Alpha Strike Post 2

Sometimes it takes a while to get your thoughts down on paper. Several weeks ago, I had my second game of Battle Tech Alpha Strike.  This time we each took a Battle Group (BG) comprising of two lances and a command mech.  For this game we tried the Command and Control (C2) rules as well as allowed mechs to improve their pilot skill.  Both BGs were close to 300 points.  We played the C2 a bit different from the rule book, we limited the range of the inter-mech communication to 12” and each lance was its own network that couldn’t talk to an allied lance, the commander could choose a network if they were in range. Both BGs had the same C2 networks.  We didn’t play a scenario, but hope to do it next time, this was just a “learn the rules” slug fest. 

For our deployment we both set up one lance in the center and one lance on our respective rights.  During the battle, my opponent consolidated his forces and was able to focus fire with his entire BG effectively against one of my lances at a time.  I began a right flanking with my light lance, and tried to support by fire with my other, heavier, lance from the terrain in the center. My flanking was unsuccessful, as I did not commit.  When they should have closed with the enemy, to get into their blind spots, they moved out of the line of fire. While the light lance gained some concealment from the terrain, they were not in a good position to damage the enemy until the end game when it was too late.  The lesson learned is likely that (cheap) mechs with low damage, short range weapons benefit tremendously from the additional damage when attacking into the back of an enemy mech and really should get stuck in no matter the cost.  If they are tasked with a harassing screen, they will not cause enough damage to force the enemy to react.  While I was not tabled it was convincing victory for my opponent, I would attribute it to their ability to select and maintain an aim (even if it was to methodically destroy one mech at a time) and their list building (we will get to this later).

If you are unaware of the C2 rule; essentially you take the range modifier of the closet mech in the network to the target.  This rule combined with damage being resolved at the end of the turn allows you to hang a mech out to dry and reap huge benefits for the rest of the lance.  The effect can be quite powerful, but I don’t think the rule is broken as long as both sides have equal access to the ability.  I feel it just speeds up the game with every mech hitting more often.

Know your enemy.  My opponent had glass cannons that I was not targeting, I should have looked closely at their list and figured out a target priority.  One nice thing about Alpha Strike is it is very easy to get the gist of an opponents list.  Essentially you compare hit points to damage of all the mechs separately.  The mechs that do the most damage with the fewest hit points should be the ones on top of the target priority list. During the game I was constantly surprised by how his mechs of a similar type, but different variant had better guns than mine, it wasn’t until the end that I realized they had generally less hit points. It does seem that a lance of 50% glass cannons and 50% brutes would synergize well with the C2 construct.

Initiative is still king. While there are several valuable game wide factors to consider, initiative seems to be at the top of the list. Once mechs get close, and because you can turn a mech as much as you want while it moves, initiative becomes king.  Moving out of arc provides a clear advantage and if you can pull it off with a big gun you will have a distinct advantage.  Since initiative is an unmodified roll off it essentially comes down to chance.  Some special rule allows mechs to shoot and resolve damage during movement, combat intuition.  In our game only one mech had this ability so it wasn’t a huge factor, but it was able to knock out a mech before shooting in the middle of the battle.  However, if an entire side had this ability, it could be an NPE.

Battle Tech Alpha strike is a fast and accessible game that has a rich universe perfect for narrative campaigns.  Are there ambiguous rules that need more than the normal amount of good behavior from both sides, I am not sure but probably not more then any of the common wargames.  Certainly, there are a few broken special rules but nothing pre-tournament guidance from a TO couldn’t fix.  If one were to play this competitively, I would have mild reservations about competitive Alpha Strike.  I think the narrative feel of the game would benefit from mechs having less armour and more structural points so that critical damage would have a bigger impact, however this would lead to slightly more bookkeeping and another area where variance could possibly spoil the experience, detonating ammo.