Battletech Leopard Drop Ship on the Cheap

 I'm getting ready to run a Battletech RPG and I was wanting to include some Battletech wargame sessions as a part of my game.

 My group has a lance of mechs and a few support vehicles so a Leopard dropship will be an excellent for them as the game progresses.

Problem is that there isn't much available in the way of mech scale dropships.  Iron Wind Metals does have a Leopard dropship but it is expensive and kind of ugly looking.
So I did what any good wargamer would do in that situation and I asked my wife to make me one.  She went with a hybrid of the classic Leopard style and the Mechwarrior Online stile and I think it's coming along nicely.

Davion Guard vs Sword of Light an Alpha Strike company sized game.

 Well I set up a company sized Alpha strike game for my son this last weekend.  Unfortunately a company sized game was a little more than the attention span of an 8 year old could handle so it ended up being a game between my wife and I for the most part.

 I played a company of Davion Guard and my son and wife played a company of Sword of Light.  I had about an 80 point disadvantage.

 Early in the game I lost my Orion to concentrated fire.  Alpha strike is different from Battletech in that it is usually easier to hit so concentrated fire is even more effective.  There is also no spread to damage.  All damage is equally bad.  In Battletech you can soak damage that hits non essential areas but more basic damage model in Alpha strike is a lot less forgiving.

 Terrain bonus are more important in Alpha Strike because it's easier to hit with fewer modifiers.  Light mechs are particularly more vulnerable in Alpha Strike than Battletech.  You really have to consider where you position a light unit.  You need to hide until you have back shots where you don't expose yourself to any more enemy fire than you have to.

 Assaults are a bit more useful than in regular Battletech.  This is because you can use their full move without incurring a penalty unless you jump and the jump penalty is lower as well.  Assault can wreck exposed lights and mediums in a single turn.

 Knowing your mech's role is pretty key.  It's interesting how the damage and range mechanics in Alpha strike mimic the feel of Battletech.  You make one roll in Alpha strike for your mech's attacks instead of one rolls for each weapon in Battletech.  It's interesting how mechs still have the same feel however based on their roll.

 Here I lost a couple mediums to heavier mechs although I inflicted a lot of damage with a rear arc attack.  Both my lights survived until the end of the game but I had to be pretty careful how I committed them.

 The Sword of light Quick draw was one of the hardest mechs to deal with.  It's ability to jump into cover combined with it's decent fire power made it very effective.  Most of the game it had a +3 modifier and my rolls were pretty poor.

 I had pretty much lost an entire lance by the time I finally brought down the D.C.M.S. Cyclops.  

 My wolfhound was my most successful mech  I was able to use it to finish off two much heavier mechs that had retreated into cover.

 I recovered somewhat from my initial losses but it was too little too late.  Mechs that stand still in Alpha Strike get a -1 attack modifier and the D.C.M.S. Catapult really punished me.  Every time I made a move to deal with it I payed for it.

 The Panther was difficult to kill.  It took way too many resources due to my inability to roll a 7.  At one point I missed the Panther with five different mechs who all needed a 7 to hit.

 Again my Wolfhould was my most effective killer.  I really learned a lot from this game about how to manage lighter mechs in Alpha strike.  It's more about positioning and terrain than in Battletech where you can count on your light mech's speed to make up for it's lack of armor.

By the end of the game I only had about 4 mechs left and most of them were shot to pieces while the Sword of Light had a number of fresh mechs so I conceded after about 8-10 round of play.  That is really the big difference between Alpha Strike and Battletech.  This company sized game took a few hours and we played over 8 rounds.  We also are still not all that familiar with the rules.  A similar sized game of Battletech between experienced players takes a good deal longer.  Alpha strike is "dumbed down" compared to Battletech but that's it's strong point.  It still feels a lot like Battletech but it takes less than half the time to play it.  I'm really looking forward to playing an even bigger battle sometime in the near future with more combined arms instead of just mechs.  I've done some smaller games with vehicles and mechs and those were a lot of fun.        

A.F.F.S. Davion Guard company. Battletech Battalion project.

I've started the 2nd force of our Battletech Battalion project with this company of A.F.F.S. Davion Guards.  These are entirely made from the Alpha Strike lance packs.  I have the two other companies base coated and a lance of Crucis Lancers finished.

Battletech D.C.M.S. Battalion

We finally finished the first Battalion for our Battletech Battalions project.  Our plan is to start with the major forces of the Inner Sphere then expand to other forces in the Battletech Universe as time goes on.  This is our first finished Mech Battalion a Draconis Combine Mustered Soldiery force.  It is of course not a complete force since we plan to add more vehicles and infantry support as well as some air support but the mech battalion is done.  It consist of one company of Legion of Vega, one company of Sword of Light, and one generic company in urban camo.

We have collected a Free Worlds League force and a Federated Suns force as well and I started to paint the Fed Suns mechs.

Alpha Strike "The Battle of the Fruit Cake Factory"

 The Year is 3038.  Rumors of war have led the DCMS leadership to conduct several intelligence raids along the Federated Suns border.  Following up on intelligence about a secret weapons development lab on Bastrop a small DCMS Sword of Light unit has launched a raid.
 

 Draconis forces move across the rolling hills as they approach the Fed Suns base.  Two Rommel heavy tanks lead the charge followed by a Cyclopes, Cataphract, Raven, and Catapult.

 Federated Suns forces scramble to intercept the DCMS units.  A Dervish takes up position behind a warehouse looking for targets for it's long range missiles.  A Jagermech and two Partisan tanks move to protect the Davion left flank.  

 One of the DCMS tanks learns first hand the dangers of engaging a Davion firing line at long range.  The Jager, Partisans, and Rotunda Scout Car all score hits doing heavy damage to the Draconis tank's armor.

 The Draconis forces take up a position behind a low hill.  The damaged Rommel takes up a position providing full cover behind the rest of the forces.  The Federated Suns Dervish is caught in a hail of fire and brought down when the DCMS Catapult scores an ammo hit.  The Cyclopse takes several hits from the Fed Suns forces doing significant damage to it's armor.  The relatively short range Whitworth and Enforcer try not to get caught out in the open until the enemy closes.    

 The Sword of Light forces advance boldly across the open field.  A Partisan is destroyed by the Dracs and the Cataphract casually destroys the Fed Suns scout car attempting a flanking maneuver.

 The Draconis forces press their advantage having taken out three enemy units while suffering no losses.  The Fed Suns Enforcer finally decides to join the fray doing some damage to the fresh Kurita tank but it immediately regrets it loosing all of it's armor and a weapon in the process.

 The Davion Enforcer and Whitworth attack the DCMS Cyclops with support fire from the Jagermech.  The assault mech suffer major damage loosing it's armor and crippling it's movement.  The Enforcer is however easily destroyed by the return fire.  

 The Drac Cyclops retreates to a safer location.  The Whitworth destroys the damaged Kurita tank but takes a nasty hit from it's companion.  The Raven and Catapult finish off the Fed Suns Jagermech.  The battle is looking grim for the 1st Crucis Lancers of the Federated Suns.

 The DCMS Cyclops continues to retreat but the Whitworth jumps over a hanger to finish it off.  However the Draconis Raven and Rommel take the Whitworth down in retaliation for the loss of the Draconis assault mech.
  

The last Partisan is destroyed by the Kruita Cataphract leaving the outpost in the hands of the Draconis forces.  Unfortunately after an exhaustive search of the factory the Draconis forces find the the facility was in fact only producing "Bastrop Fruitcakes" and the 1st Crucis Lancer garrison units were stationed here to protect this important agricultural region from raiders.

Notes:  This was an Alpha Strike game played between myself as the Davion Forces and my Son and Wife as the Kurita forces.  This is the first time we used tanks and other non mech units.  We hope to work up to full combined arms battles in the future.  The Alpha Strike rules seem quite suited to this.  We've even been talking about doing a full campaign some time in the future.  I'm looking at the War of 3039 as a template.  

Ziggurat of Happiness!

 Just got in a Ziggurat of Battlemechs in the form of the new Alpha Strike Lance packs.  I purchased all 8 lance packs and got an extra Striker lance to bring the total to 36 mechs or 3 companies.

I also picked up two of the new Shadowhawk 2H models based on the new artwork.  They look beautiful!
 

Here is the Command Lance painted up.  I picked up one of these and a Pursuit lance a few weeks ago.  These have really great detail.  In some ways better than the metal minis.  I would have to say that these mechs are some of the best plastic minis I have ever purchased.  They also had very little in the way of mold lines or flaws.  For table top purposes you can paint them straight out of the box.