Simplifying Things Some More...

Sorry for the long break in posting, but I've been dealing with some serious health issues that demanded my full attention. I'm having a 'good day' right now though, so I've actually been able to sit down and think about the project in detail. Instead of in little snippets here and there.

As part of that, I've been having a desire to simplify the game some more. Which mostly boils down to simplifying close-combat and shooting. While keeping a bit of the feel that we had in the last game sequence test. Where we experimented with a set of phases that were similar to those in the old Squad Leader game.

To recap, these were the phases in that test:

1. Starting Phase
2. Movement Phase (Current Player Moves)
3. Shooting Phase (Units That Didn't Move Shoot)
4. Reaction Phase (Opponent's Units Shoot)
5. Advance Phase (Current Player's Advancing Units Shoot)
6. Close-Combat Phase

These made for a very fun back-and-forth game. But they also caused the game time to explode to 3 hours for only 4-5 turns of play. Which is unworkable.

I'm also sympathetic to some of the opinions expressed recently on YTTH, where guys were asking why all movement couldn't be restricted to the movement phase (even assault moves), and all shooting in the shooting phase, etc. With the assault phase being limited to HtH combat only.

So here's what I'm thinking of now in terms of game phases:

1. Starting Phase
2. Action Phase
3. Reaction Phase
4. Melee Phase

Starting Phase

This would be much the same as now. First you check your task force's morale. Then you check your win conditions, remove smoke, and roll for any reserves.

Action Phase

After checking Ld for suppressed units, this would be the phase where the current player gets to move their forces. But they don't get to shoot in this phase unless they have assault weapons and the enemy are within their Awareness Range.

Reaction Phase

This is where the opposing player gets to fire their units. Units that didn't move would get to re-roll misses, advancing Units would fire normally, and at-the-double units would have to re-roll any hits. There would be no modifications to RoF.

Melee Phase

Engaged models would perform their melee attacks. That's it. Consolidation would happen as part of normal movement during the Action Phase. While close-combat shooting would happen during the Reaction Phase. 'Close-Combat' is thus spread out over the entire turn, instead of being it's own little pocket-universe within the game.

This last phase idea is a big change, as it would eliminate the continue-until-someone-wins system that we've been using. But it would eliminate some of the hyperspeed movement problems of that system, while making melee work more similarly to traditional 40K.

So I move, then you shoot, then we melee. Probably with some kind of initiative system to see who swings first. Whichever models aren't actually engaged get to shoot and be shot at during the Action and Reaction Phases. If a unit is engaged with another unit, then they have to shoot at that unit.

Thoughts?