Hello everyone, for this month’s update we are adding in additional fighters from Mobile Fighter G Gundam from the first half of the show. Super Robots have also been adjusted to have higher HP values. We’ve also added in some requested some units from Gundam Wing including the Mercurius and Vayeate as well as the Leo variants from the G-Unit side story.
You can find the new data sheets and rules here.
On top of that we’ve also reworked the elite pilot bonus for melee to add some more excitement into the game. On the offense side, “Tear through the Ranks” has returned and now allows you to cleave with your beam saber into another unit. “Power Strike” has also been reworked so it no longer breaks the sequence of operations. On the defense side we’ve added in “Retaliate” which allows you to shift your priorities towards counterattack, instead of defense to give you some more of the VER7/8/9 feel.
We’ve also updated Finishing Blow in honor of G Gundam (and our Super Robot fans) to make these easier to land with certain iconic weapons. While the original mechanics for Finishing Blow still apply to say machine guns and rifles, weapons with the “Finisher” bonus now require only 3+hits in order to strike a Finishing Blow. This means that outstanding martial arts attack from Shining Gundam or Voltes V Heaven’s Sword V Slash are easier to land.
On the flip side, the outcome of Finishing Blow has changed. Now if you strike a Finishing Blow, you roll a d10 for each unblocked hit; the same mechanic as an Armor Save, but with a cap of 10 dice; the catch is that for each 10 you roll your Finishing Blow deals 1000 damage. Finisher Weapons give bonus dice.
Let’s use Shining Gundam as an example: His S(hining Gundam) Martial Arts [Close Combat] attack has Finisher+2. He lands 5 unblocked hits and triggers a Finishing Blow. He roll 5d10 and gets +2d10 thanks to Finisher+2. He rolls 7d10 and gets [3,4,6,6,8,10,10] = 2000 DMG on the Finishing Blow. In this case it’s less lethal than the old system, but there’s a lot more variance and sometimes the dice will reward you with an extremely memorable moment where you strike a Finishing Blow for 7000 DMG.
Last but not least, we have added in Climactic Events optional module to the Wargaming rules supplement. This module allows you to choose up to three Climactic Events and play one during the course of gameplay to strongly enhance or save your units. There’s also a companion module for Battlefield Hazards which plays the same but has hazards that affect your opponent instead. These have been a lot of fun for our playtesters so we hope you enjoy them.
There have been a couple minor balance tweaks, and one error fix where most “Interceptor” units for AU Gundam’s were incorrectly showing a much higher melee bonus. The most important balance update is a test run for certain reroll weapons like Vulcans and the humble Rocket Anchor which can now be used as a free action. This is being done to help out smaller elite armies deal with larger armies. While a good idea on paper it may also break the game, so for our players who excel at finding strong combos please push this one to the limit. Additionally, the core pilot skill Zeal has been updated to make it easier for units with a single weapon to deal with horde armies, now the iconic RX-78-2 can blast through several Zakus with its beam rifles with only a few momentum.
MechaStellar 