Theatre options question

[Bravo Romeo]

I've just started playing "The next war -79 tension" as the Warsaw pact. The scenario starts with a cease-fire, which may be broken by a theatre option ("begin hostilities"). Problem is, the theatre option comes into play the next turn. This means, in effect, that the enemy gets the first turn when attacks are allowed. In this case the NATO PO attacks across the board for an entire turn before I get a chance. More realistic would be if I chose to begin hostilities and within the same turn would be allowed to attack and move into enemy territory. After all, the side opening hostilities should also be the first side to make "surprise attacks" (which may not be the case in this particular scenario, though). The Warsaw pact side, being the aggressor, should naturally be moving and attacking first after breaking the cease-fire. So my question is: is there any way to make theatre options come into play within the same turn they are activated? Maybe I'm way off here, please help me if I got it all backwards. Thanks in advance!

[Veers]

If you are player 1, then you activate the TO and it does not break the cease fire until turn 2 begins, at which point you should still be player 1 and get first strike.
Unless the scenario is designed with NATO as P1.

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: Veers

If you are player 1, then you activate the TO and it does not break the cease fire until turn 2 begins, at which point you should still be player 1 and get first strike.
Unless the scenario is designed with NATO as P1.

It might be variable initiative kicking in.

[Veers]

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

ORIGINAL: Veers

If you are player 1, then you activate the TO and it does not break the cease fire until turn 2 begins, at which point you should still be player 1 and get first strike.
Unless the scenario is designed with NATO as P1.

It might be variable initiative kicking in.

Ahh, right.
Hey, why was that changed for hotseat, but nott PO play?

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: Veers

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

ORIGINAL: Veers

If you are player 1, then you activate the TO and it does not break the cease fire until turn 2 begins, at which point you should still be player 1 and get first strike.
Unless the scenario is designed with NATO as P1.

It might be variable initiative kicking in.

Ahh, right.
Hey, why was that changed for hotseat, but nott PO play?

So that designers could run tests without worrying about variable initiative screwing up timing for games that were primarily intended for PBEM.

[Veers]

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

ORIGINAL: Veers

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM



It might be variable initiative kicking in.

Ahh, right.
Hey, why was that changed for hotseat, but nott PO play?

So that designers could run tests without worrying about variable initiative screwing up timing for games that were primarily intended for PBEM.

Oh, I knew that. I was just wondering why it wasn't also applied to playing the PO.

[JAMiAM]

ORIGINAL: Veers

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

ORIGINAL: Veers


Ahh, right.
Hey, why was that changed for hotseat, but nott PO play?

So that designers could run tests without worrying about variable initiative screwing up timing for games that were primarily intended for PBEM.

Oh, I knew that. I was just wondering why it wasn't also applied to playing the PO.

Because some of us (namely ME) like the variable initiative. You should be thankful that Ralph's been too busy to allow me to talk him into applying it to PBEM games, too...[:D]

[Veers]

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

ORIGINAL: Veers

ORIGINAL: JAMiAM

So that designers could run tests without worrying about variable initiative screwing up timing for games that were primarily intended for PBEM.

Oh, I knew that. I was just wondering why it wasn't also applied to playing the PO.

Because some of us (namely ME) like the variable initiative. You should be thankful that Ralph's been too busy to allow me to talk him into applying it to PBEM games, too...[:D]

*starts thanking his lucky stars* [:D]
Although, I do remember you haveing some interesting and good ideas about variable initiative a while back.

[Bravo Romeo]

Ok. The thing is, the PO opens fire within the same turn. Variable initiative is a good feature, have no problems with that. However, in turn 2, being player one, I begin hostilities by a theatre option, and in the NATO turn 2 (ie the same turn) he starts attacking me. What I'm trying to say is that I would like to be able to attack first in turn 3, not have the NATO PO running into my positions the same turn I've activated the TO. You might argue that there was no such thing as surprise in a potential WWIII (as Tom Clancy suggests in Red storm rising), but anyway, applying this to other scenarios it would be preferable to have the ability to attack first if you activate a "break cease fire" TO. Still, I might be doing something wrong here, so if you could verify the PO behaviour in this or another similar scenario I would be happy. Thanks for the comments so far!

[Veers]

Which scenario is it?
Never mind. I'll do some testing tonight and see if I can help.

[Bravo Romeo]

It's "The next war 1979 - tension". I've been doing some testing on my own and it actually might be what you're saying - I'm the "victim" of variable initiative. If I activate "begin hostilities" in turn 1 without moving a single unit, the NATO PO still gets the first move in turn 2. The manual says that the initiative level of a force is partly randomized but strongly influenced by the average movement allowance of all friendly units. This would work in my favor if not moving any friendly units at all, right?