Sharing something new to me, but maybe obvious to some. I'm learning and teaching myself, so everyone who figured this our already just hush. Some of us are struggling. I Played my first test game after UPS finally dropped of the core las night.

Situation: The SD is withing range one of the CR-90's right sheld arc. I fire 6 dice, plus one more blue for a concentrate fire command. 4 hits and 3 crits. Pow.

The CR-90 uses a deflect defense token to move three points to a front sheild, taking 4 on the right. As I recall the CR-90 only had 2 shields left on the right. I was thinking...the Cr-90 was about to take 2 damage, and I had rolled a crit, so I dealt the first damage card face up. It instructed me to allow the imperial player to reduce two shields on the CR-90 by one each, and then flip it face down.

That's when it occured to me that depending on WHEN you draw the face up damage card could make a huge difference. In this case, had I drawn the card before the damage was applied, the deflect would have moved one less damage away and the right side would have one less...meaning I could inflict four damage and destroy the CR-90?

In fact, that is the way it was supposed to work.

In Effect use and Timing, page 5: Crit effects are resolved at the start of the the "resolve damage" step of an attack. So, my case, the crit would have reduced shields BEFORE we starting applying damage.

It's better explained in the Quick reference back page. The attacker can resolve one critical effect. THEN, the defender suffers damage equal to the number of "hit" icons. If both the attack and defender are ships, the number of "crit" icons is added to the damage total.

The More you Know...

Actually you did it right the first time. When you resolve your critical effect, you declare the first card drawn is face up. He had already spent his deflect token, so the damage had already been applied to the other facings. So when you drew the crit, it would have had to occur after the redirect token, and after you did enough damage to deal a card on the target facing

Plus, isn't the resolve damage step AFTER the spend Defence token steps anyway?

Ah, I see your point. Let me talk it out...

The CR-90 has 3 shield forward and 2 shield right.

4 damage and 3 crits are rolled.

Defense token deflect moves 3 damge to front shield.

Crit card is applied...1 is removed from right and rear shields.

CR-90 now had 0 forward and 1 right.

Three damage goes internal?

So the rebel player would have three damage cards on his ship, two plus the crit card flipped face down.

Right?

No, the card isn't the crit. All the crit is a damage, and then the first card drawn in faceup, so its would go deflect 3. Then 2 to shields, then first card is dealt, you would reduce a facing by up to two shields, and then deal the last card

Hmmm. Thanks for the help. Still working it out in my head. Sorry if I appear dense. I'm not..I just see ambiguity where perhaps there is none. I'm using the Attack Resolution section from the back page of the Reference.

On a CR-90 with 3 front and 2 right shield

1. Declare Target: CR-90 right

2. Roll attack dice: 3 blue and 3 red = 3 hits and three crits

3. Resolve attack effects: Concentrate fire command produces get one extra die ( which rolls another hit)

4. Spend defense token: Deflect 3 damage to forward shield.

5. Resolve damage:

Resolve critical effect: Draw card, turn it face up, resolve card which says "attacker may reduce two of defender's shields by 1 each."

So now the Cr-90 has 2 front and 1 right? (Why is this not the case?)

Suffer damage: Infict a total of 7 damage, three of which goes to forward shield, four of which goes to right, removing one shield and doing three internal.

Hmmm. Thanks for the help. Still working it out in my head. Sorry if I appear dense. I'm not..I just see ambiguity where perhaps there is none. I'm using the Attack Resolution section from the back page of the Reference.

On a CR-90 with 3 front and 2 right shield

1. Declare Target: CR-90 right

2. Roll attack dice: 3 blue and 3 red = 3 hits and three crits

3. Resolve attack effects: Concentrate fire command produces get one extra die ( which rolls another hit)

4. Spend defense token: Deflect 3 damage to forward shield.

5. Resolve damage:

Resolve critical effect: Draw card, turn it face up, resolve card which says "attacker may reduce two of defender's shields by 1 each."

So now the Cr-90 has 2 front and 1 right? (Why is this not the case?)

Suffer damage: Infict a total of 7 damage, three of which goes to forward shield, four of which goes to right, removing one shield and doing three internal.

Perhaps this is an easier way of looking at it. The basic crit effect flips the first card received to the face up side. But, you do not receive any cards until there are no more shields to absorb hits on the affect hull zone. Thus, in your example, during step 5, you have a total of four damage left incoming, and two shields. The shields reduce that 4 to 2. Then you draw two cards, and flip the first of the two. Now that that card is face up, you resolve it's effect (reduce targets shields by 1 on two hull zones).

Hmmm. Thanks for the help. Still working it out in my head. Sorry if I appear dense. I'm not..I just see ambiguity where perhaps there is none. I'm using the Attack Resolution section from the back page of the Reference.

On a CR-90 with 3 front and 2 right shield

1. Declare Target: CR-90 right

2. Roll attack dice: 3 blue and 3 red = 3 hits and three crits

3. Resolve attack effects: Concentrate fire command produces get one extra die ( which rolls another hit)

4. Spend defense token: Deflect 3 damage to forward shield.

5. Resolve damage:

Resolve critical effect: Draw card, turn it face up, resolve card which says "attacker may reduce two of defender's shields by 1 each."

So now the Cr-90 has 2 front and 1 right? (Why is this not the case?)

Suffer damage: Infict a total of 7 damage, three of which goes to forward shield, four of which goes to right, removing one shield and doing three internal.

You would take the damage to the shields before drawing the damage cards and triggering the critical effect.

So three damage would be deflected to the forward shield, dropping it to 0. Then 2 damage would go to the right shield, dropping it to 0.

2 damage would remain, which would be dealt as damage cards.

As there is a critical effect, the first damage card would be dealt face up. You could now reduce it's back or left shields, but the right and forward shields would already be depleted.

The standard critical effect (a face up damage card) doesn't take effect until you deal a damage card, which wouldn't happen until the shields were exhausted.

Okay, not being argumentative. Still thinking out loud. Thanks again for your help.

It seems to me in both responses above, we are resolving the results of the defense token before we are resolving the results of the face-up damage card.

In essence:

3. Resolve attack effects

4. Spend defense tokens

A. Resolve results of defense token

5. Resolve Damage

A. Reduce shields by amount of damage

B. Draw cards equal to remaining damage

C. If a crit was rolled, turn first card up and resolve results.

But. Pg 4 of the Rules Reference says that Redirect works "When the defender suffers damage." That implies that while Redirect is played during step 4, the results of Redirect come in the Resolve Damage phase.

If so, Also page 4: Critical effects resolve at the beginning of the "Resolve Damage" step of an attack.

So...maybe this..?

3. Resolve attack effects

4. Spend defense token

A. If Redirect, apply in step 5B

B. If Evade, cancel/re-roll attack dice now as appropriate

C. If Brace, apply in step 5B

D. If Scatter, cancel all attack dice now.

5. Resolve Damage

A. If Crit result rolled, resolve critical effect

a. For standard critical effect result, draw 1st card face up in step 5E

B. Apply Redirect/Brace results to total damage

C. Reduce shields by amount of total damage

D. Apply remaining damage to hull

E. Add face down damage cards to any face-up card to equal total damage to hull.

I think that's closer to right, however brace and redirect still go in step 4. (Otherwise, spending a black die crit effect to deal an additional damage on each arc would be rather wonky.

My 2 cents to try give a clean and easy sequence:

1 -Roll Attack dices ( 2 hits + 2 crits)

2 - calculate amount of damages ( You just calculate the amount... but don't apply them . Here, the damages are =4)

3- decide which Critical effects you want to use ( By default :"deal the first damage card face up". here, you just decide the effect, but don't apply it )

4 - Spend defenses tokens. (Brace will divide damage by 2, redirect can move some to another adjacent side shield. In you example, you are redirecting 2 damages to the shield, so only 2 damages goes through the hull)

5 - Apply damages : You now draw 2 damages cards, and the first one is dealt face up ( as decided by your critical effect)

6 - Apply the critical effects described on the face up card

Hope it helps

My 2 cents to try give a clean and easy sequence:

1 -Roll Attack dices ( 2 hits + 2 crits)

2 - calculate amount of damages ( You just calculate the amount... but don't apply them . Here, the damages are =4)

3- decide which Critical effects you want to use ( By default :"deal the first damage card face up". here, you just decide the effect, but don't apply it )

4 - Spend defenses tokens. (Brace will divide damage by 2, redirect can move some to another adjacent side shield. In you example, you are redirecting 2 damages to the shield, so only 2 damages goes through the hull)

5 - Apply damages : You now draw 2 damages cards, and the first one is dealt face up ( as decided by your critical effect)

6 - Apply the critical effects described on the face up card

Hope it helps

(I'm not trying to correct every post in here I swear) step 3 actually happens after step 4, this is because an evade token can negate or force a reroll of the crit, which would remove both the damage and "potential" for a crit effect. In step 5 after tokens are spent, remaining damage is calculated, assigned to the targeted facings and crit effects are chosen and resolved.

So for example, you are a vsd 1 with the missiles upgrade. You roll on your side are 2 hits, and a black crit. Your opponent spends a brace token, so your dealing 2 total damage. He then spends a redirect to push one to another arc. Step 5 happens, you choose the missile upgrade crit effect, and deal a damage to the 2 arcs adjacent to the target arc, and then deal the one remaining damage to the target arc.