Operation: Nachtfalke Even More Advanced Rules

Actually, less of an advanced rules and more of a hybridization. Alpha Strike is tough w/the current way Nacht is set up to implement. And normal Total Warfare BTech is tough for large scale games.

So, for vehicles/tanks and battle armor formations, which are weird in BTech either way, I think using the Alpha Strike card might work. Units would be subject to the standard AS rules for range - 1 to 3 hexes for short, 4 to 12 for medium, 13 to 24 for long, with their damage inflicted pursuant to the range bracket. Instead of 2d6 against the target's TN, it'll be 1d12 per point of damage possible (like we currently do in AS games) and any hit will be like a 10pt damage attack, hit location rolled for normal.This means that battle armor is potentially way overpowered and something like a Carnivore, if the dice gods are good, could smash out 70 pts of damage in one turn, but it's an acceptable alternative to combined arms issues that arise in Total Warfare.

On the flip side, any hit against an AS unit will do base damage/10, rounded up w/a minimum of 1. So a 'Mech with a ton of medium lasers is potentially the biggest nightmare to an AS unit since one with 4ER PPCs could still only do a maximum of 8pts of damage versus 20 medium lasers which could do 20pts total. Dice gods willing. TN would work mostly the same - TMM basically translates straight across for move distance, with the caveat that a unit would have to move more than half max distance for full TMM or half TMM (round down) for less than half move. Otherwise hovercraft would be nuts to hit. 

Most other rules work as written with just the adjustment made for terminology. Obviously no driving or piloting SPAs will matter and skill improvement costs work with just the one number since they're an aggregate anyway. I'll have to playtest this some though. That'll be my plan for the week.

Tetanus Shot Time - Unit Spotlight: Clan Steel Viper

Invasion-era Clan Steel Viper force, mostly built with Kickstarter rewards, minus the Star of Elementals. Both Khans are in their "canon" chassis, though I'd not bothered to deep-dive on their specific configurations, and both are odd choices since neither 'Mech is particularly amazing.

(So, between my older-posted Smoke Jaguars and this post Steel Vipers, I still have two companies of IS 'Mechs to form a third unit. Three out of one KS is not too shabby at all.)
(Turns out I was wrong - the Battle Cobra Prime is actually a lot better in practice than it looks on paper.)

6 (7) Front-Line Stars
1 (2) Second-Line Star
3 (4) Klondike/Second-Line/Solahma Stars (w/SL "Royals")

Clan Steel Viper, Alpha Galaxy, 1st Viper Guards
Unit Commander - Khan Natalie Breen
Aide de Camp - saKhan Perigard Zalman
Location - Clan Homeworlds


Cluster/Trinary Alpha Command Star
Crossbow Prime - Khan Natalie Breen
Mad Dog Prime
Mad Dog Prime
Timberwolf Prime
Crossbow Prime

 

 

Trinary Alpha Battle Star
Executioner Prime
Gargoyle B
Hellbringer Prime
Shadow Cat Prime
Nova A

Trinary Alpha Heavy Star
Behemoth
Supernova
Marauder IIC
Warhammer IIC
Hunchback IIC

 

 

Supernova Bravo Command Star
Battle Cobra B - saKhan Perigard Zalman
Ice Ferret Prime
Grendel D
Mist Lynx C
Adder Prime

Supernova Bravo Striker Nova
Nova Prime
Stormcrow Kotare
Black Lanner Prime
Viper A
Grendel Prime
Elemental Point
Elemental Point
Elemental Point
Elemental Point
Elemental Point

Supernova Bravo Ad-Hoc Star
Kingfisher Prime
Gladiator Prime
Huntsman Prime
Nova Prime
Adder Prime

Trinary Charlie Command Star
Atlas II AS7-D-H
Thug THG-11Eb
Marauder MAD-3R
Archer ARC-Rb
Rifleman II RFL-3N-2

Trinary Charlie Assault Star
King Crab KGC-010
Highlander HGN-732J
Black Knight BL-6b-KNT
Crockett CRK-5003-1b
Exterminator EXT-4Db

Trinary Charlie Striker Star

Phoenix Hawk PHX-1b
Sentinel STN-3Lb
Mongoose MON-66b
Stinger STG-3Gb
Stinger STG-3Gb

Group Shoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooot