Yes I know. Impressive Topic. Let us see if you are as impressed after this input.

The biggest problem with netepic as far as I am concerned is the fact that the rules that we have today makes the game take alot of time to play. Bigger battles of 8-10k are almost impossible to finish in one evening..

I've been thinking about this for some time and have a few ideas in my head on how to change this - to speed things up. Right now the turn to act(initiative) switches between every player after just activating one single detachment so it will jump back and forth many many times before the turn is over.

Solutions that I've been thinking about:

1. Activate a percentage of your detachments each time. For example let the initiative go back and forth 8 times in a turn. The downside to this is that some armies with alot of detachments would loose their advantage to armies with few detachments. I do not want to change this.

2. Move your whole army when the initiative is yours. Would mean that you play more like how it was down 20 years ago. Who won initiative would leave a very big impact of how the game played out. Not good at all.

3. The last idea and the one that I would like to playtest myself is that you move a few detachments at a time. The size of your army would decide how many detachments you have to activate before letting the other player having a go. it all would work something like this.

Army Size   Activate number of detachments
2000                       1
4000                       2
6000                       3
8000                       4
10000                      5

The person that won the initiative can save the same number of detachments as his activation number to use them last after the other player is finished. The good thing with this would be that today it doesn't really matter that much who won the initiative. With this new suggestion its important without deciding the outcome and Command units that affect initiative can actually matter once again. Another upside is if you play a battle with different sizes the smaller army would still have a chance....

This proposal would of course change some of the game mechanics but I still think that the idea can be used to make the game even better.

Tell me what you guys think about proposal no 3. Is is good, bad? Why? How can we make it better.

Let the flaming begin.

//Peter

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"Take me to the Brig. I want to see the "real Marines". " Major General Chesty Puller, USMC

Please don't take this the wrong way, but you actually expect to finish an 8-10k game in one evening? I'd be happy to finish a game that size in one day.

Alternating activations is one the primary reasons I like NetEpic over SM2. I wouldn't want it changed.

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"I don't believe in destiny or the guiding hand of fate." N. Peart

Hmm, I'm unsure of the full impact regards #3 but it is worth trying. I may also give this a bash and if I do I'll post it up if it's any help.

Big Battles are looong to play.

We use tricks like different colour dice for different targets or from different weapons then roll once when possible instead of rolling each attack or save separately. Little tricks like these can help.

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My head is full of War...

[img]http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk120/Warhead40k/Tyranid%20Swarm/DSC02262.jpg[/img]

Please don't take this the wrong way, but you actually expect to finish an 8-10k game in one evening? I'd be happy to finish a game that size in one day.

Alternating activations is one the primary reasons I like NetEpic over SM2. I wouldn't want it changed.

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"Take me to the Brig. I want to see the "real Marines". " Major General Chesty Puller, USMC

I'm with DS, alternating unit movement was the biggest improvement from SM2 to NetEpic.

We find 4-6K all play about the same amount of time.  Our 6K games look like a 4K game with more or bigger Titans/Gargants so in fact, 6K battles probably end quicker as there is sooo much more carnage.  The race also makes a huge difference..... Tyranid games take a looong time, and Squats can slow things down too.

We also a) have the board ready b) draw a quick map and let the other person setup while drawing placements (dont peek) c) dont allow passing, d) roll all attack dice at once and work out any targets afterwards (the different dice colour is a great idea!) which all help get a speedy game.  Some nights we chinwag too much though.....  

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Fire bad, tree pretty - Buffy