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I was curious about how this would work:

Youngster with Swarm Tactics
Everybody else an Academy Pilot

Youngster allows Friendly Tie Fighters to use your ability, Swarm Tactics makes the Chosen Tie Fighter the same pilot skill. Does the next Tie in line get to pass on the pilot skill of 6, thus allowing all my Tie Fighters to attack at step 6?

It does not work. Youngster only allows other ships to use actions on EPT cards, not EPT abilities in general.

Right.

Youngster:

Friendly TIE fighters at Range 1-3 may perform the action on your equipped Elite Talent Upgrade card.

Swarm Tactics:

At the start of the Combat phase, you may choose 1 friendly ship at Range 1. Until the end of this phase, treat the chosen ship as if its pilot skill were equal to your pilot skill.

Nothing about Swarm Tactics is an action, so Youngster's ability does not interact with it.

I don't mean to be condescending, but this is an example of why it's really important to read the card (and also, don't sweat it because it's happened to everyone!). You can only use Elite Talent cards with the "Action:" header, of which there are currently five in the game:

Not as useful as I thought then, not useless, just not as good as I initially thought. Also assuming that a TIE/fo is different enough to disallow the crossover.

 megatrons2nd wrote:
Also assuming that a TIE/fo is different enough to disallow the crossover.

Nope.

Youngster's ability works with TIE/fo fighters as well.

 ScootyPuffJunior wrote:

 megatrons2nd wrote:
Also assuming that a TIE/fo is different enough to disallow the crossover.

Nope.

Youngster's ability works with TIE/fo fighters as well.

Interesting.


New question, I think I've got this worked out, but just to be sure:

I hit a ship with an Ion cannon, the ship hit takes an Ion token, and a damage card, even if it had shields left? If I had three hits, I essentially lose 2 damage that may have removed all the shields but left the ship relatively unharmed.

 megatrons2nd wrote:
New question, I think I've got this worked out, but just to be sure:

I hit a ship with an Ion cannon, the ship hit takes an Ion token, and a damage card, even if it had shields left? If I had three hits, I essentially lose 2 damage that may have removed all the shields but left the ship relatively unharmed.

No. The ion cannon says "suffers one damage", which means it is applied like any other damage (hitting shields first, dealing a face-down damage card to hull if no shields are left). The only time you ignore shields is if a card specifically says that the ship is dealt a damage card.

 megatrons2nd wrote:
I hit a ship with an Ion cannon, the ship hit takes an Ion token, and a damage card, even if it had shields left?

No.



If, at the end of the "Compare Results" step of the attack, the attack hits, the target suffers one damage and receives and ion token and then all dice results are canceled. The key word here is "suffers;" the Rules Reference book says this about Damage:

When a ship suffers a damage or critical damage, it loses one shield token. If it does not have any shield tokens to lose, it is dealt one Damage card instead. For normal damage, the Damage card is dealt facedown; for critical damage, the Damage card is dealt faceup and the text on the card immediately resolves.

So, if your target has shields, they remove one shield token. If they don't have shields, they get dealt a facedown damage card (in addition to the ion token). This is important to remember because there are abilities in the game that deal damage cards directly, both facedown and faceup. These effects are different than "suffering damage."

If I had three hits, I essentially lose 2 damage that may have removed all the shields but left the ship relatively unharmed.

More or less, but you're also dealing the target an ion token which means you know exactly where they are going to be the next round, making it easier to continue to damage them.

So advanced homing missiles ignore shields, but ion cannon and Homing missiles do not.

For advanced homing missiles, range 2 literally means only in the range 2 band, not up to range 2. Yes? Those may be a bit trickier to use.

 megatrons2nd wrote:
So advanced homing missiles ignore shields, but ion cannon and Homing missiles do not.

Correct, because advanced homing missiles specifically deal a (face-up) damage card.

For advanced homing missiles, range 2 literally means only in the range 2 band, not up to range 2. Yes? Those may be a bit trickier to use.

Correct. Range 2 only. If it was meant to be "up to range 2" it would say 1-2 instead.

The little nuances of this game are pretty cool. So little to learn, so much to master. I'm going to enjoy this. Once I get used to it, it will be really fun.

Yeah, the rules reference says that cards that reference a type of ship require the entire text, but it specifically says that "TIE/fo Fighter" qualifies as a "TIE Fighter". The other types of TIE wouldn't, though, since they lack the word "Fighter".