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.

The Caves of Chaos Part 01 "The Lair of the Kobolds"

I've recently started a D&D 5th edition game set in "The Keep on the Borderlands".  In previous adventures the party explored "The Cave of the Unknown" where they made a pact with a Bugbear and cleared an ancient monastery which was the final resting place of a Wight and several skeletons.  After that they fought animated armors and giant spiders in "The Tomb of Ballanor".  They then set out of the "Caves of Chaos" to rescue two citizens of the keep who had been kidnapped by Kobolds.

The heroes belong to a mercenary company named "The White Stag Keep Irregulars".  Their company specializes in dealing with monstrous threats in their own lairs.  Basically they are a company of dungeoneers.  

 After tracking the kobolds who abducted the beggar Old Gregori and the prostitute Sasha to an area near the Cave of the Unknown before loosing the trail they consulted with their Bugbear contact Thrack who told them where they could find the Kobold's lair.  They entered the lair cautiously but unfortunately Anton managed to fall into a carefully concealed pit trap.

 The Kobolds sprung their trap attacking the party from an alcove near the trap.  Anton fought the entire engagement from the pit while Brigga the dwarf and their Lawbringer cleric Dannika tried to cover the fighter.  Although they killed most of their attackers one kobold managed to flee and raise the alarm.

 Instead of following the fleeing Kobold the party decided to head down a short hallway where it looked like their might be an empty room to recuperate in.  Unfortunately the rubble in the room was infested by rats.  Brigga suffered several bites but her stout dwarven constitution saved her from getting sick.  Strangely the found one of the rats was wearing an expensive looking necklace as a collar.
  

When they returned to the main corridor they discovered even more Kobolds waiting for them.  This time they even had a couple of archers.

 Many of the Kobolds rushed around the edges of the pit to engage the party while their archers supported them.  The fight was brief and the party dispatched all the creatures with minimal injury.

As they pressed on the party found a large common room with several sleeping pallets laid out on the floor.  There were over a dozen Kobolds in the room who were ready and waiting for them.

 Anton eventually managed to break free from the main melee to attack the archers in the back on the room who had dealt a lot of damage to he and his friends.  With one sweeping attack he caved in both of the creatures skulls.

 Unfortunately however Dannika was knocked unconscious during the fighting after healing Brigga so she could continue fighting.  Fortunately Anton and Brigga were able to dispatch the remaining Kobolds.  The party barricaded the entry to the large room and rested as long as they could.

Searching the Kobold's food storage room they found Old Gregori and Sasha locked in a large crate.  Anton pried the crate open with a crowbar and they decided to escort the prisoners back to the Keep before returning to finish off the remaining Kobolds.

Back at the Keep they ran into Hedge Ironfist a Dwarf they had freed while exploring the Cave of the Unknown.  Hedge agreed to accompany them back to the Kobolds lair for a share of the loot.  When they got their they began to make their way down a corridor they had not yet explored when they were attacked by four Kobold archers hiding behind a barrel barricade.  Brigga and Anton quickly dispatched two of them with crossbow and hatchets and then closed on the others.  They managed to kill the remaining creatures easily.
 

Finally they came across the chambers of the Kobold chief.  The door was locked by Brigga managed to kick it in with a mighty display of strength.  The chief and his two mistresses were ready for them.  Anton took an bolt as they entered the room and the chief sprung out of the corner and attacked Brigga.

Anton rushed the chief's mistresses while the others attacked the chief.  Although he managed to dispatch them one of the Kobolds managed to give him a nasty wound.  

 Even after being wounded badly Anton managed to deliver the killing blow to the chief caving his skull in with a powerful strike.
The party managed to save the kidnapped prisoners and walk away with a modest treasure.

Notes:  Well this adventure went pretty well.  The party had some tough fights but they succeeded in all of their objectives.  I'm using "The Keep on the Borderlands" module as a guideline for this campaign but it is taking a lot of adjustment.  5E definitely makes low level monsters more potent.  Of course the Caves of Chaos are all about old school dungeon crawling but I've managed to plant some interesting plot hooks with a couple of introductory sessions.  The sandbox nature of the module really lends itself to injecting your own story onto the setting.  

Venturing back into Dungeons & Dragons

Like a lot of table top gaming nerds I started out playing Dungeons & Dragons.  I was 11 years old the first time I tried to run "The Keep on the Borderlands" using the basic D&D rules.  I was the DM and as what happens to most DMs I have been a DM/GM pretty much most of my gaming career.  Now 31 years later I am taking a much more experienced crew back to the Castellan's Keep on the Borderlands to explore the Caves of Chaos and the surrounding ares using the D&D 5E rules which seem to be the best set of rules since 2nd Edition AD&D.

I've already ran one session where my party ventured to the Borderlands and scouted out The Cave of the Unknown but were forced back to the Keep after being attacked by a Wolf pack at the cave entrance.

I've started working on a set of miniatures for the party.  Hopefully I'll have them ready to go for the next session.    

Giant Killer Robots!

I just stumbled across "Giant Killer Robots" a new game from Weta Workshop and it looks amazing!  I'm probably going to go broke.

Battletech Antallos 3040 Campaign (The best campaign I've had that I never blog about.)

 Well I've started my third Battletech campaign set on Antallos.  This time the campaign is set in 3040 during the time when a lot of lost tech was being discovered on the planet.

I think of Antallos as a planet in the Battletech Universe where someone is always fighting over something.  Usually smaller bands of pirates or mercenaries or treasure hunters fighting over Star League era resources left on the planet when the Star League collapsed.  That makes it a great place for a map based campaign for multiple forces.

We've set our 3040 campaign in Port Krin the closest thing to a capital city on Antallos.  I've divided the map into 74 or so neighborhoods and each faction is trying to take over neighborhoods in the city and build up businesses to help supplement their income to maintain their forces.  The trick is that we are not only fighting each other for control of the city.  Various NPC forces are also active in the city and player neighborhoods can even be raided by these NPC.  We are 7 or so turns into our campaign and we have yet to fight each other outside of the starter scenario.  Instead we have mostly been spreading out through NPC controlled neighborhoods fighting off other pirates and mercenaries.

Each of the four players in the campaign choose a force style based on their experience level.  Myself and the other player who have over 20-30 years experience playing Battletech built Pirate forces.  I call mine "The Scrap Dogs" and he calls his "The Blue Phantoms".  We started with a lot less money than the other two players and we can only deal with the Black Market to buy supplies, mechs, and parts to repair our mechs.  My daughter is playing an irregular mercenary force called "The Hunters of Horus".  Mercenary forces can deal with the Black Market or buy supplies, mechs, and parts from Military suppliers located in the Inner Sanctum which is a non contestable area at this time in the campaign.  My wife who has only played a few games of Battletech prior to this campaign choose to play a Draconis Combine force consisting mostly of units from The Legion of Vega who's background make them particularly suited for operating on a mostly pirate controlled planet.  She can requisition supplies, parts, and even mechs from the DCMS for free but these request can be denied based on her rank.  She can also deal with merchants from the Inner Sanctum and the Black Market to buys supplies like everyone else if she chooses.  Each force can also buy influence among their available markets to make finding things easier and cheaper.

To kick off the campaign we had a four way battle set outside of the city of Port Krin where we all fought over Star League era technology that had been scattered across the desert by a drop ship that was attacked by pirates.  

Immediately the Blue Phantoms and Scrap Dogs agreed not to fight each other and split the booty nearest our deployment zones.  We planned to engage the others only to keep their heads down.

 The Hunters of Horus and Legion of Vega however choose to fight it out causing some nasty damage to each other in the process.  As such even though they won slightly more of the booty than the pirate forces they had to spend quite a lot of it just to replace and repair their damaged units.

 Since the first engagement we have largely been fighting various NPC forces.  Here "Redcap" a Scrap Dog commando supported by two Savanna Master skimmers flanks a pirate Trebuchet.

Hunters of Horus mechs and tanks move through another part of the city defended by another mercenary company.

 A Draconis Rommel tank is and two Legion of Vega mechs engage pirates.

 The Scrap Dogs commander "Big Dog" in his Marauder is escorted by two Centruions "Slick" and "Rotgut"

 Scrap Dogs engage mercenaries in a ruined section of Port Krin.

A combined force of Blue Phantoms and Scrap Dogs attack The Carrion Crows an NPC pirate force defending the Carrion Pit neighborhood.  

The Draconis Legion of Vega Forces attempt to move into the North Slums of "The Lost" neighborhood only to be pushed back by The Lost Dogs an NPC pirate militia force defending that part of the city.

The Scrap Dogs and Blue Phantoms again fighting side by side against local forces.  I believe this time to capture a neighborhood for the Phantoms.

 The Hunters of Horus commander in the Black Knight fighting mercenaries.  

 Here is the campaign map on turn 5 I believe.  The Blue Phantoms are blue, the Scrap Dogs are yellow, the Legion of Vega are red, and the Hunters of Horus are green.  The flags represent our respective bases.  We all managed to blind pick neighborhoods that were fairly close to one an other to start the campaign.

 The Scrap Dogs have suffered the most NPC raids during the course of the campaign.  Here they are fighting off pirate raiders attacking one of their neighborhoods.

 The Blue Phantoms field a large number of Saladin hover tanks.  Here they have been wrecking havoc on a mercenary force.

 My wife has used her Rommel tanks quite extensively during the campaign.  Her Legion of Vega mechs act more as support for their heavy fire power.  

 Another shot of the Hunters of Horus in action against mercenary forces as they push into the middle part of the city.  The Hunters captured the blue Battlemaster in this engagement.  Quite a nice prize.

 Here the Legion of Vega manages to successfully invade the East Slums neighborhood of "The Lost" exacting some revenge against The Lost Dogs pirates.  The Draconis forces managed to capture a number of mechs and vehicles in this engagement as well.

 An entire company of Scrap Dogs attack the Talisea Raiders in the Portside neighborhood.  The "Dogs" were trying to secure the port to give them access to the southern parts of the city.  

The Scrap Dogs secure the port capturing some new assets but loosing a Whitworth mech in the fighting.  This was the last battle in the campaign so far.

At seven turns in we are starting to run out of room to avoid each other especially since we managed to deploy so close together.  I'm about to start a series of special scenarios like the one we fought to kick off the campaign as well as adding some other elements.  Once one of our forces secures Port Krin and becomes the new controller we will expand the campaign to the rest of the planet.  I should be adding more frequent updates from here on.