I love that you first and foremost spoke about that we're all just playing toy soldiers, and that if a player is being a sweatlord then they may be playing the wrong game. I love this idea. We are all playing together to create a little story for our little plastic robots or army dudes or space bugs or whatever and I think that is the most important thing to remember when we play games. We should have fun, but not at the expense of the other player

@Thearmedpainter

11 ай бұрын

This guy (you) gets it! 😁 110%

Great vid! I agree with your sportsmanship attitude.

Just recently got into Alpha Strike and Classic, and I'm loving your videos. Super insightful.

@Thearmedpainter

11 ай бұрын

I’m definitely not the end all be all but trying to do my part to help grow the community :)

Thank you. Enjoyed hearing your words of wisdom. Will be attending the tournament in Winston this November. So looking forward to it 😀

Great video! I do think that many AS players think light mechs aren't good, but get that to hit number to 9+ and you would be amazed how long they can survive. Also, great thoughts on how to be a good tournament player. BT isn't life and death. Just have some fun.

Thanks for doing some strategy discussion for Alpha Strike! Finally subbed to your Patreon.

@Thearmedpainter

11 ай бұрын

Too kind! Thank you for the support!

Great video. Lots of good advice. I would really like to see (eventually) an advice video for tournament organizers and referees.

@Thearmedpainter

11 ай бұрын

Is there anything in particular you’d be interested in me covering? Always up for ideas :)

@kelanelam2638

11 ай бұрын

@@Thearmedpainter Hmmm... there's so much... deciding on the number of players, finding a venue, setting a price, finding/buying prizes, getting organized, mission design, determining scores and rankings, communicating with the players, finding refs, making sure the refs are doing a good job,...

Ooh, 3d printed hextech! Clicked *just* for the terrain.

@Thearmedpainter

11 ай бұрын

I work for DRD and we have the NA rights for THS terrain manufacturing :) we are pretty good friends with Thunderhead lol 😂

"Thermopoly or some crap..." 😂

I think the Thor Artillery is too costly because it does only 1 Damage -> Thumper

@Thearmedpainter

11 ай бұрын

Was limited on overall options so I tried to cover what I could that might cover bases to the majority of players in the era Northern Assault will be played at. However I agree with you.

I so wish I didn't have the hangups about tournament play....

@lord17c

11 ай бұрын

I've never had a bad experience in a battletech event. Everyone is very welcoming and fun to play that I've encountered.

@kelanelam2638

11 ай бұрын

You could try a small, local, 1 day event at a game store to get your feet wet.

Standard game v Alpha Strike... you are wrong! while newer players will have a difficult time with company v company match, experienced players can complete a match in a similar amount of time. two players that are fluid and competent with the rules of Standard battletech, should have individual game turns between 12-15min. our games are closer to 8-10min game turns. thus, a 12 mech on 12 mech battle is under 2 hours. major considerations; 1. we play campaign (not one-off or tournament) 2. we use commanders initiative, which eliminates the initiative sink and speeds up movement considerably. 3. we use the 'first internal item damage' option for unit withdrawal. 4. objective(s) - once the forces achieve the objective or fail the mission, the match ends at that point. 5. nat 2 or nat 12. if a to-hit roll is a nat 2, that particular weapon malfunctions and is no longer available for the remainder of the battle. if the to-hit roll is a nat 12, the location struck has a crit chance roll. there are some other things we do that are typical, dice by the unit to know the TMM for example. but having the basic tables (hit locations and number of missiles) readily available and listing the units specific weapons reduces the time it takes to get thru the turn. final point, we use an index card for the mech sheet. this is similar to Alpha strike for being able to see your entire force in a small area. this makes command and control of your forces alot easier than flipping thru full size mech sheets.

@Thearmedpainter

11 ай бұрын

You're entitled to your opinion but I would simply disagree. Setting up a game of Alpha Strike from list construction to finishing the game is hands down easier and more approachable than classic. There are far less rules and it's much easier to pick up. I don't doubt there are plenty of classic players who play fast, hell I've seen them, but these players typically also have the rules down pat, have years of experience and have found ways to speed up the game. I saw a guy with a clear little organizer box full of pairs of D6s that he'd just shake the whole thing and that was how he fired all of his mech's weapons. That makes sense to me, its a little trick he found to speed the game up. But the difference is getting into classic and getting efficient at the gameplay is not on the same simplicity level of Alpha Strike. I've been a wargaming for probably half my life and I've played a lot of game systems in that time, Classic (for me) is by far the most intimidating. Figuring out how to build a force (mechs, where to get sheets, what programs to use etc etc), knowing what book(s) each rule is located in, the intricate rules themselves, etc is a lot and it's a lot up front to throw at a new player. Heck I was at KerenskyKon last year with Randall Bills himself doing classic stuff with the attendees and the amount of rule book referencing for niche case circumstances was astounding. I had a mech with an Arrow IV missile (this was the sheet I was given) and during one of the shooting phases I had a shot, from what I was told, land on someone's head and instant kill them. I was super pumped, I felt like I had actually done something cool out of all the awful rolling I had been doing. 15 minutes and 2 rules books later they found the correct charts and rolls to be made and found out the mechanic that was being explained was wrong but the correct rules for it were in x-book while everyone else was using y-book at the table. Turns out, some of the players had been playing the rule wrong for years and remembered it wrong. Half were referencing the wrong rule and half the correct one and this was a room full of people mostly old enough to be my dad, been playing classic since I was a baby lol! So my head shot was reversed and turned into some other type of damage distribution. I think that's why its such a hard sell to get new players into CBT where as AS is a lot easier to get people into and try out, its also the closest thing mechanically to other traditional war games out there these days. Star Wars Legion, Warhammer 40k, Warmachine, Infinity, etc share a lot of similarities with AS where as CBT is kind of a beat all its own. I commend you on being able to play CBT quickly, but my experiences running games myself and trying to approach CBT as a player have led me to invest my time into AS. Its a system I could pick up quickly and explain quickly to new players where as CBT has not come as naturally for me and the few times I've played it if I haven't had someone there explaining the intricate rules to me I simply wouldn't know what I was doing. I have a CBT Lite Solaris video going up soon where you'll see me and a buddy trying to do some classic (the essentials box, using the baby mech sheets and no heat for starters) and we fumble through it. We got the movement and the shooting down pretty well, but we already have a double sided reference sheet to use and it doesn't cover all the stuff we need for a full game. All the turns where he or I dealt 20 damage to each other and probably should have been rolling pilot checks to see if we fall, the turns we would have liked to have used melee, not easily referenced on that sheet. In closing, I want to say I don't inherently have an issue with CBT, I own a massive number of books and would love to actually play it (and film it for the channel!), I simply think it is a different game than AS and appeals to different interests for players. I rather enjoy the crunchiness of classic, it's neat and feels like I'm in the thick of it like I'm roleplaying, but managing 12-20 unit sheets with all of the pips, weapon systems, ammo, heat, etc is daunting. For me personally, I think classic lends itself well for narrative games and smaller battles where as AS can scale up for large scale / combined arms battles much easier, I've been told that tanks in Classic also bog down the game tremendously given how hard they are to remove (this was what Randall was explaining at KKon when he was talking about the new support rules coming out for CBT, the ones we were testing at the time there) this isn't the case in AS. I am hopeful to have some Classic on the channel at some point but short of having someone coaching me on rules and helping me learn it's going to progress at a snails pace given all of the other things I have going on. But I am still hopeful. Edit: I forgot to address your numbered list. All of that sounds a like a great way to tailor an experience and speed up the game, when I do classic I also do the dice next to mechs else I'll forget stuff lol! I do it next to my mechs in AS as well. Scenario or narrative games are also much better than simply kill matches. Most of my scenarios at NOVA this year for AS are not simply kill matches, those are just boring imo lol and also makes list building one dimensional too.

@bruced648

11 ай бұрын

I absolutely agree that the learning process is very time consuming. additionally, knowing where to find particular rules is a bit daunting in the CGL books. (CGL over explains various rules which can lead to confusion) personally, we use the older Fasa 'rules compendium 1640' and 'maximum tech 1700'. I also recommend the citytech 2 rulebook (boxset 1608). these sources condensed almost all of the game rules from the 8 hardback books into a compact and easy to read rules reference. house rules are almost a must with this game. of course, any changes to the rules need to be agreed upon. also, when you change the rules you are also changing the game overall. on a side note, I've been playing since Battledroids was first available in stores. I have invested a lot of time into developing faster playing with some improved game details. (way too much time on my hands) currently, I am running a campaign which has 8 regular players. one is experienced, but the others are new to the game. they are learning that having a combined RPG and wargame makes a significantly more involved universe. I am also introducing new game elements slowly, so they are not overwhelmed. on one occasion when the full group wasn't available, we played a quick move-shoot scenario in which we had 16 mechs on the table (8 per side) and we were completing full turns in approx 15 min. I did this to show them that a simple lance v lance game shouldn't take 4 hours and a company level game shouldn't be Fri thru sun. if you are ever in east Texas, it would be great to have you stop in. the store we play at is in Tyler. we have over 20 players and it's a good time. I know you are out east, but you never know. as for ease of play, yes, AS is by far easier. no argument there. but if you like the granular details, standard gives you a real feeling of being in control.