Hit-and-Run attacks with a bonus vs. Space Hulks

[Bozeman]

Two players are playing with Armada and the 2010 update.

A Space Marine Thunderhawk Gunship attacks a Space Hulk.  It survives the turrets and causes a hit-and-run attack.  The Space Marine player rolls a 6.  He gets +1 to hit-and-run attacks per the Space Marine rules.  The Space Hulk has a special Critical Effect chart that uses a normal D6 instead of 2D6.  What happens?

1. Rules as written, 6+1=7.  There is no 7 on the Space Hulk Critical Effect chart, so the hit-and-run attack is wasted.  After all, rolling a "1" on the normal Critical Effects chart has no effect.  The Space Marines are so good that they are bad!

2. The Space Hulk Critical Effects Table specifically says that if damage is rolled that does not apply, simply apply the next highest effect.  There is no higher effect than 6, so because the highest effect is 5-6: Target Thruster Assemblies! this effect is applied.

I think 2, otherwise Space Marines have a disadvantage coming from an advantage.  However, RAW, you can make the case that the attack is wasted.  What do you think?

[Xca|iber]

This is an intriguing problem. I think, by RAW, you've got the long and short of it, and if that's sufficient for your play group then I would simply agree that the attack is wasted.

However, rolling "too well" is terrible and unintuitive from a game mechanics point of view. (This is different from accidental overkill in that there is no actual effect to apply, rather than a dramatic effect which may be directly punitive towards the attacking player, such as catastrophic damage and so on). As a result, I would suggest employing some house-rules to prevent this from happening. In general, my attitude towards game mechanics tells me that all "results" better than the minimum possible threshold should have some mechanical effect - in other words, only failed rolls may "fizzle."

In this particular case, I would suggest treating the 5-6 result on the Space Hulk Crits table as a 5+ result instead. This is the simplest way to fix the problem and still have an actual effect for game purposes.

(BTW, thanks for asking this question... I hadn't thought of this issue and was able to make a fix for my rules project as a result  )

[Jimmy Zimms]

yeah this is a place where RAW fall over with RAI. It's simply a case of overlooking the Marine +1 I suspect.