1st Falcon Sentinels (Battletech)

 The local games shop got a stock of Battletech Aces: Scouring Sands, so I took the opportunity to buy it. I cannot remember being this excited about a game in a long while. Aces is a solo engine for Alpha Strike and is designed to be used with the Alpha Strike boxed set, although you could easily get into it with Alpha Strike Commander's Edition rules plus some mechs of your own.

The boxed set includes the Aces rules and cards, two training scenarios that use the mechs from the Alpha Strike boxed set, and a campaign together with seven mechs and two vehicles that constitute the opposing force for the included campaign. There are also the counters needed to play and some card terrain. If you have Aces and the Alpha Strike boxed set, then you can get started immediately because you have all the mechs and terrain needed. Obviously, having a wider selection of mechs for your mercenary scum is always an advantage, but it is not essential.

The miniatures from the boxed set

Now that I have the set, it is clear that game play is not limited to what comes in the box, but that you can use the solo engine for any Alpha Strike game. It comes with activation cards for all the core mech roles, so you are not limited to what comes in the box. My own plans will be to use this with various of the supplements, such as the Historical Turning Points: Galtor pack set in 3025, the Operational Turning Points: Falcon Incursion or Hot Spots: Hinterlands among others. There are almost too many possibilities, and no doubt my ambitions are greater than my ability to achieve all of them!

Bane 3

Marauder IIC 10

Thunderbolt IIC

As I mentioned, I was really excited for this boxed set, so much so that the first thing I did on getting it was to sit down and paint the figures that came with it. No waiting to let the figures mature in the pile of unpainted lead/plastic here. Nope, straight down to the painting and a week later they are all coloured in. They won't win any painting competition prizes but I am happy.

Summoner H

Rifleman C 2

I no longer remember why I chose them, but I decided a while back that my Clan Jade Falcon force would be the 1st Falcon Sentinels, so that is who this mob belongs to. I'll post my thoughts on the rules as I get into the campaign, whenever that is, but these are the first members of my dirty clanner unit that will also provide an opfor in Clan Invasion and Hinterlands campaigns at some point.

Howler 6

Locust IIC 4

These mechs will be supplemented with those I need for the Hinterlands campaign based on the opposing forces in that book to fill out a larger force and provide some variety of baddies for the Full Throttle Lemmings to fight.

Fulcrum hover tanks

The Scouring Sands campaign includes support units such as emplacements, foot infantry, Elementals in power armour and so forth. It provides the figures for the Fulcrum hover tanks above and counters for other support units so you can get started right away. However, I had a box of Elementals lying around, so I quickly painted them up too. After all, it is a miniatures game, so miniatures are better than counters in this context.

Clan Elementals

Hopefully, I can replace the other provided counters with miniatures at some point, but for now the goal has to be playing the campaign with what I already have, because my other goal is not to buy more new miniatures until I have painted much more of what I already have.

With the OpFor ready, I now need to design my own campaign force to face off against them. That force will include some unpainted mechs to push me to paint more of the Pile of Shame/Opportunity. But first, I need to return to the Forgotten Ruin campaign and finish that.