When to spend the Power Tokens

[bokepasa 36]

Hi all, 

I just got the latest expansion "Heart of the Empire" and I'm reading the Expansion Rules section. Regarding the Power Tokens it says the following: 

"When a figure with a power token declares an attack or is declared as the target of an attack, that figure may discard 1 of its power tokens. If it does, apply +1 if the symbol on that token to that attack's result."

It seems then that Power Tokens may be spent during step 1 of the attack, before knowing the die results. Is this right? IMHO it's very weird because many times the tokens will be wasted, for example if the defender rolls X or the accuracy is not enough. The step 4 (apply modifiers) sounds more logical to spend the tokens.

Could anyone please confirm the step to spend the power tokens? 

Thanks in advance

[a1bert 4,115]

Yes.

When declaring target is correct. It corresponds to how Focused and Hidden work.

Note that you get to choose whether to spend up to 1 power token per attack, which you cannot do with Focused and Hidden.

 

Edited October 13, 2017 by a1bert

[bokepasa 36]

Thanks for your response.

The comparison of the Focused or Hidden tokens is a good and illustrative example.

[Armandhammer 431]

18 hours ago, bokepasa said:

IMHO it's very weird because many times the tokens will be wasted, for example if the defender rolls X or the accuracy is not enough. The step 4 (apply modifiers) sounds more logical to spend the tokens.

I like it is this way.

Still gotta rely on the dice to put in most of the work!

Plus it won't slow down play. There’s enough going on during step 4 of an attack. 

[a1bert 4,115]

There are of course a lot of other abilities that are activated during the declare target step.

Also, power tokens are intended to be more granular attack (and defense) boosts than focused, hidden and weakened.

 

[Spidey NZ 787]

its a risk, but could also be a bluff, or a tell.  if they dont spend their defence power token, perhaps the have 'on the lam'.... thus you dont have to pile up damage

[aermet69 518]

I assume the attacker declares use of Power Tokens first, being the active player?

[a1bert 4,115]

Power tokens are figure's abilities, so attacker first, then the defender.