Upon reading about A Call to War, I was excited to build an Alpha Strike both to increase my knowledge of Alpha Strike and also force me to try my non-existent painting skills. I will try to briefly walk you through my decision making process, though I fear some of you may get lost in the recesses of my mind }:). I decided to go with a faction that was wasn’t represented at the time, although I see some now. And looking over some of the mini’s I had unpainted and available, I decided to go with a dark age era Draconis Combine unit. Before I chose my forces, I wanted to make sure I had a few Draconis Combine themes worked in. First, I wanted to have a single lance on a C3 network. Second, I wanted to sprinkle a couple clan tech units in, whether they be older clan or Nova Cat designs. Third, there had to be at least one mech with a sword. Finally, I wanted to have at least one lance of conventional vehicles, this was more to experiment with different unit types in Alpha Strike than because it was something the Dracs did.
Next I wanted to pick an iconic unit. While this process was fun and exciting, I am completely intimidated by painting mini’s and knew I needed a fairly easy scheme in order to have any measure of success. So that crossed off the Ghost Regiments and a few others. In the end I choose the 5th Sword of Light, all painted a single colour (flat red) and definitely iconic in the DCMS.
Now it was time to pick units. There were a few mechs that I definitely wanted to use, and a few others that I knew I would have to order from IWM once I figured it out. I started with the C3 linked lance, which I decided would be a Command Lance. That meant I needed a mix of different unit types. I wanted to have a big long range bruiser, a very fast mech to get the range down early, and ideally two other mechs that could hit well at medium range and were fairly quick. I knew this lance would take a great deal of my PV, but was also hoping they could do a great deal of damage at range with solid to hit numbers. After shuffling and fine tuning once I picked the core of the other two lances, I finally settled with the following:
Command Lance (one pilot receives Antagonizer, and another Combat Intuition)
Naginata NG-C3A 59
No-Dachi NDA-2KC 42
Daikyu DAI-02 42
Wolverine WVR-9W2 39
So for a total of 182 of my points I had three DCMS-centric mechs, and all the other requirements I was looking for in the C3 lance. OH, I can also check off a mech with a sword! O0
Next I tackled the convential vehicles lance. After some debate, I decided that I wanted to play this with speed rather than tonnes of armor. After consulting the MUL, I came up with:
Pursuit Lance (three pilots receive the Blood Stalker ability)
Cizin Standard 28
Cizin Standard 28
Scimitar Mk II (3136) 25
Scimitar Mk II (3136) 25
This lance sounds like it will be a tonne of fun to play, and since they all can move 20”, it should give me some good tactical options for flanking, rear shots, or just tracking down a pesky unit. I managed to put in a few clan units too.
Finally the Cavalry lance. After seeing how many points I had used up in the first two lances I realized that I wouldn’t have enough to get a big battle lance, and typically I enjoy playing with fast units so I decided on a Cavalry lance. My only requirement for this lance was that they are all at least 10” movers and I wanted to get in one more clan unit. It ended up being a little harder than I thought and had to settle for some units that were lighter than I expected… I wanted steak and had to settle for burgers, but I really like burgers so everything worked out.
Cavalry Lance (three pilots get the speed demon ability)
Cauldron Born A 37
Dragon 7N 31
Wight 2LAW 23
Venom 9KA 20
So in the end, it turned into a fairly quick unit with all the requirements I wanted, and with a single point to spare at 399 PV… now for the hard part… painting… I am sure it will be like golf, fun and frustrating at the exact same time. ;D
