Overwatch/reaction fire
A unit sacrifices its action to enter a watchful state, automatically firing at the first enemy that moves through its line of sight during the opponent's turn. Overwatch solves turn-based combat's biggest structural problem: the passive off-turn. With reaction fire on the board, the enemy turn becomes tense (will they trigger it?) and your own movement becomes a careful path through potential kill zones. Designers use it to make defense proactive and to punish careless advancing. Tuning decisions: accuracy penalty on reaction shots (XCOM applies one to keep overwatch from dominating), whether one watcher gets one shot or fires repeatedly, trigger rules (movement only, or any action), and counters — smoke, suppression, or cheap moves that bait the shot out. Pitfall: if overwatch is strictly better than shooting, both sides camp; the standoff meta must be actively designed against.
- Dev effort: Medium
- Timing: Turn-based
- Common in: tactics
Seen in
- XCOM 2
- XCOM: Enemy Unknown
- Gears Tactics