"Epic Activation " Topic

We had an ongoing thread about activation on Tac Cmd. link
I posted this. It may be of some interest … I'm not saying this is the way to do it … But this is the way we do it. So take that for what it is worth …

Legion 4

Post subject: Re: Frustrated with the activation war

Posted: Tue Sep 20, 2016 4:28 pm

As a long time gamer, who added Activation to SM1. IGOUGO not only favors the first player, but does not seem to be very "realistic". While one player is sitting there getting pummeled. And can only use on Snap Fire[SF] ( or called Opportunity Fire in more advanced games). That is not a game, IMO. Why are you not reacting to your opponents moves and fires, etc. ?

Understand the way we play UA.

You can use Chess as a good example. That is basically Unit Activation[UA] … Normally after playing wargames starting in the '60, like AH, SPI, GDW, etc., plus playing 1 to 1 scale "wargames" from '79-'90 as an Infantry Officer. IGOUGO is like using a Brown Bess vs. an M16. Yes, it will kill some one. But no where good as something like an M16 or AK, IMO.

You use Order Counters [OC], like in SM1 & 2. That gives you an accounting of your UA … AND as importantly you opponents. Once a unit is activated, the OC is flipped over to the order side. After a unit has completed UA. The OC is remains right side up It keeps track of who did what or is doing an activation.

The beginning of a turn. After rolling off to see who activates a unit. And any Leadership, etc., bonuses add to that roll. If you use that. The "winner" of the roll off activates 1 of his units. Now, that unit can Move and Fire, or Fire or even Fire and then move. Based on OC Again OC are paramount.

Review OCs :

First Fire[FF] – Fire only. +1 to hit. And if having not fired, a unit on FF, you can SF at any enemy unit moving with in your "Line of Sight"[LOS].
Plus has to expend 1/4 of it's movement in your LOS.
That counts as that unit's Activation. And an SF counter is placed next to that unit. Also SF does not get the +1 for FF.
Any surviving units that came under FF can complete it's UA.

Advance [AV] Unit moves at 1/2 max speed and gets no +1 to fire. Infantry can't fire Heavy Weapons.

Charge [CH] Unit moves at max speed and gets a -1 to fire. Infantry can't fire.

Fallback [FB] Unit can't fire. Only can move at AV rate away from closest enemy units. Towards his side of table.
Must move at least 4cms away from enemy.
Any unit that fires on a unit on FB, the firing unit gets a -1 to hit.
So yes, if firing unit is on CH and fires at a unit on FB. The modifiers are cumulative … so that becomes a -2. And if on FF, and fires at FB. Then the +1 for FF is nullified by the FB -1 …

Use Cover Mods …

I can explain why all those mods occur but it should be "kind of" obvious (?).

Once both sides complete UA of all units. Then roll off for next turn, etc., …

Now I know some get upset that your opponent may have more units to UA. But that is a fairly "realistic" occurrence. Each side in a battle rarely have the same amount of units.

That comes to my point of one thing I see after gaming UA with those who are only used to IGOUGO Many fail to do some things to effectively play UA.

Make a plan based on your Victory Conditions/Objectives and your units capabilities.

Prioritize your UA. Based on that plan and the current situation.

Target the unit(s) that are the immediate threat. Or may interfere with you overall plan.

Use Supporting Fires like Artillery[FA – Field Arty], Aircraft[CAS – Close Air Support], Off-Board assets to suppress, attrite or destroy enemy units that are the immediate threat or in the way of your overall plan.
E.g. Before you bring on your CAS. Destroy or Suppress and Enemy Anti-Air assets. So your CAS won't be getting shot at will make the attack.

Activate FA, CAS, etc. on enemy heavy weapons, etc., before you UA units that may be assaulting and/or moving within range and LOS of enemy units.

I'll save how to use units that can make Pop-up Attacks with UA. If any are interested. But many who are wedded to IGOUGO … may not need/want to know …

Always do what works for you … not me …

It's a bit hard to read all that… Not just because of the abbreviation jargon, but also because of the many grammatical issues…

That said, my memory of Epic 40,000 is that one side moves his entire army, then the opponent does. Then in the shooting phase, the player with the initiative fires with one detachment and then the opponent gets to fire with one detachment. It was a perfectly servicable system that no one ever complained about in our circle.

I suppose if it did bother you, you could just play double-blind games so both sides moved their armies unbeknownst to the enemy, or use Battletech-style combat where the damage from every attack was resolved simultaneously. That all seems too fiddly, for me, but to each his own.

Sorry … I'm not very literate … as many here know. Or a very good typist, either.

And Yes all versions of Epic AT/SM1, SM2/TL, and E40K were IGOUGO. Epic:A was the first to use activation. But as I said, we added that to SM1 back then. Based on some other games we played previously.

That all seems too fiddly, for me, but to each his own

As I said, Always do what works for you … not me … But it's basically SM1 with Unit Activation like Epic:A. If all you ever played was Epic40K, then you would not be accustomed to the SM1 System … Which was very different … SM1 with UA makes sense to me as we played it so often.

I've only played SM2 with the order counters, and I always liked that system. Never played any of the later incarnations.

Yes, especially with Unit Activation, it is a good system. But as SM1 started out with IGOUOG and the Counters it worked fine too.

E40K isn't strictly IGOUGO. Movement yes, but firing alternates. Back in E40K time I thought I wanted unit activation, but now I'm pretty pleased with the E40K approach.

andy

I've only played SM2 with the order counters, and I always liked that system.

Thing is that System did favor the side that had lots of units that you wanted to use First Fire with. (Imperial Guard/Squats)

They blasted the hell out of your units before you could fire.

So not the greatest if you were running a force that was more into movement.

Had a 4 on 4 game and watch the individual who was next to me lose all four of his Eldar Titans in the first turn due to the amount of First Fire from the other side.

I only had one that was damaged because I learned to take Pilot skills.

So there are issues with that system.

Well as I said, everybody should do what works for them. But of all the iterations of Epic SM2 was my least favorite.

Ok I gave it another read through (apologies if I came off as dismissive the first time!). Is there a "march order" for faster movement? On the one hand, it would actually be kind of interesting to play around with the idea of no march orders. The double or triple movement always made the game table feel a bit too small (if you can traverse it in a single turn).

You could also have an order like Stargrunt's "in position," which allows infantry and vehicles to seek cover and build up temporary defenses and obstacles to better hold a position or objective that turn.

Thanks for that ! We use 2 movement rates. As in SM1, like 12/24 – Advance/Charge. And then there is a road movement bonus. Like in E40K, if you move entirely along road you get +5cm to movement rate. The speed is based on Orders. We don't use march orders … it makes the movement too fast.

And Infantry on First Fire gets a cover bonus as in SM1.
Vehicles have to use the actual cover on the board.