What the Hell am I doing? I don't even play Alpha Strike! But I am a sucker for forum-wide painting events. And so, despite having a substantial bevy of Infinity miniatures already scattered across my painting desk, I'm going to throw my hat in the ring here and paint (in some cases, repaint) some of my 10th Militia 'Mechs.
Now I don't know if the formations I built are any good in AS. All I'm really using that rule set for is the lance formations and point values; in terms of matching 'Mechs into lances for the purpose of the Call to War, my criteria were
1. lance composition makes sense in Total Warfare terms
2. stay WYSIWYG
So let's take a look at what I ended up with. First, I wanted to go with the Operation Guerrero timeframe. That was the campaign that put the FWLM back on the map, internationally, after their abysmal showing in the 4th Succession War and the internal troubles with Andurien. On the downside, I can't canonically include anything from my small battle armor collection; neither Achileus or Longinus suits saw combat during Guerrero, just IS Standard (none of which I own). Boooooo.
To start with, I decided to build around a core of an Assault Lance. Actually piecing it together within the confines of AS' unit types. . . not so easy while still working within the confines of what I already own (I've promised the better half not to buy anything new until everything I've got is painted). I started off with the classic BattleMaster, one of the few assault 'Mechs the FWLM has in relatively large numbers. I paired this BLR-3M with another relatively speedy close-quarters assault 'Mech, the Grand Titan. Now they're both Brawlers, which means that now I have to dip into a different pool for the rest of the lance. The only Juggernaut I own is a Stalker -- not sexy enough for my purposes -- so decided to go the double-Sniper route instead. First choice was an Awesome, but much to my horror discovered that the AWS-9M is also a Brawler! What?!? The -9Q, on the other hand, does qualify as a Sniper. . . as does the grand daddy mean mugger of them all, the AS7-K Atlas. Although their speed bands are different, the lance design does actually make some sense; the Atlas provides long-range fire support, the Awesome provides medium-range fire support, and the Grand Titan and BattleMaster close with the enemy.
As a heavy-rated regiment, I decided that a heavy lance would be the most obvious thing included, so that's where I went next. In a bit of switch, I decided that instead of building what I personally consider a "stock" heavy lance -- 4/6/X movement with plenty of guns -- that I'd go for something a little more maneuverable. The result is a Heavy Striker lance, led off with by an ANV-3M Anvil. I'm more a fan of the -3R's better armor protection, but that's out of scope for the timeframe. Eh. I decided to pair it with its equally speedy TRO3055 brother, the HRC-LS-9000 Hercules. To keep in the same speed bracket and bring in another Marik classic, I decided to make room for an WVR-7M Wolverine. I'm such a huge fan of the -6M that I considered taking it instead, but two large lasers are better than one. Unfortunately, I couldn't find another speedy heavy 'Mech in my collection that I liked. I almost went for a Grand Dragon, but in the end, I compromised by selecting a design that, while slower than its lancemates, makes up for it with a long-range primary weapon and jump jets so at least it can keep up in close terrain. That 'Mech? The TMP-3M Tempest. Plus, the Tempest's TRO entry specifies that it sees heavy use in the Marik Militias, so it just seemed like a good fit.
I didn't have enough points left over for another heavy lance, or even a very good medium one. I considered switching it up and taking a full lance of Galleons, but again, the points just weren't there (GAL-102s are each as expensive as a high-end light or low-end medium 'Mech. Wow!). So a light lance, detached to my heavy force from the Running Rebels Recon Company! I started off with one of my personal favorite Marik lights, the Spider (in this case, the pulse laser-equipped SDR-7M). I next went for another classic, the LCT-3M Locust. Unfortunately my Unseen collection focuses almost entirely on not-light-'Mechs, so I had to pull out the Reseen -5M model for this one. Keeping with the high-speed theme, I arrived next at the HER-1S Hermes and it was at this point that I again ran into a pickle. I didn't have any other light 'Mech models. I've got a Reseen Stinger buried in a box somewhere, but that's about it, and 23 points to spend. Oh, the Hermes II! The -5S is 23 points exactly! That'll work . . . but its slower than everything else. The older -2M is 7/11, at least. But 24 points. In the end, I decided, "screw it" and took the -2M with its faster ground speed. I'm one point over, but eh. It's not like I actually play Alpha Strike, is it?
So here's what I've got:
Assault Lance
AS7-K Atlas
AWS-9Q Awesome
BLR-3M BattleMaster
T-IT-N10M Grand Titan
Heavy Striker Lance
ANV-3M Anvil
HRC-LS-9000 Hercules
WVR-7M Wolverine
TMP-3M Tempest
Recon Lance
SDR-7M Spider
LCT-3M Locust
HER-1S Hermes
HER-2M Hermes II
I've got primer drying on a few and three of them are taking a bath to strip the old paint off, so pictures will come later. Suffice to say, this is the most excited I've been about painting BattleMechs in a while!
