Here’s the link to the excellent battle report written by Leevizer: https://www.reddit.com/r/battletech/comments/1e83gph/i_wrote_another_battletech_battle_report/

i love protos, they deliver on the swarm playstyle more cleanly than more conventional units just because of how their rules work
it's a shame they have such a bad reputation because it means they just don't show up much anymore

since you've experienced lance/star level with infantry (power armor/protomechs) support.
your next step should be a combined arms company.
1 lance mech
1 lance armor
2 platoon infantry
2 vtol

this will drastically change how you see the battlefield.

later, add elements like:
artillery
minefields
gun emplacements
ECM-ECCM
Aerospace/aircraft

and so much more!

A whole summer of BT! You live as many of us dream!

Wow, 13 games of anything over any time period is good, but in  month? Awesome.

Wow that's a lot of BT

I have to admit your starter guide for getting new players into the hobby is really quite important. I have observed this hobby for decades, but finally got into my most matches in July (5 total), and I can honestly admit that if you are introducing the game to a new player (such as myself), you should never play anything higher than a medium mech and 3025 rules. I say this because I wanted to try to get some more games in and I started to attend weekly games with the local BT group in my city, but all the players I got pitted up with were really experienced and would take 2000BV of a single Assault mech with lowered gunners and piloting stats (really not fun to learn against when I take a medium and light 4/5 set of mechs). Safe to say, I lost every game against them, however I had a blast with a scenario I created where my friends and I had to destroy some buildings and we had only medium and light mechs to achieve this with (still lost, but it's because I was stabbed in the back, lol).

I am happy to have found your channel. I too have found 3d terrain pretty and makes the battle more immersive but does make finding lines of sight confusing and have been having to remove the 3d terrain to see the hexes underneath to confirm.

Overall, great video and a lot of good wisdom in each battle.

That initiative system sounds good. It's rather like the Bolt Action initiative mechanic in its semi-randomness.

#4 3D terrain solution: The Army Painter makes a device called a
Targetlock Laserline. You hold it above the board and a laser draws
a strait line to determine LOS. It's not a laser pointer that just has a single
red point. It shows the entire line from where you want to start to where you end.
There only about $10 US. WELL worth it for 3D boards.

I enjoyed this, it gave me a lot of ideas for my own group.

A couple of "points" about protmechs for you:

Think about the protmechs as a single mech, in five models.

Also, mixed protomech points are really powerful, think of it as custom configuring a mech.

I'm a die hard  Inner Sphere, Succession Wars player, but I know how effective Protmechs can be

I have played exactly one double blind game in a city. It’s very hard to do outside of megamek. 3 exact boards and one non player to adjudicate and slows down the game ALOT.
We had an incident where someone failed a piloting roll skidding through a building ending up exactly behind someone on the other side. They were close to coring the other mech but flipped arms saved the day due to the huge leg damage taken with the skid.

13 games in one month?! Lucky.

👍

Your problem with 3D terrain could be easly solved by using a ruler or laser pointer. The pointers are createing a line for you and are pretty cheep. I can recommend using them as they help even if you playing on a 2D map. They help with Alpha Strike, a generaly pretty nice tool to have.

Thanks or pointing out the Protomechs. Never used them so far. Might look into it now.

Initive Deck: Each player choses a deck (Liao, Steiner, etc.) Then mix all those decks together into one deck. Every player then draws a card from the entire mixed deck.

That is the initive for that player. You move mechs as normaly with initive.
The player can make use of the special ability on the card, then discard it and draw a new one at the beginning of the next round OR he can keep his card to have the same initive in the next turn.

Should two players have the same ini, they both have to discard their ini-cards and each draws a new one.
There is also a card that forces players to discard their cards. With that and the above rule there is a good mix of initives to be had.
It also creates the question of, do I keep a card for the ini or the effect or do I try to get a new one that might be higher?

I learned I hate fighting the black python

What are your favorite optional rules in Alpha Strike (Not including Variable Damage)? Have you tried drones, adv. artillery, alternate munitions, fire and smoke, radar blips, battlefield intelligence,  minefields, ect.?

Did you use the random wall changes on the Steiner map?

I need to find a local game store with a group that plays. Got a small amount of minis to start with.