The tournament scenario is a big factor. Having more activations late in the game then your opponent allows you to stall and grab victory conditions that they can't defend. Trying another scenario definitely helps.
If you want to try a different activation system here's a quick synopsis of what I've compiled for an EA Battles Book:
Quote:
Random Player: Create a deck of cards, one for each formation (red for one player's, black for another's) and shuffle them in the initiative phase of each turn. Flip the cards over one at a time, a player who's card is flipped chooses one of their formations and attempts to activate it. If a formation is broken before it activates remove one of the player's cards from the unflipped deck and reshuffle it. In the end phase, after rallying, rebuild the deck, removing cards for broken formations.
CaptPiett and I have tried this quite a bit with his EA Cold Wars playtests. It definitely adds some fog of war.
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Random Unit: Create a deck of cards, one specific card for each formation ("this Tactical formation is the Jack of Spades") and shuffle them in the initiative phase of each turn. Flip the cards over one at a time, a formation who's card is flipped must attempt to activate. If the formation is broken, flip another card. In the end phase, after rallying, rebuild the deck, removing the cards of broken formations.
Haven't tried this one yet.
Quote:
Alternating Activations (lower activation weighted): Alternate activating formations one at a time. A player may choose to pass (force their opponent to activate another formation) only if they have less unactivated formations than their opponent.
This is Dirtside II activation's mechanic. I've tried it a few times and like it. It will favor lower activation count armies more than EA's system as the player with fewer activations can stall now.