So my buddy and I were playing a TTS game last night, and for the first time, one of us had brought a ship with docking capability... my Scum Han on Lando’s Falcon with an Outer Rim Smuggler manning the Escape Pod.

We’re in the middle of a nasty scrum, with the game in the balance. Falcon’s had about all she can take, and badly needs a moment to breathe. So here’s the sequence of events...

We set dials in the Planning Phase.

During the Systems Phase, I drop a 2 right bank template out of the bow of the Falcon, and my Outer Rim Smuggler pops out to help some Crymorah Goons cover my escape. My opponent (also new to things) gloats, because the ORS ends up a couple of millimeters off of an asteroid. But I one-up him by barrel rolling... not only away from asteroid trouble, but directly into the paths of not one, but two of his ships, effectively blocking them, cutting off their pursuit of the Falcon, serving them up on a platter for my Y-Wings, and denying him any offense this turn... basically making a shambles of his game plan.

Now, to him, this was a horrific event, and definitely wrecked him for the rest of the game. He was convinced it was nearly broken that a “freakin’ Escape Pod” could be so powerful as to enter play after dials were set and just wreck him, and even worse, that it should also be allowed to shoot on the same turn (which it did, at a target behind the ships it had blocked). I tried to explain that it wasn’t that the pod was so incredibly powerful, but that I’d just had a reasonably good plan and gotten pretty lucky to boot, so the effect felt outsized.

He was skeptical, and wanted to make sure we’d played it all correctly. He was especially surprised that skipping the Activation Phase for the launched ship did not preclude it from Engaging, but I could find nothing indicating that my Pod was not allowed to engage and attack. Basically, it looked to me like the Escape Pod got to perform a movement, an action, and an attack, all as normal (with a couple restrictions), it’s just that the movement and the action were pushed up to the Systems Phase on the launching turn.

That’s correct, isn’t it?

Everything looks kosher to me!

1. The dock/deploy mechanics specifically take place at the ship's initiative, in the system phase, after dials are down in the planning phase. So, you got the timing right.
2. Since the ship didn't touch an asteroid or gas cloud during its deployment maneuver, you were correct to move on to that ship's one allotted action, after deploying (this is NOT a perform action step!).
3. Since your Outer Rim Pioneer (I'm assuming it's this card, not Outer Rim Smuggler) deployed, it doesn't do anything in the activation phase... thematically, it just performed its move and action one phase earlier. So, it mechanically functioned as an Initiative-0 blocker.
4. You're also correct that a ship which voluntarily deploys DOES engage as usual. The only time a ship would NOT engage, would be if were forced to undergo emergency deployment , and its initiative had already passed in the round. So it gets to shoot as normal!

You're also correct in that the escape shuttle isn't a particularly great ship (aside from its status as a CHEAP coordinator), but that is value in your game came from using it at precisely the right moment and in just the right manner, to really mess up your opponent's plans. It probably didn't help that he wasn't expecting you to be able to pull all of that off; an unexpected trick will often seem "cheap" or "unfair" to an unprepared opponent.

21 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

You're also correct in that the escape shuttle isn't a particularly great ship (aside from its status as a CHEAP coordinator),

Only.. Scums 'only' coordinator. 😛 But yes. Its only real role, is support, and it isnt super great at that.

21 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

That’s correct, isn’t it?

Yep. You just happen to play it very well. But what hes missing is how much it cost you to do that. You had to pay for the escape craft, an extra ship, that did little to nothing in your squad up until that point. Thats the price for playing with docked ships.

Just a clarification. You mention it managed to block two of his ships? Was he flying that close together that a small base ship blocked both?

19 minutes ago, Wolfshead said:

Just a clarification. You mention it managed to block two of his ships? Was he flying that close together that a small base ship blocked both?

Yeah, I was keeping the Falcon obstructed by running circles around an asteroid field, and there was a bit of a window in between two big rocks that he had three ships flying straight into. The Outer Rim *Pioneer* (thank you, emeraldbeacon) peeled off with a right bank and ended up nose-on with the further of the two big ones, and then barrel rolled back and to the right, perfectly filling the center of the opening. My opponent’s two forwardmost attackers both nicked his edges, and the one in the backfield was dead center in the Escape Craft’s sights. Han sped on and was subject to just one opposing obstructed shot, rather than three unobstructed shots. I honestly couldn’t have pulled off a more perfect block, and all I was really trying to do was launch my pod before the Falcon went down in flames.

It’s better to be lucky than good, as I’m sure young Solo would agree. 🙂

1 hour ago, Lyianx said:

Only.. Scums 'only' coordinator. 😛 But yes. Its only real role, is support, and it isnt super great at that.

Squad Leader Mining Guild TIEs beg to differ. 😉

18 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Squad Leader Mining Guild TIEs beg to differ. 😉

Haha.

That isnt specifically Scum tho, and is limited.

3 hours ago, Lyianx said:

and is limited

Technically so are the all of the Escape Craft pilots.

11 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

Technically so are the all of the Escape Craft pilots.

What i mean is, the Coordinate from the escape craft lets the target ship perform any action that ship can normally perform. Squad Leader restricts to to the same actions IT has on its bar. Thus, Squad leader cannot coordinate a ship to perform an action to flip a damage card or perform a ship ability action such as the quadjet's tractor. Even a Squad leadered Quad cant coordinate a Tractor Array action because its not on their action bar.

Its been quite often, ive used an escape craft to coordinate to a Firespray a boost or a Gonk shield regen or something like that.

11 minutes ago, Lyianx said:

What i mean is, the Coordinate from the escape craft lets the target ship perform any action that ship can normally perform. Squad Leader restricts to to the same actions IT has on its bar. Thus, Squad leader cannot coordinate a ship to perform an action to flip a damage card or perform a ship ability action such as the quadjet's tractor. Even a Squad leadered Quad cant coordinate a Tractor Array action because its not on their action bar.

Its been quite often, ive used an escape craft to coordinate to a Firespray a boost or a Gonk shield regen or something like that.

When game terms collide with their oog use... 😄

8 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

When game terms collide with their oog use... 😄

You know what, i didnt even put that together that you were talking about *that* kind of limited 😛