Hi Guys,

My son and myself are just learning the game by just using the ships and really haven't used the upgrade cards yet, just been learning the ships and their cards. These are pretty straight forward and we think we have them down. We are ready to go full go to integrate everything in the game.

Questions about asteroids are coming up. Can I shoot past them like the ships, or is there a die bonus? When I land on one or pass over one. What happens?

Target locks. How do they work normally and with the upgrades that use them?

I know these my be newb questions, but sometimes when your looking for an answer in the book. It may be looking right at you and you still don't see it. I figured I would ask the experienced players for help.

Thanks for your help.

If you want to shoot at a ship, you have to measure the closest distance between them. If that happens to pass through an asteroid, the defender gets +1 defense die. When looking at the models sometimes you could argue that you could make a shot that misses the asteroid and still hit the other ship, but this is not allowed. Your shot counts as if going the shortest distance between you.

Target locks can be spent in two ways.

1. After you roll attack dice, you can remove the target lock ("spend it") to reroll as many of your dice as you want.

2. Some secondary weapons require you to have a target lock on your target, and spend it, to allow you to fire the secondary weapon (proton torpedoes for example). This means the lock is spent to fire the weapon, and you can't also use it to reroll your dice. A few secondary weapons (or perhaps just one, I can only think of homing missiles right now) requires you to HAVE a target lock, but not spend it to fire the weapon.

Thank you very much.

Attacking through asteroids can be complicated, range is determined from closest point to closest point between the ships. While turret weapons will use the same path when attacking, primary weapons will not. With these attacks, the shortest distance line WITHIN the firing arc is the only line that matters.

When you land on an asteroid, you lose your "perform action" step of your activation phase so you can't pick an action to do. (note: if you got a free action given, say by squad leader or Lando's pilot ability, you could boost or barrel roll off the rock if you could take one of these as an action and it would CLEAR the rock, if not then the boost or barrel roll action would not be allowed). Also, while on the rock, you can't shoot with that ship.

If your maneuver template went over the asteroid, but your base landed clear of the rock, you just lose your perform action step.(Note: your ship does not "follow" the template, it simply bookends the template and overlapping an obstacle only counts with the template's and the base's position.)

When you land on an asteroid, you lose your "perform action" step of your activation phase so you can't pick an action to do. (note: if you got a free action given, say by squad leader or Lando's pilot ability, you could boost or barrel roll off the rock if you could take one of these as an action and it would CLEAR the rock, if not then the boost or barrel roll action would not be allowed). Also, while on the rock, you can't shoot with that ship.

If your maneuver template went over the asteroid, but your base landed clear of the rock, you just lose your perform action step.(Note: your ship does not "follow" the template, it simply bookends the template and overlapping an obstacle only counts with the template's and the base's position.)

All the above is true, but do not forget to roll for damage. Just adding for completeness.

Oh yeah, the damage part.

Oh there's even more asteroid-y goodness.

If your move template touches an asteroid, but your ship base clears it at the end of your move, you still lose your action and still roll for damage, but can shoot normally. If you land with your base ON the asteroid you can't shoot, either.

You can boost or barrel roll off the asteroid if given a free action - or, the following round, if you're in a B-wing with Advanced Sensors, before executing your move - but ONLY if you can do so without the boost or roll template touching the obstacle. If you land smack dab centered on a rock, with even a little bit poking out in every direction under your base, you're SOL.

And while you can potentially boost or roll OFF a rock, saving yourself an additional action loss and damage roll, you can never land ON an obstacle using a boost or roll as that is not considered legal.

I'm sure there are a couple more odd ones I'm forgetting.

So far everything is great we used it all yesterday playing, the dice were hot.

Now what happens if the ship starts the Activation Phase already on an asteroid? The same as above? Finish movement, no action and rolls a Attack die for damage?

Thanks a ton guys. You have all been great with your responses.

Attacking through asteroids can be complicated, range is determined from closest point to closest point between the ships. While turret weapons will use the same path when attacking, primary weapons will not. With these attacks, the shortest distance line WITHIN the firing arc is the only line that matters.

Range for firing (non-turret primary) is always measured withun the firing arc,regardless of whether an obstacle is present.

So far everything is great we used it all yesterday playing, the dice were hot.

Now what happens if the ship starts the Activation Phase already on an asteroid? The same as above? Finish movement, no action and rolls a Attack die for damage?

Thanks a ton guys. You have all been great with your responses.

This is where it gets tricky. If you can get off the asteroid without your move template touching the rock template, you're fine. This is where barrel rolling off with advanced sensors can be handy. If you put down your move template and it overlaps the asteroid in the slightest, you roll a damage die again, and lose your action. You can shoot normally, however, unless you manage to land right back on the same (or another) asteroid.

I have seen ships (mostly big base) not only have to roll damage to clear the rock, but then execute their move and land smack dab on a second rock.

I have seen ships (mostly big base) not only have to roll damage to clear the rock, but then execute their move and land smack dab on a second rock.

The ship hits two obstacles but rolls for damage only once. The logic is not easy to follow but that's the way it is.

So far everything is great we used it all yesterday playing, the dice were hot.

Now what happens if the ship starts the Activation Phase already on an asteroid? The same as above? Finish movement, no action and rolls a Attack die for damage?

Thanks a ton guys. You have all been great with your responses.

The starting position is not factored into an overlap situation. It only looks at the maneuver template being laid down (maneuver or boost/barrel roll) and your base's final position. If either overlays an obstacle, you have overlapped.

In the case of boost/barrel roll template you have to go back and choose a) different direction that will have the template clear of the rock or b) different action altogether.

I have seen ships (mostly big base) not only have to roll damage to clear the rock, but then execute their move and land smack dab on a second rock.

The ship hits two obstacles but rolls for damage only once. The logic is not easy to follow but that's the way it is.

True but they still lose their action and can't shoot on back to back turns.

Now when I use my target lock with a secondary weapon (torpedos or missles), is there any bonus die for range or asteroids?

If you're spending the target lock to fire the missiles, then no. There is no bonus other than getting to make the attack. Since they are secondary weapons, the range bonuses (+1 Att at Rng 1 & +1 Agi at Rng 3) do not apply, but any bonus for having an asteroid in the line of fire does apply.

Now when I use my target lock with a secondary weapon (torpedos or missles), is there any bonus die for range or asteroids?

I'm curious why you would ask that, just because target locks involve rerolls and not bonus dice in the first place. Want to make sure you're understanding all of the modifiers properly...