Lightning Strike Rulebook Errata and Clarifications Nobody's perfect. That's why war (and, by extension, wargames) exist in the first place. Mistakes should, however, always be corrected as soon and as completely as possible. These corrections and explanations supersede certain information presented in the main Lightning Strike rulebook. - Special Movement An exo may only ever have one special counter (Overthrust, Evasive, Aiming or Grappling) at a time. A fighter may also only have one special counter, but since it does not need to use a counter for Overthrust (rulebook, page 15), it may Aim or Evade while under Overthrust. Fighters engaged in a Grapple may not Overthrust, however. - Close Combat Evading units don't get to attack or counterattack in close combat. They can't initiate Grapples, either. They do, however, get their defensive bonus against close combat and Grapple attempts. Close Combat Optimized units always have the opportunity to counterattack in close combat, regardless of where the attack came from; aside from back kicks and underarm plasma-lance stabs, remember that backstabbing an exo involves sticking your face right in his exhaust plume. Non-Close Combat Optimized units, on the other hand, may only counterattack if they can bring a weapon to bear (in most cases, this will require the use of a Command Point to get a free turn). - Clamping Clamped units may attack ships in close combat as usual. The ship still gets to roll its defense as normal; a high Avoidance means that, at this close range, the power of the ship's built-in ECM and spoofing systems are scrambling the attacker's sensors to the point that he can't really see what he's stabbing. This can also represent the ship's crew trying innovative tactics like blowing hatches and jettisoning sewage to distract the clamped attacker. Remember, Avoidance does not merely represent stealth systems, or big thrusters; it is a quantitative measure of all the various measures a unit can take to not get hit. - Catapults To use a catapult: In any phase, place the unit on the table next to the carrier. Move the unit directly in front of the carrier up to 20 cm. However, the unit may not do anything at all (move, act, overthrust, evade, reaction fire, etc) until its action phase comes up, so it is usually a good idea to wait until sometime in the Main Phase to launch units. - Damage to Ships Even though losses to Avoidance cannot be repaired in battle, the actual damage boxes //can// be repaired. This simulates the crew putting up emergency armored shutters and hull sealant, which doesn't actually make the ship stealthy again, but does help protect against the next hit. So, if a ship's radiation shielding is damaged and it loses one point of Avoidance permanently, it can keep using Damage Control to erase damage boxes; as long as there are empty Damage boxes to absorb more radiation shielding hits, the ship won't suffer the unfortunate fate of being stuck with an Avoidance of –2. - Main Hull There should not be damage boxes for the Main Hull on any of the ship data cards. When a shot damages the Main Hull, only one system on the Main Hull damage table is damaged. Likewise, Overkill damage to the Main Hull only destroys one system. The only way to completely obliterate a warship is to inflict enough damage to make its reactor go critical in the End Phase; otherwise, the ship's basic structure will remain intact.