newby question on zero damage chits

[LickOfTheCat]

When taking damage the zeros go in the box on that ships mat. Do the zeros return to the chit pool after the round ends? At first I thought this made sense to do but couldn't find it in the rules.

Having thought on it I'm now thinking they stay on the mat as this helps to maintain the balance of chits in that pool and not dilute it with zeros.

What happens if the pool runs out of chits? (It may not be possible with four ships)

Thanks in advance!

[TexaS]

They should not go back. That would change the proportions of the chits left.

You should never run out of chits. Buy more if you run the risk of that happening.

[Capn Duff]

There are a couple of thoughts on this, the official rule is as per the reply above from Jonas.
Another method is to replace all the chits back into the pool of a ship that either sinks or strikes, but only when the ship is out of play.
A third method is, and if I mean, you have copied the mat and use a water soluble pen or grease pen to mark off the damage, then you can put the chits back into the pool. But all these depend if the players agree,.

[Bligh]

I have sailed games with up to ten ships and never run out of chits, but for very large games I make copies of the mats, laminate them and use a white board marker pen to indicate the action damage etc. The players can easily change the marks for loading guns sail setting etc with a baby wipe. This also saves the GM having to collect in loads of chips to sort out at the end of the game, and possibly even losing some in the rush to pack up.

Rob.