1st side vs 2nd side pros and cons

[JDR Dragoon]

In my experience, the advantage of the 1st Player is not so much that he gets the first Dawn turn, but that he gets the first Daylight turn. Visibility here might be as high as 4-5 hexes which means, that units the 2nd Player thought hidden are now suddenly visible and vulnerable. This requires some forethought on the part of the 2nd player. This also goes for preventing night fatigue. In essence, the 2nd players units have to sit chock still for 3 "moves": 1st Players Night Turn move, 2nd Players Night Turn move and 1st Players Dawn Turn move in order to avoid incurring any Night Fatigue and regain fatigue at the improved pace. If the unit fires or is fired upon during any of these steps, the game is up. For the 1st Player this is usually more easy to arrange (break contact at Dawn, stand still for own Night Turn and hope not to get hit during opponents Night Turn, resume normal movement at Dawn). All of this is of course exasperated by the fact, that the 1st Player will usually be the one with the offensive task and thus a greater number of units and opportunites to cycle these, while the 2nd Player (usually the overall defender) might not have this luxury.

Some scenarios also makes it possible for the 1st Player to start encircling and Isolating units on his first move, before the 2nd Player has had a chance to do anything. Needless to say, this doesn´t exactly makes the task of going 2nd any easier.