Turn structure

Owns the turn counter, the current phase, and the order of actors. Within a turn players act in sequence or submit orders simultaneously; then the world resolves production, growth, movement, combat, and events, and the next turn begins. A turn stands for a fixed span of game time, from a year in Hamurabi to two weeks in The Oregon Trail. Phased variants split a turn into stages, as in Agricola's work and harvest phases or Imperium Romanum II's taxation every third turn; simultaneous variants, called WEGO, such as Diplomacy and Combat Mission, collect all orders and then execute them together. Civilization is the canonical sequential form in strategy simulation. Inputs are player orders; outputs are the resolved world state each turn.

Unlimited time to think. The player studies the state, plans, and commits, then watches the consequences resolve at once. Turns make cause and effect easy to trace and support a 'one more turn' rhythm, while simultaneous turns add the tension of predicting what others will do.

• game time per turn and whether it changes over the game
• sequential, simultaneous, or mixed actor order
• phase decomposition and which systems update in which phase
• per-turn action limits or action points
• time limits on turns in multiplayer

• Late-game turns with many units or cities take long to play and process, producing micromanagement fatigue.
• Sequential order gives first-mover or last-mover advantages that need compensation.
• Waiting for other players' turns makes multiplayer sessions long and idle.

• Players optimize per-turn efficiency, making the turn itself the unit of strategy.
• Batched world resolution makes chains of consequences visible as discrete steps.
• Simultaneous orders create bluffing and prediction between players.

• Can learned opponents that negotiate in natural language make phase-based diplomacy viable against AI rather than only humans?