Author Topic: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike  (Read 6018 times)

BiggRigg42

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I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« on: 20 August 2019, 14:43:19 »
After about five or so people online asking me to make a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike, I finally got it started. The series is not finished at this point. More videos will be coming up within the next few weeks.

Please let me know if I got anything seriously wrong and provide page references. I will see what I can do about correcting anything that horribly contradicts the RAW.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW4v4K6PB7qIvqGL7IZ5vI5dYIiqLhHmb

OpacusVenatori

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #1 on: 21 August 2019, 06:05:34 »
Nice! Going to watch it in a minutes  :thumbsup:
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nckestrel

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #2 on: 21 August 2019, 06:31:01 »
Got through the initial set. Very well done, good explanations and good suggestions on terrain!
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BiggRigg42

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #3 on: 21 August 2019, 19:20:15 »
Thanks guys. I'm planning out my video on critical hits now.

nckestrel

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #4 on: 21 August 2019, 20:46:49 »
One note on movement.  I've always ruled it as 1" (or larger) increments, there's no subdividing the "move cost per inch".
You pay for the first 1" of movement, regardless of how far you actually go. If you only go 0.5", you still paid 1" to move.  If you move 0.99", you pay 1" to move that far.  This doesn't usually matter for too much, but I would apply it to level changes as well, or terrain costs.
If you move through a half inch of Woods and a half inch of clear, you pay 1" for the moving 1" +1" for the Woods.  It cost you 2", not 1.5".
If you move up a half inch level change, you pay 2" for the level change. 
You never pay less than the "move cost per inch", even if you move less than 1". You effectively pre-pay for each inch of move, then use it.

Fortunately, minimum movement takes care of a lot of these.  If you are moving underwater at depth 2+", you use minimum movement and move 2".  You don't have to go, I only have 6" Move, it costs 7" to move through depth 2" water, so I move 6/7ths of an inch..

But I wouldn't let somebody move some fraction of an inch through woods at the end of their movement either.  If there's 4" of Woods (costs 2" per inch) that's 1" away from their starting location, and they have 6" of movement.   They move the 1" in clear, pay 1" Move and have 5" Move remaining.  They move 2" through woods, paying 2" per inch so 4" of Move, and have 1" Move remaining.  They can't use that to move a half inch in the Woods.  They have to pay the full "move per inch" cost, not a fraction of it.

I don't think we've ever made a ruling on that specifically, or how other people play it.  But IMO, we don't want fractional inch movement in Alpha Strike (no 6/7ths of an inch in depth 2" water..).  Curious how everybody else does it? 
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Left of Center blog - Nashira Campaign for A Game of Armored Combat, TP 3039 Vega Supplemental Record Sheets

Scotty

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #5 on: 21 August 2019, 21:51:37 »
Honestly?  Exactly the opposite.  Half an inch of woods costs a full inch of available movement.  Sometimes it's easier, especially if the movement is occuring in a straight line, to figure out whatever modifiers reduce the total distance you'll be able to move, and then just move to the end.  If I have 12" of move, and I'm an inch and a half inside a water feature in the direction I want to go, I reason that moving that far through the water will shorten my available move by 3", going up will shorten it by another 2", so I measure 7" in that direction and call it a day.


That said, the reason I do it that way is because Alpha Strike is a miniatures game, and there's no other miniatures game I know that tries to increment movement in that fashion.  It looks and feels like trying to shoehorn hexes, or at least their shadow, back into a movement system that moved past them for a reason.
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BiggRigg42

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #6 on: 21 August 2019, 22:37:42 »
One note on movement.  I've always ruled it as 1" (or larger) increments, there's no subdividing the "move cost per inch".
You pay for the first 1" of movement, regardless of how far you actually go. If you only go 0.5", you still paid 1" to move.  If you move 0.99", you pay 1" to move that far.  This doesn't usually matter for too much, but I would apply it to level changes as well, or terrain costs.
If you move through a half inch of Woods and a half inch of clear, you pay 1" for the moving 1" +1" for the Woods.  It cost you 2", not 1.5".
If you move up a half inch level change, you pay 2" for the level change. 
You never pay less than the "move cost per inch", even if you move less than 1". You effectively pre-pay for each inch of move, then use it.

Fortunately, minimum movement takes care of a lot of these.  If you are moving underwater at depth 2+", you use minimum movement and move 2".  You don't have to go, I only have 6" Move, it costs 7" to move through depth 2" water, so I move 6/7ths of an inch..

But I wouldn't let somebody move some fraction of an inch through woods at the end of their movement either.  If there's 4" of Woods (costs 2" per inch) that's 1" away from their starting location, and they have 6" of movement.   They move the 1" in clear, pay 1" Move and have 5" Move remaining.  They move 2" through woods, paying 2" per inch so 4" of Move, and have 1" Move remaining.  They can't use that to move a half inch in the Woods.  They have to pay the full "move per inch" cost, not a fraction of it.

I don't think we've ever made a ruling on that specifically, or how other people play it.  But IMO, we don't want fractional inch movement in Alpha Strike (no 6/7ths of an inch in depth 2" water..).  Curious how everybody else does it?

That's not a bad way to run it, and I've never had any of my players move a fraction of an inch before. However, page 37 of the Commander's Edition has an example that reads, "...the 'Mech can only move 1.5 inches into Woods before running out of Move." So, I thought I would demonstrate the fraction of an inch movement option because it appears to be exemplified in the book.

Son of Kerenski

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #7 on: 22 August 2019, 01:44:44 »
Hey great effort putting these together! You explain things really well and it's easy to understand and follow.

My only constructive critism is that it would be easier on the eye to demonstrate using some nice (but not too "busy" ) terrain because, on a level you are trying to promote the game to new people and we make the first judgement with our eyes.

I found the perspective you used a little disorientating but I realize this was done for an operational purpose for the ease of demonstration from your viewpoint.

Again great job and props on being a one take wonder!  :thumbsup:

nckestrel

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #8 on: 22 August 2019, 05:25:35 »
That's not a bad way to run it, and I've never had any of my players move a fraction of an inch before. However, page 37 of the Commander's Edition has an example that reads, "...the 'Mech can only move 1.5 inches into Woods before running out of Move." So, I thought I would demonstrate the fraction of an inch movement option because it appears to be exemplified in the book.

Good point.
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nckestrel

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #9 on: 22 August 2019, 05:51:57 »
That said, the reason I do it that way is because Alpha Strike is a miniatures game, and there's no other miniatures game I know that tries to increment movement in that fashion.  It looks and feels like trying to shoehorn hexes, or at least their shadow, back into a movement system that moved past them for a reason.

Oddly enough, my point in bringing this up was the opposite. In the video, he says hills should/must (I forget exact wording) be in increments of an inch and shows 1” and 2” hills.  I don’t think they have to be whole inches. I’m trying to un shoehorn elevation :).
But I definitely have more of a with hex/square grid games, so am happy to listen to more miniatures game players’ opinions.
Alpha Strike Introduction resources
Left of Center blog - Nashira Campaign for A Game of Armored Combat, TP 3039 Vega Supplemental Record Sheets

LegoMech

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #10 on: 22 August 2019, 06:35:27 »
One note on movement.  I've always ruled it as 1" (or larger) increments, there's no subdividing the "move cost per inch".
You pay for the first 1" of movement, regardless of how far you actually go. If you only go 0.5", you still paid 1" to move.  If you move 0.99", you pay 1" to move that far.  This doesn't usually matter for too much, but I would apply it to level changes as well, or terrain costs.
If you move through a half inch of Woods and a half inch of clear, you pay 1" for the moving 1" +1" for the Woods.  It cost you 2", not 1.5".
If you move up a half inch level change, you pay 2" for the level change. 
You never pay less than the "move cost per inch", even if you move less than 1". You effectively pre-pay for each inch of move, then use it.

Fortunately, minimum movement takes care of a lot of these.  If you are moving underwater at depth 2+", you use minimum movement and move 2".  You don't have to go, I only have 6" Move, it costs 7" to move through depth 2" water, so I move 6/7ths of an inch..

But I wouldn't let somebody move some fraction of an inch through woods at the end of their movement either.  If there's 4" of Woods (costs 2" per inch) that's 1" away from their starting location, and they have 6" of movement.   They move the 1" in clear, pay 1" Move and have 5" Move remaining.  They move 2" through woods, paying 2" per inch so 4" of Move, and have 1" Move remaining.  They can't use that to move a half inch in the Woods.  They have to pay the full "move per inch" cost, not a fraction of it.

I don't think we've ever made a ruling on that specifically, or how other people play it.  But IMO, we don't want fractional inch movement in Alpha Strike (no 6/7ths of an inch in depth 2" water..).  Curious how everybody else does it?

That's how we play it too.

BiggRigg42

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #11 on: 22 August 2019, 07:50:22 »
Hey great effort putting these together! You explain things really well and it's easy to understand and follow.

My only constructive critism is that it would be easier on the eye to demonstrate using some nice (but not too "busy" ) terrain because, on a level you are trying to promote the game to new people and we make the first judgement with our eyes.

I found the perspective you used a little disorientating but I realize this was done for an operational purpose for the ease of demonstration from your viewpoint.

Again great job and props on being a one take wonder!  :thumbsup:

Thanks for the constructive feedback. I'm trying to make the camera angle a bit better in the latter episodes by using a clip to move the camera cable around, since the cable pulls the camera in to different angles.

Scotty

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #12 on: 22 August 2019, 09:43:38 »
Oddly enough, my point in bringing this up was the opposite. In the video, he says hills should/must (I forget exact wording) be in increments of an inch and shows 1” and 2” hills.  I don’t think they have to be whole inches. I’m trying to un shoehorn elevation :).
But I definitely have more of a with hex/square grid games, so am happy to listen to more miniatures game players’ opinions.

I've got a bunch of geohex with no hexes on it, which means slopes and rolling hills are a common sight.  We usually play that along the lines of as long as you've spent two additional inches of movement by the time you get to the next 'level' it's kosher.  That thankfully works out almost exactly to just double movement cost going up the slopes.
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nckestrel

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #13 on: 22 August 2019, 09:47:30 »
I've got a bunch of geohex with no hexes on it, which means slopes and rolling hills are a common sight.  We usually play that along the lines of as long as you've spent two additional inches of movement by the time you get to the next 'level' it's kosher.  That thankfully works out almost exactly to just double movement cost going up the slopes.

What if the hill never gets to the next level?  If the hill is only a half inch high?  Or if the hill is 1.5" high?
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BiggRigg42

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #14 on: 22 August 2019, 10:50:58 »
Oddly enough, my point in bringing this up was the opposite. In the video, he says hills should/must (I forget exact wording) be in increments of an inch and shows 1” and 2” hills.  I don’t think they have to be whole inches. I’m trying to un shoehorn elevation :).
But I definitely have more of a with hex/square grid games, so am happy to listen to more miniatures game players’ opinions.

I said that hills must be in whole inch increments because--to my knowledge--there is no fraction of an inch option in the chart, and there are no examples of a unit ascending or descending a fraction of an inch hill. So, I said that hills must be in whole inches because that is the only type of hill that the rules permit.   

nckestrel

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #15 on: 22 August 2019, 11:00:53 »
I said that hills must be in whole inch increments because--to my knowledge--there is no fraction of an inch option in the chart, and there are no examples of a unit ascending or descending a fraction of an inch hill. So, I said that hills must be in whole inches because that is the only type of hill that the rules permit.

True, I'm not laying down rules, I'm asking how people handle things. It was something that I questioned when seeing your video, so I'm talking through it to see how other people see it. Because I'm not entirely sure what the answer is.
They are listed the same way, move cost per inch. So it would seem that same concept should work for both. You can climb up a half inch of hill that same way you move through a half inch of woods. 
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BiggRigg42

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #16 on: 22 August 2019, 11:53:05 »
True, I'm not laying down rules, I'm asking how people handle things. It was something that I questioned when seeing your video, so I'm talking through it to see how other people see it. Because I'm not entirely sure what the answer is.
They are listed the same way, move cost per inch. So it would seem that same concept should work for both. You can climb up a half inch of hill that same way you move through a half inch of woods.

Oh that makes a lot of sense to talk about. With my video series, I'm just trying to stick as closely to the RAW as possible.

Scotty

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #17 on: 22 August 2019, 12:32:24 »
What if the hill never gets to the next level?  If the hill is only a half inch high?  Or if the hill is 1.5" high?

Hasn't been a problem yet; geohex is in 1" increments.  If it ever does, spending 3" extra to go up a 1.5" bill sounds reasonable to me.

Honestly the only thing with hills that sometimes causes problems is when people (completely without thinking about it) get to a hill, spend the 2" to go up, and fudge the 1" or so lateral movement required to actually get onto the hill instead of hanging in solace next to it.

Haven't figured out a good way to help people remember that one yet.
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nckestrel

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #18 on: 22 August 2019, 18:43:08 »
So are we all good with half inch hills? :)
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BiggRigg42

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Re: I made a YouTube series over how to play Alpha Strike
« Reply #19 on: 22 August 2019, 21:05:28 »
So are we all good with half inch hills? :)

Sure, why not! I put an edit in the video description of the hill video saying that people can do it if they want to.

 

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