If a fighter has a stress token, can it be assigned a focus token by Garven Dreis's ability (which state: After spending a focus token, you may place that token on any other friendly ship at Range instead of discarding it).

Similary, "Dutch" Vander's ability states: After acquiring a Target Lock, choose another friendly ship at Range 1-2. The chosen ship may immediately acquire a target lock.

Can these be assigned to ships that have a stress token?

Rulebook top of page 17: While a ship has at least one stress token, it cannot execute red maneuvers or perform any actions (even
free actions).

Under Actions section on page 8 the phrase " Perform an action " means placing the token next to your ship. Then the token can be "spent" for its effect.

So yes , I would say that special rules allowing for already stressed ships to get a token (focus or lock) are legal because of the wording. These ships are receiving a token that can be spent, not performing an action which is prohibited.

I may be reading into the technical language too much. Does anyone disagree?

If Garven Dreis's ability said: "After spending a focus token, you may grant another pilot within range 1-2 a free focus action," then I would argue that a stressed pilot could not receive the focus token, because he could not legally take an action of any kind (even a free action) until he performed a green maneuver.

But as written, it seems that a stressed pilot CAN benefit from Garven or Dutch's special rules.

TnT said:

Garven Dreis - Yes. Spent focus tokens are used during the combat phase. Placing the spent token on another ship is NOT performing an action because it is in the combat phase. So you would be able to place this on a ship with a stress token.

Dutch - No. Acquiring a Target Lock is performing an action. So Dutch can only let a ship WITHOUT a stress token acquire a new target lock.

Roy

Good catch on Dutch. Roy is absolutely correct. "Aquiring a Locked Target" is an action, and stressed pilots can under no circumstances perform an action.

One thing to note: Dutch has pilot skill 6, so if the pilot you plan to stress is higher skill (activating AFTER Dutch), then you could still give him the lock. If the pilot is lower skill then Dutch (activating BEFORE Dutch), then he would have to either perform a green move if he was stressed, or avoid doing a red move and becoming stressed in order to accept the donated target lock.

Either way you have some tactical flexibility to make the extra lock happen if you work it right.

drkjedi35 said:

I'm not sure about this after reading the card. This is part of Dutch's action, not the action of the ship who is receiving the target lock. If it said give the other ship a free target lock action or something like that I would definitely agree (then it is clearly the other ships action). But, as worded, it sounds like this is something Dutch is doing, not something the other/stressed ship is doing. Lots of cards say "action" on them, but this one does not (it is a special ability that allows another ship to acquire a target lock without taking an action if Dutch does so).

As far as I can tell you only take actions on your turn, so this doesn't count as the other ship's action since it is Dutch's turn. Or, am I missing / misreading something here?

EDIT: On p. 8 it says "each ship may perform one action immediately after moving." So, since this is being done before or after the other/stressed ship moves (that is, as part of Dutch's move, not it's own), I don't think it counts as an action.

If the ship wasn't stressed that would be like saying, "well, Dutch gave it a target lock action (and it doesn't say it is a free action) so it can't take any other action this turn because the target lock is it's action for the turn." I don't think that is the intent, I think it can take advantage of the special ability from Dutch when it is stressed, and also do it's own action if /when applicable on it's own turn.

I think it's like a free action. "Aquiring a target lock" is the language uses for both the target lock action AND Dutch's special rule text. If Dutch's text said that another ship may receive a target lock token, that would be different. See what I mean? Compare Dutch's text to the target lock rules in the action section of the rule book and see if you agree.

El_Tonio said:

I agree here. The intent of Dutch's rule is to give the other ship a chance to target lock and still do his own action.

Dutch's text: "After aquiring a target lock, choose another friendly ship at range 1-2. The chosen ship may immediately aquire a target lock .

Rulebook page 9: "Aquire a Target Lock [Target Lock Symbol]

Ships with the [Target Lock Symbol] icon in their action bar may perform the AQUIRE A TARGET LOCK action to place a pair of target lock tokens….

In the process of writing this you have changed my mind. It may seem like a semantic argument, but the text on Dutch's card says "immediately aquire a target lock" and the text in the book says "may perform the AQUIRE A TARGET LOCK action." If Dutch's card was all capitals then I might consider it the same as the book (in which case it would count as an action), but its lower case and not bolded, and the language says nothing about free actions.

I think Dutch's ability can work for a wingman who is stressed .

El_Tonio said:

This is another good argument. When Dutch gives the target lock to another pilot, it is by definition not that pilots turn. Actions only happen on a pilots turn, therefore this cannot be an action. I think the evidence is now stronger for the interpretation that Dutch can give a target lock to anyone within range period, stressed or not.

The telling point would be if the "acquire" in the phrasing on the card is capitalized or not. If it is capitalized, they are using the action. Otherwise, they are just using a word that means they get a token.

My reading of the ability is that the target ship receives the target lock regardless if it is stressed or not. On page 20 it stares in a side bar:

Breaking the Rules
Some abilities on cards conflict with the general rules. In case of a conflict, card text overrides the general rules .
If one card ability forbids an effect, while another ability allows it, the effect is forbidden.

I know that this is a statement included in most every game, but I think it applies here.

Daveydavedave said:

I don't think this is the case. Dutch's card doesn't say it gives them a target lock action, it just says they get a target lock. I think it is automatic because of this and other reasons I've mentioned above (especially the fact that you only get actions at the end of your move phase and this is taking place on Dutch's move).

So, if the card is worded even close to intended it is ok. If it is not ok they did a TERRIBLE job with the text wording in this instance.

EDIT: Look at Night Beast's card, it says: "After executing a green maneuver, you may perform a free focus action." So, they do use the phrase action and free action on the cards. Since they did not for Dutch, and for other reasons outlined above, I think they would have a hard time ruling that it counts as the other ships action. Especially since the don't say free action, which would mean it couldn't its own action if it went after Dutch. Makes no sense for that to be the case.