Maybe its because I'm new to the game and haven't played all of the missions yet, but isn't it better to be the 2nd player in one of your objectives than the 1st player in your opponents? After all, my lists are tailor made to do well in the 3 objectives I've chosen for myself and don't know what my opponent's objectives are until we actually play. I'm just not seeing why some lists out there intentionally spare 10-15 points as an initiative bid.

Is it a personal preference thing or is it really that good to be the 1st player even though you may not be playing an objective your list was not prepared for?

I know people that bid for second

Going first can be a big deal if you list is crafted to take advantage of it. Often the lists that are doing high bids are using a Gladiator with Demolisher title that can move and attack at the end of a ship phase, and then immediately activate again for two more attacks before your opponent can react since you are the first player.

That said, many lists and objectives do favor going second. It's all about what your particular list and playstyle favors.

If you're first player, you activate first. This is handy for several reasons, of which I will illustrate.

You have player one. Player one goes first in each round. Player one also has more activations than player two, so he also goes last as well. That means he can double tap a target with the same ship (lets say his last activation was a Imp2, and he is in blue range. Eat eight dice.). In addition, he activates the same ship again on the next turn, so you just have to take two major hits before you can act or react. Could eliminate a ship, or cause serious damage.

In addition, we have a ship called the Demolisher. It has a hilarious effect of being able to shoot after it moves. So if player one has an activation advantage, he can do this:

Shoot long range out of his front.(2 reds)

Move at effectively speed 4 towards the target (native speed 3, plus engine techs)

Shoots out of the side (4 blacks)

Turn ends

He activates Demolisher first.

Assuming he did his job right, you're double arced. Even if you're not....

He shoots out of his side again (4 blacks)

He either moves to get the front again, and shoots, or just double arcs you (2 reds, 2 blacks)

Oh, he can probably ram you 2-3 times if he wants to. Not many ships can take that kind of beating, and now he's wiped out one of your ships. I've seen Demolisher wreck an ISD2 before it could even shoot back.

Questions?

Let's say that you're right and going second is what you want to do. You're probably not the only one to figure that out, so what happens when you sit down across the table from someone else who wants to go second?

The biggest advantage of going first is being able to dictate the flow of battle, or activation. Going first is more forgiving as you can end your turn in harm's way of a ship that has already gone that turn, and then activate the ship first to get some shots and then move it to safety. The reason every objective benefits second player is because going first is awesome.

All good reasons above. A serious Initiative Bid lets you choose to go first or second. So if you have built your list to go second, and you have the better bid, you choose to go second. But as Valca said, your opponent may want to go second as well. So a low bid helps ensure you get to fly your fleet the way you want to.

But a low bid isn't as vital to some fleets as it is to others. A Demolisher list relies on going first, for the reasons mentioned above. But my triple Victory Ryhmer list can go first or second (though I prefer second, because it does all three of my objectives very well).

Remember, you're bidding not for first player but for the opportunity to choose between first or second. Currently, most often people are bidding for first, but for most of Wave 1 pretty much everyone but me in my local area would bid for second.

So the more important it is to your list to either go first or go second, the more you should bid.

The reason the recent silly bidding wars got so crazy was because the one list that kicked it off (Demolisher and 4 Raiders) really needs to go first (for most people at least). On the other hand, if somebody came up with a list that absolutely dominated with any of its objectives, but could be easily hard countered if it had to go first, you might see a huge bid for second.

There's another piece to it too: I personally like bidding because, while most of my lists are built to work reasonably well as either player 1 or 2, I like the chance to choose whichever is worse for my opponent's list.

All good points above. Essentially your bid is the answer to the question: how much are you willing to sacrifice in upgrades for the opportunity to go first or second? And this answer is very fleet-dependent. I personally ended up with a fleet that likes to go second (with a nasty set of objectives to choose from) but is devastating if allowed to go first (and have a very minimal bid as a result).

One more point: with a high bid you can fine-tune your objectives with the knowledge that they're going to be used only against the fleets that outbid you.

I usually end up building to close to 400 points... With a couple of large ships and a whole ton of fighters...

What is my plan when I'm forced to go First?

I Cry.

There's another piece to it too: I personally like bidding because, while most of my lists are built to work reasonably well as either player 1 or 2, I like the chance to choose whichever is worse for my opponent's list.

That last part can be huge. If you see an opponent with a Demolisher, they might not be banking on going first, but it gives them a huge advantage if they can. So to choose going first will severely curtail Demo's power.

Also, torpedo shrimp love going first. Their short range really makes it hard to blast things if the target can scoot away first.

Thanks everyone for enlightening me on the subject. I believe someone earlier mentioned a ship's native movement? I thought it said in the rules that all ships begin at speed 2? Or did this change?

I believe you are thinking of the "Learn to Play" thing. In the actual game you choose any speed other than "0" that the ship is capable of doing.

I played a game yesterday, two Vic's and a gladiator, Vic's both went down in turn 4, with a conga of three nearly untouched rebel ships approaching, but I still had demolisher and initiative. End of turn 4 dropped an mc30, 5 I dropped the mark 2 following it, and turn six dropped the corvette and win the game. All of this happened only because of initiative