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There's certainly been a shortening of the gap between clantech and IS-tech the farther you go through the timeline, which makes sense, all told, and also a fair mixing of both, which kinda bother me as by 3150 or whatever there are no real reasons for there to have clantech and IS tech anymore, I think.

The real funny thing is that in CBT, Inner Sphere Mechs tend to be more fragile than Clan Mechs. However, with Alpha Strike, Clan Mechs tend to be more fragile than Inner Sphere Mechs. The XL Engine halves the available Structure for a Mech, and almost every Clan Mech has an XL Engine. Meanwhile, the only threat to an Inner Sphere Mech is if you roll a 2 on a Crit Roll to make it go boom, even on something that has way more Ammo Bays than it should like a Crusader.

Usually when making Alpha Strike lists, I've ended up with 4 Clan Mechs vs 5 Inner Sphere Mechs, where as, I can usually get up to 6 Inner Sphere Mechs with Classic. Obviously it boils down to specifics, but they are there.


As a side note, if you like customizing your Mechs, MegaMekLab's latest "test" version, 0.49.11, has an Alpha Strike Card customizer. It won't adjust the Skill, but it can get you the base PV, Stats, and Specials to use to the MUL Custom Card Creator to finish the difference. Too bad it requires a special version of Java to run (and only that Java installed).

I mean, that's true as long as the IS mech use an XL-Engine (...or well, yeah, unprotected ammo). Otherwise, I'm not so sure.

For "customizing", the only thing I've done has been going to MUL AS army list construction and selecting the skill level, which then autocalculates the extra PV.

Depending on the era I still find the clan tech to be rather awesome.

But I do think it feels a lot better to not have them sooo different, so as to not need to so outnumber them ether.

I painted this assault lance yesterday (pretty quick and dirty to get them painted fast), and I think they are even valid as a formation ^^

Ohh wow, that’s coool!

Thank you

With any luck I may even get to use it this weekend.

Great scheme. They look awesome.

The first tranche of my own stuff has arrived. Beginner box for extra mechs and the hex map. Alpha strike box and rules and stuff are still pending.

 Flinty wrote:
Great scheme. They look awesome.

The first tranche of my own stuff has arrived. Beginner box for extra mechs and the hex map. Alpha strike box and rules and stuff are still pending.

Both the beginner box, and alpha strike boxes are great.

I have been working hard to get enough for Alpha strike campaign, keeps getting distracted by my own mech forces as I get more in.
But i want to be able to put down all the needed ones painted to start off.
Giving players a great jumping off point if they only need a lance, and can hire in mechs from my own mercenary forces.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CnfDFdUOZGM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Some Ghost Bear mechs I did.

 RaptorusRex wrote:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CnfDFdUOZGM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Some Ghost Bear mechs I did.

Some good looking stuff, I had a look at some others as well!

So it looks like I'll be getting into some PBEM Hexmap battletech Vs Flinty once things restock. Which is awesome, because I've liked the look of Alpha Strike for a good while now!

So the CBT beginner's box has turned up, and I must say I'm very impressed with the quality of the pre-assembled mechs. Very nice indeed.

Dug out my unpainted Trinary (Technically a Binary of one Star and Nova?) that I've had for... a while and they're now undercoated. Here we go!

Managed to get some paint down. Tried basic contrast and a slapchop scheme.

Given that the game is about giant stompy mechs, I’m thinking the cleaner style will do just fine, and is much easier. Basing materials are ordered.





Likely to do different schemes for different lances, but I rather like the teal




Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think my clanners will follow the winter scheme I did for my horizon wars print

I do like the teal with the red, will look great on the table.

I find mechs can look cleaner due to the size, even if I like to put a lot of work into it. It’s more often the dramatic or flashy stuff that most people will notice anyway on little mechs.

The clan scheme your going with is super awesome also.


One thing I do like is with alpha strike, can do big games. And the colours people choose look so good when you can get a large number on the field.

 Flinty wrote:
Managed to get some paint down. Tried basic contrast and a slapchop scheme.

Given that the game is about giant stompy mechs, I’m thinking the cleaner style will do just fine, and is much easier. Basing materials are ordered.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

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Likely to do different schemes for different lances, but I rather like the teal




Automatically Appended Next Post:
I think my clanners will follow the winter scheme I did for my horizon wars print

Spoiler:

Managed to play today, 400 points Clan vs. IS, circa 3050, let's say at the advent of the Clan Invasion

The forces were the Clan Nova I posted upthread vs an IS battle company:



(Everything Skill 3 except the Timber Wolf with Skill 2)



(Everything Skill 4 except the Banshee, the Awesome and the Archer at Skill 3, I think)

It pretty much confirmed what I sort of expected:

- Clan omnis are glass cannons due mostly to XL engines, so they can dish out a lot of damage but can't really take it as much
- Skill level is nice, but it made expensive units even more expensive, particularly the elementals.
- The elementals are very annoying to deal with, but they are simply too flimsy to use in non-built up terrain. Damage output and hit points is equivalent to the lightest IS 'mechs, but they are way slower and more expensive. Skill 3 on these seems too much of an expense.
- Quantity is a quality of its own, and the clans were sorely outmatched in that regard, particularly with the elementals riding the omnis.

The clanners managed to deal a lot of damage (less than usually, probably, due to me failing by one a LOT of rolls, but that's me xD) but the IS mechs had a lot more structure to soak it, so many ended up with multiple crits (we hit a whole lotta fire controls) but still alive. OTOH, the IS had a lot more mechs, so made a lot more to hit rolls per turn, which ended up mattering due to the rule of averages in rolling.

Battle ended with the clan nova reduced to a Puma and three elemental points against like six mechs, at which point we just stopped.

We used the original maps from the old school Btech box, too, for old time's sake ^^

3rd Hussars, Kungsarmé, FRR. Probably going to do some process improvements with re: the splinter camo on the next few 'Mechs I do.

How different is the game on the hex maps, over playing off them?
Do you think it effects much, or about as close as it possible?

Some really cool painted mechs as well in here, rather cool to keep seeing more!

Apple fox wrote:
How different is the game on the hex maps, over playing off them?
Do you think it effects much, or about as close as it possible?

Some really cool painted mechs as well in here, rather cool to keep seeing more!

Not much, all in all. If anything, it's easier to get into base to base contact, which maybe makes short range a bit less useful (as btb units can't shoot each other, only can use physical attacks).

It's also easy to revert back to Btech rules for visibility, and those are clear as day and pretty fast to use.

Alpha Strike Counters Pack - coming soon!

Alex Chobot wrote:I did a DFA on turn one at the Grinder and all I got was this lousy counter pack.

That pack has basically everything I just spent the last week trying to find alternatives for. I was especially frustrated trying to find exactly the kind of road pieces I wanted. Would love to have them in neoprene for flexibility, but these will do just fine.

 Albertorius wrote:

Apple fox wrote:
How different is the game on the hex maps, over playing off them?
Do you think it effects much, or about as close as it possible?

Some really cool painted mechs as well in here, rather cool to keep seeing more!

Not much, all in all. If anything, it's easier to get into base to base contact, which maybe makes short range a bit less useful (as btb units can't shoot each other, only can use physical attacks).

It's also easy to revert back to Btech rules for visibility, and those are clear as day and pretty fast to use.

Cool it feels so close. We haven’t got that many games in yet, so still feeling out the different things!

https://bg.battletech.com/forums/general-discussion/upcoming-releases-xxvi-unboxing-days/msg1901872/#msg1901872

The counters will be available this Spring.

Testing another lance scheme:

I quite like it, looks good on the base as well.
Green looks so great for the panels on cockpits.

So my Alpha Strike starter, BT: Beginners Box, and two Lances arrived late yesterday. I now have 27 IS mechs to 5 Clan mechs, so I've the two IS companies I wanted. Just need a Crusader and 2nd Stinger for the Black Widow Company, as I will take Prometheum5's suggestion and use the Wasp from the Alpha Strike box. Have almost finished a test mech (the Blackjack from the Wolf's Dragoons Assault Star) using a mix of Speedpaint and regular paint. Just need to drybrush the base. Will probably use more Speedpaint on the next ones.

Now this is for the future, but is there a place where the preferred mechs used by a given Clan are posted? I wandered through Sarna.net, but both the Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Ghost Bear military and Tourman entries did not say. Anyway, I'd be more interested in Clan Ghost Bear as I hate Jade Falcon, and since I'm planning on painting the 2nd IS company as the Eridani Light Horse (Absolution Green Speedpaint, woohoo!), I don't want the Clan mechs in green as well.

 Ancestral Hamster wrote:
So my Alpha Strike starter, BT: Beginners Box, and two Lances arrived late yesterday. I now have 27 IS mechs to 5 Clan mechs, so I've the two IS companies I wanted. Just need a Crusader and 2nd Stinger for the Black Widow Company, as I will take Prometheum5's suggestion and use the Wasp from the Alpha Strike box. Have almost finished a test mech (the Blackjack from the Wolf's Dragoons Assault Star) using a mix of Speedpaint and regular paint. Just need to drybrush the base. Will probably use more Speedpaint on the next ones.

Now this is for the future, but is there a place where the preferred mechs used by a given Clan are posted? I wandered through Sarna.net, but both the Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Ghost Bear military and Tourman entries did not say. Anyway, I'd be more interested in Clan Ghost Bear as I hate Jade Falcon, and since I'm planning on painting the 2nd IS company as the Eridani Light Horse (Absolution Green Speedpaint, woohoo!), I don't want the Clan mechs in green as well.

Master Unit List will show you what any faction was using at any given time. I am not nearly as versed on Clan mechs but find that there's a handful that tend to be more specific to a Clan and then most are pretty generally used, plus years of infighting between the Clans allows you to mostly use whatever for the Clan Invasion era stuff.

 Prometheum5 wrote:
Master Unit List will show you what any faction was using at any given time. I am not nearly as versed on Clan mechs but find that there's a handful that tend to be more specific to a Clan and then most are pretty generally used, plus years of infighting between the Clans allows you to mostly use whatever for the Clan Invasion era stuff.

To add to this, when referencing the MUL, remember to choose the appropriate 'General' option (e.g., Inner Sphere General, IS Clan General or HW Clan General) along with your specific Faction.

Thank you both for the replies. The Mad Dog (Vulture) and Executioner (Gladiator) are two of the favored Ghost Bear mechs according to Sarna.net. The former is in the Clan Heavy Striker Star, but the latter in the Clan Invasion box. So I guess the easier and cheaper path is not to sweat the small stuff: I don't like the Clans enough to bother with the details.

 Ancestral Hamster wrote:
So my Alpha Strike starter, BT: Beginners Box, and two Lances arrived late yesterday. I now have 27 IS mechs to 5 Clan mechs, so I've the two IS companies I wanted. Just need a Crusader and 2nd Stinger for the Black Widow Company, as I will take Prometheum5's suggestion and use the Wasp from the Alpha Strike box. Have almost finished a test mech (the Blackjack from the Wolf's Dragoons Assault Star) using a mix of Speedpaint and regular paint. Just need to drybrush the base. Will probably use more Speedpaint on the next ones.

Now this is for the future, but is there a place where the preferred mechs used by a given Clan are posted? I wandered through Sarna.net, but both the Clan Jade Falcon and Clan Ghost Bear military and Tourman entries did not say. Anyway, I'd be more interested in Clan Ghost Bear as I hate Jade Falcon, and since I'm planning on painting the 2nd IS company as the Eridani Light Horse (Absolution Green Speedpaint, woohoo!), I don't want the Clan mechs in green as well.

The Ghost Bears tend to favor very heavy mechs, a few very light designs (Dasher and Dragonfly) and use lots of Elementals. Everything in the Alpha Strike Box works great for Ghost Bear, except maybe the Pouncer until the Late Republic Era. Isorla would easily justify its presence though, so I wouldn't be concerned.

Also, later on in the timeline most of the designs can be used by mercenary force- if you're really not interested in the Clans, you may want to just give them to the ELH.