I ran into this question while playing yesterday. Now, having a chance to look at the rules, I wanted some opinions on whether my reading of the rules is correct.
The situations: A 4 damage attack is rolled against a ship.
Can the defending ship use the brace effect and THEN the Expert Shields Tech effect to reduce the damage total to 1? (brace halves to 2, EST reduces 2 to 1)
My understanding is no based on the timing of the 2 effects:
Expert Shield Techs Timing: during the Spend Defense Tokens step when you spend a [Redirect] defense token you may reduce the total damage from the attack by 1 instead of resolving that token's effect.
Based on the bolded text I would think the damage reduction happens at Step 4 of attack resolution (Spend Defense Tokens). [Rules Reference Guide Pg 16]
Brace Timing: When damage is totalled during the " Resolve Damage Token s" step, the total is reduced to half, rounded up. [Rules Reference Guide Pg 4]
Since "Resolve Damage" is step 5 I think you need to apply Expert Shield Techs effect before the brace effect.
Is my reading correct or incorrect?