How Crits Work In Armada

The critical hits mechanic in Star Wars: Armada is not the same as in X-Wing Miniatures.  On an initial read-through, it looks as thought the two rules are similar.  However, there are some important differences that are easily overlooked.  To play your best game of Armada, you will need to know how crits work.

A crit can be rolled on any attack on any color of dice.  Each die has one chance in four of rolling a result that includes a crit. 

These critical results only apply for attacks that a ship makes against another ship.  If an attack is made by a squadron, or if an attack is made against a squadron, all critical results are ignored.  They do not even count as regular hits.

One or more critical results allow the attacking player to resolve a single critical effect against the target.  The attacker does not apply multiple effects if mutiple results are rolled.  Each critical also adds one damage to the total done to the target ship.  The critical effect is chosen and resolved by the attacker after the defending player has chosen what defense tokens to use, but before the damage is actually applied.

The standard critical effect is : "If the defender is dealt at least one damage card by this attack, deal the first card face up."  With this effect in place, the defending player applies damage to the ship.  If, at any point while resolving the attack, a damage card is dealt to the defending ship, the first card will be dealt face up.  This is not negated, in any way by shields, unless the shields prevent any damage from reaching the hull.

However, it is possible to have upgrades that provide a different effect:

In this case, if the attacker had rolled a critical result on a blue die, this effect could be resolved instead of the standard critical effect.  Presumably, at this point, the defender has used tokens to reduce the damage done to his ship.  Any remaining tokens would be immediately exhausted.  Then damage would be applied.  In this case, shields do nothing to prevent this effect from taking place.  Thus, this crit may be applied to a ship that has not had its shields penetrated in any hull zone.

This ability can be used to set up a 1 -2 punch against a single vessel.  The first ship exhausts the target's defense tokens.  The second ship hits the target, causing the defending player to choose between taking all the raw damage of the second attacking ship, or discard exhausted defense tokens in an attempt to keep his capital ship together for another turn.

Here is another card that permits a different critical effect to be resolved:

This upgrade is effective in cases where the damage you have done won't penetrate shields.  Since the standard crit will not have any effect, this crit will allow you to pile on more damage.

The defender has no way to redirect or mitigate this damage.  In fact, he may have just redirected damage to the same hull zone(s) that are about to be hit by this effect.  In this way, good players may be able to sidestep defense token effects, by using the defender's choices against him.

If you are the defender, your best starategy has to involve knowing what critical effects your opponent is capable of resolving from the ship that is attacking you.  In cases where the attacker may only use the standard effect, it is best to adopt a defense that mitigates damage with Brace tokens as you would with any other attack.

If you are at the correct range, the Evade token can get you out of a sticky situation.  Use this token to force your opponent to reroll the die that produced the crit if you are at medium range.  At long range, you may negate this die completely.

There are some exceptions to the above rules that bear noting.  While a squadron will never suffer a crit, some squadrons may actually be able to resolve critical effects against ships.

A squadron with the bomber rule has this ability: "While attacking a ship, each of your crits adds 1 damage to the damage total and you can resolve a critical effect."

The crit result that is normally treated as a blank, will now contribute a point of damage to the pool of damage against the defender.  Additionally, the squadron may also use a crit against the ship it is attacking.  We have yet to see a squadron that can use a crit other than the standard effect, but when you consider Luke Skywalker's ability, you can see how effective bombers can be against ships.

Luke hits as though the target ship has no shields.  Mix in the ability to crit from the Bomber rule, and you have squadron that can play face up damage cards against a previously undamaged capital ship!
You will have to know where Luke is at all times and plan for how you will deal with him when his squadron draws near.  Keep him at range by engaging him with another squadron designed to tarpit him or destroy him outright.







Here are the things to remember:

• Crits only resolve ship to ship.
• Only one crit effect may be resolved per attack.
• Upgrades allow for alternate critical effects.
• Shields do not directly negate crits.
• Evade tokens at range are you best bet to defend against a crit.
• Keep your eye on Luke Skywalker.

"You must unlearn what you have learned" in X-Wing Miniatures.  Know how crits work when you bring your Armada to the table.  Have a plan for selecting the correct critical effect to resolve against your opponent.  Know how to mitigate these effects against your own fleet.

 

May the Force be with you!