Ok, I probably missed this discussion, but why is the on-line rule book different from the printed rule book? It seems that allowing a player to simply pass negates some of the benefit gained by having more activations.

Not too long ago the competitive meta was incredibly stale because the only competitive lists were ones with 7 or more activations. Lots of fun to use figures disappeared completely because of this. The pass rule was implemented to make lower activation lists more competitive.

And per the interview with the IA dev's at Worlds last year, activations was not supposed to be an advantage. It was never intended to be one and so the units were not valued based on it.

Can someone explain to a non-skirmish player why 7 activation were the only one competitive? I dont understand the advantage or the necessity.

If we take the 4x4 (Guards/Officer) as an example before the pass rule. If your opponent has 5 activation's you could go with your 4 officers leaving him only 1 guy left to go with while you had all your guards (who are already in position) left to attack with out fear of any counter attack.. Extremely unfair and difficult for any list with less than 7 to compete at that level.

Do the skirmish maps start the the armies that close together that it would matter? That sounds miserable.

Thanks for the explanation.

Do the skirmish maps start the the armies that close together that it would matter?

Maybe? I think the biggest thing is that in Skirmish it's at least partly a race to the objectives. Who ever gets to them first has an advantage. Plus every unit I move after you, is an advantage to me, because I can react to where you are, not where I think you may be.

So if I can move 2 or 3 units after you're done, it's a lot easier to put them in ideal spots.

Do the skirmish maps start the the armies that close together that it would matter? That sounds miserable.

Thanks for the explanation.

They're definitely small enough in many cases that if you move your units all the way up that an opponent with Royal Guards and Officers under the old rules would easily be able to start hacking up your forces during the 1st round.

If I have 3 more activations than you at the end of a round and I saved my hitters then I get to move them and focus fire on something without any of your guys being able to attack back between my attacks. I can effectively suck out your activations by playing the equivalent of pawns to get your bigger units to move too far forward or waste their move by having nothing worth attacking in range but staying back to try not to die from the focus fire. Or I can see where your five deployment cards went and then make 3 uninterrupted moves wherever I feel is best.

Now, with the pass rule, you can pass as long as you don't have equal number of deployment cards left. Now the lower number has the option of waiting to see if the other player makes an early move out of position, and at the very least you don't run into numerous uninterrupted attacks at the end of the round unless the player has set up some command card shenanigans or something else.

Activation is much more balanced and makes it so it's not nearly as incentivized to run as many possible activations as you can, which allows some better units to get played and be worth it.

If I have 3 more activations than you at the end of a round and I saved my hitters then I get to move them and focus fire on something without any of your guys being able to attack back between my attacks. I can effectively suck out your activations by playing the equivalent of pawns to get your bigger units to move too far forward or waste their move by having nothing worth attacking in range but staying back to try not to die from the focus fire. Or I can see where your five deployment cards went and then make 3 uninterrupted moves wherever I feel is best.

Now, with the pass rule, you can pass as long as you don't have equal number of deployment cards left. Now the lower number has the option of waiting to see if the other player makes an early move out of position, and at the very least you don't run into numerous uninterrupted attacks at the end of the round unless the player has set up some command card shenanigans or something else.

Activation is much more balanced and makes it so it's not nearly as incentivized to run as many possible activations as you can, which allows some better units to get played and be worth it.

I agree, and I use to consider out activating my opponent as a viable strategy. Now I see less reason to using "pawns". As a chess player, I see the value in pawns. When on the other side, you have to figure out a way of eliminating the pawns without sacrificing your heavy hitters. I completely understand the strategy, the pass rule has just eliminated that strategy.

Do the skirmish maps start the the armies that close together that it would matter? That sounds miserable.

Yes they do. And it is great. The game starts and there is action from the very start. You want to control mission objectives from turn one. You want to control terminals from turn one.

Remember: The game only lasts 3 to 4 turns.

Ok, I probably missed this discussion, but why is the on-line rule book different from the printed rule book? It seems that allowing a player to simply pass negates some of the benefit gained by having more activations.

Yes, they are different. Some rules changes were made in FAQs. Some of these were implemented into the download-files.