3rd and 4th Quarter 2024 Events

2024 got closed down right. Because we no longer consider the June event to be "special" (though it'll always be the Waterly Memorial for me, rest in power queen), this years'll be the last one I specifically call out for a blog. Instead, I'll probably start doing a summation of everything that has happened that quarter. To play catch-up with that, this is just everything since. 

We've played dozens of games, all Alpha Strike, on about as many maps, with forces both Inner Sphere and Clan. One of the funniest occurred during the December monthly meetup, where I had Sean play Jade Falcons vs me in Steel Vipers, all with 1 or 2 skill pilots (350 pt Stars) and all the Jade Falcon 'Mechs were E config Omnis. IE, the munchiest in Alpha Strike with all the ATM launchers. The Turkina E alone was going to be a mostly one-shot one-kill nightmare. But it was fun. And lasted like 15 minutes. When we switched back over to 175 pt IS Lances, it damn near felt like a slog using 3 and 4 skill pilots. But it still got done, hitting those ComGuards in the ravine like Feddies do.

In the six month period we're covering, we also played a few really good/large team games with a company to a side. Sean and I got to team up and also split a lance in a company v company match against Rachel, Jamie, and Brittney, which we ultimately won. But not for lack of trying on the ladies' side. I absolutely blew a first-turn kill on one of Jamie's 'Mechs due to poor dice rolls and that would have rolled up the right flank super fast for our side. Left flank was a hilly park type map (new one from Mercs KS) that we dubbed "the golf course" just based on how the art looks (plus the obvious playground area). We used our shared lance to hold the center of the three-mapsheet playing area, shout out to the Black Widows Scorpion for hunkering down behind some mountains and really making the opposing side come and get some.

 

It wasn't all pure and unadulterated BattleTech though, as our avid readers found plenty of time to discuss the finer pursuits of literary excellence. After all, the main goal of gaming is to bring people together and sometimes that means wandering off topic just a bit. We also had an end of year locale change that may prove itself to be more conducive to the late night dice rolling sessions.

Since our first January event is right around the corner, I've decided to buckle down and throw out a few new forces - Northwind Highlanders returning to their "default" flat green scheme (I'm not painting tartan), and Marik Protectors to start. If all goes well, I should also have 8th Arkab Legion on the Inner Sphere side and -possibly- Beta Galaxy Clan Snow Raven far enough along to field a star or two. Beyond that, it's trying to complete existing forces wherein I'm more or less at 100% and just needing to finish painting. 2025 has a lot of products -potentially- coming up, and we'll see where we're at as a gaming group when things start dropping. Most notable product I'm excited for is the revealed ACES box sets. Being able to play solo/co-op Alpha Strike against an "AI-esque" opponent sounds kinda good for campaigning in The Hinterlands, and it looks like the first box is full of alt-config Jade Falcons for me to add to Omega Galaxy (mayhaps, though I don't think I need a 4th Falcon force so Omega will probably suffice). Later boxes are supposed to cover each of the current IlClan sourcebooks so having a box for Dominions Divided and Empire Alone is going to be awesome. And of course IlKhan's Eyes Only -could- potentially have Liao as the AI-bad guy so the possibility of getting that new art Jinggau as a plastic mini? Chef's kiss. I'll add a whole new company to my 4th Tau Ceti if so.

It is getting to be campaigning time as I think most of our newer people are more comfortable with the rules, and, just to throw it out there, next time I'm considering doing some alt things, like MAR instead of SAR Alpha Strike (basically rolling for each point of damage you can do, instead of an "all or nothing" roll to attack) and possibly a game or two with terrain instead of mapsheets. Especially now that more than one of us have 3d print capability and there's so much Hextech out there!