The more I get into this project, the more I think I might be on to something good.  If you're just now joining me, I've been slightly bitten by the "British Colonials" bug, and I want to adapt my favorite skirmish game "Chain Reaction" to be a small unit game for this setting.

The most radical thing I've done (aside from the unit focus) is remove the "In Sight" check from Chain Reaction and have the Activation roll take over the duties of who gets to act when.  "In Sight" was always like a mini "initiative" roll anyway, and mostly served to say who could fire and in what order.  In my version, I do away with "In Sight" altogether, which makes the game more deliberate.  "In Sight" is probably the most core mechanism in Chain Reaction, so I'm headed into new territory with this change.

The whole point of In Sight was to allow units to perform "overwatch" and "combat patrol" with one mechanism.  It does the job admirably for skirmish games, but becomes a little cumbersome when you have a lot of figures.  The games I want to play should have on the order of 100 figures a side, so after some thought, the best answer is to get rid of "In Sight" tests.

However, I need to have something to take their place.  And I do - the activation roll provides a sequencing mechanism.  All I need now is a way to interrupt another unit's movement.  So, taking Occam's razor, the new rule is:  If a unit moves into sight of another unit for the first time, its activation ends.  This simulates the commander deciding what to do about the "sudden" appearance of an enemy unit.  Whoever gets the next initiative will be the ones who reacted the best.

I considered penalizing the activation roll for surprised units, but I think halting their move without letting them fire is enough penalty.  Plus, if the surprised unit has activated before the hidden unit, then the hidden unit will get to attack before the next initiative roll!  So when moving through hostile country, it might be better to move last.

So a unit of Brits marching over a hill only to discover a unit of Zulu would get this sequence:

Brits activate, move to hill crest, spy Zulus on other side and halt

If Brits win initiative:

   Brits fire on Zulu

   Zulu take "Receiving Fire" test, and either flee or charge Brits

If Zulu win initiative

   Zulu test "Wanting to Charge"

In either case, then proceed to

   Brits test "Being Charged", and may get to fire at chargers (might also run away!)

   If Zulu survive and pass another "receiving fire" test, they rush into contact and fight!

I need to play this out, because I have a sneaking suspicion that there will be some bad interactions in some cases.  But I'm not able to "see" them right now.  Time will tell.  Maybe I can get the guy at the club who ran the last Colonials game to bring his figures and help me playtest this.