So I just got the new TFA core set. The rule book says to use the new damage deck, instead of the old one from the first core set.

I heard from a friend that that is not the case anymore. That you could use either deck. If that is the case, what is wrong with the old deck?

Another inquiry about damage decks:

If you are doing an epic play, and you do not field a huge ship, just small and large bases, do you just reuse the damage cards from the destroyed ships? Or can you use two damage decks?

Both decks are legal until the Tournament Rules get updated to disallow the old one.

As to what's wrong with the old one... There are many face-up cards in it that are simply irrelevant to many builds.

What does a TIE Swarm care if they receive an Injured Pilot or Munitions Failure?

When does Minor Hull Breach matter more than a Direct Hit?

​Notably, all 3 of those cards have been removed from the new deck, in favor of some updates.

Also, a few of the kept cards have gotten new wording, to work better in the game as it is now than when the game first started.

OK, official ruling from FFG is that BOTH damage decks are legal (for the time being).

What is wrong with the old deck is that some of the cards don't work on all ships. The new damage deck crit hits work on EVERY ship.

Thank you

If you are playing at home (Non-tourney), you may combine both decks. You don't need to worry about running out of damage cards for large point battles.

What is wrong with the old deck is that some of the cards don't work on all ships. The new damage deck crit hits work on EVERY ship.

My point is, the new deck has quirks and inconsequential effects that can be exploited (sort of) by certain squads, too. I think that's why both decks are legal. They're about equally (im)balanced, or anyway it doesn't really seem to make a big difference which deck you use. If you pick the "wrong" one for your squad, it's not necessarily going to matter.

What is wrong with the old deck is that some of the cards don't work on all ships. The new damage deck crit hits work on EVERY ship.

There are still some cards that will not change the game state. Stress-stackers like Tycho and stresshogs don't care about that crit that gives you a stress token, and some ships obviously like getting stressed. The crit that makes you turn your following damage cards faceup has no real effect if it's the second-to-last damage card on a ship. There may be other examples.

My point is, the new deck has quirks and inconsequential effects that can be exploited (sort of) by certain squads, too. I think that's why both decks are legal. They're about equally (im)balanced, or anyway it doesn't really seem to make a big difference which deck you use. If you pick the "wrong" one for your squad, it's not necessarily going to matter.

Structural Damage on 0-agility ships. Currently just the Decimator, but the Ghost is out soon too.

If you are playing at home (Non-tourney), you may combine both decks. You don't need to worry about running out of damage cards for large point battles.

I still wouldn't suggest that. I guess that if you mix the old and new decks you should know which deck the cards are coming from because they have differences but otherwise never mix damage decks together. Mixing two decks together may give you a "proper" card distribution when the game starts but after the first card is drawn, or more accurately the first card becomes known, the distribution of all of the rest of the cards is thrown off.

There are rules in the book about what to do if you run out of cards in your damage deck. The first thing is to take all of the discarded damage cards (ie. those that aren't on any ships) and shuffle those to create a new damage deck. If by some miracle you happen to get all damage cards in play you are supposed to use some other marker/token to represent any additional damage cards where any cards that are supposed to be face-up are just treated like other damage and represented by a token.

I will add that if you really are worried about getting all damage cards in play at the same time I'd suggest just starting with some other token to represent unknown damage cards. If a damage card would be known, or becomes known, a card from the deck is used instead of a token; doing things this way does NOT change the statistical probabilities for the next known card that would be revealed.

If you are playing at home (Non-tourney), you may combine both decks. You don't need to worry about running out of damage cards for large point battles.

Note:

​Do not combine decks. Ever.

​I am choosing to assume that Plantis is allowing two players to have damage decks of different generations. This is fine.

Note:

​Do not combine decks. Ever.

Hmmm... Ever? What about two old core sets for Epic games (non-tourney)? It should have the same rough distribution if thoroughly shuffled, which may or may not be as painful as the random dice...

Or were you more meaning "do not combine new and old damage decks. everrrrr...."?

Note:

​Do not combine decks. Ever.

Hmmm... Ever? What about two old core sets for Epic games (non-tourney)? It should have the same rough distribution if thoroughly shuffled, which may or may not be as painful as the random dice...

Or were you more meaning "do not combine new and old damage decks. everrrrr...."?

No, one damage deck of 33 cards - always.

Note:

​Do not combine decks. Ever.

Hmmm... Ever? What about two old core sets for Epic games (non-tourney)?

Not even then.

​They have similar odds... until the first damage card is drawn. Thereafter, it is skewed.

​As a thought experiment, what are the odds that the top 4 cards of the original deck distribution are Direct Hits? What are the odds that they are with two decks combined?

Yeah. So not even for Epic games.

When a ship dies, its damage cards are discarded.

​When you run out of cards in the damage deck, shuffle the discarded damage cards into a new deck.

In the event that you have distributed all 33 cards onto still-living ships? You get tokens to distribute, with no face-up ability (This is only truly feasible if you're running massive amounts of AOE, as regular play results in superior concentrations of fire).

Yeah, direct hits were definitely the consideration there. Statistics... sheesh... ok, so instead of 8/33 it's 16/66... and you draw one. By the time you draw the last one, the odds are back to even again. Sorry to get everyone up in arms, and I guess I'm glad I asked. I don't know that I would have done that, but it would be easy enough to do for the big Epic games above 300 points and you have the spare old decks lying around.

Note:

​Do not combine decks. Ever.

Hmmm... Ever? What about two old core sets for Epic games (non-tourney)? It should have the same rough distribution if thoroughly shuffled, which may or may not be as painful as the random dice...

Or were you more meaning "do not combine new and old damage decks. everrrrr...."?

Certainly not.

If the first card you see in a munitions failure you know that the next face-up card you see has a 1/32 chance of being another munitions failure. If you mix two decks together now your odds of seeing it as the next card goes to 3/65. That is moving from a 3.125% chance to a 4.62% chance. If you do see that second munitions failure you know with certainty that you will not see another, unless a reshuffle becomes required, but with two decks you've still got chances of seeing more of them.

Using a single deck to cover all known/face-up cards (even if/after they get turned face-down) and something else to mark face down cards doesn't change the odds of the next known card. The only catch to it is that when a ship dies all of its cards are discarded face-up which piles up a lot more information about what the next revealed damage card could be but it doesn't actually change the distribution of the the cards. If you've seen 32/33 damage cards you know what card remains but what that card is was determined before you knew what any of the 32 revealed cards were.

Every time you mix two damage decks together, a unicorn dies. So please don't do it... Ever!

Every time you mix two damage decks together, a unicorn dies. So please don't do it... Ever!

Any unicorn or My Little Ponies specifically? With one, I won't mix them, but with the other... I'll mix them and add in a new core set and I'll also combine my Epic decks... not that I have strong feelings or anything...

Is there any difference between the huge ship damage decks?

Is there any difference between the huge ship damage decks?

Front-half and Back-half decks have different composititions, aye.

Is there any difference between the huge ship damage decks?

Front-half and Back-half decks have different composititions, aye.

End each huge ships has it's own damage decks. So the cards for the Rebel transport are different from the ones for the CR90.

If you're worried about having enough damage cards for an Epic game, just follow the FFG rules:

• When a ship is destroyed, its Damage cards are discarded faceup to the discard pile.
• Players can look at the Damage card discard pile at any time.
• If the Damage deck is empty when a Damage card must be dealt or drawn, shuffle the discard pile to create a new Damage deck
• If both the Damage deck and discard pile are empty, players cannot draw Damage cards from the deck. If a Damage card must be dealt, the players should use a suitable counter (such as a coin or bead) in place of Damage cards until some Damage cards become available to create a deck at the end of the round.

You may have to do this more often for an Epic game, but it'll preserve the frequency of the various crits in the deck.

If you're worried about having enough damage cards for an Epic game, just follow the FFG rules:

• When a ship is destroyed, its Damage cards are discarded faceup to the discard pile.
• Players can look at the Damage card discard pile at any time.
• If the Damage deck is empty when a Damage card must be dealt or drawn, shuffle the discard pile to create a new Damage deck
• If both the Damage deck and discard pile are empty, players cannot draw Damage cards from the deck. If a Damage card must be dealt, the players should use a suitable counter (such as a coin or bead) in place of Damage cards until some Damage cards become available to create a deck at the end of the round.

You may have to do this more often for an Epic game, but it'll preserve the frequency of the various crits in the deck.

I'd generally say that if someone gets all of their damage cards in play then that person's opponent is doing a poor job at target selection. Either that or you are playing with a lot more points than are normally recommended. I'd say that a dozen TIE Fighters with 24 damage cards on them is often far more dangerous than six without any damage on them. Focus down your enemies as the fewer of them there are the fewer there are that can shoot back!