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General Battuta posted:How many mechs end up being exact duplicates under Alpha Strike rules? (maybe there's a giant database of alpha strike units somewhere that can answer this exactly?) The fact that this can happen versus the only dozen or so examples seen in the all-time thousands of detailed BT variants pretty much explains why you'll never catch me playing Alhpa Strike.
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Apr 16, 2024 06:25
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If a courier brings your new clan star with brown and grey paints, does that mean you just received beta mail?
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Apr 16, 2024 08:01
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Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:The fact that this can happen versus the only dozen or so examples seen in the all-time thousands of detailed BT variants pretty much explains why you'll never catch me playing Alhpa Strike. I, personally, think that you are silly for this
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Apr 16, 2024 12:55
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There's plenty of stats for no two mechs to be same for AS.
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Apr 16, 2024 13:10
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Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:The fact that this can happen versus the only dozen or so examples seen in the all-time thousands of detailed BT variants pretty much explains why you'll never catch me playing Alhpa Strike. I've yet to find an example of identical 'Mechs in Alpha Strike. The Havok is very much "the FWL stole the Jenner's homework" the BattleMech and it's got different Alpha Strike stats than the Jenner. Alpha Strike is fine, it's more of a wargame than a simulation so it has its niche even if you don't enjoy it. It's easy enough to think of Alpha Strike as "the game Mechwarriors play in universe to learn battlefield tactics."
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Apr 16, 2024 13:53
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I find rolling multiple sets of dice for damage in AS gives me the perfect BT feel with still having a fast moving game that I can finish in an hour or two. Plus I love the lance and command abilities.
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Apr 16, 2024 14:51
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PoptartsNinja posted:I've yet to find an example of identical 'Mechs in Alpha Strike.   Two rather different 'Mechs in BT despite the same 50 tonnage. The former is a decent skirmisher suited for extended operations, while the latter is an unCASE'd eggshell with a (headcapping!) hammer. (PV also sucks like BV as you can tell up there, but that's a different argument for another day) "We handwaved the myriad weapons of BattleTech into range brackets, but oh you still have to remember special properties and what they do anyways." Perfect way to destroy diversity without reducing the complexity of the game. quote:Alpha Strike is fine, it's more of a wargame than a simulation so it has its niche even if you don't enjoy it. quote:It's easy enough to think of Alpha Strike as "the game Mechwarriors play in universe to learn battlefield tactics." Edit: (headcapping!) Sidesaddle Cavalry fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Apr 16, 2024 |
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Apr 16, 2024 16:03
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It plays fast and feels like BT, plus it's great for introducing people into the game without them being reported missing by their families. Battletech really needs something between BT rules and alpha strike. I've found you can save tons of time by having the victim allocate damage to their mech themselves according to the angle with 12 being a headshot, if head is visible.
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Apr 16, 2024 16:23
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Ignoring the relatively insignificant difference between ECM and Angel ECM, those two 'Mechs you posted are similar but can't be used interchangeably. The Crab's a C3I machine, while the Centurion's running a boosted C3 slave. They don't fit into the same lance comps unless you're ignoring C3 entirely, and if you're ignoring C3 you'll probably run a machine that isn't paying the extra PV for C3 equipment.Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:It's not, and I'd thank you not to insert your headcanon into something and pass it off as general practice IRL. I didn't pass anything off as general practice, so I'm not sure where this hostility came from. It's totally ok if you don't like Alpha Strike. I personally think it could use a bit more crunch, like adoping Mechwarrior Destiny's weapon groups (and damage scaling) to make armaments feel more meaningful. There's at least one house ruleset that does this, but with as poorly supported as MW:D has been it's harder to get 'Mechs converted over. As an easy game to play with children, new players, or at conventions or other occasions where you're short on time and can't fit in a full game of BattleTech? As a game that will still teach the fundamentals of decent positioning, fire arc and heat management, and line of sight? I do feel Alpha Strike is perfectly servicable and a genuinely good way to onboard new players without overwhelming them. The 'Mech stats are pretty much 1:1 the o.g. BattleForce stats, which themselves are basically the BattleSpace capital scale abstraction (10 damage = 1 capital scale damage) applied to 'Mech scale combat. I never liked BattleSpace so I really do understand why the abstraction would turn you off. Once you've played actual BattleTech, it's hard to scale that back.
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Apr 16, 2024 16:33
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haddedam posted:Battletech really needs something between BT rules and alpha strike. Battletech: Override is probably worth taking a look at if you don't mind "unofficial" but IMO pretty well-polished rules. Helps that they are mostly just adapting a lot of Destiny's streamlining of mech combat. https://firebasestorage.googleapis....60-365b3a57a910
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Apr 16, 2024 16:36
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Those rules swem pretty interesting, thanks!
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Apr 16, 2024 16:55
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The Wasp and Stinger are closer to identical in full on BattleTech than that Centurion and Crab are in Alpha Strike. It's okay to not like Alpha Strike, you don't have to make up reasons.
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Apr 16, 2024 18:32
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I might need to try out that DFA fan ruleset. Alpha strike is a little light on granularity, but there's no way my friends will play classic with me, it's 80s simulationism is directly at odds with their gaming philosophy.
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Apr 16, 2024 19:23
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I think the only really respectable characters in ideal war are chick and his Merc band that run away. Everyone is terrible
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Apr 16, 2024 22:11
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Regulus was right about everything and we could have saved a lot of lives by listening to them.
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Apr 16, 2024 22:34
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Defiance Industries posted:Regulus was right about everything and we could have saved a lot of lives by listening to them. 
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Apr 16, 2024 22:46
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I missed putting a few books on my Kindle oops, guess I'll start bred for war and go back for drt and the like. The wobbies are awful, awful people. Thomas marik and masters seem kind of like idiots.
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Apr 16, 2024 22:47
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Sidesaddle Cavalry posted:Are you sure you're not secretly backing them so that they continue to weigh down the FWL? I'm not "secretly" doing poo poo, it's open information that the LC put Regulus on the export whitelist as soon as the League broke up. We've been selling those guys guns for eighty years now. In exchange we imported the Ogre from them, because even though it's kind of a mess how do you not love that thing?
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Apr 16, 2024 22:58
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ilmucche posted:I think the only really respectable characters in ideal war are chick and his Merc band that run away. Everyone is terrible
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Apr 16, 2024 23:16
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Good news for those who don't have anyone to play with? Today's news stream had some early stuff from Ray Arrastia about what they want Aces to look like. They're hoping to develop it alongside the Mechcommander's Handbook so that the two work well together and have Aces in some sort of force pack like product that contains a miniature campaign which can either lead into the Handbook stuff or be used to expand on it. Nothing's set in stone, development on it is starting Soon(tm). Also they've started trying to put together an Aces like thing for standard Battletech and not just Alpha Strike. Which I hope works, but, uh, good luck with that.
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Apr 17, 2024 01:34
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What is aces, exactly? It's the "AI" control for opposition forces, right?
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Apr 17, 2024 04:16
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Signal posted:What is aces, exactly? It's the "AI" control for opposition forces, right? Yeah it is. As someone who got a lot of mileage out of xwing miniatures game with Heroes of the Aturi Cluster I'm looking forward to seeing the completed Alpha Strike equivalent.
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Apr 17, 2024 05:05
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Couldve used aces years ago, now i've started playing with locals. I've even thought of desiging my own card based AI inspired by some board game AIs
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Apr 17, 2024 05:11
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I recently bought that Humble Bundle with all the Battletech fiction. I just want to confirm what I seem to be hearing, that the Grey Death Legion trilogy is a decent, if YA-ish starting point?
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Apr 17, 2024 05:38
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Yeah, the original GDL trilogy is three of the first four books and I'm pretty sure no one recommends reading the non-GDL one in there. They're one of the very few times the fiction feels like it's set on another planet and not somewhere in North America and probably the most representative of the very early "Mechs are priceless heirlooms and a handful of them can conquer a planet" setting.
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Apr 17, 2024 07:17
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People on the ground losing their mind at the prospect of a single wasp/locust being in the area is something that feels like it gets glossed over later Edit: okay how many freaking body double replacement plots are there in this series? Pretty sure the one I've just come across is the third one they've talked about
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Apr 17, 2024 09:37
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Canned Bovines posted:Also they've started trying to put together an Aces like thing for standard Battletech and not just Alpha Strike. Which I hope works, but, uh, good luck with that. I haven’t seen the Aces cards but I feel like they need to do the opposite of what would seem like the most logical option (ie. BT is more complex -> make Aces more complex). If they do Aces for BattleTech, I think it probably should be even simpler? Meaning give the AI mechs as simple and general instructions as possible so they don’t get bogged down in the detail and leverage the skills of the player. Like ”stay in long-range weapons range, stay in cover, avoid overheating” etc. Experienced players will know what to do.
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Apr 17, 2024 11:09
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At the end of the day game AI is reliant on player honesty. "Hide in nearest hard cover and attack the most damaged mech in range" Would be good enough for me.
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Apr 17, 2024 11:49
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Or they could use broad AI archetypes for different mechwarriors or forces. One of my favorite miniature game rulesets is Five Parsecs from Home. Think Mass Effect or The Expanse as a RPG-lite roguelite miniatures game. It features random battles with AI enemies, dozens and dozens of different enemy types and I think half a dozen AI patterns that are used for the different enemies. For example, a horde of slavering alien horrors might use the ”beast” AI (always approach and try to enter melee combat if possible, but stay in cover if possible) and a team of mysterious agents might have the ”cautious” AI (always try to have LOS but stay in cover, do not approach beyond the center line etc.) That sort of thing could work for BT as well.
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Apr 17, 2024 12:07
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I've been playing Alpha Strike with Brym's Opfor, which is similar to Aces but not official. I use an 8d instead of the printed cards mode and its great for fast Alpha Strike games.
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Apr 17, 2024 17:06
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If anyone is interested in the novels, humble has a big pack for sale https://www.humblebundle.com/books/battletech-fiction-collection-catalyst-game-labs-books
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Apr 18, 2024 04:47
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Idunno why but my GATOR token and heat marker set keeps being taken down. This 3d printable set features tracking tokens for movement (shield icon) and target (crosshairs icon) as well as a glorified paperclip with a hole in it that slides up and down the sheet to track your heat. Since I lost harddrive I remade it all from scratch. Link is here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6584157 I am have also just finished my mech storage capsules.
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Apr 18, 2024 13:04
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Had a little chuckle at the passage in bred for war where a character rips on an author who writes books about the fourth succession war with terrible characters and battle scenes
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Apr 19, 2024 09:01
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Went to midwest game fest this weekend, and while I was there, I got an email that my massive battletech order (1 of every force pack and two alpha strike boxes to gift) had come in, so I said gently caress it and stopped in today on the way back from the con. Literally today, somebody sold him a bunch of minis they got from an opened up storage shed, and among them were 49 original ral partha pre-retreat battlemechs, plus a few plastics he threw in for free. $6 a pop. They're slathered in lovely white primer, but that's between the mechs and LA's Totally Awesome. edit: Have some photos. OPen in a new tab for full full size. I cannot identify some of these mechs.    
NinjaDebugger fucked around with this message at 23:29 on Apr 21, 2024 |
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Apr 21, 2024 22:19
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Dang, nice find.
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Apr 21, 2024 23:16
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NinjaDebugger posted:Have some photos. OPen in a new tab for full full size. I cannot identify some of these mechs. Left to right, top to bottom: Hermes II, Wasp, Wolverine, Ostscout Jenner, Ostscout, Centurion, Jenner, Jenner, Hermes II, Panther All of the Jenners are broken. Ostscout (half off-screen), Trebuchet, Commando, Assassin, Guillotine, Quickdraw Panther (partly off-screen), Stinger, Wasp, Ostroc, Grasshopper, unable to ID Rotated 90 degrees: Dragon, Dragon, Dragon, Dragon Zeus, Zeus, Dragon, Dragon Cyclops, Cyclops, Cyclops Rotated 90 degrees: Shadow Hawk, Shadow Hawk, Dervish, Dervish Griffin, BattleMaster, Wolverine, Wolverine Phoenix Hawk, Crusader, Crusader, Crusader Awesome, Awesome, Charger, Archer
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Apr 22, 2024 00:12
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PoptartsNinja posted:Ostscout (half off-screen), Trebuchet, Commando, Assassin, Guillotine, Quickdraw I think the last one on the bottom is a Valkyrie
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Apr 22, 2024 00:16
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Yup, that's the old Ral Partha Valkyrie. Good call.
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Apr 22, 2024 00:34
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Technowolf posted:I think the last one on the bottom is a Valkyrie Yeah, that's a Valk.
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Apr 22, 2024 00:34
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PoptartsNinja posted:Left to right, top to bottom: Goddamn, that's impressive through my crappy photos. The jenners are going to get some kitbashing, and I May have to replace guns/missiles on some stuff, but I'm gonna have some fun with them.
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Apr 22, 2024 01:33
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