Simple question, when performing a bonus attack does the defender get to roll green dice?

If the defender doesn't get to roll dice, do they get to use any unused evades from their previous attack?

Short Answer: Yes, the defender still rolls the relevant number of defense dice.

Complicated Answer: I think it would help to look at the greater scheme of what an Attack is... the attacker chooses a defender that's in range & arc, and rolls attack dice. Both players have a chance to modify those dice, then the defender rolls defense dice, and modifications happen. You compare results, possibly deal damage, then deal with aftermath effects. These steps are carried out for every single attack in the game, no matter what kind of attack it is. Some pilot abilities (Wedge, Blackout), game situations (range, obstruction) or upgrades (intimidation, trick shot) might alter the number of dice rolled, but so far, there's nothing that would outright prohibit a defense roll on an attack.

What is a "Bonus Attack," then? Simply put, an attack that isn't the one main attack that you are allowed to perform during your engagement. It might be a follow-up to a main attack (Cluster Missiles, Darth Maul), a revenge shot during Aftermath (Dengar, Quickdraw), or another special attack at an unusual time (Corran Horn, Snap Shot). The main reason for the creation of a "bonus attack" in the game, though, is to limit the number of them in the game. Each (non-huge) ship is limited to only one bonus attack per round, and then, only when granted by a special effect. The reasoning behind this is complicated, but basically boils down to, "no one, singular ship should have too much offensive presence on the table at a single time." In First Edition, some ships could get three or four separate attacks each round (like Ghost + Phantom + Twin Laser Turret), which started to get very silly.

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On a separate note, "unused evades" are not a thing in the game; after any given attack, the cumulative dice pool (attack and defense dice) is cleared, and no results carry over (though this is an interesting possible future design space; a ship ability like, "while defending, you may spend one evade result to add an evade token to your ship" that lets you bank on over-evading an attack)

9 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

[examples...] might alter the number of dice rolled, but so far, there's nothing that would outright prohibit a defense roll on an attack.

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Important note related to that bit: even if a ship rolls zero defense dice they do not skip any steps; there is still a 'Modify Defense Dice' step (including the possibility to add results by some effect like Finn Gunner) and there is still a 'Cancel results' step (triggering abilities like Fifth Brother v1 pilot) in that attack/defense.

13 hours ago, nitrobenz said:

Important note related to that bit: even if a ship rolls zero defense dice they do not skip any steps; there is still a 'Modify Defense Dice' step (including the possibility to add results by some effect like Finn Gunner) and there is still a 'Cancel results' step (triggering abilities like Fifth Brother v1 pilot) in that attack/defense.

Yep. To follow on that, even in situations when some steps are skipped (such as when using the effect of Homing Missiles ), you only skip the steps named: the other steps still happen. That's how ships like Fifth Brother (pilot) can squeak an extra Crit through. Only the dice steps are skipped, not the neutralize or compare results step.

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On 4/7/2020 at 6:55 PM, emeraldbeacon said:

On a separate note, "unused evades" are not a thing in the game; after any given attack, the cumulative dice pool (attack and defense dice) is cleared, and no results carry over (though this is an interesting possible future design space; a ship ability like, "while defending, you may spend one evade result to add an evade token to your ship" that lets you bank

Haha, nice idea!

but it would massively benefit ships with lots of green dice...

them would become even more tankier. (auto-thrusters are back!)

the mirror token would be an evade-mechanic-ish token for attacks: 'you can spend this 💥 -token to change any one red die to a hit result'.
and

'while you perform an attack you may cancel one hit/crit result to gain one 💥 token'.

or maybe we get a new action that grants you a 💥 -token aka a definitely hit result during your next attack.

plus of course an ability that lets you carry tokens over to the next round. Like the new decimator which can carry over a reinforce token....

5 minutes ago, Tellonius said:

Haha, nice idea!

but it would massively benefit ships with lots of green dice...

them would become even more tankier. (auto-thrusters are back!)

Well hes not saying there couldnt be limits.

in 1E there was a card that worked similar to that.

Perhaps the ability that lets you spend for an evade would have similar limits (can only have 1 evade token) to keep you from stacking them.

12 hours ago, Lyianx said:

Well hes not saying there couldnt be limits.

in 1E there was a card that worked similar to that.

Perhaps the ability that lets you spend for an evade would have similar limits (can only have 1 evade token) to keep you from stacking them.

Or make it charge-based, so you can only use it once per turn. Possibly even restrict it to ships that do not have an evade action and price it according to agility. It'd be doable, but it would be expensive; stuff that increases the efficiency of green dice even a little tends to be priced veeery conservatively (see: Dedicated)

12 hours ago, Maui. said:

Possibly even restrict it to ships that do not have an evade action

How would you work or icon that? Would be weird to put an exclusion in the restriction box, or at least they haven't done it yet. Maybe the evade icon with a [NO] symbol though it or something.

1 hour ago, Lyianx said:

How would you work or icon that? Would be weird to put an exclusion in the restriction box, or at least they haven't done it yet. Maybe the evade icon with a [NO] symbol though it or something.

By restricting it to one or two ships that do not have the evade action