In the groups I play with, they are very strict about drawing all damage cards for a ship even if it's more than dead.

I'll do it. But I really can't see why they are so concerned about it.

I know there are X number of each damage card.. but that shouldn't matter. The order is still completely random. And if it's for card counting reasons, that seems pointless when half of them are face down and no one knows which they are.

What's the story I'm missing?

the four face down damage cards you just drew from the deck, when you only took one damage, were all Direct Hit cards

Are you absolutely sure you don't want them taken from the pack?

That is sort of the point to keep card counting down with so many face down (or face up). If you got to a casino they use a new deck with every deal to simply remove any counting possibilities. If you thin the deck with most of it face down it gets impossible for someone to say count direct hits (there are 7) to try and see if they need to work on say flipping cards face up with say rexlar brath. Also with most face down it makes it riskier for the fat falcon player to use R2-D2 crew as that player can't count on not flipping a direct hit.

In the groups I play with, they are very strict about drawing all damage cards for a ship even if it's more than dead.

I'll do it. But I really can't see why they are so concerned about it.

I know there are X number of each damage card.. but that shouldn't matter. The order is still completely random. And if it's for card counting reasons, that seems pointless when half of them are face down and no one knows which they are.

What's the story I'm missing?

I'd say more like "sort of random', but Funkleton's point stands. You're really potentially lowering the chance of taking Direct Hit cards. I don't think anyone (even at a tournament) is concerned with card counting. It's more like wanting to avoid taking a Direct Hit on your TIE Fighter that has two hull left, when you can take a Munitions Failure.

the four face down damage cards you just drew from the deck, when you only took one damage, were all Direct Hit cards

Are you absolutely sure you don't want them taken from the pack?

Doesn't this work the other way as well? those 4 cards are maybe not direct hit cards, thus taking them out increases the density of direct hits. So.. is there really an advantage gained either way if we don't know what they are?

In the groups I play with, they are very strict about drawing all damage cards for a ship even if it's more than dead.

I'll do it. But I really can't see why they are so concerned about it.

I know there are X number of each damage card.. but that shouldn't matter. The order is still completely random. And if it's for card counting reasons, that seems pointless when half of them are face down and no one knows which they are.

What's the story I'm missing?

I'd say more like "sort of random', but Funkleton's point stands. You're really potentially lowering the chance of taking Direct Hit cards. I don't think anyone (even at a tournament) is concerned with card counting. It's more like wanting to avoid taking a Direct Hit on your TIE Fighter that has two hull left, when you can take a Munitions Failure.

Of course some days you eat the bear, other days the bear eats you

If you hadn't just taken 4 direct hits out of the pile, the 5th card wouldn't have been a mutitions failure on your HLC Outrider

just one of those things that keeps it all interesting

Critical effects. This is probably the single most important reason why all damage cards should be drawn. Consider the following three examples:

1. A ship gets destroyed and suffers a Blinded Pilot critical. Even with Simultaneous Fire, the destroyed ship will not be able to roll attack dice on its next attack.

2. A ship with a turret upgrade gets destroyed and suffers a Munitions Failure. The destroyed ship will not be able to fire with its discarded secondary weapon.

3. Rexlar Brath (named TIE Defender) deals 4 facedown damage to an opponent, but is likely to die from return fire unless a certain critical is dealt. He spends a focus token to flip each of the dealt facedown cards faceup, hoping to get the desired critical.

Particularly for scenario 3, dealing ALL of the required damage cards becomes very important. In addition, it keeps both players honest throughout the game (say if someone miscounts their damage before removing the ship from the field).

Because rules.

It's because of Same PS simultanous fire.

Soontir fires first because of initiative, cause 1 hit and 1 crit as "over kill", crit is roll 0 dice on your next attack. If they didn't draw that crit, you could get killed in return.

As too drawing face down damage cards above the hull value, that I don't get (outside the likes of Rexlar).

In the groups I play with, they are very strict about drawing all damage cards for a ship even if it's more than dead.

I'll do it. But I really can't see why they are so concerned about it.

I know there are X number of each damage card.. but that shouldn't matter. The order is still completely random. And if it's for card counting reasons, that seems pointless when half of them are face down and no one knows which they are.

What's the story I'm missing?

Simultaneous attack rule if the pilot's have equal skill values. If any hits are crits, they may affect the counterattack. Dealing only crits would be kind of odd, so it's simple and streamlined to simply deal all damage cards, to remain consistent.

*Edit*

Restating what others have posted, but added that bit at the end for why to deal facedown damage cards. It's to simplify the rule and make it consistent.

A bunch of good points have been mentioned but the fact that it says it in the rules should be enough to convince you.

But when I explain it to a new player I say it directly affects the "destiny" of the deck. Yes it's still random but it captures that Star Wars feel of it all.

A bit off topic. When a ship gets destroyed you are supposed to flip all damage cards face up so your opponent can see what damage cards have been used.

page 13:

"When the number of Damage cards dealt to a ship equals or exceeds its HULL VALUE (yellow number), that ship is destroyed."

As other have said, it is part of the rules. That being said I am surprised by how many don't know this rule.

A bunch of good points have been mentioned but the fact that it says it in the rules should be enough to convince you.

But when I explain it to a new player I say it directly affects the "destiny" of the deck. Yes it's still random but it captures that Star Wars feel of it all.

A bit off topic. When a ship gets destroyed you are supposed to flip all damage cards face up so your opponent can see what damage cards have been used.

When a ship gets destroyed you flip all the damage cards face up!?! Can you please cite the rule for this? I have never seen nor heard of anything in the rules even close to that. It's possible I missed it, which is why is like to read it for myself, a citation would be great. I think it's the exact opposite, you don't show the cards, that's information that should remain hidden.

Page 16 of the core rule book

deStroying ShipS

When the number of Damage cards dealt to a ship is equal to or greater than its hull value, the ship is immediately destroyed (faceup and facedown cards count toward this total). Immediately remove the destroyed ship from the play area, discard all of its Damage cards to a faceup discard pile next to the Damage deck, and return all of its tokens to their respective supplies.

I'm casual games I play all the criticals.

If my ship has 1 hull left and he gets dealt 5 hits and a crit I deal only the crit. Counting out five hits that you won't reveal makes no predictable difference to the likelihood of pulling a given card.

I'm casual games I play all the criticals.

If my ship has 1 hull left and he gets dealt 5 hits and a crit I deal only the crit. Counting out five hits that you won't reveal makes no predictable difference to the likelihood of pulling a given card.

but as pointed out, directly above you, you do reveal them when they go face up into the discard pile.

It's in the rules, done no more explanation required.

the four face down damage cards you just drew from the deck, when you only took one damage, were all Direct Hit cards

Are you absolutely sure you don't want them taken from the pack?

The four cards you just discarded were NOT direct hit cards, but direct hit is the fifth card down. Now you will draw it next. Are you absolutely sure you want to make that your next crit?

Page 16 of the core rule book

deStroying ShipS

When the number of Damage cards dealt to a ship is equal to or greater than its hull value, the ship is immediately destroyed (faceup and facedown cards count toward this total). Immediately remove the destroyed ship from the play area, discard all of its Damage cards to a faceup discard pile next to the Damage deck, and return all of its tokens to their respective supplies.

I'll be damned. That is not a rule I have ever seen observed. Good to know. That is actually a good cheat safeguard. If someone flips up too many of a crit, that is a big indictment.

Funny as I nearly completely depleted an opponents damage deck with my dash/corran list vs 4 ties & a deci.

So much overkill happened that at the end he had 3 damage cards left in his deck. Alot of one hull ties eating 4 damage for the finisher.

What would've happened if he had no more damaged cards & a ship left?

So for example if I killed all ties this way that's 24 damage cards!

The deci could have 3 hull left with no more cards to draw.

Does the deci become unkillable? :-)

Funny as I nearly completely depleted an opponents damage deck with my dash/corran list vs 4 ties & a deci.

So much overkill happened that at the end he had 3 damage cards left in his deck. Alot of one hull ties eating 4 damage for the finisher.

What would've happened if he had no more damaged cards & a ship left?

So for example if I killed all ties this way that's 24 damage cards!

The deci could have 3 hull left with no more cards to draw.

Does the deci become unkillable? :-)

This is also covered in the rules.... and is why it's important for ALL cards to be dealt.

You take the discard pile, turn it over, shuffle it and form a new damage deck. If you can't do this because all the cards are on ships that are currently still living, then you use markers to track damage untill the cards become available, however you are basically crit proof.

Critical effects. This is probably the single most important reason why all damage cards should be drawn. Consider the following three examples:

1. A ship gets destroyed and suffers a Blinded Pilot critical. Even with Simultaneous Fire, the destroyed ship will not be able to roll attack dice on its next attack.

2. A ship with a turret upgrade gets destroyed and suffers a Munitions Failure. The destroyed ship will not be able to fire with its discarded secondary weapon.

3. Rexlar Brath (named TIE Defender) deals 4 facedown damage to an opponent, but is likely to die from return fire unless a certain critical is dealt. He spends a focus token to flip each of the dealt facedown cards faceup, hoping to get the desired critical.

Particularly for scenario 3, dealing ALL of the required damage cards becomes very important. In addition, it keeps both players honest throughout the game (say if someone miscounts their damage before removing the ship from the field).

I should have said I understand it needs to be done if there is simultaneous fire to be had.

Because rules.

I wasn't suggesting I wouldn't do it. I just wanted to feel like I was doing it for a purpose. "Because they say so" is not a satisfactory answer for me to understand why they want me to do it. Anyway, I wasn't aware it was official rules until I read further down in this topic.

I'm still curious of the technical reason why it's necessary. Like in an example of say Wedge doing 3 uncanceled crits to a fresh tie fighter. It's dead. Doesn't matter what the crits are. There is no simultaneous attack. As soon as all the crits are looked at they will be discarded and the tie removed. There are no critical effects that will cause damage or something to nearby targets.. so it just seems like a waste of time.

A bunch of good points have been mentioned but the fact that it says it in the rules should be enough to convince you.

But when I explain it to a new player I say it directly affects the "destiny" of the deck. Yes it's still random but it captures that Star Wars feel of it all.

A bit off topic. When a ship gets destroyed you are supposed to flip all damage cards face up so your opponent can see what damage cards have been used.

Interesting, i'd overlooked this detail. Thanks for letting me know it's an official thing. Still feels strange as why they felt it necessary to put in the rules.. but maybe they are anticipating something that might make a difference in future damage cards.

It seems like MtG Voodoo to me.

There is no positive or negatives to it.

To be perfectly honest if you take 4 damage on a Tie Fighter there is no need to even draw any cards as you know its dead anyway.

If you decide to draw them or not its a change of absolutely no consequence to anyone or anything.

With the rule that all damage cards must be flipped faceup into a new pile when a ship dies, dealing all the damage cards is a hedge against cheating.

If someone wants to stack his deck with all munitions failures. And they have to deal all the damage cards to a dead ship and then flip them face up into a pile. Well, when you see a ship getting 3 Munitions Failures, or if you see 3 of the same crit across a number of dead ships, someone has done something to their damage deck.

If someone isn't dealing all the damage cards, then i''st more possible to hide a stacked deck. It's less likely an opponent will notice that you have too many of a single crit type, if they are only seeing a small fraction of the cards they are supposed to see.

So, for a techincal reason, deal all the cards so that it becomes harder for someone to stack the deck. Consider it an anticheating mechanism.