BATTLETECH ALPHA STRIKE

At this point in time I am focusing on gaming in the BattleTech universe and the Alpha Strike rules in particular.

For those of you who do not know, Alpha Strike is set of tactical rules produced by Catalyst Game Labs that allows players to play larger scale battles in the BattleTech universe. It does this by not tracking the details of the individual systems of the mechs and other weapon systems in BattleTech. Rather, it tracks the effects of those systems and applies those effects to the game.

For example, in BattleTech itself each individual section of armor is tracked. As you shoot at a 'Mech, the exact location of any hits are determined and the appropriate section of armor is checked off as it takes damage. In Alpha Strike a mech just has an overall armor value. When all the armor is gone, the 'Mech takes structure damage and takes critical hit tests. In Alpha Strike you won't know if it was the left or right knee actuator that was damaged; but, you will know that your movement is slowed for the balance of the game.

The procedures used in Alpha Strike allow players to control more 'Mechs. Therefore larger battles can be fought in a shorter amount of time without overwhelming the players. I believe Alpha Strike does this without losing the fidelity to the BattleTech universe. Playing Alpha Strike still feels like BattleTech to me.

I and my friends are playing Alpha Strike using the standard Catalyst Game Lab produced 'Mechs that come in the BattleTech Introductory boxes and in their Alpha Strike Lance boxes. We also use several figures from Ironwind Metals. These figures are around 1/285 to 1/300 scale, or 6mm.

(Atlas 100 ton mech in 6mm)

I also have a fairly good collection of Ironwind Metals' BattleForce scale 'Mechs. These are scaled down to about 1/600 or 3mm scale. Since they are about half the scale of the larger 'Mechs, I plan on gaming with these using centimeters rather than inches and game in a smaller area. So if a 'Mech would move 8 inches in a turn, it would move 8 centimeters instead.

(Atlas 100 ton mech in 3mm)

Here is a comparison shot of the two scales. Both models represent an Atlas 100 ton mech. One is in 6mm, the other in 3mm:

(Side-by-side of the two scales)

So that is my current project. As this blog moves forward, I and the others in my gaming group will detail my BattleTech adventures in modeling, gaming and other projects for you.