Battletech: Black Sheep dropship inbound

[Maniac]

I've been collecting and painting Battletech for close on to 26 years now, but haven't played since college.  That is until I recently came upon Alpha Strike about a year and a half back.

What was originally just the Black Sheep Mercenary Company has since expanded to all 5 houses, multiple merc companies, and a clan.  With the release of Alpha Strike, I've even got my son playing and doing at least preliminary painting of his own minis.  Recently he and I ran a game for my gaming group that consisted of company with support on company with support, something I'd have never done in CBT.

We ran a game with a reinforced Marik company of Silver Eagles, supported by a mech and mixed vehicle with infantry support lance of 21st Centauri Lancers dropping on a House Steiner world.  Steiner was backed up by a lance of Black Sheep Mercenaries with a lance of vehicles, battle armor, and vtol support.  The Marik/21st had two aerospace assets and one offboard artillery, while Steiner/Black Sheep had 1 aerospace and two offboard artillery.

Objectives were a fuel/supply depot, bridge, and the city gate.  No artillery could be dropped withing 2 inches of an objective (it could scatter onto it, but not directed at it).  The opening aerospace moves were BRUTAL, very deadly but very fragile assets.  As the first game with them, it was definitely a learning curve.  Do not keep units in a line or you will be lit up instantly, and aerospace die hard to mass fire.  That, coupled with the shear volume of onboard units made for a great, if frentic, game.

Additionally we used the fan rules of rolling a D12 for every damage point you would do (so 3 at medium would mean rolling 3D12, while 5 at short would mean 5D12 at short).  I've found this means you are doing damage more often, but less damage per hit (i.e. under normal Alpha Strike it is all or nothing, where this method tends to mean you are at least constantly chipping away at stuff). 

The other modification was activating a lance at a time, which works way better than individual models at this scale (and particularly given a 6 player match).

Marik moving up-field after inflicting casualties on enemy vehicles:


Mid to late game you can get a sense of the volume of stuff you can plunk down with Alpha Strike. 



Marik/21st start the main push for the bridge:



Close, but cannot get there.  In site of the 2nd objective, Marik/21st Centauri just couldn't get there before we called it.

[Maniac]

My various forces:

House Marik:



House Steiner (plus some neutral units):



House Liao:



House Kurita:



House Davion:



Snow Raven/Outworlds Alliance:



Star of Comstar force:



21st Centauri Lancers:



Hansen's Roughriders:



Eridani Light Horse:



My son's Killer Bees (yes, we know they were traditionally vtol/light, but my son wanted yellow mechs and I figure by the illClan era why not):



Then my Black Sheep, who have been under collection for over 20 years and counting now.

[Pattus Magnus]

That’s quite an amazing collection! Great work on them, too.

[LouieN]

A great collection

[Maniac]

Well, I was one of those who backed the massively successful Kickstarter for BattleTech Mercenaries.  Today I just got the email saying a shipment is inbound, which is incredible.  Overall a well run Kickstarter that is shipping roughly on time, amazing.

I'll post pics when the dropship arrives, and then have a massive haul to work through.  Salvage is a good thing!

[syrinx0]

Fantastic work.

[Maniac]

Well, I have my work cut out for me.  Multiple lances, both mech and vehicle, to fill in.

[beefcake]

Is this from the new kickstarter? If so I'm jealously awaiting mine. Good luck painting them

[Maniac]

It is indeed.  Woof, that's a lot of mechs to work through.

[MaleGriffin]

Wow! What an incredible collection!

[Maniac]

And the painting begins with the John Reid (Lone Ranger's alter ego) dropship, a lance of vehicles for Kurita, a Firefly for Comstar, and two lances of vehicles for Davion (while not on Camospecs, I found inspiration on unit color compendium for the 8th Deneb).

[beefcake]

Nice. The vehicles look good.

[TheMightyFlip]

Awesome stuff, did you get any mix-ups with the salvage boxes? Heard there's some tanks in the mech boxes by accident.

[Maniac]

I did have one mech salvage box which contained a galleon light tank instead of a mech.  Everything else was fine

[Maniac]

Some Kurita, Davion, and Comstar reinforcements:



Kurita includes Duke Hasid Ricol's Marauder, and then rounds his lance out with a Quickdraw, Starslayer, and Chamelon (all 4 from the new Mercenaries set).  They look the part for Kell Hounds, but that is the color scheme the art work uses for Ricol.

Then the 8th Deneb include a Ceasar, Ostsol, Goshawk, and an Enforcer (the Enforcer and Goshawk are singles I had previously purchased, but helped level out the weight class vs the Kurita lance).

Bothe lances are still waiting for their decals to come from Fighting Piranha, but otherwise done.

Lastly are a Galleon and a scout vehicle, both from the Mercenaries set.  They round out a 6 vehicle group for Comstar, and with the 6 Comstar mechs all I will paint for Comstar (I'll used them as post IL-Clan survivors)