If it's PS 6 vs. PS 6, then why does Init matter? The only reason you want it, is to attack first! So, what's the point of having initiative, if the other ship can still shoot if it gets killed. Because of the simultaneous fire rule.

There are some effects that will benefit from shooting first. A tractor token could reposition the enemy ship, denying them a shot, or Turr Phennir could reposition out of arc of the other ship. There are also plenty of movement-related reasons to prefer going first (get in position to block, execute an action with a known position for the enemy ship) or second (arc-dodging mainly).

Yeah it totally depends on the list. Going second can work wonders for arc-dodgers, going first can do well for heavy-hitters/blockers.

Just played a game yesterday where it was Fenn Rau versus Fenn Rau. My opponent gave me initiative to allow me to move first so he could barrel roll and boost out of my arc to get shots without me able to shoot back. In many cases, he sacrificed having a focus or Target lock to make sure it happened. Luckily his dice rolls were not that good and I survived a couple of 5 dice attacks.

Repositioning actions

Cloaking with Advanced Cloaking Device

Target locks (the person who moves first often can't get one for the opening engagement e.g. for ordnance, or for characters whose TLs are really important like Omega Leader)

Stripping tokens (person who first first gets all their tokens - but conversely, they don't know if they want to save their tokens for defence)

Crits (blinded pilot and weapons failure in particular - blind someone before they shoot, they skip their shot)

Bumps (person who moves first can bump the other person)

Etc etc etc. Initiative does a whole host of things, and that's just the common interactions.

In the Activation stage sometimes you want Initiative and sometimes you don't. You want it so you can move first to claim a spot and possibly get in Actions before an overlap happens with another ship of the same PS. You want to move last so you could enter a recently vacated position and so you can make more informed Action choices. The more information you have on final ship positions the more useful repositioning actions like Boost and Barrel Roll become.

When attacking you always want initiative so you can shoot first. If you shoot first you get to do all of the things that shooting allow you to do before your opponent would ever get to return fire. Sometime this means that despite the target getting to stick around there may not be anything in the way for it to attack making the simultaneous attack rather useless. The only time I can think of you may want to shoot later, so you wouldn't want initiative, is if you need the target to get rid of some tokens before you attack it; if it spends a token on its attack then it doesn't have it to spend on its defense against your attack.

Here is a list of some items that can trigger after you attack - before your opponent can fire:

Blinded Pilot Critical Hit - If this comes up from your attack - you avoid an attack.

Boba-Fett Crew - a Crit goes through and you can remove one of your opponent's upgrade cards. (imagine removing Punishing One off of Dengar before he can fire or Heavy Laser Cannon from Dash Rendar)

Advanced Cloaking Device - Initiative is a must have so you can cloak to raise your agility by 2 for defense after you fire.

Tractor Beam - A successful attack means you can potentially move your small base opponent out of arc or onto an asteroid before they can fire.

Shadow Caster Title - You hit and then can assign a tractor token - which means moving a small base ship.

Pilot Turr Phenir Tie Interceptor - I love this one and have used it successfully in the past. You move into range 1 and focus for your attack. After attacking, you get a free boost or barrel roll and with Push the Limit, you can perform that unused barrel roll or boost or take an evade to avoid return fire or minimize it.

There are likely many more, but these should give you an idea of how effective having initiative against the same pilot skill can be. Deciding whether or not to take initiative is a strategy issue, based on what pilots and upgrades you have.

11 hours ago, Epixca said:

If it's PS 6 vs. PS 6, then why does Init matter? The only reason you want it, is to attack first! So, what's the point of having initiative, if the other ship can still shoot if it gets killed. Because of the simultaneous fire rule.

When both players have something that triggers at the same time, the player with initiative resolves his thing first in it's entirety , then the other player resolves theirs, which can result in an advantage or disadvantage depending on what the 'thing' is. It's not restricted to pilots of the same Pilot Skill shooting at each other.

Another fun one from recent events - TIE/x7 vs Snap Shot

If the player with TIE/x7 has initiative then he gets an evade token before Snap Shot triggers

If the player with Snap Shot has initiative, he gets to shoot a defender with no tokens.

I once played a store championship...

Took Yorr+Omega+Whisper...

Made a 3-1 score...

4-1 was required to get into the cut...

Last swiss round i got EXACT mirror list...

Lost a game in one roll, the first one after we shook hands...the INITIATIVE roll....

Don't you dare tell me initiative does not matter.

4 hours ago, Vitalis said:

Don't you dare tell me initiative does not matter.

It doesn't matter for some lists. A list like 4 X-Wing Red Squadron's without any sort of movement upgrade isn't going to care much about init. In some lists it matters a great deal.

16 minutes ago, VanorDM said:

It doesn't matter for some lists. A list like 4 X-Wing Red Squadron's without any sort of movement upgrade isn't going to care much about init. In some lists it matters a great deal.

Yea i know mate, my post should be taken with a bit of salt but from that day on im medidating on initiative even if i play 8xAP vs Vader with VI

Just now, Vitalis said:

Yea i know mate, my post should be taken with a bit of salt

I know, mine should of been taken with a bit of snark

You dared us so I did it.