MechaStellar: Equipment Slots 1-Z

This time let’s talk about Equipment (EQ) slots which are used to build and customize your suit.  Every suit has a Frame Level and Performance Level to start, for example Frame 3 Performance 4, this establishes their baseline combat statistics.  Two suits with identical Frame and Performance level will have identical stats, so Equipment is how we differentiate our Mechs from one another.  We’ll look at a couple examples in this post and talk about Weight as well.

Any mobile suit can also choose one additional piece of equipment for +2 WT.  WT gives -1 Evade and -1 Move, a hefty trade off.  Zeon suits were known for being considerably heavier than Federation suits since they had not yet discovered ultralight alloys like Luna Titanium or Titanium Ceramic Composites so we’ll have all our early Zeon suits be higher weight.

In one of our earlier posts we showed how to build out a Zaku II.  This time let’s focus on a couple Zeon and Federation suits.  We’ll start with the very versatile Zaku II at frame Level 1 he has 4 + Frame = 5 EQ Slots. We’ll examine the Zaku II-F a general type and the Zaku II-J a ground type both are using 6 EQ slots with WT +2 as a result.

Zaku II-F  Versatile type  Frame 1  Performance 2.  EQ Slots 5

(2) Machine Gun (2-Handed – 2 Slots) – Ranged weapon.  2 Handed and Twin Linked weapons allow a free reroll if you fail to hit, at the expense of +1 slot.

(1) Heat Hawk – Melee weapon

(1) Hands-free Shield – Use a d10 on ARM Saves in Melee

(1) Reinforced Exoskeleton – HP +100

(1) Panzerfaust – Rocket propelled anti-MS weapon with higher penetration

So our Zaku II-F is quite the generalist grunt.  They have the machine gun, helpful for laying down lots of fire on easy to hit low armor targets and also have a Panzerfaust to take on more highly armored targets.  Let’s take a look at a ground type Zaku II-J.

Zaku II-J Versatile type  Frame 1  Performance 2.  EQ Slots 5

(2) 180mm Cannon (2-Handed – 2 Slots) – Long Ranged weapon.  2 Handed and Twin Linked weapons allow a free reroll if you fail to hit, at the expense of +1 slot.

(1) Heat Hawk – Melee weapon

(1) Hands-free Shield – Use a d10 on ARM Saves in Melee

(1) Reinforced Exoskeleton – HP +100

(1) Chaff Grenade – Scrambles enemy accuracy when they fire outside their Sensor range

The ground type Zaku has the long range 180mm cannon, capable of laying down indirect fire if they can’t get a line of sight on the target.  Swapping out the Panzerfaust we have given them a Chaff grenade, while not an exact fit for the ‘cracker’ grenade the Zaku’s were known for it’s a bit more of a fun option.  Chaff Grenades work the same as the Ground type Gundam’s Smoke screen, enemies have Range Attack +0 outside of their sensor range when firing on the Zaku, usable once per battle only.

You may be wondering why the Ground type Zaku who uses a long range cannon is not given the Gunner combat role.  Zaku’s are a versatile suit that can perform many missions, a gunner type suit should be one specifically designed only for ranged combat (at the expense of melee combat).  For Zeon the amphibious Zock fulfills that role, as does the Zaku I sniper.  Likewise on the Federation side a GM would be versatile but a GM Sniper would be a gunner type.  Your Ground Type Zaku is still versatile because in the jungles of Southeast Asia they may need to make the most of their Heat Hawks.