Again to make sure: the way I expect it to play out is that a fireball is placed at its initiative and dealt a damage card. If Chewbacca (crew) is already in play then he will recover a charge. If he is not yet placed then he won't.

Does that make sense? Or does Chewie also recover 1 while in reserve (or whatever the technical term is for unplaced ships during setup)?

your assumption is correct. if chewie's carrier is not yet placed on the table, there would be no ships at range 0-3, so he wouldn't recover 1 energy.

Personally, I would follow Maui's lead on this one:

Basically, they suggested that there are no damage cards available to deal until the last step of Setup (Prepare Other Components) at which point all of the ships are on the table. This would mean initiative does not matter for the Fireball + Chewie crew combo.

4 hours ago, GreenDragoon said:

Again to make sure: the way I expect it to play out is that a fireball is placed at its initiative and dealt a damage card. If Chewbacca (crew) is already in play then he will recover a charge. If he is not yet placed then he won't.

Does that make sense? Or does Chewie also recover 1 while in reserve (or whatever the technical term is for unplaced ships during setup)?

55 minutes ago, meffo said:

your assumption is correct. if chewie's carrier is not yet placed on the table, there would be no ships at range 0-3, so he wouldn't recover 1 energy.

According to setup rules (p17) setup abilities are resolved "during the appropriate step of setup." Ships are placed during Step 5 (Place Forces); the damage deck itself is shuffled and placed during step 6 (Prepare Other Components). Therefore the appropriate step to resolve Explosion with Wings is in step 6, after all forces have been placed and the damage deck has entered play. As long as Chewie crew is placed at range 0-3 of any Fireball, resolving the Explosion with Wings ability should recover Chewie's charge.

*EDIT* wow nitro beat me to my own answer

Huh, thanks @Maui. and @nitrobenz , I didn't expect that.