I ran into this situation the other night and looking through the rules, I don't have a satisfying way to resolve this. Player A has initiative, Player B plays "Take Initiative," Player A then also plays "Take Initiative."

My question is, can Player A actually play his Take Init card in response? The Timing section on pg 2 (rules ref doc) states, "In a skirmish, resolve mission rules first, followed by effects triggered by the player with initiative, then effects triggered by his opponent." Which sounds like Player A's window of opportunity to play a "Start of Round" card has passed.

[deleted earlier reference due to copy/paste error]

To provide one last point: The Skirmish Rules state the following regarding the Activation Phase: "Activation Phase: Players first resolve any abilities that are triggered at the start of a round (for example, from the Skirmish Mission card)."

This last point seems to imply that the "Start of a round" is a triggered event and would need to resolve in the Player with Initiative having the first option to play Take Initiative, when he declines, the Player without Initiative has the option to play Take Initiative.

In the Conflicts section of the Rules Reference, it leaves us with this: "The decision for a player to resolve an optional effect coincides with the order of resolution. After a player has declined to trigger one or more abilities, he does not have the opportunity to trigger that ability until the next triggering instance."

Since the Player with Initiative declines to play Take Initiative at the Start of the round, if the Player without initiative plays Take Initiative, I don't believe the first player can play his Take Initiative since the opportunity to play that card has passed. That is how I'm reading it but I don't know if it will completely hold up. Thoughts?

An official response would be nice, but I think I agree with you. I don't think you can play Take Initiative as a reaction to Take Initiative.

An official response would be nice, but I think I agree with you. I don't think you can play Take Initiative as a reaction to Take Initiative.

I'm with you on this one. I've been involved in that debate elsewhere, and the rules currently doesn't support that you get the chance to counter with a new "Take Initiative"

An official response would be nice, but I think I agree with you. I don't think you can play Take Initiative as a reaction to Take Initiative.

I had to ask one of the designers a non game question. I asked him the question in my email at the bottom.

Good question. We've been allowing both player to play in (in which case initiative stays where it is but both players would exhasut a card). After reading this I'm not sure what is correct. I think the way we've been doing it works well (i.e., since getting initiative twice in a row can be very powerful, this provides a possible defense against it). Also makes it so it is better to play it early when the other player will be less likely to have it (and playing it early is often less powerful but still worthwhile than playing it late). Curious to see how they rule on this one.

Designer Jonathan Ying Said this:

The answer is no, you cannot use Take Initiative to retake it after your opponent’s Take Initiative. The timing structure prevents this.

Also I believe this will be addressed in the FAQ one would think.