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Sounds intriguing, each unit has its own specific cards or there are wilds ectr in it?

I think Muskets and Tomahawks uses a similar method.

I'm going to note that I selected Initiative-driven Igo-Ugo for its simplicity, where simplicity is seen as a virtue. There is a certain clarity when one player does their thing, and then the other does theirs. This reduces bookkeeping and mechanical items over what has, and hasn't gone.

I go You Go isn't always bad. It works very well in KOW for example. I think other games need to do away with it like Flames of War (which, in a modern day game, needs over watch etc).

For most games I MUCH prefer alternate activation in one way or another.

I had this idea that you have activate units like in mantic's warpath but you only do movement like this. After movement phase you have actions phase where player plan action for each unit in secret (stuff like shooting, charging for melee, running, use special item etc.). After planning is done everything is revealed and resolved in some sort of order (eg. first running, then shooting etc.)

 illuknisaa wrote:
I had this idea that you have activate units like in mantic's warpath but you only do movement like this. After movement phase you have actions phase where player plan action for each unit in secret (stuff like shooting, charging for melee, running, use special item etc.). After planning is done everything is revealed and resolved in some sort of order (eg. first running, then shooting etc.)

Perhaps, if each unit has a movement phase, then each player selects an "action" in secret that are revealed simultaneously.... some form of initiative stat is needed? Similar to 40k close combat, Unit A "goes first" because of having a higher initiative value. This reminds me of X-wing as well, because the "fastest" ships go before the slower ones.

Order of activities taking precedent can also work and has been done in a number of games I can think of.

You could do, each unit has a numbers of actions. Record all actions the unit will take. Reveal their actions. Consult Order of Actions chart and complete any unit with that orders action during that section of the chart.

This type of activation/action system works good in larger scale battle/historical games.

At some point, the recording and sequencing of activities becomes RoboRally / Robot Turtles. A very different sort of game. I think BFG's order modifiers are a good compromise to this kind of thing.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
At some point, the recording and sequencing of activities becomes RoboRally / Robot Turtles. A very different sort of game. I think BFG's order modifiers are a good compromise to this kind of thing.

Perhaps rather than "recording" as in P/P, game designers could make use of the wheel mechanic similar to X-Wing?? If it's a ground based combat game, the movement phase could be done "simultaneously", with each player moving a model/unit in initiative order, then, once everything has moved, each player secretly does an action on their wheel (perhaps this is another move, or it's shooting, or charging into CC) and then reveals in the same order. Once CC has engaged though, the wheel becomes null until that combat is resolved (ie, a unit is wiped out or some other resolution)

I think a deck is the best way of doing that sort of thing, a hidden pool of potential actions, that you can place down and reveal one by one

Remember epic/ adeptus mechanicus order sequence?

counters placed hidden on units, revealed and then units activate by orders sequence and sides priority.

Programmable movement can be facilitated with a deck of cards stacked near the units, I had written a game like this in the past, didn't go well, AP among playetesters and design inexperience from my part created a lot of problems and downtime.

I think a better designed more streamlined version could work.

Yeah, IGOUGO is nice and simple. It is direct and easily understood, easy to track, and an important background element if you’re going to build your game around certain strategies (combo and sequencing strategies can get really messy with other activation mechanics).

IGOUGO really only starts to strain when the length of a single player’s turn is too long, either because the game is very large or because there are a lot of fiddly mechanics. And because this forum is largely 40k and ex-40k players, I think that’s what most people are reacting against. 40k has huge armies these days, and lots of fiddly mechanics, so the time between turns can be crazy. In a smaller and cleaner game, the wait between turns can be only a couple of minutes, the same length of time you often have to wait between activations in some alternating action games.

Now, I’m not saying IGOUGO is best. In fact I don’t think any of my game experiments have ever used it, but that’s because other mechanics offer up lots of interesting strategies. But that’s a double edged sword, as for every bit of extra complexity there’s also scope to screw things up. Of all the games I’ve played with broken or just plain not fun game mechanics, in most cases it was the funky activation mechanic that broke everything.

But I am saying there’s nothing inherently wrong with it, if the time for each players turn is fairly short. And going to some other funky mechanic is adding another mechanic, meaning more complexity. If it isn’t doing something to support the overall strategy, then don’t just include it because IGOUGO isn’t fashionable any more.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
Remember epic/ adeptus mechanicus order sequence?

counters placed hidden on units, revealed and then units activate by orders sequence and sides priority.

The most recent version of epic is a simpler alternating activation system. There's a strategy roll to win initiative, and then players take it turns to activate units. There is scope to activate multiple units as part of a single activation, and to activate a second unit after the first, if the player accepts a risk the second unit might fail its activation and be able to do very little with its turn.

It's a lot more streamlined, and having played both systems, much improved. The game doesn't bog down with a long sequence of placing counters, without losing any of the planning that's essential to the game.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:

Programmable movement can be facilitated with a deck of cards stacked near the units, I had written a game like this in the past, didn't go well, AP among playetesters and design inexperience from my part created a lot of problems and downtime.

I think a better designed more streamlined version could work.

That makes me think of two things....

1. The old robot rules in Warhammer: Rogue Trader.
2. Robot Turtles

One was not fun, and the other is fairly enjoyable. You decide.

You could chunk in robo rally in the above references, I was thinking something more streamlined and modern.

Glad that you saw the same RR / RT influences that I did.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
At some point, the recording and sequencing of activities becomes RoboRally / Robot Turtles. A very different sort of game. I think BFG's order modifiers are a good compromise to this kind of thing.

And too true that going back to the Rogue Trader robot rules would be a disaster.