Move entire army PRIOR to combat?

[Mrcellophane1978]

I operate enormous sized maps with very large armies, but a problem is that it takes an age to get units into action and battles take too long.

I was wondering what people think about the idea of being able to move the whole army per turn, but only prior to engaging in combat.

Sort of like an army being on maneuvers, each player gets the chance to move units into strategically advantageous positions, and you can respond to threats and enemy tactics prior to combat, until the round when the first player makes their first attack, where they attack as normal with order markers (subsequent players get to move all their units that round, unless they attack).

Alternately there could be double order markers prior to combat, so you move 6 units instead of 3 prior to combat.

If you operate an 800 to 1000 point or more army, it is twice the size of standard after all, so why not have twice the moves - at least before combat (if it was during combat you could imagine a big blitzkrieg type advantage from going first which is too much).

What does anyone think? Is this workable or desirable? Am I missing something?

Thanks!

[UtahScott]

I know other people have mentioned this same house rule when playing large maps...everyone moves everything on their turn until you close within a certain hex range of other players, then switch to the conventional OM use...

[Myriadite]

I recall someone hosting a custom superhero battle with a large group (maybe 8 people) and they did something similar. Everyone moved their figure at the same time, and once all moves were complete, everyone attacked at the same time. Initiative still established move/attack order, I believe. It seemed to work quite well, especially for introducing many new players to the game.

Another idea that preserves the classic turns of the game: "double stuff" Heroscape:
Pair or group all of your army cards and treat each pairing as a squad. Order markers are then placed on each pairing. For example, I reveal order marker "1" on my Roman Legionnaires and 10th Reg. pairing, move all of my Romans/soldiers, and then make all attacks with the Romans/soldiers in any order I choose. My opponent then reveals their order marker on their Krav Maga and Sonlen pairing: rolling first for Dragon Healing, then moving Sonlen and all their agents, rolling for dragon swoop, and making all attacks in any order they choose.
You could even have two squads of commons as one pairing.

I have not tried this with bonding units, but I imagine you would want to keep it as written on the card: after revealing an order marker on a Knights of Weston and 4th Mass. pairing, take a full turn with the champion (move and attack), and then proceed with moving all figures in your pairing. The Mohican River Tribe would be the same: if their turn ends with engagement, take a full turn with Brave Arrow after all units in that pairing have finished attacks.

The benefit to this is moving more units without having to spend more time placing order markers - you are still only placing 3. One word of warning: the impact of initiative switches are magnified. It's like regular Heroscape, but crunchier.

[Dr.Goomonkey]

I haven't played one of those huge games in way too long, but when I did more often I would often implement a rule using multiple sets of order markers. I would use the OMs from RotV, SotM, and BftU, but you could sub in the Marvel ones if you don't have the three sets (or differentiate between them differently).

Basically, you have Standard OMs (RotV), Movement OMs (SotM), and Attack OMs (BftU). The Standard OMs operate normally, Movement OMs let figures take a turn where they cannot attack, and Attack OMs let figures take a turn where they cannot move. Additionally, you may not place 2 OMs that share a number on the same Army Card.

I think the turn order would alternate between players in Movement, Standard, and Attack order, so Movement P1, Movement P2, Standard P1, Standard P2, Attack P1, Attack P2.

The only really tricky thing here (other than new OM management issues) is what powers you are allowed to use, which I think would generally be done on a case by case basis. For example, Sonlen could only use Dragon Healing with a Standard or Movement OM, and he could only use Dragon Swoop with a Standard or Attack OM. I don't really remember if that's how I used to do it but it seems right. Any bonding turns would have to follow the same rules as whatever OM started the turn.

[Mrcellophane1978]

Thanks for the responses. I think maybe having 8 order markers instead of 4 might be the simplest way of doing it, then it doesn't get confusing. Cheers!

[nyys]

Massive battles like the ones described here are the reason I bought 'way too much' Scape back in the day. I envisioned playing games just like this. Those games never really materialized as I stuck mostly to tourney sized maps in the end, but the storage bin industry was (and still is) appreciative.

[Mrcellophane1978]

Haha, yes I feel you. I play with my kids and they can lose interest after a while.

I recorded a video of my current map, check it out!

YouTube

[rym]

Where’d you get those dungeon walls? Those rock!

[Mrcellophane1978]

Originally Posted by rym

Where’d you get those dungeon walls? Those rock!

Thanks. I got them on thingiverse. The guy has loads of heroscape terrain to print.

There are doors to put on I haven't added yet. The rules are that these are underground so if you are inside you can't be attacked by above ground units even if they are higher.

https://www.thingiverse.com/breinnl/designs