As our first foray into hosting an Alpha Strike tournament the day was a great success. Our focus was on having some fun games and building the BattleTech community, on both scores I feel we achieved our goals.
There were four scenarios on the day, and thought the games were objective based in many cases I heard more about the small stories as I moved from table to table as opposed to the battle scenario. Sometimes I hear Alpha Strike described as simplified BattleTech, lacking in the detail and story of its older cousin. But there were avid descriptions of units being destroyed as they had descriptive limbs blown off and pilots were forced to eject. Good sportsmanship where players self rated their opponents successes or clever tactics and how they had defeated them with a move. There were also players describing the impacts of a lance focusing down destructive energies onto one of their units and being amazement at the destructive power of a full company. Through it all we heard the sounds of lots of dice rolling and people having fun.
The leader board shifted and changed through the day. Using a Swiss style matching system with some randomisation ensured players met with a fair challenge. There was a strong variation in force types and no single style or approach dominated the day. In the end one team stood tall, the Redundant Royals (I believe a mercenary outfit originating from House Marik territories)
With this experience my focus will be on how we improve on it for next time. The 400 point format is grand in its scale and offers a point of difference to other tournament formats like Wolfnet 350 (which is awesome, go play it at Ballarat GUF later in the year). But the scoring caused some confusion and complexity while some games felt a little short. I will be looking into some alternatives on timing and scoring over the next few months so we can come back stronger than ever next time. If you have any feedback from the day or in playing our scenario pack at home please send it through.
On the day our winners all went away with several prizes from our sponsors. Thank you to Brian from WargameMiniatures for providing catalyst packs for our winners. Every player went home with a few buildings printed by Stratos “Shazbot” Tsiavis to help them make fantastic battlefield terrain in their future endeavours and Battlefield Accessories for their new urban microscale flex hex system pieces. Please do connect in with our sponsors and see what they have to offer.
A huge shout out to the Ballarat crew from GUF Ballarat, we appreciate the support an look forward to your tournament later in the year where we will attend in force! To any other clubs organising events please reach out to us so we can support your future efforts as the bigger we make this BattleTech Victoria scene the more fun we can all have.
| Player Name | Record | Cumulative WL | Cumulative MP | Cumulative SV |
| Andrew, redundant royals | W,W,W,W | 8 | 365 | 1150 |
| Lorne, Lorne’s lunies | W,W,L,W | 6 | 375 | 1155 |
| Phillip, Lucky’s space cadets | W,W,W,L | 6 | 362 | 1238 |
| Kirsten, Aranda’s Grande’s | L,W,W,W | 6 | 361 | 1112 |
| Dane, sand spiders | W,L,W,L | 4 | 368 | 884 |
| Hendo, Dragons fire company | W,W,L,L | 4 | 360 | 1232 |
| Jeff, wolf pack | L,W,L,W | 4 | 300 | 1028 |
| David, rottinghams ruffians | W,L,L,W | 4 | 269 | 1259 |
| Geoff, 4th Yeager’s | L,L,W,L | 2 | 331 | 502 |
| Roan, the guys | L,L,L,W | 2 | 252 | 1044 |
| Jeremy Koenig | W,L,-,- | 2 | 224 | 578 |
| Michael Robinson | -,W,L,L | 2 | 152 | 1049 |
| Troy, tigers | L,L,W,L | 2 | 150 | 799 |
| Leith, | L,L,L,L | 0 | 203 | 935 |
You can view the scores here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-XRrzAGboHjT_8se7m_jQXUbW0uw-hLIrMMBgzgsZNc/edit?usp=sharing
Mid game photos from each game played
