What good does it give? To get it you need to have smaller squad, and all you get is moving first (which is a penalty, given that weaker pilots move first) and shoot first, which with simultaneous attack rule gives you nothing. What am I missing?

A HUGE amount of things.

Firstly, that intiative is a choice - you CHOOSE, if you have the lowest squad total (or you win the coin toss if it's equal) whether to take it. And whether you want to or not depends entirely on your squad and theirs. If you have no equal Pilot Skills it makes virtually no difference.

If you do, it can be vital:

- You want your arc dodgers to move after your opponents' ships.

- You want your Phantoms to shoot first so their Advanced Cloaking Devices are working when they take return fire.

- You might want to shoot first so you'll have the maximum possible amount of tokens when you shoot.

- You want to move last so you can potentially get into donut holes of TLTs or Outrider, or get out of Tactician range, or guarantee range 1/3 bonuses, or get the right range for your ordnance

- You might want to move first OR second, if you are using bombs, depending on which ones and what the situation is with them.

- ETC.

Arc dodgers and phantoms are two of the biggest reasons though - Phantoms almost always want to shoot first, and anyone whose business it is to never get shot at at all, really wants to move after their opponents, so that their opponents can't react.

Initiative, for instance, is the difference between superdash being the worst thing in the world, and... you know, dying.

Simultaneous attack just means not having initiative can't make you lose out entirely. Unless you get donut holed.

wins the battle

First off, the initiative bid now lets you CHOOSE who has initiative.

Secondly, moving first and shooting first can be advantages just as often as they're disadvantages.

Moving first: No, you can't arc-dodge as well. However, you can block much better, and are less likely to be blocked.

Shooting first: No, you won't destroy the enemy ship... if you're attacking the ship with the same PS. However, you get to knock out any buffer-ships, or possibly deal them a crippling and salient crit, as well as throwing up your Advanced Cloaking Device if necessary

Thirdly, the player with initiative places the 1,3, and 5 obstacles in set-up, which is often important, and goes first with effects that trigger simultaneously.

Also, in elimination rounds, the player with Initiative advances if the players are truly tied.

Initiative in X-wing is unlike any other game. It's used purely as a timing conflict resolution. If you have an effect that triggers at the same time as your opponent, initiative decides who goes first.

Other benefits have been well illustrated by the above posts.

Thanks for answers. I missed bonuses from Advanced Cloaking devices and criticals. I like playing arc dodgers like Soontir, so I haven't thought of that.

I took initiative once vs an equal-PS TIE Swarm so I could kill Howlrunner and remove her bonus before the other TIEs shot.

I took initiative once vs an equal-PS TIE Swarm so I could kill Howlrunner and remove her bonus before the other TIEs shot.

And that's exactly where initiative would matter. Good example!

Also, shooting first has the, rare but possible, advantage that if you land a Blinded Pilot crit on the same PS ship than you, he won't be able to shoot back.

Taking initiative allows Turr Phenir to shoot and then possibly boost barrel roll out of arc against a ship with equal PS.

Giving initiative allows Soontir Fel the ability to move after an opponent and boost barrel roll to evade arcs.

In the case where initiative is not important as to who fires or moves first, in makes the difference if you end up tied with someone when making cuts in a tournament.