Battletech: Alpha Strike Commander's Edition

Two weekends ago I played my third game of Battletech: Alpha Strike. When I was introduced to this version of Battletech last year I was very enthusiastic. Another game of it and I was sold on the ruleset and speed of mass unit combat. I love Battletech for its smaller scale combat but the unwieldiness of having more than one mech per player can be tedious and time consuming. The ability to have 12 Mechs per side and finish a game in an afternoon gives me the ability to scratch the large scale gameplay itch.

The Battletech Alpha Strike: Commander's Edition is the current definitive ruleset. There are plans to release a starter box this fall. The basics can be learned quickly and expanded with the plethora of extra rules that can added as the players see fit; more terrain, more movement and combat options, more units. It has it all. There is also the bonus of being able to make your game lists and stat cards for free with Master Unit List and its Alpha Strike Force Builder, an authorized product.

The back of the rulebook.

This is an example in the book of a stat card for the Thunderbolt. Now you can see how the unit rules were simplified to have larger scale games in a short amount of time. 

Here are some images of my third game of Battletech: Alpha Strike, 400points per side, my Federated Suns vs my friend's Kurita. The rules recommend not using a hex map, that Battletech uses, and applying terrain like most tabletop wargames. The objective was a modified "King of the Hill" scenario represented by the landing pad on the top of the central hill.

At the midpoint it was getting quite frantic around the landing pad.

There was a mini conflict happening on a flank between my missile and sniper mechs, and defending skirmish mechs, vs Kurita Skirmish mechs. After I started to withdraw by long range mechs closer to the middle, and providing defensive fire from my skirmish mechs, the tide of battle started to turn in my favour. 

This image is from one of the last turns when my slightly better positioning and luck won the day. By the end, not many mechs were still around and most had fled on the Kurita side with lots of wreckage on mine. I would say that although I had won the battle, my greater casualties would have lost me the longer war.

I look forward to playing many more games of Battletech with this ruleset.