Ok this is the first card i have read that i have been a little unclear on how it resolves.

Text reads

Pilot, The next time you attack, do not roll any attack dice, then flip this card face down.

So question is in order to resolve and flip face down do I need to wait till my next attack phase and just flip during the combat phase?

Or do I need to actually have an enemy ship in my firing arc that i woul be able to attack normally and then just forfiet that would be attack on the combat phase to flip the card.

Which i suppose would bring up another question, if i need to have a ship in my firing arc in order to flip the card does it have to be an enemy ship or would i be allowed to have one of my own ships in my firing arc, so far i havent seen any rules against targeting your own ships so just wondering lol(plus i know my friends would be looking for that kinda loophole)

So whats the general thinking here?

I like your inventiveness, however…

I don't see any provision in the rules for shooting (which equates to rolling dice for this game) without a target, or at a friendly ship. There are, however, clear rules on targeting and shooting enemies .

This rule set seems to be designed with specific instructions for what you can do, and the assumption that, unless stated in the rules or on a card, you cannot do it. For example: the rules don't state that you can't shoot at asteroids, but they also don't state that you can - so we have absolutely no reason to believe that you can.

I feel that its obvious that "blinded pilot" takes away your next legitimate shot at a legitimate enemy target. If you can just shoot a friendly to ditch the negative effect, then its not very negative, is it? The intention of "blinded pilot" is pretty obvious.

So your saying your interpitation of the card is that u need to have an enemy with in your firing arc that u can attack in order to remove blinded pilot?

I would say yes. It did not seem unclear to me when I first read it, and that's how I played it when it appeared in a test solo game.

yagyu said:

Page 10 - Combat Phase - 1. Declare Target - The Attacker chooses which enemy ship he wishes to attack.

This tells me that you cannot target a friendly ship or other object. Maybe there is something in a mission that will let you do that, but as far as regular play goes, you cannot.

Roy

yagyu said:

I would say that since it says "next time you attack" rather than "during the next attack phase" that you can't flip the card until the next time you could legally target and attack an opponent.

Yes. As Roy posted above, the language in the rule book for targeting always uses the word enemy .

Which rule can you point to that would lead you to believe that you can shoot at a friend? Or at nothing?

It looks like pg. 5 lends more evidence to the fact you need to get an enemy ship in your sights to resolve the card:

Think the main question got a little away lol, the friendly target i asked about was just anticipating something one of my buds my try, i also agree that u can only target enemies but wanted it clarified, but the thing i was mainly asking about was do u need an enemy in your firing arc to be able to flip the blinded pilot card or if theres no enemy can u just flip on your next turn, but from the generic opinion here it seems u need to have an enemy in your firing arc in order to be able to flip the card.

yagyu said:

To answer your question, in order to flip the card, your ship needs to be able to make a legal attack. Instructions on making an attack can be found on page 10 of the rulebook.

Roy

I came across this same problem in my second game last night. My friend suggested that it should probably be "weapons malfunction" because you don't notice the problem until you try to fire. It seems really artificial that you're miraculously healed from blindness only after you try to make an attack. But, it is what it is.

Maybe it's supposed to be temporary blindness from an explosive bright flash in the black of space? Like a flash bang?

Daveydavedave said:

This makes sense to me. The thing is, it should just last for one round, whether you try to attack or not. But I've been trying to word it that way and it's really hard!

"The next time this pilot activates during the combat phase, it is unable to fire any weapons [EDIT: i.e. do not roll any attack dice]. Flip this card face down at the end of that combat phase."

Okay, 4th version of writing that seems okay. Thoughts? I think this would be a lot clearer and represent temporary blindness better.

I like the fact that the blindness effect lasts until your next shot. Game mechanically it's a nasty crit effect. To nerf it would indirectly nerf criticals.

I get what you mean about it not making a ton of sense in "real flight combat" but I think it works for the game. It's worded in such a way that it's guaranteed to cost you shots. Instead of a turn you might not have any targets.