This comes up a lot so I figured I'd make sure I understand correctly. I assume no, the "bonus attack" header doesn't work for other effects that grant a bonus attack.

Veteran Turret Gunner and Bistan are not very useful to a huge ship that doesn't have a Turret Upgrade equipped. It can already fire its Bonus Attack headers once each, and a gunner doesn't bypass the energy cost to fire them. But can a gunner or other source of a bonus attack even choose a hardpoint's "Bonus Attack" header as the attack for the bonus attack it grants?

For VTG or Bistan it's a mindless question since there's nothing to gain by doing so. However, Ezra offers dice modification under very specific circumstances: you somehow have to do the bonus attack and get a stress token, which isn't easy on a huge ship that just absorbs stress with energy. Ezra's so hard to pull off it's almost moot... but Ezra + Saw + Maul stupidly can do so if they deplete enough energy, and if one were devoted enough to a stupid niche build to deploy them, haha!

And if we ever get another gunner that granted a bonus attack with a dice mod, it'd matter whether we could use that with, oh I don't know, a Turbolaser.

So since it comes up a lot anyway, I'd like to get this cemented into my brain: can a bonus attack choose a hardpoint? Or does a bonus attack from Bistan or Ezra or VTG etc have to just be a normal Attack header (e.g. Dorsal Turret, Ion Cannon Turret, primary weapon, etc)?

(again, I suspect no, but I may be misremembering the rules so I felt I should ask)

1. Bonus attacks can use the "Bonus Attack:" headered attacks ( I checked the RR Bonus attack, and Huge ships sections. Nothing I found excludes "Bonus Attack:" headers from being used for a triggered bonus attack).

2. It is currently pointless to do so, as you pointed out, since there is no benefit from it that a huge ship doesn't already have baseline.

The key thing is that you can't perform any particular Bonus Attack: header more than once.

You still only have one Turbolaser shot, even if you used Ezra or Bistan to do it, and you'd still have to pay the energy, etc.

Han Solo might be a relevant use. I'm not sure how it'd interact with a ship with two Hardpoint turrets. If you had, say, Ion Battery and Turbo Laser Battery, they have different indicators. I'd be inclined to let Han go at 7, and then a different hardpoint with a different indicator go at the normal time.

16 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

The key thing is that you can't perform any particular Bonus Attack: header more than once.

You still only have one Turbolaser shot, even if you used Ezra or Bistan to do it, and you'd still have to pay the energy, etc.

Han Solo might be a relevant use. I'm not sure how it'd interact with a ship with two Hardpoint turrets. If you had, say, Ion Battery and Turbo Laser Battery, they have different indicators. I'd be inclined to let Han go at 7, and then a different hardpoint with a different indicator go at the normal time.

I think it'd still be considered the same turret arc if both indicators were pointed in the same direction. So an I7 Turbolaser shot with the Turbolaser's indicator indicating the right arc would block the right arc from being used by another turret.

I think the second paragraph of the Turret Arc section of the Rules Reference confirms this. v110, Page 4:

"The turret arc indicator points toward one of the ship’s four standard arcs.
The standard arc that the turret arc indicator is pointing toward is a <Turret Arc> in
addition to still being a standard arc. While a ship performs a <Turret Arc> attack, it can
attack a target that is in its <Turret Arc> arc."

57 minutes ago, theBitterFig said:

The key thing is that you can't perform any particular Bonus Attack: header more than once.

You still only have one Turbolaser shot, even if you used Ezra or Bistan to do it, and you'd still have to pay the energy, etc.

Han Solo might be a relevant use. I'm not sure how it'd interact with a ship with two Hardpoint turrets. If you had, say, Ion Battery and Turbo Laser Battery, they have different indicators. I'd be inclined to let Han go at 7, and then a different hardpoint with a different indicator go at the normal time.

Actually Rebel Han Gunner has zero value for an Epic ship! Hardpoint "Bonus Attack" headers can only be used while the ship engages, and Han's bonus attack happens outside of engagement. And no Rebel Epic ship can equip a normal Turret Upgrade and Gunner together.

It was one of the first Epic gimmicks I explored in the glorious name of shenanigans. But it's for the best that it doesn't work... a Turbolaser at init 7 could be devastating!

5 minutes ago, Wazat said:

Actually Rebel Han Gunner has zero value for an Epic ship! Hardpoint "Bonus Attack" headers can only be used while the ship engages, and Han's bonus attack happens outside of engagement. And no Rebel Epic ship can equip a normal Turret Upgrade and Gunner together.

It was one of the first Epic gimmicks I explored in the glorious name of shenanigans. But it's for the best that it doesn't work... a Turbolaser at init 7 could be devastating!

I don't think that is how it is supposed to work, though looking at the Huge Ship "Bonus Attacks" section I see why some would think so.

8 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

I don't think that is how it is supposed to work, though looking at the Huge Ship "Bonus Attacks" section I see why some would think so.

Yea, I figured the language is deliberately meant to limit these shots to during the huge ship's engagement.

Quote

When an attack granted by a special weapon has the “Bonus Attack:” header, a huge ship equipped with that upgrade may perform the listed bonus attack while it engages, before or after its standard attack.

Without any other rules for how to use a Bonus Attack header, that seemed straight-forward to me.

But then there's this FAQ:

Quote

Q: Can a CR-90 Corvette with Han Solo [Gunner, Rebel] perform an attack at Initiative 7?

A: Yes. While huge ships are unable to engage at initiative steps other than the one defined by their engagement value, they are capable of making attacks at other initiative steps if instructed by a card like Han Solo.

I suspect this would apply to Turret Upgrades only but... there's currently no way to field Han with a regular turret upgrade right? Neither the GR75 nor CR90 have both a turret and gunner slot.

But FFG hasn't come out and specifically said "yea, rebel gunner Han can fire a hardpoint (use its 'bonus attack' header) at init 7". So I'm very unsure about that. The FAQ sounds like FFG is either not thinking about what's actually equippable, or they're future-proofing. Or maybe FFG really does mean you can Han a Turbolaser at init 7.

Bleh. Anyone else have info on this?

1 hour ago, Hiemfire said:

I think it'd still be considered the same turret arc if both indicators were pointed in the same direction. So an I7 Turbolaser shot with the Turbolaser's indicator indicating the right arc would block the right arc from being used by another turret.

I think the second paragraph of the Turret Arc section of the Rules Reference confirms this. v110, Page 4:

"The turret arc indicator points toward one of the ship’s four standard arcs.
The standard arc that the turret arc indicator is pointing toward is a <Turret Arc> in
addition to still being a standard arc. While a ship performs a <Turret Arc> attack, it can
attack a target that is in its <Turret Arc> arc."

That's a fair reading. I feel like there's room for difference with two separate and independent turret arcs, but don't feel too invested in it.

@Wazat He doesn't say turret upgrade and Turbolasers are <turret arc> attacks so.. /shrug.

Just now, Hiemfire said:

@Wazat He doesn't say turret upgrade and Turbolasers are <turret arc> attacks so.. /shrug.

That feels like a very unfair characterization of what I'm saying and why, but let's just drop it. I don't want an argument and wouldn't enjoy hashing this out further.

3 hours ago, Wazat said:

That feels like a very unfair characterization of what I'm saying and why, but let's just drop it. I don't want an argument and wouldn't enjoy hashing this out further.

K. Wasn't intending offence and my apologies if I did offend.