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A little over a week ago I had my first game of Alpha Strike. I didn't record enough to make a proper AAR, but you can see an overview of the battle, pictures and my observations regarding the game here:
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2013/12/alpha-strike-game-report-and-review.html
Suffice it to say that I really like this game. I never could get into Classic Battletech as it was just to crunchy for me. Alpha Strike, however gave me more than enough battletech flavor to enable me to enjoyably game in what is far and away my favorite gaming universe. We jumped right into "Standard" level play and asside from a bit of rulebook flipping, I felt that I quickly had a solid grasp of the rules. Rather amazing since my club is used to me being the one saying "What's the modifier for...?"

We played a 3 player 1-lance-each game, but I'm really looking forward to playing larger games.
As is the tradition in our club, we rarely do anything half-way so I put together what I feel is a pretty good-looking battlefield for this game. The Mechs are rebased Mechwarrior prepaints. A few pics to encourage a visit to the full blog post where there are lots more words and pictures.

That's an impressive table layout. Glad you liked the game! I know they have hundreds of unit cards to choose from but does the ruleset include or is there talk of an official vehicle construction set of rules to make up your own stuff completely?

nice work Eilif.
ill be getting in my first game real soon, come on christmas.
im not sure who the gift of some mechs is really for... me or my son. lol...

warboss wrote:That's an impressive table layout. Glad you liked the game! I know they have hundreds of unit cards to choose from but does the ruleset include or is there talk of an official vehicle construction set of rules to make up your own stuff completely?

The rulset gives you 16-20 unit stats to chose from, but no premade cards. You have to go to the master unit list and download the cards you need. On the positive side, the cards look quite nice and have a picture of the unit on them. Also most units have many (sometimes dozens) of variants available. I think there's several thousand unique units statted for Alpha Strike on the Master Unit List.

As for making up your own stuff, you can do it, but it's kind of convoluted right now. You pretty much have to design it in Battletech (via the Total Warfare book or Techmanual) first and then convert it to BattleForce/AlphaStrike stats. I think there is a free design program online that lets you do this, or you can use the rules in Stragegic Operations for converting Battletech to Battleforce. The Alpha Strike points value is 1/100 of the Battletech point value.

Rumor is that there might be some Alpha-Strike self-contained unit builder mechanic and maybe even an improved points system in the upcoming "AlphaStrike Companion".

usernamesareannoying wrote:nice work Eilif.
ill be getting in my first game real soon, come on christmas.
im not sure who the gift of some mechs is really for... me or my son. lol...

I think we all know the answer to that... ;-)

But seriously I hope the game goes well for you. It's a neat set of rules.

Ah, thanks. I'll probably wait until that companion comes out before considering seriously whether to pick it up. I wouldn't be using it for actual Battletech so the do it yourself creation rules would be a must for me.

 warboss wrote:
Ah, thanks. I'll probably wait until that companion comes out before considering seriously whether to pick it up. I wouldn't be using it for actual Battletech so the do it yourself creation rules would be a must for me.

That's a fair choice, though with a few thousand units currently available unit creation might not be necessary. Just about every stat combination you could want has been done.

I'm basically hedging my bets with Heavy Gear. If the newly announced edition ends up tanking the company and IP, I'd like some less intensive rules to use as a backup (meaning that CBT is *WAY* out of the running). If they have a complete set of do it yourself creation rules, I can at least come up with some alternatives that other mech fans might be willing to use (as opposed to switching to an obscure and/or OOP ruleset like Shockforce).

I see. I'd also recommend checking out Mech Attack. It's 8 bucks you won't mind spending. It's a favorite of mine and has some BT-ish flavor (damage grids, differing weaopons loadaouts) while playing about 4x as fast. and has a really easy to use unit creation mechanic.
http://www.wargamevault.com/browse.php?manufacturers_id=3148
The units are more detailed than Alpha Strike, so it tops out at 10 or so units per side whereas Alpha Strike can go much higher.

Of course Mech Attack and Alpha Strike are far less rules intensive than Heavy Gear.


Shockforce is a great game, but not really suited for mech combat.

Thanks. I've heard of Mech Attack and I've played Shockforce since before it had a full release and was a Kinko's bound pamphlet for $5 at Gencon but I'd likely go with Alpha Strike assuming I can stomach the rules and they have unit creation rules eventually. Alpha strike would be readily available and likely at least known to the mech playing community which is a big bonus. I'm hoping that the new edition of HG will grow the community instead of fracturing it but it is always good to have an alternative just in case.

edit: Took a look at some reviews and stat cards and it seems that there are no individual rules for weapon systems but rather just blanket damage at certain range brackets. Is that correct? That may be a bit too simplified for my tastes.

yep. all of your individual weapons are rolled into one stat.

 usernamesareannoying wrote:
yep. all of your individual weapons are rolled into one stat.

As he says, There are a few rules that modify that one stat in certain situations, but in general the entire weapons loadout is represented by damage values at three ranges. Alpha Strike isn't just BT simplified, it's meant to cover a larger scope of game as well. In order to accomodate dozens of units per side it's necessary to streamline most everything.

That's why I suggested Mech Attack. It allows you to give multiple weapons systems to your mechs as well as some other gear.

Another game that is more complex than Mech Attack or Alpha Strike, but less than BT or Heavy Gear is Gruntz. It's a generic sci-fi game that's got a pretty good following, a unit builder, great layout, a good amount of crunch to the rules and some similar mechanics to warmachine.
http://www.gruntz.biz/p/about.html
I've not had a chance to read through my copy yet. but it looks quite good.

Yeah, even in its streamlined form, Alpha Strike is geared to running Battletech-style mecha. That is, ablative-damage soaking, heat-generating, wall-of-fire kind of units. CBT, despite vehicle creation rules, was never (ever) a good generic mech game because it baked a lot of setting conceits in to the system itself. So when streamlined, it still contains those conceits.

In other games, having one profile for all weapons doesn't make a ton of sense. But in Battletech, your weapons tended to be important in how they act together rather than in terms of individual prowess. So treating them as an array and lumping them together is a great time-saver for BT-style mecha combat and even makes sense since weapons tend to be fire in groups keyed to a given range-bracket.

But if you are looking for something more generic, then it wont be a great system without a lot of work.

That said, you may try looking in to a few 10-15mm sci-fi games like Gruntz or Tomorrow's War. They do mixed-arms stuff pretty well and have room for handling anything from basic infantry to walkers quite nicely.

 Ronin_eX wrote:
Yeah, even in its streamlined form, Alpha Strike is geared to running Battletech-style mecha. That is, ablative-damage soaking, heat-generating, wall-of-fire kind of units. CBT, despite vehicle creation rules, was never (ever) a good generic mech game because it baked a lot of setting conceits in to the system itself. So when streamlined, it still contains those conceits...

...But if you are looking for something more generic, then it wont be a great system without a lot of work.

I would disagree. Battletech itself is not a great generic system, but Alpha Strike is. Heat plays only a small role (and many mechs don't really use it at all) and most games that are small in scale, but large in scope are going to have all the various weapons in a unit rolled into one statline. It's a matter of scope rather than level of detail. If you're only playing a few units per side, than Alpha Strike is going to feel too abstract. However, at the size of battle that it is intended for (closer to something closer to Epic 40k or Future War Commander) the streamlined stats are essential.

I've only played on Alpha Strike game, but my feeling was that it'd be an excellent system for any generic pulp sci-fi in 6mm or 10mm scale, and that's made even more apparent by already having thousands of Mechs, vehicles, infantry units and VTOL's already statted up on the MUL.

I've played both AS and TW (Total Warfare/'Regular BattleTech') and as much as I love the game I played as a child and growing up, I can't justify spending 6 hours to play a couple of lances against a couple of lances. So I'm hoping to see AS gain in popularity.
Game play time—as well as (hopefully) having people in the area to play—is one of the reasons I'm looking at picking up WH40K.

Very nice board!

i am on the fence about Alpha Strike. For some reason I just like coloring in dots!

I love Battletech and i play it alot at home and at conventions Personally im not ever planning on playing AS. But im torn on what it does for the image of BT as a whole.

I look forward to more people getting into BT through AS. But don't think i will ever see any of these new players playing Classic BT.

Give me Hexes and heat for BT and i will keep my tape measure for 40K.

Stormcrow77 wrote:
I love Battletech and i play it alot at home and at conventions Personally im not ever planning on playing AS. But im torn on what it does for the image of BT as a whole.

I look forward to more people getting into BT through AS. But don't think i will ever see any of these new players playing Classic BT.

Give me Hexes and heat for BT and i will keep my tape measure for 40K.

All you need is one or two from each batch that play it. AS generated the first game of Battletech I've seen in about a year at my FLGS and apparently the first weekly league I've heard of in any store I've frequented over the past twenty years. As a Heavy Gear player ironically setting up on a different table, I have to admit I was jealous of the dozens of minis per side and 8 player game they had going. If even 1/10 the AS noobies decide to play CBT, I think in most areas that is a significant boost to the active player pool. YMMV of course.

jamesk1973 wrote:
Very nice board!

i am on the fence about Alpha Strike. For some reason I just like coloring in dots!

Thanks!
Alpha Strike does have the filling in of dots. It's just that it's only 8-20 dots per mech instead of many dozen... ;-)

so i finally got my first game in and i have mixed feelings.
i think we over did it a bit because we ran a 5 way battle with 5 mechs each.
the game overall was fun but the alternating movement and shooting one fig at a time really drug the game out. im going to give it another try with just my son and i this weekend i think. i may try opening it up to moving 2 or 3 mechs at a time rather than strict alternating 1 and 1.

any thoughts?

Wow, 5 different players activating would take up alot of time. I only had 3 players and I noted the slowing a bit. I'm going to run a multiplayer battle myself next week. I'm dividing the players (probably 4-6 of them) into two distinct teams.

We'll probably keep each player activating one unit at a time, but go with all players on one side activating one unit at the same time and then everyone on the other side activating one. This having all players on a side activating a unit at the same time should cut the time about in half.

yeah i had a feeling i put it outside the scope of what they had in mind.
i better figure out what i like quick though... i jumped in with both feet and bought about 25 mechs and scenery...lol...

it was a gathering of friends and a bit wild... i need to give it a fair chance with just my son and i like i originally intended.

now i have to figure out what paints i need

Hmm my first impressions of the rules made it feel like infantry-units-that-happen-to-be-Mechs. Did you get that sense at all? Seems like they might have streamlined so far that you lose the sense of moving big stompy robots and more just generic units that could just as easily be modern soldiers?

Regardless I'm super jealous of that table.

I haven't tried infantry yet, so I can't compare. I can see where that could be the case, as the differentiation between mechs and infantry is a matter of degree and serverity, not so much other variables.

As for me it won't bother me if Mechs are just much bigger and much more dangerous infantry as long as the stats are far enough apart. I suspect that with mechs and infantry on the table it won't be an issue.

All that said, Two major differences are in movement and critical hits. Every type of vehicle Mech/Infantry/Wheeled/Hover/VTOL/etc. has it's own variation on movement modifiers and terrain allowances and when they take critical hits they are affected differently. Vehicles and infantry are more severely.

 Eilif wrote:
Another game that is more complex than Mech Attack or Alpha Strike, but less than BT or Heavy Gear is Gruntz. It's a generic sci-fi game that's got a pretty good following, a unit builder, great layout, a good amount of crunch to the rules and some similar mechanics to warmachine.
http://www.gruntz.biz/p/about.html
I've not had a chance to read through my copy yet. but it looks quite good.

Same here. It looks really interesting, but I've yet to play a game of it. I suspect I'll want something more 'mecha' oriented, but overall the rules seem quite nice.

 IceRaptor wrote:

 Eilif wrote:
Another game that is more complex than Mech Attack or Alpha Strike, but less than BT or Heavy Gear is Gruntz. It's a generic sci-fi game that's got a pretty good following, a unit builder, great layout, a good amount of crunch to the rules and some similar mechanics to warmachine.
http://www.gruntz.biz/p/about.html
I've not had a chance to read through my copy yet. but it looks quite good.

Same here. It looks really interesting, but I've yet to play a game of it. I suspect I'll want something more 'mecha' oriented, but overall the rules seem quite nice.

You may be surprised by Gruntz It's got a separate catagory of vehicles for Mecha and I've heard that the original idea for the rules was as a replacement for battletech.

Really though, when it comes to being "Mecha oriented", with these type of indie and make-your-own-armylist games it's as much a function of the player's unit choice as it is the game itself. If players want to play a Battletech'ish game with Gruntz, Alpha Strike, etc, just choose mecha for your most powerful units and limit the proliferation of heavy tanks.

Even the Mechwarrior clix game was -for a while- not mecha focused!

 Eilif wrote:
Even the Mechwarrior clix game was -for a while- not mecha focused!

Yeah, it's got all the support 'baked' in to some extent, but obviously tries to capture a 'battletech' style of mecha. But not necessarily something that captures Heavy Gear/Votoms or Gundam or Evangelion. It looks like there's some room to play with it, but I'm not sure it was designed with those are the central element. Gruntz looks like it tries to be a really solid all around game for sci-fi, but I think it's concept of mecha fits the Battletech mold.