When a ship is dealt a faceup Damage card, assign a critical hit token to that ship as a reminder of the card’s ongoing effect. That token is discarded if the card is discarded or flipped facedown.

I think Critical Hit Tokens are redundant, and add more clutter to the game than their given reason for existing warrants. I think they should be optional - since they serve only as a reminder that there is a faceup damage card associated with the ship in question.

I don't doubt that some players have a story or two about how these little card board tokens have helped them to blah, blah, blah. I say that the benefits (perceived or actual) are found wanting in the balance when weighed against the clutter, and the time wasted monitoring/managing what amounts to an entirely redundant bit of clutter.

I don't mind if an opponent wants to assign one of his or her own critical tokens to one of my affected ships - if that helps them - let it be. Let it be their business to move it around with my ship, and not mine. If they need that reminder - let them have it - but if I feel the faceup damage card is sufficient for my needs, then let that be too.

I am sure there are some really good reasons to have these tokens, but I am also sure that those reasons aren't good enough .

But that's me. What does the community think? Will the game fall apart without them, or be better off without them?

May I ask if there's a story behind this? Because, well, most of the community does ignore them. There's a reason people were upset they where one of the prizes for last year's nationals.

I never realized these weren't optional.

I tend to prefer them since I've found myself forgetting crits before, but it doesn't bother me if people use them or not.

Have you run into problems at a tournament or something with this rule? In all my years people seem to treat those tokens as option in my experience.

May I ask if there's a story behind this? Because, well, most of the community does ignore them. There's a reason people were upset they where one of the prizes for last year's nationals.

I'm pretty sure this is a spin off of a comment on the XBear quits xwing thread.

Keep them, because I don't trust myself or my opponent to not forget important crits when the heat is on and hearts are pounding, watching Christmas-colored polyhedrons roll across a table.

The crippling sense of dread that I get when I forget a crit to my advantage at a point where it is too late to accurately roll-back the effects has convinced me that it's worth remembering to pack a couple. Especially because I like to field Greedo.

They are mandatory since it is very easy to forget (knowingly or not) a bad crit (e.g. Console Fire) and your opponent shouldn't need to remember your crits.

I've won countless games because people forget there tokens at home. It's in the rules for a reason.

i dont know a single person that uses them. I dont even see any tournaments that are being broadcasted use them.

If they were specialized i'd use them. I.e. it says -1die, PS0, no straights, etc etc. Only crits that wouldnt benefit from that are the ones that get flipped immediately (stress) or the double damage one since it has no lingering effect.

Basic crit token does literally nothing. I still look at my pilot's card anyway so whats the point.

Any way to reduce clutter is fine by me and crits do NOTHING for the game so screw'm. It bugs me when people insist on putting their maneuver dials next to their ship instead of on the pilot card because it clutters the map and slows things down. Its one thing when the ship is off on its own but when its being bogged down by 3-4 TIE fighters dont flippin' put the dial in that cluster.

May I ask if there's a story behind this? Because, well, most of the community does ignore them. There's a reason people were upset they where one of the prizes for last year's nationals.

I'm pretty sure this is a spin off of a comment on the XBear quits xwing thread.

Indeed. In that thread a TO noticed the OP had failed to assign all the required damage cards to a (presumably destroyed) ship in a local monthly tournament, and the OP, rather than counting out the cards according to both the rules and the TO's instructions, instead defiantly justified himself in not assigning the required damage cards because in his opinion it didn't really matter, and his opponent didn't care either. Angers flared, and eventually the OP decided to quit XWing and sell his modest fleet, and make a post about it so that everyone could express their arm-chair opinions about it.

Which they did.

In the discussion someone intending to frame the original infraction as negligible, compared it to failing to use critical hit tokens, which I thought was both a great comparison (from a rules stand point) and a misleading comparison from an actual consequence stand point - since failure to assign a (redundant) token won't change the outcome of a game, but failing to count out the required damage cards can change subsequent faceup damage cards in a round, which can potentially change the outcome of a round - and subsequently have an effect on the subsequent Swiss rankings - meaning the latter "infringement" not can not only affect the game being played, but he outcome of the tournament.

Nevertheless - it was an interesting comparison, one that I felt could be explored on it's own merit. A lot of people don't bother using those tokens, but the rules say we must .

I was quick to say it was wrong to break a rule that had a real consequences on the game and swiss rankings, but I was fine with breaking a rule that didn't seem to do much other than to remind forgetful players of that there is a faceup card over there.

So I thought - why do we even have that rule? Does whatever it adds to the game make up for what it takes away from the game (by way of clutter and time wasting).

So I put it out there to see what others think.

You would not like playing against me then. If my opponent doesn't assign a crit token, I do it for them from my own stack.

It's a token to help one remember an often-important game effect; would you Focus or Target Lock and not put a token down and then insist you'll remember what each of your ships did?

I use them, the same way I put a WotC figure on the base of a Lambda to remind both myself and my opponent of Rebel Captive. Most of my opponents don't use them and it's no fun to find out a pilot should have burned to death two rounds prior.

Anyway, to each their own.

In the discussion someone intending to frame the original infraction as negligible, compared it to failing to use critical hit tokens, which I thought was both a great comparison (from a rules stand point) and a misleading comparison from an actual consequence stand point - since failure to assign a (redundant) token won't change the outcome of a game, but failing to count out the required damage cards can change subsequent faceup damage cards in a round, which can potentially change the outcome of a round - and subsequently have an effect on the subsequent Swiss rankings - meaning the latter "infringement" not can not only affect the game being played, but he outcome of the tournament.

I find myself in disagreement here. I have seen (and been guilty of) forgetting of crits enough when the crit tokens are not used that I think it does have a very real impact on the game.

I think they're absolutely critical.

Way too easy to forget about crits without them.

I forget things including half of my own abilities way too easily. Yes the clutter sucks, but I have to mark ongoing crits on affected ships. In fact if I am using something like Palp, Glitterstim, Swarm tactics etc. I will use one of the little green marker tokens from the core sets to remind me I have an effect in play for the round. Before a match, I let my opponent know what the token represents and how/why I am using it. No one has complained so far.

That is just me and I would have no problem, as you say, moving one of my tokens around along with your ship if you choose not to bring any.

No they really shouldn't be optional, because the whole point is to help you remember effects that can have a critical impact on the game.

Make them optional and it makes it that much easier for people to claim to forget something harmful to them.

I've won countless games because people forget there tokens at home. It's in the rules for a reason.

Wow. Maybe you should be banned from the forum because you fail to use the correct grammar. It's "Their" not "There". It's in the English language for a reason.

I never use 'em, but they could get interesting with my Bossk list. Put a Mangler, Marksmanship, and Greedo together and you have way too many crtis to count, hints my name for it, Crit Bus.

I guess my first thought is - 'what clutter'? Seriously, 2 or 3 tokens by a ship is a problematic amount of clutter??

i dont know a single person that uses them. I dont even see any tournaments that are being broadcasted use them.

If they were specialized i'd use them. I.e. it says -1die, PS0, no straights, etc etc. Only crits that wouldnt benefit from that are the ones that get flipped immediately (stress) or the double damage one since it has no lingering effect.

Basic crit token does literally nothing. I still look at my pilot's card anyway so whats the point.

Any way to reduce clutter is fine by me and crits do NOTHING for the game so screw'm. It bugs me when people insist on putting their maneuver dials next to their ship instead of on the pilot card because it clutters the map and slows things down. Its one thing when the ship is off on its own but when its being bogged down by 3-4 TIE fighters dont flippin' put the dial in that cluster.

http://www.appliedperspective.com/acrylic/product/premium-critical-damage-pack/

There ya go.

No they should not.

Having a visual reminder of crits can make a world of difference.

I use them and always insist that my opponent does as well

Well. When I get a critical hit on an enemy ship. I always take one token and place it on my right side off the map. This reminds me the opponent has a critical hit. As for me I just put it on the table next to my ship as the rules state.

Maybe they should be optional in the sense that there is no immediate penalty for not using them. However, they do serve a very important function especially in light of all of you people who would crucify someone who happens to forget a trigger that you CLEARLY saw but chose not to say anything about. One more reminder helps everyone remember that things are going on.

There are critical tokens?