The combat phase goes from highest pilot skill to lowest. Garnet's ability lets you turn an ally at range 1-3 into a skill 12. When the combat phase starts are you allowed to check firing arcs and range before choosing which ally to buff?

Page 10 in the rule book says....

1. Declare Target

During this step, the attacker (the active ship) must declare its target (the ship he wishes to attack). The target ship must be inside the attackers firing arc and within range. A player may measure to verify that these conditions are met before declaring a target.

Any thoughts on this one?

Garnet's ability lets you turn an ally at range 1-3 into a skill 12.

Any time a card or rule tells you can do X and lists range or Arc, you are allowed to check to see if your target meets the requirements.

This is true of TL, Firing, giving a free action with Squad Leader, ect...

_{So before choosing which ally to buff, I can check all of their firing arcs and range to enemies? Thats the issue here. I just need to know if when the combat phase starts i'm allowed to check range and arcs to all enemies before choosing who to make pilot skill 12.}

I'm inclined to say no - you could check the range to your allies, but there's nothing there that implies you'd be able to randomly measure the range/arc from each of your allies to their potential targets as part of Roark's ability. I think you'd have to eyeball that one, or come up with another way of checking them which would explicitly allow you to do so.

_{I just need to know if when the combat phase starts i'm allowed to check range and arcs to all enemies before choosing who to make pilot skill 12.}

Oh ok, I wasn't sure I understood your question completely. It seems I didn't.

I'd say no, you can't check the range on ships from your target, before picking.

Generally it works like this.

If the rules say to check the range, or mention a range you can check from the active ship to it's target. That doesn't however allow you to check the ranges of other ships.

So you can check the range from one ship to other ships to see if you can TL with them. Or you can check the arc to make sure the target is in your ships arc of fire.

But nothing lets you check ranges from a non-active ship to other ships.

I'm also in the "No" crowd. While you could measure round Roark to determine who could use his boost, and "inadvertently" measure something else in there, you would/should not be allowed to figure out your shots before choosing who gets the PS boost.

Basically you pick the target for Roark's ability based only on how far it is from Roark.

Agreed. The way the rules tend to work, as far as only being able to (but always being able to) measure an ability when that's the only way it would be able to function (Squad Leader or something, for example), look at Roark.

Is it necessary to measure to one of his allies to determine/prove that it is within range of his ability? Yes.
It it in any way necessary to measure FROM his ally TO the enemy his ally would potentially target, for Roark's ability to function? No. It would be handy, but it's in no way necessary. So that second measurement wouldn't be allowed.

Add another "no" vote. You can measure only when an ability requires or allows you to measure. Nothing in Roark's ability requires you to know who a given ship can hit, so you can't measure range for them. The only thing you're required to know is whether a given ship is within range 3 of Roark himself, so that's the only thing you can measure.

Awesome, thanks for the heads up. My friend thought the same as all you but I wanted to double check. Good to know.

The combat phase goes from highest pilot skill to lowest. Garnet's ability lets you turn an ally at range 1-3 into a skill 12. When the combat phase starts are you allowed to check firing arcs and range before choosing which ally to buff?

Page 10 in the rule book says....

1. Declare Target

During this step, the attacker (the active ship) must declare its target (the ship he wishes to attack). The target ship must be inside the attackers firing arc and within range. A player may measure to verify that these conditions are met before declaring a target.

Any thoughts on this one?

That rule is allowing the active ship, i.e. the ship with PS of 12, to declare its target by checking range and arc. You must choose who gets the PS 12 boost before you can use this rule as this rule applies to the active ship. If you haven't chosen a ship to get the PS 12 boost then the lower PS ships are not active and will have to wait until their PS level before they can use that rule to check arc and range.

Roark's ability allows you to pick one ship at the start of the combat phase to go first.

Once chosen, THAT ship may check range and arc to target first, but you cannot check range and arc with all your ships before you give one Roark's ability.

To summarize, pick, measure, then perform the action. If the action isn't legal after measuring repeat.