The Escort trait...

[Court Jester]

I was reading the rules again last night and something occured to me with the escort trait...

Say I have 3 Minbari Ashinta Heavy Escorts spread in a line, each ship 7" appart and at the end of the line 7" after the final Ashinta I have say... A Sharlin...

Now lets imagine I am playing agains the Gaim and the Gaim player has moved all his crewed missles into contact with my Sharlin and it is obviously going to get a pounding.

Using the Escort train I start with the Ashinta farthest away from the Sharlin... a good 28" away.

The first Ashinta gives all 6 of its Advanced Anti-Fighter dice to the next Ashinta in line. Which in turn then gives its 12AAF dice to the next Ashinta. Finally that third Ashinta hands over its 18AAF dice to the Sharlin which then has at the Fighter Swarm with its 23AAF dice.

As far as I can tell from reading the 2nd ed rules this is perfectly acceptable.

Obvioulsy all 3 Ashintas could have been within 8" of the Shrarlin to provide it with the AAF dice in a more realistic mannor but who wants to be all bunched up like that.

 

[Smegish]

While the rules dont really specify that you cant do it that way, you could prolly expect to be forced to eat your sharlin model by your opponent if you tried it.

 

[Chernobyl]

I'd say that you can't re-allocate the anti-fighter points more than once. after all, the one at the end isn't in range of the first to recieve them. a ship that has had them allocated to it from another should not be able to "pass them on" to another ship, that's just silly.

Also, if it doesn't say in the rules, I think there should be a very specific point in the turn sequence at which point players must allocate all their loaned AF dice. otherwise you might have a very chaotic situation where AF dice are loaned back and forth...

Chern

 

[Locutus9956]

I think perhaps its a slight wording issue. I havent got the book yet but Im assuming escort says something like 'this ship can give some or all of its anti fighter dice to a ship within 7"'

I think what is implied and a better wording for might be: 'this ship can assign its anti fighter dice to defend a friendly ship within 7"'

The above example I think is really a case of being far too litteral in rules interpretation and using the letter of the rules to defeat what is clearly the intent of the rule. Rules are written to try and cut out ambiguity but theyre never going to be perfect, a certain degree of common sense needs to be applied!

And eating is not the first thing that would come to mind involving the Sharlin if anyone tried to suggest that particular interpretation in a game against me.....

 

[darknight]

yea, i theink passing down the line isnt allowed as you can only give it to one ship up to 8" away and they stay there, not move on

 

[Locutus9956]

The point is that the escort trait represents a ship escorting another vessel and firing at fighers that attack it, it doesnt magically give the defended ship more antifighter guns that it can sling down the line to the next ship along!

 

[Burger]

Yeah it doesn't work that way. The Escort trait does not give the escorted ship the Anti-fighter trait... it keeps the trait for itself, but lends some of its own anti-fighter dice.

So you cannot pass the trait "down the line" like that. And if the target gets crippled, you don't roll to see if you lose the escort's anti-fighter trait!

 

[MongooseMatt]

Nice try!

No

 

[Court Jester]

Please don't worry, I am fully aware that the Escort trait does not represnt movement of weaponry or anything stupid like that. I would also never try it in a game.

As for me... Matt saying no is as good as an eratta or clarrification on the subject that should probably go somewhere like the rules masters section. I am not the most serious of players so if I can come up with something stupid like this I am sure others can and possibly even will. (although I did descover the combi-bolter in 40K that could be fired an infinite number of times each turn...)

My point with the post was to raise the awareness of a very loosely written rule and have some fun explaining it... :wink:

Yeah it doesn't work that way. The Escort trait does not give the escorted ship the Anti-fighter trait... it keeps the trait for itself, but lends some of its own anti-fighter dice. So you cannot pass the trait "down the line" like that.

I am aware that the trait only grants the dice to the friendly ship... all the ships in my example already had the "escort" trait. :wink:

yea, i theink passing down the line isnt allowed as you can only give it to one ship up to 8" away and they stay there, not move on

Thats is not specifically stated anywhere in the rule for "escorts" though. In fact can't an "Escort" can give its AF dice to more than one friend as long as it has dice to give... (my copy of the rules is downstairs atm...)

I'd say that you can't re-allocate the anti-fighter points more than once. after all, the one at the end isn't in range of the first to recieve them. a ship that has had them allocated to it from another should not be able to "pass them on" to another ship, that's just silly.

Yes it is silly and makes no sense what so ever. But the rules do not say that the dice can be moved only once.

Also, if it doesn't say in the rules, I think there should be a very specific point in the turn sequence at which point players must allocate all their loaned AF dice. otherwise you might have a very chaotic situation where AF dice are loaned back and forth...

I agree completely... but currently there is no timing in the rules and it seems you can allocate dice on a whim back and forth any time from the beginning of your turn just as long as you are settled on a final layout by the time AF fire is resolved.

So if you are playing a fleet with lots of Escorts you can essentially move all your AF dice where they are most needed whenever they are most needed.

 

[Ripple]

Well...there is a rule about placing AF dice.

They get place before AF fire. As moving them around is meaningless up to this point, who cares.

As for silly things Escort can do...it can effectively allow you to shoot arund corners. Put a ship on the end of an asteriod field, escort on one side, fighter on the other. Escort can, in effect, shoot the fighter from a position it cannot normally affect it from.

Ripple

 

[Greg Smith]

Escort requires LOS. But it can shoot a fighter from 8" away, so it does have some measure of abstraction, like many thinks in ACTA.