I do not believe that initiative is intended to be a significant advantage. It is more of a 'balanced' way to structure order with opposing pilots that have the same PS. Initiative only comes into play when pilots are of equal skill … additionally, the player with initiative gets to select and place the first asteroid.

So, moving first is, generally, a slight disadvanatge for the player with initiative, while shooting first is always a slight advantage. They mostly offset, leaving a slight advantage to the player with initiative (especially if their list is designed with low PS blockers), but nothing too significant.

Initiative is not some sort of handicap to reward someone with an advantage. I think that is what people are getting confused around. Simply, initiative are simply rules to handle the 'edge' cases where opposing pilots have the same PS.

dvang said:

Well you are right it is not intended to be an advantage or disadvantage.

But Kinetic is right after giving it some thought. I can not see an advantage to the player with initiative even in the shooting phase. The one shooting last has the advantage to keep or use his focus tokens and oerhaps accept a damage in return. The player with initiative does not have this possibility based on information, he has to guess how his opponent will throw dice. I can not think of any real advantage having initiative really…