Mech Attack Adepticon Playtest Report

The club is putting on its first-ever game at Adepticon next weekend, and so last week we got together to playtest the scenario we'll be running there. The setup is similar to last year's scenario: a raid where the attackers are aiming to destroy certain buildings in a built-up urban environment.

The rest of the details will be a surprise for the actual players at the game. If you like what you see below, join us at 10 a.m. Saturday at Adepticon. We still have some spots available!

For those unfamiliar with our convention Mech Attack games, it's mostly a matter of scaling up. Usually at the club we play with 10mm scale rebased MechWarrior clix units, but for the conventions we double the ranges and use 28mm scale mechs ranging from 4 to 8 inches tall!

We've also moved from crate buildings to actual models this year, which will provide a visually striking improvement. The crate buildings are very lightweight and easy to pack up, but these new buildings are a good deal more gritty and realistic.

Also, we've moved from desert to an urban theme, though I still have to drybrush the grey fabric "concrete" mat. I'll also be putting out alot of scatter terrain that will mostly have no effect on the game but will make some of the open areas look a bit less bare.

Tim has prepared five new Zaku mechs for the Green Attackers. These guys are massive!

I'm bringing six new mechs for the Defenders: 3 Kryomek Striders and 3 plastic mecha kits

You can identify them easily in the pictures because they haven't received a wash yet and their bases are bare.

Lastly, here's the diecast Mechwarrior Legionnaire. It was a favorite from last year. I've got another one of these that I might base up. The stock paint job is nice enough that you just have to base it up and maybe dirty the feet a bit.

And that's all for now. The countdown to Adepticon is on! Remember: We'd love to have you join us there for the game or just stop by and say hello

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Robotech, Battletech and Mechwarrior Mechs for 28mm Wargaming

Thanks to a recent trade with a gentleman on DakkaDakka, I acquired a huge box of mech toys for 28mm gaming. With this acquisition of figures, my collection has gotten pretty big, so I took some time to write up a guide to Robogear, Battletech, Mechwarrior, Macross and other mecha suitabable for 28mm gaming.

Throughout the review I'll refer to them by the name under which they were sold, with the Battletech universe name alongside in parentheses. The figures provided for scale are all Games Workshop Cadian Imperial Guardsmen with Pig Iron Kolony heads. The squares on the background are in inches, but the grid starts about three-quarters of an inch off the table. The angle of the photos will make the largest mechs appear a bit taller.

Exo-Squad/Robogear
In the 90s, after the Playmates toy company had produced the last of its original designs for the "Exo-Squad" line of toys, they reached outside the cartoon (and back a decade) and reissued a wide range of Robogear toys from the 80s. Robogear was the English language version of the Japanese cartoon "Macross." The early years of Battletech also used many Macross designs in the artwork and background. You can see the whole range of ExoSquad toys at the excellent Virtual Toy Chest. Most of these figures are still available for decent prices on Ebay.

Exosquad/Robogear Medium series
This series of 6 to 7 inch action figures are fairly simple with nice articulation, but no separate parts, or pilots. They look great on the wargames table, and are just big enough to work well with 28mm figures. The two on the outside are stock, the middle three have been repainted (and some modified). From left: Invid Scout ship, Excalibur Mk IV (Warhammer), Spartan (Longbow), Raidar X (Rifleman), Gladiator (Archer)

I acquired these three stock versions and the Mechwarrior Legionnaire (more on this later) in the big box!

Robogear large series
These larger vehicles had opening cockpits, lots of articulation and space for pilots (who, curiously, were not also reissued). They are nice toys, but VERY big. From left: Officer's Battlepod (Marauder), Tactical Battlepod, Invid Shock Trooper

Battletech 
These toys were released for the Battletech cartoon of the 90s. They were the first toys made based on non-Macross Battletech designs. Though not in scale with their action figure pilots, most (though not all) of these mechs are very close to 28mm scale. Back row, from left: Bushwacker, Axeman, Thor, Hunchback, Mauler. Front row: Toad (Elemental Battle Armor)

Mechwarrior Die Cast
Released by the Joyride company in the early 2000s to accompany the "Mechwarrior: Dark Age" collectible miniatures game, these metal and plastic models were described as 1/56 scale, but came with 1/87 scale pilots. The same models were produced both as pre-assembled action figures and self-assembled construction kits. Though not all perfectly sized for 28mm, this line contains some of the finest Battletech models yet produced. The Mad Cat in particular (disregarding the size of the pilot) is one of the best. Absent from the picture below is the Jupiter mech, which is very nice looking, but even more out of scale than the rest. These become available with some regularity on Ebay, but unfortunately they often command extremely high prices, especially the Mad Cat. From left: Legionnaire, Mad Cat, Forestry Mech (comes with an interchangeable claw arm, awesome!)

Other Model Kits 
Robogear - With minimal conversion, these remarkably affordable 28mm to 35mm Russian model kits have lot of potential for mech gaming. They're widely available on Ebay.
Macross - Coming in a bewildering array of scales and configurations, these Japanese model kits are very nicely detailed.
Gasaraki - Hard to find, but these beautifully done 1/35 scale model kits look right at home alongside 28mm Battletech and Macross designs.

From left: Robogear Werewolf (lightly modfied), 1/72 Macross Valkyrie (custom gun), Gasraki Shinden Battle Armor (weapon swap on left arm), Robogear Locust (mostly stock)

Here's another photo showing a comparison of the largest of the various lines along side each other. From left: Macross 1/72, Robogear/ExoSquad Medium 7-inch, Robogear Exosquad large series, Mechwarrior by Joyride

Conclusions 
Most of the unmodified mechs described above were recently acquired in the "big box." I've been searching for many of these (especially the Battletech toys) at a price I an afford for a very long time. Unfortunately most of them are significantly larger than the majority of the mechs I have. In my 28mm mech gaming, I'm not a stickler for mech sizes, but the majority of the Battletech and larger Robotech toys are drastically larger than the rest of my current collection of mechs (most pictured below) and would look out of place.

On the positive side, it's great to be able to finally see these toys in person. The Mechwarrior die cast figures and the additional Robogear medium kits will make excellent reinforcements. Even if I end up selling the Battletech and larger Robogear toys, perhaps they can fund the acquisition of some other rare mech models.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Mech Attack Battle Report from Little Wars

Last month, the club put on a game of Mech Attack at the Little Wars convention in suburban Chicago. As with last year's game, we again invited players to witness the spectacle of giant 28mm scale mechs stomping across the table blasting each other to pieces.

We made a few changes for this year's game. First, the new scenario focused not on destroying the enemy mechs (though there was plenty of that) but rather on destroying or defending key objectives. Also, we removed the 28mm infantry component, added more mechs, and included some new models.

This year's scenario was a continuation of last year's game. In the year 2166, with the Unified Colonies nearly driven from Melk 3, they again turned their wrath on St. Martin's Parish, a small outpost that had first blunted the UC's expeditionary elements in 2165.

With planetary occupation no longer feasible, this punitive raid of revenge sent an armored wedge of mechs and vehicles into combat along an urban industrial corridor.

This was a four-player team game, with each player controlling three or four units. The grey units represented the Melk Defense Command (MDC). The green units represented the Unified Colonies (UC) punitive expeditionary attackers.

Objectives 

• UC Attackers - Score 150 points by destroying defender's pillboxes 
• MDC Defenders - Keep the attackers from scoring 150 points within the two-hour allotted game time 

Each pillbox was able to take 30 points of damage before being destroyed.

The picture below shows the layout of the terrain from the defender's position. Note the four pillboxes -- each was secretly assigned a value by the defenders before the game started. They were:

• Command Center (100 Points) 
• 2 Ammo Dumps (50 points each) - When destroyed, they deliver a medium missile hit to a blast area determined by a d10 roll. 
• Comms Center (50 Points) - When destroyed, the attacker gets a free standard move for all of his units to represent them taking advantage of the defender's lack of coordination 

Defenders were also allowed to place their mechs anywhere in the city.

The UC set up on the opposite table edge. They were allowed to keep units off the board as reserves, though no one took advantage of this rule.

The UC controlling the slightly-lower-tech Conscript mech squad, shown below, deployed slightly deeper into the industrial corridor.

Here's a look at the start of the game (minus the Conscripts, which arrived moments later).

After a bit of rules explanation, we were off! Several players were returning veterans from last year's Mech Attack game, and they proved invaluable in helping the new players get up to speed quickly.

On turn one, the UC attackers advanced up the left flank.

A small UC contingent held the center of the table to discourage flanking by the defenders.

The MDC defenders were able to stymie any advance by the attackers in the center by committing just a few units to that area.

It wasn't long before a UC Centurion succumbed to enemy fire.

On the other side of the board, however, the UC pressed their attack with some success.

The lead conscript rounded an office building and brought his weapons to bear on the first pillbox.

His comrades soon joined in and destroyed the pillbox, which turned out to be an ammo dump (worth 50 points). The explosion did only minimal damage to a few nearby mechs, and they continued their advance.

To counter this advance, the UC swept toward their right flank into the city, attempting to flank the attackers...

...and in some places they succeeded.

It wasn't enough, though. The UC pressed their advantage and directed intense firepower on a second pillbox.

The second pillbox exploded, and it turned out to be the Command Center (100 points) giving the UC players 150 points and the victory with just 10 minutes left in the game.

We were very happy with the way the game turned out. Had the Command Center been in a different pillbox, the defenders could well have held off the attack long enough to win the day. Also, the removal of infantry from the game resulted in a much faster scenario. For a game night, I'd probably put them back for more variety, but for a convention game this was definitely the right choice.

Once again, Mech Attack proved to be a fast playing and engaging ruleset that gives all of what you need and love about battlemech combat with none of what you don't. Most importantly, the players were able to quickly learn the rules and really enjoyed the game. All in all, it was a very successful morning.

Many thanks to the Little Wars organizers, HMGS, the players who participated and Armor Grid Games, which gave free copies of Mech Attack to the winners. And extra special thanks to the members of Chicago Skirmish Wargames, who took spent many hours leading up to the event playtesting this scenario and painting mechs. This year's game featured seven new mechs!

I'll leave you with a headshot of one such unit as painted by Mattias. Yep, that's a freehand pinup on a patch of armor smaller than a quarter!

Karl's Thoughts on Little Wars
This year Little Wars was slightly less than last year by most metrics. There were fewer attendees (at least as far as I could tell), vendors (about a third less) and flea market participants. Also, this year's convention lacked a paint-and-take booth, which is always a lot of fun and a great way to kill time between events. Still, it was a good time. I found some good stuff in the flea market, both for myself and to re-sell online to help fund my hobby. As with last time, we didn't have any empty seats at our game. I'll likely return next year with Mech Attack! We now have enough mechs, terrain, and experience that this is a pretty easy game to run at a convention.

Pat's Thoughts on Little Wars
I attended with Karl and the rest of the club and helped run the Mech Attack game.Each year I am surprised that Little Wars never seems to introduce a "Shopper" badge that lets people stroll through the vendor area and just spend money. It would cost them literally nothing and would be a great marketing bit to throw at potential vendors. "We let shoppers in for free, you'll be up to your elbows in grognards and cash-mad dads!"

Consider what happened to me: As a GM, I arrived late and had to haul stuff in the side doors at the last minute. Consequently I never got a badge -- and I didn't notice until our game was over and I was headed to the vendor area. I got stopped by a LW volunteer who told me I had to go register. I got a guest badge (because at that point I had about 45 left before I had to leave), but a guest badge doesn't officially allow you to shop in the vendor area. My wallet would have been $80 - $100 lighter if I had the opportunity to just buy some stuff on a guest badge. Again, why not? Open the floodgates to casual shoppers! Promote this on the web! I don't see how this can by anything but a master stroke for all involved.

I think there is a fundamental disconnect between the perceived customer base at Little Wars. Organizers believe that everyone who walks through the door is a player and should share the responsibility for planning and running Little Wars, not to mention renting out the DuPage Expo Center for the weekend. The vendors pay only for their table space. However, this calculus leaves no room for new blood -- casual gamers and suburban dads who might wander in after hearing about this "toy soldier show" taking place in town and think it might be a great place to take their 11-year-old sons for a few hours. These are the very elements that HMGS needs to attract if it is to remain relevant.

I'm not privy to the internal economics of Little Wars, and of course I'm grateful to the all-volunteer crew that puts it together. We're looking forward to next year's Little Wars -- just make it a little easier for us to buy stuff, please!

-- Karl and Pat, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club members
-- Photos by Josh, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

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

Epic Photo Dump from Little Wars 2013

Little Wars took place the last weekend in April, and as in years past, the Chicago Skirmish Wargames crew was on hand to run a game. This year we elevated our ambitions a little bit by running Mech Attack, the fast-play sci-fi mech skirmish game, in 28mm. Mech Attack was written for much smaller scales, but we were feeling adventurous.

Karl put together a BattleTech-inspired scenario that saw two attackers -- each equipped with infantry, mechs and vehicles -- assaulting an urban area to seize the objectives.

Here are some timeline shots of us setting up the table. Our playing area measured about 7x6 feet.

And here's a shot of the game in progress. We had a full roster of players, including two father-and-son teams. And hats off to the kind gentleman who registered for our game and then willingly gave up his spot so that one of those father-and-son teams could have a seat a the table. We were very impressed by his chivalry.

The buildings were made from plastic stackable crates, and the roads were roofing shingles with yellow lines painted down the middle. The mechs were a variety of models from several manufacturers -- you can learn more about them in this post from Karl.

As the game unfolded, the various CSW guys who were running the game (Karl, Tim, Pat, Mike and Josh) quickly found that the players were picking up the game quite well and didn't need much in the way of guidance after the second turn. Consequently we began darting out to visit the various vendor booths and flea markets -- and no one managed to put together a coherent game report!

Suffice it to say that the defenders won, but just barely, by driving the attacking infantry out of the objectives. Indeed, the game was teetering on the brink until the very last turn, which is the sign of a good game in my opinion. One of the attacking players earned the "Best General" award for accruing the most victory points, primarily by being absolutely deadly on the battlefield. We were lucky that resident CSW photographer Josh brought out all his fancy hardware to capture the action as the players fought for each block. Check out the action as viewed through Josh's lens...

As you can see, it was a fun, visually awesome game full of tactics, firepower and luck. We agreed that Mech Attack in 28mm is quite a spectacle, and it wasn't that difficult to pull off on the tabletop. If you're in the Chicagoland area this summer, we'd like to host a redux of this scenario at Games Plus.

We had a great time at Little Wars and, predictably, we scored some great bargains from the flea market. Doubtless we'll have a post in the not-too-distant future about the various treasures we came away with!

As always, leave a comment if you have any questions about the game or any of the models you see in the photos. Big thanks once again to Josh for documenting the game so well -- more pics from the game are available on his website!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member