My Birthday Game - Or, Alpha Strike, To the Bitter End!

Well, my birthday game has come and gone, and it was quite the game. I ran a small event for four people and had a blast doing it...literally. There was carnage to be had, and a friend got to run some 'Mechs for the first time ever (he'd bought them on eBay years ago, and they just hadn't had a chance to come out and play).

Not to mention, the Geo-Hex came out to play too! It was nine kinds of gaming awesome last Saturday! And Dwin brought his base...which has figured in more than a few of our games...and it's always seemed to become a focal point of any fighting.

So, with myself, Dwin, Glen, and Dave (Glen and Dave both being beginners) we set out to run Alpha Strike

So, the scenario was simple, capture the base by Turn 12 (Yeah, we lost track of what turn it was rather quickly), didn't matter, neither the Lyrans, painted by yours truly, backed up by some of my Robinson Rangers, nor Dwin's Kuritans were backing off.

A few notes, we do some house rules for our games:

• We use D12, we find it's a flatter probability curve, and it makes for a faster game, and we have one die per each point of damage dealt out by the unit. In other words, if your unit does 2 points of damage at medium range, then you roll 2 D12 to hit.

• We also have morale rolls for a unit having suffered internal damage. If a unit manages to survive to the end of the turn, then said unit rolls a D6 against it's skill, if it rolls higher than it's skill rating, the unit sticks around, if not, it must withdraw off of it's home board edge.

All pretty simple enough, and thus, on to the game!

The faster Combine units got into the base first, and I had decided on a three pronged advance...poor Dave marched his first set of units right into the guns of Glen's assault lance...this did not end well for Dave's Axeman, who promptly died under the Kuritan guns right away. After that, his Warhammer got chewed up and he made for cover as fast as he could.

My Assault lance was next, losing a Banshee within two turns, and a Battlemaster not long after that, but the Hauptmann hung in there for long enough to reach the base. I then had my scout lance try to distract the balance of the Combine lights..which did something..as we killed a Black Hawk-KU and shot the hell out of a Pheonix Hawk (who would later die under the guns of an Atlas). 

The fighting soon devolved around the base, and soon 'Mechs on both sides began to fall left and right, but the last Robinson Rangers Zeus failed it's morale roll, and withdrew, leaving the two surviving 'Mechs of the Combine force (out of 12) to "celebrate" their victory..not that it was probably much to celebrate.

I want to thank everyone for coming, and for my fiance Anne, who put out quite the spread for us, it was amazing and yes, Dwin, more cover for everyone next time!

As for the Geo-Hex, which is back and in it's first game? I think it did well, it's a bit fragile at times, but most of the damage incurred is nothing a little white glue, flock, and paint won't fix. I did see a lot of loose flock in the box, and I suspect I will have to send away to the manufacturer for more rescue flock at some point...no biggie.

The last of the Lyrans and the Combine duke it out for the base, by the end, only the Highlander and the Black Hawk-KU, along with the Zeus will survive.

A closeup of the fighting around the base.

The Warhammer, who probably had no business surviving as long as it did.

Another shot of the fighting around the base, with the remains of the Banshee and the Battlemaster burning in the background.

The Black Hawk-KU meets its end at the hands of the Wasp, who proved to be quite the survivor, until it died taking on the Highlander

Death of the Phoenix Hawk, as the Atlas pours fire into it

First blood for the Lyrans, as the Lynx from their Assault Lance dies under the guns of two FedCom lances. The Hatamoto-Suna is playing a light 'Mech, the Kubo or something like that..memory does not serve to remember the exact name,

The remains of the Lyran Assault lance breach the base.

KABOOM! There goes the Banshee!

Elements of the Lyran Scout Lance advance into the woods on the FedCom right

The rogue's gallery of Kuritan light 'Mechs, Only one, the red Black Hawk-KU, would survive to the game's end

Two of the Lyran lances (The Assault and Scout Lances) advance on Turn 1