Yoda pilot spending multiple force per opportunity

[Niels Detert]

I’m sorry because this has been answered before, but many players continue to disagree with the ruling on grounds of rules as written and some clarification would be helpful.

Yoda’s card states that: “After another friendly ship at range 0-3 spends 1 or
more <force>, you may spend 1
<force>. If you do, that ship
recovers 1 <force>.”

The rules reference says: “While it performs an attack, a ship can spend any number of <force> during the Attack Dice step to change that number of its <force> results to <force> results. While it defends, a ship can spend any number of <force> during the Defense Dice step to change that number of its <force> results to <force> results.”

Many players (and TOs) read this to mean that Yoda can let that ship recover just one force per opportunity by spending just one force. Then the idea is that ‘any number’ in the RR means that each modify dice step is an opportunity and that ‘any number’ of force charges spent would be one opportunity. Based on his card text and this reading of the RR that seems at first glance right doesn’t it? And this is the source of disagreement.

Previous rulings by Dee and Kris however have taken a different view and consider each force charge spent to be an opportunity. By these currently active rulings Yoda can spend a force to let the other ship regain a force each time a force charge is spent, and therefore potentially multiple times within each modify dice step.

Unfortunately there is such disagreement on this that the rule is in effect disputed and hard to apply, and it would help very much to clarify the reasoning.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Niels Detert

[Tim H]

There appears to be a few clarifications being requested here. I hope these clarify any outstanding questions

Q1) Does the "a ship can spend any number of <force> during the <attack/defense> dice step" clause mean that all force being spent for the standard force modification effect are spent simultaneously? A1) No, This clause is there to allow more than one die to be modified via the standard force modification per dice modification step. It does not mean that these modifications must occur simultaneously as only one die is modified per force being spent.

Q2) If multiple dice are being modded for the standard force effect does Yoda trigger from each opportunity? A2) Yes, Because each die is modified individually, Yoda would trigger after each spend.

Q3) What if the spend is for an ability which requires multiple force to be spent, such as Infiltrator Maul (Yes Mail is not a republic ship so won’t interact with Yoda but it is just an example of a multiple spend scenario)? A3) In situations where multiple force must be spent for a single ability, such as Infiltrator Maul, this represents only a single opportunity. As a result only one force would be recovered