Protocol for running out of damage cards

By markrivett, in X-Wing Rules Questions

With crits and additional damage 6 Hyena’s and 6 Torrents can have all 33 damage cards on the table with the game still in progress.

7 Hyena’s, 7 Torrents, and 6 TIE Bombers can easily do it without crits.

Is the proper protocol to collect damage cards that have been dealt to all your destroyed ships, shuffle them up, create a new damage deck, and continue playing as normal?

Yes. You'll reshuffle stuff from destroyed ships. If nothing is destroyed, you'll use "other markers" for damage.

From Rules Reference pg 9

Quote

If a damage deck is empty when a damage card must be dealt or drawn, remove all damage cards from destroyed ships, flip them facedown, and shuffle them to create a new damage deck.

For Epic/Casual games, unless the damage card has been previously flipped over, just use another marker to keep track of damage. (when i play HotAC, i have a bunch of small D6 dice for this purpose)

Is it even possible to run out of damage cards, without having any destroyed ships? 8 basic torrents, for example, comes to 200 points. They each have 5 hull, but if every ship had exactly 4 damage on them, that's 32... meaning there's still 1 damage card left in the deck. Once it's assigned, then a ship is destroyed, and a new 5-card damage deck can be created.

I suppose, if Kylo Ren showed one of your ships the Dark Side, that would account for the 33rd damage card, removed from play... interestingly, while I certainly think @theBitterFig has the right idea, I'm not familiar with any second edition ruling on how to handle a truly "empty damage deck."

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7 hours ago, Lyianx said:

From Rules Reference pg 9

For Epic/Casual games, unless the damage card has been previously flipped over, just use another marker to keep track of damage. (when i play HotAC, i have a bunch of small D6 dice for this purpose)

I just use those 'orange' hexagonal damage markers (the ones with the 1 or 2 on each side)... Cards only go on PC ships or enemy ships getting critted.

14 minutes ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Is it even possible to run out of damage cards, without having any destroyed ships? 8 basic torrents, for example, comes to 200 points. They each have 5 hull, but if every ship had exactly 4 damage on them, that's 32... meaning there's still 1 damage card left in the deck. Once it's assigned, then a ship is destroyed, and a new 5-card damage deck can be created.

My first thought was 4 Customized YT-1300's with Hull Upgrades, but that also comes out to 32 damage cards before a ship is destroyed.

But messing around, it looks like you can get 6 Y-Wings with 4 Hull upgrades at 198 points. That allows up to 34 damage cards to be dealt before a ship is destroyed.

and you can get 6 TIE Bombers with 5 Hull Upgrades at 199 points for 35 damage cards.

So it can happen, but it requires a silly list and your opponent to leave a lot of ships at 1 hull each, at least for the 200 point format.

Edited by joeshmoe554
1 hour ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Is it even possible to run out of damage cards, without having any destroyed ships? 8 basic torrents, for example, comes to 200 points. They each have 5 hull, but if every ship had exactly 4 damage on them, that's 32... meaning there's still 1 damage card left in the deck. Once it's assigned, then a ship is destroyed, and a new 5-card damage deck can be created.

I suppose, if Kylo Ren showed one of your ships the Dark Side, that would account for the 33rd damage card, removed from play... interestingly, while I certainly think @theBitterFig has the right idea, I'm not familiar with any second edition ruling on how to handle a truly "empty damage deck."

latest?cb=20181204185011

During an attack, yes. After an attack no.

They have been careful to ensure no legal list can hold more than 32 damage cards between engagements, but it can matter if you're taking crits on a ship that hasn't been removed yet due to simultaneous fire.

I did find a ruling in the First Edition Rules Reference (on Page 9, for reference). Barring something official for Second Edition, it seems like a reasonable place to start for dealing with this issue:

Quote
  • 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. Treat all counters as facedown Damage cards.

15 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Is it even possible to run out of damage cards, without having any destroyed ships?

Its probably extremely unlikely in tournaments, but possible in Casual/Epic games as they are not bound by the 8 ship limit.

19 hours ago, LTuser said:

I just use those 'orange' hexagonal damage markers (the ones with the 1 or 2 on each side)... Cards only go on PC ships or enemy ships getting critted.

I have so many of those tokens. It's great. I've started using them for the Epic objective markers because it's easier than counting a stack of damage cards.

11 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

I did find a ruling in the First Edition Rules Reference (on Page 9, for reference). Barring something official for Second Edition, it seems like a reasonable place to start for dealing with this issue:

Just a note, in 2.0 tournament play the discard pile is only for repaired damage cards. Any damage cards that are dealt and not repaired stay with the ship they were dealt to even after it is destroyed now.

Rats made an error..

Edited by LTuser
29 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

I have so many of those tokens. It's great. I've started using them for the Epic objective markers because it's easier than counting a stack of damage cards.

Yea, they are great.

17 minutes ago, Hiemfire said:

Just a note, in 2.0 tournament play the discard pile is only for repaired damage cards. Any damage cards that are dealt and not repaired stay with the ship they were dealt to even after it is destroyed now.

That's kind of stupid...

3 hours ago, LTuser said:

Yea, they are great.

That's kind of stupid...

Why is that stupid?

3 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

Just a note, in 2.0 tournament play the discard pile is only for repaired damage cards. Any damage cards that are dealt and not repaired stay with the ship they were dealt to even after it is destroyed now.

There are a couple other ways to discard a damage cards outside of repair.


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Granted, Tel and the Plating work similar to repairing, but still..

4 hours ago, Hiemfire said:

Just a note, in 2.0 tournament play the discard pile is only for repaired damage cards. Any damage cards that are dealt and not repaired stay with the ship they were dealt to even after it is destroyed now.

Not so, regarding destroyed ships. The Second Edition Rules Reference does state that, if the damage deck is empty, you remove cards from destroyed ships and re-shuffle them with the discards into a new damage deck. From page 9, under Damage Cards :

Quote

If a damage deck is empty when a damage card must be dealt or drawn, remove all damage cards from destroyed ships, flip them facedown, and shuffle them to create a new damage deck.

7 minutes ago, emeraldbeacon said:

Not so, regarding destroyed ships. The Second Edition Rules Reference does state that, if the damage deck is empty, you remove cards from destroyed ships and re-shuffle them with the discards into a new damage deck. From page 9, under Damage Cards :

No no. Hes saying when a ship is destroyed, they do not immediately go into the discard pile. Your own quote confirmed this..

8 minutes ago, emeraldbeacon said:

remove all damage cards from destroyed ships ,

IE, the damage cards from a destroyed ship, remain with the ship, until they are needed for a new damage deck. They are not put into the damage discard the when the ship is destroyed.

50 minutes ago, Lyianx said:

Why is that stupid?

That destroyed ships, keep their damage cards with the, rather than forming a discard pile..

4 minutes ago, LTuser said:

That destroyed ships, keep their damage cards with the, rather than forming a discard pile..

I see why you'd not like it now.

Edited by Lyianx
25 minutes ago, Lyianx said:

No no. Hes saying when a ship is destroyed, they do not immediately go into the discard pile. Your own quote confirmed this..

IE, the damage cards from a destroyed ship, remain with the ship, until they are needed for a new damage deck. They are not put into the damage discard the when the ship is destroyed.

...riiiiiight, except you'd never need to address the discard pile at all, until you needed a new damage deck, at which point you'd collect the cards from destroyed ships and the discards and make a new deck?

I guess it's just different ways of saying the same thing. Damage cards are either in the deck (ready to be dealt as damage), assigned to a ship (whether that ship is active, in reserves, or destroyed), discarded (out of play because of repair or other game effects), or otherwise set aside (like Kylo Ren's ability). They don't leave whatever place they happen to be at, until we're instructed to move them (repairing damage, dealing a crit from I'll Show You The Dark Side , or creating a "new" damage deck as needed).

14 hours ago, emeraldbeacon said:

...riiiiiight, except you'd never need to address the discard pile at all, until you needed a new damage deck, at which point you'd collect the cards from destroyed ships and the discards and make a new deck?

I guess it's just different ways of saying the same thing. Damage cards are either in the deck (ready to be dealt as damage), assigned to a ship (whether that ship is active, in reserves, or destroyed), discarded (out of play because of repair or other game effects), or otherwise set aside (like Kylo Ren's ability). They don't leave whatever place they happen to be at, until we're instructed to move them (repairing damage, dealing a crit from I'll Show You The Dark Side , or creating a "new" damage deck as needed).

Except (and why i think LTuser doesnt like it) in tournament specific settings, it matters for this rule..

Tournament Rules pg 6

Quote

Each player’s destroyed ships, lost shields, lost charges, and discarded damage cards are open information.

Since a destroyed ship's damage cards are not discarded, these would not be open information, thus your opponent cant asks to see any face down damage cards on a destroyed ship. For instance, if a player wanted to go see the discards and look at any face up crits to see if its worth trying to use Kylo or not.

This is why i think there is the differentiation.

Edited by Lyianx
i really wish this forum would give you a 60 sec buffer to not mark these as edited.
On 12/10/2019 at 10:36 PM, emeraldbeacon said:

Is it even possible to run out of damage cards, without having any destroyed ships? 8 basic torrents, for example, comes to 200 points. They each have 5 hull, but if every ship had exactly 4 damage on them, that's 32... meaning there's still 1 damage card left in the deck. Once it's assigned, then a ship is destroyed, and a new 5-card damage deck can be created.

I suppose, if Kylo Ren showed one of your ships the Dark Side, that would account for the 33rd damage card, removed from play... interestingly, while I certainly think @theBitterFig has the right idea, I'm not familiar with any second edition ruling on how to handle a truly "empty damage deck."

latest?cb=20181204185011

You can hit at least 48 hp (6 logistics squadron couches), I think I saw a list with 52 hp.

Edit: oh right, hull only. Yeah 8 torrents is probably the most hull you get. Useful hull for this exercise(32 without a ship dying) it's tied with 2 Decimators + 2 TIE bombers, but that leaves enough points to give both Decimators hull upgrade to bring it to 34.

Edited by Cerebrawl