So the concept of the damage deck as it applies to this game is a new experience for me. It appears that each player brings his/her own deck and draws from it for their own fleet. Tournament rules say the opponent may request to see it, as well as a judge. OK cool. But there's a lot of cards in there. If someone pulled out a few choice cards, only a thorough inspection would find the discrepancy. I just find the potential for cheating in this area to be troublesome. For tournament play, would it not make more sense to just share one damage deck for both sides? Would that not eliminate the potential problem entirely?

Casual play, if my opponent wants to win that badly, fine, whatever. In competitive gaming though, I would really feel like an ***hole looking through each of my opponents cards beforehand, but then I don't want to loose because they took out all the life support failures or something either.

Anyone else feel the same way about this? Or should I just go to bed

Since its done before the shuffle, I'd expect both players should just group their damage decks into matching sets and lay them out face-up opposite each other on the table to confirm each has what the other has. Then pick them up and shuffle.

That would take up to much time before every game, just deck share. Unfortunately there will always be someone willing to cheat to win.

They use the same system for Xwing and it's never been too much of an issue. In our friendly casual fortnightly events no one bothers to check damage decks, sure someone could be cheating but it's a pretty laid back casual affair so it's unlikely. At big events like store championships and our upcoming regional the TO makes everyone give their damage deck to their first round opponent to check. For xwing it was pretty easy to check, there was 7 double damage crits and 2 of each other type of crit for a total of 33 cards. Not sure what the breakdown if for Armada.

The problem with deck sharing is that some critical cards are far nastier than others, and there are only 2 of each - if your opponent draws out a bad one, then its halves the odds that you will have to deal with that card (in addition to the odds that the other has already been drawn out as a facedown card). Plus, at larger point games there is a possibility that one damage deck will just not have enough cards to cover the mass destruction that might ensue should multiple ships be damaged/destroyed.

As a quick note, there are 52 cards in the Armada damage deck. If you look closely at the bottom, they are all numbered.

Also, if you deck share there is still room for cheating. Some Crits are a lot more problematic for one type of ship or fleet than others, so you could just stack it with those who don't hurt yourself as much as your opponent.
For instance "Life support Failure" (Discard all Command tokens, can't get any) is a lot more painful for a Tarkin led fleet while "Targeter Disruption" (No Crits) is pretty tough on Dodonna led ones. Similarly a Star Destroyer doesn't really care if he is effectively limited to speed one by a crit, whereas a corvette will not survive that for long and a ship without red dice does not really care about not being allowed to attack at long range.

Anything short of "official, organizer supplied, sealed damage decks with unique artworks per event" is prone to cheating, so I guess it's okay to draw the line where they do it.

If you are desperate enough to cheat at "plastic spaceships" you need to seriously have a life rethink....

One idea would be before you start playing to swap damage decks, check the deck and use that deck.

After the game's over swap the decks back again.

. In competitive gaming though, I would really feel like an ***hole looking through each of my opponents cards beforehand, but then I don't want to loose because they took out all the life support failures or something either.

Don't worry about it. There are no soft scores to worry about an opponent screwing you on because you deck-checked him.

Seen this happen with STAW - where a person replaced warp core breach with other cards. His opponent caught him when he used the Attack Pattern Omega and searched through the deck. Then he asked to look at the face down damage cards and didn't find it there either.

But I'm with Englishpete on this one

Sharing a deck is not the solution.

Not worrying about it or checking before the round is.

I am so used to just deck sharing it's not even funny..... do it for x-wing armada and attack wing... tournaments in my area have all just deck shared.

do it for x-wing armada and attack wing... tournaments in my area have all just deck shared.

Not sure about Attack Wing, but for X-Wing and Armada the rules state that each player use their own damage deck, you're not supposed to share them.

For casual tournaments and friendly games you can do what you want, but for Store Championship and beyond both sides need their own deck.

We used to deck share in Wings of War which is the granddaddy of X-Wing, Armada, Sails of Glory.

I think if the rules say each player must use his own damage deck then checking it will be the only way to be sure.

I know guys that would rig the deck because they think if you weren't meant to do then the game wouldn't use a damage deck.

Personally I don't think it will be an issue but if you suspect something have the TO check the deck. As mentioned before they are numbered and it will be impossible to hide if counted out.

And if you are thinking of cheating at a game like Armada you must be one Sad Sad individual. (Not directed at OP, just a general statement.)

if you're worried, play General Big-D

if you start seeing too many of the same card, then you know you have a problem

People will cheat at Armada, just like any game ever. People have been caught with tampered damage decks in X-wing, it will happen in Armada.

Armada events are smaller so it will be easier for a TO to check in damage decks with Fleet submission. And once checked if there is am issue just DQ and Ban the player.

Easy solution- roll a die. Even you use your own deck, odd you use your opponents. Shouldn't matter, but it would prevent someone planning on using a stacked deck. Any irregularities would be much more likely to be spotted if someone else is handling the deck as well. For additional security check the decks of everyone who finishes in the prizes. However I'm not even sure if that's needed. Cheaters tend to be terrible players in my experience.