Star Wars Armada: Arc, Line of Sight and How To Attack

[Fadril Adren]

How Arc, Line of Sight and Attacking Works Including Criticals


Critical hits and defense tokens can seem odd and confusing. However once you understand them they are as simple as pie...

If you have any questions try to work it out by first follow the steps below one after the other, do not assume and do not read what isn't on the cards. As you follow the steps of the attack you should find everything makes some kind of sense...

The most important thing to bear in mind - This is not X-Wing.

Forget everything you know about the X-Wing rules!


Range, Arc and Line Of Sight (LoS)

Range is indicated on the   side of the ruler. There are 3 types of ranges: Close, Medium, and Long. The dice type capable of being used is determined by the range. Black, Blue, and Red dice can be used in the Close Range pool. Blue and Red dice can be used in the Medium Range pool. And finally, Red dice can be used in the Long Range pool.

Range is measured from the closest point of the cardboard base tile of the attacking ship inside the firing hull zone's arc TO the closest point of the cardboard base tile inside the defending hull zone (represented by the defending ship's firing arc).

Think of each hull zone on a ship as a completely different entity, and it helps.

And the plastic base/shield dials don't exist for the purpose of any rules OTHER than overlapping.

So, for example:



In figure 1, the CR-90 (smaller ship at right) front hull is determining Range of the Victory Star Destoyer front hull and is Long Range (Only Red attack dice). However the CR-90 only has Blue dice available from its front hull, so cannot attack the Victory Star Destoyer. However, the Victory Star Destoyer determines range against the CR-90 attacking from its font hull and it is Long Range. The Victory's front hull has both Black and Red dice, but because the CR-90 is Long Range, only the Victory's Red Dice can be used in this attack.

In figure 2, the CR-90 front hull is determining range of the Victory Star Destoyer front hull and is Short Range. Therefore the CR-90 can attack with it's Blue Dice pool and gets 3 blue dice attacks. The Victory finds the CR-90 at Close Range and can use its Black and Red Dice pool of 3 Black and 3 Red. 

Arc is described as the area within the two lines of a hull (on the cardboard base tile). 



In the picture above, the Home One (middle ship) has a right hull side arc on the Victory Class Star Destoyer AND a left hull side arc on the smaller Gladiator Class Star Destoyer.

Now, for Line of Sight (LoS)

You measure LOS from yellow dot of the attacking hull to yellow dot of the defending hull. LOS is valid as long as it does not pass through a different hull zone of the defender (NOT extended hull lines, but the physical ones on the defenders cardboard base tile). It is valid even if it passes through a different hull zone on the attacker.. in other words, you IGNORE the attackers other hull zones when determining LoS.



So, using the above picture example, ship A's front hull zone has legal LoS and Arc on ship B's front hull zone and D's left hull zone. A's front hull zone does NOT have legal LoS to ship B's right hull zone or C's left hull zone because LoS passes through a different hull zone than the intended target on the defenders.

For more information on determining attacks, here's a good video:




Attacking and Criticals

If the enemy ship's hull zone that you are targeting is within your ships's Fire Arc and within Range and within LOS you may attack.


1. Declare Target

2. Roll Attack Dice (in this order):
    A. Attacker gathers certain dice to create his dice pool:
        * The battery armament dice printed on your ship card.
        * Dice granted by any upgrade cards that specifically increase your "battery armaments".
        * Upgrade cards that add dice to your attack without specifically saying they change your "battery armament" are not rolled here, but rolled during the modify dice step later on.

    B. Roll Attack Dice


3. Resolve Attack Effects (in this order):

    A. Modify Dice:
       * Dice can be Added, Re-Rolled, Changed, and Spent in any order.
       * Any upgrade cards that Add dice to an attack do so during this step
       * Dice Added during this step are not restricted by range unless specified by the effect.
       * Spent dice are removed from your dice pool.
       * Dice can be Re-Rolled multiple times by different effects.

   B. Spend Accuracy Icons


4. Spend Defense Tokens

       * The Evade token takes effect here.
       * Brace and Contain must be declared at this point, even though their effects do not resolve until later in the sequence.
       * Redirect must be declared during this step and you must choose which hull zone potential damage will be redirected too. The rest of the effect resolves later in the attack sequence like Brace and Contain.
       * Only 1 of each type of token may be spent during each attack.
       * Each defense token can only be spent once during an attack.
       * Spent tokens are flipped to their exhausted side, or discarded if already exhausted.
       * Any effect that exhausts an already exhausted defense token will have no effect on that token.


5. Resolve Damage (in this order):

   A. You may resolve a critical effect if at least 1 critical hit symbol is showing in your dice pool.

       * Resolve the effect in full before continuing.
       * Critical effects do not combine with your attack damage unless specified.
       * Because critical effects resolve at this point any damage caused by a critical effect cannot be moved or changed by a defense token effect unless directly specified by an effect.
       * Some critical effects might have delayed resolution, like the default critical effect, but they must all be declared at this stage, no matter when they will take effect.
       * No matter how many critical hit symbols you have in your dice pool you can only resolve one critical effect per attack.


   B. Work out the total damage of the attack

       * Add up the # of hit and critical symbols in your dice pool. That is your damage.
       * A point of damage from a hit icon and a point of damage from a critical hit icon are the same thing at this point. Which dice the damage points came from no longer matters as any critical effect has already been resolved.
       * Brace token takes effect here, but only if spent in step 4.​


   C. Apply the total damage one point at a time.

       * Redirect token takes effect here but only if spent in step 4.
       * Remove shields first then start dealing damage cards.
       * If the attack generated a critical effect and the attacker resolved the standard critical effect available to all ships (flipping the first damage card dealt) during step A then it takes effect here.
       * Remember you are just dealing with damage points now, you no longer care about the symbols in your dice pool.


6. Declare Additional Squadron Target (if applicable)

Here's a good video for further explanation:



And here is one further explaining Criticals