This is one of the many test games we did for GaoGaiGar in the last several months. For this series of games the setting is a SRW style Earth with multiple factions. This is a sequel to this GGG battle report.
The narrative was that the GGG organization failed to capture the Zonder machine lifeform which escaped into space and began to transform an Anaheim Electronics lab into a Zonder metal plant. The Lab housed several older Gundam and GM Types for testing as well as several newer prototypes which were zonderized and used to fight the GGG + J-Ark Team.
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
- Choryujin
- Big Volfogg
- King J-Der
Zonderized Federation Player
- RX-78-2 Gundam, Guncannon and Guntank
- Full Armor Gundam Type A and Type B
- GM Sniper Custom and GM Sniper II
- GP03 Dendrobium Stamen and GP04 Gerbera
The models used are the Super Robot Chogokin for GaoGaiGar and the Super Minipla for King J-Der and Gundam Standart and Ultimate Operation figures.
Setup & Deployment
The players used the Alternate Deployment rules for setup this game. The GM Sniper II was the Federation Force Commander and immediately took the high ground.
The GGG player kept most of their units close to their table edge with GaoGaiGar up front. The Federation player had their units spread out across the board trying to avoid keeping them clustered in one player to make it easier to flank later.
Round 1
Choryujin is up first using its double rifle and double gun at the RX78-2 who nimbly avoids it all thanks to the magnet coating.
RX78-2 is up next. It’s twin bazookas knock Choryujin below 50% HP. The GGG team is off to a rough start.
GaoGaiGar uses Broken Magnum on the GM Sniper II (Force Commander). In retrospect I probably shouldn’t have put him so close, but the style points of a sniper on top the mountain was too hard to pass up. Lots of Momentum was burned to save him this round.
The GM Sniper II may target anyone thanks to the Sniper role. He takes a shot at King J-Der who rolls several 10s on Evade.
King J-Der uses the forearm mounted anti-meson cannons to fire at the GM Sniper II (used Momentum) and GP03 (serious damage). Finally ES missiles warp through space and strike Guntank from behind taking him out before he has a chance to act
GP03 next fires its twin bazookas at King J-Der before retreating
Big Volfogg up next who does a high speed attack into a Full Armor Gundam
The FA Gundam breaks out of melee and unloads with its twin beam rifle, shoulder rocket and missile pods blowing through most of GGG’s momentum
Out of activations all the Zonderized Mobile suits go starting with the next FA Gundam who unloads into GGG.
Then a GM Sniper Custom takes the high ground and does the same; GaoGaiGar is well below 50% HP now.
Next up is Guncannon whose artillery cannon misses Choryujin but beam rifle continues to tear into GaoGaiGar
Last but not least GP04 is up and fires its long beam rifle into King J-Der and rolls an incredible melee attack with numerous critical hits. King J-Der however chose to take it and devoted all of his dice into counterattack and smashes GP04 backward
Round 2
Volfogg continues to fight with the Full Armor Gundam
Choryujin takes out Guncannon then faces off with the RX78-2 Zonder
GGG fires a broken magnum deleting a GM Sniper custom then does a flying leap into the GM Sniper II who’s drill knee just barely fails to kill him (rolled a 10 on the armor save after emptying the Momentum pool) and knocked him off the highground
GM Sniper II goes for revenge on GGG who fails another armor save and is dangerously close to destruction
King J-Der uses the maser cannons in each finger tip to obliterate GP04 then fires another set of ES missiles who warp from behind and annihilate the GM Sniper II (Commander).
The remaining units go and blast away with GP03 dealing crippling damage to King J-Der, then ends with the Full Armor Gundam (Type B) with an impressive turn where the Triple Beam Rifle takes out GGG, the Antiship Missile takes out King J-Der, and its missile pod nearly taking out Big Volfogg
Round 3
RX78-2 is up first and Choryujin holds him off long enough to push him away with its twin cranes followed by a double rifle and double gun salvo, but the RX78-2 and its legendary Luna Titanium alloy shrug off the effects with some great rolls on Armor Saves.
Big Volfogg is unable to finish the Full Armor Gundam, who blasts him with its twin beam rifle then ascends the high ground and uses its shoulder mounted rocket launcher to wipe out Choryujin.
The GGG + J-Ark team were thoroughly defeated and a Zonder metal plant is constructed on Von Braun.
MechaStellar Designer Commentary
We had previously done a good number of tests with King J-Der as an opponent for Stellar Warships while doing the rules update for VER 8.7. One of the benefits of these tests was figuring out how strong to make the Generating Armor [Barrier] and how that would fare against beam heavy platforms like the Salamis or Musai class cruiser. We were fairly confident we had King J-Der with a good setup until this battle where he was thoroughly trounced (along with GaoGaiGar).
We went through this match up several times both with the standard rules as well as the SRW Module which gave more mobility to the Mobile Suits who could fire and move further backwards, as well as HP recovery via the Rally mechanic for super robots. Even still we found that the GGG + J-Ark team struggled quite a bit even when adjusting tactics and terrain layout.
We had several resolutions for this. The first was adjusting King J-Der’s equipment loadout to trim down his weapon output and improve HP. For GaoGaiGar we reevaluated several of his traits to see if they were worth the price or worthwhile in general on the unit, removed those to free up points to also upgrade his HP.
Then for ChoRyujin we had the idea that is in the current unit profile for him (and other combining Braves machines such as Exkizer) where after they combine they reset to full HP. This made for some fun gameplay where the player is encouraged to use HyoRyu and EnRyu for a bit, making use of the two turns per Round and the HP pool then combining them in a later Round to recover their HP to full. It worked out splendidly and made for some memorable games.
Lastly, we adjusted the Energy Reflection ability for GaoGaiGar’s Protect Shade and EnRyu’s Mirror Shield, which games them some much needed tools to deal with a large army. With those in place this game setup became a lot more balanced and didn’t feel like such a lopsided fight.
MechaStellar 