A Call to War!

[Savage Coyote]

Welcome to A Call to War, a CGL staff and volunteer Alpha Strike force-building odyssey!  Over the next four months, several volunteer CGL representatives will be painting a new force for Alpha Strike.  They will be using the new Force Building Mechanics from the Alpha Strike Companion, but other than that, they have been left up to their own devices as to what force they create and what faction the chose to represent!

You will find below links to their threads as they work through this journey.  They will be discussing how they built the force, aspects of the force building process, it’s benefits and limitations, information on their chosen faction, painting tips for their force, and of course updates as they paint their way through.

We invite you to join along and create you own Alpha Strike force!  Here are the guidelines that our fearless leaders have used:

• Create a force between 360-400 points
• Use the Force Building Rules from Alpha Strike Companion
• Paint roughly 100 points a month
• Post your progress

We hope that you will participate with us, and in January, we will all have some amazing forces to pit against our friends and enemies.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask here. 

Keep your PPC’s hot; I can’t wait to see what the community cooks up!

CGL Volunteers
Savage Coyote -Clan Sea Fox Tiburon Khanate
cavingjan - Clan Coyote Epsilon Galaxy
Scotty - Free Worlds League 1st Covenant Guards
wantec - Clan Wolf Blue Keshik
worktroll - Capellan Confederation 4th Tau Ceti Rangers
Weirdo - Star League Defense Force 146th Dragoon Regiment
nckestel - Mercenary 21st Centauri Lancers
God and Davion - Society/Dark Caste El Jaguar
psycho - Capellan Confederation 3rd Sian Dragoons
NeonKnight Mercenary Force Neon's Knights

[Sagan]

Sounds fun

[ColBosch]

I'm in.

[Cache]

Two questions for you:
1) Do we modify PV for skills? 
2) What's an Arctic Wolf B?  :)


I'm working on another project that relates closely to this.  No promises yet, but I'm thinking about it.

[cavingjan]

Cache: http://www.masterunitlist.info/Unit/Details/105/arctic-wolf-ii-b

[Savage Coyote]

Arctic Wolf II B is from TRO 3085 Supplemental.  Clan Wolf-in-Exile's second attempt at an Arctic Wolf Omni!  Oh, nm.  You were noting the lack of "II".  Fixed now!

As for the modified PV, no, I was following the general format of the original sample companies that left all units at skill 4.  If you would like to instead create a modified PV-for-skill force, that would be fine!

[Cache]

Arctic Wolf II B is from TRO 3085 Supplemental.  Clan Wolf-in-Exile's second attempt at an Arctic Wolf Omni!

I should have specified... you have it listed as the Arctic Wolf B.  I was unsure as the Arctic Wolf has the same PV.

[Fear Factory]

I'm very tempted...  can I use my unit Litany Against Fear if I construct them using the official rules?

I already painted them but if the Lances need to be full (some are 3 units because of reasons...) I can add to them.

Nevermind, realized that the fun is reserved for the battlemasters...

[Bongfu]

Com Guards reporting in for painting detail.

[nckestrel]

I'm very tempted...  can I use my unit Litany Against Fear if I construct them using the official rules?

I already painted them but if the Lances need to be full (some are 3 units because of reasons...) I can add to them.

Nevermind, realized that the fun is reserved for the battlemasters...

"We invite you to join along and create you own Alpha Strike force!  Here are the guidelines that our fearless leaders have used:"

Please join in!  I've enjoyed reading about your forces previously :).

[Fear Factory]

"We invite you to join along and create you own Alpha Strike force!  Here are the guidelines that our fearless leaders have used:"

Please join in!  I've enjoyed reading about your forces previously :).

Cool!  Thanks!   O0

[Savage Coyote]

Yup, please do participate!!  The more the merrier!  It will show off a huge range of forces and schemes.  Should be very cool!

[Daemion]

If one were to do this, do I have to limit myself to 100 points per month? Or, if I felt ambitious, could I finish it all in a month?

[ColBosch]

Do what you want. Some folks have used forces they already painted, but reorganized them to the AS Companion rules and talked about why they chose what they did.

[Fear Factory]

Do what you want. Some folks have used forces they already painted, but reorganized them to the AS Companion rules and talked about why they chose what they did.

Yep.  JUST did this.

I am also considering a Clan Ghost Bear unit.

[cavingjan]

The staff ones are trying to make sure we are painting as we go. One thing we are hoping to show is that anybody can complete an army in a four month people with their busy schedules. There are several of us with young kids that we are working around. Others have busy work or school schedules. Just one of the many things we wish to show besides the force building rules in ASC.

I'm hoping to have a weekly update. I'm sure I'll have several that are no progress due to MUL work, product development, work interferences, or the kids are sick/teething.)

[Azakael]

Welp, this will kill two birds with one stone, I think. I need to have a scenario ready for next February's FlintCon. So I'm in with at least one force with this. I might get both going. We'll see.

[sapperleader]

I am in. 

[ActionButler]

I'd like to participate if there is room for a mediocre painter like me.  This is great motivation for to  finish up some projects that I've been slow to work on. 

[Fletch]

Processing...

[Knallogfall]

So when you're saying to follow the companion rules for force building, do you just mean choosing a lance type and adding the appropriate number of units depending on what force I'm doing? Because I have some Steiners, Kuritans and Comstar/Blakists I should be doing at some point in the foreseeable future. Level IIs were mentioned in the AS companion, but I think only Lances and Stars would benefit from the special rules? It wasn't quite clear to me, but since Level IIs were not mentioned for the lance types I would assume not.

[Scotty]

Level IIs are valid for receiving "Lance" bonuses in the Companion.

Really, what you call it means absolutely nothing, as long as it fits the criteria.  You could call your units "Pointy Horse Poles" and "Self-Sustaining Astronomical Fusion Reactions" and as long as they have the right roles, damage, size, or other criteria, they still get the bonuses.

[wantec]

So when you're saying to follow the companion rules for force building, do you just mean choosing a lance type and adding the appropriate number of units depending on what force I'm doing? Because I have some Steiners, Kuritans and Comstar/Blakists I should be doing at some point in the foreseeable future. Level IIs were mentioned in the AS companion, but I think only Lances and Stars would benefit from the special rules? It wasn't quite clear to me, but since Level IIs were not mentioned for the lance types I would assume not.

To make the reading a little easier, Alpha Strike Companion only refers to Lances in the descriptions of the Ground Formations. You can use a Star (5 units) or a Level II/Reinforced Lance (6 units), you just have to be careful about the requirements. Some of the requirements say "2 units" and some say "50%". For a Lance those are the same, but for a Star or Level II 50% means 3 units. Likewise, some say "3 units" and some say "75%". In a Lance those are the same, but in a Star it means 4 units and in a Level II it means 5 units.

The "Formation Requirements" section on pg 149 describes this a little better I think.

[Knallogfall]

Alright, I just can't quite recall the exact wording. I was under the impression that I 'had' to use 4 units per lance OR 5 per nova. I'll have a closer look at it once I get the time.

Anyway, the force should conform to the limitations of the described lance types, correct? How many units and what kind is irrelevant? It seemed to me like the army building in AS was fairly loose, so I was confused when the thread said to follow the "Force Building Rules", but I don't seem to recall there being any requirements set in stone like for example Warmachine (caster and jacks) or Warhammer (commander and troops).

If I can literally do whatever I bloody feel like I should probably look into doing up some of these space-Japanese... The Akuma and Sunder are calling to me.

[Fear Factory]

Just go with it, man.  I'm not very familiar with the rules and I already made some boo-boos.

[cavingjan]

We are trying to showcase the lance/star abilities that you get when building specific formations. There are a lot of other things we are showing too but for your question, we are specifically showing how things get synergy and gain abilities.

Otherwise these would just be plain painting blogs.

[Knallogfall]

Right, makes sense. Faction-themed Alpha Strike armies with focus on the Lance bonuses and possible synergies, to showcase the system. That's what I was wondering, because "plain painting blogs" sounded kind of pointless.

I already primed up some plastics for a Kuritan force, and I have multiple metals being polished. I had Alpha Strike in mind, but not necessarily the formations from the AS Companion, though they can probably be adapted to work.

[Savage Coyote]

Just go with it, man.  I'm not very familiar with the rules and I already made some boo-boos.

And we're here to help and can help get everything arranged! Well, us and the MUL!

[ColBosch]

It's awesome how many people are getting into this. Maybe this should be a regular thing.

[Fear Factory]

It's awesome how many people are getting into this. Maybe this should be a regular thing.

Agreed.  It's cool seeing how the rules work too.