Recently, I've been getting into Battletech.
It's a rather entertaining game system which goes into a lot of detail in how your giant robots are blasting each other apart.
However, that level of detail is also its greatest weakness; games of Battletech tend to take a while. For example, a game with one lance (four 'mechs) per side might take an entire evening.
That's where the Alpha Strike ruleset comes in.
It's a standalone game based on Battletech and shares many of its mechanics, but makes things a lot more streamlined.
Where a single 'mech's stats in normal BT take up an A4 page (including locations of all internal components like actuators, engine, weapons, ammo and your pilot, which you can damage with ingame effects) all of its AS stats fit on one TCG-sized card, as you can see below.
This is one of the two forces I'm using for this game; a Free Worlds League lance containing a Cyclops, Catapult, Hunchback and Jenner.
The Cyclops and Hunchback are kind of slow but can deal a ton of damage at close range.
The Catapult is best at mid-range fire support. Its jump jets give it pretty decent mobility as well.
The Jenner is small and fragile, but well-armed for its size, with the mobility to deliver that firepower where needed.
Here is their opposition, a Lyran Commonwealth lance containing a Zeus, Dervish, Dragon and Panther.
The Zeus is primarily a mid-range fighter with some decent firepower at the other ranges as well.
The Dervish is a pretty mobile (including jump jets) middleweight with a lot of potential firepower for its size if it overheats for it.
The Dragon is pretty well-armoured and fast for its weight, but slightly low on firepower.
The Panther is a light fire-support machine with decent firepower and jump jets to get in position.
