Vehicles and Alpha Strike

[MarauderD]

So I’ve played about 10 formal and 20 informal Alpha Strike matches, ranging from 100 PV per side to 1000.  What I’ve never done is used vehicles!

With the Mercs KS, I’m thinking of which of these new vehicle groups to paint first.  What do you all use for vehicles in your AS games?  What do you find effective and what do you find to be the drawbacks?  Help me to figure out which 4-10 vehicles to paint first!

[Charistoph]

As with Classic, a lot depends on what the objectives of the scenario are.

In most cases, I've used J. Edgars for speed/scouting, and Pattons for bricks of health to stick in a spot and say, "Try and kill me".

I'm still painting up my Kickstarter haul (bases first with color markings), and I don't know when I'll be making an Alpha Strike list again.

All that being said, I don't see most of their uses any different from what I'd use for Classic.  If I'm not painting by ForcePack, I'd probably go with Warriors and LRM Carriers first.  Warriors are in a good spot to see everyone on the board and spot so your LRM Carriers don't have to expose themselves to fire.

From there, if I'm going to use Infantry (Conventional or Battle Armor), get those Maxims painted so they have a ride.

After that I'd split it between Hover Strikers and Tracked Brawlers/Juggernauts to act as that middling force and fill up holes you might not want to use with Mechs.

Galleons would probably be last, honestly.  The only good thing they can do is cheaply attract fire that might go to something else or slowly plink away at something that ignored it.  They could scout through forest better than anything else on the Ground, but Warriors can do that more efficiently.

[MarauderD]

I appreciate your 'order of painting' approach.

Definitely need those Maxims done 1st, and probably some LRM/SRM carriers for fun.  I've never used Warriors but understand the line of site advantages for indirect fire, so will get on those.  I like the look of the new Condors, and hovers seems appealing. 

My brain starts short circuiting, because I've already got 4 mechs on the paint bench, which is about to become 20 more mechs once the KS hits my shelves. 

Cheers!

[Charistoph]

My brain starts short circuiting, because I've already got 4 mechs on the paint bench, which is about to become 20 more mechs once the KS hits my shelves. 

I feel you.  Someone gave me a Wolf Dragoons Star right before the KS arrived, and I ordered a pair of Shamash hover Scouts before I got the sending email.  Add on to that a point of Centaurs to add in for Hell's Horses build and Protomech Halo-style Capture the Flag game, and my paint table is swamped.  And I only had a Company pledge.  It would be far worse with anything bigger, and I want to order a pair of planes to use as Mechbusters for the next campaign scenario I'm running!

[Inxentas]

It will take a while before we (EU) see these Force Packs in retail. In the meantime we've been collecting some Dropzone Commander boxes and are in the process of painting up these units. Because the scale is off (10mm) and I couldn't find a really good "equivalent" unit, I've been diving into MekLab and the construction rules. At first we thought adding them to Alpha Strike would be the easiest way to fielding some of them, we ended up creating our own unique Alpha Strike cards! I have to admit that we still have to play a game using these units but I'm planning to let some big VTOLS drop Infantry on the battlefield and bring TAG with units on bikes, and my friend will drop some light vehicles, infantry and tanks. Probably as a few detachments within a small Company sized game. I also have some weird Command hovecraft that I'm planning to load up with all kinds of electronics, and he has a bunch of small mechs that we are going to use as custom light mechs.

[Weirdguy]

Call me crazy, but my preferred tanks are custom designs. 

To me the most basic tank is a 50 ton tracked tank with an internal combustion engine, and an AC-10 with two MG’s in the turret. 

I’ve even done this as a hover tank. 

Hell, I let my son draw a tank, which I then drew up as a 3D model (it’s a skill I have, self taught as well), and I own a 3D printer.   
 
We just make our own tanks. 

[DevianID]

It will take a while before we (EU) see these Force Packs in retail. In the meantime we've been collecting some Dropzone Commander boxes and are in the process of painting up these units. Because the scale is off (10mm) and I couldn't find a really good "equivalent" unit, I've been diving into MekLab and the construction rules. At first we thought adding them to Alpha Strike would be the easiest way to fielding some of them, we ended up creating our own unique Alpha Strike cards! I have to admit that we still have to play a game using these units but I'm planning to let some big VTOLS drop Infantry on the battlefield and bring TAG with units on bikes, and my friend will drop some light vehicles, infantry and tanks. Probably as a few detachments within a small Company sized game. I also have some weird Command hovecraft that I'm planning to load up with all kinds of electronics, and he has a bunch of small mechs that we are going to use as custom light mechs.

I think demolishers are really popular in alpha strike, and if you own the old dropzone stuff there was that dual cannon gladius or the cooler looking Scimitar.  I wouldnt glue it to the hex, as the hex matters no the model, so if you are using UCM models and such for your alpha strike tanks, being able to measure to the hex is great and mostly fixes the scale issue

Id run sabers/rapiers as scorpions or vedettes, they look the part. 

Other tanks in alpha strike that see play... hmm, well the missile carriers always show up a lot.  The Bear APC can work for lots of the APC units (I bought some Bear APCs just for that reason).  Same with most of the fighters, they can represent most aerospace units.