• Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 193

Topic: Iniciative

This evening I played again the first scenario from Iron Stars, Meeting Engagement, with a friend. This scenario was our first game of Iron Stars and we made a lot of mistakes, rulerwise and tacticallywise, so we decided to play it again.

He is sick with a terrible cold, and maybe that was the reason, but I won every single initiative roll in the game. All of it. As you might understand he lost big, even with the Britts, that have the Gauntlet on their side.

After the game was over we exchange some rules ideas, since we found no optional rule in the books. We come up with these two ideas, though from now on we'll add the idea nº2 as our house rule.

Idea nº 1 - If one player wins two initiatives in a row, in the next turn the other player will win the iniciative automatically. The good in this is that it is a balancing rule. The bad is that after one player win his second iniciative, both players will know in advance that how the next turn will be dictated.

Idea nº 2 - The player that lost the turn before will have +1 in his die this turn, and if he looses again he will have +2 in the following turn. After he wins the iniciative, the next iniciative roll will be without modifiers to both players.

What do you think about it?

  • From: Denver, CO
  • Registered: 2005-03-27
  • Posts: 3,578

Re: Iniciative

I haven't found that gaining the initiative is all that important -- there's a definite tradeoff whatever you choose (move last or fire first). But I would think the easiest "optional" rule to implement would be:

If you are really concerned about it, I think the fairest thing would be to simply alternate the initiative after the first turn; i.e.:

If I win initiative in turn 1...
You get initiative in turn 2
I get initiative in turn 3
You get initiative in turn 4
etc.

Daniel Kast
Majestic Twelve Games
cricket@mj12games.com

mj12games's Website

  • Registered: 2008-12-22
  • Posts: 193

Re: Iniciative

cricket wrote:

I haven't found that gaining the initiative is all that important -- there's a definite tradeoff whatever you choose (move last or fire first).

It isn't. Unless you gain it always. Shooting first has it's advantages, moving last also. But if you can plot your movement always after the other player, it's sure an advantage. In last night game, I always fired after my opponent, but I always fired almost all my weapons and he fired 1/3 of his weapons.

cricket wrote:

If you are really concerned about it, I think the fairest thing would be to simply alternate the initiative after the first turn

We also consider that option, but knowing always the next turn initiative, even if it is very chess-like, in a game with the uncertainity of the fog of war, doesn't appeal to us. The uncertainity of not knowing who's going to be the next iniciative player overweights the possibility of one player being luckier than the other. The +1, +2, etc modifier is just to compensate the chance of a LOT of luck in one particular game.