What's the point of locking obstacles?

By Makikis, in X-Wing Rules Questions

I was reading the cards for the new Nimbus Class V-Wing, and there's a card that confused me in there. It reads:

During the System Phase, you may choose an object that you have locked at range 1–3. Another friendly ship at range 1–3 may acquire a lock on that object.

What's the point of locking asteroids/debris/gas clouds? Can you destroy them? Or does "object" include other ships as well? Any clarifications would be nice!

Ships are objects, so this ability can be used against ships.

Currently, the most common reason for someone to intentionally lock an asteroid is as a safeguard against jam tokens or a mandatory effect like Holo (TIE/ba) that can be satisfied by 'sacrificing' a meaningless lock token.

Screenshot-20201207-152430.jpg

There’s also the Scum Crew upgrade, “Qi’ra”:

”While you move and perform attacks, you ignore obstacles that you are locking.”

2 hours ago, Cpt ObVus said:

There’s also the Scum Crew upgrade, “Qi’ra”:

”While you move and perform attacks, you ignore obstacles that you are locking.”

Except that plays no part in a V-wing :)

5 hours ago, Makikis said:

What's the point of locking asteroids/debris/gas clouds?

Not *too* much of a point in it right now. As mentioned above, Qi'ra has interactions with locking obstacles. Jam protection is also a valid reason. But primarily, i believe its to reduce the failure rate of locking due to a ship being out of range in order to get 'range information' and then follow up that fail with something like Composure.

It also future proofs for abilities they may want to include that interact with other (non-ship) objects). Also keep in mind, Remotes (buzz droids, Probes) are also lock-able objects that are not 'ships' so they fall into this category.

Edited by Lyianx

If you have and R3 droid on your W. Tarkin V-wing can you have 2 different other ships acquire target locks as well? Do you get to do it twice or just once?

39 minutes ago, buckero0 said:

If you have and R3 droid on your W. Tarkin V-wing can you have 2 different other ships acquire target locks as well? Do you get to do it twice or just once?

once per opportunity. tarkin only triggers once during the systems phase. it doesn't matter how many locks he has. he picks one and another friendly ship may acquire a lock on that locked object.

please note it does not ignore range restrictions, so that other ship still needs to be at range 0-3 of the object being locked, as per usual with locks.

Thanks, I got now. I had to re-read it.

2 hours ago, Lyianx said:

Jam protection is also a valid reason.

How would locking an obstacle protect against jamming (I'm not super familiar with what jamming does)?

13 minutes ago, Makikis said:

How would locking an obstacle protect against jamming (I'm not super familiar with what jamming does)?

when you gain a jam token, you must break a lock or remove one of your green tokens (the choice is up to the player that causes the jam token to be gained). if you can't, the jam token stays until the end phase of the current round. so if you have a lock and gain a jam token, you will break that lock. you can then proceed to gain another lock or any number of green tokens.

if you don't have a lock and gain a jam token, any lock you acquire or green token you gain later on will be removed along with the jam token, assuming it happens before the end phase of the current round. so in some situations, having a lock when you get jammed can protect you from breaking a valuable lock or removing one of your green tokens, assuming you're capable of acquiring that valuable lock or green token later on during the same round.

3 hours ago, Lyianx said:

It also future proofs for abilities they may want to include that interact with other (non-ship) objects).

Like First Edition Seismic Torpedoes? :D

14 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Like First Edition Seismic Torpedoes? :D

I was thinking more like Qi'ra type abilities or Epic level stuff, like more Environment cards or Scenarios that would put stuff like beacons or signal jammers on obstacles, or even gun placements. Things like that. I dont see Seismic Torpedoes coming back after they basically have that function in the new Seismic bombs.

5 hours ago, Lyianx said:

I was thinking more like Qi'ra type abilities or Epic level stuff, like more Environment cards or Scenarios that would put stuff like beacons or signal jammers on obstacles, or even gun placements. Things like that. I dont see Seismic Torpedoes coming back after they basically have that function in the new Seismic bombs.

...but seismic charges also preceded seismic torpedoes in first edition, and both always worked the same way, by destroying obstacles...

3 hours ago, Lyianx said:

I was thinking more like Qi'ra type abilities or Epic level stuff, like more Environment cards or Scenarios that would put stuff like beacons or signal jammers on obstacles, or even gun placements. Things like that. I dont see Seismic Torpedoes coming back after they basically have that function in the new Seismic bombs.

seismic charges was a thing in first edition as well. the crazy thing about seismic torpedoes was that they were an action, not an attack. they were a very interesting upgrade to say the least. i'm with you, though. there are a lot of pretty weird stuff slowly being introduced that isn't meant for normal play (i'm looking at you, hyperspace rings). we might see something strange sneak into standard play sooner or later.

57 minutes ago, emeraldbeacon said:

...but seismic charges also preceded seismic torpedoes in first edition, and both always worked the same way, by destroying obstacles...

Nope. Seismic Charges did not destroy obstacles in 1E. They just did straight damage.

Quote

When this bomb token detonates, each ship at Range 1 of the token suffers 1 damage . Then discard this token.

It was as simplistic of a bomb as they get. Which is why they changed it in 2E because many other bombs had a very similar effect and made it not worth the price.