adds to your battery armament happens when you pick up the dice at the start of the attack. Something that adds dice "while attacking" (or similar) happens after you roll the initial attack (and after any effects that happen after the initial roll happen).

So yes, with spinals on a hammerhead you could shoot out the back.

An obstructed long-range side shot from a CR90 would fail with Ackbar, but succeed with Enhanced Armament.

You get used to it after a while.

Oh nice. I was assuming the worst but the wording made me wonder. This greatly improves my opinion of those upgrades.

Things that add to battery armament tend to be more expensive and are all "Modification"s (apart from the Insidious title, but that doesn't add dice but changes the range they can be used at):

Expanded Launchers (2 to the front) and Rapid Reload (1 to the sides) add black dice. Enhanced Armament (1 to the sides) and Spinal Armament (1 to front and back) add red dice. High-Capacity Ion Turbines add blue dice (1 to the sides).

It's also worth remembering that range checks only affect battery armament. So if a card effect lets you add two black dice "while attacking" you can do that at any range (unless the card specifies). Whereas the dice added to battery armament only work at their relevant ranges.