Sass said:

Disagree with it being a bad rule. We have 2 combat icons that do not do damage to the objective. We have(or can have) unit abilities that trigger off of engaging an objective and focusing to strike. The objective engagement process does not necessarily revolve around the combat icons.

A unit that focuses to strike that has no icons and has a special ability that does something significant during an engagement can be just as relevant to a conflict as a unit with combat icons. Only connecting unopposed damage to combat icons would be a little too lean of an ability. In addition to that, we have units that only have white combat icons where part of the strategy should also finding other ways to destroy participating defenders so you can still get the unoppose damage.

I have to say that I really like having multiple angles to try and damage objectives.

Niranth said:

After rereading what I typed, I want to clarify my earlier answer to this. In the case of viewing face down cards (edge stack or otherwise), my original interpretation was not reading the rules too literally, it was making a judgement call when extrapolating beyond what the rules covered. I guess it could be considered incorrect, as my interpretation ended up being different than the rules clarification. However, it was not incorrect in the same way as trying to read the unopposed bonus rules in a way that requires there to have been a defender. In the case of the unopposed bonus, the wording in the rules covers the question. For face down cards, the rules didn't say anything.

As to the white icons i won't even address that as the rule book does it very nice, but as to "We have 2 combat icons that do not do damage to the objective" while on the face of it that's a true statement but one of those icon is used!! to get an unopposed strike, the other is at least a reason to focus although if used doesn't give unopposed. while again i consede "A unit that focuses to strike that has no icons and has a special ability that does something significant during an engagement can be just as relevant to a conflict as a unit with combat icons" you are FOCUSING to do something other than just saying "i'm here, i focus you take damage sir!" While you say "Only connecting unopposed damage to combat icons would be a little too lean of an ability." I say it"s way to powerful of an abilty to give any unit that does nothing more than just give a resource or an action that has no affect on the current phase thus there is real no penalty for focusing.

Guys, during the conflict phase if I don't have any unit with the Blast Damage icon to strike the Objective thus I have to pass the step "Declare Objective", can I still continue with the second step "Declare Attackers" in order to strike the oponent's Units? IF No then what happens?

Luminous Quasar said:

Having blast damage icons is not a requirement to declare a unit as an attacker or to declare an objective to attack. To answer you question: No.

What happens:

1) You pick an objective that you had not previously initiated an engagement against to engaged.

2) You declare your attackers (no matter what icons they do or do not have)

3) Your opponent may or may not declare defenders (remember, if they don't defend then you'll get a free damage on the objective for being unopposed at the end of the engagement)

4) Engagement continues as normal

dbmeboy said:

Thanks dbmeboy for the answer. I'm still a bit confused with the answer as you said No (in replying my question meaning - I can't continue with the rest of the steps, but the latter answer with dot points allows to continue with the steps). Perhaps I didn't ask the question clearly either. My apology.

So I take it as I can continue with the rest of the engagement steps and strike the Units only as I cannot strike an Objective (that requires a blast damage icon). Is it correct?

Luminous Quasar said:

My bad. To be more clear, what I meant by the "no" was that you couldn't skip declaring an objective to engage. You still have to do that, and then the engagement continues as normal.

Edit: now that I have a computer instead of my phone, I'll expand:

Let's say that you're the LS player and you only have an A-Wing ready. You've engaged 2 of the 3 DS objectives, but have not yet engaged The Emperor's Web .

1) You declare that you are engaging The Emperor's Web…

2) … with the A-Wing

3) Your opponent may choose to defend. Let's say they don't, for simplicity sake

4) The edge battle happens. You will automatically win as there are no defenders, but you may still choose to play cards such as Target of Opportunity or Battle of Hoth (upcoming). This also counts as winning an edge battle for purposes of cards like Hit and Run .

5) Strikes. In this instance, you'll strike with the A-Wing. You place a focus token on it and resolve its combat icons. The single unit damage icon would do damage to a participating enemy unit, but as there are none in this example nothing happens. This could change if you gave the A-Wing targeted strike. You could also have a trick up your sleeve like Crossfire to add some pain. Additionally, the A-Wing's reaction triggers and you draw a card. Yay!

6) Reward unopposed. The A-Wing in this example is unopposed so you get to deal one damage to The Emperor's Web as the unopposed bonus.

I hope that gives you some idea of why you might want to engage with no blast damage icons (and why the defender might want to defend).

dbmeboy said:

Thanks again dbmeboy for willing to explain the detail. Now .. based on your sample of the conflict phase above .. just to clarify again .. in step 1 you declare to engage The Emperor's Web (objective) but after step 6 there is no follow up to this (besides to put 1 damage as the unopposed bonus).

So I take it since the A-Wing doesn't have a blast damage icon, that means the Objective can't be hit (except for the damage that is caused by unopposed bonus). Is it correct?

If let's say there was a surviving defender and (again) since the A-Wing doesn't have a blast damage icon, this means there will be no damage at all for The Emperor's Web … is it correct?

Luminous Quasar said:

Correct on both.

Luminous Quasar said:

While the A-Wing's strike will not do any damage to The Emperor's Web in that example, there are a handful of other ways you could get damage through. For instance, Target of Opportunity would still deal damage to it. Also, Crossfire could be played to give the A-Wing a blast damage icon. With 2 copies of one of those and one copy of the other, the unopposed A-Wing would destroy The Emperor's Web in a single engagement (unlikely, but possible). Alternatively, you could use Battle of Hoth (upcoming fate card that deals one damage to or removes one damage from a target Hoth objective) to hit a Hoth objective your opponent controls for one more damage. But yes, barring any other tricks the A-Wing will only do the single unopposed damage and not even that if there is a surviving defender (though it will then have gotten to do its unit damage).