Author Topic: Most commonly-used rules?  (Read 1769 times)

StingerTheRaven

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Most commonly-used rules?
« on: 06 November 2018, 11:11:12 »
Hello,


I've been wondering; what rulesets are most commonly used in the majority of your Alpha Strike games? For instance, standard rules, advanced rules like alternate ammo, companion rules (pilot abilities and formations mainly), etc.
Additionally, what are common point values that people build lists towards?


I ask this mainly to have a basis for list-building; for instance, building lists in distinctive PV increments such that, say, one list can be enhanced from 250pt to 400pt with little-to-no effort, or having fitting pilot abilities and unit formations already assigned for a reasonably optimal force.

Elmoth

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Re: Most commonly-used rules?
« Reply #1 on: 06 November 2018, 11:31:11 »
We use AS for our RPG sessions, so some caution here.
1. We use basic rules + the boons provided by the Lance types. We are quite new to the game though, and our pilots (RPG) are not very experienced. That might change with time.
2. We tend to play around 200 point games, but 400-500 seem to be more common for what we have seen.

Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: Most commonly-used rules?
« Reply #2 on: 06 November 2018, 11:42:14 »
We use:

Forced Withdrawal from AS (tho honestly I'm liking that rule less.. it's kinda meaningless in Alpha Strike.. except to nerf tanks by making immobilization a kill result)

Formations from ASC

Standard Artillery rules (from Errata doc)

House Rule/Liberal Interpretation of Aerospace rules, where you are not required to match an air/ground move after an air/ground move.  I.E. if you moved a fighter, I'm under no obligation to move an air unit of my own.  This is so there's no shenanigans in forcing an attack run to declare its flight path early in the turn before most ground units have moved.

We have used, but rarely use, alternate Ammo types.

We tend to play with lots of terrain, and have used many/most of the alternate terrain types.  Although with regards to woods: we don't differentiate between light/heavy.  As a house rule, we also don't have the TN penalties for woods stack with that of cover.  Games take way too long when you can claim +4 penalties from terrain...



Valkerie

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Re: Most commonly-used rules?
« Reply #3 on: 07 November 2018, 01:20:50 »
Currently we've been playing with the standard rules, running with sides at 500 to 600 PV.  It's been fun so far. :thumbsup:
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DarkJaguar

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Re: Most commonly-used rules?
« Reply #4 on: 07 November 2018, 09:32:36 »
We use Advanced rules and most of the alternate rules (Variable damage, a slightly tweaked glancing blow, alternate munitions, forced withdrawal, formation movement variable movement modifiers, etc).  We also have a few house rules in place, for example we treat aerospace as a separate phase that occurs after all ground movement is completed, and players must move their units in legs of movement, rather than trying to measure out the ENTIRE movement at once (A few Atlai ended up moving 10" due to shady measurements around corners).  One thing we're testing out now is actually placing every unit on a 2" circular base to ease edge to edge measurements.  Prior to that we measured everything from center to center to avoid the disparity between flat and corner on the bases, and that not everyone's base was the standard 1.25" hex.

Our current PV per force is at 480 points, and we use formations, force abilities, and individual SPA's (At a ratio of 1 per 4 non-infantry/support vehicle).  Fair warning on using all three, you end up with very tactically complex games.  We have a round 3 beer rule in place, that everyone buys a beer for their opponent on round 3, as that's when the shenanigans tend to drop and feelings get hurt.
« Last Edit: 07 November 2018, 09:35:11 by DarkJaguar »

Hayden.

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Re: Most commonly-used rules?
« Reply #5 on: 10 November 2018, 02:29:57 »
I play with a small group whose composition changes from session to session.  We generally play with the most bare-bones version of AS, both because of the fluidity and irregularity of the group's composition, and to ease the transition to the Commander's Edition when that releases (given that we're unsure how or if the rules might change).
Hayden

StingerTheRaven

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Re: Most commonly-used rules?
« Reply #6 on: 12 November 2018, 11:26:29 »
Thanks for the answers, everyone. I think it's safe to say formation bonuses are the most common advanced rule.


and individual SPA's (At a ratio of 1 per 4 non-infantry/support vehicle).


Might I suggest a PV-based ratio instead, such as one pilot SPA per 100PV? Normal units are largely unaffected, large forces of infantry get a little buff, and you can make better use of small numbers of super-heavy mechs. Just my thoughts, of course.

LegoMech

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Re: Most commonly-used rules?
« Reply #7 on: 20 November 2018, 23:29:05 »
This is a great question. We only use the basic rules plus some formation benefits - essentially I printed and bound a copy of the quick start rules download and it is all we need.

I tend to "GM" homemade scenarios for the players, who sometimes are cooperating against me and sometimes are playing competing forces depending on the scenario. They only use 3039 and earlier mechs for now, so TMMs haven't gotten out of hand.

On the other hand, my forces may include vehicles or fixed emplacements, and I often have special rules for things like blowing fuel tanks up at the airfield, environmental conditions, etc.  I avoid adding effects that raise target numbers, and only use light woods. I use wood templates that are circular and exactly sized so you can always see in or out but not through them, which keeps things easy (unless trying to fire from one wood template into another, in which case you need to measure inches to see if you have LOS).

Each player brings a lance. We go for quick games so we keep the model count small.

One thing I've done is create and print a bunch of pilot cards with built-in custom SPAs and they can randomly draw and "recruit" one after each scenario won and assign them to their mechs. I've also created some equipment reward cards, so if they capture an R&D facility in one mission they may get a card like "Experimental Coolant Tank - Once per game discard this card to reduce the heat level of a mech by 1." This allows me to add some options for the players without adding rule complexity.

Elmoth

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Re: Most commonly-used rules?
« Reply #8 on: 21 November 2018, 01:40:06 »
That is great! I am stealing these ideas for my own RPG campaign. One use advantages can be cool indeed. Thanks for the idea.

Xochi

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Re: Most commonly-used rules?
« Reply #9 on: 06 December 2018, 16:48:17 »
Thanks for the answers, everyone. I think it's safe to say formation bonuses are the most common advanced rule.



Might I suggest a PV-based ratio instead, such as one pilot SPA per 100PV? Normal units are largely unaffected, large forces of infantry get a little buff, and you can make better use of small numbers of super-heavy mechs. Just my thoughts, of course.

We do it by the book in the terms of what it suggests. We do have house rules in place like CI do not count towards the total unit count. We like to avoid min/max cheese where we can.

 

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