Battletech: Alpha Strike - Clan Wolf vs. Inner Sphere

Owen continues to explore his combined-arms inner sphere force as I take the helm for Clan Wolf in this Alpha Strike Recon mission!
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[@horhevamp8890]

'You know this game with the big mechs?' "yeah?" "I play it but without any of the big mechs!"

[@firelordeliteast6750]

@Das Thomas Isn't that sort of Warhammer's thing? I can see why they changed it. Yes, even though 40k has its own mechs... well, one comparison between the two and you can see my point.

[@omnivision616]

@@firelordeliteast6750 The game is still all about combined arms warfare. Battletech also came out in 1984 which is 3 years before 40k. So they were doing it first.

[@theautisticguitarist7560]

"Helicopters can't fly in a vacuum they need air!!" Owen: "haha roter go brrrr"

[@thestormsguardian]

Gotta love Owens combined arms, nary a mech in sight approach in a game that's supposed to be big on mechs; never change Owen, never change.

[@Waywardpaladin]

Throw enough tanks with AC/20 or SRM batteries and every infantry man with rocket launchers and you can drown Clanners

[@squidpope9344]

"Quantity has a Quality all of its own."

[@tritarch6687]

I know this is a year old but this felt like a David vs Goliath fight with traditional tanks and infantry versus mechs and power armor; good stuff!

[@paulopombal8996]

I see Battletech, I click "Like"

[@lorcannagle]

Love those mechanised infantry models! I can't imagine the points were balanced though... I need to plug both forces into the MUL and check them out. That said, I frequently put out what I call the Shitbox militia to take on any comers - two lances of mechs, three of tanks, 9 platoons of infantry and a pair of conventional fighters. They don't do too good in BattleTech but it works a treat in Alpha Strike. I'm thinking about adding a lance of IndustrialMechs to boot... As always, rules notes! Whenever you hit a vehicle, you make a roll on the motive crit table. The rules are on page 51, the table is on page 301, (both references are the new PDF edition with the Mercenary-themed cover) While the Cavlary has a +4 TMM listed, it's actually +5 to hit - jumping and VTOL/WiGE targets always give an additional +1 to enemy attack rolls.

[@hgar6973]

That is screaming for some alien glowing giant mushrooms like woods 😍🍄🍄

[@sebastiang.5032]

Battletech! Combined Arms! Yeah!!! (did you guys forget to roll for motive crits on the vehicles, though?)

[@MegaTCash]

Great and unique battle - loved it!

[@PaulGaither]

32:50 "You see how drastically outgunned Mechs are. It is the coolest looking least efficient form of combat in science fiction." Yes, but also no. The Timberwolf/Mad Cat Prime comes with LRMs and machine guns. You can missile spam tanks from range, swat choppers with your pulse lasers and chew up infantry with your machine guns. The opposing force came prepared to fight Mechs... and so did Clan Wolf.

[@tomemaster1744]

Yass Battletech!

[@AshBlat]

Yasss! This is my friday morning sorted!

[@wesdyer9085]

This was a fantastic game and I love Alpha Strike. And wow! Great paint jobs all the way around. Would love to see pictures. But...it was a bit painful to watch for a few reasons. 1. Make sure to roll motive hits for vehicles (they are squishier) 2. Battle Armor and VTOLs get a +1 to TMM 3. Using d12s disadvantages elite pilots and faster units (I recommend the pilot die method) 4. As a clanner, use your speed to dictate the terms of engagement including using your superior range attacks. You will always be outnumbered, but you can still control the flow of the game. Don't use your speed to move into short range of a bunch of infantry. 5. When you move units, move the least important to the most...so when that Nova was shutdown due to heat, move it first (as a no op initiative sink). Usually those closest to the enemy will move last.

[@ShawnEnge]

Wow, the Clanners beat by combined arms, not a single IS 'Mech. That is crazy - but loved the BatRep!

[@PoodlesWithGuns]

God damn SPOILER!

[@RedHarbinger]

To be fair, Owen was dropping rocks with those crits.

[@redxgamer1581]

@@RedHarbinger To also be fair, their D12 house rule means you crit 8% of the time compared to the 3% of the time you should be on 2D6 the way the game is designed. Kind of a big deal when you're playing the quantity over quality game. I got excited to see this battle report but their house rules kind of ruin the whole game's balance. You'd be a fool to play anything but a bunch of spammed, cheap units like Owen did.

[@RedHarbinger]

@@redxgamer1581 yeah, we play the DFA way at my local club; pilot dice + 1d6 for each point of damage

[@redxgamer1581]

@@RedHarbingerWe used their method for a while too but discarded it as well. It is still too all or nothing, hinging too much on the pilot die. It's a way to vary damage sure, but it is still kind of all or nothing like the basic rules one attack roll is. Again this hurts smaller more elite forces, you'll notice in DFA batreps that the Clans rarely win there either. We've just gone back to 2D6 for each point of damage and honestly it's not really that much more time consuming either and we play mostly Clan vs Inner Sphere and our games are usually a good 50/50 win rate for either side.

[@neue01]

The intro song makes me think I’m watching sienfeld

[@eqbowers]

How about a link to the minis?

[@drubaccasnetwork9101]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but when the battle armor Mount their transport it eats 2in of the mount movements and the mount should activate at that point. Dismounting is the infantry's activation and movement

[@PapaWargamer]

Will watch this. But I'm also craving for another Gamma Wolves battrep. Will we get one some day ?

[@bogohothegrand241]

When is the next one? Super love this series!

[@kudosbudo]

Confused by the rules being used for the Behemoths tanks. Are you combining the rules for specials weapon attacks with a normal attack from the reminder of its attacks? i thought if you use specials you don't get to use the full attacks?

[@blaansarge]

i am just getting into play battletech, anyone know where this guy got the tanks ant infantry guys and all that from?

[@gianniillari1432]

Where did the cooler get his models from I would love to run an infantry arm in battle tech

[@Hundmathr]

Yes! More giant stompy robots!

[@drubaccasnetwork9101]

When you successfully deal damage to a vehicle you also need to roll on the motive systems table. This is separate from the critical hit table, and is rolled everytime vehicles take damage

[@stephanobrowski334]

Where did Owen get his infantry? They look great. My mudcrawlers are from 1989 and I want to get some new platoons for my houses Steiner and Kurita.

[@Sommeill]

Where do you get the infantry and tanks?

[@Fadeing]

What is making up your dice color groupings?

[@androssthered1157]

Yessssss more por favor

[@korwind7674]

Where is a good place to get the infantry and vehicles?

[@Derpy-qg9hn]

Conventional infantry do not benefit from a +1 to-be-hit modifier. Battle Armour does, however.

[@shabmaster7128]

Helicopters flying on the moon? What is this, Mechwarrior 5?

[@weregeniegaming]

just got into Alpha Strike and I have to ask, why the d12 instead of 2d6?

[@KT-pl5qy]

Where did Owen get all his vehicles and infantry?

[@VictorSteiner]

Is that official Battletech Infantry? I've never seen it before. Doesn't look like the old metal stuff.

[@nuclearrylaw7616]

I didn’t know there were ground troopers and vehicles as well as vtols you can use in battletech

[@namefinder]

Clicked 'like' as soon as I saw a force entirely without Mechs :D (not a fan of using a d12 instead of 2d6 though)

[@GuerrillaMiniatureGames]

Try it! Honestly my favourite way to play.

[@MrHitmanx]

Why use d12? Whats the benefit? Doesn't that skew the odds?

[@MrHitmanx]

I would actually love to see this combined arms battle using the traditional 2d6 or the regular variable dice rolls and see what the outcome would be.... your way sounds like it makes spamming many more cheaper troops the best way to overcome the benefits of the clans... good bat rep otherwise... not many people do combined arms like this

[@PaulGaither]

@@MrHitmanx - I agree with you about using D6s. I love using the more obscure dice, but the math is there for a reason. It seems the D6, D20 and D10 get the most love thanks to D&D and other RPGs. The D4 gets some love as well, but the D8 and D12 often get left in the cold. As far as infantry swarm: Yeah, that is pretty much the lore as well. The clans spent so many centuries inside their own bubble that future generations of the SLDF in self exile had forgotten how brutal total warfare was. Freebirth worlds had no intentions of bending the knee to clanners. Watch "Black Pants Legion" if you haven't. They have amazing lore videos. In the lore, when mankind had FTL travel and found new worlds, they began to value planets less and less. Do you resist? Okay, orbital bombardment or even nuke the while planet if needed. Problem solved. Well, that was not sustainable and they instead agreed to some basic rules of war that reduced things to WWII style campaigns for control of territory and resources. The battlemech, if you could build them in real life, would still be a joke on the modern battlefield of today with smart weapons and drone strikes. I love the fiction and art of this decades old big stompy robot franchise, but we all have to accept that the tactics are pulpy and not very realistic.

[@sonichu2electricboogaloo11]

It massively warps the odds. Head shoting a mech should be 1/36 on 2d6, using a d12 head shots are 18/36. And hitting on a 7 on 2d6 is 21/36 and on a d12 it's 18/36. So it makes crits more and warps the crit tables massively. It makes easy shots harder and harder shots easy. I hate seeing them do it, I'd watch all their battle reports of used 2d6 instead of d12 puts me off massively. I like 2d6 variable damage rolling one d6 plus the number damage much more interesting and still fast.

[@AlxParrish]

I understand the mission was a raid so to speak, but walking those omnimechs into that armor company seemed like suicide. Would they have won, had they kept distance? (I realize battle was probably sped up for time), just odd to see clan star get decked like that.

[@JoeBossRedSeven]

🍷🤖🎩fun game guys by the way is that the death ray designs troops🤗

[@Tigerheart01]

My friends and I are getting into Alpha Strike (I'm a 43 year old Classic Battletech grognard). That being said, I'm having some trouble. I've noticed that the metal blisters of tanks and vehicles come in pairs. I also see people constantly fielding them in pairs. I can't find anything in the rules to the contrary (or I'm just missing it, which is VERY likely). Do vehicles come in a 2 for 1 on the Alpha strike card? I mean if I pay the points on the card do I get TWO? Or is it just one? When comparing points values it's hard to see a Demon tank being worth 23 points compared to a mech of similar points for example... please help. I know this is a weird place to ask, but I'm not finding answers elsewhere.

[@GuerrillaMiniatureGames]

It’s all per model per card in AS. So one card per vehicle.

[@death2all79zx]

Did you give up on the barrys World campaign?

[@JasonSmithArch]

Are those standard D12s you’re using to roll attacks? Are you playing some modified rule set?

[@GuerrillaMiniatureGames]

Yes, we’re using the Optional Damage rules from Alpha Strike but with d12s and a single crit die instead of paired 2D6s It makes weapon impacts far more interesting but also doesn’t drastically drag on gameplay.

[@JasonSmithArch]

@@GuerrillaMiniatureGames I like the optional damage rules, I use that as well, but the D12s will make you miss a lot more shots if you’re not adjusting any of the values. Especially running such low skill units. If you're using the skill PV adjustment, your skill 2 pilots are way overcosted since the lower to hit number is much less valuable using straight D12s. Are you familiar with the pilot dice rule? It’s another interesting way of speeding up the game without significantly changing the probabilities. I'm also thinking of trying to make a deck of dice results to draw and speed up the game vs all the 2D6 rolls.

[@JasonSmithArch]

To give a quick example, you rolled a lot of 4 to hits in this game. With 2d6 that's a 92% chance to hit versus 75% with a D12. Making your highly skilled clan pilots miss a lot more than they should.

[@DeliriumTr3mens]

OH BOI OH BOI!!! ./m/

[@talsine]

I get the impression that Alpha Strike favors quantity a lot. While it would have take hours to shake out in Batteltech, I can't imagine that the combined arms would have been able to stand up to the Mechs in that iteration.

[@redxgamer1581]

Their D12 system instead of 2D6 really skews the rules a lot. Playing more elite units and paying points for better skilled pilots just isn't worth it with the D12 house rule, it really messes with the odds and the Clans are going hit less that they should while the Inner Sphere will hit more. When one side has fewer numbers to begin with that's a big deal. For example, let's say a Clan pilot is an elite 2 gunnery compared to an Inner Sphere average gunnery of 4. So assuming range, TMM and all that is the same for both sides the Clanner needs a 7+ to hit and the Inner Sphere would need 9+. On a D12 the Clanner has a 50% chance to hit and the Inner Sphere has a 33% chance to hit. Same hit numbers on 2D6 the Clanner would be hitting 58% of the time and the Inner Sphere would have a 28% chance to hit. That's a difference of 13% on a system where gunnery skill advancement is costed on the second set of odds. The lower the roll you need to hit on a D12 (aka better pilots), the worse your adds are compared to 2D6. The higher you need to hit on a D12 (aka worse pilots), the better yours odds of hitting.

[@takkik282]

Attack on titans!

[@phaedrosx]

75% of 5 is 3.75, which means you round to 4, just an fyi (p.116 ASCE under Formation Requirements). :)

[@steveguziec8050]

Is this the destiny version?

[@GuerrillaMiniatureGames]

This is Alpha Strike.

[@danfocke]

When you want to play battletech, but you hate big stompy robots.

[@bryy2053]

Planet with no atmosphere, flying helicopters.....thats not what I call sci fi, thats rule breaking to me. Its all in good fun though.

[@Khorsathedark]

This is literally unrecognizable as battletech to an ancient player like me. I've been playing since the battledroid days. No armor box checking, apparently all the weapons do the same damage and no hit locations. It's cool, I'm glad battletech is being sold again and that there is love for it, but I will be sticking to the old rules and giving this a hard pass. I want more detail in my battletech games.

[@samlam4598]

Classic BattleTech is still around in a mostly intact state as it was back in the '80s. I've been playing BT since 3rd edition (mid-90's) and I really enjoy Alpha Strike, too. :)

[@GuerrillaMiniatureGames]

CBT for small close quarters engagement s and Alpha Strike for when you want to field a company and play a game in an hour or two instead of a weekend. :) Horses for courses.

[@Khorsathedark]

@@GuerrillaMiniatureGames Thanks, I didn't note the two different rule sets.

[@Khorsathedark]

@@samlam4598 Thanks, the more I know :)

[@hazardjunction]

There's also the new destiny rpg rules that is a mix between CBT and AS.