Alpha Strike Game Report and Review

At last week's club night, Jon, Tyler and I tried Alpha Strike for the first time. Alpha Strike is the new game set in the Battletech universe, using simplified mechanics and terrain (rather than a hex map) to enable larger battles that play faster than the traditional Classic Battletech rules. Rather than using the usual 6mm Battletech miniatures, we used prepainted 10mm scale miniatures from the Mechwarrior: Dark Age clix game. It's the same fictional universe, but a different game that has since gone defunct (meaning lots of cheap, prepainted minis can be acquired for pennies on the dollar!).

Of course, we rebased the Mechwarrior clix onto traditional wargaming bases. The club bought a huge quantity of these some time ago as an inexpensive entre into mass-scale sci-fi gaming, and they have been used for many different rulesets since.

As it was our first outing with Alpha Strike, we limited ourselves to an 80-point lance (a group of four mechs) per player. Though most Battletech units are available in multiple configurations, we chose the configurations that had the fewest special rules.

We also made a couple of minor house rules. Regarding the rows of trees you can see in the pictures, we replaced the the 6-inch rule for forest cover, instead deciding that if you're adjacent to the trees, you can see through them and be seen (with modifiers, of course). If you're not adjacent, you can neither see nor be seen. We also determined that shooting at someone on the other side of the overpass makes them "obscured." We also decreed that all structures two floors or higher could hide a mech from view.

The card buildings on the layout are free online PDFs, either from Heavy Gear or Battletech, scaled up for Mechwarrior and based on pieces of vinyl floor tile. The roads are painted roofing shingles. The overpasses are from an architectural model board that I purchased at the Games Plus gaming auction. You can see what happened to the rest of the board here.

For our first battle we simply ran a kill-em-all game using the "Standard" level of the rules. My apologies that my Nova Cats (white/grey/gold), Tyler's Nova Cats (white/grey) and Jon's Rasalhague (white/grey/light blue) all have similar color schemes.

Jon proved to be the most adept player, quickly taking me out and nearly defeating Tyler. In the end he and Tyler both lost their last mech in the last turn, so there were no units left on the board! I didn't record a full battle report, but here are some of the battle's highlights, in the order in which they took place.

Jon's Rasalhague enter the field.

The beginning of the end for my Nova Cat Dasher II as it is flanked by a Spirit Cat Marauder II and subsequently takes heavy fire.

Rasalhague Forces cautiously advance through the buildings, making excellent use of cover.

This conservative approach would prove to be a very wise decision, as Tyler and I attacked each other while advancing in his direction. In this pic, a Nova Cat Warhammer IIc takes aim at a Rasalhague forces across the way.

By this time the Nova and Spirit cats had bloodied each other to the point that they agreed to temporarily ally against the Rasalhague forces. Here Rasalhague forces in cover take aim at an advancing Nova Cat Thor.

The Thor is knocked out before reaching the Rasalhague positions.

Spirit Cat Marauder II rains death down from the viaduct.

A Nova Cat Warhamer IIc (ignore the blue Spirit Cat marking, I was proxying...) engages the Karhu.

And dies a turn later, putting the Nova Cats out of the game!

The Rasalhague Karhu proved a dangerous foe as it promptly flanked the Spirit Cat Blackhawk on the viaduct.

A couple of turns later, the only two remaining mechs were a Spirit Cat Cougar and Rasalhague Maurader IIc.

They simultaneously destroyed each other in a blaze of fire at point blank range.

Observations on Alpha Strike 
I really like this game. The rules seem sensible, the play is fast, and I'm really enjoying playing in the Battletech universe that I have enjoyed for so long without gaming in (I never played Mechwarrior and don't like the Classic Battletech rules). It's a small thing, but I like that Alpha Strike gives you (free via the online Master Unit List) a premade card for virtually every Battletech/Mechwarrior unit and/or variation, each with its own card.

Though the rules are not technically new -- an earlier version called "QuickStrike" is included in the massive tome "Tactical Operations" -- this is the first time these rules have been available in a standalone book. The result is a game that is fairly easy to learn (we skipped the "Introductory" rules and went right to "Standard" level), but with enough crunch to make a satisfying game.

I'm looking forward to incorporating new units like VTOLs, armored vehicles and infantry, and even at some point trying the "Advanced" rules for things like ECM and special munitions. We probably spent a bit less than two hours on this game, and now that we know how the rules go, I could easily see a two-player game using two or three times as many units on the field and still resolving the battle in the same time span.

As far as complexity, the overall game is similar in complexity to Mech Attack. The units themselves are simpler, but Alpha Strike adds more rules mechanics and special rules. It's more complex than Panzer 8 Sci-Fi, our club's favorite ultra-fast-playing sci-fi mass battle game, but it could probably handle almost as many units on the table, though it would take longer to resolve. The fairly long movement and firing ranges mean that it probably plays best on big tables. Our 4-foot by 3.5-foot space was fine for small battles, but for large engagements, the extra space on a 4 by 6 or 4 by 8 foot table would be ideal.

No discussion of the game would be complete without a brief mention of the book itself. Alpha Strike is beautifully laid, something we have come to expect from Battletech publications. It's full color with lots of pics, diagrams and even some fluff and background. The rules are separated into Introductory, Standard and Advance rules. Also included is a "Abstract Aerospace" game that can be played alongside the game to involve aerospace units and their effect on each other and the battlefield. The game also features a campaign system and some sample unit lists representing some of the major factions in the Battletech universe.

Lastly (and it didn't affect our game) the points system needs some work. The points values for each mech are simply 1/100th the points values that the mechs had in Classic Battletech. Though the Alpha Strike stats are based -- via an algorithm -- on BattleTech values, the resulting points values don't always reflect the Alpha Strike stats. This is not a huge problem for us, but Alpha Strike really needs a points system based on Alpha Strike stats, not Battletech Stats.

Conclusion
I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants a fast-playing sci-fi miniatures ruleset for 6mm or 10mm scales. It's clearly aimed at Battletech players, but the rules and massive list of pre-made units mean that players can proxy any miniatures without much hassle. It's not a "hard" sci-fi game, nor does it feature an abundance of complexity, but Alpha Strike has enough crunch to make a satisfying game. Also, since one book is all you need to play, and there are thousands of unit cards freely available via the online Master Unit List, this might be one of the great gaming bargains of 2013.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Playtesting a New Scenario for Wreck-Age

At last week's game night, Tim and I decided to test a new Wreck-Age scenario I was working on. It centered around a group of Technology Reclaimers and Stitchmen (evil doctors) hunting for remnants of medical tech in an around a derelict hospital in a bombed out town.

The idea was that there were six objective markers on the map (placed randomly), and two of these were marked on the bottom to represent medical tech. The Reclaimers' objective was to find at least one piece of tech and escape off the board. The Stitchmen could reclaim the tech also, but they got extra points for incapacitating Reclaimer models.

It sounded like a really fun idea, but it was a complete failure! On the second turn, we each managed to find one of the "medical tech markers." My Reclaimers were so close to the board edge that it would only take them two turns to make it off the board, and Tim's Stitchers had no hope of catching them.

We agreed that the scenario as written will need to be completely reworked, but we decided to keep playing, so the game devolve into a shootout. 

In Wreck-Age, when rolling for attack, one die is always designated the "malfunction" die. When you roll a one on this die, it means your weapon malfunctions. This happened to me more than once -- killing a model in one case! The Reclaimers lost badly, but I think it was the most fun I've ever had losing a game.

We'll doubtless be playing Wreck Age some more in the future. What sort of scenario would you like to see us run?

-- Josh, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Dark Days of Qaarra, Session 7: The Hills Rise Wild

We played another session in our Song of Blades & Heroes campaign last night -- just a single game for me and Mattias, who is running a sweet new warband. The game took place in the Grimshade Hills, an heretofore unexplored area of our campaign map. Check it out at the bottom of the map below.

The game was a continuation of my dwarven warband's storyline from our previous campaign session. Following their catastrophic defeat at the Scrying Stones, the dwarves fled south, skirting the edge of the Agamin Desert and finding temporary solace in the Grimshade Hills. Brynwulf, the fallen dwarf-king of Stonehill, and his men were bruised, battered and short on supplies when they arrived in the silent, mist-shrouded hills. Despite the oppressive gloom that lay on the landscape like a wet woolen blanket, the dwarves pushed on, hiking overland until they reached the ruins of a village, no doubt recently abandoned as the creeping doom spread across the lands.

But as the dwarves ventured into the village to search for supplies, they were unaware that they were being watched by a depraved group of chaos (little 'c,' we ain't talkin' Warhammer Chaos here!) servants. These foul creatures -- a hideous alliance of men, dwarves, elves and demons -- fell upon the vulnerable dwarves as they reached the village.

It was a fierce, bloodthirsty battle. Mattias's chaos warriors were led by a fearsome necromancer. My dwarves were escorted by two knights of Vildeburg -- human warriors who had pledged their swords to the dwarves' cause earlier in the campaign, and supported by Rolf the Bear, the wise forest guardian who had been with the dwarves since the beginning.

Tragedy struck early in the game, as Rolf was cut down by a mob of savage chaos warriors. But the dwarves' problems were only beginning, as Mattias's necromancer, the Fell Glendywr, successfully raised Rolf as a shambling bear-zombie who no doubt hungered for dwarf-flesh!

Oh snap! Luckily this loss was bear-ly a problem for the dwarves, who rallied and fell upon the chaos warriors with axes a-swingin'. They got a lucky shot on the Keeper of Livers, a foul chaos spawn who was probably stuffing livers into his pockets at that very moment and was thus distracted.

After that, the dwarves moved on to the chaos leader, a vile chud called the Warder of Wyrd. One gruesome kill later (literally, this is a game term in Song of Blades & Heroes) and Mattias's chaos fighters were fleeing the table in panic. The dwarves had won an important victory and secured vital supplies -- but at what cost?! Rolf the Bear, the wise, kind, gentle forest protector, a big teddy bear really, totally hug-able, just great to cuddle up with, had been killed, and had then returned as an undead zombie! The psychological blow to the dwarves was devastating!

Here's a final look at the battle right before we packed up. Afterward we did the post-game campaign steps from Song of Deeds & Glory, and Mattias's team was able to raise another zombie. How cool! It was a great, flavorful game for sure.

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Doom Comes to Sunnyvale: Our 3rd Annual Halloween Zombie Game

The club gathered last week for what has become an annual event: our Halloween zombie apocalypse game! This session continued the narrative that began in our first two games and saw our survivors escape from the chaos and carnage of New Chicago and flee into the relative safety of rural Illinois. Many months passed, and the survivors found comfort and shelter in Sunnyvale, an abandoned trailer park located deep in the woods. As the weeks passed and the zombie threat diminished, the survivors thought they had escaped the worst. They were wrong...

Doom Comes to Sunnyvale was conceived by Josh and I as an all-out assault by the walking dead on the fortified trailer park. The whole scenario was built around a truly epic terrain project from Josh -- he singledhandedly assembled, prepped and painted each and every mobile home in the park, most with special touches and unique features. As if that weren't enough, he made a whole bunch of extra terrain to accompany the trailer park and set the rural scene: a playground, a water tower, a clothesline and a windmill. Combined with a veritable forest of trees from me and Tim and you've got all the makings of an excellent wilderness zombie game -- quite different from our typical urban zombie games.

We had five players for the game: Karl, Tim, Matt, Mattias and Tyler, with some spectating from Mike C. and Mike M. We decided to use Blasters & Bulkheads for the scenario, which is the same ruleset that we used last year. It's easy to pick up and has a great "henchmen" mechanic for running groups of zombies. Josh and I had adapted Tim's house rules to randomly generate hordes of zombies from five spawn points on the tabletop. These were known to the players, and they had the option of fighting their way across the table to a supply shed, grabbing some grenades, and attempting to destroy these spawn points with heavy explosives. As you'll see in the battle report, a couple players tried to go this route, but they quickly found themselves overwhelmed by the endless ranks of the dead.

Speaking of undead, this game featured more zombies than ever before! Between Tim, Josh and I, we had upwards of 75 painted zombies on the table!

Here's the tabletop at the start of the game. Survivors are milling around in the center of the trailer park, mostly unaware of the looming zombie threat.

And we're off! The first turn, Josh and I ended up deploying several dozen zombies among the five spawn points. The walkers immediately shuffled in the general direction of the survivors. We had some rough behavior rules in mind for the zombies. In order of priority, they would:

1. If alone, move to join a group of zombies
2. Move toward and attack the nearest survivor
3. Move forward in a straight line

As you can see in these photos, the zombie hordes grew quickly and moved through the woods into the survivors' settlement.

Each player had two survivor figures armed with a variety of weapons. We played the survivors as WYSIWYG, so if a survivor had a shotgun and a machete, well, that's what he had to fend off the undead hordes.

As the zombies approached the settlement, some players sent their survivors to meet the zeds at the perimeter. A vicious firefight developed on the east flank of the settlement as zombies swarmed out of a traffic pileup and into Sunnyvale proper.

Across the map on the west side of the trailer park, another ragged group of survivors faced off against shamblings hordes spilling out of the dense woodlands.

The players maneuvered and attacked the hordes, slaughtering dozens of the walking dead and littering the streets with rotting corpses. The henchmen rules for Blasters & Bulkheads meant that the zombie groups moved and fought together but died easily to coordinated firepower. Once they got in close combat with the survivors, it became hard to escape!

Just as the survivors were getting a handle on the looming zombie threat, Josh and I played our ace card -- with a clank and a groan, zombies shoved aside manhole covers in the center of the street and started spilling out of underground sewers! The perimeter of Sunnyvale had been breached!

Again the survivors fought with the ferocity of cornered tigers, fending off the undead hordes even as they boiled up from the sewer manholes. But by this point, we were nearing our turn limit, and it was clear that the survivors would be able to escape and live to fight another day. Sunnyvale, however, was completely overrun, as these photos show.

In the end, it was a pyrrhic victory for the survivors. They had managed to escape, but their settlement was a total loss. What had once been a spark of hope in the vast, dim realm of the zombie apocalypse -- Sunnyvale -- was now reduced to a desolate wasteland where the walking dead prowled and no sanctuary could be found.

All in all it was a fun game that built on the narrative established in our first couple zombie games. We're even more excited to play a sequel with the survivors returning, perhaps armed with military-grade equipment, to clean out Sunnyvale and turn it into a proper defensible settlement. This will give us another chance to play on Josh's excellent terrain!

Afterward, we gave out some prizes for most zombies killed, best team player, etc. The goodies were provided by Matt (proprietor of Wreck-Age and all-around great guy). Everyone got to take home a Wreck-Age treat, so look for some new additions to our post-apoc games in the near future.

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member (photos by Josh)

Official Dice from Chicago Skirmish Wargames

Who doesn't love custom dice? When the CSW crew decided to have some made, I expected it to be a chore. After doing some initial research, I decided to contact Chessex Dice, located in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I think it is safe to say that most gamers are familiar with their product.

I initially contacted them via a form on their web page. Within hours, I was contacted by Joseph Kogin with their custom manufacturing division. We discussed pricing and size options, and he provided me with a VERY extensive list of possible colors.

At that time, we were not sure what version of our logo we would use on the dice. I mentioned some of our thoughts to him, and pointed him to this blog to see the existing logo.

Soon after, I received pictures of some dice that he mocked up. I thought at first that these were renders, but no -- they were the real thing. He made a couple dice to give us a good idea of what we were getting. We were so impressed with these that we decided to double our initial order.

The dice took a few weeks to manufacture, and arrived just in time for us to use them at our 3rd annual zombie game. We are very pleased with them. Bonus: They arrived lucky. I rolled a ton of sixes that night!

I want to stress that our experience with Chessex was fantastic. Each step of the way, they made us feel like we were their biggest client ever. When our stock runs out, we won't hesitate to place another order with them.

We've got a good quantity of these dice, and we thought it might be fun to get them into the hands of blog readers around the world. If you'd like to buy a few (minimum three dice) and help support our game club, please email josh@chicagoskirmishwargames.com and we'll work out pricing and quantity.

-- Josh, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

A Visit to Draxtar Games, a New Game Store in Chicago's Western Suburbs

I stopped by Draxtar Games in Batavia (a suburb about 40 miles west of Chicago) last Thursday. The far western suburbs aren't my normal territory, but I've got family nearby and am not one to miss a chance to visit a new game store (Draxtar Games has been open 5 months).

I didn't have a good camera with me, so I've borrowed a few representative shots from their Facebook page for this report. Two things jump out at you when you first walk into Draxtar. The first is a 6-foot tall, 8-foot wide glass case filled with beautiful painted miniatures. And it's not only the usual Warhammer 40,000 stuff either -- they've got 28mm figures from Bolt Action, 15mm Flames of War units, Warmachine groups and others.

Once you peel your eyes away from the cabinet of wonders, you realize just how large the place is. The overall floor space is impressive, certainly bigger than the floor space of any just-opened game store I've ever seen. This is a game store made for playing, as the actual shopping area is only about 1/4 of the total space. The shot below shows most of the store. The low glass cabinets to the right contain Magic cards and the register and staff area. Not visible is the retail area, the tall miniatures display cabinets and entrance, which are on the opposite side of the glass cabinets.

And this shot shows the rest of the central staff/display area, the entrance and the retail area.

About half the gaming area consists of tables for collectible card games. The rest is filled with nicely done standard-sized gaming tables (waist high, recessed edges, sturdy construction, etc) of the sort you might see at a Games Workshop store.

Perusing their terrain I saw the usual batch of 40k ruined cityscapes, but also some crisp futuristic terrain that would fit in well with Infinity or Warpath, as well as some Wild West buldings, small-scale European terrain, buildings for Flames of War and custom space gaming mats that were being used for X-Wing while I was there.

The terrain was all to a good standard as well. Except for a table which was being used to prep terrain, I didn't see any flimsy, half-finished items that often appear in gaming shops. Obviously, they've put quite an effort into their terrain selection and construction.

The service was good. The manager greeted me after I'd been in the store for a minute, asked a few things and left me to my own devices. Whether this was the usual service or just because only one person was on duty (it was a slow night) I appreciated that he didn't hover in the manner of some GW redshirts.

Like most game stores (especially new shops), this one has a huge selection of Magic cards and a good selection of Games Workshop and Privateer Press games. However, it's clear that they are already trying to branch out into other miniatures games. X-Wing, Flames of War and a few other major players shared space with small selections of lesser known games like Warpath, Dystopian Legions and Dreadball. Even a few items from smaller peripheral companies like Dreamforge and Secret Weapon Miniatures were present. 

Outside of CCGs and miniatures, there is a small selection of board games and an impressive selection of "Munchkin" products. Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder comprised most of their RPG section, but their were quite a lot of vintage D&D and Shadowrun products as well. The D&D items were in such good shape that I wondered (I know little about RPGs) if they might be reissues. Definitely worth a trip for any old school RPG fans out there!

In the end, I was quite impressed with Draxtar. They're obviously going all-in trying to create a full gaming experience from the very start, and that's quite an undertaking for a new game shop. With my eclectic taste in miniatures and penchant for "indie" games, there wasn't much in their selection to tempt me. However, I won't hold that against them, as Games Plus is the only store in Illinois that carries items I'm interested in, and comparing a 20-year-old establishment to a 5-month-old startup is not a fair match.

As to Draxtar there isn't a comparable shop in the area offering the selection and gaming space that they do. I think folks in the Batavia area and other western suburbs up and down the Fox River will find Draxtar to be an excellent gaming destination and retail location, and I wish them all the best. Support your local game store!

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member