Hard Activation Question

[Captain_Orso]

I'm playing a game with the ominous third activation rule box checked. The Tool-Tip says

If checked, land forces with a non activated cammander have a high chance of NOT being able to move at all.

However I'm seeing commanders become activated and at the same time become locked. Is this WAD?

[Jim-NC]

It has been a long time since I played hard activation, but IIRC, when a unit become "unlocked", it gives you a message. Then there was an activation roll,which the unit failed, locking it again. The activation message is only in the log correct? Then it doesn't really effect game play.

[Captain_Orso]

Hi Jim, thanks for your response.

Whenever a leader becomes unlocked there is a message stating that 'so-n-so is now active in such-n-such region', even if he isn't 'activated'.

Then, as you have stated, it can occur that the presently 'active/unlocked' leader is suddenly locked again.

There seems to me to be no correspondence between being 'activated' and 'unlocked/active'. The Tool-Tip, as I've quoted, states that there is a 'high chance' of the leader not being able to move at all, but it says nothing about a chance of 'activated' leaders being locked.

What bugs me is that the description in the rules and the Tool-Tip insinuate that the chance of being locked is based upon being unactivated, so that a leader could have 3 stati

1. Activated
2. Unactivated, but active (has a 'brownie-- -35% movement and combat penalty, cannot attack, etc.)
3. Unactivated & locked--cannot move at all

But it seems, from what I am seeing, that activated/unactivated and locked/active are two different things with no actual relationship to each other.

In other words, on top of the D6-roll to determine if a leader is activated or unactivated there is a second role after that to determine if he is active or locked.

If that is the case and this is also a D6-roll then hard activation causes a 50% greater chance of having a leader with a strategic rating of 3 hindered or immovable

IE
Hard Activation

• 25% chance of activated/unlocked (good)
• 25% chance of inactive/unlocked (bad)
• 25% chance of unactivated/locked (very bad)
• 25% chance of activated/locked (bad)

And if there is a chance of a presently activated/active leader again rolling to become unactive/locked and then inactivated... this is giving me a headache

[Stauffenberg]

It sounds like the general in question doesn't know his headquarters from his hindquarters: I move we call this "The General Pope Conundrum."

[Captain_Orso]

Hey, I resemble that remark

[Jim-NC]

It may have changed with the latest patch. When I played with hard activation, (1.14 I believe), it seemed that you had 3 options:

1. pass activation
2. not pass activation (become a brownie)
3. fail activation (become locked).

BTW, as a bonus, locked generals didn't cost NM if they were passed over. So I was able to not give Mac an army, and I didn't have to pay any NM for it. That was the only redeeming feature about hard activation in my book. I could skip over several starting union generals for army commands.

[Captain_Orso]

Now you tell me

I got saddle with Mac because I couldn't afford to lose the 10 NM and he's about to get smacked really hard by Lee around Manassas