AAFitz wrote:just plan for it...or skip a turn...there is no real advantage to skipping...it usually is a disadvantage....its set up for those who get tied up unexpectedly...and is perfectly reasonable..and easy to plan for...if you assume they are deadbeating, and they dont...its on you...not them
In some types of games it is not a great advantage (if any at all), but in no cards teams games, getting missed armies for skipping a turn is often quite significant, especially towards middle or late rounds when large armies are off the board. For example, a (not uncommon) situation where you are protecting a continent with distance, say, 1,1,1 or 1,2 on multiple borders and the opponent has several territories with 1s right outside the defensive ring. This is usually secure from attack; and you as the continent holder can push back an attack with 3 with your bonus. But if the turn is missed, even with the bonus you often cannot adequately defend on all fronts against the coming onslaught coming against an unknown border and from an unknown attack point (7s can obviously go much further than 4s).
My partners and I have seen numerous occasions where a missed turn leading to doubled armies leads to an unfair result, although none have been game-changing so far. I think it affects play more than it should, because it causes you to have to worry about spots that normally you would not have needed to worry about. (E.g., if you are protecting a partner from elimination, and he has say, 4, in an isolated spot with enemy 1s around, you normally don't have to worry too much about that spot, but with doubled or trebled armies you would.) It also affects strategies (e.g., you have to try to eliminate the turn-misser if possible instead of focusing on intrinsic objectives), and in that respect also has negative effects on gameplay.
More generally, the missed turn rule multiplies the force of a directed thrust from multiple possible attack points and is impossible to defend, because you cannot defend every possible spot from the sudden drop of troops. (Naturally, in cards games, the turn-misser loses a card, which itself is worth about 2-3 armies, so there is often little if any net benefit there even if the turn-misser can break a bonus.)