[phaserihardlyknowher]

I was playing Matthew today (karonofborg13) and an interesting situation came up. I had Uhura sitting down at the end of the spaceline on the Starship Enterprise, which had been assimilated but who's crew had not been and could not now beam off either. I started to get a bit desperate to stop Matthew's march toward his final objective. While he was moving past another ship I had on the spaceline I triggered Uhura's special download of Hail and stopped Matthew's ship. Matthew argued that this needed to interact with Uhura's ship in the same way a special download of equipment or personal would be downloaded to the place the download was triggered. I argued that it was an interrupt and there was nothing on the card to indicate such. What's the correct play here?

Tangentially, the Starship Enterprise was sitting down at the end of the spaceline at Talos IV since it had gotten hit with Cytherians and then Assimilate Starship. Out of curiosity, could I have used the text on General Order 7 (Your Starship Enterprise may use its full range to move here from any spaceline location in the Alpha Quadrant) to outrun Matthew's ship?

[Armus]

Hail says:

Plays on any ship "flying by" one of your ships; it must stop at your location. OR Select two ships; they cannot battle each other this turn.

Emphasis on relevant text.

Uhura Hail must play at her location, but there's no rule that says she has to be on a specific ship. So if she's on Assimilated Starship Enterprise and it's flying by your, say, Starship Constitution, then it's a valid download and the Assimilated SE is a valid target since it's "flying by" one of your ships.

Does it make Trek sense? No. But it fits within the rules.

[phaserihardlyknowher]

Hail says:

Plays on any ship "flying by" one of your ships; it must stop at your location. OR Select two ships; they cannot battle each other this turn.

Emphasis on relevant text.

Uhura Hail must play at her location, but there's no rule that says she has to be on a specific ship. So if she's on Assimilated Starship Enterprise and it's flying by your, say, Starship Constitution, then it's a valid download and the Assimilated SE is a valid target since it's "flying by" one of your ships.

Does it make Trek sense? No. But it fits within the rules.

To be clear here, the ships (the assimilated Starship Enterprise and the Starship Constitution) were not at the same location. The ship I was stopping was Locutus' Borg Cube not the assimilated ship and the Starship Constitution was the ship that met the "one of your ships" criteria, forcing the Borg Cube to stop at it's location. Both were well down the spaceline from the assimilated (and basically dead in the water) Starship Enterprise where Lt. Uhura was.

[Latok]

Hail says:

Plays on any ship "flying by" one of your ships; it must stop at your location. OR Select two ships; they cannot battle each other this turn.

Emphasis on relevant text.

Uhura Hail must play at her location, but there's no rule that says she has to be on a specific ship. So if she's on Assimilated Starship Enterprise and it's flying by your, say, Starship Constitution, then it's a valid download and the Assimilated SE is a valid target since it's "flying by" one of your ships.

Does it make Trek sense? No. But it fits within the rules.

To be clear here, the ships were not at the same location. The ship I was stopping was Locutus' Borg Cube not the assimilated ship and the Starship Constitution was the ship that met the "one of your ships" criteria. Both were well down the spaceline from the assimilated (and basically dead in the water) Starship Enterprise where Lt. Uhura was.

Then yeah you can't do it, special downloads have to be played at the location they're used (when applicable), so for Uhura to use her download on the Cube she would have to be at the location of the cube.

Actually I'm confused because when you "fly by" a location you're never at it, so a special download of Hail would never be possible if what I said was correct.

[9of24]

Actually I'm confused because when you "fly by" a location you're never at it, so a special download of Hail would never be possible if what I said was correct.

I was trying to work that out as well. If your assumption is correct that a ship "flying by" a location is never at it, then I think that means Hail doesn't target or affect something at a location and thus the special download could be used from anywhere. Not sure on that, but that's the direction I'm leaning.

[phaserihardlyknowher]

Actually I'm confused because when you "fly by" a location you're never at it, so a special download of Hail would never be possible if what I said was correct.

I was under the impression that Special Downloads suspended all play, so I interpreted that as "when the Borg Cube is passing one of my ships, suspend play and download and play Hail". I was planning on doing it before he started moving since I knew it was my only chance, so I could have done it before just as easily to avoid the timing issue. It's all moot, really, since it seems it wasn't a valid play.

Incidentally, if a ship is never "at the location", how would you ever play Hail at all? It seems like it has to be there, however briefly, to interrupt.

[9of24]

I was under the impression that Special Downloads suspended all play

They do, but they do have additional rules associated with them. Potentially relevant here is that when a card which plays at a location or to affect something at a location is downloaded via a special download, the card which is downloading it must be at that location.

I was planning on doing it before he started moving since I knew it was my only chance, so I could have done it before just as easily to avoid the timing issue. It's all moot, really, since it seems it wasn't a valid play.

When you special download a card it must be played immediately, thus the ship you wish to affect would have to be flying by one of your ships in order to use the special download. The real question at hand is "Does Hail target a card at a location?". If the answer is yes, then Uhura would have to be at the mission where Hail is played. If the answer is no, then your special download was valid and the Cube would have been affected by Hail.

Incidentally, if a ship is never "at the location", how would you ever play Hail at all? It seems like it has to be there, however briefly, to interrupt.

Suppose the following setup.

O
A000B000C
0000Y

If your opponent uses a move action with his ship O from mission A to mission C. Ship O would fly by your ship Y at mission B. As a response to it flying by, you would play Hail, which modifies your opponent's move action, such that ship O ends its movement at mission B.

[phaserihardlyknowher]

I was under the impression that Special Downloads suspended all play

They do, but they do have additional rules associated with them. Potentially relevant here is that when a card which plays at a location or to affect something at a location is downloaded via a special download, the card which is downloading it must be at that location.

I was planning on doing it before he started moving since I knew it was my only chance, so I could have done it before just as easily to avoid the timing issue. It's all moot, really, since it seems it wasn't a valid play.

When you special download a card it must be played immediately, thus the ship you wish to affect would have to be flying by one of your ships in order to use the special download. The real question at hand is "Does Hail target a card at a location?". If the answer is yes, then Uhura would have to be at the mission where Hail is played. If the answer is no, then your special download was valid and the Cube would have been affected by Hail.

Incidentally, if a ship is never "at the location", how would you ever play Hail at all? It seems like it has to be there, however briefly, to interrupt.

Suppose the following setup.

O
A000B000C
0000Y

If your opponent uses a move action with his ship O from mission A to mission C. Ship O would fly by your ship Y at mission B. As a response to it flying by, you would play Hail, which modifies your opponent's move action, such that ship O ends its movement at mission B.

Good to know I at least got the timing right. Logically it seems it would need to work that way for a special download of Hail to be worthwhile.

Incidentally, the board setup you propose was more or less the setup, except:

O
A000B000C0000D
0000Y00000000Z

Uhura was on ship Z.

[BCSWowbagger]

In retrospect, I'm really glad I wasn't able to take this phone call. (I presume that's what the final call was about.)

Regardless of whether it was legal or worked (I've not sorted that out yet), trying to use Uhura's Hail was a smart play in a really tough position. Kudos.

[AllenGould]

O
A000B000C
0000Y

If your opponent uses a move action with his ship O from mission A to mission C. Ship O would fly by your ship Y at mission B. As a response to it flying by, you would play Hail, which modifies your opponent's move action, such that ship O ends its movement at mission B.

Yup. Hail has always had weird timing (more properly, movement has weird rules), but the glossary entries for Hail and "passing locations" mostly firms it up. You're passing by if you entered from one side and left through the other. And since you'd declare that move during initiation of the action, you'd already know that the ship was "flying by" for purposes of Hail.

[Armus]

O
A000B000C
0000Y

If your opponent uses a move action with his ship O from mission A to mission C. Ship O would fly by your ship Y at mission B. As a response to it flying by, you would play Hail, which modifies your opponent's move action, such that ship O ends its movement at mission B.

Yup. Hail has always had weird timing (more properly, movement has weird rules), but the glossary entries for Hail and "passing locations" mostly firms it up. You're passing by if you entered from one side and left through the other. And since you'd declare that move during initiation of the action, you'd already know that the ship was "flying by" for purposes of Hail.

I agree that Hail works as described above. But in the case of a action, I don't think Uhura could have Hail to play on a ship at a different location. A ship flying by a specific location could be "at" that location for purposes of both Hail itself and Suspends Play timing, so if Uhura were on the ship at location B, this totally works. But by being on a totally separate ship at a totally separate location unrelated to anything else in this scenario, I don't think the play as described is valid.

[Takket]

*opens can of worms*

so I agree that Hail should work on a ship "flying by" because that is what Hail tells you to do. So if you it this is a TINY bit different than the usual rule of the card having to go to some place at the location of the person.

So is there other instances where I can onto a ship "flying by" or only Hail because it specifically says "flying by". Can 4 of 50 download Establish Tractor Lock to a ship flying by? I don't think so because ETL specifically says the ship is at the same location as yours and if you are "flying by" you are never at that location.

What about Quark.... can you Natima Lang onto opponent's ship as it is "flying by"?

[JeBuS]

I'd say it does not allow you to download to any location, because it doesn't specify "any location". For such an example, take Nilz Baris. He has specific language which allows his downloaded interrupt to go to some other location. Uhura does not. Therefore, Uhura's must go to where she is.

[AllenGould]

So is there other instances where I can onto a ship "flying by" or only Hail because it specifically says "flying by".

Remember that is still just a valid response. Hail works because that's how Hail *says* it works - it plays when a ship is moving past. (Or, more technically, you declare that your ship is moving from location A to location C, and Hail modifies the movement to end at location B instead.)

For the other examples, the ship is never going to be at that location, so it's not a valid destination for other downloads. (Now, you could Hail, the ship ends the move action at your location, and *then* download other stuff as allowed...)

[phaserihardlyknowher]

In retrospect, I'm really glad I wasn't able to take this phone call. (I presume that's what the final call was about.)

Regardless of whether it was legal or worked (I've not sorted that out yet), trying to use Uhura's Hail was a smart play in a really tough position. Kudos.

Thanks. It worked, since all I needed to do was delay him as the clock counted down. However, I just texted him to cede the game to him. He gave me a gimme on the last turn when I neglected to declare Vina's skill right away at the beginning of the turn, waiting until after my card play, giving me a mod win. I think it's only fair given both this and that kindness that he take at least his mod win back.

I'm just going to throw out here now that neither of those other phone calls were about any dispute from me.

I'd say it does not allow you to download to any location, because it doesn't specify "any location". For such an example, take Nilz Baris. He has specific language which allows his downloaded interrupt to go to some other location. Uhura does not. Therefore, Uhura's must go to where she is.

I think this is the nail in the coffin for my strategy. If I recall, it was decided that "To any location" meant a ship that was anywhere rather than you could send the ship anywhere.