MechaStellar VER10 Preview – Attack & Pilot Skill Example

In this preview we’ll be using the RX-78-2 Gundam and the MS-09 Dom. In our previous post we looked at an example of using the attack action. For this post we’ll combine the attack action with some useful Pilot Skills.

The Dom wins initiative and goes first. It fires its Giant Bazooka which has +4 bonus Hits from the Dom’s performance and combat roll.

The Bazooka has Attack of 5d10 so the Dom player rolls 5d10 and gets [1,3,3,4,10] = 1 Crit = 2 Hits.

The Dom player uses the Focus pilot skill, this allows the unit to Hit on a 3+ instead of a 5+ for [M-1]. Now the Dom has 3 Hits and 1 Crit = 5 Hits. With the +4 Bonus Hits this brings the Total up to 9 Hits.

9 Hits from a Giant Bazooka can lead to a deadly demise, fortunately, this isn’t the MSG novelization by Tomino so Amuro will survive a bazooka impact!

The Gundam has an Evade of 6d10, below the 8d10 average of most Mobile Suits thanks to it’s sturdy shield which provides +2 DEF on both Evade and Melee. It’s Luna Titanium armor lets it reroll 1s on Armor Saves, since most conventional weapons have PEN 2, this make it virtually invulnerable to most of those weapons (except for when you are unlucky enough to reroll a 1 into a 1).

The Gundam also has +1 bonus DEF. Additionally, since Amuro is a Level 1+ Pilot they can choose a pilot bonus on defense, either Dodge, Guard or Counter. To keep things simple, Amuro goes with Guard giving +1 Block, for this example we gave him a pilot trait that instead gives him +2 Blocks when using Guard.

With those 3 and the +2 from the Shield we’re already up to 5 Blocks before rolling dice.

Some players find it easier, to count up their bonus DEF and then roll dice. For instance if you know you have five bonus DEF already, after rolling your dice, you start picking up hits 1 at a time while counting.
So with 5 DEF already, you roll your dice, then you start picking up DEF (5+) one at a time while counting, six, seven, eight, etc. until you run out of DEF to pickup. You can do the same with HIT rolls.

The player rolls 6d10 and gets [1,4,5,9,9] = 3 DEF. This brings the total up to 8 DEF.

Amuro will also use the Focus skill for [M-1] this lets him Defend on a 3+ instead of a 5+, so that 4 gives +1 DEF bringing the total to 9 DEF.

The Gundam’s shield holds strong as it survives the deadly impact of the Dom’s giant bazooka. Now it’s time to return fire.

On the Gundam’s turn Amuro fires its Beam Rifle at the Dom. The Gundam gets +4 Hits while shooting, as a Level 1+ Pilot Amuro also gets a pilot bonus, either Bullseye (higher crit range) or Barrage for +1 Hit. To keep it simple, Amuro goes with barrage bringing the total bonus hits up to 5.

The beam rifle is attack 6d10 and Amuro rolls [1,2,5,5,7,7] = 4 Hits. This brings the total up to 9 Hits.

The Dom has Evade 8d10 with +2 bonus DEF, they roll [3,3,4,5,6,7,8,8] = 5 DEF on a lucky roll!

The Dom player spends [M-1] to Focus so they Defend on a 3+, this gives another 3 DEF for a total of 8 DEF rolled. They have +2 bonus DEF on top of that bringing the total to 11 DEF.

The speedy Dom nimbly avoids the beam rifle shots.

Amuro could end their turn their, but the player isn’t finished yet, this isn’t the Amuro we know after all. Time to lay down a barrage of beams and nuke every Mobile Suit on the battlefield!

The player uses the Zeal action [M-2] for +2 Actions. (It costs 2 actions to fire the same weapon again). And they fire once more.

Amuro goes with barrage for +5 bonus Hits. They roll 6d10 with the beam rifle and get [1,2,5,6,7,10] = 3 Hits & 1 Crit = 5 Hits. The total is now 10 Hits.

The Dom rolls 8d10 with +2 bonus DEF and gets [1,1,2,4,6,8,9,9] = 4 DEF with +2 bonus for 6 DEF.

The Dom player considers using Focus, that would give them 1 more DEF for a total of 7, even so there would be 3 unblocked hits from the Beam rifle and 3 Armor Saves with it. The Dom player decides to take the hits and unfortunately rolls poorly on armor saves and explodes in classic mobile suit pink explosion.