"chit activation and multi-player games" Topic

I've found a set of rules that I like. It has a by-platoon activation sequence in which chits are placed in a cup an drawn out. Works great for a two player game, but what about multiple players or at a convention? Does this prove to be a bottleneck? How do you speed up the process or keep the non-phasing players involved?

We divided the battlefield into sectors, by players so you must have even sides for it to work, and activation cups for each sectors units.

We also allowed units to be transferred into sectors and their chit added to the cup.

Last, this DOES allow opposing units to 'simultaneously' activate and engage each other across sectors. To resolve this we had each player roll a d6 to determine who activated first.

In Baptism of Fire III we and These Fields of Blood we use a system theat uses multiple card draws, the number varying by 2-5, the player with initiative choosing. Its allows a change of initiative, multiple unit activations (great for multiplayer games), and lots of fog of war.

I have already released notes on converting A Leader of Men to use this system, which with the integration to other supporting concepts gives a superior turn sequence.

Having multiple draws has implications that need to be tied into other concepts to work properly.

Gordon, I was thinking about multiple chit draws, but wasn't sure what complications would result. Do you have a link to your released notes?

Good ideas there. There is a danger that sequential chit draws with multiple players can lead to everyone standing around watching one guy at a time play.

I don't think it works well for a multi-player game at all. Sure you can minimize the "one player all the time" effect, but at some point it comes up and most people I know wouldn't appreciate wasting one of their few chances to actually play by basically watching someone else play for most of the game.

What Rich said, 'unit at a time' activation systems, whatever they are (cards, picking, initiative or whatever) don't scale well for large numbers of players, although they are OK for up to three per side. If you do simultaneous activations in a sequential activation system you risk breaking the game system, depends on the details of course.

There are some systems which work better than others, but I can't bothered to list them all here.

Have a look at the following;

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This gives some sample pages links, page 8 gives a basic turn overview.

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Battle reports, Bloody River gives a solo game report, the other is 2 player but illustrates the idea.

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Have a look at the two BoF3 overviews.

Complications are in how other concepts link in. For example the concept of overwatch, and in my games multiple activations in the same turn of a unit, how you handle initiative, declaring your activations and actions, lots of little things really, but some have a major effect.

For me it was integrating a concept not used in other games, the military theory of OODA decision making, now used in all walks of life. The theory is perfect for this kind of thing, it is just the full integration of how you rate troops and command, and integrating the card based turn sequence. On paper it seems more complex to start with (although I think I have presented the games in the simplest format). It is in the playing that you realise that in practice it is dead easy with lots of potential and subtlety.