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Seizing the initiative can be quite devastating as you might have deployed on the line thinking that you would go first shooting. Instead, you become the sitting duck out in the open for your opponent to get First Blood if he manages to seize.

How do most of you players see this? Do you actively deploy with this in mind and hide some(or even all) of your units? Or just plain ignore the chance and hope for the best?

Also, do you also think seizing is a very big game changer as well? I'm curious to see how you all think about it.

I have a feeling that a seize may change the reult of a game quite a bit. And as a second part to it, it makes things like Corteaz pretty powerful in that sense.

Edited for horrendous typos.

I do take it into account, and don't deploy as aggresively as I would should seizing not be a thing.

I play Eldar, so most of my units are able to move 6-12 inches and still shoot normally. This means placing my tanks obscured by buildings (as to get a save, as they will be missing their jink having not moved).

I do not plan to seize should I be going second.

It's more important to keep in mind when going first than when going 2nd.

I've never gotten my initiative seized before but I saw a game when everything changed due to it being seized.

After playing a while I guess I kind of agree with Belly. I used to try to seize initiative everytime but perhaps going second gives that end game advantage of countering your opponents moves.

I always take it into account. The chance is always there, even if it normally is just 1 in 6.

Same as the above, I always take the chance into account. My army is built to withstand an alpha strike anyway, so even if I don't get second turn of my own volition, which I almost always want, I still rather deploy a bit more conservatively, than go all out in deployment, only for the game to end bottom of T1.

Sometimes you can afford to be aggresive, however.

Against vect, you've always gotta take it into account. He seizes on a 4+

Try playing against Bjorn, Vect, and Coteaz. You'll never, ever get first turn.

i usually try to go second, though it usually in the back of my mind when I go first, but try to give my stuff cover so they can shoot at full ballistic skill with the tanks an a lot of my infantry is in reserves (i usually go about 50/50 in reserve, with lots of scout i get plenty of outflank to have lots of stuff outflanking with my raven gaurd.

My primary army is a Drop Pod army, and I tend to run Deep Strike lists regardless. In any event, losing the initiative rarely has any significant effect on me.

As an Eldar player, I prefer going second for late game objective grabs/contests. For Nids I prefer to go first, especially since I run Psyker heavy/FMC heavy armies, going second means a much easier time to take out my Warlord.

I always intentionally go second when I can because my army is infiltrating all over the place. Braving a first turn of shooting sucks but the only time I think the whole "first turn wins the game" thing applies is:

1) If your opponent is elven/blueberry cheese.
2) If your opponent is DE.

It's the single most important roll in the game. You have to account for it.

I think about it...then I deploy aggressively anyway!

Sons of Dorn!!!

1st turn almost always nets you first blood, drives your vehicles 24" or 18", provides you with jink saves for FMC and fast vehicles, lets you get the 1st turn w/o night fight. These are all hugely advantagous for Dark Eldar clearly. At first I never cared about siezing until I faced a person who consistantly stole it, vehicles getting no kinda save really sucks or fast armies redeploying out of range or to one of your flanks hurts. I now plan for it, especially when I play mid range armies. Vanguard with Eldar moving 30" anywhere, has its wow factor.

It depends on the army, but my general rule when deploying first is if it can get cover/out of LOS for the first turn without hampering shooting/movement, then I will, as it's useful even if they don't seize they're still shooting on their T1.

That said, I'll mostly choose to go second if I win the roll anyway, as I prefer to counter-deploy and get the last shot at objectives. As I tend to default to a refused flank, especially with Marine armies, deploying second is great anyway, and far harder to counter than if I deploy first.

I always deploy and build armies with the thought that I will probably be fired upon. If you cannot withstand an alpha strike and still have a decent shot of winning something is seriously wrong.

I also play a variety of armies and some of them do prefer to get 1st turn (psychic powers up usually) and some prefer to go second (scouting turn 1 assaults and last minute objective grabs).