Using the OODA Loop with Time & Action Formulas for unit activation

The OODA Loop stands for Observe, Orient, Decide and Act. The OODA Loop is a process we go through hundreds of times in a single day. It is a process that defines how all humans react to stimulus in everyday actions, business and the art of war. It is understandable, natural and intuitive for any human being to sense, plan, decide and act in a situation. It’s a continuous and interactive process. It is used by a general commanding multiple divisions in a large battle covering hundreds of square miles and gunfighters in a Wild West shootout. At each level there are different factors that will affect their OODA. In this article we’ll discuss how it can be used in a 1:1 vehicle and team/squad infantry game. One big advantage it has in game terms is it’s something you don’t need to teach a player as he’s naturally performing it whenever he’s looking at the game. He’s observing the situation on the playing surface, orienting and evaluating the best plan of action, making a decision on what to do and eventually taking action. Combining this with a “Time & Action” to determine when to act can give it a playability advantage over traditional structured game sequences, IGOUGO, initiative determination and randomized unit activations using cards or dice. These force players to learn and play the mechanics of a game rather than going through a natural process he’s familiar with. After observing a situation on the table the player simply asks, “What do I want to do (OODA Loop) and how long will it take me (Time & Action)”. If you can design a game that is able to take advantage of the natural way that a player processes information and makes decisions, the game can have the potential to be easy to grasp. You can say that the OODA Loop is very much about timing. How much time will it take for you to react? How much time to carry out an order or task? What battlefield factors like the environment, friction and command & control breakdowns will delay me to the “act” stage? What can I do to throw my enemies timing off to make his loop longer and mine shorter? I use the concept of “Time & Action” for a player to decide his options to make a decision to determine when he’ll activate. The player uses his OODA Loop to decide on an action using Time & Action to determine when to activate. They work together. During a game all friendly and enemy units interact with each other activating on different turns depending on their how long their Time & Action takes. This gives the game an unstructured but organized turn sequence. It is not random but it does generate the unknown and fog of war because players do not know exactly how long it will take their opponent to perform an action like moving or firing. It eliminates the need for artificial and subjective game mechanics like alternate unit activation using card and dice draws, command point & interrupts, initiative determination and traditional IGOUGO or phased turn rules. In play testing this has been shown to speed up the game while keeping all players involved. So the big question is can a version of the OODA Loop be used with Time & Action to replace traditional game turn sequences, randomized activations, orders phase or initiative rules? If it can it would involve each friendly and enemy unit acting within their loop somewhat independent of their enemy in a race to complete their loop to act or activate – hopefully before their opponent. Ideally there should be some decision points by the player so it is not predictive. How would that replace initiative rules? Most games use randomization with a “chance” of having the initiative. Having the initiative normally means you get to move and/or fire while your opponent is a spectator. That’s not fun! Command interrupts and other rules try to overcome this. If your loop is shorter than your opponents you get to act and he must react so he’s behind you. Keeping the pressure on him means he’s always a step behind. Committing fresh reserves or outnumbering the enemy will eventually force him to start reacting to your efforts and the “initiative” changes. Even the best and most effective troops and weapons platforms can be overcome by quantity forcing you to withdraw. What about an orders phase? It can be said that a unit is always observing the battlefield around them. I’d say the “Observation” part of the loop is always active. If a unit is preparing an action (like loading, aiming and firing) and they observe a new and more dangerous threat they can go back to the “Orient” phase (I also call it evaluate) to engage the new threat. As soon as they act the loop begins again with the unit’s operating within their own loop eliminating the need for an overall orders phase. Your opponent is never sure when you’ll activate to fire at him. There can be few or many variables depending on the level of detail the player’s desire. Variables will create more Fog of War.

What is a player is thinking about while going through his OODA Loop?

Stage 1: Observe (Situational Awareness within his LOS on the battlefield) What's happening in the environment that directly affects me? What's happening that indirectly affects me? What's happening that may have residual affects later on? Were my predictions accurate? Are there any areas where prediction and reality differ significantly? I use the concept of “Situational Awareness” for 360 degree observation and spotting enemy activity. There are certain activities that can trigger a Situational Awareness Check to respond to a threat. These activities include movement, muzzle flash, turret rotation, sounds and rounds impacting on your vehicle. A single die roll with modifiers for the direction determines if the tank commander spots the activity immediately or there is a delay in noticing it. Stage 2: Orient (evaluating the current situation) I see an enemy muzzle flash – is it aimed at me? In what direction are the most dangerous threats? Can I respond in time? Is that enemy or friendly activity? Can I hide from them? Am I able to engage and fire at that threat or should I maneuver? Do I have the right round in the chamber to shoot? Is my crew and weapons platform capable of performing the ideal action? I also refer to this step as “Evaluate”. This is where the player’s interpretation of the situation enters into the loop. Orientation is essentially how you interpret a situation and gauge your options. This can depend on the unit experience and suppression and the players ability to evaluate correctly. This then leads directly to your decision. The argument here is that by becoming more aware of your perceptions, and by speeding up your ability to orient to reality, you can move through the decision loop quickly and effectively. In the game this is defined by the amount of time a crew takes to observe, engage, move, reload and shoot. The quicker you understand what's going on, the better. And if you can make sense of the situation and the environment around you faster than your competition, you'll have an advantage. This is where good gamesmanship and historical knowledge come into play. Stage 3: Decide (picking the best course of action and determining Time & Action to activate) Become offensive or defensive. Engage and fire or maneuver. Some weapons platforms have options to increase performance but at the cost of breaking down. Some have penalties depending on terrain. The player also decides on the amount of time to aim to increase or decrease accuracy. Using a short formula he adds up the task times & delays. Decisions are really your best guesses, based on the observations you've made and the orientation you're using. There is always going to be some doubt as your Situational Awareness and intelligence are not 100%. Your opponent is making the same choices as you but you don’t know his exact decision. Also in the decision phase is what variables and trade-off is the player going to make trading accuracy for speed. Actions take time and crew types may generate an additional delay. Better tactical deployment will buy you additional time to get the best balance between accuracy and speed. In this phase the player determines the Time & Action to activate. If he has a better crew than his opponent with all things being equal he’ll get inside his target’s OODA Loop and fire first. If you have the handicap of a poor crew and slow reload time your only option may be to fire a quick but inaccurate shot and hope for a lucky hit – it does happen. That may be a better choice than taking your time and getting killed before firing. In the game there is the mental duel between players deciding on the actions to take and amount of time spent engaging and firing to fire first. Here you can attempt to out think or bluff your opponent, it’s more entertaining than waiting for the draw of a die or the flip of a card. Stage 4: Act (move or fire when turn of activation comes) The Act stage is where the player implements his decision. If on turn #15 he wanted to shoot an enemy and it was going to take 8 turns he’d fire (act or activate) on turn #23.

While engaged (targeting and firing at an enemy) you can only perform Situational Awareness checks to your front 90 degrees. You are blind in the rear 270 degrees. If a more dangerous threat does appear in your frontal observation arc before your time to activate/fire you can perform a Situational Awareness check to respond to the new or more dangerous threat. This may be a new enemy target that just moved into your LOS or another enemy that is rotating their turret towards you. It’s the player’s decision when it occurs on the playing surface, not in the turn sequence. As soon as your turn comes to activate and you act you IMMEDIATELY go through the OODA Loop again, make a decision and determine Time & Action to activate in a later turn. If you are going to be switching to a new target you start from Observation with a Situational Awareness Check again. If you are going to continue firing at the same target you are back to Decide (determine which ammo to reload, fire control to use and aim time for the next shot) and add up the Time & Action for the next turn of firing/activation. Is this what a real tank crew would do? Does this make sense?

How does Time & Action determine when a unit can perform an action? The game uses the concept of “Time & Action” to determine the future turn a unit can activate/ fire. The player wants to perform an action and he determines the amount of time it will take and the future game turn he’ll activate/fire. Play aids have all of the information. Without being told the player will use his natural OODA Loop to observe, orient, decide (Time & Action) and act when his turn comes. Some values are fixed and some are variable. It’s just a matter of adding them up to determine the next turn of activation. Keep in mind that the OODA Loop is what happens between the onset of a stimulus (detected friendly or enemy activity) and the onset of a reaction to that stimulus (response and action). There is always going to be the human element of delay and reaction time between that stimulus and the action. Factors on the battle field that effect the amount of delay are environmental conditions, surprise, fatigue, field of view and line of sight, suppression, tactical orientation (over watch), movement, commander experience/leadership, crew training and weapon platform limitations. Delays to perform an action in the middle of combat are deadly. Increasing the amount of delay on the enemy by using these factors to your advantage and your strengths against the enemy weakness is what will increase his delay. This will put you inside of his OODA Loop by using shorter Time & Action to act and will give you the initiative without additional initiative rules or mechanics. The result is you will be able to perform more activities in the same amount of time than him. Using these factors to your advantage can overcome a disadvantage in weapon platform and troop quality. What happens between the stimulus and the onset of the reaction is a delay that can be measured. The average response time for a person is about 250 milliseconds before they can take action. Using this as a base line and historical average times for crews to perform duties you can determine the amount of time and delays to perform actions like observation, shooting, loading and moving. There is also documentation to provide these factors. Better crews perform the same action in a shorter time giving them an advantage. The crew difference is more than just die roll modifiers.

What factors affect crew and weapon platform performance

There are some elements that are not under the players control like environmental factors and weapon platform performance. However, the factors under his control are good tactical deployment and over watch, aim time to balance first shot with accuracy, leadership, unit posture and crew efficiency. Using real military tactics and strategy will position you to have the least amount of delay in responding to threats. It’s a lot more than just die roll modifiers. Delays, player decisions and crew differences in timing are variable enough to give the game an unpredictable fog of war without additional rules. Once engaged in a shoot-out seconds count and delays get you killed. There are tradeoffs and risk-reward the players make in their decisions. It’s not just about die roll modifiers and random activations. What is important in the game is good tactical deployment, surprise, over watch and maneuver; not abstractions in a turn sequence, unit activations or die roll modifiers. There is more player skill and use of real world tactics involved. Using Time & Motion enables you to use a weapons historical rate of fire, vehicle speed and turret rotation as there is no need to abstract them because they sync up with the turn lengths and work well using the Time & Action technique. Many games I’ve seen are limited to using die roll modifiers for customization or house rules. Normally you can modify randomization of activation or the chance to hit a target. Using Time & Action introduces a way to modify the timing

when activation occurs. This adds an extra dimension to the game where factor like crew performance, turret rotation speed, fatigue, suppression, etc that effect how quickly a crew can perform can be implemented. With House Rules you are not introducing new game concepts, exceptions or rules, just modifiers for the Time & Action formula for a task.

How does the OODA Loop and Time & Action make the game interactive and unpredictable? The “Engagement Sequence” (at the end) is laid out to correspond with the OODA Loop and has three to six steps the player goes through to respond and engage a target and use Time & Action to determine what turn to act. This includes all of the options and factors involved to fire/activate. There are several risk-reward options for the player to keep his opponent off balance and guessing adding more to the fog of war. Since the Time & Action does not generate a structured turn sequence, randomized activation or spotting phase each player needs to pay attention to all shooting and moving as it is happening. As soon as two enemy units come into line of sight or there is an activity that one or both can detect like movement, firing or turret rotation; each player has the option to perform a Situational Awareness Check to engage and shoot or attempt to maneuver. This is done in real time during the game. This makes the game interactive. A problem learning the game is players will wait to be told what to do. I tell them to think like a real tank commander, ask yourself how you would tell your crew to react.

Just ask yourself: “What do I want to do (OODA Loop) and how long will it take me (Time & Action)?”

When enemy units come into LOS they use their Engagement Play Aid (at the end) and perform their Situational Awareness Checks and decide whether to move or engage and fire. Neither player knows his opponents decision or Time & Action to activate. If you have a good tactical deployment and over watch position you may be able to get the first shot off even if your crew is worse. If you are surprised to find the enemy on your flanks you may want to attempt to move to a position out of his LOS or turn to present your frontal armor and attempt to get a shot off. Turning takes time and gives the initiative to your opponent to get the first shot off. It’s not a random occurrence or chance. If a tank unit is already engaged it can only respond to threats to their front 90 degree arc, they are too busy and blind in their flank and rear arcs. This eliminates the need for Command Points or Command Interrupt rules. Being surprised in your flank or rear arc will most likely generate a Situational Awareness delay (unless you get lucky) in detecting the threat allowing your enemy time to maneuver or get the first shot off. Good tactical deployment and overwatch will allow you the opportunity get the first shot off because you are well positioned. You can see how there are no special rules, orders or exceptions for over watch and opportunity fire. This is one of the real benefits for using the Time & Action concept combined with the “Observation” part of the OODA Loop which is always active, not sequential.

How would the OODA Loop be used with Time & Action within a game? Most traditional war games use a structured IGOUGO turn sequence or some type of randomized activation rule with dice and cards being the most popular method right now. Additional details and “realism” are generally portrayed by implementing die roll modifiers, card draws or command points to account for different levels of training, weapon platform superiority or tactics. Most players agree that you should not have 100% control over your units and it would be unrealistic if they performed ideally under most circumstances. Total randomization is not realistic either. Using the OODA Loop with Time & Action in a 1:1 small unit tank-infantry engagement game would involve replacing turn sequences and activation rules using “Time & Action” to determine when to act. You are always observing so can attempt to respond to threats at any time. This is fairly easy to quantify using human reaction times and historic firing and reload times. The game turns would need to be broken down into seconds. While this may sound unworkable and unplayable in play testing it has not proven to be a problem in playability or acceptance with players. As long as the game moves along and players are interacting with each other it keeps them interested. Since you are never sure the amount of time your opponent is going to take to perform an action the game can almost appear to be played in real time. Moving units have a movement arrow to show movement and direction and are mutually moved every 5 turns. Rather than focusing on activations or turn sequence players are focused on their Time & Action to activate. They Observe around them with a Situational Awareness Check, Orient themselves to gain a tactical advantage, Decide on a course of action (normally moving or firing) determining the amount of time it will take and then Act in that many turns

in the future. If the player is going to fire in 10 turns, game wise his crew is performing their actions during those 10 turns with the actual round being fired on the 10th turn – unless someone knocked out his tank before that. If during the 10 turns before firing a more dangerous threat comes into view he can perform a Situational Awareness Check to see if he can respond by aborting firing and respond to the new threat. Remember, there are no spotting or order phases using Time & Action. The sooner he can get through a loop the sooner he can start another one to move or fire. The faster through the loop the more activity you perform and beat your enemy to the punch. You gain the “initiative” almost like in real time without the need for artificial rules, die roll modifiers or abstractions. To determine “Time & Motion” we use some short formulas that add together base times to perform activities with different factors for crew training and some decision input from the player. Example: The player just fired and wants to fire again at the same target. He’ll have to reload, aim and fire. The gun will have a basic reload time with better crews a second or two quicker and poor crews taking a few seconds longer. Aim time will determine accuracy. It may take 5 seconds of aim time for maximum accuracy but the player can decide to fire with 3-4 seconds of aim time with an accuracy penalty. As you can see the player will not “activate” randomly and there are enough variables to account for a few seconds slower or faster keeping your opponent guessing while generating a fog of war with no additional rules. Seconds really do count in a shootout and the player needs to balance accuracy with speed, it’s not just the roll of the dice. Once players have performed a Time & Action a few times it takes only 10-15 seconds to decide for the next action. Using the OODA Loop with “Time & Motion” to determine activity reflects how better crews with inferior weapons can beat poor crews with superior weapons by being quicker and more efficient. It gives the players some control over their fate but battlefield friction and SNAFU’s can throw a wrench into your best plans or crews. Good planning, tactical deployment and maneuvering will give you an advantage in Situational Awareness and an opportunity to get off the first shot even if your weapons platform and crew is inferior. There is nothing random about good planning and tactics.

Speed wins races but accuracy kills The goal in any tank-tank engagement is to get the first shot off with it being accurate enough to hit the target. In a tank engagement once the target is observed the commander needs to estimate the range and the gunner needs to get the gun on the target and aim. This takes time. At longer ranges of over one second time of flight the commander needs to take additional time to estimate the range because the round will have a higher arc. The gunner also needs extra time to aim at a smaller target at a longer range and at moving targets. This gives an advantage to guns with a higher muzzle velocity and better optics. At over one second time of flight the commander and gunner are going to spend 3+ additional seconds to estimate the range and lay the gun to get a high level of accuracy. At close engagement ranges of .5 seconds time of flight or less the commander and gunner can perform a “Snap Shot” taking a minimum of time estimating the range and less time to aim at a target that is close. Snap Shots are very unpredictable and you can miss even at point blank ranges. However, in a close range engagement you may not have any other choice. It’s a trade-off player decision. One of the challenges the player has is in determining that balance between accuracy and speed while trying to get off the first accurate shot. It can turn into a mind game between opponents trying to beat each other to the punch.

Creating Friction and Delays on the battlefield How is Friction on the battlefield defined? Friction can be defined by making tasks harder and longer to carry out by throwing off your timing. In a game this can be accomplished in a number of ways. Suppression degrades your ability to observe, maneuver and shoot. By degrading your enemy’s observation it will take him longer to detect and respond allowing your attacking troops to maneuver freely. This is most easily accomplished with suppressive fire or forcing crews to button up. Adding to that are environmental factors, SNAFU’s and plain bad luck or poor decisions. Under ideal conditions trained squads and crews can perform their activities and duties in a very predictable way and time frame. However, the battlefield is not an ideal environment. It’s your job to make the conditions as difficult as possible for the enemy. Making things difficult we’ll define here as “friction” and as friction increases delays make it more difficult to perform even the simplest activities. We’ll express this difficulty as a delay element that forces the enemy to take longer to perform an activity they are already trained and drilled to do and increases the chance of a random event happening that can make it even worse. If your enemy is suffering more friction than your friendly forces

that will put you in an advantageous position of being able to accomplish more in the same time period. This is how you gain the initiative by getting inside the enemies OODA Loop by using shorter Time & Action periods. It’s not random. Forcing a tank commander to button up makes him much less effective. When a tank is engaging and firing at a target the commander and crew are blind in the 270 degree arc as they are too busy to notice everything around them. Wounded tank and gun crew members may still be able to operate but at a reduced effectiveness reflected by a delay in completing an activity. A wounded tank commander will have a delay in Situational Awareness to observe and detect the enemy. A wounded loader will take longer to reload. A wounded gunner will be slower to get his gun on the target and his aim will be off. A wounded driver will have a delay in responding to a move out order. Delays are deadly! Attacking your enemy flanks and rear will surprise him catching him out of position and force him to spend additional precious time to respond and redeploy or rotate his turret thus giving you the initiative and first shot opportunity. Suppressive fire against infantry units will force them to spend less time observing and firing and more time protecting themselves decreasing their firepower and observation. This will give you the initiative and more time to safely move from cover to cover or close assault with Fire & Maneuver. Suppressed units take more time to act (delay factor). In a tank engagement getting the first shot off is important. Good tactical deployment like over watch on expected enemy approaches will give you a much better opportunity for a first shot. By withholding fire you can track the enemy target and wait for it to come within range or present a better firing opportunity to trigger an ambush. My favorite! While there is chaos and random actions on the battlefield, those factors do not dominate activities within a tank crew or an infantry squad. Training, drills and leadership are the driving factors behind their performance. Friction caused by enemy actions and SNAFU’s can have a huge effect and a delay of only a few seconds can spell death.

What is the downside to using Time & Action to replace traditional activations? One of the downsides to using this system in a 1:1 engagement is that to come up to speed the player needs to have a deeper understanding of historical tank engagements and the problems faced by tank and gun crews. It’s a lot more than just a die roll modifier to hit or activate. This is especially true because the game uses many military terms and nomenclature that the player may not be familiar with. Someone that was a tank crew member will be up to speed quickly as he will recognize the concepts. I’ve found some players need to “unlearn” past game systems first. Traditional games have many events that are randomized and out of the players control with many systems having no way to respond to enemy actions until you are activated or your turn comes around. There is very little the player needs to remember or track and there may be very little influence or decisions the player has when or how their unit will activate. This makes the game easier to learn. The designer needs to balance detail and playability. I agree. Some games eliminate opportunity fire and immediate reaction to enemy fire and force the player into the constraints of the structured turn or randomized activation. This makes the game easier to play but also puts the player more in the role of a spectator rolling the dice when a random event tells him to. Many players have remarked how they do not like sitting and waiting for “activation” or his IGOUGO turn while his units get pounded. Do you? Traditional game turns and activation using dice and cards has an advantage that there is no record keeping needed. Something many players will refuse to do. The Time & Action system needs the player to write down and keep track of the turn of activation for each vehicle and gun. The detailed version of the game uses an 8.5x11 inch double sided sheet in a clear transparency with dry erase markers for this. It functions as a tailored QRS for the specific vehicle model, has tactical hints to bring new players up to speed and areas to track status. The main factor to track is the future turn of activation/firing/moving and target number. Those are going to change. Other areas like crew expertise, reload time, ammo type selection and gun accuracy are optional for additional detail. The Intro and Basic version has the player write the activation turn on an index card. As far as calculations it’s no more difficult than calculating some die roll modifiers. The status sheet is tailored with most of the modifiers already included making it easier and eliminating chances for mistakes.

What are the advantages to using Time & Action to replace traditional activations? I feel that it is natural and intuitive for a player to grasp the OODA Loop using the Time & Action concept of the game. “What do I want to do and how long will it take me” is pretty simple. The mechanics of the game centers on determining how long it will take to act/activate with some decision points by the player so it is not totally predictable. This replaces IGOUGO and random activation methods using cards or dice. Ideally the player has some knowledge of how a tank crew works together as a team and how fire teams within a squad support each other. Reading a tank manual to understand tactics, gunnery and crew duties is not necessary but does go a long way towards grasping the finer points of the game. Using Time & Action introduces timing as another level of tactics and strategy that many games cannot portray. Good tactical deployment pays off to gain the initiative and first shot because it limits delays. It’s not just a die roll modifier to hit. When the shooting gets hot and heavy players can specify their aim time to get a quicker and less accurate shot or take more time for better accuracy. That’s the risk-reward feature that allows the player to get inside his opponents OODA Loop and beat him to the punch. Players will quickly see that in a large engagement one or two seconds of aim time can mean the difference between life and death. He has a hand in his own fate and can’t blame it on the dice. Players are not waiting for their turn or watching as their units get killed while they are powerless. Every action like moving, firing and turret rotation by the enemy has a chance to be detected and reacted upon when they occur. There is no orders phase. When players are determining their Time & Action for their next activation they are not holding up the game forcing other players to wait. As soon as a player performs an action mentally he’s going through his OODA Loop and he IMMEDIATELY determines the Time & Action for the next one. DON’T WAIT! If he just fired and wants to fire again he determines the ammo type, reload time and aim time noting the turn of firing. There is no need to track command points, determine initiative or interrupt a turn or movement. The player needs to pay attention to what is happening on the table. This is not the kind of game you can walk away from for 10-20 minutes and not miss something. Some players have remarked that all fire is opportunity fire. In most games Opportunity Fire and Over Watch are normally handled with special rules, orders and IF-THEN-ELSE exceptions. Some games skip these concepts completely because they are too hard to implement and make playable. Using Observation/Situational Awareness with the Time & Action concept makes Opportunity Fire and Over Watch transparent to the player. Wherever his turret is pointed is “over watched” and a Situational Awareness Check is all that is needed to start the engagement. Good tactical deployment for an over watch with an unbuttoned tank commander will generate a minimum of delay to shoot first.

Observation and Situational Awareness – the keys to success During the game observation is in real time – just like on a real battlefield. First we Observe, and keep in mind that although we process approximately 80% of the information we receive with our sense of sight, we can and do make observations with our other senses. Seeing or hearing what is happening around you. At this initial point in the loop, you should be on the look-out for new information, and need to be aware of unfolding circumstances. Observation can include aids like radio messages about enemy threats and target designation by tracers or smoke. Operating with infantry will improve a vehicles observation. Poor observation will result in taking additional delays to react to a threat. I use the concept of Situational Awareness as a way to quantify what a unit or vehicle crew (not the player himself) can observe and hear around them and how quickly they can react (called a Situational Awareness delay). This is much different than traditional spotting rules. Your awareness is best to your front and decreases on your flanks and rear. Your field of vision is limited to the front arc when engaged and firing leaving you blind in other arcs. Situational Awareness assumes the commander is able to observe in 360 degrees but focused to the direction the turret is pointing. You don’t search specific areas or attempt to spot specific targets. The factors involved in observation are the weapons platform features (enhanced optics, periscopes), height advantage, environmental factors, buttoned up/unbuttoned, suppressed/unsuppressed. These are handled as die roll modifiers to the sighting arc for the Situational Awareness Check. Tactical deployment and over watch will determine which sighting arc to use for the Situational Awareness factor to determine if there is a delay with vehicles having different factors. When attempting to engage an enemy the Engagement Play Aid (see diagram at the end) lets the player know his Situational Awareness factors (high numbers are best) and modifiers for each sighting arc, amount of time to get the gun/turret on the target for the single D20 die roll. It will also let him know what horizontal angle the enemy will be

firing into him on. The play aid is a three inch diameter disc with a rubber band attached in the center. All factors and modifiers are tailored for that particular unit and model. If the Situational Awareness D20 die roll + modifiers <= the Situational Awareness factor you can engage without a delay. The amount > the Situational Awareness factor is the amount of delay in game turns before engaging (rotating the turret, aiming and firing), bBeing unbuttoned helps. Unexpected situations will increase your delay in acting. Better trained troops can perform well with a minimum of higher level leadership. Poor troops need leadership to overcome these handicaps. I give crews an overall rating of Ace, Veteran, Trained or Green. However, you could assign each crew member a specific rating if you like.

How does Time & Action faithfully portray real life tank engagement tactics?

Shoot & Scoot: If you feel your vehicle has the armor to stand up to a hit use all of the time you need to take an accurate shot. However, if you are at a defensive disadvantage it may be a better tactic to get off a quick but inaccurate first shot and then move out and evade before he shoots. Close the range while reloading. If he fires at you while you are moving he’ll most likely miss so now you stop, shoot and scoot again. If he is waiting for you to stop before he fires just keep moving to get out of LOS. If you fire first with all things being equal you’ll be inside his reload, aim and fire loop. Over Watch & Opportunity Fire: An enemy tank breaks cover into your LOS and you get out your Engagement Play Aid to perform a Situational Awareness Check to engage. Unfortunately you were over watching the wrong area and he’s in your left flank. It will take 15 seconds to get your gun on the target, aim and fire. He’s travelling at about 30kph covering about 90-100 meters in 10 seconds. He seems to be attempting to get behind some houses about 150 meters away. You want to get the shot off before he disappears but to be sure I’ll need to trade accuracy for speed and take 12 turns to get the shot off. The movement arrows used in the game show the speed and distanced moved each turn. Reverse Slope Defense: You can actually perform this like in real life. Starting out turret down the commander detects a target. He then moves from turret down to hull down position with the gun pointed at the target for minimum turret rotation time. The enemy can now perform a Situational Awareness Check. The gunner will want to take 6-7 seconds aim time to get the round off. As soon as the shot is fired place a movement arrow showing reverse movement back to turret down while reloading. You were exposed to enemy fire for about 10 seconds making it almost impossible for the enemy to react and accurately fire in time unless they were overwatching exactly where you appeared hull down.

Summary

After reading this you may be thinking that a player can only control one or two vehicles and there is a binder full of rules like ASL to access during the game. I’ve tried to strip the game down to what’s most important, fun and easy to learn. At conventions a 10 minute intro and a sample move then we start playing. After about an hour they get how the game works using Time & Action and need little guidance from me – all without ever having read the rules first.

Once the player understands how Time & Action works his OODA Loop can be translated to almost any game in any time period. That includes large scale battles and man-man Spec Ops and Wild West gunfights. When a player seems lost and not know what to do I ask, “What do you want to do and how long will it take you?” The player will naturally revert to his personal OODA Loop and then use the formula to determine Time & Action of when to activate. That’s the game!

I think this system can accommodate almost any type of gunnery or “To Hit + DRM” system. If a gun has a historical rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute it fires every 6 seconds/turns. No abstraction for ROF is needed. You can have good crews perform reloading one or two second’s quicker and poor crews longer. You can elect to fire one or two seconds earlier but with an accuracy penalty. Movement rates may need to be adjusted too. We mutually perform movement at the end of every 5 or 10 turns. Moving every 5 turns means a speed of 32kph will move about 50 meters. This is a small enough increment to perform opportunity fire without additional rules or exceptions. It really speeds up the game too. There are some risk-reward options like the amount of aim time that are the player’s discretion. This can make for some very interesting encounters in a tense shootout when both are within lethal range. They’ll try to outguess their opponent to get the next shot off and there has even been some friendly “bantering” and trash talking about who will shoot next. That’s a different experience than waiting for the right card or die to be drawn to do something.

Game turn example using the Play Aids The vehicle status sheet (not shown) and Engagement Play Aid have everything you need in your hand to get started. Each 8.5 x 11 inch status sheet is tailored for that vehicle model eliminating the need to use the “basic # + die roll modifiers” to look up. It also functions as a quick reference sheet tailored for that vehicle model and nationality and gives advice on how to employ different tactics. All information for movement, Situational Awareness and gunnery are in the player’s hand along with tactical advice. The Engagement Play Aid makes target engagement with customized weapons platform performance, crew factors and Time & Action easy to perform without needing to access other charts or modifiers. On the Vehicle Status Sheet (which can be used for up to six vehicles or guns) there are sections defined as triggers for an Aurasma augmented reality iPhone or iPad app. Pointing your camera at a section will bring up a 30-45 second video explaining that part of the game, options, exceptions and tactical hints. You can start playing the game with only a brief review of the rules and not have to access a rule book during the entire game. You have a video, audio and graphical example and explanation of play at your fingertips exactly when you need it. http://bit.ly/1fRpozE

OODA Loop example using the Engagement Sequence with the Engagement Play Aid: Step #1 Observe: Orienting the Engagement Play Aid to the turret direction the red rubber band is stretched towards the target. In this example the Tiger I is a Veteran unbuttoned tank commander and he performs a Situational Awareness Check on turn #16. The SA modifiers on the back of the play aid are -2 for the Target Aspect Exposure, 0 for a Veteran tank commander and -2 for a Moving Target (they are easier to spot). That gives a -4 modifier to the D20 die roll. The D20 die roll is an 18 – 4 modifier = 14. The SA Factor for an unbuttoned tank commander in the front side arc is a 12. This means the commander has a 2 second Situational Awareness delay in detecting the target. If the D20 roll + modifiers is <= the arc factor there is no detection delay. If he were buttoned up there would be an 8 second SA delay. Overwatch is important. Step #2: He puts the target id# in the Status Sheet engagement circle. He is now engaged and blind to his 270 degree rear arc shown by the light blue arcs on the Engagement Play Aid. Step #3 Orient: Since this is his first shot at the target he’s using Ranging Fire Control with no other options. The info and options for aiming, MPI mods and Time & Action is on the Vehicle Status Sheet.

Step #4 Decide: Using the Engagement Play Aid the turret rotation time is +15 and modifiers on the back side are + 3 for a Veteran Gunner +2 for a Moving Target (harder to lay the gun) for a total of 20 seconds. He decides that 20 seconds is going to be too long and wants to risk a high speed turret rotation breakdown which will only take 5 seconds for a total of 10 seconds. He rolls a D100 and if it is <= to 9 the turret breaks down during rotation. He wants to get maximum accuracy and decides to use max aim time of 7 seconds for a 0 MPI accuracy modifier. That’s on the Vehicle Status Sheet. This is also where you select ammo and reload to fire at the same target. “Time & Action” to determine Action Turn = +2 SA Delay +5 Turret Rotation time +7 Aim Time = 14 + Current Game Turn 16 = Action Turn #30 Step #5: Put 30 in the “Action Turn” box on the status sheet and in the Ranging MPI Mod box put 0. MPI Modifiers influence accuracy. Step 6 Act: On “Action Turn” #30 select the Gunnery MPI accuracy at the target’s range with any MPI column modifiers. Roll a D100 on the MPI Accuracy Chart (not shown) for shooting results. Go back to Step 1 if firing at a new target or Step 4 at same target using Bracketing or Ranged In fire. In this example it’s obvious the Tiger I has poor tactical deployment letting an enemy out flank him. If he was better deployed and overwatching where the enemy appeared the turret rotation would have been 3 seconds rather than 5-15 seconds with no SA Delay. He would be firing on turn #26 and not risk the high speed turret rotation breakdown chance. Because of poor tactical deployment the Tiger I has given his opponent 4 additional seconds to get inside his OODA Loop and get the first shot off. In this case it may be better for the Tiger I to move after a 5 turn delay than to take a side shot.

Remember, if you don’t know what to do ask yourself, “What do I want to do and how long will it take me”. If you can understand the Engagement Sequence, Engagement Play Aid and this page you are ready to play the game. The custom vehicle status sheet will have everything else you need. If you are having a hard time wrapping your head around the system hopefully this flow chart will help. Basically it comes down to two choices: move or shoot with both being dependent on a Situational Awareness Check if engaging a new target. You do not need to perform a Situational Awareness Check each turn to keep a target engaged. The formulas will determine how many turns in the future you’ll fire/activate. Gunner aim times are 4-9 seconds. Using a range finder is 12 seconds. Reloading is 4-10 seconds, 2 piece ammo 30 seconds. Driver Order Delay is 2-8 seconds. Time & Action Example: A Veteran Crew performing a Ranging Shot (round already in the chamber) with a Situational Awareness Delay of +2 a Turret Rotation Time of +3 and an Aim Time of +6 will fire in 11 turns. Their next shot whether it uses Bracketing or Ranged In will be +7 Reload Time +5 Gunner Aim time firing in 12 turns. He’ll get his first two shots off in 23 seconds. Using the same aim time and SA Delay a Green Crew will get their first two shots off in 26 seconds but accuracy will be worse. However, if the Green Crew flanked the Veteran Crew the vets would have had a longer SA Delay and turret rotation time putting the Green Crew inside their OODA Loop for the first two shots.

The above image is for Ranging Fire Control. Ranged In and Bracketing have their own. It shows the accuracy modifiers for the crew type and aim time. A veteran crew using 5 seconds of aim time has a +2 modifier. If the target is at 1200 meters (1.7 MPI) he’d use the accuracy value for 1400 meters (2.3 MPI). No other modifiers to hunt for. The green crew using the same aim time would use the +5 accuracy value at 1700 meters (3.4 MPI). The green crew accuracy will be 50% worse than the veteran crew. To have a chance to hit the green crew needs to spend 7 seconds aiming for a +3 MPI (2.6 MPI at 1500 meters) giving the enemy +2 second first shot advantage and slight accuracy advantage. This is a decision point for the player on the risk-reward of trading accuracy for speed.