First off, when you get hit with the Ion Cannon it basically simulates your ship being temporarily disabled and drifting through space for one turn right?

While you can still perform an action, being able to perform a barrel roll doesn't make sense to me in the notion that the ship is disabled.

Make sense?

So can you still barrel roll with an Ion token?

Also can you barrel roll more than once? For example can Vader make two barrel rolls during his turn?

Yes you can Barrel Roll after being hit with an Ion Cannon. Its an action and there is nothing that says that you cannot perform a Barrel Roll.

No, Vader cannot Barrel Roll twice. The bottom of pg 9 says " …a ship cannot perform the same action more than once during a single game round (not even when the action is a “free action ”).

Roy

First…yes, you can still barrel roll after resolving an ion token. It's an action, which the ion token doesn't interfere with. Unless you already had a stress token as well. Just think of it as performing a desperate evasive maneuver immediately after recovering from a disabling shot. Second…no you cannot do two barrel rolls. You can never take the same action twice. However, there is some debate whether or not Vader can use Expert Handling to barrel roll twice. There's no expressly clear resolution to that, though. I think the thread about it is still on the front page of the Rules Questions, I'm sure you can find it for more details.

thanks. that's what I thought. Just logically in my head it doesn't make sense that a ship could barrel roll when it's technically 'dead in the water'

In the sense of the rules its dead in the water, but I would assume in physics, its still in motion.

haha, i just posted about this in response to the r2 vs. ion token topic…

in game, yes you can… but i agree with your assertion that it doesnt make sense… in space all movement is started by some sort of thruster, and stopped or slowed by reverse thuster… so a barrel roll shouldnt be able to work unless you say that during the straight 1 move your thrusters reengaged enough to barrel roll ( the only way i could mentally justify it, lol)

EDIT: this is why i dont quote from phone… always mess it up somehow, lol (reposted reply below, and now in this edit it fixed…

Thrawnshand said:

but in space there is no atmosphere, so rudders would not help perform this motion… its all thrusters, think apollo 13

Someone in the forums said that the star wars fighters were using non newtonian physics, like warping space around them to propel themselves, which would explain why the slow down once the engines are down. The pretty lights you see in the engine thrusters are just for show.

that makes sense, still seems to me like something thay would requre engines to accomplish (thanks, i hadnt heard of that before!)

MilesD37 said:

The physics are apparently different in a galaxy far, far away…

But I hadn't noticed being able to barrel roll after being ioized. That does seem funky, and I'm guessing it was an unintended consequence that FFG hadn't noticed, though I doubt they'll negate it now.

ArcticSnake said:

Actually, Lucas used atmospheric physics, based on WWII arial footage, because it was cinematically exciting (quoting form a Lucas interview a long time ago on a video far, far away that I don't recall the name of). Let's not mention the fact that in his galaxy, in space you can in fact hear someone scream, as well as lasers firing… ;p

Well of course he did. I'm not disputing that.

But what if, just what if, a long time ago, in a galaxy far away, they actually did have ships that fly like that. As a thought experiment, wouldn't it be fun if you could actually find a way of explaining how that would be in light of what we know about physics today? Are hokey religions and ancient weapons no substitute for a good old blaster by your side anymore??

If you recall when then Ion cannon on Hoth struck a Star destroyer, it sort of drifted off dead in space, but still moving from the impact. The vessel was holding, so forward movement was nill, until the weapons impact.

A TIE doing several hundred miles per hour would lose use of its engines, but its momentum would still allow it one final turn or dive, before it just drifted off. At least thats how I see it. Like the Awing that is out of control in Jedi before it smashes into the bridge.

Thrawnshand said:

momentum would still allow for this… with some sort of resistance, but in the vacuum of space the A Wing spiral makes more sense as once it starts it doesn't stop… newtonian physics with no limits… motion/rest….

but i digress, it can be done, so it will be- and i'll be a monkeys uncle if i haven't done it (if i can do it in the rules, i'm not gonna let my logic stop me from tactics!)

@ OP: I just always thought of this as a momentary paralysis of the ship while the pilot tries to get systems back online. If you remember in the old Lucas Arts video games you could get hit by an ion cannon and lose some systems, but you're not totally dead in the water unless you sustain several hits. As long as you aren't completely disabled, systems will come back online. Sure I could see Ion rules knocking out Barrel Roll and other actions in this game, but we don't need that weapon to cost any more than it's already high 5 points.

Having used Ion Cannon Turrets recently, it was indeed quite painful to watch the TIEs barrel roll away. It just felt wrong . But considering game balance, I asked myself, "Would I have rather had a range 1-2 Ion Cannon Turret that doesn't disable actions, or a range 1 Ion Cannon Turret that disables actions?" Honestly, I think I'd take the range 1 with no actions, but considering that question made me appreciate the balance involved. Being able to hit at range 2 from any angle is a pretty sweet deal, so I really don't think I can complain about a few TIEs barrel rolling away after an ion blast.