Momentum has been a core part of the rules for a very long time and has undergone several transformations, both in how it can be used, how many you can have, and how you are able to generate it. In this post we’ll look at how it’s changed in VER10.
It may surprise you but at one point there was no limit on Momentum. But have a very large team battle we had several years ago with friends, we realized when one team had 30+ Momentum and the other struggled with 7, that we needed a cap on it. So that’s why in modern day MechaStellar, Momentum is capped at 10.
Momentum gain was pretty static for a very long time. You could gain [M+1] for
- Destroying a unit
- Making a Melee Attack
- Simply surviving the Round
The first one had a limitation placed on it, that way units with AOE or multiple actions weren’t generating more Momentum and receiving an unfair advantage compared to your standard grunt unit.
Melee was also clarified that only gain Momentum on your turn, and only once that way you couldn’t use Tear through the Ranks and instantly recover all your spent Momentum after cleaving through several units.
Surviving the Round was upgraded, and moved to the Wargame rules supplement. Now, you gain [M+1] for each Control Point (aka an Objective for our 40k players) you hold at the end of the Round so you can gain anywhere from [M+1] to [M+5] every Round.
Two Commander traits allowed for serious Momentum generation. Rallying Leader gave you momentum when your units were destroyed, while Resourceful gave you bonus Momentum at the end of each Round. The latter is considered by some players to be the strongest Commander trait, solely based on the versatility of having that extra Momentum every Round. Often times when one player had an extreme momentum advantage it became very hard for the other player to recover, so that’s something we had to consider for future updates.
Players could also gain Momentum from Pilot Traits. The very first pilot trait in MechaStellar was Renowned Pilot and its been generating [M+1] for many years. Fighting Spirit initially gave combat bonuses when below 50% HP but later transformed into the far less complicated version that could give bonus Momentum. It them spawned similar traits that would instead give Momentum when above 50% HP.
Several traits used to enhance the core mechanic giving bonus Momentum for melee attacks and destroying units. Hot Blooded / Driven was changed in VER9 to instead give Momentum when you move closer to the enemy or end in engagement range instead of requiring a melee attack. Small tweaks like this give us a chance to test out potential future ideas on the unit profile before doing a core rules revision. This is one of them.
Momentum Limiters
In Version 10 we want Momentum to be more limited in how you gain it, while also giving some advantages for losing players to turn things around and try to make a last grasp for victory. Here’s what we have planned for VER 10.
- Morale rules.
- In this game you will make Morale Saves either to Rally or prevent a Rout.
- Rally – When you pass a Morale Save gain [M+1].
- Rout – When you fail a Morale Save your opponent gains [M+1]
- Roll a d10 to make a Morale Save, your unit profile lists the target number I.E. 7+, 5+, etc.
- Once per Round your Mission Commander can choose to either Rally their forces or Rout the enemy.
- Additionally, if a Level 1+ Pilot/Kaiju/Captain is defeated all their allies make a Morale Save vs Rout.
- In this game you will make Morale Saves either to Rally or prevent a Rout.
- You still gain Momentum for holding Control Points at the end of the Round
- Momentum gain from Pilot Traits is much more uncommon.
- Momentum Shifts
- You gain Momentum when you move closer to the nearest enemy unit.
- Conversely, you lose Momentum when you retreat from the nearest enemy unit.
- Momentum shifts only occur when your Momentum is less than 3.
- Momentum Shifts do not occur when your opponent is out of activations.
- Starting Momentum is 10 but is lowered for each Skilled / Ace Pilot you bring into battle
Of these Momentum Shifts is worth expounding on. Momentum shifts is based off the revised Hot Blooded trait which gave Momentum for moving closer to the enemy. This revision was done to make the skill more viable for units that are quite frankly bad at melee. Nothing wrong with a hotblooded mech strapped down with more cannons than you have fingers.
With this we had a way for any Mech design to generate Momentum, we then started experimenting with this as a core rule instead of a pilot specific trait back about 5 months ago. Early tests found it to be more fun than requiring a melee attack, but it needed some serious limiters, as well as some caveats.
For instance, what if you’re already in melee? For this the language was updated to also give Momentum if you ended your move action in engagement range, this way you can circle around your opponent in melee and still generate Momentum (while also protecting your vulnerable backside).
For limiters there were two in particular that were crucial. The first was limiting how much Momentum you could gain from these actions. If a unit by default has 2 move actions, and potentially a 3rd from using it’s attack action to instead accelerate forward, that’s [M+3] in one turn. Overall, that’s a good thing, since it allows a losing player a chance to quickly recover Momentum. In the theater of the mind we can envision this as our hero making one last charge. The problem is, if there’s no cap, then within a couple turns you can quickly go from 0 to M=10 real fast!
We’ve been experimenting with Momentum shifts occur at [M<5] and [M<3]. Right now [M<3] feels like the sweet spot, since it’s also the number for the most pivotal Pilot Skills (Flash, Iron Wall and Valor), but we may decide to up it with time.
The other limiter we had to put in place was that Momentum shifts do not occur when your opponent is out of activations. This way horde armies don’t generate infinite Momentum. What I mean by this is, if you’re at 0 Momentum and your opponent is out of activations you get to activate your entire army one by one, more-or-less, without interruption.
To use one of our test series as an example, Amuro, Kai and Hayato in the Gundam, Guncannon, and Guntank faced off against Char’s Zaku, 3 Doms and a couple platoons of Zaku IIs. After their 3 actions were up, the Zeon player would activate a Zaku and accelerate to go from M=0 to M=3. Activate a Dom, use Valor to attack. Then repeat, essentially getting a free powerful skill for every Dom, while the defending player could do nothing about it. It really killed the joy of doing a elite force vs a horde army and so we had to reel that in quickly. One silver lining though, is that the player with the horde army can then let their units retreat without penalty after the other player is out of activations.
Last but not least, we have Pilots. We decided a while back that we wanted starting Momentum to be independent of army points. This was a legacy item from 40k, which worked fine for traditional armies, but didn’t work so great when one person brought a single 500pt unit. We also noticed people felt discouraged to do higher point games, and so often started with few Momentum.
For VER10 we initially tried out an older system, similar to VER4 iirc, where starting Momentum was 5 or your combined Pilot levels, whichever was greater. This was fine for the most part, but heavily rewarded people who brought a lot of Skilled / Ace pilots. Later on we had an epiphany while army building. The idea was that it would be nice if some heroic units were cheaper, the idea became what if we made Pilot levels points free, and instead lowered starting Momentum.
This idea was a big hit, especially on the layout editing side, because now you could list a unit with an Ace or Skilled Pilot without affecting it’s overall points cost. It was also favorite by players who prefer named pilots for obvious reasons.
We tried out a few variations but eventually settled on a starting Momentum of 10, but [M-2] for each Skilled or Ace Pilot you bring into battle. We’ve been working on lowering the gap between Skilled and Ace Pilots, that way people who prefer lore accurate pilots don’t feel as though they have nerfed themselves by not upgrading them to Aces, still Aces are a cut above the rest. As you’ll see in a little bit, pilots are still a force multiplier but they bring some risks into your battle when it comes to Morale and Victory points.
The Momentum system for VER10 is still very much a work in progress and it’s current state is essentially two competing ideas being included, one is Momentum shifts the other is Morale. There is a good possibility that one of those will get scrapped and will expand the other system instead, depending on what works well, what feels more balanced and what players like more.
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