Skirmish seems a little overly complicated to me. Here are my thoughts on a mod to the Sequence of Play. 1. Determine Initiative
a. Rally
2. Movement
a. Opportunity Fire (Non-moving side.)
3. Combat
a. Melee
b. Shooting
c. Magic
4. Morale
Your thoughts?
Comparing to the book sequence:
1. Determine Initiative
a. Declare opportunity fire
2. Movement
a. Reform units (if using expanded rules)
b. Execute opportunity fire
c. Rally checks
3. Combat
a. Melee combat
b. Missile combat
c. Magic
4. Morale checks
Good idea. I've modified the sequence a bit myself for our games.
Looks like the main difference you've made is moving the rally phase prior to movement.
Would you still keep the declaration of opportunity fire by both sides prior to movement?
As for the moving the order of rally checks, I agree that the sequence in which the book handles rallying (and morale checks in general) is a bit odd.
Normally a shaken miniature can make a rally check only if it didn't move during the movement phase and it wasn't involved in combat. With moving the rally check prior to movement, would you allow a figure that rallied to move in that turn? How about rallying and then charging in the same turn?
In our games I keep rally checks as part of the movement phase. My preference is that rallying is an action the affected figure takes in place of movement for the turn.
As for the issue with morale checks in general, as written you make morale checks at the end of the turn. This means having to keep track until the end of the turn to what happened to a figure throughout the entire turn to cause or modify a morale check.
For example the book states that a miniature performing a hasty retreat must make a morale check during the morale phase. The hasty retreat happens in the movement phase but the figure doesn't check morale until the end of the turn. With morale triggers coming up throughout the turn, even with only a hand full of figs on both sides it ends up being a lot to keep track of by the time the morale phase comes around at the end of the turn.
In our games I've just changed it to where morale checks are made immediately as the situational triggers call for checks. Results of the morale checks are applied immediately. Any oddball morale situations where checks are not triggered during the turn can be taken at the end of the turn.
My modified sequence of play would look like this:
1. Determine Initiative
a. Declare opportunity fire
2. Movement
a. Reform units (if using expanded rules)
b. Rally checks
c. Execute opportunity fire
3. Combat
a. Melee combat
b. Missile combat
c. Magic
4. End of turn
a. Resolve any misc morale checks if needed
b. Check scenario victory conditions
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