For the BattleTech Clan Invasion kickstarter, my friendly local game store (Hangar 18 Hobbies) was selected to be one of the kickoff event hosts. They had some BattleTech events lined up, but I offered to do an Alpha Strike game as part of it.
I wanted to do something similar to the BattleTech Grinder, an event where players can drop it, get a single ‘Mech, start blowing things up and if they are destroyed, they just get another (more powerful) ‘Mech and keep playing. It’s pure fun, and I wanted something similar.
The idea was that the table should be able to handle up to 8 players, and I didn’t think a single unit was enough for Alpha Strike, I tried it with two units per player. I divided up my minis to make similar PV totals for each “set”, and then players could just grab the minis and units card from a set and play immediately. Mostly I went with one heavier unit paired with a lighter unit, but some clan assaults got paired with a battle armor unit, and there were a couple sets that were more equal pairs.
The table was whatever terrain the store had available. Fortunately, a player had brought some excellent industrial terrain (some early Thunderhead Studios’ AFAIR). I was able to build a central complex with spokes sticking out to divide up the play area, while still giving players the option to maneuver to get shots on each other.
I then created objectives cards. Each player would get a single card. Each card had a way to gain victory points by destroyed enemy units, but each then had another objective, most of which were based on objective tokens spread around the center of the table. Different cards would want to do different things with the objectives, but the objective tokens were all shared. Thus one player would want to destroy the objectives, another player might want to control the objectives, another player might want to escort a truck to the objective, and yet another player would want to pick up the objective and take it back to their home.
I had intended for this event to be like a Grinder, where if the players lost their units they would grab another set and a new objective card and keep playing. But during game day, the players generally preferred to just play until their units were destroyed and be done. Instead we just reset the entire table every couple hours, and it worked well that way.

Chaos on Chahar

I am a big fan of the old Succession Wars board game, a strategic conquer the Inner Sphere game released by FASA in the long ago times. The rules had some clunkiness, and some hard to decipher sections, but did an excellent job of meeting my hopes to conquer the Inner Sphere.
I played a couple PBEM games in the 2010s (?), and since I had long ago “lost” my copy of the board game I built a way to track the game in Excel. I could assign units where they were moving to and have a map showing relative unit strengths to plan out my turn.
Succession Wars Excel Tracker

My blocky “Minecraft” style map ended up being used, and then refined, for Scrapyard Armory’s web based version of the game. Aesthically as appealing as dirt, but it worked well.

Both the PBEM and web games let to many rules questions, and efforts to rewrite/errata the original rulebook. Catalyst Game Labs mentioned wanting to republish the original game, and I suggested some updates that could be made. They eventually decided on a straight reprint + an entirely new game (Resurgent Empires) that are still waiting for release (more testing, production, etc). But here’s my suggestions that I made. In addition to cleaning/fixing the original rules, I wanted to update some of the presentation both to use miniatures instead of counters, more cards instead of tables (I know, BattleTech loves tables…), and more modular for expansions/mixing up for new scenarios.

Succession Wars Remastered

There have been some great content coming out as resources for new Alpha Strike players that I wanted to collect as a reference.

BattleTech: Alpha Strike Box Set
The new box set is shipping out from the distributor this week (as of 11/22/22). Catalyst Game Labs online store is expected to have it for order on 11/25. You can preorder at several online stores, or place an order at your FLGS. This is the recommended place to start with Alpha Strike.

Death From Above Wargaming’s Alpha Strike Box Set Unboxing
Wolfnet Radio’s Alpha Strike Box Set Unboxing
Catalyst Game Labs Store
Aries Games and Miniatures
Fortress Miniatures and Games

BattleTech: Alpha Strike Quick Start Rules
If you need a test before putting your hard-earned money on the table, Catalyst Game Labs has a free PDF, the Alpha Strike Quick Start Rules. You can print and play a sample Alpha Strike game.
BattleTech Downloads page
Scroll down and Alpha Strike Quick Start is the second link on the page.

How To Play Alpha Strike
Six Sides of Gaming Does an Alpha Strike playthrough with Randall Bills of Catalyst Game Labs and Ed Stephens, Catalyst Demo Team Agent.
Guerilla Miniature Games has a combined Alpha Strike box set unboxing and then play through a game to show you how to play. They also have a series of battle reports of additional gameplay.
BiggRigg has a series of short tutorials going through the basic aspects of the game (what Alpha Strike is, how movement works, how line of sight is tested, etc).
Wolfnet Radio has a learn to play Alpha Strike video that also introduces players to their tournament format.
Death From Above Alpha Strike Basics begins a series of how to play videos. Their channel also features a bunch of AS games.
The Armed Painter The Armed Painter has an intro how to play. His channel also has some tactics tips and terrain and painting your miniatures.

Alpha Strike: Commander’s Edition
The Alpha Strike: Commander’s Edition book is the full rulebook for the Alpha Strike game. In general, if it’s in AS:CE, it’s part of the Alpha Strike game. I’ll let Randall and Ed talk about all that’s in AS:CE.
Six Sides of Gaming AS:CE Promo
Also available in PDF from drivethrurpg, Aries and Fortress online stores (see AS box set links above) or your FLGS.

Master Unit List
The Master Unit List (MUL) is the official BattleTech site for keeping tracking of all the canon BattleTech units. For Alpha Strike, it also has the Alpha Strike Unit Cards for most of the units. It has an Alpha Strike Force Builder where you can add units to a force, set their skill levels, get a total Point Value (PV) and print off a force list and all the skill adjusted unit cards.
Armed Painter How to use MUL
Unicorn Company How to use MUL
Wolfnet 350 Army Construction

Alpha Strike Community
Catalyst Demo Team is the official demo group for Catalyst Game Labs’ including BattleTech and BattleTech: Alpha Strike. They have a Facebook group and are running Alpha Strike tournaments as part of the BattleTech Championship Circuit (BTCC) as well as locally organized events.
Wolfnet has a Facebook group, podcast, discord server, youtube channel and host Alpha Strike 350 format tournaments.
The MechBay podcast also has a discord server and regularly plays and discusses Alpha Strike on both. They are also local to me, so therefore the best community.

Tournament Formats
There is no tournament format in the rulebook, but several tournaments/groups have created their own.
Wolfnet Radio created their Alpha Strike 350 tournament ruleset for tournaments they organized, and have made the rules available for anyone to use. It uses a full 350 PV army per player, but each scenario the player selects 200 PV from their army for that scenario. ie. there’s a sideboard. This tournament format focuses on being able to fit in a tournament in one day, though for larger events they will have additional games/formats that they play (like using your full army or even two players’ armies per side). Wolfnet 350 tournaments are sometimes official as part of the Catalyst Demo Team, and sometimes run on their own. Wolfnet 350 Core Tournament Rules 2.1
BattleTech ChampionShip Circuit is an official tournament format from the Catalyst Demo Team that includes both classic BattleTech and Alpha Strike, run as separate tournaments though often at the same event. The BTCC uses many of the “newer'” elements of Alpha Strike including formations/force building and special pilot abilities. BTCC rules packet from Adepticon 2023
Southern Assault is an annual Alpha Strike tournament organized and hosted by Fortress Miniatures & Games. I believe NOVA is planning on using the same/similar rules this year for their AS tournament. Originally based on Wolfnet 350, the Southern Assault rules use the full army each scenario and even went a bit larger (375 PV) this last year. Southern Assault 2022 rulespack link

Savage Baron took the Nashira Campaign and gave it a fancy new look and feel. In addition to a general cosmetic update, Savage Baron created a world map for Nashira, Alpha Strike cards for the new variants, and new Savannah mapsheet. Take a look!

If you’re not familiar with the Nashira campaign, it’s a scenario pack I intended for new players. It uses the maps, ‘mechs and rules from the BattleTech: A Game of Armored Combat and Beginner’s Box sets. It expands upon an old mention in the background of Ardan Sortek, Prince’s Champion of the Federated Suns, and how he came to the First Prince’s attention after a well-executed raid on Nashira. Take command of a company of the Avalon Hussar’s during this raid or lead the Deiron Regulars as they try to protect their prized technology investment.

Scenario Pack Nashira 3019

Based on a Discord discussion about how to get started with building a force to play BattleTech that was based on faction. Just a short couple pages on each faction to introduce them.

BattleTech – Introduction to Faction Force Building

This is a pair of quick reference PDF of the movement cost tables for Alpha Strike if using hex maps and a summary and page reference for Special Abilities on unit. For the movement cost table, there was a split in preference among those that want to convert unit’s MV from inches to hexes first, then pay movement costs in hexes, and those that just want the MV cost per hexes to be in inches so it matches how the MV is listed on the official unit cards. So I have provided two columns, one listing the cost in hexes and one listing the cost in inches. But both are for moving into a hex.

Alpha Strike Movement Cost Table for Hex Maps PDF download
Alpha Strike Unit Special Ability Reference

I heard several people asking about RATs for ilClan. Though it says to use FM:3145, there are new ‘mechs in the book and from the Recognition Guides that postdate the 3145 RATs, particularly for Clans Wolf and Jade Falcon. So I made some. I had no involvement with the ilClan sourcebook, these are just my thoughts on what they might have.

I have also added a list of the forces mentioned in ilClan as particpating in the battles on Terra and whether further details can be found in Field Manual: 3145 or the ilClan sourcebook itself.

ilClan Force Creation

ilClan Combat Commands

At long last the Battle of Tukayyid sourcebook was released. And one of the first responses after “ooh, look at that cover” was “why isn’t the Kodiak on the random tables?” The short answer was, the tables were not intended to cover every ‘mech that could possibly be on Tukayyid, but after a number of edits and cuts that shortened the “lists” compared to the tables, I can understand why a player seeing the final result would wonder why only a few weren’t on the tables for the Clans. A second response was “how do I determine what weight my Stars are, based on the Cluster weight?” And the response here was that the Cluster weight was just a guideline, the player chooses the weight of each ‘Mech.

But that did make me wonder. What if I had a goal of every ‘Mech available on Tukayyid being available (from the full Supplemental lists, not just the Kickstarter available units) on the random assignment tables somewhere, and what if we started with the Cluster weights (or Division weights) and built tables all the way through determining each Stars’ formation type and each ‘Mechs weight class?

Battle of Tukayyid Expanded Force Creation

I wrote this BattleTech campaign specifically for new players getting A Game of Armored Combat and Beginner Box sets. At the time, there was already an announcement of an upcoming Succesion Wars campaign that I thought would do the same, so I impatiently released it myself as a fanwork. Perhaps if I’d had more paitence, but by the time Chaos Campaign: Succession Wars came out, the box sets had been out a while already and I didn’t want to wait another 6+ months to get approval and go through the process of an official release.

It’s built on a line in an old sourcebook (original House Davion?) bio for Ardan Sortek, where it mentions a raid on an electronics factory on Nashira led to his rise and eventually being noticed by Hanse Davion and becoming Prince’s Champion.

Nashira is well behind the border, and the mention of an electronics factory was interesting to me. Why would Davion be striking so far behind the lines at an electronics factory, and why would this be a big deal for the career of Sortek? Later, Nashira is home to the Genyosha, and even later the Genyosha would be well known users of the C3 system. So I had an early attempt at C3 that was halted by the Davion strike. The Genyosha did not exist yet, but I was able to bring in a later Genyosha CO as a younger officer on this raid. While this C3 system would be considered a failure, and its failure would be a mark on her career for some time, Laura Nelson would stick with both her career and C3 and both would eventually be rewarded with success. The 15th Dieron Regulars would not turn out so well..

You can download the Nashira campaign under the Campaigns page.

More random stuff that needed a home. The Combat Manuals (Lite) has been a series I’ve “hosted” just as a forum post for a long time. Making a home for them here.