Page 6 of the Tournie Rules state that:

Outside material is defined...

Well, rather, Allowed material is Defined. Anything outside of that definition is by default, outside material...

However, players may reference official rule documents or game components that do not contain hidden information at any time or ask a judge for clarification from official rule documents. Official rule documents include all rules documents available on the Star Wars: Armada page of our website, those found in a Star Wars: Armada product, or any portion thereof.

1) There's nothing stopping you from having official copies of those cards yourself for reference,without having to, yknow, look at his side of the table... They are official.

2) No, not allowed. Who knows what else you're writing down... Do it in your Head.

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Agree with it or not (I certainly don't) as you wish... But those are the rules .

Also, You Deleted the one I was Replying to! Dammit!

Also, You Deleted the one I was Replying to! Dammit!

Sorry Dras.

"Who knows what else you're writing down"

What could I possibly be writing down that would affect the game? Don't get me wrong; I hear you. Rules are rules. The only thing I can think of is that they might see such note taking as a possible stalling/slow play tactic. A pity. I'd love to get more data on my own games/performance, etc.

Also, You Deleted the one I was Replying to! Dammit!

Sorry Dras.

"Who knows what else you're writing down"

What could I possibly be writing down that would affect the game? Don't get me wrong; I hear you. Rules are rules. The only thing I can think of is that they might see such note taking as a possible stalling/slow play tactic. A pity. I'd love to get more data on my own games/performance, etc.

That's the thing.

This rule was pretty well carried over from other games, I feel, and just placed as a routine update to all tournament documentations... Where Note-Taking can be related to counting cards in the enemy's deck, for example... I honestly don't believe it really accounts for us, because there is so little in the game that is hidden...

Command Dials are really it... Since there is a way to view them (Isard), you are expected to use that, and if you do use it, to then rely on your Memory rather than Writing them down....

You could just ask your opponent before each game if you can track your own data.

If they don't give you a weird look (because why would you even ask?!) then I'm sure they'd be fine with it.

You could just ask your opponent before each game if you can track your own data.

If they don't give you a weird look (because why would you even ask?!) then I'm sure they'd be fine with it.

'cept an Anal-Retentive Judge walking by could see it and dimiss you from the tournament.

Possible, but very unlikely. They'd probably be more likely to ask you to stop first.

I don't totally disagree on that point, only on the depth of "anal retentive" we've experienced on a relative basis over the years

I think the best advice is to simply make sure you don't do things like that at premier events.

The more casual scale really should hopefully not be a problem... Hopefully.

Technically, you could use dodonna and write down every crit that you flipped through so that you might have a better idea of what crits are left in the deck.

And yes, I'd report you to the TO if you tried.

Also, please don't Isaard and write down the dials...

If you want to record how your fleet is doing i'd suggest testing your fleet in casual games before the big game that way you can tweak your list after every game and (at least where i play) other tournament level players are doing the same thing so you shouldn't get any strange looks

In a casual game, you can do whatever your opponent agrees with. That might be the place to take notes and test out your fleet. This kind of a rule goes all the way back to chess where part of the challenge of the game has always been to figure it out mentally without the use of notes. So you work it out ahead of time in practice games and just make decisions with confidence at the tournament.

I have to say that I'm usually so in the moment at a tournament that I don't have time to even think about taking notes.

I hope that helps get you toward practicing well I preparation for the tournament.

What I dislike about this rule is not recording command dials or crits (those are fine), but recording the previous movements and actions as a log of the game events. In chess, they record every move, allowing you to not only recreate the game but learn from it.

I don't see why in a game like Armada or XWing, where very little is kept secret, why a "Box Score" would be banned.

Mostly, its Timekeeping.

Because its not just the time to make the records.

Its the time to confirm the records.

To Argue the Records.

To ***** that your opponent is taking his time with his Records.

To get a TO over to watch the state of play to make sure no-one is going slow with the records...

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I know why Wookies start tearing people's arms out of their Sockets when they lose at the Star Wars Version of Chess... because that's just freaking Frustrating, on top of everything else.

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However, in Armada, really, you can only recreate so much on a written record, because Fighter Movement is Freeform. You would have to effectively have grid superimposition of the top of the battlefield, and NOT have it visible to the players, because that would be an assistant to the guesswork.

In chess, it takes seconds to write the move: P K4, B Q3, N KB4, QxN

That's two turns of chess. Even with speed chess, you would have time left over to think about your move.

Armada - Activate Home One, Reveal Conc Fire dial, bank token, use Sq token to activate Wedge, attack Vader, Home One fired at ISD, second arc, fired at Demolisher, used nav token tobchange to speed 2, moved up and to the right...

And that's only one ship...

In chess, you typically make your move, push your button on the clock, then write your move. So you're technically also recording your movement on your opponent's time. The grid is pretty simple, too, so capturing movements is pretty easy. You also legally HAVE to keep a record of the moves until one player's clock reaches a certain point (depends upon the time control for the tournament). I think it is hard to do the same thing for Armada in anything short of sententious prose. In fact, if you look at AAR's, people tend to have pretty decent memories of the general events of the game. We're also pretty good at pinpoint the move or two that led to defeat, which is what really counts.

I'd say if you really want to be a student of the game, play some casual games where your goal is to learn, find an opponent who wants the same thing, and then take pictures at key junctures. Annotate the pictures.

It is interesting if you can't take notes that they haven't formalised the rules to allow or for that matter disallow the looking through discarded damage cards. Perhaps another one for the FAQ team?

Or did I just miss the rule?

It could just be that you are not allowed to look at your Damage Deck at any time.

That includes both the Unused and Used Cards of Said damage deck.

Perhaps, but the rules are equally deficient as to the ability of a player to look at his damage deck and the cards face down as damage to a ship.

Now, I guess being face down the assumptive part of me says you can't look. But where the cards are face up I tend to be on the side that looks.

Oh, I totally agree - Face up is Open information, Face down is not.

Simple as that.

Don't care where the cards are. If they're face down, they're face down.