Hey Game Fans, we’re back with another rundown of the Special Abilities in Alpha Strike. These abilities are featured in the Alpha Strike Book, and are taken from the core rules of the game.
Quick reminder, every unit’s special abilities will be listed on its individual card, which you can access from the Master Unit List. We’re going to keep digging into these until we finish the list. Let’s take a closer look at more Special Abilities.
Special Abilities Continued
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Extended Mechanized (XMEC)
- Battle Armor with this ability can be transported on the battlefield by any type of unit as mechanized battle armor (see page 32 for details on transporting infantry.) Normally, only Units with the Omni tag can carry mechanized Battle Armor.
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Fire Resistant (FR)
- Units with this special ability are not affected by weapons with the Heat (HT#) Special Ability. They generate heat normally.
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Indirect Fire (IF#)
- The Indirect Fire Special Ability allows a unit to attack another unit that it doesn’t have a valid LOS to. Using primarily missiles fired in parabolic arcs, the IF# allows a unit to engage units that it normally can’t see. The # indicated in IF is the damage value caused by the Indirect Fire attack. (This topic is covered on page 35).
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Industrial Triple Strength Myomer (I-TSM)
- Units with I-TSM have special musculature that powers up when activated. The Industrial version is always on and provides the following benefits. Units equipped with I-TSM do an additional point of damage with physical attacks, but suffer a +2 penalty on physical attacks because of a lack of fine motor control.
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Infantry Transport (IT#)
- Units with this special ability can transport infantry units with the CAR# special ability. The transport must have a higher or equal IT# to the CAR# of the unit being carried.
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Light ECM (LECM)
Light ECM works the same way that regular ECM does, except it only creates a 2 inch bubble.
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Mechanized (MEC)
- Battle Armor with this special ability can be carried into battle as mechanized battle armor by units with the OMNI special ability.
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Melee( MEL)
- Units with this special ability are equipped with a physical attack weapon. They cause an additional point of damage when successfully completing a physical weapon attack.
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Mimetic Armor System/Light Mimetic Armor System (MAS/LMAS)
- the MAS/LMAS special abilities are a special armor system that makes units harder to hit depending on unit type, and the distance the unit moved in the current turn’s movement phase. Attacks made against non-infantry targets that moved 0 inches, apply a +3 penalty to hit. Apply a +2 penalty against shots made at a unit that moved up 5 inches. Apply a +1 penalty to a unit that moved up to 12 inches, and the benefit is lost if the unit moves more than 12 inches.
- Battle Armor units with this ability apply a +3 penalty if they moved 0 inches. This drops to a +2 penalty in the unit moved 2 inches, and a +1 penalty if the unit moved up to 5 inches. A unit moving more than five inches loses this benefit completely.
- LMAS applies a +2 penalty if the unit moved 0 inches and a +1 penalty if it moved up to 2 inches.
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Off-Road (ORO)
- Vehicle Units with this special ability ignore the movement penalty for traveling through non-paved terrain. This ability is only required on Support Vehicles with the Wheeled (w) movement type.
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Omni (OMNI)
- Ground Based units with the OMNI special ability can transport a unit of battle armor as mechanized battle armor. (Check out the Transporting Infantry section on page 32)
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Overheat Long (OVL)
- This Special ability allows a unit to increase it’s damage using the Overheat rules at Long Range. (The Overheat rules typically only apply at short and medium range)
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Stealth (STL)
- This special ability represents an advanced armor type that confuses targeting systems and makes a unit harder to hit at a distance. Non-infantry units with this ability apply an additional +1 penalty to hit at medium range and a +2 penalty to hit at Long (or further) range. Infantry units with this ability apply a +1 penalty to hit at short and medium range, and a +2 penalty at long (or further) ranges.
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Torpedo (TOR#)
Torpedoes are special missiles that are especially potent against units on water or underneath it. The Torpedo ability has range brackets like a standard weapon attack and can be combined with the standard attack profile. Torpedoes ignore the underwater range and damage rules that affect other weapons.
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Triple Strength Myomer (TSM)
- Enhanced myomer technology uses heat to push the myomers to higher performance. This has two effects.
- When a mech with TSM has a heat scale level of 1 or higher, it gains two additional movement points. When at Heat Scale 1, it also ignores the movement reduction for high heat. Higher heat scales reduce movement normally.
- When an overheating unit deals damage from a physical attack, increase that damage by 1.
- Enhanced myomer technology uses heat to push the myomers to higher performance. This has two effects.
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Turret (TUR#)
- A unit with a Turret (TUR#) mounts at least some of its weapons with a 360 degree firing arc. If the unit chooses to fire outside of its front firing arc, it uses the value listed as the # in the TUR description, (a unit with the TUR4 ability wishes to shoot at an enemy in its side arc. It uses the 4 as its damage value instead of the 7 it normally has)
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Underwater Maneuvering Units UMU)
- Basically underwater jets, the UMUs allow a unit to ignore the movement penalties for travelling underwater.
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Watchdog (WAT)
- The Watchdog combines the qualities of the ECM suite and the active probe technology. A unit with a WAT is treated as if it has the LECM and LPRB special abilities.
Concluding thoughts and ideas
Now that’s all the Special Abilities in the Alpha Strike book except for the Advanced Options and the C3 Networks (they’re complicated enough that i’ll put together a specific article about them by themselves). There are even more Special abilities in the Companion, and we may get to those at some point soon. Next week we might break out another introductory scenario for you guys to experiment with. If you have a topic you’d like us to cover directly, let us know. Game On, Game Fans.
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About the Author: Zardoz the Magnificent
