What brought you to Alpha Stike?

[Von Ether]

And if there are other reasons, feel free to elaborate.  O0

[mhal9000]

I love Battletech, I just always felt vaguely guilty about having larger battles that would eat up an entire weekend. This was especially an issue when I worked on the road quite a bit, as the weekends were the only time I was home. A small-ish battle here and there gave me my "fix" if you will, but I still longed for larger battles.

In my experience to date, Alpha Strike seems primed to deliver the larger scaled giant stompy robot combat I'm looking for in the time frame I want.

If I want a more intimate battle on a smaller scale - I'll use the TW rules.

[glitterboy2098]

needs more options:
fan of battletech but wanted a better way to play larger battles
Fan of Battletech, and wanted better way to introduce new players to the setting

[Rothgar]

Or another option:

Like Battletech, wanted to support the company who produces it so purchased this as well to play both games.

[Weirdo]

Other: It's Battletech. 'Nuff said.

[Savage Coyote]

I'm a "larger battles" kind of answer, though I also wanted something that played near the speed of other popular miniature games which might in turn help draw other people in.

[RebelRunner]

Larger battles. I love Aero, but potentially dozens of record sheets is not my style.
(I actually use a simple square grid with simplified vector movement and a few houserules)

[Kitsune413]

I believe it was the 'New Releases' Topic.  ;D

[Medron Pryde]

Back when I was a Catalyst Agent and Strat Ops was in the pipeline, I was looking for a way to introduce players to BattleTech with a game system that played as quickly as modern games like Heroscape and some of the others that have exploded onto the market in the last few years.

I thought that way was BattleForce, but BattleForce is a game of lances.  I wanted to take the scale back up to BattleTech, while using BattleForce stats to speed up play.  Finally, I wanted to still play it on hexes.  The QuickStrike translation rules in Strat Ops were amazing, and they offered a fantastic opportunity to everybody.

So the moment Strat Ops came out, I rulesbashed QuickStrike and BattleForce together and went to town.  I generated the first BattleForce cards so I could play with art and stats all on a trading card.  I picked a trading card because games like Magic use that size, and I picked my general layout of name and cost on top, big picture, and stats below, because I figured if Magic did that, there are worse examples I could follow.  And honestly, I just love the look of a really big picture dominating the card.  It is a visual aspect that pulls people in, and all the most successful card games out there make certain that art is the focal point.  Skunkworks began printing out similar cards within months, and now of course the MUL has cards.  Of course they are turned 90 degrees on their side and the pictures are layered behind the stats.  I don't understand that design choice, as it goes a bit sideways of card-style games I've seen.  But I'm hoping it will work out.  I know people that got to Gencon LOVED the stat card sets they sold there.  I bought two packs myself.  Hopefully they make more of those.  ;)

Anyways, within days of Strat Ops coming out, IIRC, fans and Agents alike were asking for BattleForce/QuickStrike rules to be released as a standalone set.  And over the years, the game has taken on a life of it's own, as players just loved it.  Everybody took a slightly different path since it was a rulesbash.  Some people played hexless, others with hexes, but in general everybody just played.  And in general, people bloody well LOVED it.  And people who had not played BattleTech in years started playing again and loving it.

And now we have Alpha Strike.  Alpha Strike came out because we players played this game, and we asked for standalone rules.  Alpha Strike may be the first BattleTech game that was published because the players already played it and asked for it to be made.  I personally think that Alpha Strike is the future of BattleTech.  If BattleTech is to compete with other modern games, I think that Alpha Strike is the scale and format that it will take back into mainstream gaming.  And if that happens, it is because of all the players, and all the Agents who jumped all over the idea of twisting two sets of rules outside their intended function and just bloody well had FUN doing it.

In short, it was printed because of all of you who wanted it.  I'd say that's a good pedigree to start out with.  I hope it flies.  :)

[Von Ether]

Back when I was a Catalyst Agent and Strat Ops was in the pipeline.....In short, it was printed because of all of you who wanted it.  I'd say that's a good pedigree to start out with.  I hope it flies.  :)

Well, sir, let me shake your hand and buy ya a beer! Thanks to you, we've had more excitement for the BT universe in the FLGS in the last month than we've had in the last two years.

Better yet, we've had a BT vet who swore never to go hexless now rise to the challenge of a more freeform style of play, and two video game BT fans enjoy the physical game for the first time and a super serious minis player literally dance around the table and laugh as his mechs got scored crits.

[avon1985]

Its battletech and easier large battles.  O0

[Rothgar]

Back when I was a Catalyst Agent and Strat Ops was in the pipeline, I was looking for a way to introduce players to BattleTech with a game system that played as quickly as modern games like Heroscape and some of the others that have exploded onto the market in the last few years.

I thought that way was BattleForce, but BattleForce is a game of lances.  I wanted to take the scale back up to BattleTech, while using BattleForce stats to speed up play.  Finally, I wanted to still play it on hexes.  The QuickStrike translation rules in Strat Ops were amazing, and they offered a fantastic opportunity to everybody.

So the moment Strat Ops came out, I rulesbashed QuickStrike and BattleForce together and went to town.  I generated the first BattleForce cards so I could play with art and stats all on a trading card.  I picked a trading card because games like Magic use that size, and I picked my general layout of name and cost on top, big picture, and stats below, because I figured if Magic did that, there are worse examples I could follow.  And honestly, I just love the look of a really big picture dominating the card.  It is a visual aspect that pulls people in, and all the most successful card games out there make certain that art is the focal point.  Skunkworks began printing out similar cards within months, and now of course the MUL has cards.  Of course they are turned 90 degrees on their side and the pictures are layered behind the stats.  I don't understand that design choice, as it goes a bit sideways of card-style games I've seen.  But I'm hoping it will work out.  I know people that got to Gencon LOVED the stat card sets they sold there.  I bought two packs myself.  Hopefully they make more of those.  ;)

Anyways, within days of Strat Ops coming out, IIRC, fans and Agents alike were asking for BattleForce/QuickStrike rules to be released as a standalone set.  And over the years, the game has taken on a life of it's own, as players just loved it.  Everybody took a slightly different path since it was a rulesbash.  Some people played hexless, others with hexes, but in general everybody just played.  And in general, people bloody well LOVED it.  And people who had not played BattleTech in years started playing again and loving it.

And now we have Alpha Strike.  Alpha Strike came out because we players played this game, and we asked for standalone rules.  Alpha Strike may be the first BattleTech game that was published because the players already played it and asked for it to be made.  I personally think that Alpha Strike is the future of BattleTech.  If BattleTech is to compete with other modern games, I think that Alpha Strike is the scale and format that it will take back into mainstream gaming.  And if that happens, it is because of all the players, and all the Agents who jumped all over the idea of twisting two sets of rules outside their intended function and just bloody well had FUN doing it.

In short, it was printed because of all of you who wanted it.  I'd say that's a good pedigree to start out with.  I hope it flies.  :)

This. I never got to play the original that much, but it seemed like such a hassle. I have had to play a few games since then and my views have changed on classic, but I still like this game. A lot. It combines the lore of classic with the game play of a 'modern' tabletop game, which is all win.

[Medron Pryde]

Props go to whoever had the idea to do QuickStrike.  I don't know who that was, but without QuickStrike to base a rulehack onto, I'm not sure there would have been enough of a framework for the BattleTech with BattleForce stats idea to have gotten a foothold with.

With it, everybody who ran the game was able to say they were running QuickStrike.  I and many others said we were running QuickStrike on hexes.  Others ran QuickStrike the way it was designed, which was actually a game very similar in scale to MechWarrior: Dark Age.

I'm betting that a lot of people that jumped at QuickStrike, and hopefully now at Alpha Strike, are people who came to BattleTech from Dark Age.  And of course with Alpha Strike now printed on its own, we might be able to grab people from other mainstream games.  I'm very much hoping we can.  :)

An interesting point is that since the original publication of Strat Ops had extreme damage brackets written in from ground forces, all of my BattleForce cards have the extreme range bracket...even though the current official rules for Alpha Strike don't have extreme range for ground units in them.  ;)

[Atlas3060]

Simple, It's Battletech and it did something that I've wanted for a while: combine the quick pick up play of Dark Age click game with the customization ability of Total Warfare.

[Son of Kerenski]

The ability to play big games yet still have the battletech flavor. Streamlined gameplay is also fantastic.

But the biggest drawcard for me is not losing a pristine mech to a flukey headshot or snake eyes critical.

[wolfspider]

I have only wanted a game like this since about 1987, the minute my mech collection went from 4 mechs to a company then a battalion, then a regiment etc etc etc!  O0

[glitterboy2098]

i actually was introduced to the battletech setting through a game similar to this.. the teacher which ran the local group had a cobbled together Battletech-DirtsideII system he'd use for really big battles, or when (like with us) he was dealing with pre-teens who'd struggle with the regular rules. was a lot of fun, though this was pre-BV so the battles were often rather unbalanced.

[eilif]

I've always loved the Battletech Universe. Battletech was one of the first wargames I bought back in the early 90's.   The rules were just too much for me, though for some reason it didn't stop me from buying citytech and a number of metal mechs. 

Fast forward to the present.  I've tried them again and still don't like the CBT rules, but I've acquired Nearly every BT and MW novel, 60+ sourcebooks, and a mass of 10mm Mechwarrior clix that I've rebased for other rulesets. Finally AS appears and it looks like this may be what I've been waiting for. 

I'll find out this Thursday when I get my first game in with a friend at the club.

[noobk]

Voted for the Larger Battles option. I think it is a very good rules set so far and they achieved stream lining the game. I only have a few games played so far with my group and we keep introducing new rules every go around. I still like TW style of play as well, but the ability to get a large game done in a few hours is just awesome.  >:D

[Pat Payne]

I'm in the "other" category. I love BattleTech, but I'd be the first to admit that even a lance-on-lance battle can be a PITA to run, especially with newcomers. I just like the quick-moving and streamlined rules of Alpha Strike better, even if it means that I lose some of the more granular, tactical and "crunchy" aspects (such as hit locations, dealing with destroyed weapons and more detailed heat management).

[Lysenko]

Large battles with the wonky head shots!