I just bought 3 starter packs, so that means I have 3 packs of damage cards too. How do I use them?

A) Just use one damage card pack - set aside the other two

or

B) Suffle together all three for a big pack of damage cards

Are the damage card packs meant to be played as a single pack and adding more packs might "water it down" the effects of the pack or can I just use all the cards together with no problems?

Either way works. Your odds are the same to draw any one card if you combine the sets.

Think of it this way. If you have 100 cards, your odds of drawing 1 particular card is 1% if there is only 1 of those cards in the deck. Now double the deck size to 200 cards, but you now have 2 of those cards, so your chance is still 1% to draw that particular card (since there are 2 in 200 now).

Ismar said:

I would not combine them, while true that it's the sme odds in an unused deck as soon as you draw a card it changes the odds. If there is 100 cards and 1 particular card, yes there is 1% chance of drawing it. After you draw it there is a 0% of drawing it again. With two decks if you draw that one card it is possible to draw it again right away. instead of having to go through 99 cards before having that chance again.

Just my 3 cents (darn inflation)

Ok, I'll keep the damage card decks separate for now. At least I have replacements if something happens to the original deck.

We play with two Damage decks combined.

How many Critical Hit cards do you usually see in a game? It's not very many for us (maybe 2 or 3 in a 100pt match), so we see little risk of drawing 2 "rares" in the same game.

Most hits are not critical, and most ships have a small window of opportunity for gaining criticals. Out of an X-Wing's 5 'hit points' only 2 of them can result in a critical hit card that you'll actually have to read, since the first 2 hits are on shields and the last hit would be fatal.

I think if we drew a critical damage card that didn't have an effect because of another critical already in play on that ship, we'd draw again. But if the effect can be doubled or worsened by that same card, we'd keep it.

I've got two sets and intend using one pack for each side.

DagobahDave said:

Unless the X-wing has Determination, or R5-D8.

Besides, it doesn't matter if any individual card is drawn as the result of a normal hit or a crit; whether you reveal any given card or not is inconsequential. By mixing two damage decks together, you change the composition of the deck.

If you're okay with that, then good on ya. Personally, I find it's more convenient for each player to maintain their own standard damage deck. Plus, this is the way it was done at the Inaugural tourney at GenCon, so I have to assume that's how it will continue in future sanctioned events.

Tawnos said:

The tournament rules indicate that each player should bring their own damage deck and that you are allowed to go through your opponents damage deck to verify that the cards are correct, so unless they change the tournament guide you're correct.

There's something that isn't clear in the rule book…

So, you're saying that when you play with someone, you each should have your own complete damage deck?
I was under the impression that everybody drew from the same damage deck…

Ok looked through both rule sets.

Standard Rulebook says nothing about it, Tournament Rules says:
Damage Cards:
When a player’s ship is dealt a Damage card, the card is dealt from that player’s own Damage deck.
Players must maintain their own discard piles for their Damage cards. Before shuffling, players may request to examine their opponopponent’s Damage deck to confirm its contents are correct. The TO may check Damage decks at any time.

So, should we take this inconsistency as "If you're playing with a friend for fun, share 1 damage deck, but if it's a tournament you need to bring your own damage deck"?

Doesn't this change the game somewhat? As was mentioned in another forum posting here on FFG, "If you have a deck of 100 unique cards, you have 1% chance of drawing a particular card." -response was "Until that card is drawn, then you have a 0% chance of drawing it again."
So, if you're sharing a deck, then your odds of drawing a critical card are X% with modification for another player drawing from the same damage deck, (I'm not a statistics whiz, you get my simplified point ;~} ) whereas if you've got your own deck, then your chances are simply X.

so as far as clarifications, should we all be playing with out own Damage Deck? no matter what?

it completely up to you. When you're letting a friend play with your minis, you might only have one deck.

Most people who are moderately to extremely serious about the game will probably insist on tournament rules.

When my son and I play we share a single damage deck. Haven't even come close to using half the deck with our 60-90pt games.

I'm playing a 4 way game tonight and I will provide one deck per faction.

-DavicusPrime

Once you start having ships go down you can return the spent cards to the bottom of the deck as well.

I've actually found that I don't even fill in all the damage cards for ships if the damage inflicted is enough to kill them. We just pull the model and flip the card. So yet another reason one deck per player tends to be more than enough.

-DavicusPrime