What is a preemptive strike?

[palaven]

My brother has Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls and I have Final Fantasy IV Advance. We both see 'preemptive strike' on the top of the screen when we enter battles quite often. Both of us have been wondering what a preemptive strike is. Can you help us?  

[Zombie Ryu]

It means your party gets to go first, pretty much. The opposite of an ambush.

 

[chaos.ultima.mage]

^ indeed

pre-emptive attack means that you attack them before they have the chance to attack you, and hopefully you end the match then and there  

[palaven]

Thanks. That's what I thought it was.  

[[Condom.Hero]]

its kinda when an enemy does a back attack to your characters, except your doing it to the monsters.
Thats premteeve strike.  

[Vincent Valentines Wrath]

im oing to pretend that i never heard that questoin ever in my life, no matter how long ago it was asked  

[ArikaiHart]

Just to add to that: If you had a time gauge, it'd be full at the beginnig of the battle, instead of being only slightly/not at all filled at the beginning.