So...am I immune to attacks when I have "The Secret of Yavin 4" out and play this on it?
That sounds like a killer combination against an agressive DS player. Then again the DS player only has to wait until the Death Star Dial is done.

No, you are not.

When using Secret of Yavin 4, you just redirect an engagement declared against other objective. So Secret wasn't engaged.

"When 1 of your other objectives is engaged, your opponent engages this objective instead." (The Secret of Yavin 4)

"Enhanced objective cannot be engaged unless each other objective you control has been engaged this phase." (Diplomatic Presence)

Both cards do not state anything about declaration, only about engaging an objective no matter how it is done.
How did you get to your resolution? Something obvious I don't see?

Yeah, I agree, the word cannot is absolute, so what gives with this situation?

From discussions I've had with Nate French (stemming from the FAQ ruling on secret of Yavin 4), "be engaged" = "have engagement declared against."

1. The ability on Secret of Yavin 4 is optional. So when someone engages one of your objectives, that doesn't mean he engages SoY4.
2. The text of SoY4 says that you use it AFTER any other objective was engaged.
3. FAQ page 3, bullet 2.3: An objective is considered “engaged” only after steps 1 (Declare objective) and 2 (Declare attackers) on page 18 of the core rules are completed.
4. Text on diplomatic presence: "Enhanced objective cannot be engaged unless each other objective you control has been engaged this phase."

Based on 3: your opponent does what Diplomatic presence says him to do, he is engaging other objectives first.
Based on 4: you could say, that basically you shut down your own objectives ability (; We can start discussing if it means that you can use SoY4 interrupt once your opponent engages second of your objectives.

Thats my take on this.

The DS player would still need to go through a lot of hoops to attack the objective with Diplomatic Presence and a Secret of Yavin 4.

First engagement: DS attacks SoY4.
Second engagment: DS attacks Obj #2
Third engagement: DS declares against obj #3 with Diplomatic Presence but LS player redirects to SoY4.

Sure thats true; I was answering the initial question: if he is immune to attacks when Diplomatic presence is on SoY4.

The answer is that Diplomatic Presence on Secret will not prevent the LS player from using the objective to redirect an engagement. If you need precedence for the ruling, note that you can engage Secret after it uses its ability but you cannot engage the original objective (and the rules use the same wording, each objective can only be engaged once).

Behold the bane of mission cards.

 

The Secret Objective new fate card can't bypass it either, right?

No, it prevents all engagements unless each other has also been engaged, so Secret Objective only works if the opponent engages all of your normal objectives first. 

 

Misdirection is also pretty good vs missions. Welcome to Alderaan!

From Nate French previous statement : (stemming from the FAQ ruling on secret of Yavin 4)"be engaged" = "have engagement declared against."

So while you cannot declare an engagement against enhanced objective if you didn't already engaged all the other objectives, you in fact can redirect an engagement to enhanced objective, as Secret Objective, Luke's Speeder and Rebel Han'd ability do not declare engagement against enhanced objective

From Nate French previous statement : (stemming from the FAQ ruling on secret of Yavin 4)"be engaged" = "have engagement declared against."

So while you cannot declare an engagement against enhanced objective if you didn't already engaged all the other objectives, you in fact can redirect an engagement to enhanced objective, as Secret Objective, Luke's Speeder and Rebel Han'd ability do not declare engagement against enhanced objective

 

You got a source on that statement? Because really "be engaged" =/= "have engagement declared against". Declaring an engagement against an objective makes it engaged, but it can be engaged without declaring an engagement (which is how Secret of Yavin 4 works and which is why, after you use its ability to pull an engagement to it, the DS can't declare an engagement against the original objective again, but can totally declare a new one against Secret).

I have submitted the question to ffg for clarification.

Short answer is that Diplomatic Presence does not prevent Secret Objective. I'll get the full response posted this evening.

Diplomatic Presence does not prevent Secret Objective from moving the engagement to the enhanced objective.

 

Reasoning: “be engaged” is to be interpreted as “have an engagement declared against.” In other words: “be engaged” is the act of declaring an engagement, not the state of being engaged. Because Secret Objective just changes your state, it bypasses the “act” of declaring.

 

Well, that's boring. And counter-intuitive. And a missed chance to maybe give this pod a second shot at being good.

 

Thanks for asking, though!

I argued that it was counterintuitive way back with the SoY4 ruling (each objective can only be engaged once, but even though SoY4 says that it is engaged instead it didn't count as being engaged). At this point, that's a rather long standing and accepted ruling and this is merely consistent with the old ruling.