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So I've been kinda mulling over this while working the weekend.

What if for activations per turn you have a set amount, (I'm gonna say 5 as a starting point) plus troops do not count towards this cap. Upon each activation the unit would go through all its phases in order like normal.

So I believe in order for this to work though I think detachments would need to be restricted most likely to only a battalion and or a brigade. (though I'd like to say only a battalion so it's more equal) this way at most you have 5 for your pool then you can activate your troops for 8-11 total activations per turn. I wanted troops to have free activations so they don't get left behind, why activate a Fire warrior when you have a riptide right?

My main concern is dedicated transports carrying troops. Initially I was going to say transports with troops are considered troops, but now multiple units can hop in and some transports are shootier than others (repulsor would end up just buying a intercessor squad as a "battery"). Also I'm not sure if DE should have that much freedom but it kinda fits too

Anyway I'm expecting this idea to look like Swiss cheese afterwards but this is my take on alternate activation

There's a few things to keep in mind if you were to limit activations per turn.

1) Armies with a heavy to total close combat focus would have a serious issue moving all their army into close combat. Because not everything would get to move per turn there would be some units left behind. Once left behind for a turn they might end up left being entirely so you could end up simply giving one army an effective negative modifier to their points because some units are never making it to a useful point.

Meanwhile a strong ranged army has a bonus because a unit that doesn't move isn't locked out of the game; they can still be used next turn to shoot because they are still with the main body of the army.

2) Now you've sort of addressed this by making troops free of activation limits; which suggests that you're sort of trying to limit activations but at the same time not limit them. The result is that you might well end up either making the limit functionally pointless; or biasing it toward armies with a heavy troop component at a cost of armies which have focuses in other areas of the army tree.
This would be an issue because some armies are built around taking more heroes or elites than others, they'd be functioning with serious issues because the powerblock of their army is now being cut down in how well it can perform; whilst a swarming army of tyranids or orks is easily working at full functionality.


In general what you propose tends to be found in games where most to all units are ranged with obscene range values (or values across the whole game board). Ergo games where movement is important for cover, but where you can target moves things you get line of sight too. So units left behind can still function and support mid to late game.
The other common situation is Apoc style games - ergo MASSIVE games way outside of normal play. In those cases its about really just cutting down on turn times. Competitive interests aren't as heavy in such games as they are mostly for fun so its more important to try and keep the games pace going quick with turns passing over between players; rather than letting the game get bogged down for each player whichwould in less game time for all over the course of the game and a greater chance of not completing games.

So, in other words, Deathstars rule?

Because let's say I play Infantry-heavy Guard. I have 6 Infantry Squads, some Heavy Weapons teams, some Special Weapons Teams, that sort of stuff.

My Infantry squads are kitted out with Lascannons, making them 60 points a pop, for 360 from troops. None of my other squads break 100 points, so in a 2,000 point game, I get around 800 points worth of activation a turn.

My opponent is Custodes. He has a squad of nine Bikes-in that ONE activation, he has almost the same points value as I do in ALL MINE. Normally, in an AA system, that's okay-he can either wait with them, and let me whittle them down with my weaker, more numerous units, or activate them early, in which case I'm free to activate all my units with little fear of reprisal.

In this case, though, it doesn't do that.