[Commander G2]

#4 A quick temporary fix to the movement and combat order problem would be to randomly determine the order of movement so that the players with low ordinal positions do not consistently have an advantage in movement and combat.

I am Last ordinal in a PBW game and it really hurts that I always fire Last when people come through warp points and I always fire Last when I come through warppoints. In races to defend planets they get wipped out before my ships get there.

Even an incremental system will be unfair if the lower ordinal players can fire first everytime in the first impulse. Warppoint defenses are key positions and who fires first is critical in those battles. It might be nice to have some sort of random inititive that can be modified by a racial trait (Initiative = Random 1-100 + Racial Attack Bonus + Highest Fleet Experience present). Maybe add +20 if defending a warp point.

If simultaneous movement is harder to resolve than simultaneous firing, another option would be to have 3 overall phases: 1) Combat before Movement, 2) Movement of ships in random order, 3) Combat after Movememnt for ships that did not fire in step 1.

Besides mattering when coming through warp points, first movement is also critical when pursing fleets. If you attack a fleet and come from the same sector you start on the same side of the map or the same corner. In that case first fire is also critical. Again, giving a lower ordinal player an advantage really ruins the competitive nature of the game.

I have not identified any advantages in simultaneous play in being higher in ordinal position, just disadvantages.