I have a question about giving higher ps to ships during combat from either swarm tactics or Roark's ability.

In the following two scenarios, in which one would the destroyed enemy ship get a retribution attack (assuming they didn't fire yet of course)?

Scenario A

Roark gives a PS9 ship PS12 for attack and he destroys a PS9 enemy ship.

Scenario B

A PS9 ship gives swarm tactics to a PS2 ship and he destroys a PS9 enemy ship.

I feel like B is the correct answer, meaning that the modified PS at the time of the attack is what counts, not the original PS.

I had a key situation like this happen in a game tonight in Vassal. My opponent had Soontir with PTL and stealth, but had crashed into one of my ships and had no action. Wedge moved after him and got into range 1 and took a target lock on Soontir. I had Roark give him PS12 since Soontir had imitative. Wedge was able to one-shot him so we said Soontir didn't get a retribution shot since Wedge was shooting at PS12.

B only.

The Simultaneous Fire rules don't come into play with A, as the shooting pilot (at the time of the shooting) outranked the dying pilot by 3 levels.

The Simultaneous Fire rules came into play with B, as both pilots (at the time of the shooting) had the same rank.

Correct - once you change the PS of a pilot via Roark or Swarm Tactics, it stays at the new value and only that value for the rest of the combat phase. Any checks - order, simultaneous fire, etc - all use the altered value.

I'm glad to know I made the right call. That is the reason I did it, so if I got lucky and took Soontir down with Wedge (at PS12) he wouldn't get a retaliation shot out of it.

Though what you should be doing is using Roark to make someone who has swarm tactics a 12. Then you can have two PS12s.

Though I should just prophylactically reinforce my point: when a player has two effects that resolve at the same time, you choose the order in which they resolve. SInce both Swarm Tactics and Roarks ability say "at the start of the combat phase" you pick which one goes first.

Though what you should be doing is using Roark to make someone who has swarm tactics a 12. Then you can have two PS12s.

That works good when the ship with swarm isn't super high PS, but since my squad is 9, 4, 2, 2, I rather shoot 12, 9, 9, 4 instead of 12, 12, 4, 2.