Beginner queries

By Ceodoc, in X-Wing Rules Questions

Hi

We bought Xwing for xmas, treated ourselves to a nice bundle of ships and so far have played 3 games, we love it!

I tried to find a pinned thread that would answer a few queries I have, but no luck, could you please advise us.

1. If you receive extra attacks from any source, can these be used for an upgrade card attack, for example, you want to fire proton torpedoes, which the upgrade card indicates 5 attack dice, would you get a bonus dice for range 1 say, or maybe any other bonus dice sources?

Also target lock modifiers, do these apply to these dice as well? In fact does target lock modifiers affect any attack rolls, Ion shots, etc., etc.

2. If you receive a Critical damage and it does not get defended, is it considered a damage token regardless of its text, for example:

"Minor explosion

Ship

Immediately roll 1 attack die. On a * result, suffer 1 damage. ( we assume this is resolved by adding a facedown damage card to the ship)

Then flip this card facedown"

Facedown where? Is it a damage token regardless of the above extra die roll?)

So a * roll from the text will make this crit 2 damage?

Cheers for reading and I hope you can help us.

Happy New Year heroes!

Doc

Edited by Ceodoc

Welcome to the game. Let me see if I can help with your questions.

1. Secondary weapon attacks (such as Proton Torpedoes, Missiles, Cannons or Turrets) do not gain the bonus dice for range 1, nor do the targets of those weapons get the extra agility die at range 3. The note at the bottom of page 10 in the rules booklet specifies that only the ship's primary weapons get those range bonuses.

Target locks allow you to re-roll any of your attack dice, but only if you do not need to spend the target lock to fire the weapons. Proton torpedoes and most missiles state that you must spend the target lock to fire them, so you can't use the lock to re-roll dice. Primary weapons, cannons and turrets don't require you to spend the lock to fire, so you can re-roll any of your attack dice and keep the ones you like.

2. Critical damage does count as a damage point, so in your example, the critical hit would count as one, then you would roll for possibly another damage point. When it says "flip it face down", it just means that after you resolve the die roll the card just counts as a normal damage. Face down damage cards are normal damage, face up cards are criticals.

Hope that helps.

Of course it did!

Thank you so much.

1. Is a read issue, I see that now, 2 was a little trickier for me to determine.

Thank you

Doc

Hi

We bought Xwing for xmas, treated ourselves to a nice bundle of ships and so far have played 3 games, we love it!

I tried to find a pinned thread that would answer a few queries I have, but no luck, could you please advise us.

1. If you receive extra attacks from any source, can these be used for an upgrade card attack, for example, you want to fire proton torpedoes, which the upgrade card indicates 5 attack dice, would you get a bonus dice for range 1 say, or maybe any other bonus dice sources?

Also target lock modifiers, do these apply to these dice as well? In fact does target lock modifiers affect any attack rolls, Ion shots, etc., etc.

2. If you receive a Critical damage and it does not get defended, is it considered a damage token regardless of its text, for example:

"Minor explosion

Ship

Immediately roll 1 attack die. On a * result, suffer 1 damage. ( we assume this is resolved by adding a facedown damage card to the ship)

Then flip this card facedown"

Facedown where? Is it a damage token regardless of the above extra die roll?)

So a * roll from the text will make this crit 2 damage?

Cheers for reading and I hope you can help us.

Happy New Year heroes!

Doc

Hey Doc,

I think part of the confusion with #2 is that people in tabletop play generally lay out damage cards next to or on their ship cards as damage accumulates, for tracking purposes.

Here's a TIE next to a game mat, which has suffered a Damaged Engine critical hit, for example:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IbxNirKdEQg/UZsaNGf-enI/AAAAAAAABwQ/3f8FqwNOe2I/s1600/IMG_0324.JPG

In this picture Luke has suffered a Direct Hit (double damage) critical hit. This one is kept face up and counted as 2 damage, which is important because there are effects in the game like the R5 astromech, which could flip the card face down and in doing so reduce it to a single damage.

http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic1541533_lg.jpg

In this one the Y-Wing has suffered 3 hits and a crit so far in the game (in addition to losing his shields, obviously); 3 facedown damage cards and a face-up Damaged Engine critical, leaving him with 1 hull remaining. On a side note, the X-Wing has apparently been destroyed, as it's been removed from the board, even though only 2 damage cards appear to be showing. It's a safe bet that one of those was a Direct Hit (2 damage) critical that he flipped face down once he hit 0 hull remaining and took his ship off the board.

http://www.outworld-studio.com/xwing/jpg/flytrap-02.jpg

All critical hits also count as 1 standard damage card (or more) when tracking hull damage, but critical hits that get through are played face-up as shown, and their card text is taken into effect in addition to the fact they count as a damage. So when it refers to face-up/face-down it's literally talking about how to place that damage card on the table next to the damaged ship's pilot card.

In the case of minor explosion you would read the crit text, roll a damage die, then flip Minor Explosion over and place it by the ship card as a regular damage. If a hit was rolled (and on ME I believe it is only a hit, not a hit or a crit symbol) you would draw an additional face-down damage card and place it next to your ship's card as well.

Thank you for all the clarification and help :)

Ok my new query for the day:

Some ships or pilot abilities allow you to have an attack.

For example: Marksmanship.

Which is an action, however I read the rules as you perform an action in the Activation phase.

To perform the above action do you have to declare it in the activation phase? Or do you 'pass' and then use it in the combat phase?

I cannot recall another example, but I am sure I had the feeling that it occurred again.

I am assuming you just ignore the perform action in the activation phase and just hold on until the combat phase. But I wondered why these abilities do not have a token.

When we were playing we just declared that we would be using 'marksmanship' in the perform action phase so the other player did not think we were passing.

Thanks again for replies in advance.

Doc

Edited by Ceodoc

Ooops, I forgot:

Happy New year

Marksmanship is an action and is declared in the activation phase. It means that your entire round of attacking will be strictly offence (unlike taking a focus action that allows you to use it for either offence or defence).

Actions are declared in the perform action step of the activation phase. Free actions (actions granted outside of the perform action step of the activation phase) can occur at any time. Examples of such are Lando's pilot ability or the use of the squad leader elite pilot skill. Free actions are resolved when they are given. If you pass on an action, that becomes your choice of action, so you can't go back and undo that or save it for later use.

Thank you

Interesting then that they did not make a token for 'marksmanship'

Doc

I guess one of the reasons Marksmanship may not have a token is because once you "turn it on" it says on for the rest of your turn. Unlike Focus where you need to "remember" if you have a token available or not Marksmanship simply applies to all attacks that ship makes. It's not much different from remembering that you took some specific action which would then prevent you from taking it again if given a free action.

Spending a focus token to change an eye to a hit is a single use ability?

So you can't use 1 focus token to change 3 focus dice?

Focus works to change all the eyes on dice that you rolled, whether it is for attack (red dice) or defence (green dice).

So, if you roll 3 red dice for an attack and get a hit and 2 eyes, by spending your focus token you change all the eyes to hits. You would end up with 3 hits.

If you roll 3 dice for defense and get 1 evade and 2 eyes, by spending a focus token to change all the eyes to evades, you would end up with 3 evades.

The challenge is knowing when to use the focus for offence without risking too much for defence because after you spend it, it is spent. If you use it for attack you won't have it there for defence. Do you use it to stick in more damage or hold on to it to survive an incoming barrage.

Ceodoc Just place the marksmanship card next to the ship your using it on so you dont forget.

I use the sensor tokens that came with the core set to denote card-specific actions, such as Marksmanship, R2-F2's ability, and so on.

Just until I get a set of the acrylic tokens that include special pieces for those actions, that is...

I always just placed a focus token on Marksmanship when I used it. Seemed easier to me than messing with other tokens. I've also seen people "tap" it or any number of easy reminders.

On a side note there are some third party droid and elite pilot skill tokens that can be handy, if you're using acrylic stuff.
Litko just came out with one (they have a droid and an Imp pilot version as well): http://www.litko.net/products/Space-Fighter%2C-Rebel-Elite-Pilot-Tokens-%285%29.html#.UsRytfRDt8E

And Applied Perspectives has some as well: http://www.appliedperspective.com/acrylic/product/skill-token-10-pack/

I do enjoy using them personally, just so that it's easier to remember when I activated a pilot ability that requires an action (or a droid token, for when I use something like R2-F2), but there are a bunch of easy ways to track it.

Anyway, as was stated above, along with learning not just to plan out your own moves, but anticipate the moves of your opponent, one of the keys to X-Wing is learning how to tactically and intelligently use your options, especially when moving a lower ps pilot who has to make his decisions as far as actions go, before seeing most of the rest of the ships on the table complete their moves and actions.

Do you take a target lock and push the attack? Take an evade and try to turtle up? Split the difference with a Focus you can use on either side of combat? But then do you spend it on an attack, knowing you'll be shot at in return shortly? Or spend it to dodge an attack, knowing that you may need it when taking your shot?

It's all part of the chess match. :D

Spending a focus token to change an eye to a hit is a single use ability?

So you can't use 1 focus token to change 3 focus dice?

A Focus is "single use" in that it only gets to modify one SET of die rolls. Here a "set" is the attack value you are using.

To use a somewhat crazy example of Han Solo firing a Cluster Missile while having a Gunner on the ship you have a possible SIX attack rolls in there but you could only use your Focus on ONE of them and then not have it for Defense later. On the other hand Marksmanship's benefit would apply to EVERY attack roll made.

I'll admit I'm not 100% sure if the Han reroll could benefit from a Focus spent to modify the original roll but if you're rerolling everything anyway you would probably save your Focus for that second look.

Come on CrookedWookie, this game is way more involved than chess even if it includes fewer pieces. There's more freedom of start positioning, freedom of movement, and most importantly a Random element that can completely screw over even the most thought out plans from time to time. For this last one just watch the replay of one of those recent championships where ships were taken with "one shot" far too often.

I'll admit I'm not 100% sure if the Han reroll could benefit from a Focus spent to modify the original roll but if you're rerolling everything anyway you would probably save your Focus for that second look.

If you spend your focus token before using Han's reroll, then it won't be able to change any focus results you get on the reroll. The same applies to combining target lock and focus. It is almost always the wrong choice to spend the focus first.

Come on CrookedWookie, this game is way more involved than chess even if it includes fewer pieces. There's more freedom of start positioning, freedom of movement, and most importantly a Random element that can completely screw over even the most thought out plans from time to time. For this last one just watch the replay of one of those recent championships where ships were taken with "one shot" far too often.

Good lord, man. First off, I know a lot of chess players who would probably disagree with you.

Second of all, I did not say "X-Wing is chess." Calling something "a chess match" does not mean you are saying it is a literal game of chess. It's a figure of speech, meaning a pure match of skill and wits and experience.

That is compared to, say, a dice game, which by its very nature involves a great deal of luck . You're actually making my point for me, which was an attempt to say that there are a number of elements of the game which are out of your hands; you can't control the outcome of the dice, you can only make intelligent use of the tools at hand to try and mitigate their impact on the game to your favor.

BUT, there are a number of parts of the game (which I was detailing in the preceding paragraphs, if you'd read the entire post); namely building a solid squad, flying well, outguessing your opponent, making smart use of your actions, etc, which are all skills that you have complete control over and can improve with time and practice.

In other words, X-Wing has two elements; the dice game, which involves large doses of luck even with your abilities that allow you to alter the results, and what I was referring to as 'the chess match,' which is basically all of the parts of the game which are completely under your control. And specifically, since he was talking about wanting to wait and see what your opponent did before deciding whether to spend his focus or whatever, I was talking about the part of the game where you're thinking several moves ahead and trying to plan not just your next move but your opponent's next move so that you can outmaneuver him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figure_of_speech

Sorry CW. While there may be strategy element in both games that involve moving Chess and X-Wing have few similarities in gameplay. My post was intended as a light hearted barb comparing the two games which was the point. The "Come on" part was there because I've seen a few "common" errors when using that expression.

Oh, I know that some Chess players will take issue with saying any game is "more involved" than theirs is but that is both right and wrong. Chess has a lot of moving pieces but everything is constrained and the expected outcome always happens although seeing that outcome isn't always easy. You can have two people play Chess WITHOUT any pieces or board and have it be purely mental but I believe such is impossible in X-Wing.

Again, I wasn't comparing X-Wing to chess, I was using "chess match" as a figure of speech. ;)

It's a New Year, still need to work some stuff out.