Overall the new FAQ is good, and answers a lot of our outstanding questions. But there are a few that have me stumped.

I'm not one to whine about "This should be an errata!!" but there are a few entries in the new FAQ that are confusing at best, and seem to directly contradict the cards as printed at worst. I'm hoping someone official might notice this, and expand on the clarification so we can understand why they work.

Q: Can “Dark Curse” be the target of a secondary weapon attack that requires the attacker to spend a focus token?
A: No.

Concern: Dark Curse's ability starts with "When defending..." Most secondary weapons say "Discard XXX to perform this attack." The new errata to page 10 clarifies an attack as being all 7 steps. Assuming that we have to discard before the attack, Dark Curse shouldn't be defending yet, so it should be legal to spend the token. The actual timing and rules for how to handle secondary weapons in an attack is sort of a jumble right now.

Q: If a ship using Cluster Missiles misses with the first attack and then triggers Gunner/Luke Skywalker, can it still perform the remaining attack granted by Cluster Missiles?
A: Yes.

Concern: The last line of Gunner says "You cannot perform another attack this round." This answer seems to ignore that part of the rule. What gives?

Q: If a ship barrel rolls or boosts onto a proximity mine token, does the token detonate?
A: Yes.

Concern: Proximity Mine says "When a ship executes a maneuver, if its base or movement template overlaps this token..." Boosting and Barrel Rolling aren't maneuvers, so how can they trigger the detonation?

My limited understanding makes me feel the the "You cannot perform another attack this round." more so means u cant keep chaining rerolls for the same attack. and cluster missils are the only attack i believe that are two attacks.

I've covered my confusion over cluster missiles/gunner in the other thread but that's another two good questions you raise.

The impression I get from the decisions they've made with some of the answers is that they are prioritising balance over dogmatically adhering to rules terminology - i.e. they want Dark Curse to have an impact in Wave 3 and think it would be cool to bleed his ability to cover 'Attack(Focus)' weapons. The coolness of this ability is more important to the designers than the impact this has on people trying to reconcile this ability with the RAW.

Similarly with prox. mines and 'action manoeuvres' the designers seem to want prox. mines to be cooler (or worth the cost) and prioritise this along with the confusing R2-D2 shield distinction between obstacles and prox. mines.

I don't mind this too much as we have the FAQ to define how these interactions play out but it will make interpreting future confusing interactions impossible until the designers update the FAQ to tell us their intentions behind the rules.

Can a gunner attack Dark Curse a second time, since it would count as a new attack rather than a re-roll?

Yes, on gunner getting to attack dark curse.

For the cluster missiles, I think that they should have eratted the cluster missile card to say "Immediately perform a second attack..." so you can choose to attack with the second cluster missile shot or the gunner shot. It would reduce a lot of confusion since you would still get the primary gunner attack off the first shot or the second. I am glad that you can't barrel roll or boost over obstacles anymore, though it will reduce my favorite relocation method.

I like that change to Cluster Missiles, but it seems pretty clear from the FAQ that they want the one Cluster attack to include two normal attacks, hence the change to its interaction with Gunner/Luke.

Concern: Proximity Mine says "When a ship executes a maneuver, if its base or movement template overlaps this token..." Boosting and Barrel Rolling aren't maneuvers, so how can they trigger the detonation?

So you are looking for something from FFG that says "Boost and Barrel Roll actions and any other mechanism that causes a ship to change its position on the playing surface is considered a maneuver"?

Because otherwise the obvious answer to your questions is "because the FAQ says so" and doesn't really cause me concern.

Q: If a ship using Cluster Missiles misses with the first attack and then triggers Gunner/Luke Skywalker, can it still perform the remaining attack granted by Cluster Missiles?

A: Yes.

Concern: The last line of Gunner says "You cannot perform another attack this round." This answer seems to ignore that part of the rule. What gives?

Q: If a ship barrel rolls or boosts onto a proximity mine token, does the token detonate?

A: Yes.

Concern: Proximity Mine says "When a ship executes a maneuver, if its base or movement template overlaps this token..." Boosting and Barrel Rolling aren't maneuvers, so how can they trigger the detonation?

Regarding the cluster with Luke/Gunner I am totally with you: This is first of all in straight conflict with the last paragraph that you qoute. If the cluster missiles are "allowed" to override this passage on Luke/Gunner, is anything preventing it from being triggered if/when the second missile tattack misse. To show in my hypothetical order: (Han Solo with Marksmanship, Luke and Cluster Missiles)

1: Fires Cluster missiles with Marksmanship. No Hits. Han rerolls, Marksmanship. All is Evaded.

2: Luke/Gunner fires a new attack (primary weapon) and hits (Including use of Marksmanship).

3: Second Cluster Missile attack misses.Han rerolls, Marksmanship. All is Evaded.

4: Luke/Gunner fires a new attack (primary weapon) and hits.

So now you can actually perform 4 attacks with possible Han rerolls on EACH attack!! And /or you may even try at 2 different targets?? Bye bye TIE fighters, and certainly bye bye if up against a Dual Falcon build.

Regarding your second concern (Barrel/Boost into/through or on top a Proximity Mine) I find this to be totally okay, especially after they made it clear that

A: Prox Mine is not an Obstacle

B: Eventhough Boost/Barrel is not considered a maneuaver, it still uses the template. And certainly it makes the most sens that your ship would trigger the mine, since a mine really doesn't (nor should it) care much about HOW you got that close to it. It is the "closeness" to the mine that is the important bit, not the "howness" (as Karl Pilkington might phrase it :-) )

It seems to me the answers are not confusing at all, just not what you (or I in some cases) were expecting.

Dark Curse now has clear rules re: secondary weapons. No, if they require a focus you may not use them to shoot at Dark Curse regardless of whether or not you or I consider Dark Curse to be defending yet.

Luke/Gunner does not work like I have been using it, nor does it work the way the wording on the card seems to imply. However, the FAQ is clear and you may use both Cluster Missile attacks as well as the Gunner/Luke attack if you miss on the fist CM shot.

Boosting or Barrel Rolling onto a Proximity Mine will set it off. Regardless of the precise wording on the Proximity Mine, regardless of whether Boost/Barrel Roll is a maneuver, this is how it works now.

Maybe this is how they always meant these rules to operate but the wording was unclear before, or maybe after playing for a while now the Dev's have decided that a change was in order and these rules are "new". Regardless, the rules are now unambiguous.

Concern: Proximity Mine says "When a ship executes a maneuver, if its base or movement template overlaps this token..." Boosting and Barrel Rolling aren't maneuvers, so how can they trigger the detonation?

So you are looking for something from FFG that says "Boost and Barrel Roll actions and any other mechanism that causes a ship to change its position on the playing surface is considered a maneuver"?

Because otherwise the obvious answer to your questions is "because the FAQ says so" and doesn't really cause me concern.

The problem is that the ruling directly contradicts the actual printed text. Boost and Barrel Roll are not maneuvers. Prox Mines trigger after maneuvers.

The obvious question now is what else should trigger this way. There are any number of "after executing a maneuver" triggers in the game - if a barrel roll triggers that for landing on a Prox Mine, what else will it trigger it for?

I really don't care whether the Prox Mine does or doesn't, and obviously I'm going to play it as the FAQ says. But commuterzombie hit the nail on the head - it's about whether or not we, as players, have enough information to interpret a new rule without waiting for daddy to come home and tell us how it should be played. As it stands now, if I see a new "after executing a maneuver" ability, I wouldn't have any idea how to play it. Does it actually mean "after maneuver" or does it mean "after maneuver or any movement action"?

Q: Can “Dark Curse” be the target of a secondary weapon attack that requires the attacker to spend a focus token?

A: No.

Concern: Dark Curse's ability starts with "When defending..." Most secondary weapons say "Discard XXX to perform this attack." The new errata to page 10 clarifies an attack as being all 7 steps. Assuming that we have to discard before the attack, Dark Curse shouldn't be defending yet, so it should be legal to spend the token. The actual timing and rules for how to handle secondary weapons in an attack is sort of a jumble right now.

I don't know about that. The FAQ makes it clear that "To perform one attack, players resolve the following steps in order." OK, so it sounds like Step 1 (Declare Target) is part of the attack. But the FAQ doesn't really call out Step 1 as the beginning of an attack; it agrees with the rulebook that you have to follow the steps to get there. And Step 1 clearly says, "The attacker chooses the ship he wishes to attack" (emphasis added). So it sounds to me like the attack hasn't started until you've declared a target, which would make "Dark Curse" the defender.

Now the problem with my interpretation is that it essentially means the FAQ is useless because we can't divine exactly where the attack begins. But this is my viewpoint, and I wanted to share it.

By the way, can somebody describe to me why it's so important to have the combat steps laid out as an attack. I mean, what problem was encountered to prompt this question to be asked in the first place?

Q: Can “Dark Curse” be the target of a secondary weapon attack that requires the attacker to spend a focus token?

A: No.

Concern: Dark Curse's ability starts with "When defending..." Most secondary weapons say "Discard XXX to perform this attack." The new errata to page 10 clarifies an attack as being all 7 steps. Assuming that we have to discard before the attack, Dark Curse shouldn't be defending yet, so it should be legal to spend the token. The actual timing and rules for how to handle secondary weapons in an attack is sort of a jumble right now.

I don't know about that. The FAQ makes it clear that "To perform one attack, players resolve the following steps in order." OK, so it sounds like Step 1 (Declare Target) is part of the attack. But the FAQ doesn't really call out Step 1 as the beginning of an attack; it agrees with the rulebook that you have to follow the steps to get there. And Step 1 clearly says, "The attacker chooses the ship he wishes to attack" (emphasis added). So it sounds to me like the attack hasn't started until you've declared a target, which would make "Dark Curse" the defender.

By the way, can somebody describe to me why it's so important to have the combat steps laid out as an attack. I mean, what problem was encountered to prompt this question to be asked in the first place?

On the first, "Declare Target" is definitely part of the attack, because an attack is Steps 1-7. So there has to be some portion of an attack before you declare the defender. The real question is when you have to spend the token, and when you declare secondary weapons. Dark Curse blocking secondary costs actually creates a problem for other cards. Consider a Blaster/Ion Turret. According to Dark Curse, you don't activate a secondary until after you've selected a target. But how can you select a target outside of your arc before the secondary comes into play?

For the importance of the "attack" definition, it informs basically any ability that says "perform an attack". One big example is Gunner - if "perform an attack" includes Step 1 (declare target) then the Gunner could pick a target other than the original. If "perform an attack" was 2-7, then you had to fire at the original target because you wouldn't have a new declare target step.

It SHOULD also be relevant for secondary weapons, many of which include the "Do something to perform this attack" text. I have thought for a long time that if Attack was 1-7, then weapon selection happened before the attack began. That makes target limits such as range restrictions or turrets work, and clearly puts the spending of tokens before the attack begins. Sadly, while we got the "Attack is 1-7" clarification, the actual rulings make it even more confusing than ever for how secondary weapons work. I honestly have no clue what the timing for their abilities is.

why is it that hard, if for any reason you have to discard, or SPEND your focus token, it doesnt work against dark curse.

Q: If a ship using Cluster Missiles misses with the first attack and then triggers Gunner/Luke Skywalker, can it still perform the remaining attack granted by Cluster Missiles?

A: Yes.

Concern: The last line of Gunner says "You cannot perform another attack this round." This answer seems to ignore that part of the rule. What gives?

Q: If a ship barrel rolls or boosts onto a proximity mine token, does the token detonate?

A: Yes.

Concern: Proximity Mine says "When a ship executes a maneuver, if its base or movement template overlaps this token..." Boosting and Barrel Rolling aren't maneuvers, so how can they trigger the detonation?

Regarding the cluster with Luke/Gunner I am totally with you: This is first of all in straight conflict with the last paragraph that you qoute. If the cluster missiles are "allowed" to override this passage on Luke/Gunner, is anything preventing it from being triggered if/when the second missile tattack misse. To show in my hypothetical order: (Han Solo with Marksmanship, Luke and Cluster Missiles

1: Fires Cluster missiles with Marksmanship. No Hits. Han rerolls, Marksmanship. All is Evaded.

2: Luke/Gunner fires a new attack (primary weapon) and hits (Including use of Marksmanship).

3: Second Cluster Missile attack misses.Han rerolls, Marksmanship. All is Evaded.

4: Luke/Gunner fires a new attack (primary weapon) and hits.

So now you can actually perform 4 attacks with possible Han rerolls on EACH attack!! And /or you may even try at 2 different targets?? Bye bye TIE fighters, and certainly bye bye if up against a Dual Falcon build.

Regarding your second concern (Barrel/Boost into/through or on top a Proximity Mine) I find this to be totally okay, especially after they made it clear that

A: Prox Mine is not an Obstacle

B: Eventhough Boost/Barrel is not considered a maneuaver, it still uses the template. And certainly it makes the most sens that your ship would trigger the mine, since a mine really doesn't (nor should it) care much about HOW you got that close to it. It is the "closeness" to the mine that is the important bit, not the "howness" (as Karl Pilkington might phrase it :-) )

but the han reroll wont work on curse

why is it that hard, if for any reason you have to discard, or SPEND your focus token, it doesnt work against dark curse.

The ruling itself isn't hard. The overall issue is hard because of the timing, what that timing says about when you choose a secondary weapon, and what impact that has on other cards.

1. Dark Curse's ability only applies when he is defending; therefore, according to the ruling you must spend the token (and hence, declare the use of the secondary weapon) AFTER you have declared a target

2. Most secondary weapons modify targeting restriction in some way. For these targeting changes to apply, they must come into effect BEFORE target selection. Otherwise, something like a Turret secondary can't select a target outside your firing arc.

So we have some rulings that require secondaries to be used after target selection, and some that require them to be used before target selection. So when do you choose (and pay for) your secondary weapon? No matter when it happens, it conflicts with something.

I think we just say Dark Curse is an exception to a general rule, and try not to overthink it. You cannot target him because he disrupts focus and rerolls. Whenever you have a game whose components have special rules that "break" the normal rules, you will have a few situations like this one that need special considerations.

I think we just say Dark Curse is an exception to a general rule, and try not to overthink it. You cannot target him because he disrupts focus and rerolls. Whenever you have a game whose components have special rules that "break" the normal rules, you will have a few situations like this one that need special considerations.

This really isn't a good way to think about it.

CCG-style effects break rules, but they always do so within a framework. That framework defines how those abilities interact with each other - when they take effect, when they stop having effect, which one resolves first, which one wins when they conflict, etc. One of the most fundamental strictures in these rule sets is that an ability can't do anything unless it's active. In this case, Dark Curse and secondary weapons are creating a paradox where one of them is breaking that rule.

There's no reason that Dark Curse couldn't be errata'ed to function the same if secondary weapons are declared before he is the defender. There's also no reason why secondary weapons couldn't be errata'ed to fix their timing problem, although that would be a much bigger issue. There's also really no reason not to just accept that Dark Curse can be affected by Deadeye and Blaster Turret.

But making a bunch of one-off exceptions that don't follow the rules of the game is a recipe for confusion and chaos among players. The goal should be that for every ability, there is one and only one possible interpretation for how it works within the rule set. Exceptions break that, because you can never know if a ruling like this is based on a broader rule we just don't understand, and there's no way of knowing if a new ability will follow the rules or be another exception.

It seems to me the answers are not confusing at all, just not what you (or I in some cases) were expecting.

Dark Curse now has clear rules re: secondary weapons. No, if they require a focus you may not use them to shoot at Dark Curse regardless of whether or not you or I consider Dark Curse to be defending yet.

Luke/Gunner does not work like I have been using it, nor does it work the way the wording on the card seems to imply. However, the FAQ is clear and you may use both Cluster Missile attacks as well as the Gunner/Luke attack if you miss on the fist CM shot.

Boosting or Barrel Rolling onto a Proximity Mine will set it off. Regardless of the precise wording on the Proximity Mine, regardless of whether Boost/Barrel Roll is a maneuver, this is how it works now.

Maybe this is how they always meant these rules to operate but the wording was unclear before, or maybe after playing for a while now the Dev's have decided that a change was in order and these rules are "new". Regardless, the rules are now unambiguous.

Yes but the Dev's are throwing page 20 of the rule book out the window.

Or Did they no think about Ion Cannon. Where having a range 1 move white would cause ships with Stress to lose their actions and free action.

Hello X-Wing players!

I unfortunately made an error in the FAQ concerning the question:

Q: If a ship using Cluster Missiles misses with the first attack and then triggers Gunner/Luke Skywalker, can it still perform the remaining attack granted by Cluster Missiles?
A: Yes.

The answer should be "No." We'll post an updated version of the FAQ as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience!

Wow. That was unexpected. Thanks, James!

FFG James,

Here is a good question from Solo14:

Q: If a ship equipped with Nien Nunb or R2

Astromech suffers the ion token effect and

must execute a white [ 1] maneuver, can

he treat it as a green maneuver?

A: Yes

Q: If two or more game effects conflict in changing the difficulty of a maneuver, which effect takes priority?

A: An effect that increases the difficulty of a maneuver takes priority over an effect that decreases the difficulty. For example, if a ship equipped with R2 Astromech is dealt the Damaged Engine card, all

of the ship’s turn maneuvers are treated as red maneuvers, including the 1- and 2-speed turn maneuvers.

I don't understand the ion ruling! Isn't the white maneuver more restrictive than the green? Someone please explain?

The first FAQ entry you refer to there tells us how to handle two different conflicting effects that change the difficulty of a maneuver. But that's not what's happening in the Ion+R2/Nien Numb case. The Ion Token effect doesn't actually change the difficulty of anything, it just says to do a White 1 Ahead maneuver. The only change is the R2/Nien, which takes effect normally.

Nice to see the fix made, and even with the rare live appearance from FFG personnel!

Too bad James is such a ninja - I had about thirty-four various traps laid down to capture him and force him under threat of extensive Barry Manilow to reveal the timing for secondary weapon declaration. Ah well. I'll get you next time, Kniffen!!

LOL Good job. Nice to see some one there is reading this stuff. BTW I am always willing to check any FAQ in Beta before you post it.