Atomic Africa v1.1

Last post I promised the hand-to-hand combat rules for Atomic Africa.  I also mentioned how I've already made various changes to the game rules, mostly in the movement area and turn sequence.  I'm attempting to chronicle all the changes in this one post which should be doable since a majority of the rules stand.  The following is a list of the posts that are still valid:

Introduction
Attributes
Orders
Action Resolution
Clean-Up Phase
Special Actions
Suppression
Attached Units
Experience


The major change comes to the Turn Sequence; the alterations simplify the reaction and movement rules.  I'll address some cosmetic changes first however.


The range threshold measuring stick is shorter in Atomic Africa v1.1 and divided into more bands, increasing the difficulty of ranged combat.  Take a 36 inch dowel rod and mark it 1cm from one end.  Follow that mark with another at 3cm, then 6cm, 11cm, 19cm, 32cm, 53cm, and 87cm.  Cut off the excess after the last mark.  Paint the eight bands alternating colors.

Take two 36 inch dowel rods, marking one at 4.5 cm intervals, the other at 9cm intervals.  The rods measure infantry and vehicle movement respectively; the old increments proved too short.  Obviously you can cut/sand the small excess off the dowel (36 inches is a little over 91cm), and cut the infantry dowel in half to make two.

Figure 4 shows the new Turn Sequence, with the changes to the Activation Phase.  The following paragraphs and figures replace the posts labeled Parts 3, 5, 6, 7 totally.

Figure 4: The Turn Sequence (v1.1)

After the Orders Phase, the player whose leader has the highest Experience Level has the privilege of activating first, or deferring the activation to his opponent.  Note, this is the leader's Experience Level, not XP.  If the leaders of both sides share the same Experience Level, use the platoons' Experience Level instead.  If still tied, simply roll dice to determine who gets the privilege of first activation (and the right to defer).  The player who activates first (known as the Activating Player) chooses one unit and completes the entire Activation Phase, as described below.  During this first Activation Phase the opponent is known as the Reacting Payer.  The players then switch roles and continue to alternate as the Activating Player until all eligible units have acted or reacted.  Units may only be activated once, but may be forced to react many times in a single turn.

The Activating Player may only activate units with orders; units without orders may only react.  The Activating Player chooses an eligible unit and announces whether the unit will move.  Note: the activating unit does not move at this time; the Activating Player simply announces the unit's intent to move.  The activating unit then declares the intent to fire on any enemy unit in its line-of-sight (LOS).  The Activating player may not measure range during this sub-phase.  A laser-pointer proves the most effective method for establishing LOS and provides no range data.  The Activating player may elect to not fire.

Following this initial targeting the Reacting Player declares actions for one of his units.  If the Activating Player's unit fired on any enemy figure, the target unit MUST react.  If the Activating Player skipped targeting his opponent may still react, choosing any unit with orders.  Any and all reacting units, whether they're operating voluntarily or by compulsion, are limited to firing at the activating unit only.  Only one of the Reacting Player's units may react (unless two were targeted with the Split Fire special action).  A reacting unit must have orders assigned; if it does not then the Reacting Player must assign one, during this sub-phase, from his reserve; thus the Activating Player can "force the sword" and drive certain units to expend their action.  If the Reacting Player has no eligible cards in his Reserve, or no Reserve, then he cannot use the orderless unit for voluntary reactions.  Reaction by targeted units is compulsory however, therefore the Reacting Player must draw a card from the top of his deck and apply it using the Confused Unit rules.  A separate post addresses Confused units.

The end of the Declaration Sub-phase features each player revealing and possibly modifying written orders.  All players simultaneously flip over the orders cards for the Activating and Reacting units only.  A player revealing any face cards must announce his unit's special action.  If both players reveal face card, use the card denominations to determine the order of declaration: Jacks declare first, followed by Queens, followed by Kings.  If face cards of the same denomination are revealed, use the Units' Experience Levels to determine declaration order.  Break any further ties with a die roll contest.  Upon completion of all declarations, players may examine their opponent's orders and decide to change their own, if able.  A player who decides to change his orders plays a card from his Reserve face-down on top of his just revealed orders.  The opposing player is given the same opportunity and once each player has played a new card or deferred to the previously revealed orders, any freshly played cards are flipped face up simultaneously.  The new card played from the Reserve totally replaces the previous order.  Each player again may examine the revealed orders and elect to play from their Reserves.  The process continues until both players stop, either due to satisfaction with the orders or an exhausted reserve.  Joker cards present a special case.  Revealing a Joker prohibits the opposing player from playing any more orders this Activation Phase, even if he still has a Reserve; the Joker unit seizes the initiative and effectively freezes the opponent's orders.  The player owning the Joker then declares any basic or special move, along with the unit's posture; the Joker essentially duplicates any other card from the deck.  Use the same rules for face cards above to resolve the declaration order between players revealing Jokers simultaneously.

The order cards revealed dictate exactly how far units may move.  The Activating Player moves first in the Movement Sub-phase.  The numbers on the cards, from 10 to 1 (the Ace), indicate the number of 4.5cm increments the unit may move in total.  This number is the maximum movement; the unit may move less (except Confused units which wander the full amount).  The Activating Player removes a figure from his unit and places this figure an appropriate distance away on the table.  The newly placed figure is the Destination figure, and as the name implies marks the future position of the unit.  Next, the Reacting Player places his unit's  Destination figure in the same manner.  The Reacting Player then leaves one figure, called the Start figure, in the original position and places all the remaining figures at some intermediate point between the Start and Destination figures.  These intermediate figures are known as the In-transit figures.  The distance between the Start figure and In-transit figures totaled with the distance from the In-transit figures to the Destination figure must not exceed the maximum movement indicated on the order card.  The Reacting Player finishes placing his In-transit figures and the Activating player finishes by placing his in the same manner.  Terrain features usually model areas of that hinders mobility.  Known as Difficult and Extremely Difficult terrain, these features reduce the maximum movement increments indicated on the orders card.  The moving player must reduce the maximum movement distance when entering and exiting the terrain feature.  Traversing a small feature, such as a wall or trench, counts as both entering and exiting, and thus the penalty counts twice.  Table 4 summarizes the movement penalties for various terrain.  Example: a fire team of six figures receives a 7 of Clubs as an order card.  During the Movement Sub-phase the controlling player places his Destination figure and then follows with the In-transit figures, as depicted in Figure 5a.  Initially he wants the unit to scale a wall (Extremely Difficult Terrain), but the movement penalty of -2 twice reduces the maximum movement to 3, preventing him from placing the Destination figure there.  Instead he decides to place the Destination figure in the nearby forest.  Since the unit only entered the forest, it only receives one -1 penalty, reducing the max movement to 6, which allows the unit to reach the trees.  The fire team's player places the In-transit figures at approximately halfway between the Start and Destination figures, ensuring the total movement remains at 6 or less.

Figure 5a: Max movement 3; unable to traverse wall

Figure 5b: Max movement 6; move to forest successful

The rest of Atomic Africa's rules remains unchanged.  The post on hand-to-hand combat rules follows this one.  The posts linked above, plus this one, plus the hand-to-hand rules should be sufficient to cover 90% of any table-top situation for platoon actions (on a very generic level of course).  Give it a try!