Alpha Strike: Battle for Meridian Prime Pt 4

With the Rebels stalled last game, they decided to hit another sector. I wanted to scale up and do a larger battle, so I dug out my Battletech stuff and went 6mm.

There were 5 Hold points around the table. Each turn a side held one they got a point. To motivate everyone I did a countdown clock of sorts by rolling a d6 every turn and kept a running total. We it reached "30" the game was over. Most points won.

Alpha strike goes really quick. We had quite a few models on the table.
The Rebels flew across the table and captured 3 objectives right off the bat. It then was up to the Union to push them off.
Losses were high for both sides, but the Rebs pulled out another victory. Now I want to take this fight to space as sympathetic planets try to run the blockade and supply the rebels.

Battletech: Alpha Strike Pt. Deux

Last time we played Alpha Strike, the quick play mini rules for Battletech, it was December. I vowed to add more mechs. Most of my stuff is repainted MechWarrior clix. I'm not a fan of the newer Battletech mechs. There's just dumb. I prefer the ripoff Robotech ones of my youth.
So, I ordered some CAV models from Reaper. They fit my aesthetic of what Mechs should look like.

They're a bit smaller than the clix, but they'll do double duty as 15mm battlesuits.

The game it self played pretty flawless again. Tons of models on the table and over in 2 hours. It actually gave me some ideas for a game of my own.
I got all the stats from the Alpha Strike website. That was my only problem. Some of the bigger mechs seemed underpowered while others were too powerful. One of the toughest pieces on the table was APC. It took all kinds of damage while having a speedy 20" move. Some tinkering is in order.

Holiday Gaming

Belated Merry Christmas to all. In the never ending attempt to find that ruleset that combines the right balance in playability and fun for my collection of Mechwarrior minis, I picked up Battletech: Alpha Strike. LeadAddict and I played the original Battletech when it first came out many moons ago. We liked it mainly for it's concept of giant stumpy robots duking it out on the war ravaged battlefields of the future. Never mind that using giant, expensive (as in the GDP of most countries) in just plain dumb. A lowly grunt with a shoulder fired missile launcher could bring one down, and missing is almost impossible. Never mind that the original models were direct rip-offs of Robotech. We were 13!

Yes, the buildings need paint...

Infantry try to keep pace with the mech.

The original rules were a grind. Hundreds of little ovals to fill in every time you took damage. Keeping track of heat build up. So, when I read a several positive reviews of the new, improved quick rules, boasting of fielding several mechs at a time, I had to at least try.

Infantry disembark

They were worth it. The rules are split into introductory, standard, and advanced. The Intro rules are very basics and really only use mechs. As I have a ton of tanks and infantry, I used Standard.
Everyone had picked up the rules by turn 2, with the only reason to check the QRS, was for movement modifiers to hit. Where the game could real shine is with all the bells and whistles.
Now, I just need more mechs.

That was last week. Last night there were only a few of us. I've had some old boardgames around that needed dusting off. One was an old standard, Wizard Kings by Columbia Games. It's a "block game". Really, an upgrade of the old chit games of old. All the info on you troops is there on the wooden block. You get the added bonus of Fog of War as only you see what on the blocks by standing them on their sides. The was a titanic struggle between Orcs, Amazons, Elves and Undead. As the Undead player, I had cheap troops, but slow (Oh, zombies..) or really expensive highly class undead. My swift moving vampires captured two cities single handed. We played 10 turns, and my undead hordes pulled out a win. The geomorphic maps make replay endless. The would be a great campaign system for Mayhem.
That's it. One more week of freedom, then back to my job that lasts only tip February. Then the grey unknown.