suppose you have a Palob vs Palob situation. (I know there are many other situations as well) (At the start of the Combat phase, you may remove 1 focus or evade token from an enemy ship at Range 1-2 and assign it to yourself.) So you have initiative you steal a focus token from Palob but then he turns around and steals it right back!! how is that helpful? haven't really explored how initiative choice would wreck other mechanics but it does seem more logical to me at least.. Could also apply to the movement phase. Allowing the higher PS folks to chose to move first or last..yeah one consequence is that this would increase the high PS bidding but to me thats not a bad thing. Any other consequences that i didn't think of? I am not fully caffeinated yet!! I know i have asked this question in the past but i cant find it in in my archives!!

It would meake Enhanced Scopes (even more) useless for one.

It would meake Enhanced Scopes (even more) useless for one.

If only Enhanced Scopes had the word "May" in front of the activate at PS0. Then it would be great for high PS pilots... are they going to move first, or last????

Initiative is already a choice for the player who bids the lowest total list price (or wins the dice contest, in case of a tie).

If what you mean is that the player with initiative should be able to choose at any point whether to make the first move or decision... I think the first problem is that adds a whole bunch of extra decisions, and therefore decision-making time, to the game.

The way initiative works in X-wing is kind of great, actually. It's straightforward, easy to remember, and easy to teach: the person with initiative always does stuff first. That's not always good for the person with initiative, so whether or not you want initiative is a decision you have to deal with once during list-building and (potentially) once more at the start of the game. Making the player with initiative decide multiple times every round is an order of magnitude more complicated, and I don't really see what it adds to the game.

There isn't a really good reason to make initiative more complicated than it already is. Besides, there are good things to having initiative but also a few that may not be as popular. If you "won" initiative but could pick who has to do something first all the time now initiative is 100% great. You get to let your opponent move his ships before you do making it easier for you to arc dodge and/or line up shots after they've moved; then when the shooting starts you just turn around and shoot first as well for the win/win.

Now if you go and take that down the PS initiative order things become even more maddening. Playing Han without an EU? Well now it looks like you could move first and get your actions (no blocking worries) but then go ahead and shoot first.

These things make the game a lot more complicated.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it happens at the same time, so you can't steal from each other, but I have nothing to back this up other then. I feel it is best solution

Having initiative would be too powerful if the player that had it got to choose how PS ties are resolves on a case-by-case basis. Having to evaluate at the beginning of the game whether having initiative will be beneficial or detrimental adds extra strategic depth to the game. It would remove the reward for smart decision making at the start of the game if people weren't forced to commit to a choice at the beginning of the game and could just change their decisions based on a whim (see: old Decloak rules vs new one).

If you don't want your Palob to trigger before theirs, then don't take initiative.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it happens at the same time, so you can't steal from each other, but I have nothing to back this up other then. I feel it is best solution

From the FAQ:

Simultaneous abilities (such as when both players must trigger Swarm Tactics
at the start of the combat phase) are resolved in initiative order.

Also, if you think about, basically the Palob's abilities cancel each other out if they are just stealing from each other.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it happens at the same time, so you can't steal from each other, but I have nothing to back this up other then. I feel it is best solution

That's actually incorrect. The player with initiative takes a token first from where ever he wants. Then the second player without initiative activates and takes a token from where ever he wants. It's the same as Swarm Tactics. In this case, it's better to not have initiative. But that's why they made it a choice for whomever "won" it.

Edit: Ninja'd. I also wanted to add that if both Palob's had tokens and took from each other, then it wouldn't matter at all. The only time it would matter would be if only 1 of them had a token, and he had init. So he would activate first, have no valid targets to steal from, and then the other one would activate and steal the token.

That's why I always fly palob with bodyguard. THat way you can steal the token and spend it before they can steal it back

That way I always go for initiative.

Not really...that list went bad quickly in actual play.