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I have been going through my game rules for my skirmish game and have been determining where it can be streamlined as well as what can be improved upon. Currently I am looking at Objectives, how they are chosen and define mission parameters.

The skirmish game rounds are broken up into 3 phases with the game lasting a maximum of 8 rounds (unless the mission objective states otherwise). We are still working with the round limit to determine if that is suffucient or too long but for now this is about the objectives.

Assuming that the game table has already been setup ahead of time with terrain and both sides have completed their army lists. This is usually done ahead of time.

Setup Game Table with terrain.
Create Army List
- DETERMINE OBJECTIVES
Deploy Troops, rolling to determine who deploys first.

Start Phase
-- Unit Initiative
-- Start Phase effects

Player Phase
-- Active Turns
-- Reactive Turns

End Phase
-- End Phase Effects
-- Check Obejctive Status

At this time Objectives are in a card formated objective deck. We messed with dice, randomizing objectives but so far the card deck has been the fastest and most effective way.

Players need to determine their secondary mission objectives. The secondary objectives are privately known to the players only, until they are completed. Players could have the same objective or they could be different. The objective deck is shuffled and each player is dealt three cards. The players choose one of the three cards as their secondary objective and then discard the other two.

Now to determine the primary objective they would reveal the top card of the objective deck. That objective becomes the primary objective for both players.

Note: There are methods and ways to change primary and secondary objectives throughout the game. For example a player could spend two Activation Points and a Tact-Op token to swap objectives, redraw a new primary or even a secondary. Tact-Op tokens are a limited resource which can not be replenished. They are also necessary to utiilize Tactical Ability cards.

The current method is pretty straight forward and fairly quick. Some players feel the knowledge should be more well known but that isnt really in the lore. Others have felt they would like a bit more control and less randomness.

One method we have considered is drafting objectives. This adds adds a small amouh of extra time, but drafting usually takes less than 5 minutes but it gives more of tactiful feel to it. We might just keep the normal method and include rules for drafting if both players agree.

To draft both players are dealt 5 cards each. From this they are choosing one card, not neccessarily for them but could be to deny the other player from getting it. Then they pass and pick another card. This is done until all the cards have been drafted. Now they choose one objective for their own secondary objective. They discard two objectives that they know they don’t want the primary objective to be. Finally each player puts the remaining two cards into the pool, shuffles them and draws the primary objective.

What are your thoughts on that, likes, dislikes, other ideas?

The cards are good, but you're missing out on a key benefit of cards. Do it like this:

1. Flip 1 - that's the primary.
2. Draw 3, hold 1 - that's the secondary.
3. Discard 1, pass 1 - that's the other secondary.

Flipping the top card informs the secondaries.

Draw / hold / discard / pass - those are things that cards do exceptionally well.

 JohnHwangDD wrote:
1. Flip 1 - that's the primary.
2. Draw 3, hold 1 - that's the secondary.
3. Discard 1, pass 1 - that's the other secondary.

Flipping the top card informs the secondaries.

Draw / hold / discard / pass - those are things that cards do exceptionally well.

That would also work out given the number of objectives we have for the game. It isn’t drafting but drafting can also be an acquired taste. The method you suggest is more fluid and streamlined so that can work.

Drafting is the current hotness, but it requires knowledge of the potential choices that they might receive. I prefer not to draft when it isn't a core gameplay mechanism, as it's really a game outside the game.