Some history:

• Activation padding was a thing, from the very first MSU lists.
  • The very first MSU lists had... lots of GSDs.
  • Later they took raiders, cuz cheaper (w2 porGably had the first real MSUs)
• Lifteboats were a thing from the start
  • Winner of 1st worlds had his admiral on a CR90B that just coasted around, trying not to die, and adding an activation
  • Screed MSU usually had Screed riding in the back on a lightly equipped Raider.
• There was no relay oc, but throwing 5 speed a-wings en masse was a thing

So a lot of the issues atm can be traced back to the very beginning, to the core mechanics of the game.

13 minutes ago, BigKahuna said:

To solve the current mini crisis in Armada, FFG needs to direct its attention on the actual problems and that is simply that flotillas are being used for activation spam. This is clearly not an intended effect so, fix the problem, fix the ship and we won't have to have these "what if" conversation in attempt to find a work around.

Not that I am a mindreader or have a direct line to FFG headquarters, but I'm pretty sure flotillas were designed precisely for activation padding, and specifically to make large ships great again by making them viable over the MSU lists that completely dominated the scene at the time. FFG may have misjudged the impact they would have, but claiming that they did not expect them to be used for activation spam seems... naïve.

14 minutes ago, BigKahuna said:

I can't imagine that FFG would change a core mechanic like how activation works just because the entire game is effectively designed around it

Nor is anyone suggesting the contrary. I understand that Muelmuel (and others) are purely discussing house rules and hypothetical "could have beens" around what is (currently) perceived to be the weakest aspect of the game. No harm in that.

While I get where this idea is coming from, it does sound a bit like ships are going to pull a Konstantine way too often.

After all, this does not really adress what activation advantage comes down to, just that you can't control it.

@BigKahuna and @DiabloAzul Yup at least for me it's just a hypothetical what if discussion simply for the fun of it.

20 hours ago, Mogrok said:

why not just flip a coin at the beginning....

For Legion spamming similar type units is going to be the thing to guarantee you can activate what you want. With a low initiative card to guarantee what you want to activate

Shhhh. Stop telling everyone how I'm going to spam Stormtroopers...

14 hours ago, Audio Weasel said:

You make it sound like covering the board in stormtroopers is a bad thing. I REFUSE to believe that covering the board with stormtroopers can be a bad thing

What about dead ones?

I could see this element being used in a sort of battlefield condition card. For example, The battle is taking place in a nebula and shop controls aren’t as responsive. There could be several of these and they could be introduced in a new campaign box! They could be like objectives but tied to a specific location on the campaign map. In casual games they could be used to modify objectives or could be used in place of them.

They could even be drawn at random for even more fun!

Am I crazy or is there something to this idea?