I've been playing this game since release and I've had a situation with barrel rolls come up a couple of times that continues to confound me:

When executing a barrel roll, is it possible to complete the action such that the base of the rolling ship touches another ship (so as to prevent an attack by the touching ship, for example)?

The rules are clear that you cannot perform a barrel roll if it would cause you to overlap another ship, but my understanding is that touching bases is not the same thing as overlapping bases. I've not seen anything in a FAQ or rule book that clarifies this situation.

As I understand the rules the answer to your question is ... No...

The only way you can make it so that your opponent can't fire at you will also make your barrel roll not work.

Overlapping and touching are different. If you overlap you may not fire at that ship.. though touching.. really doesn't matter..

If anyone can find fault with my logic, please feel free to correct me.

If you overlap you may not fire at that ship.. though touching.. really doesn't matter..

If anyone can find fault with my logic, please feel free to correct me.

Page 17 of the rule book says, "Ships whose bases are touching cannot declare each other as a target during the Combat phase while their bases remain touching."

The question here is whether or not the base of a ship which performs a barrel roll is allowed to touch the base of another ship.

Per the FAQ, ships cannot be considered touching if they did not overlap that round. So no, you cannot barrel roll into touching.

Per the FAQ, ships cannot be considered touching if they did not overlap that round. So no, you cannot barrel roll into touching.

Thanks dbmeboy. I don't know how I missed that in the FAQ.

Dbmeboy is right, as usual. You can do a barrel roll and move the ship forwards/backwards so that the ship bases are physically in contact, but they are not "touching" in the sense that prevents them from firing at each other according to the rule book. "Touching" is being given a technical definition as the result of resolving an overlap, rather than the commonplace definition.

Ok.. I thought there was something about barrel rolls and boosts no longer being able to be completed when the movement template covered an obsticle, or another ship.. wasn't this also in the faq??

Ok.. I thought there was something about barrel rolls and boosts no longer being able to be completed when the movement template covered an obsticle, or another ship.. wasn't this also in the faq??

Yes, you are right that you can't perform the action if it would cause you to overlap another ship. This is in the rule book.

But there are instances where you can complete the roll without overlapping and then slide your ship back/forward along the template until your ship's base physically touches another ship's base. This is the situation I was talking about. But now we already have an answer for this situation.

Right.. sliding is always possible.