Questions about health actions and resolving attacks

In our first run with Sentinel Tactics last night, we ran into a couple of unclear points.

Firstly, can a character with an active health-cost power spend a health if that would incapacitate them? If they can, what happens? Do they drop immediately, or do they benefit from the power and then fall over? (We ruled that they could not.)

Secondly, on Tachyon's Sucker Punch power, the text reads "Whenever this attack resolves, if the target has exactly one health, incapacitate it." Does the attack resolve if there are zero dice? Does it need to hit? And when is the attack considered to have resolved? (We ruled that the incapacitation happened regardless of whether any dice were rolled or hit. The winner of the game pretty much hinged on that ruling.)

The attack is resolved after dice are blocked and any damage that gets through is dealt.

It does not have to deal damage.

Like Stun Bolt and Kusarigama, they don't have to deal damage either.  As ranged attacks they recquire at least one die to make range (so you can't Stun Bolt or Kusarigama someone way out of range) but with the melee attack it doesn't matter.  As soon as the dice are removed for auto-missing, blocked or damage dealt the effect takes place.

Light Speed Barrage can work with Sucker Punch, take the wound, and Sucker Punch rolls dice equal to your current movement.

I don't believe that health cost abilities can be used to self-incap, that would be game-breaking in any game where you record incaps for the offense.  If that is allowed you would definitely incap before gaining any benefit.  The health is removed first, then the effect occurs.

The melee attack from Sucker Punch also has to make range too, right?  In other words, if all of your dice rolled the auto-miss number, you wouldn't be able to make range 1 and the attack wouldn't "resolve".  Additionally, don't melee attacks still need to make range to hit (adjacent) opponents on a different elevation than you?

No, doesn't say that. Compare with Kusarigama: Kusarigama HAS to make range, and it says so on the card. This doesn't; did the attack resolve? Does the target have 1 HP? They die. end of story.

"Resolve" isn't in the rulebook either.  Looks like that's another one for the FAQ, for whoever writes one.

Melee attacks do need to make range, but if Sucker Punch doesn't need to hit to incapacitate the target, that would be moot.

Melee attacks do infact need to make range. If you are at Elevation 1 and trying to do a melee attack on someone at elevation 2, then any 1s you roll will not make range. If you were to instead try to attack someone at elevation 4, then rolls of 3 and under will not make range.

Right. That's what I said in the bit you're quoting?

I've been thinking about this more and I'm thinking maybe Sucker Punch does need to hit to have its effect. Firstly, it doesn't really make sense for a punch that doesn't connect with the target to take them down. But secondly, and more compellingly, Baron Blade has a similar power, Maniacal Gloating, but it's just an action that automatically incapacitates the target if they have 1 health left. (And gives them penalty tokens, of course.) There's only two reasons I can think of to structure Sucker Punch as an attack instead of an automatically effective action.

1) If it has the potential to deal damage before the automatic incapacitation is checked. Possible, but it would be unlikely to happen given the 1 die it rolls, and if you made that attack on a target that already had one HP and did damage, then the special effect would be moot. Also, to me it seems like an attack would "resolve" at the end of the attack step, before defense and thus before damage is actually dealt. I could be wrong about that, though.

2) If it has the potential to miss, and thus not take effect. In this interpretation, you would not succeed in triggering the special effect if all the dice were removed, by automisses, failing to make range, or by a minus attack token. But again, since I assume that an attack would "resolve" before defense dice were rolled, you could still KO your target regardless of their defenses as long as you had one or more successful dice. This makes more sense to me.

Either way, it's speculation and an official read would be nice.

How Sucker Punch works.

Declare an adjacent target that you will by attacking.

Roll attack dice.

Enemy rolls defense dice.

Enemy takes damage from any unblocked dice.

If enemy has 1 HP it is incapped.

Sucker Punch itself does not need to make range, however it is a Melee attack, so it has to be someone adjacent to the target when selecting. Unless the defender has a way to counter attack before the attack is resolved, the defender will be incapped if they have 1 health left. 

Well first, on the gameplay demos back in the kickstarter, they did have tachyon use sucker punch with a -1 attack token, and the target still got destroyed, they even asked about it in the video. If the die mattered, then the text would have asked for "if the target takes damage," or "if a die makes range," which other existing actions have called for. The attack roll I think is for mainly combining with light speed barrage, so that the attack does damage and it can incap if they reach 1 or lower. That's something extra it does when compared to Barron's gloating which only incaps someone at 1 health while sucker punch has a chance with 2 hp and potentially more depending on your options to increase the attack. It's still balanced vs gloating though, since gloating has the added effect when they recover from incap of getting -1 tokens. 

Lightspeed Barrage + Sucker Punch is awesome.

Ronway’s right… Again…
I still disagree though. Just for the record.

Question on sucker punch, how does it interact with wraith's slip into shadows effect?  Also slightly related, what happens when tachyon hypersonic barrages one of unity's bots and destroys it?  Does she avoid the volatile parts explosions if she ends her hypersonic assault out of range for it?

Slip into the Shadows will cause the attack to miss, which makes it not resolve.

If Tachyon got out of range of Unity's bot, she will not be hit.

This is correct.

To clarify, Tachyon makes the entire move, then attacks each enemy that she passed through ignoring range.  The explosion or her Golems would be after Tachyon had finished her move, and would affect her only if she ended her move in range.

Why does an attack that misses not resolve? 

Are you saying that since it's a melee attack and Tachyon is no longer next to Wraith then the attack never really happens?

I think its more that Wraith can become a completley ineligable target for the attack depending on where she moves with Slip into the Shadows. You can't resolve an attack against nothing in a sense.

You move before dice are ever rolled or anything.  After moving if you aren't eligible the attack never starts, it is declared and then aborted.  You wouldn't use an Aim token you were intending to use or lose an Attack-1 token, the attack fails.

At least that is how it worked at the end of playtesting.  You go to attack the Wraith and she isn't there anymore.

The final card wording makes it sound like you rolled all auto-misses, so I can't be certain that the idea didn't change for te final version, but it was prety consistent in playtesting.

The wording on my printing of Slip Into Shadows says

The first time the wraith would be attacked each turn, she may sprint.  Then resolve that attack.  (If the attack is now impossible, the attack misses.)  

To me that wording means the attack resolves no matter what - either as a miss, or a normal attack sequence.  In other words "missed" is a possible resolution just as much as "dealt 2 damage"

That sounds right to me as well.

I've got this same question up on Boardgame Geek's forums. The answers are confusing there too. The wording does make it sound like it resolves as a miss. You could even rationalize it as a sonic boom after effect of Tachyon's attack.

I'd love an official word on this.

The question, as I understand it, is what happens if Tachyon targets a 1 hp Wraith with Sucker Punch, and Wraith uses Slip into Shadows in response?

Possibilities:
1)  The attack misses but still resolves, therefore Wraith is incapacitated.
2)  Because the attack is now "impossible," it no longer resolves at all and Wraith is still active at 1 hp.

There's no apparent agreement among fans/playtesters as to what was intended, so a more "official" answer would be nice.

I can tell you this, if the attack does not resolve the lightspeed barrage effect would simply affect your next attack.