AKA, Cova Nell and the case of the commas.

Apologies if this has been covered somewhere, but does Cova Nell's ability (adding extra die while revealing red manouver) only work on defense while defending against a primary attack? I would argue this is the is the case. Her card text reads: "While you defend or perform a primary attack, if your revealed maneuver is red, roll 1 additional die."

The way the sentence structure reads so that if you remove "defend" or "or perform" it still has the same meaning for the remaining part. If you remove the part about "or perform" it becomes "while you defend a primary attack..." A comma after "defend" would make it so that her ability works on defense no matter what she is defending against.

TLDR: Oxford commas are good. If you defend against a torpedo with Cova Nell, you're out of luck.

You don't "defend a primary attack" you "defend from a primary attack". So the wording is fine the way it is written, and provides the extra die for both conditions:

• defending
• primary attacks

I would say that, grammatically speaking, the case that it reads "while you defend OR while you perform a primary attack" is much stronger than the case that it reads "while you are defending against a primary attack or perform a primary attack." Adding a comma to the sentence would be awkward and unnecessary.

Also: an Oxford comma comes before the and/or in a list of three or more things. Example: "Luke, Biggs, and Wedge" has an Oxford comma, while "Luke, Biggs and Wedge" does not.

the interpretation that you would only get the extra die while defending against a primary attack seems inconsistent with how other cards and rules are worded. you always get an extra green die while defending if your revealed maneuver is red. with your interpretation, the same would go for ric.



"while you perform a primary attack or defend" would have been clearer, but maybe a bit clunky?

Currently there is no delineation between defending from a primary attack or defending from a special attack. When the attacker chooses the ship they are attacking that chosen ship becomes the defender and just defends . They don't defend a primary attack or defend a special attack, they defend an attack.

Cova triggers in two situations if you revealed a red maneuver:

• Defending
• Performing a primary attack

If the maneuver is red you get the extra dice while defending. If the maneuver is red you will get the extra dice while performing a primary attack i.e. the red V2 printed on the card, not while using a cannon, not while using a torpedo, not while using Snap Shot, etc.

Eh, there's no particular reason something couldn't be triggered only whilst defending against a primary attack.

It's just that this isn't.

Captain Nym is the only ability that currently cares about what kind of attack he's defending against, but theoretically other cards would use the same wording if they wanted to differentiate primary attacks and non-primary attacks.

"While you defend a primary attack..." wouldn't be correct though, unless your ship is protecting a poor defenseless primary attack from some bullies or something.