400 point game, Thorvidar and I tried out Alpha Strike with the addition of Infantry, Hidden Units, full Building rules, and Aerospace (added to our continuing use of Lance formation SPAs, Forced Withdrawal, and Variable Damage). My force was a repeat company from our
recent game with 50 points added on in the form of a Turhan carrying a Kishi BA squad, and a light company of foot infantry (4 platoons of flamers, 2 platoons of machine gunners).
My opponent brought 4 squads of Fah Shihs, a heavy and a light lance of mechs (with what seemed to be more than a few skill upgrades), and two ASFs: A tricked out Shiva and a Corsair. I was stressing my decision to not even spend 19 points on a Sabre-27 like I almost did.. I figured we'll just have to see how it goes.
With his investments in skills and ASFs, my on-the-ground force outweighed and outnumbered his force 3 lances to 2. I knew he had 2 ASFs to my, well, nothing.. and I had no idea how many hidden units he had while we were deploying.
No blow-by-blow writeup this time (why will become evident below), but here's a mid-game snap shot featuring the fine urban terrain Thorvidar has made:
The first round we played pussy foot, probing for openings and finding none as everyone hid behind buildings.
The second round my opponent was content to continue the conservative game, knowing his air support is soon to arrive. I might have pressed him more aggressively, but I was more worried about what might be hidden in the buildings on his side of the board than the ASFs that won't arrive until next turn. I did at least use my numerical advantage to sweep far around his force on both sides with my SpeedyMechs, but got bogged down on my left with hidden battle armor backed by a couple of his light mechs.
Round three, and the big moment arrives. His Shiva declares a strike on my tough Shiro (located at the center of my line), and manages to miss. My Shiro shoots back, scores 1 damage, and the Shiva fails its lawn dart check. His Corsair makes a bomb run and hits, but then also fails its lawn dart check as well from return fire. Luck was very much with me there, or at least against my opponent.
He pretty much lost the will to win after that bad luck and just banzai'd me. Without future threat from the air my superior numbers were able to just swarm him. We called the game as his forces went to the cusp of complete collapse.
Lessons learned:
Bad luck happens, but I think if you're going to send a big expensive fighter in for a ground strike, at least do it on the flanks to minimize your return fire. If the Shiro didn't drop the Shiva, I had plenty of other mechs to shoot at it and force a bunch more lawn dart checks. Maybe put Lucky SPA on fighters too, just to reroll a failed lawn dart check.
Infantry pulled their weight on both sides. I pulled his battle armor out of the safety of their hidey hole with my antagonizer Rokurokubi, but they still killed it! Well, "killed" it with 4 armor bubbles remaining.. he stacked his crits nicely with 2 engine hits. Womp womp :( On the other side, one of my lousy 4 point flamer platoons drew the fire of 3 heavy mechs for 2 turns. Sure they died, but they died full of win keeping all that damage from hitting anything important. They even managed to hit the Mad Cat once, and with the heat they inflicted that bought me an additional round of it not shooting to shake it off.
I professed my love for Rokurokubi's last game.. they reinforced it this game.. despite the unlucky death to 2 engine crits on AM attacks. They're just soo tough for a mech their size, and their sword hits are no laughing matter on a backstab. This game added love for the Mauler MAL-1R. It was such a dog in CBT but I just love the thing for AS. (as a member of a Fire Lance with a free Sniper SPA, anyway :) )
Another forumite, RAW, was there to watch the game and early on he asked "are light mechs worth anything in Alpha Strike?". I got a stupid amount of backstabs in this game, and demonstrated that the answer is a resounding "YES!"
