MechaStellar Battle Report – Mazinger Z and Mobile Suit Gundam

Below are a pair of battle reports we put together while doing final testing of the Mazinger Z units released in September. The models used are the Gundam 1/300 S.O.G. line and the Mazinger Z gashapon line. You can read more about model sizes in these two posts.

Below the break you’ll see the battle report as well as a post mortem on the mecha tactics used for the Mobile Suits from Gundam, Mazinger and the Kikaiju.

Game Setup

For this series of games we were using our rule of thumb for battlefield size where the total length should be around 2-3x the movement rate of your units. In this case most of the units were between 6-10″ so we did a battlefield of 24″. Obviously the close range types were very happy about this.

Round 1

Both sides trade fire, in the open salvo the slower Kikaiju Garada and Doublas take heavy damage from the Guntank shelling and Heavy Gundam’s barrage.  The Zeon forces advance, with an Agg tying up the Heavy Gundam in melee and miraculously surviving the counterattack.

Round 2

The Kikaiju Garada is up first and cleaves through Guntank using a giant bladed boomerang, next it charges into Heavy Gundam who survives the onslaught. 

Heavy dispatches the Agg then disengages to create an opening.  The Agguguy lashes out as Mazinger Z.

Meanwhile the Gouf charges into the Guncannon who survives and fires a pointblank twin-linked cannons nearly annihilating the Gouf. 

Mazinger Z uses its rust hurricane to corrode and destroy Garada. 

The heat rays from Kikaiju Doubla decimate Heavy Gundam’s HP.

Round 3

Doublas is up first but fails to destroy Heavy Gundam who responds with an all-out barrage finishing off Doublas.  Meanwhile, the Gouf dismembers the Guncannon then prowls towards the back of Heavy Gundam. 

Mazinger Z strikes then throws the Agg Guy into a nearby building destroying it then proceeds to melt the hidden AC Guy. 

The Zaku Sniper places a beam sniper shot into his back, but the Chogokin Alloy Z lets him survive.

Round 4

Heavy Gundam seizes initiative, whirls around and turns the Gouf into swiss cheese. 

Once again the Zaku Sniper fires into Mazinger Z’s backside doing considerable damage; Mazinger survives once more and approaches the Zaku Sniper, the last thing its sensors pick up are the dual rocket punches heading its way.

Victory – Federation + Mazinger 23VP vs 7VP.  

Heavy Gundam survives with 200HP, Mazinger Z survives with 4800HP.

The rules for MechaStellar and the unit profiles for these units can be found on the game downloads page.

Post Mortem

Federation + Mazinger Player

Primary: Units (13VP),  Pilots (3VP), Commander (3 VP)

Secondaries:    Surprise Assault (+2 VP), Bonds on the Battlefield (+2 VP), Repel the Enemy (+1 VP)

I had planned on using my artillery to lay into the Kikaiju since they have much worse Evasion.  When I lost the Guntank early I thought I was going to lose, but I lucked out when my Guncannon beat all odds and survived Melee with the Gouf. 

I think my opponent over-leveraged themselves at that point since they weren’t willing to let the Gouf die when I fired the cannons point blank; that burned though 6 Momentum for them in one turn and since all my guys wound up in melee that round it meant the Zaku Sniper and AC Guy couldn’t do anything.  On the other hand I burned through all of mine protecting Heavy Gundam which paid off for me.

Zeon + Kikaiju Player

Primary: Units (5VP), Pilots (0VP), Commander (0VP)

Secondaries:  Target the Prototype (+0 VP), Last Bastion (+0 VP), Dominate the Battlefield (+2 VP)

I thought I had this game in the bag since my opponent had far less units.  I think if I were to redo it, I would try to focus on just one unit by deploying more of my forces on one side, then use my speedy units to try and tie up the Guntank and Guncannon. 

I should have had the Kikaiju Doublas moving forward every turn but I kept him behind cover due to his poor evade and my opponent playing a shooty army.  He died early the last few games so I ended up being too cautious. 

It was a close game, if I had gone first last round I would have at least taken out Heavy Gundam for another 8VP.  Oh well, it wasn’t close in scoring but it sure felt close when we were playing.

REMATCH

The players had a quick rematch to try out the strategies discussed in their post mortem. Unfortunately due to a tactical mistake in the last round Mazinger Z survived with a shred of HP denying 11pts. Mazinger survives with 1 HP (Unyielding Commander) and Heavy Gundam survives with 3100HP.

Mazinger + Federation Total VP 23 VP

Primary: Units (13VP),  Pilots (3VP), Commander (3 VP)

Secondaries:    Surprise Assault (+0 VP), Bonds on the Battlefield (+2 VP), Repel the Enemy (+2 VP)

Kikaiju + Zeon Total VP 9 VP

Primary: Units (5VP), Pilots (0VP), Commander (0VP)

Secondaries:  Target the Prototype (+0 VP), Last Bastion (+0 VP), Dominate the Battlefield (+4 VP)

We’ll cover the next Rematch in another post.