How To Play Alpha Strike: Basic Rules

[Music] [Music] hey war gamers welcome back we're here video 2 of our alpha strike how to play slash teacher friend slash teach you how to play alpha strike so very excited so in our first video we talked a little bit about the game gave an overview of a whole bunch of things more more akin to a hyper pulse uplink if you will yeah I just kind of talked about the game and what we're gonna be doing today we're actually gonna get in and play a game I've got a whole beautiful battle grid set up in front of us here we're gonna talk about everything from setting it up to deployment to playing through a couple of turns again just to give you guys a feel for alpha-strike yeah so one of the one of the important things I mentioned this I think in the last video of battle Tech is the narrative surrounding it so every time we play a game there is always a narrative and the rich story it is true there's underpinning the climactic Battle of Mecca Mecca warfare it's true fantastic it does add something to the game I know we like to give our pilots names and they have sort of histories and like anyway let's some other natives so we're playing in the Dark Age era of battle tecna's dark Dark Age happens after everything Dark Age is basically the most recent error to this point there is the the alleged ill clan era coming in the future that that people are excited about but the Dark Age basically happens in the year 31 well I don't know exactly when it starts but this is this is taking place in 3145 our game I think the dart game starts like 31 something's and essentially like major communication relays across space have been knocked out and you know a very peaceful era has now devolved into of course chaos and war so the planet that we're playing on is called ty Wald and Tybalt is in the Federated sons space and house garuda have sent the 11th ghost regiment which is basically the spaceship who's up to come and attack this this planet and this planet is actually way back in the jihad era was the point where the word of Blake a very nefarious and evil force having are they most well maybe maybe everybody's got but we're like side then are they bad guys there was some nuclear action here let's just say that's an irradiated wasteland so the only things that can they can even stand this part of the plan are of course the mighty battle mix so we're doing a very simple for on for keeping it nice and simple time so we were talking before this video on something Tom brought up I think that is really important was when you're teaching somebody how to play this game we really need to I think introduce it at a low level you don't want to drop infantry tanks we tolls hovercraft mechs you know and have 30 of them on the board you're not overwhelming somebody real quick even a veteran war gamer I think will appreciate just a simple four on four to start right absolutely or five on five if you're playing you know clan on clan or something along those lines but keeping it small and keeping it Mecca only I think is a great way to introduce this game so as you know at DFA we always play with a mission much like there's a narrative there's a mission sometimes it's just a straight-up slugfest and that's a great way to which is also a mission time it's also a pitched battle guys so you can download all of our missions on our website in the download section dfa wargaming calm but that's we're going to play tonight there's a pitched battle and so you know we do have a whole host of missions but you know keeping it simple again it's gonna be a great way to introduce somebody to the game too many variables too much complexity I think they they don't really grasp all the rules they don't really understand how to play because there's so much to focus on so keep it yeah I think that even extends to like how you set up the game board right anything you know you know don't make super large hills and you know if you're playing on paper same thing there's there's no difference if you're playing with 3d terrain or a flat terrain don't have to come fly casts it II scenarios may be a little bit much too because the turns and everything right right keeping it pretty open is hatful because you really just want to get people into the battle right and fighting because everybody just loves checking off the damaged boxes their comment that's the key so what do we got next well what we're going to do is we're going to do a flyby the battle grid introduce you to that we're going to show you the forces that we're bringing to the table and guys remember these are mech PACs DFA custom-designed mech backs available exclusively over various games and minis so head on over there we have three one for the 11th ghost regiment one for the swords horn those two forces are playing tonight and then the 1899 XIII nights my favorite so let's check it out yeah [Music] petrol stations [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] alright here we are on the battlefield of Tybalt the 11th ghost regiment that will be played by me facing off against Tom Jones playing the sword sworn so let's talk about how to set up a game of battle tech now we have some pretty great terrain here at DFA and I know some of you guys have some phenomenal stuff out there but you may not you may just have some paper mass or whatever that's fine too you may just want to cut some things out or use a piece of styrofoam is a building that's great but how do you actually set it up well there's a there's really three methods the first method is you alternating I think this isn't a QuickStart rules in fact I know that it is you alternate tom places to piece terrain I place a piece of terrain and then basically you know we go back and forth until all victory in this place typically what we do is one person will build a map and that's fine that's perfectly fine and when we do that if we're if you're playing in a in a basically an open game like this whether it's not part of a campaign whoever sets up the map does not get to pick their side the person who did not set up gets to pick their side that way it's a little more balanced the third way is somebody else in an impartial third party if you're playing at a tournament or if you know if we have Kevin around you know you could set up the map and then it's a little bit more impartial so although I know if I was playing a chair nice Kevin would set up the maps of favor to favor you Tom it's such a lie all right so guys that that's basically it so you know I set up this map that means Tom got to pick his side and he takes over there he decided he wanted to play the sword sworn yeah and so I'm playing again the 11th ghost Regiment can I can I throw a note out there too so like if you can if you have the space to do it it's nice to get everything laid out as well so if you notice on our tables we always have the game board and then we have enough space to lay out our figures our cards our references our dice all so that you know you have a play area that's really critical to keep tracking you know yeah keep organized exactly organization yeah and we play on the 48 by 48 game map this one specifically for deep cut studios you can find them at frontline gaming and front of monkey work wargames as well a lot of people make these so again 48 by 48 this is like a mousepad material here but you can play them whatever you want these tables are actually cost over and they're like fold-out tables I think they're like 40 bucks a pop you just put two of them together and nice point just enough space you can and you can take them down break them down really easily because they fold in half yeah it's great yeah and of course you can just play that we're set on your kitchen table that's fine too but if you're looking for that that sort of optimal setup I think this is this business what works for us at least okay so again Tom made a point about a quick reference we have this online you can download it's a sequence of play she I've got my mech record sheet cards here and those are also available and again we have a raw version and the DFA house rule version and then these as well we've got the yeah that this one here we've got the DFA version here and then the house whole version is his online as Tom had said so that's about it guys so we are going to get started here deployment is is the first thing now when we deploy an alpha-strike you start off the edge of the table so notice nobody's got any units on a map at all and in some games if you're familiar with playing Warhammer or machine typically you put them on the board you've been in classic that believe the rules is written is you start them on the board over there optional let me spend very long yeah exactly but an alpha-strike you start them outside the take the interview place so that means we go right into initiative so Tom Tom I each have to d6 here that we're going to roll for initiative so Tom and I are gonna roll here I gotta meet six I'm gonna six that means Tom lost so tom is going to have to move first a time you take your first model any model that you choose and you're going to move it on or okay I like this model I think it's cool-looking so I'm gonna move him on the board where yeah where should I doesn't matter where I start well you can start anywhere along your home edge so you decide that's this is a Sarah exactly so I can't come in off of this side that's coming off the sides you're gonna come in right off that back edge there and if you selected that unit that that is the mad cat of the mark for aka the savage wolf what's the PR that's a variant yes this is off the board now I mean listen it's legit yes some of them who have got into circulation earlier and ended up in the hands of others so right so that's totally Kenny yeah so here's the card here guys I might just flash this up on the screen as well but you can see the mad cat has a movement of five yeah very nice five inches that is correct so I have a measuring tape or ruler yeah so five inches and I can move in anywhere off this edge right anywhere you want yeah yes I'm probably just gonna pick here it doesn't and then so do I move to the front or the back of the measurement line yeah that's a great point so you're always gonna move front to front so the end of the measuring tape should be lined up with the front of his base actually would move this back like set that alright and that is a full five inch move so great question there alright so what will happen now is you move to Mexico now I need to select and move a Mac so I'm gonna pick I have form X here I've got again the drag and the 10-sheet the avalanche and the spider I'm going to take my spider and you'll notice the spider has it says 8 J what is J well J means he can jump top so what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna move him normally but if I do want to jump him later I'd I know that I have that ability so again I would put my measuring tape down and I would be able to move my spider right to about there guys so that's what I'm gonna do and what we're going to do Tom and I are continue moving our mechs here and we'll be right back alright guys so we're back and you can see Tom and I have moved all of our units here again looking at the record sheet car they're adhering to that that movement limit so Tom you're all done I'm all done yeah so I see on the UM the QuickStart reference guide yeah next up is combat that's right so can I shoot anybody yet I want to shoot somebody yeah so there are a couple things when you're shooting that we need to check so the first thing is we need to check if the unit has line-of-sight so first you know because you lost initiative you would shoot with all your units that I would shoot with mine yeah so the first thing that needs to happen is you would need to check really line-of-sight and they'll verify the firing arc and then check range and so this is physical where it's like eyesight level from the mech yeah that's exactly right okay well you would kind of want to get down and see you know maybe maybe that Templar can see the tension or something along those lines yeah I've pretty clear line of sight two three three of the mix one of them is behind that Tower it looks like perfect - pretty much everybody and then he's he can't see anything is he stuck behind those those buildings yeah okay now guys when you're shooting here tom the other thing I want to talk about here is firing mark so you'll see every mech is mounted on a hex pace some of them from iron when metals come on the hex paces some of the old plastic alpha-strike box that minis come on a hex face if not you can mount them on a hex pace the back line of that hex pace right anything in front of that line the Meccan see if it's behind that line it cannot see it alright so obviously we're in front of each other this pretty it's pretty easy this ring when you're in close or a city and obviously things get more complicated so we've we've checked line of sight we verified the firing arc now the question is are you in range yeah and just real quick on the line of sight so the line of sight starts from not the back edge not the front says does that right so that means they can basically see like like these two mechs can see that mech but if it was on the front line then I couldn't that's what I me like that I guess okay yep so it is the back line and that is because the mechs have these really cool you know articulating torsos they can actually torso twist side to side I believe that Templar actually when I assemble it is magnetized so this one here if you if you push just the torso you can very cool I'm magnetized because I'm gonna I'm undoing that so the mechs actually can twist at the hip and you know they can that's right a little side to side so they can shoot basically anything that is in front of this line so well I'm gonna shoot the tension then okay so we need to check to see if it's in range so you take your measuring tape now again we're playing one to one okay extreme range is out the thirty inches and we're and ose yep I see on the card underneath the damage that it has the the range brackets and those are shipped all mechs have the same range brackets all next have the same range bracket so whether you're playing with the cards on master unit lists or rdfa cards you'll see I believe that ranges prints on the card if not it is is in the quick reference sheet I believe so okay so I don't be able to figure that out so again 30 inch first or you have 21 for long I believe you're within yeah so here's 30 inches so I'll basically start with the mad cat and um yeah so I know yeah nobody's gonna be in range because 30 inches is the maximum that can be yeah okay that's really so nobody's in range guys so that means turn one comes to a close we go to the end phase but there's really nothing to do for us nobody has any heat there's no persistent effects so now we're just going to move right in to turn - alright guys we are back it's turn - so the first thing you want to do the beginning of every game a little initiative that's right tom so I got a 10 I'm on fire oh oh so close the sword sworn lose again so Tom that means you need to move first guys remember the winner of an issue it goes last so do you want to introduce a new concept all right are you ready I'll try well so there's something that's actually not in the QuickStart rules it is in the commander's edition it's called sprinting so when you sprint you can move one and a half times your speed but you cannot shoot some what's the benefit why would i sprint well you would sprint because you just want to move a little bit further okay so you know you may not be in range or you want to get behind a building in to cover or whatever it might be so you can choose to sprint and and traditionally you know when when I play a game of alpha-strike almost always in the beginning to get your sprinting because you're you know you're not in range of shooting but not always but most of the time so Tom you're gonna pick a unit a single unit yeah any unit you want and then you can move okay so I think I'm gonna use the Centurion this time okay just because I know this you know after I measured for these other guys on the Centurion doesn't have any extreme range okay so I feel like I would probably sprint him because you can't do anything it at range let make us a lot of sense okay um so I'm gonna spring him isn't he suing moves 5 yeah and so he can spring 8 that sounds good yeah at 4 5 would be 2 and a half right 7.15 yeah exactly okay so if something yeah so I've ate all my measuring tape and um um yeah I think I'll go up on that side of the building now if I wanted to go into here um how does the movement work with turning in alpha-strike great question so you do not you do not have to spend any movement points to turn the back essentially all you need to do is measure from the base 8 inches and you can move them anywhere you want so iconically like that what about like more complex moves right so if there was a complex move like you needed to get around this sharp corner here yeah you know you would just measure you know 2 here and then it would mark it and then try telling the measuring tape exactly exactly ok so I mean yeah I'm gonna run up this side of the building I think so I'll just move him 8 so again so from the front of the inch measurement to the inside of the measuring tape is the correct movement not the front but the back correct okay great so um that's my first mech all right excellent so one of the things we like to do at DFA is we like to mark our maps so we mark them with a T mm we mark them if they sprint you don't have to do this but we like to do it so typically time what I would tell a new player to do here's grab one of those white dice over there okay and the Centurion has a T mm on the card of two is that right um let me look and so where I find that so again on yep right there okay and so you just turn the dice up to it too and you place it right next to the neck now this makes it real easy for if we're shooting at each other I know what the amount of fire is and then what I like to do is Mark it with one of those solid yellow dice yeah over there and put it next to the Centurion and that tells us that it's printed so you don't accidentally get to shoot it and what what are the colors just related to the mode okay I see on the quick start black first standing still white fur just moved but that's what a normal movement yeah ground movement Redford jump and yellow for sprinting yeah okay so I'll put since and that and now I know that I can't shoot with that mech that's exactly right and that helps both of us remember because again when you're playing bigger games you have 12 13 14 15 27 units on the board it kind of get you know you play a whole phase you get the shooting really helps again this is not anything you guys need to do but if you do have some spare values laying around it's always it's always helpful okay so I'm gonna choose the unit where we alternate I choose a unit and I need to move with it so I think I'm gonna keep this dragon here on the outside flank so here's my dragon he's looking real real fly there with his arrow for launcher mounted on his back now my dragon is a dragon too actually a very fancy has a TMM of one and a movement of four I don't see him being in range again he does not have extreme range so I'm gonna choose to sprint him like up there in this area so I put my measuring tape down like so I line the six up to the front of his heck space and then I'm just gonna move him right to the end of the measuring tape like so alright guys and that's it so I mark my unit up again he's got a TMM of one so I flipped my dice like that I marked him for sprinting and Tom and I will continue to alternate back and forth and we'll be right back after we're done all right guys we're back again on Tybalt this irradiated wasteland little industrial centers here and there these two mech forces closing in Tom and I finish the movement phase I can just recap what I did so that dragon as you remember sprinted there I sprinted my spider right up the middle the 10 she also was not in range of anything so I ended up having to sprint him but the Avalanche will will have some we'll have some shots hopefully so I just did a standard move with that avalanche ensue my guys are marked up with their TMS the ones that sprinted do have that yellow die there Tom looks like you made out pretty well over here yeah similarly yeah I am I walk these two because they both have decent extreme range and long range terrifying but the Crimson Hawke only had a one on the extreme so I I sprinted him just to get him get him in closer yeah makes sense but maybe that was a mistake but well you know we'll find out and we saw what the century did so yeah we are now moving into the combat phase your favorite phase yeah your most favorite when do I get the should spend that do I get to shoot stuff so you actually get to shoot right now yeah so let me I'm gonna okay let me remember so I have to check line of sight to start right verify line of sight so yeah for sure um the dragons guy in the front ah the spider spider okay so I think I'll all fire at the the spider whoa okay again let me just check the range let's see we're here so I'm just under 21 all right so that puts the mad cat in long range of the spider and he is just at 24 so he a little bit of an extreme it as it's over 21 yeah about under 30 so the Templar again and see that on the card I can check those range brackets correct yeah and they also they're also here on the quick reference sheets guys again no matter which one the raw or the DFA one that we're looking at here we do have all the ranges and the modifiers which we'll talk about in a second green oh I see yeah completely looking at to you prints it right there so the Templar again at extreme range the mad cat there at long range so what would you like to shoot with first um the metka so what do I do alright well what do you do so the mad cat is at long range so I'm gonna come over to your side of the table top what get Alyssa by red zone with the maintain a 3-phase at three feet back yeah so what what is the long range damage on that map of three three okay so that means what you're gonna do is fire at this spider with three points of damage so how do you know what what to do here well guys it's very simple what we have here on our quick reference sheet there's a little guy to figure out what your target number should be what's the target number well Tom a target number is what you need to roll on to d6 to hit the spider and that's step four so we've done step one verify line of sight to verify firing arc three determined range and now we're at four right so as I turn it to hit number okay so let me grab my card yeah so there's this acronym called satyr which is skill the attacker mod the target mod other mods and range so skill all of our mechs are skill three three all right the attacker mod okay so the attacker mod you'll see in this table above did you stand still no did you do a ground move yes all right so your attacker mod is zero if you jumped it actually gets harder to hit okay because the the Plus here means your target number the number you need to roll goes up the lower the number the easier it is there right okay and then you'll see cannot attack on spring okay so you're at a zero for the for the attacker mod the target mod that's mighty mm no where do I find that so again that is so you're shooting the spider I have that conveniently presented to you it is a three the white guy with the three owners exactly so so far we're at a 6-3 for the skill zero for attacker mod three for the target mod now other mods well what are other mods well if there was cover like if I was hidden more than 33% of me was hidden by you know a building or a hill or you know we'll talk about a cover later but you can get cover and other things if you had a fire control critical hit right there are things other things but that's a zero so we're still at six and then the big one here is range okay and I'm in long range your long range so using the optional rules that we that we use remember it's very simple one two three four four short medium long and extreme so you're two plus three here again yeah I see that on the card above the damage number yes also printed on with on the DFA cards as well just for for ease of reference civil as well three plus three plus three so we've got remember we're using also the multiple attackers so in rules is written you would roll once if you've got a nine you would deal three damage but with our optional multiple attack rule that we use out of the commander's addition you're actually roll three times so our each point of damage so I roll three to hit that's right okay and you need a nine each time and for every nine or better that you get you deal a point of damage to that spider over there okay are you ready sir yep I and how many I roll quizzes the nine I have to roll two dice right yeah you're always in our roll to d6 always okay always okay then um so I need a nine so first roll six so nothing it's a mess second point there you go all right so the spiders taken at least one point of damage nicely done tom two points of damage to the spider that hurts the spider not very tough now guys you'll see why we like the multiple attacks all right if you just roll that first time you wouldn't miss no that's not fun but rolling three times I know would have done three points damage to your mech right or if you hit right it would have been three so that's why I like the variable so let's look at the spider here you will see it's got it's totally undamaged got three pips of armor two pips of structure it took two points of damage so guys I'm just going to of course I'm holding the camera with my my right hand here but you would just mark off two pips like that and not too bad and so that's all you need to do now these cards here guys are printed out on paper I have Magic the Gathering cards backed behind these to give them a little bit of a weight and then i sleeve them with these Dragon shield sleeves and that way you can use dry erase markers and and just mark them all of course you don't have to do that you can just print them off on a sheet and and use pencil or pen and throw them out when you're done whatever you need to do but that is basically what we do and that is it so time you've successfully dealt damage to the spider and you haven't dealt any structure damage to it yet it's just stripped off a couple of points of armor so that mecha stuff that's able to keep moving okay but it is it is hurt it does hurt how does that make you feel good now you're not done yes sir nope so I also have my Templar yes who has extreme is in extreme range right we measured is 24 yeah and so anywhere between 22 and 30 inches is extremely that's exactly right and it doesn't matter join 1.1 yeah right exactly anything over 21 inches so and right because you're on a 3d you know sort of battle we're here right you have fractions of an inch of so anything over 21 that's a great point okay it's extreme range and guys doesn't matter if you're a 21 and a half or 30 it's still the same bracket okay so we've done steps one two and three so now we're at begin to determine the hit numbers so will you try this on my own all right so my skill is a three alright my pilot's are three okay and then my attacker mod is based on the movement I did that's right so if you did a standard ground move so it is zero okay and then my the target mod of your mech that's right yep okay exactly right there's no other no and then the range now again I look on the car I see it's plus four plus four first stream right so it's a little bit harder for the for this guy than the man sounds of ten so that's been given ten hand it's like this what is this damage at extreme range well the damage from the Templar at extreme is a - okay so you get to roll twice and you're looking for tens are better okay all right let's see what you got here alright so the first one is a mess assessor shot nothing okay so hard cider lives to fight another day but guys that is basically you're done shooting no do I have to mark anything on my cards you need to mark nothing I guess point you did not overheat there was nothing adverse that happened to you that there very few things that can happen to you when you're shooting here and you're basically done and I leave my dice alone and everything you leave everything alone okay alright because the the turn is not over just your phase is over so now that you're done shooting all of your guys I get to shoot now what's important guys is there's a little bit of a nuance when you move we alternate back and forth back and forth when you shoot strangely enough you must shoot everything on your side then I shoot everything on my side so the winner of initiative has a pretty substantial advantage important to note here sprint sprint sprint I only have one guy that can shoot so he is I pre-measured this he is an extreme range to that crimson hawk which is the little guy in the front yep and I just did a standard move with my Avalanche and so going through basically the motions here against skill level is three I made it the same for all of our Mexican guys if you're playing with somebody that's new keep it simple make everybody the same three four - whatever I mean honestly the lower the better because the more you hit the more fun they're gonna have so I made them all three I think that's a nice a nice round number and again so as Phyllis three the attacker mod is zero because he just did a standard move Tom's unit his target mod is TMM is a two you can see it's marked there on that white dice and so the thing I need to add is range which is extreme so three four five six seven eight nine all right so a little bit less there at extreme range then your Templar because the TMM on the Shadowhawk is lower I'm sorry the Crimson Hawk yeah versus the spider the spider is a little bit more nimble alright so I need a nine the avalanche only has I'll show you this only has one an extreme range so I'm gonna hit or miss here one point even better all right so this is an exciting moment guys that is a critical hit so I think what we're gonna do here tom is we're gonna wrap them up here alright guys this is basically the nuts and bolts of what you need to know to play you know your first game we're gonna come back on our next video alright and we're gonna pick right up where we left off and we're going to get into some more advanced concepts like critical hits like some advanced movement types like moving up and down hills in forests we're going to talk about these things cover cover write all of those things will be in our next video but guys I hope you enjoyed this initial introduction dipping your toe into the water here and we will be back real soon thanks again Tom I'm hooked I got to play again I need more more all right guys stay tuned we will be back soon and always great stuff coming from death from above wargaming [Music] you

Channel: Death From Above Wargaming

Views: 55,163

Keywords: dfawargaming, dfa wargaming, death from above wargaming, battletech, classic battletech, alpha strike, mechwarrior, wargaming, battlemech, mech, battlytics, battletech beginner box, battletech a game of armored combat, a game of armored combat, battletech quick start, battletech rules, battletech demo, battletech review, how to play battletech, how to play alpha strike, alpha strike demo, battletech battle report, battle report, batrep

Id: 05ZGXFAwLKg

Length: 35min 48sec (2148 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 10 2020