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Something I'm particularly pleased with is how the game I developed for TITANOMACHINA works. I thought it would be a fun thought-exercise to show how it could be adapted to 40k.

In TITANOMACHINA each Titan is made up of systems. Each system has a card and a token. The token goes on a dashboard so you can track damage to it, check its arc on the board, and calculate if it's able to be hit by a called shot. Each Titan starts the game with 22 cards which are shuffled into a deck, and the players draw 8 to begin with.

Each player also has an initiative, determining which player takes the first turn in each round of play. This initiative is modular, meaning it can shift up, but resets to 1 once it pushes above 6. So players take turns each round first activating or passing in initiative order, and then resolving activations in initiative order. When all players pass on their turn to activate, the round is over, and they all collect five cards from the top of their deck, and put all the activated cards at the bottom in an order of their own choosing. Players will rotate through their decks several times in a game, and a game last 18 rounds or until one player has a 10-point lead.

Similarly, imagine that you have a card for each unit in your Warhammer army. Every game you shuffle up your card deck and draw a hand to begin. Actually you roll 1D6 for initiative and hang onto that value. The player with the highest initiative starts, and players may play a card to activate a unit, or pass. Once all players have activated or passed, they can take turns resolving the activated units in the order of game turn (move, psychic, shoot, charge, fight). Each time an enemy unit is killed, a player's initiative goes up. If it goes up past 6, it resets to 1. Once all players have resolved their actions, the played cards are placed at the bottom of their decks in the order of the player's choosing, and objectives are scored.

The game ends after one player pulls ahead with 6 points, or the game last 7 rounds.

Seems overly complicated when compared to a simpler alternating activation method (obvs units would have to be completely rebalanced and the core rules adjusted).

For example?

What works well for one game doesn't necessarily work as well for another, due to differences in theme and resolution effort, along with the extent it intends to simulate time/motion.

Mechanically, there is no reason why 40k couldn't be moved to card or bag activation, or AA or whatever else happens to be trendy. The challenge is doing it with less mechanical and mental overhead vs Igo-Ugo.

Precisely, and as a fan of using cards to shift mental overhead onto a mechanical procedure I thought it would be fun to detail how I would apply it to 40k for instance.