A couple of ideas for Flames of War

I have been a fan of Flames of War since it's 1st edition way back in 2005 (I remember because I still have the autumn/winter catalogue from that year). It was my introduction to historical wargaming that didn't have spears in it and honestly had some really great mechanical ideas.

However as the years have gone by some of it's core parts have become a little clunky to my mind and it's been surpassed by many other contemporaries but... I still really like it. 

After a little thought I've narrowed down my issues to a handful of things. Having artillery units on the table is an oddity of the game's "zooming in and out" design in order to put all our toys on the table which I've decided to just leave alone although I'd prefer to have it off table really.

As for the things I do think can be changed for the better are the IGOUGO system, lack of an overwatch mechanic and that weird looking "car park" effect you get from platoons of vehicles.

Now, I reserve the right to alter parts of this as I realise I've completely overlooked some core game breaking detail in the days/weeks/years to come but basically I think this should do it for all the Battlefront FoW-based games.

So;

Alternative Turn sequence and rules

Both players:

Starting step maintenance.

Dice for who is player 1 that turn.

Player 1:

Pick a platoon, perform it's movement, shooting and assault step in sequence.

Player 2:

Pick a platoon, perform it's movement, shooting and assault step in sequence.

Repeat alternating players until all platoons have had a turn (or one player continuously if the other has no more units).

All other standard game rules apply.

Overwatch

At any point in a platoon's turn one enemy platoon per step may attempt Overwatch fire. If a platoon performs overwatch during any step it cannot perform it again during another step of the same acting platoon (so if you overwatch it during the moving step you can't do it again in the shooting step).

If the active platoon skips a step it cannot be targeted by overwatch during that step. (If you don't move you won't trigger possible overwatch until you shoot).

Digging in doesn't trigger overwatch.

A platoon cannot use overwatch when it is pinned or bailed out.

To fire the platoon must pass a skill check. If they do they fire at their moving RoF.

Overwatch firing during a platoon's shooting step will occur after the active platoon's shooting.

Tanks can only use MGs in Overwatch against infantry.

Units that perform Overwatch may not use defensive fire if assaulted.

Tanks and vehicles

As in Team Yankee vehicles moving at speeds above tactical must end with the hull facing the direction of travel.

Tanks must keep a minimum of one small base width apart at all times.

And those small things should make FoW a little more interesting to me and people with a similar, and no doubt superior, taste in wargames.