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.

You came around to my point when you brought up stalling. All of the previous items you mention help advance the game - checking angles helps you decide on a maneuver. Asking for damage totals takes only a second and helps you decide what attacks to make. Checking a ruling assures something is legal.

All of those things are information made available, but all are moving the game forward (at least as long as they are not used excessively to stall). How does reading the discarded cards in the discard pile help advance the game? It lets you guess what might be up, but again, how does that help move the game forward? I understand that it's legal and as long as it's not abused then whatever, but I don't see how it could help in a timed game.

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".

Actually, all the guys I normally play are of a similar mindset and have been gaming for decades, so every game is completely free of dubious plays or any kind of stalling tactics. Which is the only way to play.

How does reading the discarded cards in the discard pile help advance the game? It lets you guess what might be up, but again, how does that help move the game forward? I understand that it's legal and as long as it's not abused then whatever, but I don't see how it could help in a timed game.

What if I'm running a YT with R2D2 crew, I'm 1 damage away from dying and have no shields.

If I flip up a damage card and it's a Direct Hit (or a Minor Explosion), I (may have) just lost.

Let's suppose there are 10 cards in the discard pile (2 dead Y-Wings). That's 33% of the full deck.

• Normally, I have a 9/33 (27% chance) of drawing a Direct Hit or Minor Explosion.
• If there are no Direct Hits or Minor Explosions in the 10 discarded cards, the chances of flipping one with R2-D2 just shot up to 9/23 (39%) !
• If there are 4 Direct Hits and 1 Minor Explosion in the 10 discarded cards, the chances of flipping one with R2-D2 just dropped to 4/23 (17%) !

I just might want to look through the discard pile and see if any Direct Hits and / or Minor explosions are in there.

I could come up with some more scenarios where looking through the damage deck could be important.

But my main point would be that looking through the damage deck in and of itself is not stalling. Checking angles and damage counts on ships are also not stalling.

If I spend 10 minutes checking angles? That's stalling.

If I re-count the damage on each ship twice per round? That's stalling.

If I look through the discarded damage cards for 5 minutes every round? That's stalling.

The thing is you can look through and try and calculate the odds of what might be left in the damage deck, but is that going to change what the next card actually is?

No, it isn't.

Is that going to change a play that you make? Maybe. As more upgrades come out the relevant instances increase as well.

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.

You came around to my point when you brought up stalling. All of the previous items you mention help advance the game - checking angles helps you decide on a maneuver. Asking for damage totals takes only a second and helps you decide what attacks to make. Checking a ruling assures something is legal.

All of those things are information made available, but all are moving the game forward (at least as long as they are not used excessively to stall). How does reading the discarded cards in the discard pile help advance the game? It lets you guess what might be up, but again, how does that help move the game forward? I understand that it's legal and as long as it's not abused then whatever, but I don't see how it could help in a timed game.

If you have an ability that interacts with the damage deck or damage cards, specifically one that includes an draw back to triggering it, then having as much information about what you could be flipping into is going to influence your plays. Just like every other bit of available information.

Maybe you have a defensive ship with Determination and you want to figure out the odds that Determination would work to help you decide what Action to take. Maybe you're trying to decide between increasing the total number of hits Brath got or holding the focus to flip cards. There's all sorts of places in the game where knowing the odds of certain crits in your or your opponent's remaining damage deck would reasonably factor into decision making. The fact that the community in general has not paid any attention to this doesn't change the fact that it could be useful information.

Dude. Some things are self evident. If they have to make a rules entry for every little thing like this, can you imaging how giant the rule book would be? I just realized there is not a rule against picking up my opponents ships and smashing them with a hammer. Then they would be "modified" outside of regulations and I win by default. I think I will try this at my next tourney, as their is no rule against it.