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I'm going to add this as an optional format in Azyr.

Alternate Activation.

Pick a hero, unit, monster, or warmachine and run through its HERO, MOVE, SHOOT, and Combat phase. Heroes can group activate with another unit, monster, or warmachine within 3" of them (so they activate along with that unit).

Once done, your opponent does the same until everything has been activated. Then move to next turn.

Thoughts

Like Frostgrave does but without restriction on unit type ordering?

Kind of. There are a few games that use alternate activation and I love them because it removes the facet of a GW game where one person sits there for a while and just takes it on the chin without being able to respond. Double so in Age of Sigmar where a player can get two full turns in a row.

So yeah in Frostgrave you have wizard phase, apprentice phase, and soldier phase.

In my optional format for Azyr its just activate something and if its a hero you can group it with another unit 3" or closer from it.

This reminds me of Wrath of Kings. Leader types can 'combined activate' X number of infantry models within Y" that share a keyword. The leader can do so while activating himself or just activating the infantry group (so that the leader doesn't require the same keyword).

To put it into AoS parlance, a Mighty Lord of Khorne could choose to activate himself and a unit of Bloodreavers as his activation as both share the Khorne keyword. They get do do their whole turn sequence then the opponent makes his next activation. This continues until all units have been activated. Each unit can only be activated once per turn s, for example, another leader could not activate the Bloodreavers again.

And as I love the hell out of the Wrath of Kings rules (shame the models are cast in garbage PVC), I think this is a swell idea and I will probably be doing it or something like it in my games of AoS.

Yeah I really really love alternate activation

I like the idea of using the keyword with the hero to group activate a unit that shares that keyword.

I too love almost everything about Wrath of Kings, and think this idea would make for a really nice addition to AoS as well. If only they had gone for this decision to begin with. Or even regular unit/unit alternate activation that many other games use. Simple ways of increasing the player interaction during the game!

Oh well, maybe in AoS v2

I think you should definately go for it in Azyr, auticus!

I actually think LOTR/Hobbit's priority system would be better suited to AoS without anything being possibly game-breaking.

Top of the turn, roll off (as you already do) in the event of a tie priority goes to the player who didn't have it in the previous turn (turn 1 you just reroll until someone wins) whoever wins gets priority for the turn which just means they act first in each phase. So a turn sequence would be (P1 is the player with priority):

Hero Phase
- P1 does hero stuff
- P2 does hero stuff
Move phase
- P1 moves all units
- P2 moves all units
Shoot phase
- P1 shoots with all units
- P2 shoots with all units
Charge phase
- P1 declares/resolves all charges
- P2 declares/resolves all charges
Combat phase
- P1 selects the order in which combats are resolved
Battleshock phase
- P1 resolves battleshock
- P2 resolves battleshock

Next, turn roll for priority and so on.

The main reason for this over alternating activation is that you kind of get the best of both worlds without running into the issue of things like a Hero ability being in effect until their next Hero phase resulting in them being activated last in the following turn and thus getting 2 turns of their buff for the price of 1.

Ah that is a great point sir. I hadn't thought of that. The only issue I have is that its still letting one side potentially hammer the other hard twice in a row.

How about "until their next HERO phase" is changed to "until the beginning of the next turn"