Ah, it seems I was mistaken. Attacks of Opportunity happen when a player leaves a threatened square, which I'm not sure happens while a character is moving, only if they stopped there, and then started moving does it trigger.

So theres that.

It is just a small chance (at least for normal characters, I think I had one of my fighters setup to almost always get an AoO).

I'm not an expert too, but I've overheard conversation where the guy mentioned that the big unit (tank or transport) is more vurnerable from the sides. Sure, the cannon fodder doesn't use such elaborate effects.

That's the whole idea of some games. XD

I personally very much dislike this idea. I don't see what's wrong with trying to let my army fight in unison (or prepare them for that one decisive strike).
What if attacking a slower unit (or a more armoured one) caused a bigger turn-cooldown time? Then you could still have your units move in unison, but as soon as the battle begins the slower units start getting an advantage.

I also like the 'trample' idea. But that brings to my mind a cavalier that fights like a divebomber and has to move across enemies to attack and is restricted to 120° turns. But that seems what you are trying to prevent. This is giving me all sorts of ideas for a an alternative use of direction...

I always think of this, when I think of spear guys:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_formation#Phalangite_armament

BTW looking up tesselation and tiling on Wikipedia is fun.

Yes, sir! The way I was thinking, the cavalier has about 8 tiles to move, but he has to move 8 tiles when attacking, and not only that; he also can't strike the enemy on his last tile. For example in the most extreme case, that you force a 4-tile run-down, he has to be exactly four tiles away to attack and needs a room of at least four tile behind the enemy to attack.
But I also wanted to force him to move in almost straight-lines: no sharp 240° or 360° turns for him.
An advantage that you could give him is walking over the actual tile the enemy is occupating. (Except a guarding paladin.)
The turning angle would imply though that you best attack him from the rear. The cavaliers as a whole would be constantly moving to get good angles and attacks.

One important suggestion, since turns are soldier specific, make some sort of very clear indication of the order of the next turns. Maybe something like the HoMM5 bar that shows the next X turns with a picture of the soldier.

Good ideas. Yes, you can call up the list of upcoming turns at almost any time, another thing FFT had.

I was starting to take the divebombing idea literally; maybe a charging unit could be a small dragon or large bird that the Summoner can conjure. It has a short movement radius, a weak melee, but can hit any unit (exactly) X number of tiles away with a powerful charge. More or less distance, and the damage weakens. Having to be able to fly through a range and a slow rate of turning are also options.

I need to go play that Battle for Wesnoth game like I said I was going to and didn't ...

T_T'
But I do think 23yrold3yrold has enough ideas to keep going on.

I like turn-based tactical games even when they have bad AI. I don't think any of the games that have been mentioned so far had any AI with more than unit-level behavior.

Just design maps/scenarii where the player is outnumbered, or any other case where it's easy to "lose", and let him experiment and try revert the odds. The game will be good if the player can explore enough of the game mechanics to invent creative ways of using the terrain, units skills, or even use the enemy against itself.

I have one idea about the units speeds, that I haven't seen used anywhere : If for example 3 of the player's units can move before one of the other party, you could let the player move them in any order. It would give the player more choices, and let the units coordinate/collaborate more.

I'm all for units with unusual capabilities, it's more interesting to play than brute force. For example in Fire Emblem, the Dancer/Bard can not fight, only grant a second turn to one of your units. It's highly underrated in all the FAQs I've read, but I find it an excellent member of a group, allowing many options like:
- Your best unit plays (and attacks) twice.
- Fix a mistake when you've left a vulnerable unit in grave danger - let it flee
- When the whole troup moves for many turns, make the slowest unit(s) catch up. It significantly reduces travel time, and those slow dwarves no longer arrive after the battle is over.

How about a black hole (or something) skill that lets you create a tiny black hole (one tile in size) and it would sucks everything in a given radius (indicated by whatever means you see fit) one square towards it every turn (except huge units; dealing lots of damage to anything that occupies that tile each turn)?

Just a thought.

Will it have time travel? <- This is my new rule for games I buy in the future.^[1]

I have a game idea with time travel It'll be a little mind-fscky.

I'd love to see you tile octagons

Smartass