Critical Hit Tables

[Voronesh]

He means hes with oy.

I like crits, but for me theyre the norm, not the exception.

But luckily im on the good side of things. Bad stuff rarely happens to me, simply the enemy. Or rather enemy fails to achieve a crit or significant crit. But then again yes i roll pretty good in ACTA.

Some of the high/low points in my crit life:

-Dag'Kar ship breakers make a Victory go to zero speed, 2 Rongoths go to boarding actions.
-Prefect gets a 6-5 crit with its matter cannon second turn on a Apollo in my Octurions back, making it go boom, actually killing 2 furies.
-G'Quan actually manages its 2 hit against a Minbari in the game. 6-6 taking the Sharlin out of action, and sealing the fate of the Bonehead fleet.
-Said Apollo had 4 hits with hvy missles on my Octurion, failed to do any crit. Also happened to same Apollo in a game versus Minbari.
-Actually not a crit, but i once managed to get 6 out of 8 Come about orders done with a Narn fleet. Those Bin'Taks and G'Quans dont seem so slow and ponderous anymore. Actually made me boresight the enemy Sags with a Bin'Tak and a G'Quan after both had made a perfect 90 degree turn. But it certainly had the same effect as lucky crits ^^.
-Enemy critted my Octurion with a -4 speed crit, lucky for me as it made me turn on a dime. Half speed, uhm 1" and then i got to use all that firepower versus 2 hyps and a Omega.

-2 point raid game. Brakiri vs Vree (I played myself, so thats why crits hurt me actually) Speed 0 and no damage control on a Avioki (the one with the Gravitic Lance) first turn. Both torpedo saucers were lost on the approach, but the raid lvl saucer got behind the biggie, game over
-replay: -4 speed crit on the Fighter Killer (differen fleet for Brakiri, less all eggs in one basket). The two assault shuttles (Skirmish lvl ships) take out the torpedo sauchers first and second turn. Stray Halik shot, it barely lumbered into range, made a no weapons fire on the raid lvl saucer, also second turn. Game over for vree.


I definitely love crits. But as of yet i have to be on the wrong end of em. At least on an important ship. But im always sweating when my enemy actually managed a on crit on one of my biggies, but goddamn i love crew crits. But i agree that fighters shouldnt be able to crit the stuff out of actual ships. How did that one metre missle hit the bridge again? its 300 metres inside the ship......Well at least thats where i would put one. Not like the Victory. that one should hget punished for that. 1 fighter squadron can kill the captain like its nobodies bussiness.

Oh yeah post some of your crits too, its always funny how they can turn the tide of the game.

 

[Tank]

aaarrr rightyo me hearty!!!

My rolling is generally poor altho I can achieve a significant number of crits they are either rubbish or tend to blow out weapons, last night 2nd round firing 6-3 crit on a Drazi strikehawk with the 1 missile that hit it, 3rd round firing another 6-3 crit on a strikehawk but from a stand of starfuries.

Adam hates crits :lol: usually because they tend to blow out his weapons :lol: or no fire out of a random arc? yup usually his front arc :lol:

 

[katadder]

love the -4 crit to your octurion turning on a dime think somethign should be done about that one really as movement crits actually make ships more manouvreable. perhaps say you still have to move the norm for a fully functional ship of that type b4 turning, and if cant go that far then move fully b4 turning to represent not only movement crits but damage to manouvrabilty, after all if your engines are damage you wont become more agile.

 

[Silvereye]

Oh yeah post some of your crits too, its always funny how they can turn the tide of the game.

Took the fore arc weapons of a Sulust with a railgun. Poor thing only fired twice, then ran away. I published the battle report here.

Other ones, pre-SFoS, the first two hits on two different Troligans (on subsequent turns) resulted in 6-6 specials. The funny thing is, the short both came from the same Omega's inept beam to hit rolls (1 hit one kill). I also 6-6'd a Tigara later in the same game. I am quite glad the 6-6 was reduced in SFoS.

 

[Sulfurdown]

Granted some people think the crit table is fine and no alternate is necessary or wanted. Great! 8) I, however, was playing around with it and came up with a possible house rule version of the crit tables. Take a look and let me know if it seems reasonable and balanced!

Weapons (2d6)
---------------------------------
2-6 = Munitions Disruption
[0 dmg, 0 crew; -1 AD to all Weapons (cumulative, Min 0).]

7-8 = Targeting Sensors Damaged
[2 dmg, 0 crew; All ships targeted gain Stealth 3+ vs. this ship]

9-10 = Weapon Relays Destroyed
[2 dmg, 1 crew; No Firing in one random arc.]

11-12 = Catastrophic Weapons Failure
[3 dmg, 3 crew; All weapons offline]


Engines (2d6)
---------------------------------
2-6 = Main Thrusters Damaged
[1 dmg, 0 crew; -1 Speed (cumulative, Min 0).]

7-8 = Maneuvering Thrusters Damaged
[1 dmg , 1 crew; -1 Turn (non-cumulative, Min 1)]

9-10 = Fuel System Ruptured
[3 dmg, 2 crew; ½ Speed (non-cumulative)]

11-12 = Engines Disabled
[4 dmg, 3 crew; Ship is Adrift]

Reactor (2d6)
---------------------------------
2-6 = Reactor Gas Leak
[0 dmg, 2 crew; --]

7-8 = Power Relays Destroyed
[1 dmg, 1 crew; -1 Weapon Range (cumulative, Min 0)]

9-10 = Capacitors Damaged
[2 dmg, 3 crew; One random special trait disabled]

11-12 = Reactor Explosion
[3 dmg, 4 crew; Special Traits disabled]

Crew (2d6)
---------------------------------
2-6 = Fire
[0,1; -1 Troops]

7-8 = Localized Decompression
[1,2; -1 penalty to Crew Quality Checks (non-cumulative)]

9-10 = Multiple Fires
[1,3; -1 penalty to Damage Control (cumulative)]

11-12 = Hull Breach
[3,6; No Special Actions may be performed]

Vitals (1d6)
---------------------------------
1 = Bridge
[2,3; -1 Crew Quality, No Special Actions]

2 = Engineering
[3,2; No Damage Control]

3 = Reactor Implosion
[3,3; Roll a 4+ to activate any Special Trait (whenever it would be utilized)]

4 = Weapons Control
[3,2; All weapons have ½ their AD]

5 = Secondary Explosion
[2d6,3d6; roll an additional Critical ignoring Vitals table results]

6 = Catastrophic Explosion
[4d6,1d6; roll an additional Critical ignoring Vitals table results]

 

[Ripple]

Those tables did look pretty good. I like the 2d6 system as it gives actual rarity to the really damaging results, something a strait D6 cannot do.

I also like that you have thing in there like the 1/2 AD fire. The biggest issue I have with the crit tables right now is the one shot that makes you effectively irrelevant. This is not equal across ships but some ARE very easy to render irrelevant with a lucky crit. Things like 1/2 speed or 1/2 AD result in a loss of effectiveness but you not just screwed for the game.

As to boarding, right now this seems to a failsafe way to remove ship from the game if you have a 10 troop ship that can move on the damage ship. Just do not like the mechanic, prefered breaching pods myself or at least a chance to destroy the ship before it launches its troops. Right now if you get stopped and an Ikorta is within twelve the ship is just a given to be captured. (and mind you I am often flying that Ikorta and thing its crap.) You will have no chance to do anything to stop me, no fire, no SA, no damage control, nothing. I generally do not like that mechanic in a game.

Ripple

 

[Target]

Maybe a All Hands to Action Stations prepare to be boarded SA is needed.
Ship can't fire but kills on 4+ instead of 5+, could even always go first even vs Breaching Pods.

 

[Burger]

Maybe a All Hands to Action Stations prepare to be boarded SA is needed.
Ship can't fire but kills on 4+ instead of 5+, could even always go first even vs Breaching Pods.

Nobody takes breaching pod wings (do they?) so the only type of boarding is done through the SA. Which means the target ship must be stopped.

You wouldn't be able to combine your proposed SA with an All Stop, unless you have a special character who allows 2 special actions.
When your speed is reduced to 0, you normally have the 1-6 crit, which prevents special actions anyway.
So this SA would hardly ever be used!

 

[MustEatBrains]

I consider the critical tables balanced, because they can affect both sides in a battle. YES, some events seem a bit strange/out of order/ whatever, but as I said, they apply to ALL involved players.

I like the redundancy idea, but instead of ignoring the whole critical hit, I´d prefer them to ignore the effects of critical hits, but not the damage - this way, you still get something out of your critical, while backup.systems are represented in an agreable manner...

Apart from that, I wouldn´t consider crew critical laughable - I´ve recently watched a Bin´Tak being reduced to 0 crew way before it reached it´s damage threshhold... and crew makes sense in a campaign, too!

 

[Pauly_D]

Apart from that, I wouldn´t consider crew critical laughable - I´ve recently watched a Bin´Tak being reduced to 0 crew way before it reached it´s damage threshhold... and crew makes sense in a campaign, too!

At the moment a Crew critical is way better to get that any other type of critical (even an engine critical)
why? because with engines and Reactor you may get speed 0, with Weapons crits, well thats obvious if you cant shoot then whats the point of your ship being out there and Vital Systems are always bad news, but the worst with Crew criticals is 3 Damage and a few more crew, anyways its better to have a ship with not alot of crew than a dead ship

 

[Chernobyl]

single die rolls can allow for quicker play...while I agree with a bell curve, I think that's the reason we went from a 2d6 damage chart to a 1d6.

Chern

 

[Pauly_D]

especially when playing with Narns!! they chuck out a lot of dice and rolling 2d6 seperately for each of them took way too long

 

[Greg Smith]

At the moment a Crew critical is way better to get that any other type of critical (even an engine critical)
why? because with engines and Reactor you may get speed 0, with Weapons crits, well thats obvious if you cant shoot then whats the point of your ship being out there and Vital Systems are always bad news, but the worst with Crew criticals is 3 Damage and a few more crew, anyways its better to have a ship with not alot of crew than a dead ship

With White Stars crew hits are bad news. Give me a bridge hit any time.

On most ships however the crew hit is the only one that isn't really bad news if a 6 follows. However, since most people through the critical location dice almost simultaneously, I don't usually have time to register, 'A engine hit, if he throws a 6 now, I'm a goner'. Instead it is usually '1-1, phew' or '1-6 damn!'

 

[Pauly_D]

yeah i suppose White Stars are the exception to the rules on what you want on the crit table

 

[Target]

Maybe a All Hands to Action Stations prepare to be boarded SA is needed.
Ship can't fire but kills on 4+ instead of 5+, could even always go first even vs Breaching Pods.

Nobody takes breaching pod wings (do they?) so the only type of boarding is done through the SA. Which means the target ship must be stopped.

You wouldn't be able to combine your proposed SA with an All Stop, unless you have a special character who allows 2 special actions.
When your speed is reduced to 0, you normally have the 1-6 crit, which prevents special actions anyway.
So this SA would hardly ever be used!

I didn't really thought into that one did I oops!
It probably get used as much as run silent thats a terrible SA

 

[Ripple]

Let me get this straight. Rolling 2D6 took so long that it required a rules change? But given you have to roll each crit individually, you literally have to go through the same motions as rolling a single D6, unless of course you are saying the math was too tough and that took the time. My group must be playing extremely slowly as we would be hard pressed to notice a change.

On the crit tables effecting both players equally. Total crap. That would imply that crits affect races equally, they do not. Many ships cannot withstand one crit and remain active in play. Other ships are incredibly crit resistant. And yet I fail to see this taken into account in the pl's of ships, at least in any analysis of the stats/game play experience I have.

The fact that crits are often unrepairable within the scope of a game, particularly the no special action crits or crits taken in campaign where crew qualities may be a two or three, further defines the battle on a couple of dice. Again in the crits do not effect folks equally you have the Whitestars which if they survive the crit are twice as likely to repair it as anyone else. (crew quality +1 and +1 to repair due to adaptive)

Crits from DD and TD weapons are much more influential than crits from single damage weapons. It changes the thresholds that can be reached dramatically, causing a much greater variance in predictablilty of damage taken. Some people like having no idea whether their battle level ships can attack that skirmish hull and survive, I find I rather like have some idea whether it will survive to fire even if it might be severly weakened and have to withdraw.

I guess much like the stealth mechanic which is very all or nothing, the crit tables are very all or nothing. If both players are playing races with similar main weaponry (ie SAP DD Beam or AP DD) the effect will likely feel balanced as each race has a good chance of causing similar results. If the two players are using differing weapon traits (that SAP DD Beam vs say AP Beam Precise) the results will often be dramatically different with the DD weapon having many more advantagous rolls, all else being equal.

If my max damage is not enough to kill you, and your max damage is enough to kill me, you will likely win the game based on that trait. If we both max out the same amount, you will remove firepower from me, and I will have failed to remove firepower from you.

Bah...I am not writing this well.

The impact on a ship of many crit effects is very different depending on the race/ship flown. This does not appear to be well represented PL wise.

The number of useful crits available to DD/TD weapons is much higher than their SD counterparts due to the fact that ships damage is fixed but damage can be increased four fold or more by several crits. SD this only approaches thresholds on Patrol hulls, DD/TD this can reach all the way to raid or battle. This is also not well represented PL wise.

Both effects are hard to factor in as the incident of any one example coming into play is not great. But we do drop enough dice in any one game that at least one occurance of the 'single die kill' is almost to be expected when using DD/TD weapons. Since you cannot tell when this event will occur or plan for it and it is distributed throughout a fleet no individual ship can have this factored in PL wise.

That in a way makes it similar to the initiative bonus. A high initiative bonus adds to every ship in your fleet, but the PL's do not reflect this as any individual benefit is slight.

Sigh...too late and still not making enough sense with this...

Ripple

 

[lastbesthope]

Let me get this straight. Rolling 2D6 took so long that it required a rules change? But given you have to roll each crit individually, you literally have to go through the same motions as rolling a single D6, unless of course you are saying the math was too tough and that took the time. My group must be playing extremely slowly as we would be hard pressed to notice a change.

It's just ewhen youscore multiple hits that you niotice the difference.

You roll 10 hits:

1d6 version. You roll 10 dice to see what damage you've gotten

2d6 method:
Unless you have 10 different matched pairs of dice, you need to roll each pair individually to keep track.

LBH

 

[Sulfurdown]

Just in case some of this has come from my suggested crit tables.

I wasn't anticipating having a 2d6 Damage Table. I was suggesting that once a crit is scored, the 2d6 is used to determine the severity. So out of 10AD, 1/6 would crit (~2) and then you'd roll your chart/severity. My attempt was to make an change in the rarity of the No Weapons or No Special Actions criticals in addition to bringing the Crew Table up to the level of the other tables for an interspecies impact. (-1 CQ won't hurt the White Stars much but the crew damage will, were as crew damage on a T'Loth is laughable but that -1 CQ might hurt) In the end I didn't like that there were so many crits that had such a varying impact, even within single charts but they had the same chance of occuring!

A crit with twice the hurt should have at least a little less probability of occurance.

 

[Pauly_D]

Let me get this straight. Rolling 2D6 took so long that it required a rules change?

no we werent talking about 2d6 for crits, the 2d6 was originally for the normal damage table originally it was 1-4 Bulkhead, 5-9? Normal hit, 10-12 Critical

 

[Ripple]

Sorry about the uber rant, no more drinking and posting.

I thought a 2D6 system for critical effects was a good idea and did not increase the time of play. That way there could be a real difference between the likelihood of a 6 super crit vs a 1 useless crit. That whole bell curve thingie.

Effect of crits across fleets is something we had been talking about at some length right before I posted so the theory of crits and balancing their effects to degrade rather than effectively remove ships was the core of our decision on any changes we decided to make.

Additional cool idea folks have suggested at our discussion...

Limit a weapon system to one crit (instead of one possible crit per AD).

Ripple