I've been running some Ghost + Jan nonsense lately, and realized that the timing chart for attacking provides very specific criteria for not performing an attack.

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ATTACK

Ships can perform attacks which thematically represents the ship firing its blaster cannons, ordnance, or other weapons. If a ship performs an attack, it becomes the attacker then follows these steps:
1. Declare Target: During this step, the attacking player identifies and names the defender of the attack.
a. Measure Range: The attacking player measures range from the attacker to any number of enemy ships and determines which enemy ships are in which of its arcs.
b. Choose Weapon: The attacking player chooses one of the attacker’s primary or special weapons.
c. Declare Defender: The attacking player chooses an enemy ship to be the defender. The defender must meet the requirements defined by the weapon.
d. Pay Costs: The attacker must pay any costs for performing the attack.

• During the Declare Target step, the attack arc is the arc that corresponds to the chosen weapon. The attack range is determined by measuring range from the closest point of the attacker to the closest point of the defender that is in the attack arc.
• A primary weapon requires the attack range to be range 1–3. A primary weapon has no cost by default.
• Special weapons have different requirements specified by the source of the attack.
• If there is no valid target for the chosen weapon, or if the attacker cannot pay the costs required for the attack, the attacking player either chooses a different weapon or chooses not to attack.

Main points here are that once you begin measuring range to enemy ships, you've chosen to perform an attack. Once you've done so you can choose not to attack only if you either have a weapon that has no valid defenders that meet the weapon's requirements (turret arc with no targets, ordinance without the token requirement on a defender in the attack arc) or have a weapon you cannot pay the cost for (ordinance with no charges).

Thoughts? Seems sneaky to force someone to shoot the Ghost (with Magva) after they measure and see that Jan is out of range/arc.

Or you can just not choose a defender.

While I understand the love of rules and their correct applications....

Remember to fly casual.

I think you are allowed to attack and roll no die

1 hour ago, TIE wing said:

I think you are allowed to attack and roll no die

You think incorrectly.

2. Attack Dice: During this step, the attacking player rolls attack dice and the players can modify the dice.

a. Roll Attack Dice: The attacking player determines the number of attack dice to roll based on the chosen weapon’s attack value, mrange bonus , and any abilities that add or remove attack dice. Then they roll that many dice.

b. Modify Attack Dice: The players resolve abilities that modify the attack dice. The defending player resolves their abilities first, then the attacking player resolves their abilities.

•The most common ways the attacker modifies attack dice are by spending a focus token or spending a lock it has on the defender.

•Each attack die cannot be rerolled more than once during an attack.

Determining the number of dice and rolling the correct number of dice are not optional. You can avoid modifying them, or modify them to make the attack worse (choose not to spend focus, reroll hits/crits), but you can't choose not to roll any dice, either from the base weapon value or from additions like range.

On 1/15/2019 at 8:39 AM, NerroSama said:

Or you can just not choose a defender.

I think the OP is correct. If you follow the rules, you can't; you can't measure until after you opt to attack, and at that point, if you have a target, you're locked into shooting that target if you have no other options.

It's very rarely relevant, because honestly there's very rarely any point in skipping an attack at all (Dengar was the only case before wave 2, but Dengar was costed hopelessly out of usefulness) - but with Quickdraw now becoming prevalent again, it bears being aware of. If you don't want to shoot QD, but you're not sure if your other target is in range/arc, you may want to skip your shot entirely, to avoid having to shoot QD.

That's why you have to always understand what your opponent is running, if they have something that benefits more from being shot than you do from shooting it (and it's the only one you can shoot, or another ship looks like it might be out of range), just don't pick up your range ruler and decline to attack.

Or just have fun with the game and fly casual

1 hour ago, thespaceinvader said:

I think the OP is correct. If you follow the rules, you can't; you can't measure until after you opt to attack, and at that point, if you have a target, you're locked into shooting that target if you have no other options.

It's very rarely relevant, because honestly there's very rarely any point in skipping an attack at all (Dengar was the only case before wave 2, but Dengar was costed hopelessly out of usefulness) - but with Quickdraw now becoming prevalent again, it bears being aware of. If you don't want to shoot QD, but you're not sure if your other target is in range/arc, you may want to skip your shot entirely, to avoid having to shoot QD.

I've played a couple lists that include something that punishes you for shooting it. The big three I'm looking at currently are low-initiative VCX w/Magva, Tavson with PerCo/Adv.Optics or the like, and QD. You', re right on Dengar being costed and nerfed into irrelevance though, that new dial is just god awful and that's not something that can really be adjusted.

As for the people saying this is a case of 'fly casual', if I'm interpreting it right, it's falling into the same area as measuring for a boost/barrel roll. Once the template is on the table, you've declared what you're doing. I'm all for letting missed triggers resolve after the fact, and this'll be something I'll mention to my opponent before matches so as not to be a surprise, but ignoring it is 'do whatever you want' levels of fly casual.

This is a rule that I could never insist on because nobody is aware of it.

The only way would be to a) inform them at the start of the game or b) let them abort once and only insist later.

Springing the trap and insisting on it is social suicide. And that is if the TO even agrees.

A nice find, but in practice hardly enforcable.

1 hour ago, GreenDragoon said:

This is a rule that I could never insist on because nobody is aware of it.

The only way would be to a) inform them at the start of the game or b) let them abort once and only insist later.

Springing the trap and insisting on it is social suicide. And that is if the TO even agrees.

A nice find, but in practice hardly enforcable.

Which makes it a good thing it's come up here, and the discussion should probably come up on facebook, too.

But yeah, if you're playing QD you should probably point it out before the game if you mean to enforce it.

Pretty much agree with OP... Rules As Written , they do seem to spell out that, once you've measured range, you're locked in to shooting SOMEBODY if you can. Which makes @GreenDragoon 's suggestion work best, I think... if you're going to take that route with your opponent, you need to clearly inform both the TO (before the event) and your opponent (before each game) of that specific rule...

This gets ugly with R5-TK.