This week’s update is a large one. We’ve got the iconic Gelgoog series making its debut as well the RX78NT-1 Gundam ‘Alex’ and the Kampfer by request. Let’s start with the Gelgoog series.
The Gelgoog was Zeon’s answer to the Gundam, mass producing a high end model with both ranged and melee beam weapons beating out the Gyan from last week as the premier model. Unfortunately, this late in the war there were two driving factors that would cause Zeon to lose the war even after the introduction of the Gelgoog.
First up the Earth Federation had tremendously more resources and production capacity than the colonies in the Principality of Zeon, as a result once the Federation used the Gundam’s data to begin mass producing GMs they quickly sent an impressively large force into space to overwhelm Zeon. The 2nd factor was a lack of skilled or even trained pilots, this late in the war most of the experienced Zeon pilots had been killed or wounded on Earth so the high performing Gelgoog was now being piloted by herds of Greenhorns.
Still not every Gelgoog was piloted by a Rookie, the initial assortment of Gelgoogs were assigned to Char Aznable, The Red Comet, as well as the Zeon Ace corps such as Johnny Ridden, Robert Gilliam, and Gabby Hazard. The Ace Corps piloted the Commander, High Mobility and the Cannon type with spectacular results, especially in Operation Clarion.
When designing the Gelgoog we wanted it to be great at many roles while still being cost efficient enough to represent being produced on a large scale. Good weaponry, evasion, movement and a solid amount of HP. We settled on High-Power Beam Rifle to match the Gundam.
For speed the Gelgoog is based on the R series of high thrust Zakus. From the MG kit manual “The Gelgoog could be called a direct descendant of the Zaku MS-06R series, and as with the R type, the entire leg could be considered a huge vernier thruster unit. It was also designed for even higher performance, based on operating data from the 06R-2 type”. We bumped up the Gelgoogs speed but wanted to keep it below both the Doms which were known for high top speed and the R series who were known for high speed but lower operating times.
The Gelgoog High Mobility type received additional backpack thrusters, while the Canon modified that backpack to include a reactor powered beam cannon, although in Jacobius Node’s case that was instead swapped out with a shoulder mounted giant bazooka. The last variant is the Gelgoog Jager from 0080 War in the Pocket, while sporting a ‘beam machinegun’ its ammo retain their kinetic energy even at long ranges. As a result, the beam doesn’t lose much power over long distances, which is normally a big problem for beam weapons making this unit an excellent Sniper even with a rapid firing weapon. As the first beam machinegun we chose to use the prototype weapon equipment option to customize a beam rifle to fire additional shots, have more range but less penetration.
For the custom versions, Char’s Gelgoog swaps out the previous Elusive pilot trait with “Hunting for a Rival” to better represent Char’s focus on his pride of defeating Amuro. Both Char and Johnny Ridden have the Indomitable special role applied to their Gelgoog representing how both their machines have survived several crippling battles. For the custom Gelgoog Cannon, many may be familiar with Jacobius Node from MSV-R RoJR where his sniper type Gelgoog is astonishingly deadly, for his OYW version he was loaded with a considerable amount of ballistic armaments. Lastly we have Shin Matsunaga, Dozle Zabi’s guard and confident who was absent from the battle of solomon to pick up his Gelgoog Jaeger, for his custom we went with twin-beam sabers to match the kit and the MSV-R Manga.
Now we come to our premier suits form 0080, the Kampfer and Alex. The Kampfer is a high speed hit and run unit and will be the fastest Zeon unit from the one year war. Assembled in a colony by a special forces team this unit left a path of devastation in its wake as it charged towards a top secret facility containing the RX78NT-1 Gundam ‘Alex’. Alex was intended for Amuro, the federations Newtype ace and was tuned to his superhuman reflexes, as a result it made it incredibly hard to use for other pilots. Christina Mackenzie, our leading lady in 0080 is the test pilot for Alex, normally we give test pilots a Pilot Level of 1 but in this case we are leaving it at 0 since Alex was so difficult to control and master.
The Kampfer comes loaded with considerable weaponry as well as the Assault designator giving it a second action. We recommend the “Grenades” and “Tear through the Ranks” commands if you want to simulate it’s iconic attack run in your games. For Alex we also assigned it the Assault designator to represent that this machine was the secret weapon heading to Amuro with immense capabilities when it comes to reaction speeds. You can take it with the Chobham armor for an additional points cost, if you do after its HP dips below a certain point it is replaced with the more nimble (but less armored) version of Alex replete with arm mounted gatling guns. Since Alex’s beam rifle was assembled using the best components from multiple manufacturers we also gave it a weapon upgrade.
Last up are two miscellaneous tweaks. Heat Weapons will be switching from +1 Hit on Melee Counterattack to +1d10 Melee Counterattack. The +1 Hit while perfectly fine for many units, but was simply too punishing for the low end suits so this change helps bring back the element of chance when attacking and counterattacking. Beam Resist Coating is will be removed from the Gouf Custom and Flight Type. While the Gouf Custom and Gelgoog shield were the first two units to receive beam resist coatings, they began to become standard as time moved on, so we’ll be reserving this trait for units that are exceptionally resistant to beam weapons or allowing it as a wargear option in the future.
Roster Additions
Zeon (+8)
Gelgoog variants & Kampfer
Federation (+2)
Alex (Chobham), Alex
Misc Updates
-Adjusted Heat weapons to be +1d10 Counterattack vice +1 Hit
-Removed Beam Resist Coating from Gouf Custom & Flight Type
Next week we’ll have aquatic suits and Gundam’s Unit 4 & 5 of the RX78 series for release.
MechaStellar 