I've seen a discussion going on in a local Armada forum concerning the amount of damage cards that needs to be drawn after a ship destroying attack. For instance, a ship has a hull value of 3 (no shields or tokens) and an attack deals 8 damage. Does the destroyed ship then take 3 damage cards and is removed from the play area or does it take 8 damage cards before being removed from the play area?

The FAQ states that damage cards are drawn one at a time. However, it does not specify whether cards should be drawn until the amount of damage cards are equal to the hull value of a ship or not.

Are they missing something or is there no definite answer to this?

Edit: I can see that this topic has been dealt with previously. Are there any references to be made besides RRG p. 4?

Some folks like to do this but I don't see why. When a ship is dead, it is dead.

Those who argue for the overflow of damage cards seem to draw comparisons to X-Wing. I don't know if that's the actual reason for the (mis)understanding : /

From RRG p. 5 Destroyed ships and squadrons

A ship is destroyed when it has damage cards equaling or exceeding its hull value.

When a ship is destroyed, remove it from the play area and place it next to the matching ship card. Discard its damage cards to the discard pile and return its tokens and dials to the supply.

From RRG p. 4 Damage

When a ship has damage cards equal to its hull value, it is immediately destroyed.

From RRG p. 5 Effect Use and Timing

A “when” effect occurs at the moment that the specified event occurs and cannot occur again for that instance of the event.

So a ship cannot take more damage than their hull value as default cause it is removed and the damage cards discarded.

BUT it is possible for a ship to has or take more damage card per Motti's effect (if Motti dies while other ship has more damage card than its default hull) or Riekan.

EDITED FOR MORE INFO

From the FAQ Riekan

Ships and squadrons affected by this ability are treated as undestroyed until the end of the Status Phase for all purposes (attacking, defending, resolving card abilities, etc). These ships and squadrons can suffer additional damage from resolving effects such asRuthless Strategists.

From RRG p. 4 Damage

When a ship suffers damage, it suffers that damage one point at a time. For each point, reduce the shields in the defending hull zone by one. If the defending hull zone has no shields to lose, deal a facedown damage card to the ship instead.

From the FAQ Motti

If a ship’s hull value becomes equal to the amount of damage cards it has as a result of losing Admiral Motti’s effect, that ship is destroyed.

It is supposed that Motti's FAQ follow the RRG rules for destroyed ship so the amount of damage cards could be higher as a result of losing Motti's effect and the ship is destroyed anyway.

It's only relevant if you have Rieekan on the table.

In all other cases the ship leaves the table as soon as dmg = hull, so there is nothing left to take more hull damage.

Motti is irrelevant really; as long as he's on the table, his hull boost applies. But you still only draw damage until dmg = hull.

@ovinomanc3r Thank you for providing a detailed account of your interpretation of the rules. It certainly corresponds to my understanding of the rules and it also corresponds to the way tournaments have been played. It puzzles me that someone would argue against this understanding of the rules. The counter argument to this was, according to the debate, that since the rules do not directly state how damage cards are dealt, then cards had to be drawn according to the amount of damage made.

At least the people organizing tournaments know their ****, so that gives me some relief

Indeed. The whole point of dealing cards "one at a time" is to evaluate conditions and/or resolve effects after each card is dealt.

48 minutes ago, Hawkwing said:

@ovinomanc3r Thank you for providing a detailed account of your interpretation of the rules. It certainly corresponds to my understanding of the rules and it also corresponds to the way tournaments have been played. It puzzles me that someone would argue against this understanding of the rules. The counter argument to this was, according to the debate, that since the rules do not directly state how damage cards are dealt, then cards had to be drawn according to the amount of damage made.

At least the people organizing tournaments know their ****, so that gives me some relief

What DiabloAzul pointed make this pretty clear a think.

Follow up question on this.

If Rieekan is the admiral, and a ship takes damage up to its hull value before its activation. Then activates and uses engineering points to remove the damage so that is below its max hull value is it still destroyed? Shouldn't it remain in play since it is no longer dead at the end of the status phase?

No, destroyed is destroyed. You don't stop being destroyed if you get the hull back.

Dead is dead. Rieekan does not postpone the evaluation of whether a ship is destroyed. It only postpones the effects .

General Rieekan
Ships and squadrons affected by this ability
are destroyed at the end of the Status Phase
regardless of the number of damage cards or
hull points they have at that time. These ships
or squadrons are removed before resolving
any “end of round” or “end of game” effects.