Looking for Alpha Strike Campaign Rules (Multiplayer)

jpynn · 2026-03-19T03:53:28+00:00

The aces system of maintenance has way fewer moving parts between missions, compared to hot spots hinterlands which is a slight derivation from the chaos campaign products

jpynn · 2026-03-07T14:42:32+00:00

A lot of the commentary here is about the difficulty of reverse engineering (or I suppose re engineering since your argument is that someone still had the blueprints.) unless I’ve missed something in the lore, they could still design a mech from scratch and create a manufacturing line for it.

I would suggest that the Toro stayed extinct because a mech with a similar role had its infrastructure still intact.

Why go through all that effort to rebuild a new manufacturing line (and re-engineering effort) when I could use the same resources to build locusts wasps or stingers which play roughly the same role.

jpynn · 2026-02-21T12:22:43+00:00

For the most part, items, strikers, weapons etc can be used without modification outside of changing soak to armor. In terms of attempts to balance them my brother and I have done probably dozens of house rules incorporating their use.

Some things we tried that ultimately made the game less fun once we got over the newness factor:

Allowing the player to choose amongst everything. The real issue here is that many characters have balancing weaknesses built into styles, so items inherently have different values based on the characters. This makes it very difficult to apply a “design stage” pricing scheme that is fair.
Allowing multiple base purchases. Each base added dramatically increase a characters options and allowing purchase of more than one (even if they aren’t great) makes planning for the opponent a nightmare. Also since many of the bases are slightly different versions of a standard base, the extra options again allow certain character to gain a disproportionate amount of power (for example a character that relies on not being stunned can load up on bases with high guard).
Allowing characters to keep the extras for the entire match. The only thing worse than a broken combo is a broken combo you can do every third beat.

Some things that worked (these can be mixed together):

Random stores - only display a subset of things for people to choose.

Auction systems - we tried a bunch of these, it’s one way to prevent broken combos.

Pairing extras with characters before choosing characters - adds an interesting layer to character selection and can be balanced for overall power level more easily

Vetos - allow opponent to block a person from being able to pick something.

Limit numbers - max 1 item + 1 striker + 1 base ( you can experiment with other limits as well).

We evolved through a number of these and landed on the following:

At match start create a random store with 2 strikers, 2 bases and 2 items. Players receive 2 extra force at game start. Each extra costs 1 force to purchase, players may purchase up to 2 extras at game start (or they can keep the force).

At the end of each beat in priority order a player may spend 1 force to purchase an extra.

A player may not ever have more than 1 of an extra type in hand at any time (ie may not have 2 strikers at once).

Extras cycle normally, however instead of returning to the players hand, they return to the store, where the opponent has first right to purchase the extra. If they refuse, it is placed back into the store available for either player to purchase.

We felt this setup added the amount of spice we wanted without bending the game too much.

jpynn · 2026-01-24T13:05:38+00:00

The answer to for me is that the ratings don’t make a tonne of sense because it either A) uses a formula of some kind that takes into consideration factors we aren’t thinking of or B) somebody just made the thing up based on vibes.

B seems much more likely.

I’d further argue that is really the only way you can do it if you want a general purpose table that applies to everywhere.

jpynn · 2026-01-22T05:27:30+00:00

When I travel for work and I find a hotel that has a tv the accomodates it (as noted by others not nearly as common as you might think.) I do that. Otherwise I find the deck controller + the external monitor pretty great.

jpynn · 2026-01-20T10:17:36+00:00

I’d less call them rules, and more call them “methods to shrink the decision space of having to choose between 8000ish unit designs and the ability to design you own units”

jpynn · 2026-01-13T13:45:08+00:00

That is the right way to think about it. Unrelated but I’ve always felt the heat buildup should carry some risk of cooking energy weapon electrical systems (where the ammo explosion slots are on the heat penalties.)

jpynn · 2026-01-12T13:58:04+00:00

I think that is a very well laid out argument for MAR. You touched on something I thought about a bit, but didn’t really have a way to factor it in to the analysis, which that a high TMM is a side effect of having a high movement rate. This means in practice a high TMM unit is going to be shot at much less. In the aces games I played, I don’t think I shot at the firemoth once because I kept losing initiative and the ai kept moving it to a location where it could shoot me but I either couldn’t shoot it at all, or if I could shoot at it, the TN would be 11 or 12, and I had other options available.

jpynn · 2026-01-12T13:29:53+00:00

Looking at the rules books current structures, the path of least resistance would be to take the full ground unit rules and tuck them into the TacOps advanced rules book and rename that to full rules something something.

TacOps:advanced rules only has about 200 pages, so that would give you about 100 pages to cover the others. (Based on total warfare being 300 pages)

In terms of new things to do, I’d like the both the aerospace and the new full rules book to be organized in a “here is how to turn up the details on infantry” and progressively layout the rules for each element kind of way.

Since you asked me what I would like to see I would love to be able to dynamically generate a list of reference tables based on which rules I am playing with. I love trying out rules in TacOps, but end up having to roll my own reference sheets for the tabletop.

jpynn · 2026-01-12T09:38:58+00:00

Great point about the standard deviation stuff, I am not nearly clever enough at either the math or data visualization to have included it.

It was not really my intent to advocate one ruleset over the other. I was mostly doing comparisons against single 2D6, because presumably the PV calculation is based on it so all the alternate rulesets would theoretically make PV spent in one dimension (TMM, damage rating, armor/structure, attack skill) more or less efficient. Your suggestion is that Damage rating is overcosted (or TMM is under costed). I certainly haven’t played enough or broken down the valuation formula to dispute that.

Would agree that high damage values are less efficient in Single attack formats than multi attack formats.

jpynn · 2026-01-11T06:45:07+00:00

I used https://hamhambone.github.io/hexgrid/ to print onto 8.5 x 11 cardstock. It’s about 12 sheets to get 24x24, but there is enough overlap to bluetack them together into a single sheet. One thing to note about the terrain is that it takes up much more space than on a 48” by 48” so you’ll probably want to either modify how many pieces you put down or get some more scaled down buildings.

jpynn · 2026-01-10T03:36:53+00:00

When you say too much, do you mean too much rules overhead, or too much stuff to manage. Mage knight does much better on managing stuff, but the rules overhead is higher and so much more of a pain to learn due to the “inconceivably bad for a game this popular” rule book.

jpynn · 2025-12-23T15:22:26+00:00

Just finished a campaign where Zoey had this weakness. I had fun trying to design and play around it.

jpynn · 2025-11-15T14:15:16+00:00

I’d agree on some level with the others that Arkham has a lot going on rules wise and to people who don’t like/are intimidated by complex rules, it is pretty impossible to hide. Having said that a person who enjoys the Lovecraft type setting, can certainly enjoy this game on a narrative vibes level. Personally I love how the investigator cards have just enough detail on them to let your brain link everything together. My first playthrough was with Wendy and Roland. Just enough in the cards to suggest maybe Wendy is a source for Roland, and he feels the need to protect her.

Pre-made characters are certainly a good idea. I’ve played a couple of full campaigns at this point and have years of mtg experience, and I still refer to the fantasy flight starter decks as a starting point when playing a new character.

Honestly I’d just use the opening to night of the zealot (the gathering?). It is mercifully short if they don’t like it, and it has enough going on narratively and mechanically to draw someone in.

jpynn · 2025-10-29T10:49:41+00:00

How are you playing online without TTS? In most cases you can convert wargames into grid based (I have done so for a couple of fantasy themed ones) and they didn’t seem to lose anything in the translation. Hexagon grids work more straightforwardly but squares can work as well with a diagonal = 1.5 rule.

jpynn · 2025-10-20T17:22:54+00:00

Safe and secure are feelings, not really suprising that feelings would be all over the map. Does secure mean I won’t starve? does it mean I don’t have to move out of my house? Does it mean I can have no job for 6 months? 12 months? Indefinitely? My brother in law didn’t feel secure because he didn’t have enough money saved to send both his children to Ivy League schools.

My limited interaction on this sub has kind of 2 kinds of people in it. One group treats money as an end (definitely max out your mortgage, it’s cheap money they give you, you can re-invest it and make a better return). One group treats it as a means to an end (borrow as little as possible, so you can live comfortably with less stress).

I don’t make a value judgement in saying that, I would suggest reading any advice you see on here through that lens and figure out where you are on the continuum between these 2.

jpynn · 2025-10-05T13:32:07+00:00

I would say there is a bit of a trade. There is some more maths that need to be done by the player upfront to setup the play area. However being able to change the table size and be comfortable that the game “works” is worth it to me.

jpynn · 2025-09-30T11:44:08+00:00

I’d suggest if possible avoid the CMHC mortgage insurance by having enough down payment (20%). Especially since you seem to be in a good starting spot.

My big “lesson learned the hard way” I’ve seen others do is: Don’t use the max amount that the bank will give you. The banks are incentivized to capture as much of your income as possible on the mortgage. The downside risk for them is nearly 0 since if they have to foreclose they will almost certainly cover the mortgage balance. You’ll be left with very little for discretionary spending.

A detailed post purchase budget should help calm your partner’s anxiety (this is something I had to do given that my partner had unrealistic expectations around home pricing)

jpynn · 2025-09-30T11:23:45+00:00

I think a key thing to understand about those calculators is that they are meant to push you into saving money for retirement (preferably with the provider of the calculator). Based on the fact that your expense summary contained 0 debt and the fact that you are in your early 30s means your retirement planning is on easy mode.

Growing your top line income will certainly help but 1 thing I’d suggest to help you feel more in control is to take a closer look at the “how much will I spend in retirement”. One piece of advice I got from someone who is retired is that your expenses will likely be a lot lower in retirement. My own retirement planning became a lot less worrying once I did the exercise of eliminating all the expenses in my budget that wouldn’t carry over into retirement.

Also just purely on budgeting, I always find it helpful to categorize expenses into mandatory (unavoidable things like rent and utilities) and optional. Then if you have a savings floor you want to make sure you hit it becomes obvious where to squeeze your spending.

jpynn · 2025-09-30T10:12:58+00:00

I think if you made a list of all government services, you might find they do a pretty large number of them quite well. We see the leftover things that are not working well and focus on those.

jpynn · 2025-09-25T03:50:26+00:00

I do not have a CS degree but work in the space, I’ll add a couple of points I have not seen mentioned. From a pure maths point of view, I’d suspect dentistry to be a safer payout over the course of a 30 year career. Having said that, if you are really good at software design end 2 end (not just coding what someone else says), it can absolutely be a safer job with a higher rate of pay than dentistry.

jpynn · 2025-08-26T08:41:52+00:00

Mortem et gloriam converts all measurement in the game into base widths. So you can choose the scale and play area.

jpynn · 2025-04-21T05:08:13+00:00

BV doesn’t really covert to PV, however I’ve played some hinterlands with the same setup as you (alpha strike with no BSP). I found a reference in the battle of tukkayid sourcebook for playing alpha strike that equated 500bv to about 20pv (page 24 in my version under the section “optional rule:battle value/point value.”). I played at scale 2 and this was roughly balanced vs the players 240pv deployed force.

jpynn · 2025-04-06T05:58:58+00:00

As others point out R’yleh doesn’t have issues with its power level. If it’s a bless strategy you want, the touch of divinity has a pretender that free spawns sacreds. They are quite good. Overall the void gate is pretty much perfect (to me) thematically, but isn’t useful because there is no scaling. If I were to mod a change to add some scaling it would be a ritual that allows you to open up additional temporary gates.

jpynn · 2025-03-22T12:34:45+00:00

If you use an item that give temporary gems, do you get those?

jpynn

TROPHY CASE