Federation Commander

Quick question - do armour boxes count for the purposes of determining if a ships is crippled? Rule (8B2b) states:

"For purposes of crippling, , half of all boxes includes all systems boxes and frame damage. It does not include shields, Marines or ammo tracks. It does not include shuttles or fighters, but does include their "hangar" boxes on the ships."

Shields are explicitly excluded, but armour is not.

Why does it matter? A Romulan Snipe has 29 boxes plus 3 armour boxes. A Federation task force scores 16 internals on the Romulan ship, which will destroy the armour boxes before the DAC is consulted (3D1). If armour is included in the determination, then 16 boxes out of 31 counts as a cripple under (8B2b) scoring 37.5 victory points, but if the armour boxes are not included then the Federation has scored 13 internals out of a total of 29, counting as internal damage and only gathering 7.5 victory points.

Armor does count, anything on the repair chart counts, i don't think that is stated anywhere just implied. You would agree that hull counts but is it on the list you just mentioned? No.

Yes, armor counts.

Actually I had never thought of linking it to the repair chart. Bummer. That's a good idea!

Frame boxes are not repairable on the Repair Chart. The rule is clear as written, but folks wonder about Armor boxes because Shield boxes are not counted.

Thanks guys - my instinct was that it did count, but the specific exclusion of shields gave me a pause for thought.

I suppose there's a meta-rule here: if it costs repair points to repair, it's a system box. (I know frame can't be repaired, but the rule does say "system boxes and frame".)