The rules say that the after all participating units are exhausted, the resolve strike step ends, but that's not quite true. The development team have confirmed that the rules flowchart is the accurate representation, which is important for this card. Namely:

When resolving strikes/ending an engagement, these steps apply:
1) (Framework) The player who won the edge battle resolves 1 strike, if able.
2) Player Action window
3) (Framework) The player who lost the edge battle resolves 1 strike, if able.
4) Player Action window
5) Check to: "Repeat if any participating units are still ready."
-If yes, return to step 1, above
-if no, proceed to step 6, below
6) (Framework) Check for surviving units and reward unopposed
7) (Framework) Engagement ends

So, regarding CCWG, you would have to use it to strike any time it is your turn to do so during the steps labeled "1" or "3" above. If you get to step 5 and all the participating units are exhausted, you have no choice but to proceed to step 6, and lose out on the opportunity to strike with the Wing Guard, or with a unit with Chewbacca's Bowcaster attached for that matter.

But you may strike with it during an engagement in which you don't have any units (let's say you have an enhancement on it)?

i disagree with PB's assessment of both this card and the bow caster. i'm going to email FFG to get a definitive answer but i don't believe you lose your strike with these units just because you wait till all other eligible units have struck.

as for your question Laxen, yes, i see no reason where the ability limits it to striking in an engagement in which you have other units, however, if you have no other units in the engagement then you auto-lose the edge and then your unit will require some other card to get icons onto it like echo caverns or crossfire are 2 that spring to mind.

i disagree with PB's assessment of both this card and the bow caster. i'm going to email FFG to get a definitive answer but i don't believe you lose your strike with these units just because you wait till all other eligible units have struck.

Do you have a particular reason you disagree with him? The reasoning looks solid to me. I think you're going to be disappointed if you're expecting FFG to give a different answer.

Especially given that the explanation above is quoting Nate's mail to me, almost verbatim. When I say I have development team confirmation, that does actually mean FFG's Star War's development team :-)

if you have confirmation of these rules from FFG, then you should be posting them in the official rule clarifications.

I will then. I thought that was moderator controlled. Placing rulings for cards against the cards themselves also seems sensible.

It is a good idea to post them on the cards too. Of course we still have issues where there are multiple objective sets where a given card might show up and so notes on one of them won't show up on the other. But that's not PBrennan's fault - it is a limitation of cardgamedb.com.

Back to the discussion:

So since FFG made that ruling, it will limit how this card can be played. It will also make him UNABLE to strike using his ability if you did not choose defenders, or your opponent is able to remove any chosen defenders from battle. Couple examples:

1. Your opponent declares one attacker. You declare no defenders. Your opponent automatically wins the edge and so can strike first with his one unit. Now, since all participating units are not ready, you skip to step 6.

2. Your opponent declares one attacker, You declare one defender. He plays heat of battle into the edge stack. You win the edge, but he uses his heat of battle to kill your one defender. Since you won the edge, you could still strike with CCWG, using his edge icons of course.

Not quite. Per this flowchart, in situation #1, attacker strikes in step 1, then CCWG (with Echo Caverns support say to get an icon) or Chewbacca with Bowcaster may strike in step 3. Then combat stops.

Yes. According to the chart checking for ready units isn't done until step 6, its not a continuous check, and step 6 isn't reached until previous steps are complete, between which there are player action windows

So, then, the original post to this card is incorrect?

The original post is correct. You may have misread it though as you hadn't run your example through it correctly is all.

OK, well now I am confused. So, situation 1 is what we are talking about here:

1. Your opponent declares one attacker. You declare no defenders. Your opponent automatically wins the edge and so can strike first with his one unit. Now, since all participating units are not ready, you skip to step 6.

The chart you showed in the OP is as follows:

When resolving strikes/ending an engagement, these steps apply:
1) (Framework) The player who won the edge battle [your opponent did because you specified no defenders] resolves 1 strike, if able [he does].
2) Player Action window [has nothing to do with this situation]
3) (Framework) The player who lost the edge battle resolves 1 strike, if able [he is unable to, since he has no ready units in the engagement???].
4) Player Action window [again, not applicable]
5) Check to: "Repeat if any participating units are still ready." [I would assume that none are ready, since my opponent just used his and I have no defenders in the engagement, therefore the answer is NO - I skip to 6]
-If yes, return to step 1, above
-if no, proceed to step 6, below
6) (Framework) Check for surviving units and reward unopposed
7) (Framework) Engagement ends

So, wouldn't this result in what I initially said? That CCWG cannot strike?

so basically, regardless of whether or not you have units in the engagement, you do not skip steps. in that case, is there an extra action window for both players before step 5 if there is no defenders, or essentially, 2 action windows in a row?

So are we really just talking about that Action WIndow in step 4? I guess this all seems a little overly detailed. The point is, then, that CCWG may, in fact, strike even if there are no defenders. Good?

Ahh, I see the confusion. Boba is correct, no step is missed - each of the steps always happen regardless of whether the defending player has no units or not, which allows CCWG to strike in step 3 - the "if able" bit kicks in. The fact that there might be two action windows or not in a lot of combat situations where one side has run out of participating units is a quirk, but in practice shouldn't change anything.

We were getting hung up on the words 'strike' and 'participating' and whether or not focus tokens would be involved.

We were playing 2v2 and the OTHER Light Side player was attacking. The Smugglers and Spies player was using these to resolve their combat icons in the same combat WITHOUT either tagging them in OR focussing them and obviously without suffering retribution from our defenders. The rationale for this is that in the manual, a unit has to participate AND strike to be focussed.

Did we do this right or wrong? If using the ability, does CCWG still need to focus?

The rules on p.20 (Resolving a strike) say: 2. He focuses the unit to strike
You always focus to strike.

Thought so, it caused some debate at the table because of the 'participating' word. Thanks.

Other way, you could be striking with him in more than 1 engagement and possibly multiple times ... that's my main reasoning why I think the participation part isn't important in this example.

So...stupid question but just to confirm. In a 4-player game, this guy would be able to jump into an attack or defense for the other Light Side player, right?

There are no stupid questions, unless they come from me.

You are correct. Doesn't matter against whom the engage is, the Wing Guard can strike if he's ready.