For this month’s MechaStellar update we are adding the classic Space Pirate Captain Harlock and the stellar warships for the Arcadia, the Queen Emeraldas as well as Harlock’s original ship the Death Shadow which was then salvaged and turned against him by his nemesis Zone.
Captain Harlock was created by the late Leiji Matsumoto the creator of several foundational anime and manga titles including Space Battleship Yamato, Galaxy Express 999. He has a very distinctive style and many of his works share common themes and even common characters which lead to some fans calling his works the ‘Leijiverse’.
One important thing is that when it comes to Captain Harlock, the worlds created by Leiji Matsumoto there are many stories told but not all of them are sequential or connected to each other, think of them as space operas that reuse many of the same characters and tell similar stories but often with different backdrops and time periods, some use the Harlock name in the title card while others (Gun Frontier, Cosmo Warrior Zero) do not.
Some fans have gone the extra mile and tried to put all the works into one continuum of several millennia but to be honest I think it’s best to enjoy each work on its own merits rather than trying to find all the strings to tie them together.
Captain Harlock was originally going to be part of the original Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers in the US), with Harlock being Kodai, Susumu’s older brother Mamoru, however the idea was set aside and Harlock ended up getting his own series.
(However, the PS2 Space Battleship Yamato game has Mamoru as the ship captain instead of the movies Yamanami, as the game progresses he becomes injured with a telltale scar and later leaves with his own ship with an Engineer named Tochiro. You watch it here: https://youtu.be/djNEU1w9ou8?si=lr62y0SQi4yCz_Cw&t=241 )
Harlock has both manga and anime adaptations, the initial TV run has Harlock in a blue ship with the Mazon’s (or Mazone) as the primary antagonists.
Following the success of Harlock it would eventually be made into a movie called “The Arcadia of my Youth” which in my opinion is one of the most gorgeous anime movies of the 80s. This is where things diverge, both in the ships’s design which is now redesigned, green and sports a 3rd set of triple-barrel cannons instead of the gargantuan knife of the original TV series.
It also changes Harlock’s backstory when the movie begins he is the last military captain of a war Earth waged against the Illumidas, who are entirely different from the Mazon.
The Green ship design would be the standard moving forward in all animated media, although there are plenty of fans of the original design and it still gets high quality diecast figures made by Aoshima and Bandai.
Following the success of the TV movie a TV show series would follow and continue the storyline called Arcadia of my Youth Endless Orbit: SSX. Another great entry for Harlock, but unfortunately with the recent rampant success of Mobile Suit Gundam it’s initially projected long run was trimmed down to and so finished after 22 episodes.
There was is also the Galaxy Express, featuring guest appearances by Harlock or Emeraldas in both the slow building TV show and the action packed movie reimagining.
After that there are many more entries for Harlock but none of them are going to be strictly sequels to either the TV show or Arcadia of my Youth, although you will see references to the previous works scattered around. For instance Endless Odyssey while sporting a similar name to Endless Orbit and the same ship design, is instead set after the TV shows Mazon conflict, but you can easily watch the show and never notice the link.
There’s also a CGI film which is just another retelling of Harlock’s story with the same supporting cast and magnificent pirate battleship, the Arcadia.
Generally when it comes to the Harlock stories most of them will involves Harlock and Tochiro or Harlock and Tadashi Daiba with frequent appearances by Emeraldas. You may see the same story told with the same characters with a different backdrop several times but each of them are enjoyable in their own right.
For MechaStellar we are adding in The Arcadia of my Youth version of the Arcadia although we allow players the option to convert it to the TV show loadout, or additional modifications for Endless Orbit SSX and Endless Odyssey. The Arcadia also sports a new mechanic to represent all the times Harlock will storm an enemy ship and execute the enemy Captain. We’ve also included the Queen Emeraldas and Harlocks previous ship the Death Shadow.
We’ve also recently completed an overhaul to Warships which allow them to be played just as you would a Mobile Suit or Super Robot and removing some of the previous rules regarding readying and firing weapons which while fun, could be cumbersome if you were running multiple ships.
You can see some battleshots of the Arcadia here.
On top of that we are releasing MechaStellar VER9.4 after a lot of great feedback from the community. This update is pushing some of the pilot abilities back to being passive bonuses rather than being Momentum driven, for older players parts of this will feel similar to VER7 while giving attackers and defenders an important choice when an attack occurs. You can read more about that here.
Below is a summary of updates
MechaStellar Core Rules Updates VER 9.4
- All units gain the following offensive & defensive options
- Attacker chooses Precision (+1 Shooting Accuracy) or Burst Fire (+1 Shot)
- Skilled Pilots improve these bonuses to +2
- The Defender choose either Dodge (Evade+1) or Guard (+1 Block, stacks with Shields/Cover) or Counter (+1 Hit in Melee).
- Ace Pilots improve the bonuses to +2
- Attacker chooses Precision (+1 Shooting Accuracy) or Burst Fire (+1 Shot)
- Criticals
- You always Evade on a roll of 9 or 10. In Melee you crit on a 9 or 10.
- Shooting Crits are on a 1 or 2. Target Lock increases it to 1,2 or 3.
- Upgraded Challenge to give +1 Crit if the enemy is a Level 1+ Pilot
- Made Revenge a special case for Challenge instead of Tactical Advantage
- Updated the Focus action and allowed it to interact with IDF.
- Removed the Size 3+ clause from Melee added it to the “Slow and Laborious Trait”
- Full Power & World Shaking Havoc – Updated to integrate Push/Pull weapons.
- Updated the following Skills & Traits
- Remove Ace Evade & Flawless Ace Evade
- M.I.C., Bullseye, Tear through Ranks, Improvise, Seize the Day, Unbeaten.
- Legendary / Renowned Pilot, Immortal, Elusive, Deadeye / Marksman, Untouchable, Lone Wolf / Operative, Tactician, Fearsome.
- Merged Renowned Pilot & Seasoned Veteran; Deadeye and Furious Fusillade; Merged Merciless & Melee Mastery; Heroic Spirit & Steel Resolve.
- Commanders gain access to all pilot skills even if they are a basic pilot
- Upgraded Decimator and Unyielding Commander Traits
- Clarified multi-target abilities
- The High Ground penalty gives +1 Hit against you instead of +1 Accuracy
- Based on feedback simplified the Destroying Terrain module
- Updated Shield Breaks for Gritty Battles
- Stellar Warfare
- Removed the Hangar stat, Warships gain access to Full Power.
- Warships now use one action to fire one weapon just like all other units.
- Ships can spend [M-2] to Dodge an attack
Wargame Rules & Mission Packs
- Updated Pilot Skills and Requisition Table in Sandbox & Narrative Mission Packs
- Made a note about duplicate effects in Wargame rules
- Added Warship upgrades – +1 Action = +50pts, Power, Repair 100HP +10pts
- Moved expanded skills to wargame rules under highly skilled MS Pilot
Unit Profile Adjustments
- Unit Profile Summary
- Adjusted points on several units
- Super Heavy / Kaiju get +1 Evade
- Finished converting Warships to a Super Heavy profile. Several units received considerable improvements to HP, Actions & Movement. Several units were rebalanced and had costs adjusted.
- Reworked how Size affects HP & EQ to simplify points cost formulas.
- With every unit getting the option for accuracy bonus, reversed a previous weapon update that gave auto-hits to short range weapons like tomahawk boomerang, rocket punch, drill missiles, hurricanes, stun attacks etc.
- Updated [CC] weapons to gain a bonus on size, i.e. Smash is ARM PEN 5P, Gigantic Smash is 7P
- Updated Awe Inspiring Arrival (Showtime, Mirror Coating Deployment) to be more flexible in Round 1 if you only control a single unit. Updated Stealth to only be 16″
- Simplified Armor traits (i.e. Super Alloy Z) for Gundam Wing, Mazinger, Big O, Evangelion
- Removed Shoulder Shields, gave those units an HP Upgrade instead
- Updated Newtype to give bonus blocks instead of rerolls
- Based on feedback reduced the growth of Sensors upgrades
MechaStellar 