Wave 9 - Chang's Bird of Prey - Captain Kerla

[coleslaw]

I have a question about Captain Kerla from the new Chang's Bird of Prey set:

Each time you defend, during the Roll Defense Dice step of the Combat Phase, you may choose to roll 2 less defense dice to add 1 [EVADE] result to your roll.

Can this ability be used multiple times in a single attack? That is, if Kerla's ship would otherwise be rolling 6 defense dice, can he reduce that to 0 and get 3 evade results?

[stawrulesteam]

No, his ability can only trigger once for each attack he faces.

[petesixnineeighttwo]

Once per round or once per attack?

No, you would only be able to use Varel 1 time per round.

Optional Text Once Per Turn

All cards that contain text abilities that are optionally triggered by a player, may only be used once per round per card.
Example 1: If you use Geordi La Forge to force an opposing ship to reroll 1 defense die you may not use it a second time in that round
Example 2: You may discard Varel to cancel an attack. If you stopped her from being discarded you may not use her text again in the same round.
Example 3: You may use Li Nalas to stop your Captain from being disabled. But, if he is reenabled during the same turn, you may not use his game text again that round.

[stawrulesteam]

Yes Kerla has the text "Each time you defend" and will affect all defense rolls in the round.

We are currently compiling the FAQ, which will be posted shortly. Rulings in the Forum may contradict past rulings in an effort to make better and more enjoyable gameplay. But, we will try to keep the FAQ as clean as possible. There are a number of us and we are all trying to make all the rulings work together, but there will be contradictions from time to time. We will do our best to fix all contradictions and make all changes obvious to players, but we may miss something and hope that the Attack Wing community will help us make a better game through this process. Please be patient as all of us on the rules team love playing this game as much as you do. Thank you.

stawrulesteam

[petesixnineeighttwo]

It seems you have made a distinction here. Not all "may" cards are once per round.

Starter Geordie, Li Nalas, and Varel reference doing something to one ship ... this round, one captain/crew this round, or to cancel a single attack. So a "may" means once per round if a singular word is in the phrasing. Varel doesn't specify per round, but we are inferring that. Other once per round cards would be starter Picard, Weyoun 6, or Gul Dukat.

Kerla uses the word "may", but instead of specifying once per round, he specifies each time you defend. Other cards like this are TOS Sulu, Shelby, Boheeka, etc.

Am I understanding the distinction correctly?

[stawrulesteam]

No, the distinction is the wording. The wording "Each time you defend" allows him to activate multiple times per turn.

In your examples Picard and Gul Dukat may only activate once per turn because they are actions.
Weyoun 6 may only activate once per turn because he is an optional effect.

TOS Sulu may only be "activated" once per turn because he is an ACTION. But, his effect is continuous and affects all defense rolls.
Boheeka may only be activated once per turn because he is an optional effect and does not use the phrase "Each time you attack".
Shelby is unique. She has 3 abilties. 1 is continuous "If you are defending against an attack from a Borg ship, you roll +1 defense die during the Roll Defense Dice step" and 2 are optional "During the Modify Defense Dice step of the Combat Phase, you may re-roll one of you blank results." & "(attack from a Borg ship) you may re-roll all of you blank results during the Modify Defense Dice step." The only 1 optional effect may only be activated once per round.

[deltaangelfire]

Why does shelby's "continuous" effect get divided into 3 parts, but Sulu's "Action:" not get divided into 2 parts?

[stawrulesteam]

Why does shelby's "continuous" effect get divided into 3 parts, but Sulu's "Action:" not get divided into 2 parts?

Sulu's ACTION is not effected by the new ruling and there is no change to how his card works.