So spending defense tokens and resolving damage happen in separate steps. First the defender spends defense tokens. Then, when resolving damage, the attacker can activate a critical effect.

So I have a Gladiator with Assault Concussion Missiles attacking an Assault Frigate Mk. 2. I rolled a critical on a black die. I have two critical effect options: deal the first card face up or deal 1 damage to each adjacent hull zone. However, before I decide which of these to use, my opponent has a chance to use his redirect token.

So how is this resolved? Does my opponent declare he is using redirect (but not how much or to which zone), then I declare my critical, then damage is resolved and he THEN chooses how much to redirect and to where? When is this critical damage applied? Before he redirects or after?

It is easier to recover shields than it is to get rid of damage cards. I guess regardless of damage order, the opponent can ensure the combination of redirect and ACMs do not lead to a damage card being dealt (potentially irrelevant depending on total damage and state of the target hull zone), however do I have it right that I would choose to use ACMs before I know how much damage is being redirected and to which hull zone?

-Attacker Modifies dice

-Defender spends tokents

-Resolve Damage

-Resolve crit effect first

-Apply damage

So during defener spends tokens, your opponent would declare they're using a redirect tokent.

During resolve damage, you have the choice of either choosing to ACM or standard crit. If your opponent chose to redirect, After which you then apply damage. Note that the damage from ACM is not redirected, as it is not handled during the normal part of applying damage, which is what the redirect token -modifies-.

A key thing to understand is the damage isn't dealt to the side shields at the moment the redirect token is spent, but rather that the redirect token modifies the future step where damage is assigned.

The defender must declare the use of defense tokens after the attacker has finished modifying his dice, but before you resolve any damage.

During the damage resolution you first resolve your critical effect, in this case ACM, and apply a damage to each hull zone. Redirect does not take effect here.

Then you total up the damage caused (if a brace token was used it would now take effect).

Then you apply the damage one point at a time (if redirect was used it takes effect here).

Hope that helps.

In simple terms, Brace and Redirect will do nothing against ACM's bonus damage, but an Evade might if you can cancel / re-roll the dice that had the crit result.

Let me get this straight if you use ACM's you get one damage to each adjacent hull zone and that is activated as a result of your crit die roll.

If the adjacent hull zones have no shields then in effect you get two hits on the hull?

Is that correct ?

Newbie.......

Correct.

Outstanding !!!!

Also, the damage from ACM is not halved by Brace or moved about by a Redirect so it's a good way to take down shields. Basically, think of it as two free points of damage dealt on the adjacent hull zones.

If you get more then 1 crit do you get more extra damage for each crit?

No, you only ever resolve a single Critical Effect.

Which means that, if you do Assault Concussion Missiles, you also do NOT get the "normal" crit of a Damage Card flipped Face up if you happen to go through the Shields...

A crit is basically just one point of damage with the option of adding a special effect. You can only have one special effect per attack, regardless of number of crits rolled. Roll 1 hit and 1 crit, that's 2 damage total with the option of adding a special effect. Roll 6 crits, that's 6 damage total with the option of adding a special effect.

The "special effect" can be the standard crit effect (first damage card dealt is face up) or another effect from an upgrade card such as ACMs, Overload Pulse, etc. Obviously, once you've picked which special effect you want to apply, you can't pick another one.

I wish people would just link my videos. . . So very people don't I think I have to redo them so that they cover everything. . .

In an ideal world, I'm sure that would happen. I've not seen all of your videos - I don't have time or opportunity to watch them all...

But you are hardly an authority, as I am hardly an authority. Why should one answer be put higher than any other?


Collect and Collate your Videos. Then, petition to get them Pinned.... Maybe they'll be watched before people ask questions?

Valid. . .

One thing I like about this forum is that people answer questions and are very patient even if the question has been asked for the umpteenth time. I've been to other places wherein people get told off and belittled for not using the search function.... what they don't realize is that some people don't have time to go through the haystack just to find the needle.

Here, it is:

question

answer

gratitude

And hopefully, people are back to doing more important things.... like actually PLAYING this **** game!

We need a FAQ by FFG on attacking steps. Last night again, people argued that ACMs happen automatically after dice rolls and before defense tokens. I need something to print off that shows them they are wrong. Im not going to argue rules during any tournament.

We need a FAQ by FFG on attacking steps. Last night again, people argued that ACMs happen automatically after dice rolls and before defense tokens. I need something to print off that shows them they are wrong. Im not going to argue rules during any tournament.

As plainly as I can put it, those people are wrong; the order is clearly spelt out in the rules.

Step 4 of the attack sequence:

"Spend Defense Tokens: The defender can spend one or more of its defense tokens."

Step 5 of the attack sequence:

"Resolve Damage: The attacker can resolve one of its critical effects. Then the attacker determines the total damage amount. Then the defending squadron or hull zone suffers that total damage, one point at a time."

And what redirect actually does from the defence tokens entry:

"Redirect: The defender chooses one of its hull zones adjacent to the defending hull zone. When the defender suffers damage from this attack, it may suffer any amount of damage on the chosen zone’s shields (up to the shields remaining on that zone) before it must suffer the remaining damage on the defending hull zone"

The above is taken from pages 2 & 4 of the Rules Reference.

So the order is pretty plain, defender declares what tokens are to be used in step 4, at the beginning of step 5 the attacker resolves a critical effect (ACM damage here) and then the actual attack damage is totalled and suffered. Redirect is triggered while suffering the attack damage, and as such, executes after resolution of a critical.

We need a FAQ by FFG on attacking steps. Last night again, people argued that ACMs happen automatically after dice rolls and before defense tokens. I need something to print off that shows them they are wrong. Im not going to argue rules during any tournament.

No need on a FAQ. Refer to p2 of the Rules Reference booklet, specifically ATTACKS Step 5:

Resolve Damage: The attacker can resolve one of its critical effects. Then the attacker determines the total damage amount. Then the defending squadron or hull zone suffers that total damage, one point at a time.

You need to read that one sentence at a time.

The attacker can resolve one of its critical effects. - ACM kicks in, hits adjacent hulls for 1 damage each. If there are shields, that's -1 point of shield. If there are no shields, that's 1 damage card.

Then the attacker determines the total damage amount. - Attacker adds up the total number of hits and crits. This is the TOTAL damage amount. If the defender spent a Brace, this is where you half the damage, rounded up.

Then the defending squadron or hull zone suffers that total damage, one point at a time. - Defender's ship suffers damage... if the defender spent a Redirect, this is where he can decide how to spread the damage.

So yes, they are wrong. ACM does not happen directly after dice rolls, although it may seem that way because for ACM to kick in, the attacker has to be in close range and Evade has no effect at close range, Brace happens later in the stage to have any effect on the end result, and so does Redirect. However, if you have Insidious and have managed to attack from MEDIUM range, the defender can spend an Evade token to get you to reroll your black dice with the crit. If your reroll does not have a crit icon, then he has just prevented you from using your ACM. Or imagine if you rolled 1 hit and 2 blanks.... Step 3 of ATTACK is where Screed can trigger and you spent 1 blank to turn the other blank dice into a hit+crit face of the dice. But you're attacking from MEDIUM range (Insidious at a rear arc)... he can make you re-roll that hit+crit dice and if you roll a blank or a hit, then again, he has just prevented you from using your ACM!

Hope that makes more sense! Good luck!

I forgot.... if you are up against Mon Mothma, the defending player can use Evade tokens at close range to make you reroll your dice.

No need on a FAQ. Refer to p2 of the Rules Reference booklet, specifically ATTACKS Step 5:

FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) does not account for the idea that the player could indeed just look up a rule. Rather just was there a lot of questions on the topic, I think this qualifies.

My regular opponent hasn't read the rules at all, he still fails to comprehend that an accuracy token prevents him from using that specific token for that attack. He often goes to spend the token (as per Intel Officer) or doesn't spend either redirect token while being prevented from using the top one.

Watch critical effects video or attacking video I go over the proper time line there.

FAQ for confusing/ambiguous rules is fine. A question that gets asked often because a player does not know where to look or does not understand/grasp what he is reading does not need a FAQ.

Unless the FAQ entry is:
Q: "I have a question! What happens if..."

A: Have you read the RRG? Go over the RRG with a fine-toothed comb!

You could just tell them to read attack order on the back of the RRG when it pertains to attacks. Other things can be found in the RRG easily enough.

We are all play this game here. Is it too hard to ask for people to read the rules then come to us with questions? It's not like this is a 40k rule book.

You could just tell them to read attack order on the back of the RRG when it pertains to attacks. Other things can be found in the RRG easily enough.

We are all play this game here. Is it too hard to ask for people to read the rules then come to us with questions? It's not like this is a 40k rule book.

Not everybody learns the same way. Some people can read the rulebook and know what they're doing when they start playing. Some people prefer to play first, then refine their methods as improve their understanding of the rules. Some people come to Armada with lots and lots of years of playing other games. Others probably have just seen the box, thought it was cool, and bought it... with previous boardgame experience being chess and monopoly.

On all groups, there is guaranteed to be someone who is playing the game wrong but does not realize it until someone else comes along and points it out to them.

I played Battletech for years and we would still find the odd "clincker" years into playing of the game.