I love having swarms of ships with all the same PS. It is very handy being able to choose which ship goes first and it is just easier on the brain especially when playing Epic. With a limited collection (I dont own 8 Zs, ties, or sycks) it is hard to swarm because I have to use swarms of A wings/ Z's, tie fighters/tie advanced, Sycks/Z's. I love how 2.0 makes this easier. For example:

IMPERIAL: In 1.0 i had to bump the tie fighters and the tie advanced up to ps 4 which was way too expensive. In 2.0 we just bump up the acadamies to Obsidians for 1 point and boom our mixed swarm is all at I2. (Granted without accuracy corrector low PS Tie advanced are not worth using at the moment)

SCUM: In 1.0 you couldnt fly Zs and Sycks at the same PS due to their odds and evens PSs . In 2.0 youre free to fly both at I1

Rebel: In 1.0 you couldnt fly Z's and A's at the same PS due to odd and even PS's . In 2.0 youre free to fly both at I1

Now lets look at a fun list I quickly made:

Four Friends I4Ever (200):

I4 Dutch (59) - Veteran Turret Gunner, ICT, Hull Upgrade

I4 Ten Numb (60) - HLC, FCS, Hull Upgrade

I4 Jake (43) - Homing Missles

I4 Lt. Blount (38) - Homing Missles, Hull Upgrade

Now if FFG would just release an EPT to bump Howlrunner and Iden to a lower Initiative to match their tie buddies...

1 hour ago, TBot said:

Now if FFG would just release an EPT to bump Howlrunner and Iden to a lower Initiative to match their tie buddies...

I think a zero/low cost EPT that reduces your pilots initiative to match a squadmate during set-up should exist. 1/0 if it is fixed, perhaps 2/1 if it can be discarded at the end of a round.

I’m still not convinced about the compression. The whole point of having PS originally was to spread out the activations to reduce IGoUGo syndrome. With the compressed initiative the game is much more likely to just be “I activate my whole squad, then you do the same”

44 minutes ago, Forgottenlore said:

I’m still not convinced about the compression. The whole point of having PS originally was to spread out the activations to reduce IGoUGo syndrome. With the compressed initiative the game is much more likely to just be “I activate my whole squad, then you do the same”

My biggest peeve is that you can't play 1 and 2 together at all because of the compression. Or port over missing pilots one way or the other.

It would have been very nice to play 1.0 Imps vs. 2.0 Republic. Or toss a missing 1.0 pilot into a 2.0 list. It would probably have worked fine without the PS/Init change.

2 hours ago, TBot said:

With a limited collection (I dont own 8 Zs, ties, or sycks) it is hard to swarm because I have to use swarms of A wings/ Z's, tie fighters/tie advanced, Sycks/Z's. I love how 2.0 makes this easier.

And as an Epic player who does own that many ships, I read stuff like this and just think "Wait, why did I spend so much money on this game?"

Between this and conversion kits, I sometimes feel like FFG is helping the customers the most who spent the least.

5 minutes ago, Darth Meanie said:

My biggest peeve is that you can't play 1 and 2 together at all because of the compression. Or port over missing pilots one way or the other.

It would have been very nice to play 1.0 Imps vs. 2.0 Republic. Or tossed a missing 1.0 pilot into a 2.0 list. It would probably have worked fine without the PS/Init change.

And as an Epic player who does own that many ships, I read stuff like this and just think "Wait, why did I spend so much money on this game?"

Between this and conversion kits, I sometimes feel like FFG is helping the customers the most who spent the least.

I feel bad for ya. Heres to hoping they throw some extra generic cardboard in with the EPIC conversion kits. Cheers

I'm okay with cards that play with initiatives. VI talent of +1 pilot skill wouldn't be game breaking for 4 points if limited to non unique pilots only. Adaptability as the inverse; Unique pilots only, can lower initiative by 1 for 1 points.

Honestly, Veteran Instincts could be a 1 charge non recharging talent that lets you activate at init 7. Not necessarily engage, but maneuver. But that's another topic altogether that I'm sure no one wants really. Even if I think it would be neat.

7 hours ago, Forgottenlore said:

I’m still not convinced about the compression. The whole point of having PS originally was to spread out the activations to reduce IGoUGo syndrome. With the compressed initiative the game is much more likely to just be “I activate my whole squad, then you do the same”

I feel like the bid means even more than it ever did. I’m not sure why they didn’t combine compressed initiative with rotating first player.

However the two games I’ve played so far with i5 crossover (and one of those against I6 also) it certainly doesn’t feel like too much of a problem.

I do have concerns about Vader or Fenn and the bid.

I don't think 1-9 was bad but 0-12 was awful especially with 9 being the highest native. Granted to go to 12 was too much of an investment as it often required a ship that took up too much of the squadron points and was easily destroyed.

1-6 scale is not bad, but again the thing I am concerned with is what is keeping the middle tier reasonable. 1st edition had this problem where the most powerful pilot skill was either the lowest (1 or 2) or the highest (9+) and 5 and 6 was the worst pilot skill you could have. I don't see how anything has changed with the smaller scale probably worse making initiative 4 the very worst pilot skill ever so much that it pilots should be cheaper than the initiative 1 & 2 no-name generics.

I don't know why they bother with PS or Initiative, they'd probably be better off making players shuffle all the pilot cards together and then activating them in the order flipped. Would certainly kill that whole pilot skill/initiative war b.s. ?

8 minutes ago, acesandeights said:

I don't know why they bother with PS or Initiative, they'd probably be better off making players shuffle all the pilot cards together and then activating them in the order flipped. Would certainly kill that whole pilot skill/initiative war b.s. ?

It would, and in its place we'd have an RNG clown fiesta of an activation war, where he with the most ships (and thus the most chance of drawing more activations in succession) wins.

22 minutes ago, acesandeights said:

I don't know why they bother with PS or Initiative, they'd probably be better off making players shuffle all the pilot cards together and then activating them in the order flipped. Would certainly kill that whole pilot skill/initiative war b.s. ?

They sort of do something similar in Legion. You secretly play a card at the beginning of the round that allows you to activate so many units when you want, then the rest get put in a random stack (separate for each player) and the round progresses in alternating activations. When you activate you can either choose one of the units you picked to start, or a random other one.

36 minutes ago, DR4CO said:

It would, and in its place we'd have an RNG clown fiesta of an activation war, where he with the most ships (and thus the most chance of drawing more activations in succession) wins.

Pretty much ^this^. They do that with Armada and the activation count is a big part of the meta while smaller flotillas often populated the battlefield and noble Star Destroyers were absent from the meta.

Now why didn't they put in some sort of commander/officer and put the activation initiative with that? Probably the same reason Attack Wing has some problems. Although I think that would have made Armada better and just have a ship with no officer/captain default at 1, again that is Armada not X-wing.

Going 1st or last in games will forever be a thing, it's inescapable. Whatever mechanic exists, there will always be some advantage/disadvantage to it

I very much like a blanket PS in my squad and am sad to see Adaptability go. I'd not at all mind an EPT like "Team Player", reduce your Initiative value by 1.

It would be an occasionally useful card for shenanigans and such, without opening up that whole PS escalation again.

42 minutes ago, Cuz05 said:

Going 1st or last in games will forever be a thing, it's inescapable. Whatever mechanic exists, there will always be some advantage/disadvantage to it

I very much like a blanket PS in my squad and am sad to see Adaptability go. I'd not at all mind an EPT like "Team Player", reduce your Initiative value by 1.

It would be an occasionally useful card for shenanigans and such, without opening up that whole PS escalation again.

I also agree that a Talent that REDUCES initiative would be nice to have.