If lets say i use secret of yavin 4 to redirect a challenge from objective A to itself, can DS after engaging secrets of yavin 4 objective, raise another challenge against objective A during the challenge phase with any ready forces left? This is because objective A have yet to be engaged this turn.

The card says right on it (Limit once per turn) . So yes your opponent could attack the original objective next if he has units available to do so.

when exactly can you use this ability? Do you use it before or after attackers are declared?  Before/after defenders are declared?

shaggscoob said:

I would say before attackers are declared, as you can see on page 31 of the rule book. The interrupt kicks in the moment the objective is declared and the interrupt is resolved completely before going to the next step.

Engagement Resolution

Step "Active player chooses one enemy ojective card to engage"

Interrupt of "The Secret of Yavin 4"

Step "Active player declares attackers"

I accidentely happen to see this same question posted on another forum and there was someone who gave the same answer, but then thought of something else. I'll put his quote here:

Arduwin said:

The person who posted that was a playtester for the game, so I lend some credence to his answer.  There's no way you could determine that Secret of Yavin 4's interrupt effect would be triggered after the target objective  and attackers are declared based on the rulebook alone.  The rulebook would lead you to the logical conclusion that the ability would occur after step 1 of an engagement, where you choose an objective.  It definitely needs to be addressed in the FAQ and updated in the first revision of the rules.  I am glad it works the way it does though, because The Secret of Yavin 4 would be pretty crappy otherwise.  We just need the rules to clarify the intent of the games' designers.

I actually read it a different way, that you use Secret of Yavin at Step 1, but that your opponent now can't engage the original objective they declared as the target again on the same turn, because it seems to me like you would "use up" your chance to engage that original objective by announcing it as the target.

Your opponent would, on the other hand, then be able to also engage Secret of Yavin again that turn, by declaring it as the target of an engagement.

Otherwise, what happens if you engage Secret of Yavin 4 first, then engage another objective? Can your opponent now not use the ability (because you already engaged Secret of Yavin)? If not, would using the ability just prevent your engagement?

bhosp said:

As Secret of Yavin 4's ability is an interrupt, its results happen before the triggering condition.  In this case, the triggering condition is engaging another objective.  That means that Secret becomes the engaged objective before the original objective was "engaged" and thus it has not been engaged.  Secret, on the other hand, has been engaged and cannot be engaged again.

I'm actually going to say that Secret of Yavin 4 being engaged does not prevent it from using its ability to end up being engaged a 2nd time, though that is by no means clear in the rules (submitting rules question to FFG so hopefully it will be in the FAQ).  There's no step in the engagement process that rechecks if the engaged objective has already been engaged this turn.

So which is the indent of the card:

1) to prevent you from attacking objective A that is about to be blown up, and preventing you from attacking it again since it was originally targeted allowing you to attack Secret if Yavin twice?

or

2) just a way to stop you from blowing up objective A when it would not Secret of Yavin, but still allowing you to target objective A again this turn.

Just curious to all those that have played other FFG LCGs.

dbmeboy said:

Text from The Secret of Yavin 4:

"Interrupt: When 1 of your other objectives is engaged, your opponent engages this objective instead. (Limit once per turn.)"

The only relevant text I could find is from page 18:

Each enemy objective may be engaged only once per conflict phase. If the active player has already engaged all of his enemy’s current objectives this phase, he must proceed to the Force phase.

At first glance, I wanna say that The Secret of Yavin 4 would not be a valid target for its own ability if it had already been engaged in the same conflict phase.  But the card doesn't use terminology that would require a legal target, rather, an argument could be made that the golden rule is in effect.  The Secret of Yavin 4 ability doesn't seem to care about prior engagements or legal targets. Its only limitation is listed in its text, "limit once per turn."  I'm leaning toward agreeing with dmeboy.

As for intent, my understanding of the way the Secret of Yavin 4 should work is that the LS player would end up with some degree of control over what attackers were going to be engaging "objective A," because he would know which attackers were being declared before having the option to redirect the attack.  If protecting objective A is paramount, one may be able to assign adequate defense to that objective against 1-2 attackers whereas he may not have fared as well against the 4 attackers the DS player initially wanted to send.

This is definitely the least clear card in the set, to the point that when it comes out I (as the DS player) just spend all my efforts trying to destroy it because I don't know what it does and I fear what I don't understand.

bhosp said:

LOL! I love this post!

As for me, I've always played that The Secret of Yavin 4 allows you to redirect an attack from a different objective once per turn. The other objective can be engaged later in the combat phase. The Secret of Yavin 4 cannot use its ability if it has already been engaged.

After reading the comments, I can see how there can be lots of confusion and my interpretation may not be right. I'm excited to see what the FAQ says about this. Has anyone posted a rules question on this one yet?

The use of the word "other" in the ablitity would seem to preclude Yavin 4 from using its ability on itself.  Now, if you had two of them in play, I suppose you could deflect from one to the other if you wanted to.