Initiative

[vladthemad]

Alright, I'm confused. In space combat, if damage is resolved after all attacks have been made in a round, as per p. 147, what's the purpose of initiative? The only time it seems to have a use is determining number of reactions. Couldn't it be dispensed with entirely, as it seems an extra step that doesn't really give you any advantage over the enemy? With the abstracted movement rules in the core rule book, I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what the actual benefit to having the higher initiative actually is. Am I missing something?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I don't use initiative. So I don't know. What have your players said about it?

 

[Jeraa]

With the expanded combat rules in High Guard you can burn initiative on orders, so you get more benefits.

As far as the core rules are concerned, the only benefit does seem to be reactions. Which means the ship with the higher initiative has more chances to shoot down enemy missiles, launch sand, or dodge attacks. That means the ship with higher initiative is that much more likely to reduce/avoid taking damage.

 

[Askold]

Apart from reactions another benefit of the Initiative is that you don't have to argue which ship gets to act first, second, third and so on. Depending on the group it can be a timesaver.

Also, burning initiative to gain more reactions is a thing so having a higher initiative is beneficial if you need to do that.

 

[dragoner]

Alright, I'm confused. In space combat, if damage is resolved after all attacks have been made in a round, as per p. 147, what's the purpose of initiative? The only time it seems to have a use is determining number of reactions. Couldn't it be dispensed with entirely, as it seems an extra step that doesn't really give you any advantage over the enemy? With the abstracted movement rules in the core rule book, I'm scratching my head trying to figure out what the actual benefit to having the higher initiative actually is. Am I missing something?

The order in which they fire, but reactions are important.

 

[vladthemad]

I don't use initiative. So I don't know. What have your players said about it?

They basically pointed it out. We threw it out on the first two combats because we had enough other stuff to figure out and understand. It seemed just as easy to have them state their actions than I stated target's actions. As there's no advantage to declaring first, it made it one less thing for us to try and keep track of.

With the expanded combat rules in High Guard you can burn initiative on orders, so you get more benefits.

As far as the core rules are concerned, the only benefit does seem to be reactions. Which means the ship with the higher initiative has more chances to shoot down enemy missiles, launch sand, or dodge attacks. That means the ship with higher initiative is that much more likely to reduce/avoid taking damage.

Hmm..I thought that the orders system in HG was for capital ships only? I only glanced through them because I hadn't planned on running any capital ship battles any time soon!



I was curious if there were things we were missing though. Is there something specific that initiative is for apart from reactions? I'm not sure I even like the idea of the amount of reactions you can take being related to initiative. As initiative doesn't change from round to round, if you roll poorly you're kind of screwed. Maybe it should be tied to pilot skill instead? A better pilot gets more reactions? Perhaps a different skill, or the maneuver rating of the ship possibly? A more agile ship gets more reactions?

 

[Jeraa]

Hmm..I thought that the orders system in HG was for capital ships only? I only glanced through them because I hadn't planned on running any capital ship battles any time soon!

Nope. Nothing limits what size ship can use orders.

I was curious if there were things we were missing though. Is there something specific that initiative is for apart from reactions? I'm not sure I even like the idea of the amount of reactions you can take being related to initiative. As initiative doesn't change from round to round, if you roll poorly you're kind of screwed. Maybe it should be tied to pilot skill instead? A better pilot gets more reactions? Perhaps a different skill, or the maneuver rating of the ship possibly? A more agile ship gets more reactions?

How is a more maneuverable ship better at shooting missiles or firing sand? Reactions cover not just maneuverability but gunnery as well.

Reactions are probably tied into initiative because that is the only thing the commander of the ship can actually affect - the commander makes a Tactics (Naval) check to add to the ship's initiative. The better the commander, the more the crew can do.

As for Initiative being unchanging, you can always make a houserule that says initiative is rolled at the beginning of every round, not just the battle. That way there are a varying number of reactions per round, but the ship ship with the better commander/better maneuverability is somewhat more likely to still come out on top.

Edit: It seems there is something else. Initiative can change, at least temporarily. Page 150 of the core rulebook (at least in my copy):

Increase Initiative
The commander of a spacecraft may make a Leadership check and increase the Initiative of his spacecraft by the Effect of the check. This increase only applies for the following round.

 

[CosmicGamer]

How is a more maneuverable ship better at shooting missiles or firing sand? Reactions cover not just maneuverability but gunnery as well.

Helps rotate the ship to a better facing for firing weapons?

Before someone mentions missiles not being a line of sight weapon, I'm sure it's advantageous for the missiles to be lined up and start out going in the direction of their target instead of being fired "backwards" and having the firing ship between the missile and the target.