Lol there’s a lot of back and forth on this issue. What I can say from reading some of the comments is that if you’ve never used the strategy of going second for an advantage then you probably don’t know that there’s an advantage there.
I have gone both first and second. I have sometimes deliberately postponed my attacks until I saw my opponents moves and results. However, I'm also aware, that the difference is all in our minds. There is absoloutely nothing that prevents us doing our optimal run, when going first. The only advantage by going second is, that if you're in an even matched round, you may be able to relax if going second after your opponent performed less than optimally. In that case, you can save some time, not plan too much in details and just do your attacks. There's no way to score better than your best possible score by going second instead of first. It doesn't work that way.
Here’s how it works: you see you’re opponent put up a near perfect score while only failing to clear a defensive team once on the first try. You estimate that you’ll need an average of 58 points per battle for first try clears and a perfect second try clear to win. Using your normal attack strategy, you know you could easily beat 5 of his 6 defense (making up random numbers here), but the sixth team would require you wearing them down over time (maybe a FO defense). Alternatively, you could rearrange teams to potentially allow a first try clear of all defense at the risk of not beating one team at all.
If you manage to score those 58 on average when going second, you could also have scored them when going first.
I agree that I could get that score going first as well, but I think you’re missing the point I made. Going second and knowing what it takes to win the match can mean taking more risks in selecting teams.
I think we can all agree that some teams are more RNG dependent than others. If I know I need a near perfect score just to win, I may use an RNG team rather than a safe team. I like Ravifer’s examples above. I frequently use a 4 man zfinn team when Poe is faster. However, I may throw in Royal Guard or someone like that if I know there’s some cushion on the match and winning is more important that rolling the dice on a perfect score.
Remember, I said I’ve failed with this strategy too. When you roll the dice on a perfect score and things go wrong, it costs the match.
Personally I like attacking first. If I log in and my board is cleared already and I see they did 1 attack on each, I calculate the avg banners needed and feel pressured to go in undersized teams, which has caused losses and a complete round loss.
Meanwhile if I attack first, I dont feel the pressure of cutting things painfully tight and make better decisions with a clear head. Sure they can calculate how many banners they need to win, but how will that pressure affect their decision making? Will they try to send in Wampa alone without rex lead and get wrecked because they wanted those 4 extra banners? Or maybe they drop BSF from their traya team to clear my revan and lose because traya wasnt tanky enough.
There IS an advantage to putting pressure on your opponent. There is also an advantage to going last and seeing the banners needed. It really just depends on the psychological makeup of your opponent. If they stay cool under pressure, they benefit from going last
Personally I like attacking first. If I log in and my board is cleared already and I see they did 1 attack on each, I calculate the avg banners needed and feel pressured to go in undersized teams, which has caused losses and a complete round loss.
Meanwhile if I attack first, I dont feel the pressure of cutting things painfully tight and make better decisions with a clear head. Sure they can calculate how many banners they need to win, but how will that pressure affect their decision making? Will they try to send in Wampa alone without rex lead and get wrecked because they wanted those 4 extra banners? Or maybe they drop BSF from their traya team to clear my revan and lose because traya wasnt tanky enough.
There IS an advantage to putting pressure on your opponent. There is also an advantage to going last and seeing the banners needed. It really just depends on the psychological makeup of your opponent. If they stay cool under pressure, they benefit from going last
Dude if you don't feel pressure to citthi GS tight you will still lose because unless you push for a good score then it's all up to your opponent to be just a little better than you
Replies
I agree that I could get that score going first as well, but I think you’re missing the point I made. Going second and knowing what it takes to win the match can mean taking more risks in selecting teams.
I think we can all agree that some teams are more RNG dependent than others. If I know I need a near perfect score just to win, I may use an RNG team rather than a safe team. I like Ravifer’s examples above. I frequently use a 4 man zfinn team when Poe is faster. However, I may throw in Royal Guard or someone like that if I know there’s some cushion on the match and winning is more important that rolling the dice on a perfect score.
Remember, I said I’ve failed with this strategy too. When you roll the dice on a perfect score and things go wrong, it costs the match.
Meanwhile if I attack first, I dont feel the pressure of cutting things painfully tight and make better decisions with a clear head. Sure they can calculate how many banners they need to win, but how will that pressure affect their decision making? Will they try to send in Wampa alone without rex lead and get wrecked because they wanted those 4 extra banners? Or maybe they drop BSF from their traya team to clear my revan and lose because traya wasnt tanky enough.
There IS an advantage to putting pressure on your opponent. There is also an advantage to going last and seeing the banners needed. It really just depends on the psychological makeup of your opponent. If they stay cool under pressure, they benefit from going last
Dude if you don't feel pressure to citthi GS tight you will still lose because unless you push for a good score then it's all up to your opponent to be just a little better than you