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Just a thought here. It seems like the broad turn-based game play is rather archaic. Im not sure how it should be reworked but here's a go. I would like to see a system that is either A. initiative based and individual units take turns and perform most, if not all actions, one at a time.
or
B. actions for a turn are determined in secret and turns occur more or less simultaneously.

Just ideas. I think A could be implemented rather well but B seems more realistic but has more quirks to hammer out. That's just me though. What are your thoughts?

Activating units in initiative order might be a neat twist, though I would think higher init. would want to move last to have the best chances at charging.

I agree. When I was thinking about the idea of changing the system, I'd been playing Heroes of Might and magic and borrowed the idea to apply it to WH. I think it would be easy to implement. I do have a concern. In H:M&M, it seemed to make tactics boringly straightforward but the battle system was too, IMO. Lol. The ref to H:M&M was because the units had an option to wait and often is it wise in the game to have such units do so.

the other option needs some finagaling from the original idea. I like it because I think if worked properly, it adds a healthy level of intuition. If done poorly I think it would make games horribly more chaotic than the dice already do. Idk. It was just something to throw out there.

A couple of my friends and I have on occasions changed how the turn system works by simply doing this;

Player A Movement > Player B Movement > Player A Magic > Player B Magic > Player A Shooting > Player B Shooting > Combined Combat phase.

We even tried a version where player A and B were decided by dice roll each turn. There were obviously some clunky aspects where specific rules did not quite line up but we were pretty much always able to come to some sort of logical compromise. There were a few new challenges that this method created as well, like trying to pre-empt your opponents movement so they couldn't simply hide from your shooting in the following phase.

Far from perfect obviously but for casual games I have to say it worked really well.

alex87 wrote:
A couple of my friends and I have on occasions changed how the turn system works by simply doing this;

Player A Movement > Player B Movement > Player A Magic > Player B Magic > Player A Shooting > Player B Shooting > Combined Combat phase.

We even tried a version where player A and B were decided by dice roll each turn. There were obviously some clunky aspects where specific rules did not quite line up but we were pretty much always able to come to some sort of logical compromise. There were a few new challenges that this method created as well, like trying to pre-empt your opponents movement so they couldn't simply hide from your shooting in the following phase.

Far from perfect obviously but for casual games I have to say it worked really well.

I was considering something like that for option B. In the case of determining a units actions in secret, I think it would be a good way of dealing with weird situations that "secretive" part causes. For example unit a is ordered to move up 4" and shoot longbows at unit b. Unit b is ordered to move in such a way that they move out of range. Phase play occurs like you describe. It comes to shooting and now unit a can maybe take a Ld test to be able to change actions. Idk. just an example for the sake of one. Im not calling it good by any means.

Honestly at very begining when I started playing fantasy with my friend in 7th I misunderstood the rules and played the way alex87 proposed. It worked just fine. It's a system that reflectins reality on the battlefield to a bigger extent, additionaly it's more fair. In the current system the starting player has a decisive advantage. For exammple if I have sufficient scouts with hagbane tips( poison arrows) and I start first, I'm able to take out all your warmachines befeore they even get to shoot. On the other hand if you start first you may wipe out half my army before it get's to move.

If alex's87 system was implemented, you could screen your vunerable units, move them to cover, use magic to protect them even in your first turn when you did not start.

Deciding the order of play in terms of intiative is not a good idea as it would slow a game which already takes long time to play significantly.
Same goes with planning the actions secretly and carrying them out simultaneoulsy. This would even require you to use pen or pencil to note them down so you could not change actions once they are planned and gain opponent's trust.
Additionally if two units charge at each other, if unit A has movement X while unit B movement Y and the distance between them is Z how do you dice the point on the board at which they meet?

While this might be an interesting way to go, it would require you to rebuild everything from the ground up. You couldn't just say "units activate and perform their actions in initiative order"

I think turn based play is still the best way to go, but you could move to a system more like Warmachine when you activate units individually and they perform all their actions before you move to the next one.

If there was a pool I would vote for alex87's option.

devestator 7777777 wrote:
if I have sufficient scouts with hagbane tips( poison arrows) and I start first, I'm able to take out all your warmachines befeore they even get to shoot.

If you're doing this then your opponent has most likely deployed poorly and deserves to have his cannons taken out early.

It's far from a perfect system and does create gaps where the rules aren't intended to overlap, so unless your playing with regular gaming buddies or genuinely good people then expect it to cause you more than a few problems.

Matt Ratsinburger wrote:
I'd been playing Heroes of Might and magic...

PS this game was one of my absolute favourites when I was younger. I downloaded HOMM3 Complete edition over the weekend because of you

alex87 wrote:

devestator 7777777 wrote:
if I have sufficient scouts with hagbane tips( poison arrows) and I start first, I'm able to take out all your warmachines befeore they even get to shoot.

If you're doing this then your opponent has most likely deployed poorly and deserves to have his cannons taken out early.

It's far from a perfect system and does create gaps where the rules aren't intended to overlap, so unless your playing with regular gaming buddies or genuinely good people then expect it to cause you more than a few problems.

It's enough I have line of sight and don't hit on 7s ( which is pretty much impossible for my opponent to achieve especially scouts can deploy freely )that I will be able to most likely takedown all his warmachines turn one .

Even if I hit on sixes which also wound it's only a matter of 18 scouts to take out 3 crew Warmachine( most crew have only light armour).
Obviously most times I will be able to hit on lesser values like on 4s if Warmachine is within 15 inches in soft cover ,my scouts haven't moved or on 5s if Warmachine is behind hard cover.

Basically deploy 12 scouts with hagbane tips in close range for every two crew Warmachine and 18 for every three crew Warmachine or more if you will hit on 6s and you should have it down turn one providing you start first turn and you are not especially unlucky.

Matt Ratsinburger wrote:
I'd been playing Heroes of Might and magic...

PS this game was one of my absolute favourites when I was younger. I downloaded HOMM3 Complete edition over the weekend because of you

I enjoyed hereos 3 too. Now 7 is coming out and fortunately it looks more in the style of heroes 3 and 5.