both of these scenarios require you to draw cards at the beginning of the game. but that leads to the quest, when is the beginning of the game? is it before lists are picked, or after lists are picked but before LT roll off? or is it after deployment? sadly when the cards are picked is extremely important as it can influence which list to play, which model is going to be the best at being the data tracker or even if i want to go first or not.
Before the list are picked (like standard classified objectives) : ITS 11, page 11 : "Players select their Classified Objectives after learning what mission will be played and what faction his opponent will be playing with, but always before choosing one of the two Army Lists shown to the tournament organizer." PS : in the last interplanetario, the objectives for highly classified were picked by the organization and were the same for all table. I"m 100% behind this being standard practice for Highly classified and the first objectives in countermeasure
The scenarios have different wordings and different timing. Highly Classified objectives are generated at the same time other classifieds are normally selected, after choosing a mission and finding out your opponent's army, but before choosing a list. Countermeasures, on the other hand, has you select objectives "at the start of the game." This happens after deployment is finished, including selecting your Datatracker. From the initiative and deployment rules: "During the Deployment Phase, before the game begins, players place their troops on the battlefield." Emphasis mine. The game "begins" at the very start of the first Player Turn, and Classifieds should be determined just before the start of the Tactical Phase.
One vote for allowing to choose a list after selecting objectives in countermeasures. It’s difficult to make a single list that can score all objectives reliably. edit - my brain froze and wrote before instead of after. Should have been more careful. Sorry.
And that's the challenge. Just because you get to choose your list after knowing the objectives in Highly Classified doesn't mean you get to make it on the spot tailored to those objectives (friendly games notwithstanding). If it's a tournament, you've already made the list, and unless the missions in the tourney are Highly Classified, Countermeasures, and ... Biotechvore? ... you're only making one of those lists to knock out a ton of classifieds.
@Sabin76 I said it incorrectly. Ofc I don’t make the list after seeing the objectives in Highly Classified or Countermeasures. What I’am saying is that it’s difficult to make a single list that can score the first three objectives reliably during first turn. It’s trivial to make two lists that can do that. Example of actual countermeasure play: 3 objectives are drawn, my list A can score 2/3 of the objectives reliably and list B can only score 1/3 reliably. I choose list A for the match.
