@ovinomanc3r Yep! One team declares an assault, meaning that they choose a fleet and choose where that fleet will fight. The other team chooses a defender. Both fleets measure their distance to the location of the assault, and the player whose fleet has the lower distance has the initiative to choose first or second player. I'll note that I need to add clarifying language that, in a tie, the assaulting player has initiative.
So, the defending team can choose the optimal fleet to respond. They can factor in which fleet's composition they think is best suited to defeat the assaulting fleet, and also which fleet is best geared to capitalize on that location's objectives. I'm definitely looking forward to the opportunity for ambushes that this affords. A couple of examples:
- The Gulf of Tatooine is potentially deadly, with its objectives (Most Wanted, Fleet Ambush, Superior Positions), as it was intended to be as a popular ambush site from the lore. This is exploitable if, say, a fleet is poised near the Gulf, declares an assault, and then mauls the responding enemy fleet by taking initiative, becoming second player, and abusing Fleet Ambush or Most Wanted. They will just need to be careful about a counter-attacking force that jumps on them in the next round, eager to mop up the offenders.
- A team can set a trap using the retreat rules for a one-two punch against an oppressive enemy unit. If BT Avenger is making you cry, go all-in on an attack to scar it, and then position your team to leap on the scarred fleet in the next round by forcing it to retreat to a strategic location.
- The assaulting team may have a location they'd love to make a move on, but, in order for it to be safe to launch that attack, they may need to deny the other team the opportunity to respond with the optimal choice. For example, if you have the first assault in a 3v3 campaign, you might make your first assault in an enemy's location, sending a distraction force to tie down the enemy's most powerful fleet and buy time. That battle might not have a favorable expectation, given that it's against your strongest enemy and given that that enemy fleet will have 0 distance to move and therefore gets initiative, but the enemy has to do some very Star Warsy stuff and divert one defender so that a key teammate can use the third assault pick to launch a specific attack that helps the team overall. Hope the diversion force can retreat to hyperspace before they're reduced to glowing debris...
- Once I get location loyalty back into the campaign, I'm looking to include a fun strategic effect token that pushes one enemy fleet one distance during the planning phase. Fun for catching the enemy in a location that has objectives they don't like.