The strongest activations: First and last
Usually, the first and the last activation each turn are the strongest. This is because of a limited reactability for the inactive player. In the first activation, the second player only has 1 Momentum, therefore he can't just counterattack and defensive stance a charge, and if he has models knocked down after he countered, tough luck for those models. The first activation also means that in this turn, models can't have been healed and you get the first go at healing models with either Encourage or Rest.The last activation is strong because there is no window for the inactive player to do something after the activation is over. All conditions that are dished out here will carry over into the next turn and deal guaranteed damage. Speaking of damage, any damage that is dealt during the last activation of a turn can't be healed either. Last activation goals are also very good. There is only the goal kick coming afterwards and then it's a new turn. That means that ideally, you have a player with influence to be your last activation.
Activation Advantage
Since both players have 6 activations each turn, both will get a piece of the strongest activations. That is unless you take out a model that still has to activate. If you take a model out with your first activation, suddenly your opponent only has 5 models to activate and you get that sweet last activation too. This is why you should learn to take models "hostage". This refers to letting a model stay on 1 or 2 hit points, taking the initiative and taking that model out at the top of the next turn. This gives you activation advantage and delays the model coming back on the pitch for another turn. This is often worth the 1 Influence you spend on the start of your turn. Keep in mind this only works if you can get the initiative, otherwise, the model in peril can just activate and you lose the activation Advantage.The back-to-back activation
The back-to-back activation means that you have 2 activations without your opponent having an activation to react. Honour and Harmony have this built into their abilities with Linked, but you can have that too!One way of having this kind of advantage is by taking out enough opponents to have 2 activations left when they are done. The most common way to achieve this is by being second to act and taking out 1 model that has not activated yet. This gives you a back-to-back activation of two of your models at the end.
Arguably more powerful is the back-to-back over turns. This means that you have the last activation, get initiative and therefore an immediate activation at the start of the next turn. This is especially scary because a big beater like Hammer can activate twice in a row! You also don't want to be on the receiving end of Shark shooting a goal last activation and immediately going for another one at the top of the next turn.
Use your empty models
Models with no influence are still an asset. They usually only jog and use their traits (or a Heroic or Legendary play), but even if they do absolutely nothing it might be worth to activate them. There will be situations where you don't want to activate one of your stacked models yet.Let's look at an example.
If you just activate Egret here, Jaecar stays completely safe from Hooper and you will have a fully stacked last activation. Hooper can now pretty much only attack the bear, while if Jaecar goes in now, he might be reached by Hooper if he isn't careful.
While this is an easy example, you will find more examples where you don't want to send in a model yet or threaten a counterpunch with a stacked model. This takes practice and experience, so keep grinding out games and you will find yourself getting better at this!
Join next time when we discuss about building a 6-man-team!
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