Does Filching Gold only work right when the ships touch? Or can it be used later in the same action that resulted in them touching?
Ex: If you could use it after someone steals a coin via boarding, to simply take the coin right back.
It should be used as close to when the contact first occurs as possible, which in a scenario where a ship rammed another, would be before the boarding occurs.
I can’t think of any timing distinction where it would matter if you do it before or after resolving the ram, but if it did come up somewhere (for a custom or something) technically it would apply first.
Is a derelict lost in fog (with no shipwright) still considered a unit in play for the endgame tiebreaker? Technically it could be given an explore (or maybe shoot) action, but since it’s lost forever, it will not ever be able to be given one of the four primary actions. (except in certain strange situations perhaps, such as the game ending with a derelict in a smokebank)
It still counts as a unit for the owning player when adding up gold and for the tiebreaker. It won’t prevent the endgame trigger because it can’t move on its own, and nothing else can pull it out.
For the terrain that activates when a ship “moves over” it (such as sargasso sea), does that wording include ship parts that can be “over” terrain without physically touching it? (such as galley oars, switchblades, etc.)
Contact must occur. The front-most sail of a standard ship reaching over the top won’t count as touching the terrain either. (The same also applies to docking at islands, unless you’re you’re using 3D terrain and the sail actually does physically touch the island.)
If a ship that normally cannot be pinned is rammed by a Sea Monster (which would normally pin it), and then the ability (such as Galley) that grants the “cannot be pinned” is later cancelled, is that ship then considered pinned while the cancellation is active, or does cancelling never cause a pin?
Cancellation (or the ending of a cancellation) cannot cause a pin on its own. The ability that prevents the pin would have to be shut down when the pin occurs in order for the ship to become pinned, and it would only remain pinned until the cancellation wore off.