Free Actions and Stress

[Caedus 9]

So this came up indirectly pre-game last night, so I need to clarify a few things.

The rules on p 17 state that stress prevents actions, even free actions.

So firstly, Turr Phennir's ability would not be usable if he was stressed (as it is a free action).

And secondly, even Squad Leader would not be able to help a Stressed out ally nearby.

Are these instances to follow the normal rules (above), or exceptions somehow?

And so a "free action" is only "free" in the sense that it is an additional action on top of your normal on in the activation phase.

[KineticOperator 2,534]

You are correct on both points, Turr Phennir cannot use his ability while stressed, neither can Squad Leader give a free action to a stressed ship.

 

Be cautious however, when you apply this rule.  Some things simply assign tokens, which is legal, as long as the ship is not actually taking an action (Garven Dreis may give a focus to a stressed ally, for example).  Also, if the ship has lost its action due to overlapping a ship or obstacle it is still able to use a free action even though it lost its "normal" action (assuming it is not stressed).

 

Finally, be careful because free or not an action may only be performed once per round.  For example, you cannot focus then use a free action to take another focus.  Again, this affects only the action, not the token, so if you can get the tokens some other way than through an action then it works.

Edited September 7, 2013 by KineticOperator

[Jehan Menasis 1,562]

Also, note that some effects may cause you to skip your action step. In that case, and assuming you don't have stress, your ship could still perform any free action granted to him outside the action step. For example, Turr Phennir could not perform any action if he has to skip his action step, however, he is able to barrel roll or boost after his attack, since that free action is granted outside his action step.

[Caedus 9]

Glad to know I'm on the right track now! I was aware of the differences between tokens and actions, and not repeating actions, it was just the plain old "free action" terminology which I hadn't sorted out defintively in my head.

Jehan, are you thinking of anything specifically besides Advanced Sensors and collisions between ships or obstacles?

[Buhallin 4,563]

The point he's making applies to anything that give one ship the option to let another take an action, or that might let that ship take an action later.  Lando, Squad Leader, Turr...  All let a ship take an action outside of its normal Perform Action Step.  So you could, for example, do a move which causes you to collide with another ship, costing your action, and then Vader comes along and uses Squad Leader to let you focus anyway, or Barrel Roll so you're out of contact and can fire by the time combat comes around.

 

That last trick got a little harder with the new FAQ - used to be a nifty way to recover from screwing up...  Park a TIE on an asteroid, have Vader use Squad Leader to let it barrel roll off...  but with the new errata to barrel roll/boost, it's trickier to do now.

 

One last wrinkle to throw into the mix is that in the case of some of the more complex actions, you can get the effect and go through all the steps without it actually being an action.  The best example of this is Dutch, that lets a friendly ship "acquire a target lock".  Even though the steps are the same as when you take the action, it's not actually an action - meaning that you can do it even if you lost your own action step, or have a stress token.

[TheKestrel 63]

Here's a very good example from a game I played last night, where my opponent set up my Turr Phennir (with PtL) to collide with his A-Wing. He then proceeded to take advantage of this by firing on him with Horton Salm (PS 8) and killing him before he could fire.

 

HOWEVER, if he had survived that one shot, he could have fired, then barrel rolled or boosted thanks to his pilot ability, then triggered PTL to take yet another action. This all made me very sad.

[tie571 12]

Since my question involves 'Free Actions' I'll ask it here.

 

Flying Nightbeast, I performed a green maneuver and overlapped another ship, I argued he got his free focus action while my buddy argued he doesn't get the free focus action because of the overlapping. We both agreed Nightbeast skips the 'Perform Action' step due to overlapping but we disagree on whether Nightbeast and use his Pilot Skill to get a free focus action.

 

We rolled dice to resolve the argument, which I won, and agreed to get feedback on the forums after the game.

 

Opinions ?

[Buhallin 4,563]

When you overlap, you lose your Perform Action step.  That's it.  There is no other restriction or imposition on your ability to take free actions, including the free Focus granted by Night Beast's ability.

 

You had it right.

[Malmer 338]

I don't know why it didn't occur to me before now, but I guess it's perfectly legal for Turr to still barrel roll after shooting something, even though he collided with another ship and lost his initial action in the first place..? Huh.

 

Yeah, I know this topic is old, but I mean HUH‽

[dbmeboy 807]

I don't know why it didn't occur to me before now, but I guess it's perfectly legal for Turr to still barrel roll after shooting something, even though he collided with another ship and lost his initial action in the first place..? Huh.

 

Yeah, I know this topic is old, but I mean HUH‽

Yep, entirely legal.  He could even use Push the Limit after that barrel roll for another action.