"Star Wars Armada - How to Play" Topic

Hi Guys

I've written up an article on my blog explaining the basics of the game and how to get started.

link

Thank you for your time.
David

Thanks Tabletop. I so want to love this game, but find the rules to be a bit vague and not very intuitive.

Hopefully your blog will help me out with this.

I enjoy the ruleset apart from the squadrons, they seem more like something you have to either dump in front of ships to get a shot as you cant shoot/move or use them to kill enemy bombers.

There's reason for the "Squadron" command and Expanded Flight Decks. :)

Seriously, fighter squadrons in Armada aren't intended to operate in big, independent strikes. They're part of a combined arms team with the ships.

Can any of you answer a question for me?

When you are in combat and you roll a critical hit, I was under the impression that the defender could not suffer a critical hit unless its shields were down and you start issuing cards. Is that correct?

I caught a glimpse of the MC 30 Torpedo Frigate and there is a Torp card that says Black Crit ate dealt face up. Again, is that only if the defender is taking cards because of lack of shields at that point?

OR do I have this all wrong and if you roll a crit they get a card no matter if they have shields of not?

Thanks for any input and forgive me if this is not where I am supposed to ask questions.

Thanks, Last Stand Dan

There was a very long and confusing thread about this on the FFG forum. If I understand the conclusion correctly then the way it works is this: If the attacker rolls any criticals with his dice you just sort of make a mental note of it. Then you go through all the business with evades and braces and redirects and such until you actually start putting hits on the target. Hits go against shields first, but if any get past the shields to reach the hull then the FIRST card is dealt face up. This is the critical. All other cards from that attack are dealt face down no matter how many criticals you rolled. if none of the hits get past the shields you don't worry about the critical.

That's right. The "standard critical effect" is that *if* a damage card is dealt, the first one dealt goes face up.

The Assault Proton Torpedoes (I think this is the one you're referring to) has a special critical effect--you can spend a black crit to deal a face-up damage card, even if the target has shields left.

Normally, damage cards are only dealt if the shields on the targeted arc are down, but there are cards and abilities (like Luke and Assault Proton Torpedoes) that let you ignore the shields and deal damage directly to the ship.