Simultaneous Turns in Strategy Games
In a game with simultaneous turns, every player plans their move at the same time, and nobody sees what the others chose until all the orders run together. There is no waiting for the other side to finish. You commit to a plan blind, the game resolves both plans at once, and you find out whether you read your opponent correctly.
The three ways a strategy game can handle time
Almost every strategy game picks one of three answers to the same question: when is a player allowed to act?
| System | How it works | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|
| Alternating turns (also called IGOUGO) | One player moves while the other watches, then they swap. | React to what just happened. You always have full information when it is your turn. |
| Real time | Everyone acts continuously, with no turns at all. | Act fast. Speed and multitasking decide a lot of the outcome. |
| Simultaneous turns | Everyone plans during the same phase, then all the orders resolve together. | Predict. You are guessing at the enemy plan while they guess at yours. |
Alternating turns give you time to think but let you respond to a move that already happened, which no real commander ever gets to do. Real time takes the thinking time away and rewards fast hands. Simultaneous turns keep the thinking time and take away the hindsight.
WeGo, the wargame name for the same idea
Wargamers usually call this system WeGo, as opposed to IGOUGO. The two words describe the same split: in WeGo you write orders during a planning phase, and then the game plays out both sides of the turn at once while you watch. If you have seen the term in a wargame forum, it means simultaneous turns.
What actually changes when you play
The mechanic sounds like a small scheduling detail, and then it changes every decision you make.
- You commit before you know. An order you give is an order you are stuck with for the whole turn. Half of playing well is picking plans that stay reasonable even when you guessed wrong.
- Bluffing becomes real. Because your opponent has to guess too, a threat you never intend to follow through on can pull their forces out of position.
- Nobody gets the last word. In alternating turns the player who moves second always answers the first move. Here both sides move into each other, so a charge can meet a charge and two plans can wreck each other at the same instant.
- Time pressure is on planning, not on clicking. Your hands never have to be fast. Reading the board does.
Where the system comes from
Simultaneous turns are old. The board game Diplomacy has used written orders revealed at the same time since 1959, and the idea moved into computer wargames because it matches how real orders work: a commander sends instructions and then finds out what happened. Games built on the system since then include Combat Mission, Frozen Synapse, Atlas Reactor and Lines of Battle.
Simultaneous turns in Lines of Battle
Lines of Battle is a free Napoleonic strategy game built entirely around this system. Each turn you draw the paths your regiments will take, choose their formations and pick their targets. When the turn resolves, your orders and your opponent's play out together and you watch both armies move at once.
The period does a lot of work here. Napoleonic units are slow and hard to turn, so a plan you commit to is a plan you live with for a long time. A line that is caught changing formation is in real trouble. Morale, exhaustion, terrain and elevation all feed into what your orders actually produce, which means the guess you make about the enemy is never the only thing that matters.
It runs in the browser and on phones, with no download needed to start.