Apologies if these questions have been asked and answered before, but its late and I don't have time to search all the threads.
When dealing with incoming damage and crits, can I choose to soak crits on my shields, rather than let it carry through for whatever damage effects? For example...My capital ship takes a nasty broadsides and is looking at 2 hits and 2 crits, but only has 2 shields. Can I soak the crits on my shields and take the two hits (non-critical) to my hull?

Also, at what point can I determine the effects of critical hits? I know that the basic crit effect is to deal the first damage card face up. But can I spend that critical 'early' to resolve a card effect....such as Dodona's Pride ?

Again, apologies if these questions have been asked and answered...and if they don't make sense, allow me to clarify after a nights sleep.

No need for apology, the crit rules are fairly nuanced, and require close reading to understand. Fortunately, once you do, most of your questions are answered pretty simply.

First, you need to understand the conditions that trigger a critical effect. A crit is triggered if there is at least one critical icon in your dice pool. You don't spend the die to get a crit, it just is. A crit icon is to a critical effect in your dice pool as poop is to sewage in water: it doesn't matter how many poops are in your water, if there are any poops, it's sewage.

Now, what is the standard critical effect? The wording is important here:

[critical icon]: If the defender is dealt at least one damage card by this attack, deal the first damage card faceup.”

So, when does the critical effect resolve? Immediately after defense tokens are spent, but before damage is dealt. But remember the default critical effect has a delayed effect: " if the defender is dealt at least one damage card by this attack ". So that resolves immediately, but it's suspended until and unless a damage card is dealt.

So, once the default crit effect resolves, you can imagine your attack becoming "charged" such that if it touches the hull, it will deal a face up.

Now, Dodonna's Pride substitutes a different critical effect instead of the default. It resolves at the same time, only its effect is not suspended or conditional but immediate: cancel your damage and deal a face up card.

Okay, getting a firmer grip on that. But as to my first question; If the dice rolls come up 2 hits, 2 crits (just for example) and I have two shields, can I 'soak' the crits on the shields (thus negating them and the crit effect) and take two normal damage to the hull? Or am I just doomed to take a crit no matter what dice the shields soak?

In your example 2 hits and 2 crits equals 4 damage and a critical effect. You suffer 4 damage and whichever critical effect the attacker chose to trigger.

There is no mechanism in the game to selectively take 'critical damage' on your shields in order to allow only 'ordinary damage' to reach your hull.

Cactus is right.

Remember, the whole glass of water has poop in it. It doesn't matter if there are one or four poops in it, the whole thing is poop water, and if any of that water goes in your mouth, you drank sewage. It doesn't matter if you poured some of it down the sink first.

The whole pool of dice has a critical effect. It doesn't matter if there are one or four crit icons in it, the whole thing has a critical effect, and if any of that damage goes on the hull, you take the first one face up. It doesn't matter if some of that damage goes to the shields first.

If the defender is dealt at least one damage card by this attack, deal the first damage card faceup.

Dice icons are not spent as damage is dealt, which means the crit icons don't go away if you take shield damage first. By the time damage is being dealt, the game has already checked whether there is a critical effect on the attack, and the default critical effect has been applied to the attack. So, if any cards are dealt by the attack, the first one is dealt face-up, regardless of what has happened to any other damage along the way.

Was that image really necessary Ard?

ROLL ATTACK DICE

- Attacker Modifies Dice
- This includes Spending (ie, removing) ACC symbols to stop Defense Tokens from being Spent.

DEFENDER SPENDS DEFENSE TOKENS

- The Defender chooses which defense tokens to use.
- Evade Triggers IMMEDIATELY, and you can see the result of the reroll (if appropriate) before deciding on what other Tokens to use, but all tokens to be used must be spent here
- If the Defender makes the attacker Reroll and gets an "ACC" Symbol, that symbol cannot be spent to lock down defense tokens, as that must be done in the ROLL ATTACK DICE segment, and that timing has passed.

ATTACKER RESOLVES CRITICAL EFFECT

- IF AT LEAST ONE DIE HAS A 'CRIT' SYMBOL , the attacker chooses an appropriate effect - either the Default or one from an Upgrade Card.
- IF THE DEFENDER SPENT THE CONTAIN CRITICAL - THEN THE DEFAULT CRITICAL EFFECT HAS NO EFFECT

ATTACKER CALCULATES DAMAGE DEALT

- All HIT and CRIT symbols are totalled up. This gives you the DAMAGE. At this point, you can throw the dice away, as you have your DAMAGE NUMBER
- IF THE DEFENDER SPENT A BRACE TOKEN, THAT NUMBER IS HALVED, ROUNDING UP

DEFENDER ASSIGNS DAMAGE

- The Defender assigns the Damage ONE POINT AT A TIME to the Targeted Hull Zone
- IF THE DEFENDER SPENT A REDIRECT TOKEN, THEY MAY SELECT AN ADJACENT ZONE TO TAKE DAMAGE INSTEAD
- DAMAGE IS ALLOCATED ONE POINT AT A TIME
- If the Damage Point hits Shields, Shields are Reduced by 1.
- If the damage point its hull, one Damage Card is Allocated to the Ship.

Step. By. Step.

That's it!

4 hours ago, Ginkapo said:

Was that image really necessary Ard?

I'm going to keep using it every time it comes up. And tagging you every time.

Poop water, @Ginkapo .

On 2/25/2017 at 11:22 AM, Drasnighta said:

ROLL ATTACK DICE

- Attacker Modifies Dice
- This includes Spending (ie, removing) ACC symbols to stop Defense Tokens from being Spent.

DEFENDER SPENDS DEFENSE TOKENS

- The Defender chooses which defense tokens to use.
- Evade Triggers IMMEDIATELY, and you can see the result of the reroll (if appropriate) before deciding on what other Tokens to use, but all tokens to be used must be spent here
- If the Defender makes the attacker Reroll and gets an "ACC" Symbol, that symbol cannot be spent to lock down defense tokens, as that must be done in the ROLL ATTACK DICE segment, and that timing has passed.

ATTACKER RESOLVES CRITICAL EFFECT

- IF AT LEAST ONE DIE HAS A 'CRIT' SYMBOL , the attacker chooses an appropriate effect - either the Default or one from an Upgrade Card.
- IF THE DEFENDER SPENT THE CONTAIN CRITICAL - THEN THE DEFAULT CRITICAL EFFECT HAS NO EFFECT

ATTACKER CALCULATES DAMAGE DEALT

- All HIT and CRIT symbols are totalled up. This gives you the DAMAGE. At this point, you can throw the dice away, as you have your DAMAGE NUMBER
- IF THE DEFENDER SPENT A BRACE TOKEN, THAT NUMBER IS HALVED, ROUNDING UP

DEFENDER ASSIGNS DAMAGE

- The Defender assigns the Damage ONE POINT AT A TIME to the Targeted Hull Zone
- IF THE DEFENDER SPENT A REDIRECT TOKEN, THEY MAY SELECT AN ADJACENT ZONE TO TAKE DAMAGE INSTEAD
- DAMAGE IS ALLOCATED ONE POINT AT A TIME
- If the Damage Point hits Shields, Shields are Reduced by 1.
- If the damage point its hull, one Damage Card is Allocated to the Ship.

Step. By. Step.

That's it!

This is awesome and I have this printed out, but as a newer player I am having issue with non-standard crits from upgrades. Some people say the crit hits before tokens, after tokens and this one is a crit but a token takes it away. Is there a breakdown of when special crits (APT, Overload, etc) occur outside of the time-frame, if any?

No, beacuse they don't occur outside of the time frame... They Resolve Immedaitely at the start of the Damage Step.

After Defense Tokens are Spent, before Damage is Calculated.

Notice the point where it says: ATTACKER RESOLVES CRITICAL EFFECT

That's where it happens. APT / ACM / Ion Cannons - They all resolve IMMEDIATELY there.

IMMEDIATELY. IMMEDIATELY. THEY HAPPEN RIGHT THERE. AFTER DEFENSE TOKENS, BEFORE DAMAGE IS CALCULATED, AT THE START OF THE DAMAGE STEP.

The Implications are as such:
- APT is immedaitely dealing a Face up Damage card to the opponent. Makes no difference if there's shields, 1 damage, 20 damage, or any of that. Immedaitely deal a Face up Damage card, as per the Upgrade Card Text.

- ACMs immediately deal 1 damage to each adjacent Hull Zone to the Target. The enemy has decided if they are going to Redirect, but they havn't declared how much they will (and they never actually do, as it goes point-by-point)... So if they have chosen to redirect to hull zones, then ACMs can be useful - if they decide not to redirect, then you can possibly choose the default instead to aim for a face-up damage card if you're going through their Shields on the target zone.

The only "Tricky" ones in that regard, are the Default and XX9s. They resolve immediately , but their effect is delayed until you're dealing Damage Cards. BUT THEY STILL RESOLVE IMMEDIATELY

That's the easy way to remember it I beat "immediately" into my own head, and that's how I got it down... They all trigger and resolve immedaitely at the same step

I made this reference to address the timing.

1 hour ago, Drasnighta said:

No, beacuse they don't occur outside of the time frame... They Resolve Immedaitely at the start of the Damage Step.

After Defense Tokens are Spent, before Damage is Calculated.

Notice the point where it says: ATTACKER RESOLVES CRITICAL EFFECT

That's where it happens. APT / ACM / Ion Cannons - They all resolve IMMEDIATELY there.

IMMEDIATELY. IMMEDIATELY. THEY HAPPEN RIGHT THERE. AFTER DEFENSE TOKENS, BEFORE DAMAGE IS CALCULATED, AT THE START OF THE DAMAGE STEP.

The Implications are as such:
- APT is immedaitely dealing a Face up Damage card to the opponent. Makes no difference if there's shields, 1 damage, 20 damage, or any of that. Immedaitely deal a Face up Damage card, as per the Upgrade Card Text.

- ACMs immediately deal 1 damage to each adjacent Hull Zone to the Target. The enemy has decided if they are going to Redirect, but they havn't declared how much they will (and they never actually do, as it goes point-by-point)... So if they have chosen to redirect to hull zones, then ACMs can be useful - if they decide not to redirect, then you can possibly choose the default instead to aim for a face-up damage card if you're going through their Shields on the target zone.

The only "Tricky" ones in that regard, are the Default and XX9s. They resolve immediately , but their effect is delayed until you're dealing Damage Cards. BUT THEY STILL RESOLVE IMMEDIATELY

That's the easy way to remember it I beat "immediately" into my own head, and that's how I got it down... They all trigger and resolve immedaitely at the same step

Thanks.