The Force Awakens Core Set comes with a big shiny initiative token. Currently it's assigned to one player at the start and stays there. But what if we used it properly, having it change side every round?

Having done this for half a year, I can say it vastly improves pilot skill clash gameplay from the low PS blocking game to aces dogfighting at the top of the pilot skill scale. It also takes some pilot skill pressure off, helping wean some pilots off their VI addiction.

Furthermore, it shifts another element of advantage out of the list building phase and into the gameplay itself, which is always good in a game where the metagame has such a strong influence.

Try it out in a casual game: trust me, it's a improvement.

It does seem like shifting initiative would be an improvement. In a lot of matches it would just be a thing you need to remember to do that has no effect but switching initiative would make PS9 battles more interesting.

there are pros and cons to this.

however, I'd try it out. heck, when I started, I -strongly- felt that should be the way to play it (like it does in soooo many other games)

The only con is that you can't memorise the PS order, you have to go up or down through it each time. That's not hard to do though, and some people (myself included) do that anyway when enough ships are down.

It'd maul the tiebreaker too, but there you'd simply detach ship initiative and match initiative so the tiebreaker winner is the cheaper list.

I really like this idea. I think FFG will have this change in mind for the future of standard games or possibly special events. The inclusion of the token in TFA core set might just be a baby step towards using it.

Inside of the match, it would not be that bad to remember because it would only matter for PS matches. If there are a ton of PS 2 ships on the board from both sides, one player still moves all of their ships before the opponent, so you just have to see who has the token.

Another reason to move towards this idea is that as we get more unique pilots and ships in the game, it is going to get really bogged down in the higher PS arena. It would be nice to have games with a lot of aces shift back and forth...it seems like it would be very thematic and add more depth into the gameplay experience.

The only thing that really hurts it would be the initiative bid. We would see a lot more 100-point lists out there instead of lists missing a point or two.

In my last few tournaments, I have had at least one game where I demolished an opponent simply because I won the choice for initiative (or at least that's how I feel in retrospect).