I'm a fairly new player and I just played my first tournament. And one thing that struck me was the way the initiative works. In this thread I'll put forward the issues the current rules has and ideas to fix it. I do realize that there exist a rule subforum but as this isn't a question I'm putting it here. Also please excuse my English

Issues

*the initiative is randomized completely and sometimes losing/winning the initiative will decide who winns the game. This is a huge issue when interceptor squads plays against each other or other high mobility squads with equal PS. It's also an issue with tie swarm vs tie swarm where the one moving first generally have an advantage. This advantage witch is gained in a completely random fashion varies in size from games to games and sometimes it makes no differens what's so ever. And it would be fine if the advantage was low or even medium.

* the player with the lowest points in the squad gets the initiative. Witch could be a huge disadvantage. You should not have an disadvantage for using less points.

Rule change idea 1:

The player with the the least amount of points in their squad decides who gets the initiative.if bouth players have equall amount of points in their squads then randomly chose one player who is considers to have less.

Players takes turns owning the initiative. Something should be used to keep track of who have the initiative at any specific time. When the game ends the player who had the initiative the first round is considered to own the initiative.

Rule change idea 2 (only for tournament use):

In tournaments use the following method to determen who owns the initiative.

* bouth players write down (secretly) a whole number between 0 and ?50? on a piece of paper.

* the players then reaveal their numbers to each other.

* the player with the highest number gets to deside who owns the initiative for the rest of the game.

* the player with the smallest number gets his number in bonus when determining who Winns and by how much.

* if the two numbers is equall then randomly chose one player witch is then considered to have a bigger number.

Example: Bob and Tina plays a game in a tournament. Tina really want to have the initiative and writes down 28. Bob on the other hand kind of wants it but is not willing to pay more than 15 so he writes down 15. Because Tina has a higher number she chooses who own the initiative. When the game is over Tina have 38 points left and Bob have 23 but because he wrote down 15 he gets 15 bonus points and is therefore considers to have 23+15 = 38 points left. And the game is considered a draw.

These rules might be quite complecated as you read them but what it boils down to is a simple blind auction bidding. I feel that in a game like x-wing the more decitions the players get to do the more interesting the game become and this would only add 1 min or so to the 1h game.

Is these ideas ok? Would they be fun to play with? Have ffg all ready considered this?

Please note that this is only for tournament use.

This is already fixed. The lowest point total or winning the die roll gives you the choice of whether to have initiative or to force your opponent to have it.

The latest update to the tourney rules, published a couple months ago now, I think, made it so that the player with the lowest point total CHOOSES who has initiative, not that they got it automatically.

One has already been implemented into the tournament rules.

Number 2 is a bad, bad idea.

Ok, must have read an old pdf. my bad. But please elaborate why the 2 was so bad?

If you don't want it to be random, then build a list with a lower squad point value.

The first thing you mentioned is in the core rule book.

Initiative is decided by lower squad points. Going by the core rules, if the squad point value is a tie (both players have 100 points then imperial hey initiative)

Going buy tournament rules lowest point gets initiative, if tied flip a coin, or what most do, roll.

As for your other suggestion. Sorry but I don't like it. I just want to play. Rolling to decide is much faster, and easier.

Plus just as I said if you want initiative then make 98-99 point squads. Chances are you will have initiative, and less chance of leaving it to a coin / roll.

Some people always makes squads at 99 points so they can get initiative. Adds a hint of strategy imo.

"Do I use this and get 100 pts? Or take this out and add this for 99?)

Sorry but you will not see anything change here. Works well, and doesn't need fixing.

Sorry but you will not see anything change here. Works well, and doesn't need fixing.

I've all ready admitted defeat. But having discussions about the 2nd could be intresting.

Ya I was probably typing as you were posting.

Takes longer typing on my cell.

Well never hurts to debate new ideas, but I don't like it, and you'll not see it happen sorry to say.

If they ever did decide to change it, it'll probably be something a lot more subtle

Edit.

The reason why I don't like your second suggestion is Just to much messing around. I don't want to be bidding, writing down numbers, second guessing my opponents. Let's just roll the dice and play.