I have read through rules, tournament FAQ and general FAQ and haven't found a resolve for the following issue:

Can I look through my damage deck after it has been shuffled?

Can I look through facedown damage cards that i have drawn?

Rules say nothing about that for some reason...

Can I look through my damage deck after it has been shuffled?

No.

Can I look through facedown damage cards that i have drawn?

No. Not unless the ship is destroyed, in which case they go faceup into the discard pile.

Rules say nothing about that for some reason...

They do actually:

But where does it say I can't look at it afterwards? Or is it a language issue and facedown is presumed that it can't be looked at?

The rules don't actually say you have to be clothed either. If it wasn't happening in November, I may have thought about trying this for worlds. Would certainly throw my opponents off their game.

The rules don't actually say you have to be clothed either.

Really not the same thing. The rules don't say that you can't look through your damage deck, but most everyone seems to assume you can't.

There is nothing in the rules that say you can look through the discard pile.

It's sorta implied it's open information since it's face up. But strictly RAW no you can't look at anything other than the top card.

You would be able to see every card as it's discarded though.

So, will I be correct to assume that if it states Facedown the card can't be looked; whereas it is states as Faceup - no problem to examine.

I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to look through the discard pile at any time. Honestly, you could just make note of each card as it comes out on a piece of notepaper. Nothing in the rules against taking notes as you play. You could do the same for your opponent. But, why go through the trouble. Comparing it to MTG, this is open information and there really should be no reason it can't be reviewed. Aside from arguing that someone should have to memorize what has passed (silly), I can see little logic in disallowing such an action. Now, once it's reshuffled and face down, that is a draw deck, which you cannot look through as it is knowledge you were not given during normal game means. It would be interesting to see the game introduce something thematic that allowed you to reorder your crit deck, but that would be a tough sell IMO.

Do the rules ever specifically state that you cannot move your ship around at any given time?

Do the rules ever specifically state that you cannot move an upgrade from one ship to another during the game?

Do the rules ever specifically state that you cannot move the asteroids around during the game?

As far as looking through the damage deck discard pile, here is the response from Alex to that question:

Rules Question:

Hi, After a ship has been destroyed and the damage cards placed face up in the discard pile, is it permitted to examine your own and your opponents damage deck discard pile to determine which cards have been used?

Yes, though in a tournament setting players must endeavor to keep the game moving at a reasonable pace.

Cheers,

Alex Davy

Creative Content Developer

Fantasy Flight Games

[email protected]

here is the response from Alex to that question:

Thanks for that. I'm guessing it's assumed that any face up card is considered public knowledge, and either player has access to it at any point.

Thanks a lot!

At least to me "facedown" equals "unknown" at least until such a time that the card is turned face-up for some reason or discarded.

If you think you could look through your damage deck to know what's coming just let me point out a situation where that would be EXTREMELY useful: A-Wing (only ship that can do this right now) equipped with DtF and Determination. Normally you need to decide to use DtF long before you know what kind of face-up damage card would be coming making Determination very likely to miss. Now if you actually know what card you will be getting that suddenly changes things because you'd know if you want to use DtF or not before you actually would draw the card; this effectively give Determination to all the surrounding ships as the A-Wing can see the forthcoming Pilot criticals and use DtF to bring them to it.

A damage deck should be shuffled and sufficiently randomized without knowledge of the order the cards are in and placed face down before the game starts.

There is only one point during a game where you are required to shuffle your damage deck (and it almost never happens) and that is only if the damage deck itself runs out. In this instance the cards being shuffled back into your damage deck are revealed info already. at no other point can you interact with your damage deck (currently at least).

you can no more look at your damage deck than a poker player can look at the deck of undealt cards.

Technically there's no rule against looking through the discard pile, but I know I'd be a bit miffed if my opponent was busy examining his trying to determine what was left to come up. It's just wrong - simple as that.

Technically there's no rule against looking through the discard pile, but I know I'd be a bit miffed if my opponent was busy examining his trying to determine what was left to come up. It's just wrong - simple as that.

How is looking through your face-up damage deck at all wrong? It's open information to both players. We even have Designer clarification that it is perfectly legal just to be mindful not to stall while doing so.

Technically there's no rule against looking through the discard pile, but I know I'd be a bit miffed if my opponent was busy examining his trying to determine what was left to come up. It's just wrong - simple as that.

How is looking through your face-up damage deck at all wrong? It's open information to both players. We even have Designer clarification that it is perfectly legal just to be mindful not to stall while doing so.

I think he meant wrong in that the opponent is looking through the damage deck rather then assigning dials, excecuting maneuvers, attacking - you know, playing the game.

Technically there's no rule against looking through the discard pile, but I know I'd be a bit miffed if my opponent was busy examining his trying to determine what was left to come up. It's just wrong - simple as that.

How is looking through your face-up damage deck at all wrong? It's open information to both players. We even have Designer clarification that it is perfectly legal just to be mindful not to stall while doing so.

I think he meant wrong in that the opponent is looking through the damage deck rather then assigning dials, excecuting maneuvers, attacking - you know, playing the game.

You wouldn't begrudge a player taking a look at the table from different angles before taking an action or setting his dial. You also wouldn't take issue with a player asking for the damage total or ability wording on a ship of yours. Or calling a judge to get a ruling before making a move.

None of those things are "playing the game" as you put it, but they are accessing available information to inform the plays about to be made. Looking through a damage deck is no different. It's available information that in some instances is relevant to helping decide what to do, just like checking angles.

Now just because a player has information avaliable to them and has the ability to utilize it, doesn't mean they have an absolute ability to do so. At some point you cross the line into stalling.

Moreover all those things you describe as playing the game, you can be stalling while doing those to.

No, I meant wrong as in if you're sorting through trying to count the Direct Hit cards or something to see how many still remain, it's just not in the spirit of the game.

No, I meant wrong as in if you're sorting through trying to count the Direct Hit cards or something to see how many still remain, it's just not in the spirit of the game.

The designers quite explicitly disagree with you so apparently it is in the spirit of the game. Not only can you look through your own discard pile, its OK to look at the opponent pile too.

Jim

So if you've managed to burn through most of your opponent's damage deck and after examining it deduce that there's still three direct hit cards remaining, aren't you removing the random element from game? If you've got Vader on a ship, is this going to persuade you to use him, knowing what card is likely to be coming up next?

By sifting through the damage decks, you are removing the element of surprise, and that's what I don't like. You should not know what the next card in the damage deck is likely to be at any stage.

And if the designers explicitly disagree with me, someone point me to the statement from the designers that says "Parravon, you're wrong."

It's the part where they said "Yes" to the question of "Can you look through yours or your opponents damage deck to determine what cards have been used?".

If you weren't meant to have access to that information then the rules would not have you discarding damage cards on destroyed ships into a face-up discard pile that you have the, designer confirmed, ability to examine.

It's the part where they said "Yes" to the question of "Can you look through yours or your opponents damage deck to determine what cards have been used?".

If you weren't meant to have access to that information then the rules would not have you discarding damage cards on destroyed ships into a face-up discard pile that you have the, designer confirmed, ability to examine.

I think you missed my point a little. Emrico's comment said they explicitly disagreed with me. Personally, I don't give a rat's behind whether you can do it legally or not, I still think it's wrong.

You have fun with that then. I hope your opponents don't draw similar ire when they make perfectly legal plays that you for whatever reason have decided are against the "spirit of the game".

Personally, I don't give a rat's behind whether you can do it legally or not, I still think it's wrong.

That's not a very good attitude for a forum dedicated to Rules Questions...

Personally, I don't give a rat's behind whether you can do it legally or not, I still think it's wrong.

That's not a very good attitude for a forum dedicated to Rules Questions...

Well that's my opinion on the topic. There's no rule in the book on this, just an answer to a question. Is it legal, apparently yes. Is it right? I don't think so.