With the new RR out, FFG has clarified that in order to use an ability, it must be triggered at the beginning of its window. When attacking with a (focus/force/calculate/eyeball conversion) and (predator/lock/other reroll source,) do you have to declare the use of both effects before resolving one or the other? As in, roll dice - declare token use - use reroll - change eyeballs? What if I roll 3 blanks, must I declare my focus before rerolling? What if I don't and then reroll into eyeballs, have I missed my window to spend focus? What if I roll hit-eyeball-blank, how would the ability stack resolve in that situation?

I'm fully expecting that the game will continue to be played as it always was, but the new wording potentially destroys the point of double-modifying your attacks. With an upcoming HST this weekend, I'd like to have some certainty in how my normal Predator + Focus combo is going to work (as well as barrage rerolls + focus) before I start playing and someone tries to rules-lawyer it into oblivion.

No. All modifications fall under the modify dice step and it is down to you to do what you want in what order you want.

More specifically, an ability needs to be triggered during its window. Some of those windows are now defined more clearly, and have a much smaller duration: "At the beginning of," "At the end of," and "Before" & "After" are all very tight spaces in which to activate abilities, and ALL abilities triggered by that event need to be added to the queue at that time.

Other abilities, like modifying dice, have a bit longer timing window: "While," is usually the word you see here, though it sometimes pops up as "During." " While" events can be triggered as long as you haven't moved outside of that particular game phase: While Attacking, for example, lasts from when you first start your attack (i.e. select weapon, measure ranges, choose target, etc), to when your attack is fully complete, including the aftermath step. Most of these abilities, like spending Focus/Calculate/Evade/Lock/Force Charge can only be used in the corresponding Modify Dice Step.

Short answer, Predator + Focus remains virtually untouched. While there are technically more steps you go through for the abilities, for all practical purposes, it works exactly the same.

So how does Vader and the new Republic Y-Wings work?

If Vader rolls Hit, Blank, Blank.

The Vader player changes the Hit to a Crit, and then re-rolls the two blank dice, which come up as two hits

Can the Y-Wing player change the Crit back to a hit?

6 minutes ago, Andyf1702 said:

So how does Vader and the new Republic Y-Wings work?

If Vader rolls Hit, Blank, Blank.

The Vader player changes the Hit to a Crit, and then re-rolls the two blank dice, which come up as two hits

Can the Y-Wing player change the Crit back to a hit?

So long as the Y-Wing is not suffering any critical damage, yes. You basically need a pair of crits to get crits through these little beasts.

51 minutes ago, Andyf1702 said:

So how does Vader and the new Republic Y-Wings work?

If Vader rolls Hit, Blank, Blank.

The Vader player changes the Hit to a Crit, and then re-rolls the two blank dice, which come up as two hits

Can the Y-Wing player change the Crit back to a hit?

No.

Here is the Republic Y-wing, with its ship ability:

The ship ability allows the defender to change 1 [crit] result. Changing results is a dice modification, which happens during the appropriate dice modification step.

Quote

DICE MODIFICATION

Players can modify dice by spending various tokens and by resolving abilities. Dice can be modified in the following ways:

• Add: To add a die result, place an unused die displaying the result next to the rolled dice. A die added in this way is treated as a normal die for all purposes and can be modified and canceled.
• Change: To change a die result, rotate the die so that its faceup side displays the new result.
• Reroll: To reroll a die result, pick up the die and roll it again.
• Spend: To spend a result, remove the die from the dice pool.

During an attack, after a player rolls dice, that player's opponent modifies the dice first. In this case:

1) Attack Roll: Vader rolls Hit, Blank, Blank.

1a) Defender modifies attack dice: There are no critical results to change, so the Republic Y-wing's ship ability does nothing.

1b) Attacker modifies attack dice: Vader goes nuts.

35 minutes ago, Maui. said:

No.

Here is the Republic Y-wing, with its ship ability:

The ship ability allows the defender to change 1 [crit] result. Changing results is a dice modification, which happens during the appropriate dice modification step.

During an attack, after a player rolls dice, that player's opponent modifies the dice first. In this case:

1) Attack Roll: Vader rolls Hit, Blank, Blank.

1a) Defender modifies attack dice: There are no critical results to change, so the Republic Y-wing's ship ability does nothing.

1b) Attacker modifies attack dice: Vader goes nuts.

Oh, well. Hm.

Even still, that single crit is only going to be but one damage, because it takes two to crack that shell.

In the above example.

Vader spends his lock and rerolls two dice.

If the Vader rolls a crit, can the Y-Wing change this to a hit?

1 minute ago, Andyf1702 said:

In the above example.

Vader spends his lock and rerolls two dice.

If the Vader rolls a crit, can the Y-Wing change this to a hit?

No.

Once Vader has begun modifying dice, the Y Wing has had its chance.

The Rules Reference is sometimes clear and helpful. Page 5:

Quote

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.

Yeah this one is pretty straight forward. The X1 chassis ability gets around the Y Wing plating pretty easily, as do effects like Proton torps, BT-1 etc. Even ships that reroll into a crit get around it since the Y Wing's window to modify dice has passed.

Pretty much if the attacker doesn't roll a natural crit, the y wing doesn't get to change anything on that attack, even if there is a crit later on.

As do Proton Torps, Marksmanship, Gavin Darklighter, RAC, etc...

On 9/23/2019 at 8:09 AM, thespaceinvader said:

No.

Once Vader has begun modifying dice, the Y Wing has had its chance.