So movement order is based on PS, lowest moves first, then to next highest and so on, but to what end? Higher rated pilots set their movement at the same time as lower rated ones, they just don't reveal until after the lower pilots have moved. Where is there a benefit for being a higher rated pilot during movement? The effects of them moving after junior pilots remain unchanged.

How about the ability for higher rated pilots to make minor adjustments to their movement after they've seen what the junior ranked pilots have done? Kind of gives them an "experienced/veteran" pilot edge. Now its more about the pilot and not the machine.

Has anyone else thought through this?

Also, how about a full stop maneuver (movement) that causes 1 Stress?

E

There are a couple of advantages to moving last, but they are hard to see when you first begin playing.

The first is the movement based actions, boost and barrel roll. If you move after your opponent has moved all his ships, when you move and then perform your action you can see where everyone is and choose to B/BR to get into the most advantageous position, moving yourself out of an enemy's arc of fire and/or putting a choice enemy into your arc; or, if you see that you can't do that, you can choose to focus or evade instead, whatever works well for you. The lower rated pilots have to make a guess where their more skilled enemies will end up and hope they are not going to be a target, or they waste getting a token that they won't be able to use.

The other big advantage is in getting target locks. It is a lot easier for the pilot who moves later to get a lock on a ship because the lower skill pilot will move but not have an enemy in range, then the higher skill enemy moves into range and he can take a TL. This is especially important on ships that use ordnance, but is relevant for other fighters as well.

As for the stationary maneuver, the shuttle has exactly that. Basically just what you describe, a full stop maneuver that is red so it causes a stress.

Woot, and I managed to NOT get ninja'd

What he said.

Thank you. More reading and playing required for me!

E

Another advantage:

During movement, you know that your opponent must move first. That means, unless he gets blocked back to where he started, it is extremely unlikely that he will be where he started, giving you a good ability to move into that space. For instance, if you have two X-Wings at distance 4 to each other, the lower PS cannot K-Turn because the higher PS X-Wing is where he needs to go. He can't stop. He has to go somewhere. If you K-Turn you will end up where he was and no maneuver a standard X-Wing can take will get him out of arc of where he started the turn.

There is one more reason for having higher PS to move last. It help the higher PS bombers to decide if he should release his bomb or not.