Hi Folks,

I wanted to hear from the maneuver/black dice heavy flyers how much importance they place on first player bid. I'm a long range/fighter player mainly and I'd like to dip my toe into the close quarters/maneuver side of things and I can't see flying those kind of ships(MC30's, Glads, Raiders) as second player, seems like you're always going to lose one of your glass cannons once engagement starts. Lets hear it brawlers!

Its easier with First Player and activation advantage but if you are experienced its not that important IMO. Been winning games with Second Player and Raiders, Glads and MC30s a lot. If you are Second Player its about catching enemy ships, so Nav Commands (and Tokens) make for some pretty nasty surprises. Also, the MC30 is hardly a glasscannon. With Advanced Projectors its almost impossible to oneshot that ship even with the strongest ship. For starters, First Player seems necessary but its really just the simple way to do it. It not really necessary, albeit it beeing powerful of course. Its the same issue as with Demolisher, its so good and easy to use that people think that there's no other way to do it. I havent played Demolisher in over a year and when playing Raiders i mostly go for Second Player so that i can have Solar Corona or some other nice objective. (Exception is of course a Flechette Torps Raider)

Playing brawlers as Second Player definately gets you more experience with the ships than just out-activating and activating first, thats for sure and its one of the reasons why i became a better player. Its just my personal opinion but i find spamming activations and then going first to be quite boring after some time. Surely helps but after a while you dont really NEED IT anymore.

You can absolutely do it as second player, but it's easier as first player. Raiders are usually quite comfortable catching enemy ships, but more aggressive ships more strongly prefer going first. I wrote an article on the basics of using black dice over on the blog, if you're interested.

Just threaten two ships at the same time...or threaten a ship...and if he moves it first have something basically waiting for the most likely place it will land. Definitely not as easy as first player. But doable.

Be mindful of what you are trying to catch. Trying to catch Demo with a raider or hammerhead is more like feeding the monster than catching prey. Across a broad front you can try to catch prey on one side of the line, or the other side, but without oodle's of activation advantage, you can't catch both.

It definitely requires more careful attention to the relative speeds and vectors of different ships, but it can be done. Heavy use of nav commands, nav tokens, and upgrades like entrapment formation and engine techs make it easier.

I think careful objective selection also helps. Anything that lets u farm points forces the enemy to come at you aggressively, bringing them into your favored engagement range.

Another key is setting up counter-threats. If your opponent is first player and say has a demolisher at close range of your MC75, you can use your MC30 to threaten say a Quasar or VSD. Your opponent then has to choose if he needs to save his own ship, or go ahead with his own shot.

7 hours ago, JJs Juggernaut said:

Another key is setting up counter-threats. If your opponent is first player and say has a demolisher at close range of your MC75, you can use your MC30 to threaten say a Quasar or VSD. Your opponent then has to choose if he needs to save his own ship, or go ahead with his own shot.

I can second this as being a very important tactic.