The big killer for me has been the captain dis-abler, the one that puts your ship captain in pikes beepy chair. one lucky shot from toreth knocked out a death cheating picard in one game, and a decked out martok in another. reducing the cream of the crop to a scared beep once for yes twice for no generic captain really throws cheese and crackers into the gears of a good match up.
I guess I could just take a bunch of hull plating and a defiant and not worry about crits.

I don't have my deck with me, but I think there are 40+. And I think 3 Warp Core Breach Cards, maybe 4. In any case, its pretty rare. So it is a pretty rare occurrence if you consider that non crit hits to the hull also pull cards from the same damage deck, but face down. So the WCB card could be burned as a regular hit to a hull.

So, there is a 1 in 8 chance for each die to be a crit, those crits have to go uncancelled, and then you have roughly a 1:10 chance of pulling a WCB each time you draw a damage card, but not each draw will be a crit hit.

There is one elite talent card that allows you to go through the damage deck to look for a WCB card, but that is a single use card and not all captains have an elite talent slot in order to add the upgrade. There is a crew upgrade card that let's you pull two cards for each crit, choose one to apply to the enemy ship and discard the other. Outside of those two, I don't think there is a way to manipulate the crit effects.

Getting back to the OP, I haven't seen enough crits on ships to say that they are all that overwhelming. I've dealt my fair share of them and most of the time its a card that doesn't really end up effecting the game all that much.

Experiences vary person to person, I personally have only ever seen a warp core breach destroy a ship once, and I think I've only seen the card drawn two or three times.

In my experience, though, by the time a ship is affected by a critical hit, it has usually taken enough hull damage that it's not going to be around long enough to really suffer from the effects for very long anyways.

I don't find critical hits in general to be too random or debilitating, although to some degree, that's what a critical hit is supposed to be. In addition to normal damage, some other (often randomized) damage is done. It's also pretty thematic, right? Seems like ships are losing critical systems/personnel all the time in the tv show, and a lot of the critical hit cards reflect that pretty well, IMO. The only one I don't really like is Direct Hit, because it seems kind of lazy to me.

This matches my experience as well. Crits are generally bad, and WCB can be a game-changer, but crits are supposed to be bad, and WCB is totally appropriate to the source material. If there were not at least a couple WCBs in the crit deck, I would say the game designers weren't working hard enough to immerse players in the background.

Keep in mind that most damage cards used during a game go face down. If there were only one WCB in the deck, you might NEVER see it. As is, it's 1/11 of the deck (I think there are 3 of them in there), and is still more likely to be face down than face up when it IS pulled.


There are 33 cards in the damage deck, same number as X-Wing. Each player should know this, and should really be counting his damage deck after EVERY game, to make sure all the cards are there. Unless you are flipping the cards over and comparing decks before each game, the damage deck is the one part of the game where your opponent is really trusting you to make sure you have your materials in order. It's the one part of my game components that I am most paranoid about double-checking before each game, because it's the most likely "point of failure". Everything else (except Kirk's Cheat Death card(s) ) is face up and much more obvious.

Pretty sure the damage deck is 33 cards. Since there is a 1 in 8 that a die roll will be a crit, it doesn't phase me that WCB is a possible instantaneous kill, I do agree it should go off after the activation phase so the ship has a chance to "eject the warp core". Direct Hit dealing two damage makes sense.

Could we play a game without the damage deck? Sure, but I think in both games it adds a little extra themy to each game, Stunned pilot/Captain, Weapons malfunction all stuff that happens so it makes perfect sense.

Edit:

33 Crit damage cards, 4 Direct Hits, 3 Warp Core Breach, 2 of each of the other cards.

Star Wars doesn't have the Warp Core Breach, so I'd have to look at each one to see what type of differences they have between the two.

I still think it adds an extra layer of "FUN" to the game.

Cheating IS a perfectly valid tactic.
You learn this from Capt. James T. Kirk in at least two movies.

So just buy an extra starter (for the dice of course!) & then swap out a few Warp Core Breach cards for something else....

For X-Wing there are 7 Direct Hit cards and 2 of everything else.


Direct Hit! - Ship: This card counts as 2 damage against your hull.

Injured Pilot - Pilot: All Players must ignore your pilot ability and all of your [medal] Upgrade cards.

Minor Explosion - Ship: Immediately roll 1 attack die. On a [hit] result, suffer 1 damage. Then flip this card facedown.

Damaged Cockpit - Pilot: After the round in which you receive this card, treat your pilot skill value as "0".

Thrust Control Fire - Ship: Immediately receive 1 stress token. Then flip this card facedown.

Structural Damage - Ship: Reduce your agaility value by 1 (to a minimum of "0"). Action: Roll 1 attack die. On a [hit] result, flip this card facedown.

Weapon Malfunction - Ship: Reduce your primary weapon value by 1 (to a minimum of "0"). Action: Roll 1 attack die. On a [hit] or [crit] result, flip this card facedown.

Blinded Pilot - Pilot: The next time you attack, do not roll any attack dice. Then flip this card facedown.

Minor Hull Breach - Ship: After executing a red maneuver, roll 1 attack die. On a [hit] result, suffer 1 damage.

Stunned Pilot - Pilot: After you execute a maneuver that causes you to overlap either another ship or an obstacle token, suffer 1 damage.

Console Fire - Ship: At the start of each Combat phase, roll 1 attack die. On a [hit] result, suffer 1 damage. Action: Flip this card facedown.

Damaged Sensor Array - Ship: You cannot perform the actions listed in your action bar. Action: Roll 1 attack die. On a [hit] result, flip this card facedown.

Damaged Engine - Ship: Treat all turn maneuvers as [hard left/right] as red maneuvers.

Munitions Failure - Ship: Immediately choose 1 of your secondary weapon Upgrade cards and discard it. Then flip this Damage card facedown.

Awesome saves me time from looking those up!!

So AW took three direct hits and made them Warp Core Breaches.. I kind of like my odds that a direct hit won't land (two damage is massive in both games) and the WCB does give you 7/8 of a chance of not blowing up...

One thing lost in this discussion is the other value of the warp core breach, yes it might blow up your opponent, but if they eject it and can only make 1 maneuvers for the rest of the game that is a huge disadvantage strategically.

personally i love the crit hit cards, even if i constantly get screwed by injured captain (kirk is my homeboy) the random aspect is frustrating at times but is enjoyable IMHO

To me the cards and dice add the 'Fog of War' aspect, that is not all is certain.

After all Plans seldom survive contact with the enemy...