The latest update has quite a bit of changes both to the Core Rules, Wargaming supplement and the Unit Profile sheets. In this post we’ll cover a brief overview. Which we’ve broken into three segments. Some of these we will cover more in depth in follow-up posts. For the first segment let’s cover Quality of Life QoL updates.
HexaStellar Update
The forthcoming Gundam Assemble will introduce Gundam wargaming on a hex scale to the world. We’re really excited for it! We also wanted to make MechaStellar compatible with Hexes (and also square grids) for people who don’t like using tape measures. We’ve made all ranges divisible by 4 for Sensors, Movement, and Weapon ranges. In general, around half of all units ended up receiving a movement boost, so you should have some more mobility in your games. We’ve also updated facing rules to be easier to use with hexes where turning 90 degrees is not as easy.
Challenge Update
We got some feedback from a regular player that Challenge had a big loophole where if you are down to a 1-on-1 game, the player going second wouldn’t be able to challenge and thus it would invalidate a lot of the challenge focused pilot traits if they lost initiative. We’ve fixed this and now allow for Challenge to be declared before any unit activates.
Pilot Traits
Recently we’ve got some playtest feedback that some of the Pilot Traits were getting a little too lethal. Previously Reaper (+2 Hits, +2 Crits vs Challenge) and Ruthless (+4 Hits on Counter / IDF / AOE) were so powerful on a turn by turn basis, that even relatively nimble mobile suits were still getting one shot even when maxing out defense bonuses. We haven’t done an overhaul on pilot traits for a while, so we took our old notes along with the new feedback. Overall, we ended up consolidating a lot of pilot traits to having a shared Level 1 origin, that branches out to a stronger or more varied Level II effect. A lot of the insta-picks like the level 1 version of Reaper, are now Level 2 only for that reason. Overall, we’re happy with pilot traits becoming a little simpler and easier to remember while taking away some of the lethality there.
Oh and as a bonus you can now take a 2nd Level II trait in the upgrade rules. Look forward to this on the Captain Harlock sheets. (Do note, Warship rebalances are taking a long time, so they likely won’t be ready for another couple weeks).
MechaStellar 