What happens in Robot Fight Club, Stays in RFC!

So I finally played a game this year! My nephew and I took the two mechs from the Battletech: Beginners Box for a spin using the Alpha Strike rules. 

I didn't take any pics during the game, so this is a dramatized recreation. 

While we had a good time, lessons were learned:

• One on one mechs with a 10” jump tend to get behind one another… though it makes it hard to hit. The game would definitely be better with more mechs. 
• Still a lot of tracking going on: the cards and dry erase markers are key. Some card holders can help with that and protect the cards. 
• There are a lot of steps to figuring out your to-hit number. This calculation was my nephew’s least favorite part. 
• I probably tried this game after one too many beers. It was vacation though... 
• If I want a non-miniatures wargamer to play, this is likely not the game.

The mechs now reside in the Glass cases with the other painted minis. 

I'll have to come up with a different game to play with him next time. He really liked the concept and the game itself, but calculating the number needed to hit for every roll was a turn off for us both. 

While I was visiting I also found a really cool shop called Rules of Engagement. We made the short trip to the store and found they had a great supply of miniatures: Games Workshop, Privateer Press, Star Wars, Battletech, and various other games. It had a really nice play space, and even some used miniatures for purchase. I'll be making it a regular stop during visits to my in-laws. 

While at the store I picked up Battletech: Alpha Strike Commanders Edition book, and my brother in-law picked up Unstable Unicorns. Paging through the book confirmed my fears on Alpha Strike. Catalyst did a great job streamlining the rules and making the mechs easy to understand through a simple card system... only to cram the book full of decades of rules bloat. It may sound cool to play on snow, with tanks and planes, or special base rules; but a 250+ page rulebook really turns off the average gamer. I get that it's extra... but then they should have set the book up in a way to show that. A little bit of editing to show like 15 pages of core rules, and then chapters of clearly marked optional rules would have made me like the book way more.

Really happy how they came out. 

Unstable Unicorns by Unstable Games on the other hand was a huge hit! We played the heck out of it, and had a lot of fun trying to build a stable of unicorns while keeping the others from winning. It has a lot of strategy that reminded me of Magic the Gathering, but rolled into a single box game. My 13 year old nephew easily picked up the strategies, though he would have done better if he'd stay off his phone... Teenagers *shrug*. 

Cue father-in-law picking on us playing with Unicorns - he was jealous ;)

I’ll likely be playing Battletech again in the next few weeks. This time with a more seasoned gamer, and two full lances. We’ll see how it goes, but I don't see us making this a regular go-to game. I think it will likely continue to be a back-burner game for when we really want to play with some giant robots... as it has been for decades with me.