101 - Game Turn

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This article is part of Warmachine University's Crash Course (101) series, which is "Basic Training" aimed at new players who are still learning the core rules.

 

The 101 series is intended to help you understand the rulebook, but you shouldn't be reading this instead of the rulebook.

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Each player's turn is divided into 3 phases.

Player Turn

Maintenance Phase

This is the "tidy up the previous turn" phase. You clear out any spells/effects that expired, you check to see if fire goes out and acid stops melting.

Several models have abilities that occur in the Maintenance Phase, this is often about spawning new models (such as Reinforcements) or acting out your revenge against enemies that hurt your friends (such as Vengeance).

Control Phase

This is the "interact with your battlegroup" phase. You figure out how much focus/fury you have on the board, and shuffle it around to where it needs to go.

Several models have abilities that occur in the Control Phase, this is often about making your focus/fury more efficient (such as Arcane Assist) or just random free bonuses that would be overpowered if they could stack with Maintenance Phase abilities (such as Apparition).

Activation Phase

This is where the actual gameplay occurs. You pick a model/unit and activate it, then the next, until you've done your entire army.

Game Round vs Effect Round

A Game Round is just counting how long the game has gone. Each game round, every player takes a turn in the order established during setup. Once the last player in the turn order completes his turn, the current game round ends.

There are many effects which last one round. This is not equal to one Game Round. When a player triggers one of these effects it lasts until the start of their next turn, regardless of where that player's turn occurs in the Game Round.

Example

• Game Round 1
  • Player 1 takes their Turn 1
  • Player 2 starts their Turn 1
    • Player 2 casts a spell that lasts for one round

• Game Round 2
  • Player 1 starts their Turn 2
    • The spell stays in effect for the entirety of Player 1's second turn, even though it's a new Game Round.
  • Player 1 finishes their Turn 2
    • The spell immediately expires because the "one round" is complete.
  • Player 2 starts their Turn 2