I have recently started playing the Star Trek Attack Wing game and have admittedly enjoyed it. The creation of fleets and collection of ships is oddly addictive. However, I feel like the critical hit/damage deck adds an extreme element of luck to a game that already includes a great bit of luck in it simply because of the sheer numbers of dice rolled. However, whereas, the dice element seems to be an area you can affect more easily with planning and good strategic decision making; the card drawing is sheer luck. I see the warp core breach too often. I would like to hear others' thoughts on this issue, particularly individuals who have logged a lot of play time. I have only played aound eight games. I have already invested in the starter and seven ships and I am undecided about continuing. I do understand some luck will be involved and no I do not want to switch to chess. I play herolcix at a high level and have since 2002. I loved Star Wars minis, D&D minis and Mage Knight. Could the game be improved with different less drastic effect cards or by removing the more drastic effect cards?

I think you've started to see how dangerous Crits can be in Attack Wing.

The learning curve on this game seem to (usually) start with 'Cloaking is crazy!' then when that calms down you've seen enough crits wreck games you see the value in being able to protect yourself from them.

One of the things a player like yourself (and this happened to me as well) with a background with X-wing is that Crits don't always mean that much........most ships don't last long enough for it to matter and lots of crits end up being kill shots and you don't see their full effects.

But crits are brutal!!! Being able to generate more Crits (like with captain Toreth) or manipulate crits into what you'd like (like ET: Attack Pattern Omega) are very valuable abilities.

Protecting yourself from being Crited (The Defiant, Polarized Hull) or being able to repair any hull damage (captain Mirok, crew Bu’Kah) are also quite handy.

But to your last question, no, I like the critical cards as is and it feels theme-y to me.

I think changing it would be less so, and not an improvement.

I love crits the way they are. I think they should have pulled one or two warp core breaches out of the deck to make it a bit rarer, but other than that its perfect.

How do crits in AW differ from X-Wing? In XW there are some 'oh dang' cards but usually nothing that makes you swear under your breath or where you have to worry about something like a 1 shot kill. Is it different in AW?

One of the cards is a chance of a 1 hit kill. If you pull a warp core breach you roll a die and if it is a crit hit your ship blows up. You can chose to roll every turn or you can eject the warp core in which case you can only make "1" maneuvers for the rest of the game.

You know what's worse than a warp core breach?

Two warp core breaches.

Evidently the reason the Koranak can move <straight 5> is that it has a back-up warp core. I said "screw it" an kept rolling for both of them every turn. I think I died 3 turns later.

Ah. Now the OPs complaint makes more sense. I'd have to agree with him. The mechanic seems overly...harsh.

HA!

I haven't seen that happen yet, but I have seen an entire fleet be Warp Core breached on the same turn and then blow up on the next 2 turn....yeah that game went down quick.

Can someone post the exact numbers of how many cards a damage deck consists of, and how many warp core breaches there are?

That will just show the odds of pulling a warp core breach. I want to say there are 3 of them in a deck, out of like 30 some cards? So the odds of drawing one are not great.

However, I hate that ####ing card. I don't think there is "too much luck involved" in Attack Wing. But I have seen Player A completely outplay Player B, and with 2 die rolls basically insta-lose.

It doesn't happen often at all. I've only seen the card drawn a handful of times, but I have seen it hand someone a win who absolutely did not deserve it at all.

I'd 100% agree with my opponent to remove them out of the damage deck if we discussed it before the game.

I like this idea.

I do not particularly care one way or another about the card. I've been WCB-ed at least twice with one of them occuring in Round 3 of OP1 on the only hull damage to a Negh'var. That stung a bit.

I like the fluff aspect of it and really wonder if it would be looked upon with as much distain if you rolled for it at the END of the Activation phase. The only issue I have is that there is the 1/8 chance that it goes off before you have the chance to decide to eject the warp core.

If you have the chance to flip it and choose not to do so and it goes off? That's your decision; deal with it, son.

Having it go off before you are able to even make that decision? Not so easy to swallow.

Ehh, Direct Hit (counts as 2 damage) is pretty bad. With only 3 Hull being average, it is nearly as good as a direct kill. And against A-wings, and soon to be 3 other ships, it is an instakill crit. It is going to be funny to see such ships run in terror from Proton Bombs (crits that ignore shields).

And Blinded Pilot (no attack dice for the next attack) really screws you over, especially if you aren't running that many ships.

I'd rather pull a Warp Core Breach than an Injured Captain.

(I'm usually packing two Cheat Deaths, though, so WCB doesn't matter much to me.)

I've been hit with that one before. You just have to make sure you get the heck out of Dodge for a turn.

Unless it is handed to you before you get to attack that turn.