I was driving home tonight and I had a thought. I realized I'm actually not 100% sure I've been doing damage right. So if anyone out there knows the specifics then clue me in here.

How we've been playing them so far: fire on target. Target has shields. Remove shield token. Never draw damage card.

How my brain suddenly wonders if they're supposed to be done: Fire on target. Target has shields. Draw and immediately discard a damage card. Remove shield token.

and also: Fire on target. Get critical hit. Draw damage card and look at its text. Remove shield token. Discard face up damage card. Breathe sigh of relief.

It's the first one, the one how you've been playing it.

Ok sweet just making sure. At some point I read someone saying that Direct Hit could get through shields and I thought they were wrong. Then I thought they might be right if the second way was correct. Good to know we haven't been doing this drastically wrong for two months or so.

Ok sweet just making sure. At some point I read someone saying that Direct Hit could get through shields and I thought they were wrong. Then I thought they might be right if the second way was correct. Good to know we haven't been doing this drastically wrong for two months or so.

They may have been discussing Proton Bombs.

Those suckers don't deal damage, they simply give you a face-up damage card, regardless of your shielding. A Direct Hit! from one of those will 1-shot a full-health A-Wing.

I know. But they weren't talking about them. it was in a discussion on this thread my first night perusing. The line was something to the tune of "There's only one damage card that gets through shields that i know of and it's Direct Hit."

Also on an interesting note, when I first started using them my friend and I debated how PBs worked. I said they don't "deal damage" and he insisted that they do (he's Rebel Scum of course). We rolled on it. I got 1 Focus. He got none. He insisted the next game, stating that the Focus Ruling rule only applied to that game. He rolled 1. I rolled 2. The third time he insisted, he rolled 2 and i rolled 3. He gave up after that, stating that the dice were telling him he was wrong. This hilarity would have been avoided if the wiki page clarified it anywhere. I noticed tonight that the wording on the Proton Bomb's page has been changed to outright say that yes, they do indeed ignore shields.

I could suggest reading page 16 in the Rules of Play:

Suffering Damage
Ships can suffer damage from different sources, such
as being hit during combat or by an effect or card
ability. Damage cards track how much damage each
ship has suffered and are used to determine if the ship
has been destroyed (see “Destroying Ships”).
When a ship suffers damage or critical damage,
it suffers them one at a time following these
steps. The ship must suffer all normal damage before
suffering any critical damage.

1. reduce Shields: If there are any shield
tokens remaining on the ship’s card, remove one
of the tokens and skip Step 2. If there are no
shield tokens, proceed to Step 2 below.

2. Damage hull: Deal one Damage card to the
ship based on the type of damage it suffered.
If the ship suffered damage (such as from a
result), place the Damage card facedown next
to the ship’s card. If the ship suffered critical
damage (such as from a result), place the
Damage card faceup next to the ship’s card
(see “Critical Damage” below).

(Edit:) And of course also read the following section:

When the number of Damage cards dealt to a ship

is equal to or greater than its hull value, the

ship is immediately destroyed (faceup and facedown

cards count toward this total). Immediately remove

the destroyed ship from the play area, discard all of

its Damage cards to a faceup discard pile next to

the Damage deck, and return all of its tokens to their

respective supplies.

Magnets...how do THEY work?