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Hello community. I have been lately confronted to the turn-by-turn normal 40K game, it makes the game static, where one army moves, shoots and does everything while the other player just tries to survive. This is most important in the two first turns of the game, where the first strike is usually crippling.

I would like a game where manouvring and strategies would be more important than masses of dice rolling, and over all, a playstyle much more dinamic. To achieve that I would like to propose turns of game where each player acts with their units alternatively. Player A moves, player B moves, player C (if any) moves, and back to player A. To make some limitation, units could get activated depending on their initiative. I'll explain it later in each different case.

I'm writing this set of alternative rules for you to give me your trustworthy opinion, and to improve them until we could get some playtesting if you find them interesting enough. I've tried to find some similar houserules but my research has been fruitless.

For purposes of wording and limitations of English language, and I acknowledge that women are great wargamers, some of them much better than myself; I'm taking masculine pronouns when talking about players, so please read (he/she) and (his/her) when applicable.

RULES

First rule: Each unit has an initiative attribute, which will determine when that unit can be activated in each turn.

- For infantry squads, motojet squads and all similar multi-unit entity of the game: The initiative attribute is the highest initiative of a member of the squad. It can be the initaitive of the sergeant, the initiative of an independent character, or the initiative of a single member of the squad such as the kroot's dog.
- For walkers, monstruos creatures and single figurine units, their initiative attribute is the initative written in their datasheets.
- For general vehicles, their initiative is one point less than the initiative of a standard troop member of the codex. A space marine's Rhino would have an initiative of 3, an Imperial Guard's Leman Russ would have an initiative of 2. This initiative reduction is meant to replicate how vehicles are more cumbersome than infantry.
- Skimmers, flyers and fast vehicles have the same initiative as the standard troop member of the codex. Thus, all dark eldar transports would move and fire at the same initiative as their troops.
- Flyers and flying monster creatures have a +1 to their initiative score for moving, and shooting when they are in flying mode. They lose this bonus if they are in stationary/skimmer mode. Note that this +1 to initiative isn't applicable to physic power manifesting.

Second rule : Initiative modifiers

- Every unit can choose willingly to drop their initiative to 1. This will help to move first (by blatantly going for an objective) and to shoot last, as it is explained below.
- The initiative used for turn activation isn't modified by the melee weapons of the unit. A unit of castellax robots all with powerfists will still be activated at their normal initiative of 2 instead of 1.
- All other external initiative modificators are present: For exemple, if a unit has been affected by a Concussive attack, their initiative would drop to 1.
- Units pinned and/or gone to ground have an initiative of 1.

TURNS


A game has the same number of turns as a normal 40K game.

Each turn is divided in phases. The phases are: Movement, Physic, Shooting, Assaulting, Close Combat.

Movement phase:

- At the begining of the game each player roll a dice to see who deploys first. The one who is deployed first has the first move unless the opponent manages to steal the initiative. We will call player A the winner of the initiative, player B the other one.
- All units are moved in REVERSE ORDER. Player A moves his slowest unit, player B moves his slowest unit, player A moves his second slowest, player B moves his second slowest, player A moves his third slowest, and so on.
- If a player has several units with the same initiative attribute he can choose which unit he moves. The unique limitation is that he must move all units at initiative 1 before moving any at initiative 2; all initiative 2 before initiative 3, all units at initiative 3 before 4, and so forth.
- A player can choose to drop the initiative of a unit to 1, but he must move it immidiately and at the beginning of the moving phase before any other normal initaitive 1 unit. This unit will keep his initiative 1 for the physic, shooting and assaulting phase, but not for combat.
- Units embarqued in transports have the initiative of the transport they are in. For all purposes the transport and the unit transported at two different entities for moving. For exemple: A rhino (initiative 3) with a tactical marines squad (initiative 4) will reduce their moving initiative to 3 if embarqued. At initiative step 3 the rhino could move, at next initiative step 3 the marines could disembark. In the opposite, the marines could disembark at initiative 3, and then the rhino can move at next initiative 3 step.
- Units that come from reserves are placed ALL in the table at their initiative step. Units from reserve are generally well-planned operations and they are precise at their arriving.
- A player can choose not to move all his units, but static units cannot be moved once their initiative step is over. A player must move a unit each initiative step or pass the whole turn to his opponent.
- When a player has no more units left to move, but his opponent does, the opponent can move all the rest of his units at whichever initiative step he wishes.

Physic phase:

- At the beginning of the physic phase each player roll a different dice. Each one has that number of charges plus the charges generated by their own psykers to manifest AND dispell physic powers.
- The player A chooses his psyker with highest initiative and manifest one power with him. Player B can choose to dispell it or pass. Player B then chooses a psyker of his own and manifest one power while player A chooses to stop it or let it pass. Player A chooses the same psyker if he can and manifest a second power. Player B does the same thing. The physic phase finishes when no player has any more psykers or physic powers to manifest.
- A player can choose not to manifest all his physic powers, he must manifest one each initiative step or pass the whole turn to his opponent.

Shooting phase:

- Shooting phase is done BY ORDER OF INITIATIVE. Player A chooses his fastest unit to shoot. Player B chosses his fastest unit to shoot. Player A chooses his second fastest, player B does the same thing; and so forth.
- Any unit can willingly drop his initiative to 1 (and thus shoot the last), but that would give them initiative 1 for the assault phase.
- Units that went to ground, were pinned, or willingly dropped their initiative to 1 are shooting at initiative step 1.
- Units with a member of the unit that moved and carries a heavy weapon and they don't have the Relentless USR are shooting at initiative step 1 (and snap-shooting for that case)
- Units that are embarked in a transport shoot at the initiative step of the transport. Units that have disembarked can shoot at their normal initiative step.
- When a player has exhausted his shooting units, the other player can shoot the remaining ones at whatever initiative order he wishes.
- After all shooting is done, leadership tests can be made and units can fallback as usual.
- A player that activates one unit can shoot all the unit weapons in his activation. If a unit or squadron hasn't shot all its weapons, the same unit cannot be activated later in the same turn to shoot the remaining weapons.
- A player can choose not to shoot all his weapons with all his units, but he must do some shooting each initiative step or pass the whole turn to his opponent.
- If a unit chooses to sprint instead of shooting, the unit can sprint at initiative step +1, or at the normal initiative step as the controlling player wishes. For exemple, a sprinting termagant (initiative 4) could sprint at normal initiative step 4 or 5.

Assault phase:

- Assault is made BY ORDER OF INITIATIVE. Fastest units get to close combat the first.
- Assault is subject to the same limitations as usual: units cannot assault if they have shot not assault weapons in the shooting phase, they cannot assault if disembarked from a non assault vehicle, they cannot assault if they have gone to ground. Units that have assaulted through cover and they don't have assault grenades will fight in the combat phase at initiative 1.
- Snap shots can be made against one assaulting unit by the assaulted unit, as usual.
- A player can give the remaining turn to his opponent whenever he wants in case he doesn't want to make any more assaults with his units.
- If a player is out of units to assault, the other player can make all the assaults of the units remaining under his control at the initiative order he wishes.

Combat phase:

- Melée combat is the same as normal: Each individual unit fights at the initiative order it fights normally with the modifiers in effect by their close combat weaponery.
- Hammer of wrath hits are happening at initiative step 10.
- Once that the combat is resolved, units will fall back and will consolidate as usual

Once the turn is finished, objective points are counted, and a new turn begins at the moving phase.


CONCLUSION:


I'm writing an example to make things easier to understand. In the meanwhile tell me what you think and what could be done to make this set of rules work / fun to play.



Thanks and may you crush your enemies while both having a good time.



EXAMPLE:


Player A:

2 units of 10 skitarii (Initiative 3)
1 Onager (Initiative 2)
1 unit of Sicarian infiltrators (Initiative 4)
2 units of sicarian dragoons in reserves (Initiative 3)

Player B:

1 unit of terminators with shields and stormhammers with a librarian (Initiative 4)
1 unit of tactical marines (Initiative 4)
1 space marine rhino (Initiative 3 because as it is a vehicle it has -1 to the infantry codex initiative)
1 land speeder in reserves (Initiative 4 because it's a skimmer)

TURN 1:

Movement:

Player A wins the roll and thus he moves first his slowest unit: In this case he moves the onager (I 2)
Player B chooses to move his Rhino with the marines embarked (I 3)
Player A moves one of his vanguards squads
Player B chooses not to move his embarked marines in the rhino and passes the activation to his terminators with the librarian, they move.
Player A chooses to move his other squad of vanguards
Player B has no more units to move, so he passes the control to player A
Player A moves his infiltrators

Physic phase:

Player A has no psykers so it's player B turn. Both players roll a dice and resolve the power manifestation and denying the witch rolls as usual.

Shooting phase:

Player A chooses his fastest unit, his infiltrators, as he doesn't have any good target, he chooses to pass the activation to his next unit, a vanguards unit, who shoots the terminators
Player B chooses his fastest unit in the game to shoot. The Terminators do not have ranged weapons, but the librarian can shoot with his combi-bolter.
Player A chooses his next vanguard unit to shoot at the terminators
Player B next unit can be the marines embarked in the rhino or the rhino itself. He chooses to shoot the rhino (init 3) at the sicarians.
Player A activates his last unit, his onager (init 2), and shoots all its weapons into the terminators.
Player B make the marines in the rhino (init 3) shoot the vanguards from the two shooting traps in the rhino.

Assault and Close Combat phase are ignored because no unit is in range.

TURN 2:

Moving phase:

Each player roll for reserves and they both bring their reserves to the table (well, that's the point of this exemple)

Player A moves his onager (Init 2)
Player B moves his rhino (init 3)
Player A, at his initiative step 3, must bring his two units of dragoons in reserve in flank attack.
Player B chooses to keep his marines in the rhino and passes to initiative step 4 bringing his land speeder from reserves in flank attack and positionates it BEHIND the dragoons that have just arrived.
Player A moves one of his vanguard squad
Player B moves his terminators and librarian
Player A moves his other vanguards
Player A moves his infiltrators

Physic phase: As before

Shooting phase:

Player A chooses to not shooting with his infiltrators (init 4) and instead he chooses to make one of his dragoons run at initiative step 3+1.
Player B chooses to shoot with his land speeder (init 4) against the dragoon that is in range destroying it.
Player A chooses to shoot with his vanguards (init 3)
Player B chooses to shoot with his librarian (init 4) to one unit of vanguards and they go to ground seeking cover, their initiative drop to 1
Player A shoots with his onager (init 2)
Player B shoots with his rhino (init 3)
Player A shoots with the vanguard that went to ground (init 1)
Player B shoots with his embarked marines

Assault phase:

The terminators choose to assault the vanguarss that went to ground, they cannot snap fire, they come to contact.

Combat phase:

The only combat is the terminators against the vanguards. As the vanguards went to ground and the terminators have thunder hammers, they all strike at initiative 1 except for the librarian. The combat finishes with a swift victory for the terminators, who consolidate.

TURN 3:

Moving phase:

Player A moves his onager (init 2)
Player B moves his rhino (init 3)
Player A moves his remaining vanguard squad (init 3)
Player B disembark his marines (init 3)
Player A moves his remaining dragoon (init 3)
Player B moves his land speeder (init 4)
Player A moves his infiltrators (init 4)
Player B moves his terminators (init 4)

Physic phase: As before

Shooting phase:

Player A shoots his infiltrators (init 4) against the disembarked marines
Player B would have loved to risposte with the disembarked marines, they usully shoot at initiative 4, but they are within the neurostatic range of the infiltrators that make their inititative to drop to 3, they cannot shoot because the player must activate the terminators (init 4) and land speeder (init 4) beforehand. He chooses to drop the initiative in the landspeeder and terminators to 1, so he could finally, at initiative step 3 shoot with his marines into the infiltrators.
Player A shoots with his vanguards (init 3) into the marines
Player B shoots with his rhino at initiative step 2 (the rhino is 3, but the neurostatic aura of the infiltrators drop it one point, so the rhino is initative 2 for the rest of the turn)
Player A shoots with his onager at initiative step 2 unto the landspeeder, who jinks
Player B shoots with his landspeeder and terminators at initiative step 1 because the skitarii player has no more units to activate.

Assault phase:

Player A assaults with his infiltrators against the marines at initiative step 4. The marines react with snap fire.
Player B assaults the onager with his terminators. The onager react with snap fire, but the terminators miss their charge.
Player B has no more units able to assault, Player A assaults the rhino with his dragoon and the landspeeder with his onager. If the terminators would have locked the onager in combat it wouldn't have been able to charge the other vehicle.

Combat phase:

Each combat is solved separately as normal. The infiltrators would carve the marines on their own, the dragoon would wreck the rhino, the onager would fail miserabily against the landspeeder. Each victor would consolidate as normal.

Seems far too complicated to be honest.

I like the idea of alternate activations. Player 1 activates a unit, move, psychic, shoot, assault. Player 2, etc etc until all unitz have been activated.

The problem with basing any of it on inititive is 1 vehicles don't have a inititive and 2 eldar always have the advantage orcs always have the disadvantage. If there is any army in the game that does not need to get worse its the orcs and if there is any army that does not need to get better its the eldar.

Just have players strategically pick which units they activate and when is a much more dynamic mechanic that adds much more to the game.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Fhe rules i enjoy only require a few tweeks to what is already there in the main game.

1 before each full game turn the first player rolls 2d6. That +mastery levels is all the dice each side has both for manifesting powers and deny the witch. You have to pick how you are going to spend them.

2 assaults. Each unit fully resolves its assault in its activation. If it ends up locked in combat, fine.

If another unit charges into a unit that is locked in combat the unit that has already attacked has it's number of attacks reduced by 2 to a minimum of 1for each subequent assault it is a part of that game turn.

In this way a melee focused unit can actually do more damage now then they cojld before, but they can also get overwhelmed by multiple less melee focused units.

Again, when you activate is strategic. Charge with your first unit and you risk the enemy piling onto your last and risk only the one combat.

Finally, i propose "passing the first player". Roll off for who deploys any everything like normal. In game turn 2 the second player activates first.

With your system, there is only 1 assault phase per game turn, instead of one per player turn. That's a pretty huge change.

I agree that the current alternating game turn, (IGOUGO, ) causes lots of issues in the game play and levels of balance.

However, the OPs suggestion seems to be very complicated, and I would prefer to use a a simpler option.

Alternating Phases keeps the familiar phases , but lets players take a single action with all their units each phase.And can represent simultaneous resolution simply by not removing casualties until the end of each phase.

Any change to the core game turn mechanic will need to be accompanied by re-writing the rules.

As alternating phases is the most straight forward and clean game turn system.
(It does not need reaction rules or scheduling rules, like alternating game tun or alternating unit activation options do.)

It is the one I would use for a 40k rules overhaul.

@ Valkyrie: Well, it is another way to think of playing WH40K, every new system looks complicated until you get the knack of it. The aim of what I propose is to give both players a chance of playing more equally.

@Lance845:

As I have written in the rules I propose, vehicles get an initiative attribute depending on the crew initiative which is codex based. Fast vehicles and flyers get some other benefits.

Yes, orks are slower than eldar and their attacks are easily outmanouvred, eldar are slender and fast. Orks are already shot to smitherees before they get to melee range, I don't see what would be different in that case with an initiative - based system.

An ork player has two advantages with my system:

1) he gets to move at the same time the eldar is moving. The orks move first because they have lower initiative, that means that the eldar can outmanouver them, but the orks will close distance, closer than in normal WH40K system where their transports would get blown away in their deployment zone. All players move in the movement phase, later all players shoot in the shooting phase, all players assault in the assault phase, and all players fight hand to hand in the combat phase.

2) Orks have numbers in their favour. Once that the eldar player has no more units to move or shoot the ork player is free to move and shoot at his pleasure.

I don't think that rolling 2D6 for physic dices is a good idea. What would happen if a player has no psykers and the other one does? the player with psykers would have double the dices to manifest powers and it would be uneven. But again, the physic phase needs a lot of relooking.

For assaults: One unit that is locked in combat is locked in combat, that doesn't count for the number of attacks or anything. The melée combat resolution phase is another independent phase. In the assault phase on decide who is charging who, for the purposes of snap shooting and assault benefits. The melée combat should be resolved as normal.

@fresus: Yes, one game turn and phases for both players at the same time. That's a huge change, let's be adventurous!

I wasn't clear: in the current game, when two units are locked in combat, they will fight each other during the assault phase of each player, so twice during a single game turn.
In your implementation, they would only attack each other once per game turn, which completely changes the "balance" between melee and shooting.

It also removes the option of staying locked in combat during the other opponent's turn to avoid shooting, then break free during his assault phase (by killing the other unit, or using hit and run). So there is no way for a melee unit to avoid getting shot at between two consecutive assaults, and hit and run becomes almost useless.