‘newish’ player who wants to make sure that I am playing correctly. If I am the first player, I “act first”. Does that mean if I share the same initiative as my opponent, my ship will move before his ship, and then in the engagement phase, my ship will shoot first as well?

Strategy wise, is it a good strategy to be the first player then?

1 hour ago, RawF15 said:

‘newish’ player who wants to make sure that I am playing correctly. If I am the first player, I “act first”. 1.) Does that mean if I share the same initiative as my opponent, my ship will move before his ship, and then in the engagement phase, my ship will shoot first as well?

2.) Strategy wise, is it a good strategy to be the first player then?

1. Yes.

2. Can be.

As @Hiemfire A already said: yes 'act first' means you both move and shoot before player 2.

A quick primer on the strategy component:

- If your strategy is to dodge enemy fire with a high init Ace ship with repositioning (like Soontir Fel or Fenn Rau) then you want to be player 2 for moving last so as to react to enemy movement.

- If your strategy is to move your ships in formation and/or block enemy ships to deny their actions you would want to be player 1 so you can move first to maintain that strategy against same initiative ships. Since being player 1 also means shooting first you also have a chance of dealing useful crits (like Weapons Failure or Blinded Pilot) to same initiativeships before they take their shot.

- lastly: the above is not accounting for niche lists and personal preference. Those are more of a general trend than a rigid doctrine. If you post in the Squad Lists forum you can ask for advice on what people would recommend as far as player choice as well as general approach and often get differing opinions on what's best depending on exchanging one upgrade for another.

that helps a lot, thank you!