Game design: luck without dead turns — is it possible

I’ve been tinkering with a light civ-ish prototype and I’m stuck on a boring problem: I want combat to feel risky, but I hate when someone whiffs two rounds in a row and basically watches Netflix while the table plays.

Modern designs seem to solve this with cards — you always play something — or with dice mitigation — you always cobble a partial success.

For people who actually finish designs: what principle do you use to keep variance spicy without creating literal skip turns?

Examples from published games welcome. I’m especially interested in middleweight euros that still use dice without making me want to flip the table.

Yes I’ve read the classic threads. Looking for fresh angles or ‘this obscure game did the trick’ energy.