Alpha strike

Alpha strike is a term used by the United States Navy to denote a large air attack by an aircraft carrier air wing, first coined during the Vietnam War. [Tactical Command and Control of Carrier Operations, Admiral James L. Holloway III, USN (Ret.) [http://www.history.navy.mil/colloquia/cch4b.htm] ]

In wargames, an alpha strike is a sudden, all-out attack with no consideration for defense or conserving reserves. The term entered wargaming parlance through "Star Fleet Battles", in which an "alpha strike" is an attack with all available charged weapons that bear on an enemy. Such an attack has the advantage of being able to punch through an enemy's reinforced shields in a single shot, but is a less efficient than a sequence of smaller attacks that take advantage of the "Mizia effect." In "BattleTech", the term is used in a similar sense: an attack that involves firing all of a 'Mech's weapons, something that could leave the attacker helpless by overheating and shutting down his or her 'Mechs.

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