hey all, I just picked up the core game and tried it with a few friends tonight. Anyway I had a few questions about Actions...

Can someone explain a "Target Lock" What is it and how do I make it work for me.

how is it different from say, the "Focus" Action.

Likewise, how is "evade" different from "Focus"?

Ive read through the rulebook, but many of these things just seem redundant. Anyways, thanks in advance for any help! Im not new to mini war games and look forward to contributing!

hey all, I just picked up the core game and tried it with a few friends tonight. Anyway I had a few questions about Actions...

Can someone explain a "Target Lock" What is it and how do I make it work for me.

how is it different from say, the "Focus" Action.

Likewise, how is "evade" different from "Focus"?

Ive read through the rulebook, but many of these things just seem redundant. Anyways, thanks in advance for any help! Im not new to mini war games and look forward to contributing!

Hello, and welcome to the game. I'll do my best here for you.

Target Lock / Focus / Evade are actions that can be performed during the activation phase. You'll know if your pilot can perform these actions because their symbols will be printed on their pilot card, and on the cardboard insert for the ship's base.

Target Lock kind of looks like a HUD symbol, Focus looks like an eye, and Evade looks like a squiggly arrow around a dot.

Taking a Target Lock action grants you a Target Lock onto an enemy ship that is anywhere within Range 3 of your ship. This ship does not need to be in your firing arc for you to obtain a Target Lock. Target Locks let you re-roll dice or use secondary weapons that require a Target Lock.

Taking a Focus action grants you a Focus token. You may spend Focus tokens to change any die results from an eye symbol to a Hit symbol on the red dice, or an evade symbol on the green dice. When do you this, you change ALL eye symbols. You do NOT need a token for each eye you rolled.

Taking an Evade action grants you an Evade token. You use Evade tokens during defense to grant you an automatic Evade in combat.

There are a few nuances with this, but this is the basic. You'll want to familiarize yourself with the steps in the Combat Phase so you know when you can modify dice, and when your opponent can modify dice.

The descriptions of the actions start on Page 8 in the rules book.

Hope this helps...

Ok, here we go.

On Target Locks:

• A target lock goes from one specific ship to another specific ship.
• When you perform the action, the target ship must be at Range 1-3 from your ship.
• All Missiles and Torpedoes to date require you to have a Target Lock on the defender before you can fire the attack.
• When you spend a target lock outside of activating that attack, you may pick any number of your attack dice (can be 0, can be 2, et cetera), and re-roll them.
• Unlike Focus and Evade, Target Locks do NOT get cleared at the end of your turn. They stay until you acquire a different Target Lock, until you spend it, or until one of the two ships involved is slain.

On Focus:

• As attacker OR as defender, you may spend a Focus token to turn all Eyeball results on your die roll into Hits/Evades.
• Unlike Target Lock, focus tokens are cleared at the end of turn.
• Unlike Target Lock, you do not have to have an enemy in mind to perform the action. You can Focus before they come into Range.
• You can spend a Target Lock and a Focus Token on the same attack, for massive amounts of damage. Similarly, you can spend an Evade Token and a Focus Token to dodge very high damage, assuming you can get them both in a turn.
• Statistically, Focusing increases your damage by the same rate as a Target Lock. Focusing with more than 4 defensive dice will also prevent more damage than Evading.
• Focus is currently the only action in the game which can buff both Offense or Defense, depending on your mood.

On Evade:

• As a defender, you may spend an Evade token to add 1 Evade result to your rolled dice. This pretty much guarantees you'll dodge 1 damage.
• Statistically, spending an Evade token will prevent more damage than spending a Focus token at 3 or less dice.
• Like a Focus Token, and unlike a Target Lock, you MUST clear the Evade Tokens at the end of turn.
• Like a Focus Token, and unlike a Target Lock, you do not have to have an Enemy in mind when you take the action.

that too...what he said.

Thanks for the awesome replies guys, just had one follow up question:

Unless a card says otherwise, you can only do one Action a turn right?

Yes. And if something does allow you to do more than one action a turn, they have to be different actions (ie: not focusing twice).

Awesome! thanks guys!

One important point that I did not see addressed above (apologies if I missed it)...

Make sure to note the difference between actions and tokens. You cannot take two focus actions in a turn, even if you have PTL or are flying Vader or whatever. But take Garven Dreis; his ability says that after spending a focus token, he can then place that token on any friendly ship at range 1-2.

If you had Garven in your squad, and took a focus action, you could wind up with 2 focus tokens on your ship, perfectly legally. Garven did not have you perform a focus action, he simply passed off his used focus token, in addition to the one generated by your Focus action. There is no limit to the number of tokens you can have on you at any one time.

This is in contrast with something like Squad Leader, which lets you hand out a free action. You can't do the same action twice, even if one of them is a 'free' action - free just means it doesn't count against your one action a turn, and the rules for not duplicating actions on a turn are still in place.

There are a number of different actions where that can come up, so just keep an eye out for it and keep in mind that tokens are linked to but separate from actions.

A continuation of what he said:

So far, the pilots who deal with Tokens rather than Free Actions are:

• Garven Dreis (When he spends a Focus Token, he may assign it to a friendly ship)
• Kyle Katarn (He may assign a Focus Token to another friendly ship at the start of combat)
• "Dutch" Vander (When he acquires a Target Lock, another friendly ship may do so as well)
• Colonel Jendon (Actually passes out a Target Lock token at the start of combat)
• Soontir Fel (Gains a Focus Token when he gains a Stress Token)

Ok, here we go.

On Target Locks:

• A target lock goes from one specific ship to another specific ship.
• When you perform the action, the target ship must be at Range 1-3 from your ship.
• All Missiles and Torpedoes to date require you to have a Target Lock on the defender before you can fire the attack.
• When you spend a target lock outside of activating that attack, you may pick any number of your attack dice (can be 0, can be 2, et cetera), and re-roll them.
• Unlike Focus and Evade, Target Locks do NOT get cleared at the end of your turn. They stay until you acquire a different Target Lock, until you spend it, or until one of the two ships involved is slain.

This is not totally correct.

Homing Missiles only require that you have a target lock, they do not require you to spend it (and thusly you could use it to modify the results of Homing Missiles attack dice.

Additionally it's good to remember that you cannot reroll a die that has already ben rerolled. So for instance, let's say you have a TIE bomber firing his primary weapon at an enemy at range 1, and the bomber is in range 1 of Howlrunner. The bomber has a target lock.

he rolls 1 hit and two blanks. Spending his target lock, he rerolls the two blanks and gets a hit and a blank. He now has 2 hits and 1 blank. SInce he already rerolled it with his target lock, he cannot benefit from Howlrunners reroll ability.

there, hope that helps!

Ok, here we go.

On Target Locks:

• A target lock goes from one specific ship to another specific ship.
• When you perform the action, the target ship must be at Range 1-3 from your ship.
• All Missiles and Torpedoes to date require you to have a Target Lock on the defender before you can fire the attack.
• When you spend a target lock outside of activating that attack, you may pick any number of your attack dice (can be 0, can be 2, et cetera), and re-roll them.
• Unlike Focus and Evade, Target Locks do NOT get cleared at the end of your turn. They stay until you acquire a different Target Lock, until you spend it, or until one of the two ships involved is slain.

This is not totally correct.

Homing Missiles only require that you have a target lock, they do not require you to spend it (and thusly you could use it to modify the results of Homing Missiles attack dice.

Additionally it's good to remember that you cannot reroll a die that has already ben rerolled. So for instance, let's say you have a TIE bomber firing his primary weapon at an enemy at range 1, and the bomber is in range 1 of Howlrunner. The bomber has a target lock.

he rolls 1 hit and two blanks. Spending his target lock, he rerolls the two blanks and gets a hit and a blank. He now has 2 hits and 1 blank. SInce he already rerolled it with his target lock, he cannot benefit from Howlrunners reroll ability.

there, hope that helps!

Homing Missiles still require you to HAVE the Target Lock, which is what I said. The elucidation is something I'd point out attached to Homing Missiles rather than the Target Lock action itself.