Kick the Can 3

The original game used the Fasa inititive system of role for initiative, and the each player alt moving a unit, with all firing being done effectively simultaneously at the end of the move.

To give the Mech players the feel they were working on sensors and cam feeds in the cockpit,( played by members of the old Mechwarrior UK)we sat them with their backs to. the main table, with a normal battletech type map and Battletech models, their infantry opponents (show participants) playing on main table.

The game worked well, and the only problem we had was that some of the participants were so good at hiding figures in terrain, we had to stop the game at one point so we could find and retrieve figures left when player left the game!

Unfortunately we have not got the room for that option, I’ve never been a fan of IgoYougo as an initiative system, one bad dice roll for initiative at start, and on that critical move of 1st contact half your force can get blown away, plus in larger games apart from the odd defensive dice role you can spend a verry boring and frustrating half hour watching your carefully painted minis go the way of the Dodo!!!

So what are the alternatives?

Roll for Initiative each Turn

A simple one is die for initiative each move, unfortunately that can become equally frustrating because you win initiative one move and go 1st, but the next move lose it and go 2nd, effectively giving your opponent two turns of turning your whydidyou bother minis to chutney!

A quick fix for this is allow the movement to be dictated by the initiative, so deciding on going 1st or is more about out manouevering your opponent you get the best firing posions/cover etc, for the simultaneous fire phase.

Not a bad system , but it complicates any sort of ambush situation.

Alt activations of units.

Many games go for the role for initiative and alt unit activation.

As with IgoYougo the problem with this is you move ‘your how quickly can I get rid of these usless buggers minis’ is they get into position, cant fire/etc as the enemy is out of range/hiding, so your little minis have to sit and watch the enemy close to efective range or charge range whilst counting the local pidgeon population!

‘Sarge I can,t only see the white/red/green of their eyes but can the no of veins in them , and that spear. tentacle whatever is getting awfully close!’

Good for the old boyzone stories but trust me yout little minis would be blazing away like crazy at this point in any real life situation!

Random Activation,

Completely randomise it with the chit on a bag method, gives a lot of fog of war but can still end up with your ‘Why did I choose this stupid hobby’minis being made a smear on the table as non of your chits are in the bag, or all your opponents are in the bag , yours have all activated, and spent the whole move feeding those bloody pigeons, as still non of his units are in range but will be when they activate!

Card Activation

Still alt acivation of units but player at start of move, selects the order he wants to activate his units, then the card is revealed and the unit activates. Dropfleet is more advanced version or this in that depending on unit strength, both players play the card, and the one with lowest strength goes 1st.

Star Wars legion has a variation of this with the addition of random activation, after selecting an order card.

Again with this system the problem is you end ip with your smear on the table minis, can sit dumbfounded as the enemy unit that was just out of range move upand convert them plastic/lead dust whilst they do nothing.

1st Sight System

This a system favoured by two hour wargames , it uses an alt activation, but with twist, all units/ figures have a skill level 1-5

The initiative goes to the player with the highest role, but only those players with that initiative level can activate(and any unit they may command) units/figs with a higher initative can still activate , but the player activates 1st and then activates all their unit’s with initiative to that level.

This allows units with better initiative/moral to activate 1st.

So what is different ?

The basic element of this system written by a vet, is the idea of their base set of rules called chain reaction.

Basically you acivate unit and move it, the moment your unit comes into sight of your opponents line of sight, a 1st sight test is taken, both side roll dice based on various modifiers suchvas level of cover etc, the winner shoots 1st, then based on the result the units taking fire result fired on can either go to ground, run to cover. or die,where the shooting stops, but if the unit survives and is ok , it shoots back, then the original unit reacts as above, and if ok fires back, this continues till the result forces one side to go to ground , break or are destroyed.

This is carried over to normal shooting if in your activation you fire at an already spotted unit, the same reaction test is taken and the firefight continues untill it reachs its conclusion.

As a system it takes a bit of getting used to but it does work,

It does allow for some of very cinematic moments, We tried a Western game playing the scene from ‘A few dollars More’.

Two level 5 heros walking down a western st, about 10 level 3 bandits try to ambush them, The bandits rose from hiding to shoot, a 1s1st sight test was taken and 70% of the time the heros shot 1st, and either killed or forced the bandit to go to ground, and even if they didnt they still won the firefight, and it ended with 10 dead bandits.

The basic systrm has been used with supplements for:

• Wild West ‘ Six gun Sound.’
• WW2 ‘Nuts’
• Aplocolpse ‘All things Zombie’
• Weird War ‘ War. Without End’
• Sci fi, 5150

The down side of the system is it promotes defensive playing styles as opposed to the more agressive styles of many of the other systems.

The plan is to modify 40K base initiative modified by one of the above initiative systems, Unlees I get a willing volunteer all the players will pilot Knights with tge Necron being run by a dumb system. Thr Next part will discuss some of the options for that.