STAR WARS: Shatterpoint Attacks Overview

A new day, a new Star Wars™: Shatterpoint transmission! Today we’re talking about attacks, Stances, and Combat Trees! The constant push and pull of characters dueling, gaining and losing ground, fighting like their life depended on it is something we pushed to the forefront of combat in Shatterpoint. Units each have unique attacks – melee or ranged – and some units have different Stances they can use while fighting in Shatterpoint.

A Stance Card contains a plethora of information and may be double sided showing the unit can switch between two different fighting styles with different attack and defense dice, different Expertise Charts, and different Combat Trees. Each stance is unique and has strengths and weaknesses.

Before we talk too much about attacks, let’s talk about dice! There are two types of dice: Attack and Defense. Attack dice are 8-sided dice and have four unique faces: Criticals, which are successes and cannot be blocked; Strikes, which are successes that can be blocked; Attack Expertise (More on that in a moment!), and Failures. Defense dice are 6-sided dice and have three unique faces: Blocks, which stop Strikes; Defense Expertise (Just a moment!), and Failures.

Expertise results correspond to Expertise Charts – these are unique for attacks and defending: they show off the skills and flair of each Unit – giving them unique results to add to their rolls based on the number of Expertise results in their attack or defense roll! This can range from anything to adding successful results (Criticals or Hits for attacks, Blocks for Defense), changing opponent’s results, allowing Characters in the Unit to reposition, dash, or jump, or even activating special rules on the Unit’s card! Expertise is the first layer of uniqueness to each Unit’s attack – the second and larger layer is the Combat Tree.

Combat Trees are how an attacking Unit converts successes into results! After rolling attack and defense dice, a Unit will have a certain number of remaining successes – usually the number of Criticals and Hits minus the number of Blocks (remember, Blocks cannot stop Criticals!). A Combat Tree is a branching sequence of Options – damage, special conditions, shoving other Units, and even using different abilities! Each Combat Tree is completely unique and shows how the Unit fights and affects other Units with its attacks.

We envision each Option on a Combat Tree to be one of many strikes levied against an opponent – parry, riposte, lunge, feint, or simply blast away! Each step of the tree is a different move made by the Unit to try to get the upper hand. These various fighting methods distill down to different effects – damage, pushing your opponent away (and following them in your flurry of blows!), activating abilities from your stat card or applying powerful conditions – gives the sense of the varied tactics and fighting styles each Unit uses.

Pre-order your copy of the Star Wars: Shatterpoint Core Set at your local game store or through the webstore today!