Taking Turns: I Go, You Go?

Thirsty Work, by Mike Shaughnessy

There seems to be a fair bit of support for the idea of breaking up the standard 40K turn structure a bit into some version of "I Go, You Go". While I was initially sour on this concept, I've come around to liking it quite a bit. Because I think that it potentially solves a lot of problems. Let's go through the advantages that I see...

1) It's Different From 40K

While I'm not in favor of being different simply for difference sake, it is a consideration to be aware of.

2) But It's Not TOO Different From 40K

The move/shoot/assault order-of-play would still be the same. The 2 player turns are just interleaved. That doesn't seem like too radical a change to me.

3) It Solves The First Turn Alpha-Strike Problem

If the player going second can react to the moves of the player going first, before shooting or assaults, then the likelihood of being able to win the game on the first turn with something like a Vendetta Demo-Vet rush is far lessened. I think that's a good thing.

4) It Would Increase Player Interaction And Prevent Boredom

Instead of waiting 10+ minutes for your opponent's turn to complete. You only have to wait for them to complete a phase. Cool.

5) It's Still Compatible With The Chess Clock Idea To Prevent Slow Play (In Tournaments)

Being able to time player turns still depends on having just one player roll dice in a phase-turn. But I think that it's potentially doable.

6) It Gives Armies Another Way To Be Meaningfully Different

If you roll for initiative at the beginning of each phase, then an army like Dark Eldar could get a bonus. While an army like Gunline Guard could get a penalty. Certain artifacts or psychic powers could also affect this. These bonuses could even apply only to single phases, like shooting or assault. So the Guard Gunline might have a penalty to winning the initiative during movement and assault, but have a bonus to their shooting.

8) More Rolls Will Equal Out The Luck Impact

Instead of going first or second all game long based on one roll, you'll get to make 15-21 rolls during the course of the game to see who goes first. That takes the impact of a single bad roll from the macro to the micro level, which is good.

9) It Lets Assaults Be Single-Sided

This again gets back to the idea of streamlining the turns. The player with the initiative (won the roll-off) gets to assault first. He moves up, and only rolls his attacks. Removing any models that are killed. The player assaulting second then moves his assaulters and rolls his attacks. After both players finish their phase, LD tests are rolled to see if units fall back, get run down, etc.

Thoughts?

-SandWyrm