Clarification on Damage

By OkYaa, in X-Wing Rules Questions

Hi There,

I have just got the Core set, and having read the rules, I am not 100% sure that I have understood the difference between "Damage" and Critical Damage".

So, what happens if I take an damage, have no shields, and draw the following card:

Console Fire - Ship - roll an attack dice at the start of each combat phase. On an "*" suffer 1 damage. Action - Flip the card face down.

I am assuming that as this has no immeadiate damage, it will have no effect for an ordinary hit. However, so a Critical Hit, you roll the attack damge on the next combat phase and then flip the card face down, (and by doing so ending its effect).

Direct Hit - Ship - take 2 damage to the hull.

SImply does 2 damage for both normal and critical hits. Turned face down immeadiately.

Damaged Cockpit - Pilot starting the round after you receiv ethis card treat your pilot as having a skill value of "0".

No effect as a normal hit, but effects the pilots skill rating for the remainder of the game. Never gets turned face down.

Thanks in advance

With regular damage, you don't even look at the text of the cards you draw. Simply take the right number of cards from the top of the deck and place them face-down on your ship card. None of the effects of any damage cards resolve when you're just taking regular damage. It's only when you take critical damage that you flip the damage card face-up, read the text, and resolve the effect.

Here's an example of how the damage process works. Let's say you have an X-Wing with one shield token remaining, being attacked by a TIE Interceptor. The Interceptor rolls [Hit], [Hit], [Crit], and your X-Wing rolls two blanks for defense. Your X-Wing will suffer two regular damage, and one critical damage, like so:

Apply regular damage before critical damage:

  • The first regular damage removes the X-Wing's final shield token.
  • The second damage deals one face-down damage card to the X-Wing, which counts as one damage to the hull of the X-Wing, but has no additional effect.

Then apply the critical damage:

  • Deal one face-up damage card to the X-Wing, resolving its effect. For example, if you reveal a Direct Hit, then that single card counts as two damage against your hull.
  • Only turn the card face-down if and when the effect tells you to do so. Direct Hit doesn't tell you to turn it face-down, so it remains on your ship card face-up.

At the end of this example, the X-Wing has one face-down and one face-up damage card, which total 3 damage against its hull, enough to destroy it.

Hi There,

I have just got the Core set, and having read the rules, I am not 100% sure that I have understood the difference between "Damage" and Critical Damage".

So, what happens if I take an damage, have no shields, and draw the following card:

Console Fire - Ship - roll an attack dice at the start of each combat phase. On an "*" suffer 1 damage. Action - Flip the card face down.

I am assuming that as this has no immeadiate damage, it will have no effect for an ordinary hit. However, so a Critical Hit, you roll the attack damge on the next combat phase and then flip the card face down, (and by doing so ending its effect).

Direct Hit - Ship - take 2 damage to the hull.

SImply does 2 damage for both normal and critical hits. Turned face down immeadiately.

Damaged Cockpit - Pilot starting the round after you receiv ethis card treat your pilot as having a skill value of "0".

No effect as a normal hit, but effects the pilots skill rating for the remainder of the game. Never gets turned face down.

Thanks in advance

For console fire: this card triggers at every start of the combat phase. You can, if you are unlucky, move over an asteroid, get a crit, get a console fire and roll a hit during the start of the combat phase (for a total of 2 damage). So while damage is not "immediate", it can be in the same round. You also need to use an action to flip it face down (its does not flip down automatically). So you could get shot at, be dealt a crit during 1 round, move the next and use your action to flip it down before it ever triggers (at the cost of using your action for something else).

Direct hit: as Pandademic mentionned, do not flip it face down.

Damaged cockpit: you got it right. Keep in mind that card effects that depend on the pilot skill level also come into play. For example, a ship with predator firing at someone with a damaged cockpit could reroll 2 dice instead of 1 (since his Pilot skill rating is 0).

Recognize that there are differences between getting hit, filled and open explosion symbols, and suffering damage or critical damage. I guess I could also put it effects that deal you damage cards.

1. We often call filled explosion symbols "hits" and open symbols as "crits" but they are only what they appear to be and are not interchangeable. This distinction can be important when looking at die results but also because being 'hit' by an attack does not always care about what the dice show.

2. Getting hit by an attack means that there are explosion symbols left on attack dice after defense dice have cancelled dice out. Filled symbols are cancelled first. If any are left a ship is "hit" and remaining dice can move to cause the target to suffer damage unless something else affects the dice and changes the output.

3. Suffering damage, and critical damage as well, means removing shield tokens from the target if there are any with damage/filled explosion symbols going first. Once all the shields are gone a ship that suffers damage is dealt a card from the damage deck face down so that no one knows what it is. If a ship suffers critical damage/open explosion symbol it is instead dealt a face-up card; this card brings other stuff into play and counts as a damage card but you ONLY turn it face down if some effect tells you to.

4. If an effect say to DEAL Cards then it will skip any shields and cards are dealt directly to a target. Ships CAN be destroyed even if they have all of their shield tokens if they get damage cards equal or greater than their hull value. Damage cards can only be removed if an effect explicitly states to remove them.

Hi There,

So in essence damage cards have no effect until you get a critical hit. So you can get sufficient damage to destory your ship face down without realising it (so 2x2 damage) from nornmal hits, then get a Critical hit (of say damaged cockpit), which itself does no damage but causes the face down cards to be flipped over. This would then apply the 4 damage - sufficient to take out a Tie or XWing.

Thanks for the replies.

OkYaa!

So in essence damage cards have no effect until you get a critical hit. So you can get sufficient damage to destory your ship face down without realising it (so 2x2 damage) from nornmal hits, then get a Critical hit (of say damaged cockpit), which itself does no damage but causes the face down cards to be flipped over. This would then apply the 4 damage - sufficient to take out a Tie or XWing.

What??

A ship is destroyed when it has a number of damage cards equal to its hull value. Face up or face down doesn't matter, just the number of cards.

Cards that are face up have ADDITIONAL effects beyond that.

While it's true that a TIE or X-Wing with two face-down Direct Hits is not destroyed, but would be if something flipped them both up (actually either one would be enough), it's not undamaged. It's still got two damage against its hull.

If you read page 9 under the Rules Reference, there is a Damage section that explains it pretty well.

Once you get past shields, damage is dealt via the cards. A normal hit is one card face down. A Critical hit card is dealt face up and you resolve what is written immediately. Once you get cards equal to your hull, your ship is destroyed.

If the Critical hit is the Minor Explosion and indicates that you roll- a hit adds one more damage to your ship via another card. For a Direct Hit, the card counts as 2 damage and you leave it face up unless you have an ability to flip it over.

Hi There,

So in essence damage cards have no effect until you get a critical hit. So you can get sufficient damage to destory your ship face down without realising it (so 2x2 damage) from nornmal hits, then get a Critical hit (of say damaged cockpit), which itself does no damage but causes the face down cards to be flipped over. This would then apply the 4 damage - sufficient to take out a Tie or XWing.

Thanks for the replies.

OkYaa!

When you get a crit, only ONE card is flipped face-up: the one from the critical hit. The rest of your cards stay the way they were dealt, facedown.

Hi There,

So in essence damage cards have no effect until you get a critical hit. So you can get sufficient damage to destory your ship face down without realising it (so 2x2 damage) from nornmal hits, then get a Critical hit (of say damaged cockpit), which itself does no damage but causes the face down cards to be flipped over. This would then apply the 4 damage - sufficient to take out a Tie or XWing.

Thanks for the replies.

OkYaa!

In a way face down damage cards are no different from using anything else to track how much damage a ship takes to its hull. Face-up cards are still damage but just introduce some additional effect which may, or may not, be negated to turn the card face-down. All face-down cards are treated the same unless something specifically calls for one to be turned face-up.

Most of the time any face-up cards a ship has will be dealt to them that way which can trigger other things depending on the card. There are a few effects in the game which can turn face-down cards over after they land on a ship. Rexlar can do it with his special ability but only to the face-down cards that were just dealt (so note which ones they are until his ability is used or not used) plus there are several affects that can turn a card that is selected randomly face up.

Hi There,

So in essence damage cards have no effect until you get a critical hit. So you can get sufficient damage to destory your ship face down without realising it (so 2x2 damage) from nornmal hits, then get a Critical hit (of say damaged cockpit), which itself does no damage but causes the face down cards to be flipped over. This would then apply the 4 damage - sufficient to take out a Tie or XWing.

Thanks for the replies.

OkYaa!

What? No!

Say your X-Wing receives 1 'hit' and 1 'critical' hit and it has no shields. You draw one face down damage card for the hit, and one face up damage card for the critical hit, and resolve it, e.g. damaged cockpit. Your X-Wing now has a total damage of 2 against its hull value of 3. Regardless if the next card you receive is face down or face up, your X-Wing will be destroyed as it will have damage cards equal to (or above) its hull value.

All damage cards count as one point of damage against your hull, regardless of face up or face down. Obviously, the one exception is 'Direct Hit' which counts for two.

Hi There,

So in essence damage cards have no effect until you get a critical hit. So you can get sufficient damage to destory your ship face down without realising it (so 2x2 damage) from nornmal hits, then get a Critical hit (of say damaged cockpit), which itself does no damage but causes the face down cards to be flipped over. This would then apply the 4 damage - sufficient to take out a Tie or XWing.

Thanks for the replies.

OkYaa!

Edited by headache62

Hi There,

So in essence damage cards have no effect until you get a critical hit. So you can get sufficient damage to destory your ship face down without realising it (so 2x2 damage) from nornmal hits, then get a Critical hit (of say damaged cockpit), which itself does no damage but causes the face down cards to be flipped over. This would then apply the 4 damage - sufficient to take out a Tie or XWing.

Thanks for the replies.

OkYaa!

The damage cards are used as markers and count against your hull value.

When you are dealt a facedown damage card, that's one point of damage. You should not be looking at the facedown damage cards at any stage, just slide them off the damage deck and assign them to the ship without looking at the text.

When you are dealt a faceup damage card, that's one point of damage as well. This time the text on the card comes into play, you follow exactly what it says on the card. It does not mean you flip over any facedown cards.

Each card you have (facedown or face up) counts as one point of damage against your hull value, with the only exception being a faceup "Direct Hit", which counts as two damage. But a Direct Hit must be faceup to count as two.

I strongly suggest you re-read the rules section covering Damage, as you seem to be getting it completely wrong at the moment.

Hi There,

I have just got the Core set, and having read the rules, I am not 100% sure that I have understood the difference between "Damage" and Critical Damage".

So, what happens if I take an damage, have no shields, and draw the following card:

Console Fire - Ship - roll an attack dice at the start of each combat phase. On an "*" suffer 1 damage. Action - Flip the card face down.

I am assuming that as this has no immeadiate damage, it will have no effect for an ordinary hit. However, so a Critical Hit, you roll the attack damge on the next combat phase and then flip the card face down, (and by doing so ending its effect).

Direct Hit - Ship - take 2 damage to the hull.

SImply does 2 damage for both normal and critical hits. Turned face down immeadiately.

Damaged Cockpit - Pilot starting the round after you receiv ethis card treat your pilot as having a skill value of "0".

No effect as a normal hit, but effects the pilots skill rating for the remainder of the game. Never gets turned face down.

Thanks in advance

Console fire: The card itself counts as one damage against your hull. At the start of the combat phase, you roll an attack die and if you get a "hit" result you draw another damage card face down and place it on the same ship. To flip the card face down, you have to select this as an action at the end of your activation phase (i.e. when you'd normally select a focus or evade). From then on, it only counts as a normal damage (since it's face down).

Direct hit: Counts as two damage against your hull. Leave it face up until the end of the game.

Damaged cockpit: Counts as one damage against your hull. And yes, you leave this one face up until the end of the game.

Basically, every damage card counts as one damage against your hull, whether it's face down or face up. If you have damage cards equal to your hull value or more on one ship, that ship is destroyed. Crits are additional effects, but the face up cards STILL count as one damage each (or two, in the case of Direct Hit).

Edited by Rickenbacker69