Getting The Full Alpha Strike With Associate Developer Joshua Franklin

As you may or may not already know, I’m a big proponent of Alpha Strike, the tabletop miniatures version of BattleTech. Unlike Classic BattleTech, Alpha Strike allows you to sit down at a table, place anywhere between five to ten miniatures, and play out a full engagement in about an hour (sometimes even less, depending on the skill and aggression of the players).

Sarna doesn’t have the full history of Alpha Strike‘s development, so I was able to fuel my interest in Alpha Strike while simultaneously helping to fill out the wiki by talking with Joshua Franklin. He’s the associate developer at Catalyst in charge of Alpha Strike development as well as the Hot Spots and Force Manuals series. We talked about his work, where Alpha Strike came from, and where it’s headed with upcoming products like BattleTech: Aces. Enjoy.

Sean (Sarna): Who are you? Briefly introduce yourself for those who don’t already know. 

Joshua Franklin (CGL): Joshua Franklin, aka NCKestrel. I am an Associate Developer at Catalyst Game Labs. I’m the product developer for Alpha Strike, Hot Spots, and the Force Manuals. In the past, I’ve been with the Master Unit List team and in other volunteer positions. I’m from North Carolina (the “NC” in NCKestrel). I’m a soccer fan (FC Bayern Munich and North Carolina Courage) and am currently in the midst of an Arc Raiders withdrawal and trying to deal with it by typing many words. I keep thinking I’m going to start an RPG campaign “soon.” I don’t get out to nearly enough BattleTech games, but I am planning to be at Southern Assault and KSAGG this year.

Sean: Give us your BattleTech story. What got you into BattleTech? What keeps you playing?

Joshua: When I saw a game of giant stompy robots, I jumped right in. After playing the first MechWarrior computer games, I moved on to being obsessed with the online MU* versions of BattleTech (3056, 3057, Bryant). I took a bit of a break after FASA collapsed, and seeing Strategic Operations in a store reminded me of the game I loved. 

The immersion in the universe keeps me playing. Everything from art and fiction to taking a hip critical and trying to figure out how I can keep going for those last two turns.

Sean: The all-important question: what’s your favorite ‘Mech?

Joshua: The Warhammer on that old box set was the first hook that got me, and it’s stayed there ever since. There are some more recent ‘Mechs that are dear to me because I had a hand in their creation (Sarath and Inferno are big ones), but I’ll always take a Warhammer.

Sean: I’ve often heard people who work there say that Catalyst Game Labs is kind of like a family. How did you get adopted by Catalyst?  

Joshua: That Strategic Operations book that got me back into playing BattleTech had a note about finding BattleForce stats online, and I needed them for my BattleForce games. I came across Keith Hann’s work, which included some BattleForce conversions that got me started, but that just dropped the need for more. So I started learning to do them myself. Keith and Chris Marti helped me figure out the system, and then when Keith got invited to the Master Unit List team, he suggested they grab me as well.  That’s when I found out Chris had already done all the conversions and they just needed me to be his backup/second opinion. Being part of the MUL team got me a couple of small opportunities to create: a couple of Technical Readout pages and some new variants for Record Sheets.

After my first (and only so far) trip to Gen Con, I was really hooked on Quick Strike, which was just a couple of pages of notes in Strategic Operations at the time about how you can mix miniatures rules and the BattleForce rules to play a tabletop miniatures game of BattleTech. I really felt like I needed those compiled as one set of rules, and started working on writing what became the Alpha Strike rulebook. I had mentioned to a couple of people I was working on it, and one of them was in a BattleTech development meeting when it was decided they needed a new BattleTech product to cover the spot for a delayed (again) Interstellar Operations. They felt a Quick Strike rulebook would be just the thing, and Johannes told them, “Josh is already writing one and he’s almost done.” The short deadline combined with the prospect of it already being written got them to consider a writer with no proven experience… The rulebook renamed the system to Alpha Strike.

Most of what I’m doing now has spread from there. I proposed adding some systems to the MUL for roles and faction availability, which led to my working on the Combat Manuals. The Combat Manuals led to writing a Turning Point, Vega 3039, that was meant to give players with the Combat Manuals a place to use the forces from those books. Vega 3039 was chosen because it had all the factions that were set to receive Combat Manuals: Mercenaries, Kurita, Davion, and Steiner (before the line was canceled after Kurita). That Turning Point led to conversations about campaigns and plans for the Battle of Tukayyid, and that book led to the Hot Spots series. The Combat Manuals have returned, and updated, as the Force Manuals.

Sean: One of the more interesting services you provided was maintaining the Master Unit List when it was just a spreadsheet. What was that like? Did you have a field for every single statistic for every single unit? Was this a 2GB Spreadsheet that spanned multiple monitors?

Joshua: My original spreadsheet was for BattleForce conversions. So I had a list of units from that, and since my goal was to convert every canon unit, it was fairly comprehensive. At the time, I was even asked to “show my work,” so it didn’t just have the resulting conversions, but I pulled every MegaMek unit file into a spreadsheet (one row per unit) and then had formulas converting them to BattleForce. It was extremely finicky and required lots of review—issues like manually “correcting” AC/10 ammunition to count as ammo for the Autocannon/10. Then we matched that with Chris Marti’s list to double-check (mostly finding where my manual corrections had failed, but every now and then I managed to correct Chris… I treasured each of those).

The MUL team then went to work finding missing units and adding introduction dates, faction availability, standardizing names, etc. That’s where the whole team went to work on all the different expertise each of them had (whether aerospace, Clans, factories, MechWarrior: Dark Age, ancient FASA era, etc.). At the end of that, we had a spreadsheet that covered what was then the “current” CGL era, the Jihad. 

And nobody knew what to do with it. So the first version of the Master Unit List was a PDF, a pretty version of the spreadsheet, with pages and pages of tables.

Sean: You’re certainly a prolific author, with a lot of bylines in some of the biggest sourcebooks in BattleTech history. Which sourcebook are you most proud of? 

Joshua: I’m going to go with Hot Spots: Draconis Reach, as it’s the one I’m currently finishing up. And it allows me to mention Hot Spots as a favorite without having to mention the lovable mess of the Hinterlands.

Sean: You’ve also worked on the latest Recognition Guides: ilClan. Have any of the ‘Mechs/units on your list been green-lit for a redesign? What ‘Mech/unit are you most excited to see redesigned for a future product?

Joshua: The Warhammer redesign I had nothing to do with, but it was a miracle what they did with it. I did get to write the Recognition Guide text for it, which was a huge “I wish I could go back in time and tell myself I’d get to do that someday.”  As for favorites that I’m still waiting for, and it seems like I’m going to be waiting for quite a while still, is the Salamander. My Kestrel Grenadiers have a huge hole in the TO&E waiting on a Salamander redesign.

Sean: Sarna doesn’t have a lot of history on Alpha Strike as a game system. You mentioned that it evolved from Quick Strike, but Sarna doesn’t have any information on this system. Could you give us a history lesson on Alpha Strike? Who came up with the idea? How did it evolve from Quick Strike?

Joshua: I touched on some of this above since it was my first big freelance job. But Alpha Strike started before me. Its genesis was in two other products, BattleForce (specifically BattleForce 2, which was very different from the original BattleForce) and the Miniatures Rules.  Both had been published back in the FASA and FanPro days. BattleForce was a mass combat system, where each “unit” (or playing piece) was a lance. You moved an entire lance as one unit. But the combat mixed that up and had individual ‘Mechs, which had a summarized version of the unit with a single armor value and a single attack that was based on its BattleTech stats. 

Meanwhile, the Miniatures Rules were an option to play BattleTech without a hex map, where you moved a number of inches, and terrain was based on actual physical terrain pieces. Both were then updated in Strategic Operations, and a couple of people each came up with the idea of combining the two, using the BattleForce summarized unit stats but allowing each miniature to be a single unit and moving on miniature terrain instead of a hex map. Ray and Herb were the initial champions of this idea and got a couple of pages added to Strategic Operations and called it Quick Strike.

It proved to be a popular option despite it being hidden in the depths of that big book and being a bit cumbersome to mix and match rules from different places, and I was one of the people hooked. My “writing” the Alpha Strike rulebook involved filling in some of the blanks, but 90% of it was just editing into place using those existing rules. Herb—the BattleTech Line Developer at the time and the product developer for the Alpha Strike rulebook—was very clear that I was not to include any “house rules” of my own.

The Alpha Strike Companion expanded the rulebook with a collection of new rules and new options. I was burned out from writing my first rulebook (or first published material of that length at all), and though I contributed some ideas to it, Herb was the primary writer for that book.

Alpha Strike: Commander’s Edition came about as basically a reprint. The Companion wasn’t selling enough to continue printing on its own, but several sections were considered “core” to the game by this point. Initially, there wasn’t any idea that we were changing the game, only collecting what had become the “core” rules into one book. But we took feedback from fans and Demo Team agents and made some quality-of-life improvements.

Sean: Alpha Strike is currently in its second edition, or Commander’s Edition. What were some of the big changes between the first and Commander’s Editions? 

Joshua: Some of the biggest changes were pretty simple in effect, like standardizing on “target number modifier” as both the term and the mechanism. There had been a mishmash of mechanisms and terms: “target penalties” where a bonus was to be subtracted, “roll modifiers” where the bonus was applied to the roll rather than the target number, or just lots of variety “is a terrain modifier different from a cover modifier, and if so, how?” The idea of standardizing on “target number modifier” was stolen from the BattleMech Manual and applied throughout.

Speaking of stealing from the BattleMech Manual, AS:CE had to include the Battlefield Support rules from that book as well!

I actually deleted some answers here when I realized I had missed the big change of including the multiple attack rolls option in the rulebook. This came entirely from player requests and was snuck in near the end (and it shows in how many errata have been issued since expanding this rule). But that has to be the most impactful change, even as an optional rule.

This was a blog post I wrote when Alpha Strike: Commander’s Edition was first published. The “Separate attack per point of damage” option being added got a one-sentence mention in the middle of “other changes.”

Sean: Are there plans for a third edition? What changes might we see in the next Alpha Strike rulebook?

Joshua: Yes. A couple of years ago (2022), I went to the bosses and requested that we do a more comprehensive update to Alpha Strike: Commander’s Edition for the next printing. The normal sequence is that the warehouse says it’s running low on a book, they greenlight a reprint, and we’ve got a week or two to collect the existing errata to implement. I felt like the AS:CE had some bigger issues that needed more time to develop and got approval to start on a bigger update. 

But we also saw an issue with the various printings and rules changes (through five printings of AS:CE at that point), especially with how fast new printings were taking place. The explosion in sales is great for getting more products developed, and lots of opportunities to get errata’d versions in players’ hands sooner, but the number of them was losing players. “Oh, you’re playing with the third printing. Well, that changed in the fourth printing; you need to catch up. But I only got the third printing last year?!?” 

So the decision was made to scale back the changes. We wouldn’t introduce new systems or massive overhauls, but only corrections to the existing rules in new printings. But we started making plans for a new edition at some point in the future.

One important piece of that new edition at some point in the future was released as a beta test. This is a good example of one of the goals of a new edition: to look at gaps in the rulebook. The game doesn’t start on rolling initiative for turn one; we need to have a game setup. Players need to have units, and we’d like them to be able to show up and “play Alpha Strike” without having to debate for an hour first on how to set up the game. It’s not intended as the only way to play, but a quick way to jump into a game.

Other changes will be looking at various problem spots in the game. Artillery and spotting are a headache for even veteran players. The environmental conditions rules are often avoided as a “punishment.” So those issues are looking at changes and/or rewrites to make them more playable.

It’s also looking at structural changes, like unit-type summaries. Where the rules are divided now makes sense as far as the timing flow of a game—we’re in combat now, let’s look at the combat chapter—but it can be difficult to evaluate what a player has. This is your first time playing with battle armor units; you need to check through the entire rulebook to see how they work differently for battle armor. 

Unit-type summaries are a reference based on the unit type, where you can check the basics of how that unit does movement, combat, or other aspects of the game, and then get directed to the specific rules. Battle armor doesn’t have a facing (see line of sight and rear attack direction), and doesn’t use attacker movement modifiers (see attack modifiers table), etc.

There is no timetable for a new edition. A very rough draft of the first nearly complete rulebook proposal went to playtesting, but I want to give it plenty of time to test and then review and make changes. And I also anticipate a lot of attention to be paid to presentation, diagrams, examples of play, etc, that are going to take time to develop.

Sean: It’s my understanding that there’s a mathematical formula to change any Classic BattleTech record sheet into an Alpha Strike card. Can you tell us how the formula works? Has the formula been tweaked over the years, and is it still receiving revisions?

Joshua: I thought I was running long on some earlier answers, and then you hit me with this question? Haha! 

The basics of the system are pretty simple. Total up the damage values of all the weapons, and divide by 10. Total up all the armor, and divide by 30. The basis of this is BattleForce has a specific 3:1 time scale compression from BattleTech, so effectively weapons do three turns worth of damage, and the divide by 10 is because it makes the numbers prettier.

Then you run into the details, as defined in the Alpha Strike Companion and its years of errata.  You adjust for how well it can handle heat or if it’s low on ammo. If it has heat issues that cause it to lose damage, you give it an Overheat (OV) value. Some weapons only reach certain ranges, so you calculate separate weapon damages for short, medium, and long. Sometimes it can convert into an aerospace and get a special ability, or one of a hundred other special abilities. And some of those special abilities then require damage calculations on their own.

Point Value similarity has a simple basis: add up the damage values, and add the armor values. But then there are lots of details. The value of armor is increased based on its TMM. We double the value of medium-range damage because it’s just so useful. There are values assigned to many special abilities. If you are both fast and high damage, it puts more PV. If you’re really slow and have no long range, it discounts some PV.

The formulas have changed over time, but there’s a great deal of inertia. If an Alpha Strike Unit Card has been printed in a product and sold, we’re very hesitant to change it. There was a significant revision for AS:CE, with cards first printed for A Game of Armored Combat, and most cards since then (from the Succession Wars and Clan Invasion packs on through the Clan Invasion Kickstarter box and ForcePacks, and Mercs Kickstarter box and ForcePacks) are still “current.”

Whenever a change is considered, we first look at what printed cards it would affect, and then how important this change is. Three of the biggest changes recently have been PV calculations: battle armor, aerospace, and jump-strong units. At the time the battle armor PV change was made, no battle armor unit cards had been printed yet. At the time the aerospace change was made, only one aerospace card had been printed. And when the jump strong change was made, one card slipped through, being printed as the change was being considered (Griffin C, I think it was).

There are a number of ideas that have been considered as possible improvements, but they often fail to clear the bar of impacting existing products. Now, if we figure out an improvement to Mobile Structures, nothing is stopping us there!

Fortunately, that usually mirrors the focus on developing the system. ‘Mechs are always the focus, and rules—including Alpha Strike conversion and PV calculations—started with them. They get the most testing, and the system works best for them. The further—or deeper—you get, the further you get into the dark. Are WarShip Point Values well balanced? I can’t see in this pitch black of space. But someday we’ll shine a light there and have to squash some bugs, I’m sure. Giant, WarShip-sized cockroaches.

Sean: What ‘Mechs/units do you think get way better when converted to Alpha Strike rules? What ‘Mechs/units get way worse when converted to Alpha Strike? Are there any standout examples?

Joshua: For conversion, I think lighter units (at least fast ones) find themselves much more respected in Alpha Strike. Tough ‘Mechs, as with all units in Alpha Strike, don’t last as long as they do in BattleTech, so it helps even out that playing field for the lights. This also helps Alpha Strike avoid some of the “TurretTech” feel—we get conga lines instead.

Sean: I love the conga lines.

Joshua: Pulse, LBX, and Targeting Computers probably lose the most in conversion. Not just for sheer damage, but for their entire role in dealing with fast units. In some ways, that’s good for Alpha Strike in not overemphasizing those as BattleTech does, but it probably goes too far.  That’s probably the closest to being considered for a change that would impact already printed cards.

Sean: I know that you’ve released a few scenarios for Classic BattleTech as well as Alpha Strike via Shrapnel. Are there any plans to convert some of the older FASA scenarios (such as the Coventry scenario pack with its dozens of ‘Mechs) for Alpha Strike? 

Joshua: The Shrapnel campaign was a fun experiment. I love campaign play, but I wondered whether I could actually fit one in a Shrapnel article submission length limit. Despite the length of my answers here, I do like to be brief, but that one really stretched my ability to cut things down to bare bones.

There have been thoughts of continuing the Battle of Tukayyid sourcebook for other historical battles. With limited resources, we’ve been focused more on the existing era, and so those discussions haven’t gotten any further. We’ve already got the whole Brush Wars series eager to go covering historical wars. It’s certainly a possibility for some time in the future, and there are even specific ideas of what we’d like to do. But they’re buried under other product ideas.

Sean: There are a few options out there for competitive Alpha Strike play at the moment. Last summer, you started a ‘Matched Play Beta‘ hoping to standardize the rules for head-to-head play. How’s that going? Will we see this in any new editions of Alpha Strike?

Joshua: I’m not a tournament player, but I think tournaments are a natural result of what Alpha Strike does well, and so I really appreciate those who have developed, organized, and run Alpha Strike tournaments. I really don’t feel like I’m the one who should be telling them how to run their tournaments. CGL has some plans to help promote tournament play, and I may help in some way if called upon, but I’m not leading that effort.

The Matched Play Beta isn’t intended as a tournament format, though I’ve happily taken feedback and inspiration from tournament formats for it. It’s a little looser in competitiveness and a little freer in chaos/fun than I think most tournament organizers would go for. 

But the big hurdle is that tournaments have to be updated regularly. The Alpha Strike: Commander’s Edition came out in 2019—Wolfnet 350, Southern Assault, BTCC, MRC, and other tournament formats didn’t exist yet. If there had been tournament rules in that book, would we be playing with them now? Absolutely not. Not only would we not have had the experience of those tournaments, but those tournaments have adapted practically every year to improve. And our goal isn’t to require an updated Alpha Strike rulebook every year. As mentioned above, we’ve already felt like we’ve gone too far in that direction.

Matched Play was intended as a quick way to jump into Alpha Strike. Aaron Cahall (Assistant Line Developer for BattleTech) brought this up while we were developing the Alpha Strike box set; we need to do a better job of onboarding players into the game. The game doesn’t start with rolling initiative; it starts with building forces and placing terrain, and having objectives. Even when BattleTech has had those, it often hides them in the back of the book. Matched Play is intended to get the player into a fun game of Alpha Strike as quickly as possible, but still show off the best parts of the game.

Then Alpha Strike can expand its play experience, either in narrative play products (Aces or Hot Spots), tournament play, or variations on the one-shot quick-play games.

Sean: There were a few potential Alpha Strike products mentioned at AdeptiCon earlier this year, including the Alpha Strike Battlefield Support Deck and a new box set. Can you tell us anything about these products?

Joshua: An Alpha Strike Battlefield Support Deck is something that would be “low-hanging fruit.” There wouldn’t be much development/writing effort; it’s almost entirely a matter of when production resources would be allocated to it. I’m not aware of that being allocated yet, but it would be a case where once it happened, it would go through quickly. 

I’m not aware of a new Alpha Strike box set. We’re very happy with the Alpha Strike box set, and we’ve got the four upcoming Aces box sets that are going to be huge, both in development resources and impact. And the Aces box sets really are expansions to the Alpha Strike box set. Beyond the Aces “AI” decks, the miniatures, rulebook, and other components are straight-up expansions to the Alpha Strike box set.  Each will have new Alpha Strike terrain, expand on the Alpha Strike box set rulebook (the first box adds hovertanks, for example), and just include more Alpha Strike gameplay. 

Whether you’re playing out the entire Aces campaign, just want to use the Aces rules to get some solo games in between games with other players, or don’t plan to use the Aces rules at all.

Sean: BattleTech: Gothic was another new product announced that includes kaiju-style monsters. Since these aren’t being interpreted from existing sources, how did you go about creating Alpha Strike cards for Gothic? 

Joshua: Herb Beas wrote and developed Gothic, and he wrote the Alpha Strike Companion, including the Alpha Strike conversion rules. Herb initially converted Gothic to Alpha Strike himself. I did get called in to proofread the Alpha Strike cards. The new units in Gothic are heavily based on existing rules, so the conversion rules already covered them fairly well. And where there were any grey areas, the developer already knew what he wanted to do with them. There is one card with the rules reference for the new Abomination unit type. That means Alpha Strike players will be able to jump right in and use them with the included Alpha Strike cards.

Sean: There were also some voices talking about a new aerospace game. Will the new game be compatible with Alpha Strike? Might we see an Alpha Strike-like ruleset for dogfighting aerospace fighters?

Joshua: I haven’t had anything to do with the new aerospace. As far as I know, it’s BattleTech-focused, and the idea would be that any Alpha Strike aerospace would be after. I think an Alpha Strike space game could be amazing. I just think it requires more dedication than I have available, so it would be up to others to develop one. Or after current projects lessen up, but at the rate the Force Manuals are going, that will be quite a while.

Sean: BattleTech: Aces arrives later this year as both a narrative campaign and a solo/cooperative Alpha Strike experience. Do you think Aces might finally allow Alpha Strike to shine brighter than its Classic forebear?

Joshua: It’s not my goal to outshine Classic. If anything, I think their fates are entangled. If we do one well, most of that will carry over to the other. If one goes down, likely the same reasons would take down the other as well.

I think Aces is going to make BattleTech players insanely jealous of Alpha Strike players. In fact, I think it’s going to make plenty of other games jealous. Whether it’s tournament players wanting to test out new builds, non-competitive players wanting to play co-op, or just solo players wanting to fit games in on their schedule, Aces is going to make so many more options for playing Alpha Strike when and where players want to play.

In addition, the Aces box sets are great expansions to the Alpha Strike games. New terrain, more Alpha Strike cards, a new character progression, and lots of new gameplay options are going to add a lot to players’ Alpha Strike games. Even if they’re not using the Aces “AI” cards.

Sean: Are there any other developments coming to Alpha Strike that you can tell us about?

Joshua: The Alpha Strike box set, Aces box sets, and the Alpha Strike rulebook (including the slowly developing new rulebook) will be the primary Alpha Strike products. Most of the other Alpha Strike focus will be on improving how Alpha Strike is supported by other products. 

Sean: Are there any other projects you’re working on currently?

Joshua: I’m really excited about the campaign play in the Hot Spots series, and eventually the MechCommander’s Handbook (both of which are for BattleTech and Alpha Strike). Hot Spots: Draconis Reach might be the end of this year or the first half of next, and we’re just starting work on the next Hot Spots after that. The Force Manuals are taking longer than expected, but we’re still working on them. Mercenaries, Invading Clans, and Steiner are in various stages of progress, along with all the ilClan Supplementals. I might be working on the Hesperus box set that’s been mentioned.

Sean: And now, let’s end off with a few fun questions. What’s in your 250-point Alpha Strike force?

Joshua: An Avatar J to swat down VTOLs.  A Longbow or Arrow IV Carrier with good skill to stay at range and provide support wherever I need it. A pair of Pandion Combat WiGEs, J. Edgars, or a single Crab CRB-54 to harass. And then a mix of units like the Warhammer WHM-9D, Thunderbolt TDR-9NAIS, King Crab KGC-011, Centurion CN11-OA, and Fensalir WiGE as the “main battle force.” All painted black with blue-white flames.

Sean: Ahh, the Omni Centurion. I nearly threw the Iron Wind mini threw my TV trying to glue on all those damned smoke canisters. And finally, what’s your dream BattleTech product?

Joshua: Ray asked me this exact question, and I said I wanted a co-op box set for BattleTech. I wanted rules for moving and attacking with the OpFor, character progression, and campaign play. And then Ray told me about Aces… 

Another dream was to revamp the old Succession Wars board game. I’m eagerly awaiting my chance to playtest the Resurgent Empires game Randall has been developing. It’s (nearly) time to conquer the Inner Sphere again!

Sean: Well, somebody’s gotta conquer it. Thanks so much for answering some questions. I’ve learned a lot about Alpha Strike today!

Thanks again to Joshua for taking the time to talk to me about his work and what we can expect from Alpha Strike in the future. You can find Joshua on Discord @NCKestrel, and catch his work in the upcoming Hot Spots: Draconis Reach.

And as always, MechWarriors: Stay Syrupy.