It's been awhile, but I'm back to talk about more basics of gameplay in Dark Century. Today's primer is on the turn sequence, and in particular, the Action Phase. From now on, I'll try to put specific game terminology in italics the first time it's brought up, and game terms will always be capitalized wherever they appear.
Turn Sequence
Anachron Legions is a game of alternating unit activation. Players take turns Activating individual units or Groups of units, and performing Actions with those units, until both sides are out of units to Activate. A roll-off occurs at the start of each turn to determine who gets the first Activation (called “rolling for Advantage”).
So the basic turn sequence breaks down like so:
| Turn Sequence |
|---|
1. Advantage Phase |
2. Action Phase |
3. Melee Phase |
4. Recovery Phase |
Nothing earth-shattering in there really. Let's start with the Advantage Phase - it's a roll-off between the players to see who gets the first Advantage during the Action Phase (i.e. who gets the first chance to move, shoot, or whatever).
Each Advantage is like a turn-within-a-turn - the player with the Advantage is moving/shooting/etc with a unit, then the Advantage shifts to the other player. So at any given time during the Action Phase there's an Advantage Player and an Opposing Player, and they switch roles throughout the Action Phase until everyone's units have had a chance to do something. This leads us naturally to -
The Action Phase - The Meat of the Turn
As you would expect, the Action Phase is, well, where most of the action happens. Like I said above, players are taking turns using their units, the Advantage is shifting back and forth. Using a unit requires something called Activation, where the Advantage Player gets to choose a unit that hasn't done anything yet this turn, and perform Actions with them. Each unit can perform two Actions, after which they're finished their Activation and can't do anything else this turn - this is called being Spent.
Actions are pretty self-explanatory - anything a unit can do is going to cost it at least one Action. So Moving, Shooting, issuing Orders, all of these things are Actions units can perform. Some of these things will use both your unit's available Actions at once, like firing certain heavy weapons - this naturally keeps units from both Moving and Shooting with weapons that aren't able to do so.
Quick Re-Cap
I don't want to try to go through too much at once, so let's just make sure we've got Advantages and Actions straight. A turn begins with players rolling off to see who gets the first Advantage. During your advantage, you may Activate a unit by picking a unit that hasn't done anything yet, and you can carry out two Actions, such as Moving or Shooting. Once that unit's done, they're Spent for the turn, and the Advantage shifts to your opponent. Advantage shifts back and forth until everyone's units are finished their Actions. Then it's on to the Melee Phase, which is a topic for another day.
