"Turn Order & Activation Concept (skirmish game)" Topic

Just looking for some feed back on an activation system for small model count games I have been working on. Inspired by Infinity and other skirmish games with lots of back and force play.

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At the start of the game one player will be the attacker and the other the defender – this will determine how the forces are set up and who goes first.

There are 2 types of activation markers to show that a model has actived, blue and yellow. On your turn you will always give a model a blue token when it is activated and you always use a yellow token to show that a model activated during your opponents turn.

At the start of a players turn they clear all blue activation markers.

On a players turn they choose 1 of their models to activate, this model cannot already have activated (ie it has no activation marker). The player must then make a command check – they roll 1D6 and if the result is equal or more than the number of models they have activated this turn they pass, otherwise they fail (a result of a 6 is always a pass).

If passed the player then activates the model (move/shoot/ect). The opposing player may be able to activate a model as a reaction (a limited activation – usually only the target of the attack can react) depending on the actions taken by the active model.

If the command check is failed the opposing player can immediatly activate any model in their force. Once that actiavtion is resolved the player whos turn it is activated the previously nominated model.

Any models activated are given the appropriately colored activation markers.

A player can also voluntarily fail the command check, passing play over to their opponent. A player may also be forced to pass play over if all of their models have activation markers.

When a players turn ends they clear all yellow activation markers.

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Cheers!

One issue I see: If you activate a single a model, that would be an automatic success for the command roll right? If so, what's to stop someone form simply activating every model individually and thus never risking the failed command roll?

If you activate a single model and then stop it becomes your opponents turn, who could then choose to push his luck and attempt to activate multiple models.

But I see what you mean – both sides could just go 1 at a time with no risk. Hmm damn I thought I was onto something interesting here but its looks flawed right off the bat.

Maybe you can't chose to stop? That would just seem odd.

Would limited game length (in turns) push the desire to go with more units?

Any suggestions?

"If the command check is failed the opposing player can immediatly activate any model in their force. Once that actiavtion is resolved the player whos turn it is activated the previously nominated model."

Just a thought: what if rather than automatic, the opposing player had to roll a "command check" to get his turn.

OR

Both player simply roll and high roll gets next activation.

Just thinking it adds some fog of war in that you don't necessarily automatically know who goes next.

Yeah I am attempting to combine a fog of war with a push your luck and a reaction system. Maybe too much?

Did some play testing – a turn limit really made it quite intense, you had to take actions because the clock is ticking.

It still needs refinement – a command check for opponent actions feels like it would fit well too.

We developed two different activation systems. One involved dice and the other cards.
We used the card system for our Vietnam squad level system. Each fire team is is alloyed a black and red card though one play test group made custom cards. The black card refers to a movement option. A red card refers to a fire option. These are kept in a players hand and played when the player did that action for that team.when all cards had been played or discarded, the turn is over.
The dice part of the activation is conducted at the start of each turn. There was several variants used in play testing. The main variant is that a die roll is made for each fire team with a d10. The dice are aligned on the activation chart. This teams now operate in order of the die highest to lowest.
When activated a team can move then fire, fire then move or move only and hold fire for opportunity fire.