Been discussing this with my gaming group... Seems like we don't feel strongly about it, are we doing something wrong? How often does it really affect play?

I think it comes down to your style of play. Placing the asteroids, resolving simultaneous card effects and movement are all effected by Initiative. Moving your ships of the same pilot skill level first makes it so you can play action denial. Stripping ships of their action is a big deal.

If you are the same ps it would matter, dropping ships out before they can shot at you is great.

It's got some strong effects - it can be bad to have initiative when you have ships with the boost or barrel roll action of the same P.S. as your opponent. As say your P.S. 4 interceptor is fighting a red squadron X-wing. If you have initiative, you have to guess where it will go, but if the opponent has initiative, you'll be able to choose your barrel roll or boost with better information.

It's good to have initiative if you're running a blocking strategy for action denial, because now you can move your Outer-Rim Smuggler before the opponent's academy tie pilots, and move him right where they are going to go - you get your action and position, and they move, bump into you and maybe eat your Anti-pursuit lasers, and lose their action...

If you are the same ps it would matter, dropping ships out before they can shot at you is great.

If you are at the same Pilot Skill any destroyed ship would still get to shoot back.

If you are the same ps it would matter, dropping ships out before they can shot at you is great.

If you are at the same Pilot Skill any destroyed ship would still get to shoot back.

Unless of course it received the dreaded Blinded Pilot critical effect. (happened to me yesterday *shakes fist*)

Edit:

@OP

Take a look here: http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/96829-percieved-disadvantage-with-having-initiative/

If you are the same ps it would matter, dropping ships out before they can shot at you is great.

If you are at the same Pilot Skill any destroyed ship would still get to shoot back.

Unless of course it received the dreaded Blinded Pilot critical effect. (happened to me yesterday *shakes fist*)

Edit:

@OP

Take a look here: http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/96829-percieved-disadvantage-with-having-initiative/

Missed this thread! Thanks!

It is as important as you make it. Certain lists really need init and a few actively don't want it. In the upcoming PS war/escalation, it will be one more important... Not to have it or not, but to consider it more carefully when building.

There is a bit of bidding go on. How much do you leave off the table in hopes of having init? How much do you spend on PS in your squads? More consideration, this requires.

I think it comes down to your style of play. Placing the asteroids, resolving simultaneous card effects and movement are all effected by Initiative. Moving your ships of the same pilot skill level first makes it so you can play action denial. Stripping ships of their action is a big deal.

Bingo! Later in the game, having your action taken from you or not being able to target a ship because you ran into it is HUGE! I often think players do not thing about, or diversify, their pilot skill and initiative when building a squad.

Initiative helps (as people have shown above) but it's not the end of the world if you don't get it, unless you play for it. What I mean is that some players will take list 2-3 points light to just to get initiative. If someone does the same thing it's 50/50 whether it was worth it to go light on points. It also kind of the same problem that happens when people spend points taking Dagger Squad B-Wings and Red Squad X-wings. Sometimes paying the extra 2 points for ships was completely worth it. Sometimes you handicap yourself by up to 8 points because its all dependent on what your opponent takes, which you really have no control over. Just keep the idea of wasting points in your mind if you intend to "pay" for the initiative since you want to make sure it's worth it.

The following squads generally do not want init:

Interceptor / A wing squads

Alpha strike squads (want the opponent to move first so you can get a TL on them)

The following squads generally want init:

Blocking based squads

Swarm squads

Action based squads (Dutch, Garven, Kyle - though being PS6, it may not make a difference)

The rest of the squads don't really care too much. High PS elite builds typically don't care at all since they're going to be moving last anyways. Come shooting round, everyone wants init. Though a case could be made for knowing whether or not you want to use that focus for defense before you use it on offense. But the main benefit is killing Howlrunner or Jan or the like (the new E wing pilot) before the other side can return fire and use his/her benefit.

Initiative can be an advantage, and it can also be a disadvantage, depending on your fleet's style of play.

For instance,

• The player with Initiative places the 1st asteroid, and the player without can react to it.
• The player with Initiative moves first (in a tie), and is less likely to collide, while the player without is more able to Target Lock and react to the final positioning (with Bombs and Mobility actions)
• The player with Initiative shoots first (in a tie). This is always an advantage, though thanks to Simultaneous Fire rules, often a negligible one.

For low PS ships, and ships that don't care that much about what actions they take after seeing enemy positions, initiative can be good. For high(er) PS pilots and ships that want to see where the enemy goes before taking action, such as interceptors who want to reposition with barrel roll or boost after seeing where the enemy goes, initiative may be undesirable.

depending on what kind of PS each player's squad has, it may be entirely meaningless or a critical point of strategic contention

The initiative aspect is one of the great things about this game. It's subtle, unlike a lot of UGO-IGO games where having first turn can be a huge advantage. Here, most of the pros and cons are double-sided and the right list and right player can use both. When most of the action occurs off the table, in the minds of the players playing and resultant maneuver/strategy, with dice being reduced in importance, that is when the gaming is the best.

I prefer not to have initiative in most circumstances. It especially helps in the setup stages to see where your opponent will place his ships, and you can react to where he places the first asteroid as well. One of my last games i was running PS 2 Lambda, PS3 BH, and PS6 Tie fighter X 2. He was using 3 PS2 rebels and 1 PS8. He got initiative so he placed almost all of his ships before I placed any of mine. It was one of the major factors in my victory. I find benefits like this outweigh the benefits of moving first. We usually roll for initiative if we have equal point builds and i find myself hoping i lose the roll

wonder why they haven't made a simple change and suggest that if you have initiative you can chose not to use it.... that way having initiative is ALWAYS advantageous as it should be.... it would also tend to increase the use of high initiative pilots.

wonder why they haven't made a simple change and suggest that if you have initiative you can chose not to use it.... that way having initiative is ALWAYS advantageous as it should be.... it would also tend to increase the use of high initiative pilots.

Since there is no such thing as a "high initiative pilot" I'm not sure what you mean by that. People will use high pilot skill ships for a variety of reasons, not just because of initiative.

Every player should have a strategy planned for their squads both with and without initiative. If your entire strategy hinges on initiative you need to rethink the squad since there is never a guarantee that you will get initiative.

wonder why they haven't made a simple change and suggest that if you have initiative you can chose not to use it.... that way having initiative is ALWAYS advantageous as it should be.... it would also tend to increase the use of high initiative pilots.

Since there is no such thing as a "high initiative pilot" I'm not sure what you mean by that. People will use high pilot skill ships for a variety of reasons, not just because of initiative.

I think he's confusing Initiative with Pilot Skill. They behave differently.

yeah my bad... I was confusing the two...