Let’s All Do the Bump

(How can you go wrong with a shameless MC Hammer reference to start a post?)

In Dungeons and Dragons: Attack Wing, bumping is different than in either the Star Wars: X-Wing or Star Trek: Attack Wing games.

In DNDAW, bumps do not cause you to lose actions (bolded because it is really important to remember) and, if the Creature that is currently moving is a flying Creature and the Creature they overlap (bump into) is a ground Creature, the flying Creature can choose to continue flying forward over the ground Creature.

This is explained on page 27 of the Starter Set Rulebook but, based on questions I saw over the weekend, some people are still a little confused about how it works.

So here goes:

If your movement ends with your base overlapping the base of another Creature, what happens depends on what kind of Creature you are and what kind of Creature you overlap.

• If you are a ground Creature, you move your Creature back along the maneuver template until your base no longer overlaps any other Creature’s base.
• If you are a flying Creature and your base overlaps with another flying Creature’s base (that has not landed) you move your Creature back along the maneuver template until your base no longer overlaps any other Creature’s base.
• If you are a flying Creature and your base overlaps with a ground Creature’s base (or the base of a flying Creature that has landed) you have two choices.
  • You may choose to move your Creature back along the maneuver template until your base no longer overlaps any other Creatures.
  • You may also choose to continue, in a straight path, until you clear the ground (or landed flying) Creature’s base. If this causes you to overlap your base with a flying Creature’s base, you will have to move your Creature back along the maneuver template until your base no longer overlaps any other Creatures, but if this causes your base to overlap another ground Creature’s base, you will continue forward. You will continue forward until:
    • you find a spot your Creature fits in (with no base overlapping)
    • you bump into a flying Creature (which would require you to move all the way back until you fit)
    • you reach the edge of the game area, which would be considered Fleeing the Battlefield (see page 26 of the rulebook).

I have seen a dragon fly over an entire Troop and the frost giant behind them, moving across almost half the play area.

Once you’ve chosen to have your flying Creature fly over the ground (or grounded) Creature, you have committed to that movement. It is easy to eliminate your own Creature if you are not careful.

If your flying Creature was executing a wingover/roundable/u-turn maneuver when they bump a ground Creature, they still get to complete it (to turn around) regardless of if they stop in front of the ground Creature or fly over it.

Just to be clear, when you’re using a straight maneuver to fly over a ground creature you overlapped, you move just far enough to clear the overlapped creature. You would not grab the Straight 6 and go zooming off!

You can use this to sneakily move your Flying Creatures across the map by having them fly over your own landed/grounded Creatures!

Troops have special rules for if the point man fits  but other soldiers do not fit. See the “Pressed Soldiers section on page 31 in the rulebook for more on this. The very short version is that it is bad to have pressed soldiers in a Troop.

Overrun Checks will be the subject of a future post and should not be mistaken for bumping. See page 26 of the rulebook for the Overrun Check rules.

TL:DR version: Flying Creatures can fly over/past ground or landed Creatures, continuing forward using a Straight template until they either A) no longer overlap another creature’s base, B) bump into a Flying Creature, or C) are eliminated from leaving the play area.

See you in the skies!