MechaStellar VER10 Preview – Morale

This is a continuation of our previous post which featured Amuro in the Gundam shooting at a Dom, thanks to the Pilot Skills Focus and Zeal he was able to blow up the Dom with his beam rifle. Now we’ll look at the Morale Mechanic

On a Mecha Profile you’ll see at the end of the profile a section called Morale with a value such as 7+ or 5+. This is the target number you need to roll on a d10 when you make a Morale check. If you are trying to improve your Morale this is called Rally Morale. The opposite occurs when one of your forces is destroyed, this is called a Morale Save vs Rout.

Rally Morale gives you Momentum when you pass save, Rout gives you Momentum when the enemy fails their Morale save.

Once per Round, your Mission Commander can issue one of two orders.

• Trust
  • After rolling Defense, choose an ally to make 3 Morale Saves to Rally.
    • Faith: In Round 4+ you instead make 5 Morale Saves.
• Daunt
  • After destroying an enemy, all their allies within 12” roll a Morale Save vs Rout.

(Like with Pilot Skills the names are pulled the Super Robot Wars (Super Robot Taisen) games, which is a favorite among the devs and updated to fit within the MechaStellar mechanics.)

In this case Amuro in the Gundam just destroyed an enemy unit. There are 3x Zaku IIs within 12″. Each of the Zaku IIs will have to make a Morale Save vs Rout.

The Zaku rolls a d10 and needs a 7+, for each failed save Amuro’s forces gain [M+1].

The Zaku’s rolled [3,5,7] = two failed saves giving Amuro [M+2].

If he hadn’t already used the Zeal action, those two extra Momentum would have been great to blow up a Zaku. Instead they’ll be used to protect him later in the Round.

If you’re curious about the percentages involves, Rout requires the enemy to fails saves, in this case they need a 7+. Trust, has you Rally Morale with your own save, in this case Amuro has a 5+. If there are 3 enemies within range, here are the percentages for each.

Trust on a 5+ dice

• [M+0] Zero success ~6%
• [M+1] At least one success ~94%
• [M+2] At least two success ~65%
• [M+3] Three success ~22%

Daunt on a 7+ with three dice

• [M+0] All enemies pass saves ~6%
• [M+1] At least one enemy fails a save ~94%
• [M+2] At least two enemies fail a save ~65%
• [M+3] All three enemies fail their save ~22%

So identical percentages. On a d10 the average is 5.5, so a 5 or a 6 can be considered an average result, thus the identical numbers.

If there are only 2 enemies, there’s worse odds, but if there are more than 3 enemies within 12″ then it’s better odds.

Additionally, Trust can only be used when you’re being attacked. So while it’s a life saver sometimes, it’s also a gamble and primarily used for defensive purposes while Rout often gives you bonus Momentum to immediately use on Zeal, or to use on a later turn with Valor for instance.