Had some time on my hands and started wondering how I'd go about streamlining CBT without paring it down to Alpha Strike bare-bonesness (NOT intending to offend AS fans here!!!).
With that thought in mind I decided to see what others here may have done similarly or think on this idea.
define what you mean by streamlining? are you looking for fewer operations, fewer rules exceptions, fewer special rules, smaller lists of gear, narrower conditions? how do you define it?
One of the ways we used to make bigger battles take less time, in BMR play, was to run lots of conventionals-because the pre-total warfare situation with vees meant that things got very decisive, very quickly. You could run full battalion on battalion level engagements in about four hours out of the base book.
Certain aspects of the game carried a lot of 'dead weight' that could be streamlined at the time, for example Artillery. instead of rolling for scatter range as well as direction, simply applying the difference between 'miss' and 'hit' for distance, and rolling direction-saved a TON of time. (You need 11, you roll 8, difference is 4, direction is rolled on 1D6, comes up with which way the missed shot fell. simple, mostly can be done in your head, bonus is it makes good gunners a good idea.)
some aspects can't be simplified that easily, however. Cluster hits are kind of the whole point of some weapons and tactics end up being built around them-mechanics to the rescue here, get one of those little 'tackle boxes' made out of clear plastic with the locking door-lids, load up dice in each compartment. shake box, then you've got your location rolls right there at once. (For larger outputs, have a couple of these.)
in asymmetrical engagements (that is, disparate numbers of units) shifting to a front-loaded arrangement reduces decision times on initiative sinking, and makes won initiative worth something, without having to muck with Force Size Multipliers before the game. (this also reflects the tendency of larger forces to have C3 problems. small units tend to have better, tighter communication, as demonstrated by british commando units or Otto Skorzeny in WW2.)
Increase lethal side effects for non 'mech units. The old BMR vehicle hit locations were a prime example of this. Vees in pre-TW were still very effective units, some players even preferred them
because they made larger matches more decisive-you either won quickly, or you lost quickly, but the match would be over before the store closed.
Removing exceptions (Ferro-lam, hardened armor and similar things) also pares down the time you have to spend per firing cycle. Going with straight hit locations instead of the Floating Crit (Delay) rule-more lethal engagements means faster turnaround times between rounds and turns. Removing 'damage reduction' special rules (VTOL rotor is a prime example of this) also speeds things up.
don't use "Options" that slow things down, like 'glancing blow' (instead, it hits, or it doesn't. if it doesn't hit, you don't need a location roll for what it didn't hit.)
Timers. set up an egg-timer as each player takes their turn (after initiative) firstly, any movement not done during the egg-timer, isn't done. reset it for firing declaration-each fire not declared on time, is not fired. Mistakes are on the player, he or she just didn't move or fire that unit that turn. if it takes you more than three minutes to move four units, you're overthinking, and that wastes everyone else's time.
have a plan every round/turn, and a contingency thought up in case you lose initiative. this can push the game to a faster cadence even if you don't use timers or tool hacks like the tacklebox. funny story, I had shit luck on initiative rolls but still managed to control what the other guy did, by being decisive instead of overthinking.
Play with a deadline. "The store's closing at x time!" or "I gotta be somewhere at eight."
