We finally got together again for a game of Alpha Strike. We've been playing some bigger point matches so we can get a nice spread of units, so we settled on 550 for this match.
Kerfuffin played as his Lyran Royal Guards fielding a truly combined arms force: two lances of mechs, featuring a Command Lance and Striker Lance, a lance of armor, and two aerospace fighters. I played as Clan Wolf, with a Battle Star, Striker Star, and a Star of elementals. We again played the same objective format as last time where we had 3 capture points along the middle of the table, and an additional objective of killing the enemy commander: he fielded his commander in a skill 2 BNC-5S and I stuck mine in a skill 3 Executioner A.
We were at a new location in Santa Rosa, California: Outer Planes Cards and Comics moved to much larger store that had been vacant for years. I've honestly never seen a bigger store, or a gaming store with this many people in it. The upstairs had upwards of 20 card tables with people hanging out playing games. We were surrounded by Warhammer 40k and Magic the gathering games. Luckily, Kevin and I both wore our BattleTech shirts from the Kickstarter, and we had at least 10 people ask if we were playing BattleTech and check out the game while we played.
(If anyone knows how to post unit lists from the MUL in a forum post, let me know and I'll load up our forces for posterity)
Round 1I placed my Striker Star and their mounted Elementals on the right side of my map. My plan was to sprint out and deposit Elementals on at least 2 of the 3 capture points and make the freebirthers come to me. I placed my Battle Star with the vast bulk of my firepower (Executioner A, Gargoyle C, Timber Wolf A) on the center left, with my lone Scout mech in the Viper tasked with capping the far left objective with it's superior speed.
Opposing me on my right was the vehicle Lance consisting of two Manticores and two LRM carriers. In the center was his (augmented) Command Lance with a Banshee, Thunderbolt, Archer, Marauder, and Orion. I was wary of the Banshee, Archer, and Marauder because I knew he could pretty much auto-delete one of my mechs if they got into medium range. On my left he fielded his Striker Lance, with a Pixie, two Commandos, and a Locust.
Round 2This turned out to be the only round of the game where Kerfuffin actually won initiative. It was also my painful introduction to Aerospace Forces and the power of AoE attacks in Alpha Strike. One Shilone bombed my Striker Star in the middle of the map with Inferno and cluster bombs, putting 2 heat on 2 of my mechs and damaging them, and damaging the Elementals they were carrying as well. The other Shilone attacked my forces on the right side attempting to cap, missing with the inferno but hitting with the clusters.
I amusingly underestimated how Speed Demon would enhance his Striker Lance, and thought my Viper could cap the far left point. He paid for that by being the first casualty on my team. My Battle Star was able to insta-jib three of the four mechs (Pixie, Commando, and Locust)--but he denied me the cap.
Round 3I took an early objective lead here with deployed Elemental points capping the mid and right hand side objectives. Both of my Adders and my Grendel engaged his vehicles at range and traded poorly--his veteran LRM Carriers (3055 upgrade) lit my Striker Star up. I believe I was able to take one of his Battle Lance, but my notes are too poor and I forgot to take pictures!
Rounds 4-6The meat of the battle featured a couple themes. His LRM Carriers and Shilones did the bulk of his damage, and were AllStars. I just didn't have good enough to hit numbers to take out his AeroSpace, and my Adders/Mongrel just folded trying to take on his vehicle star. My Battle Star used 'Lucky' several times to good effect and put down the Banshee, getting another objective point. One by one, (dezgra on my part) focus fire put down his heavy mechs.
Round 7The Match ended with two points of Elementals playing cat and mouse with his final ground unit, a Manticore. I finished the game with a lightly damaged Commander in his Executioner A, and an untouched Ice Ferret D as my only remaining mechs to go along with the points of Elementals that hadn't died horribly to the LRM carriers or Shilones. His Shilones finished the match with only structure remaining.
All in all it was another fun match. Kerfuffin was patient while I worked through understanding what he was doing with his Aerospace. Even though I had read the pertinent section in Alpha Strike:CE like 5 times, it was abstract enough that I needed to see it in action to put it together. I'll note that he/we forgot that his vehicles could have formed a Battle Lance, and if his LRM carriers had used the Lucky trait, I can see that this game might have totally swung the other way: for example there was a round where his carriers both missed my Timber Wolf A (who had one structure remaining). That Timber Wolf survived another round and deleted another mech, which kind of snowballed round 5 and 6 for his forces.
I picked my forces based on what I had painted up, and tried to use regular, Skill 4 pilots whenever possible to keep my PV low. My two veteran pilots were in the Executioner and Timber Wolf, and my luck with them was absurd. I'm not sure I missed with either one of those mechs during the whole match--meaning they were putting out 12-13 damage a round past round 2. I didn't get to do any anti mech attacks with my Elementals, but I think they did dissuade Kerfuffin from charging in and having them get their special attack off near the capture points.
Thanks for reading!
