Tabletop Spaceship Wargame Part 8, Meta systems!

Previously I established the core tenets of the movement system. I'm attacking broader questions at this point and I need to take a stance on several issues I've encountered across different games.

Scale-ability
Some games work really well on a small scale, and then fall completely apart at a larger scale. This cannot be completely mitigated. The impact of scale on the game can be reduced through the use of mechanics that are less intensive at larger scales.

For example, if players set each piece's movement pattern simultaneously then there is less down time as players are resolving a step of the game at the same time rather than taking turns. This mechanic would also keep team games quick.

A less optimal but simpler mechanic would be for players to alternate moving pieces. This allows players to react to each other's moves as the turn progresses and makes the choice of which pieces to move important for obtaining an advantage. This breaks down in games with more than 4 players as the time between moves becomes substantial.

The method I'm least fond of is on your turn, you move every unit you control. This is boring for the opposing player because it is a passive experience - they cannot act with the current information until the entirety of their opponent's forces have moved.

For now movement will alternate as each player selects a piece, completes it's movement, and then the other player follows suit.

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Another piece of this puzzle is whether or not a unit destroyed before it's turn gets to fire. There are games that allow this, and there are games that do not. The difference is in the amount of punishment the target player should receive. Given that whether a piece can be attacked or not is under some control of the player, a destroyed ship is at least partially a result of their choices. This also alters how less durable ships affect the game. If they can fire the turn they are destroyed then 'glass cannon' ships would be more viable and powerful. If not they represent a higher risk.

In order to keep the game accessible, the rules allow a ship to fire on the turn it is destroyed. This helps negate the disadvantage of first turn in a manner compatible with the abstraction present in other areas of the game.

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Initiative
Moving first in this game is a disadvantage. Going second lets you react to the other player's moves, and you have the distance advantage when measuring range to fire weapons. Due to the nature of the game alternating turns are the only practical method to resolve game mechanics in an orderly fashion.

Initiative will be determined by a coin toss for now. As the game develops it may be useful to have slower reacting factions have a penalty to Initiative.

The player that wins Initiative deploys his ship, moves, and fires after the player that lost initiative.