Rules, rules, rules, rules...

Here is what I was thinking so far, I want the turn to have a countdown mechanic, starting high and working down to lower values. Taking a deck of cards the turn starts at Aces, then moves to kings, queens, jacks, tens and so on down to twos. At each point players declare which soldiers they want to act, I'm thinking one soldier at a time taking turns and randomly determining which player declares first at the start of the turn. When both players 'pass' the phase switches to the next card down.

When your soldier acts flip a card from the top of a shuffled deck. If the value of the card is equal or higher than the current phase the action succeeds. If not the action fails. During the game soldiers may receive pinning tokens from enemy fire. For each pinning token on the soldier reduce the value of their card flipped by 1.

Actions -
1) Run
Declare where the soldier will move to and place a counter there.
Success: Move the soldier up to 3D6 inches.
Fail: Move the soldier up to D6 inches.
Joker: The opponent places the figure anywhere along the straight line between their starting position and the counter.
The soldier will move the exact value rolled in the direction of the counter, unless they would move further in which case they stop at the counter.
2) Shoot
Declare a target the soldier has line of sight to.
Success: Remove the target model as a casualty. If the target model was partially obscured by anything or was not the closest enemy model to the firing soldier for a success the card must also be black. If the target was obscured by heavy cover e.g. a bunker, then the card also needs to be a spade for success.
Fail: Place a pinning token on the target soldier.
Joker: Place a 'jammed' token on your soldier.
3) Charge!
Declare an enemy soldier the soldier will move to.
Success: Move the soldier up to 2D6 inches. If they make it into base to base contact the target figure is removed as a casualty. If the soldier does not make it into contact they are placed at the axact distance rolled.
Fail: The soldier automatically makes contact with the enemy but is killed in the process remove them as a casualty.
Joker: Same as fail above.
4) Unjam
Automatic success, no need to flip a card, your soldier just needs to waste an activation unjamming their weapon before they can fire again. Remove their jammed token.

Once a soldier has activated they cannot be activated again until the next turn.
When a soldier carrying an MG performs the Shoot action flip 3 cards and all 3 count. If a joker is drawn the jam occurs before the other two cards so no fire is performed.

Elite soldiers such as British Commandos or German Falschirmjager receive leeway, you can set the leeway as you wish but I'd normally keep it to one or two. Meaning when they flip a card the card is considered to be one or two values higher.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Simple Toy Soldier