Age of Sigmar with Alternate Activation

[Auticus]

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

[Mr Mystery]

Purely from a player perspective, it makes the game too reactive.

I've found controlling my own 'charge everything and give it a shoeing' impulse to be a real hindrance when you now take it in turns to select a unit to fight.

IGOUGO outside of that, to my mind, gives too much freedom to back off from fluffed fights.

The only system I've played where I found it satisfying was Epic, and that was down to the orders system. The orders restricted your available options, so it wasn't as easy to think 'whoops, that went wrong...everyone back off', or even 'and a bit more pressure here will see them off'

Just my tastes though. Others may well enjoy that sort of thing :)

[grimmas]

Unit activation is not a mechanic I've ever really liked. I do like alternating between players within phases however something like I move a unit then you a unit and so on or I move all my units them you move all your units. I'd also go with mixing the two depending on the phase, say may be each side move all their army then the other side moves all their army but they then alternate units for the shooting and charge phases of that make sense.

I think we may have talked above this elsewhere though. 🙂

[Auticus]

Thats something to consider.

I do not like one side moving all then the other side moving all, then you shooting all then the other shooting all because it still puts a lot of importance on who goes first.

There are two main appeals to alternate activation

1) it keeps both sides engaged throughout
2) it prevents who goes first as being such an important thing, esp in a game like AoS where you can potentially go first twice in a row.

Now I like the alternating through HERO phase, then alternate through MOVE, then SHOOT, then COMBAT because you are able to respond as opposed to stand there and take it in the face completely if you don't go first.

If we just say "ok i moved all my stuff now you can move all your stuff, now i get to shoot my entire gunline at you because i went first, you stand there and take it in the face" the end result is the same as leaving it as is as opposed to "i shoot a unit, now you get to shoot a unit" where you can respond back immediately.

[grimmas]

Yeah I'd only use alternating the armies for the movement or Hero phases. You'd need something else for the others you could go crazy, do a Battletech and only remove models at the end of the shooting phase.

My preferred option would be alternating units in each phase. It would also tie with the current combat phase which is one of the best bits of the AoS rules. I quite like the way it would allow a player to react to the opposition moves etc.

My primary issue with a unit being activated for all its actions as it tends to mean it becomes a bit of a Deathstar Death match

[Auticus]

We're going to do some tests and see how it goes. To date I haven't had the issue of deathstars like you mentioned but I have not done this yet with Age of Sigmar.

[grimmas]

Deathstar may be the wrong word to be honest. It's more of a feel thing it just makes it feel that one is playing with individual units rather than an army (and it always seems like everyone just used their most powerful unit first). This is from my experience of other systems like you I've not tried it with AoS so I'm interested to hear how it works for you.

[Auticus]

To me it makes it feel more like an RTS. If you use your most powerful units first, you could end up in a bad position and not be able to counter. I like to use my chaffe units first to let the table develop before I commit my more heavier units.

[grimmas]

Well we are discussing a personal preference so entirely understandable we'd view it differently. I do think that the AoS rule set can easily be varied to deal with an alternative activation sequence with very little/no effort. How were you going to run the Hero and Battleshock phases?

[Auticus]

You activate a hero, monster, warmachine, or unit. If a hero you can also activate a unit, warmachine, or monster within 3" if they share the same keywords.

They play through ALL of their phases.

So if I activate a hero, I do his hero phase, then his move, then his shooting, then his combat.
If I group activated, the unit or whatever follows suit.

Then my opponent activates one.

[grimmas]

its going to add an extra dimension when using Command abilities and trying not to give away your plan. (Not a bad thing mind)

No change to the Battleshock phase? Would seem sensible to keep it the same.

Have you had a chance to have a go with it yet? Parental duties keep me from having many games at the moment otherwise I'd have tried it myself (bloody life getting in the way of Wargaming 😊)

[Dyolfnai]

How would combat work, does only the activated unit fight (effectively slowing down combat as engaged units only fight in there own turn) or does enemy attack back (possibly several times, or destroying a unit that charged it, then charging and attacking again, then being charged again later)

Would certainly be interesting regarding synergies as these would have to be built up over several activations rather than all at once

[Auticus]

its going to add an extra dimension when using Command abilities and trying not to give away your plan. (Not a bad thing mind)

No change to the Battleshock phase? Would seem sensible to keep it the same.

Have you had a chance to have a go with it yet? Parental duties keep me from having many games at the moment otherwise I'd have tried it myself (bloody life getting in the way of Wargaming 😊)

Yes I have used it a bit. I like it a lot. Battleshock doesn't change. You still take battleshock at the very end like normal. The *only* thing that changes is you don't have two combat phases per player, you only have the one. (meaning in my turn my guys fight your guys fight, and in your turn my guys fight your guys fight... with this its just my guys fight and your guys fight and thats it)

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How would combat work, does only the activated unit fight (effectively slowing down combat as engaged units only fight in there own turn) or does enemy attack back (possibly several times, or destroying a unit that charged it, then charging and attacking again, then being charged again later)

Would certainly be interesting regarding synergies as these would have to be built up over several activations rather than all at once

You activate a unit and it fights in the combat phase. Combat and turns actually go faster because units only get to fight once as opposed to twice. It does make order of activation *very* important because you can lose out on buffs etc but you may want to get a unit activated before your heroes for whatever reason.

[grimmas]

Excellent, with how the combat phase works at the moment it always seemed to me they were thinking of altering the trun sequence but bottled it a bit.

[Auticus]

The only snag so far are scenarios with time limits as they are designed with fighting twice in a turn in mind.

[grimmas]

That's just admin you'll sort that after a few games. It's good to hear the premise works. Mystery did say he was going to give Space Marine esque orders a go but hasn't let us know how it went yet

[Dyolfnai]

Will have to try this out at some point, battle shock would be interesting, half as many tests but with more casualties, do you leave your generals activation till later to put inspiring presence where it is needed or use other command abilities earlier so more units can take advantage (depending on ability)