[MS] Battle Report – GGG vs The Zonderized Federation

This is one of the many test games we did for GaoGaiGar in the last several months using the MechaStellar VER 8.8 Rules. For this series of games the setting is a SRW style Earth with multiple factions.

The narrative was that the GGG organization was deployed to a Federation base where a Zonder had begun to Zonderize the Federation mobile suits there. It was up to GaoGaiGar, HoRyu and EnRyu to stop them.

Below the break you’ll find a write-up for the battle report as well as an after action report and MechaStellar designer commentary.

FORCES

GGG Player

• GaoGaiGar
• HoRyu & EnRyu

Zonderized Federation Player

• 2x Guncannon
• 1x Guntank
• 7x GM
• 1x GM Cannon
• 3x GM Cold Districts

The models used are the GaoGaiGar yujin gashapon collection and the Gundam 1/400 collection.

Setup & Deployment

HoRyu & EnRyu stuck close to each other and planned on providing some cover fire for GaoGaiGar who would move up the center. The Zonderized Federation put their fast GM Cold Districts on the flank with HoRyu & EnRyu and put their artillery types behind cover.

Round 1

GaoGaiGar moves up the field, it’s broken magnum finishes off one GM. A 2nd GM advances, its beam spray gun is blocked by Protect Shade and then reflected backwards. At this point the remaining GM’s use full throttle rather than risk a reflection.

The Guncannons and Guntanks continue to bombard GaoGaiGar.

HyoRyu & EnRyu move forward and fire their rifles.

A group of GMs take the high ground planning on blasting the two next turn.

Round 2

The GMs lead the roud, using their high ground advantage to start blasting HyoRyu and EnRyu dishing out considerable damage. The pair return fire and take out several GMs using their melting / freezing rifle and pistols.

After GaoGaiGar takes out another batch of GMs the Guncannons and GM Cannon get into rapid fire range and unload with their beam rifles and beam spray guns causing significant damage.

Meanwhile Guntank lays down some heavy fire on the wounded EnRyu

The GM Cold districts fire their rapid machine guns and begin flanking for next Round.

End of Round photo

Round 3

The GM Cannon doesn’t stand a chance and is smashed to pieces by GGG. The Guncannon fires and retreats.

HyoRyu takes out a GM and moves to protect the wonded EnRyu. The other GM Cold Distrct attacks him as the nearest target then strafes around to Blindside him next round. EnRyu takes the high ground trying to destroy the 3rd GM Cold Districts.

Round 4

The Zonderized GM Cold Districts is up first and brings down HyoRyu. EnRyu tries to avenge him but to no avail and is brought down himself shortly thereafter.

Broken Magnum finishes off one Guncannon and the other is torn apart by Heaven and Hell.

The last two GM Cold Districts try to take advantage of this opportunity to blindside GaoGaiGar.

Round 5

The cold districts is up first but even its machine gun and beam saber are unable to defeat the King of Braves

GaoGaiGar stands amidst the carnage.

Mecha Tactics – After Action Report

This was a challenging battle at first. In the early games we had over-costed both HyoRyu and EnRyu who were too fragile for their points cost and easily overwhelmed by the GMs. GaoGaiGar as the very expensive unit could be used as a screen to absorb fire for 2 rounds by the two of them rarely survived past Round 3.

Meanwhile GaoGaiGar proved virtually unstoppable.

Fitting for The King of Braves but not great for game balance. At the time he was using an older version of the “Immensely Powerful” upgrade which provided too much of a boost. After we ratcheted that down and a few other items his HP became more manageable compared to the 13,000 he had in a few test games.

On the GM side it was fun to face such an invincible foe, and good to see that massed artillery wasn’t the solution to all super robots, as it has been very effective in the Mazinger playtests previously.

MechaStellar Designer Commentary

Generally when we do playtesting for new units, we do a series of battles against Federation and/or Zeon forces first since MechaStellar was originally a Gundam wargame and a lot of our long time players are UC Gundam fans so we want to make sure that new releases are still fun to play against if you’re still playing with a classic Gundam army.

Additionally it’s important that very expensive units are still manageable to be taken down by a large group of grunts. Around the 7th game is when we realized we would need to adjust the “Noble” or “Unwavering Loyalty” trait, since the bonus Block was simply too strong on a powerful unit with a barrier and a large HP Pool.

After we finish testing against large armies using units from Gundam we then test new Super Robots against existing unit profiles to see how well they play against existing units. We’ll have a battle report for that one at a later time.

Rematches

Below are some additional photos for rematch games played with the same forces and the players would swap back and forth with who controlled which units. GGG won the majority of games thanks to its overwhelming defensive abilities and high HP, which were later dropped down to more reasonable levels during the course of playtesting. The zonderized forces were able to win games 9 & 10.