Author: Red Noa

Mecha Enthusiast Gundam Collector Super Robot Wars Enjoyer

MechaStellar VER9.4 – Monthly Roster Update JAN24 – Captain Harlock

For this month’s MechaStellar update we are adding the classic Space Pirate Captain Harlock and the stellar warships for the Arcadia, the Queen Emeraldas as well as Harlock’s original ship the Death Shadow which was then salvaged and turned against him by his nemesis Zone.

Captain Harlock was created by the late Leiji Matsumoto the creator of several foundational anime and manga titles including Space Battleship Yamato, Galaxy Express 999.  He has a very distinctive style and many of his works share common themes and even common characters which lead to some fans calling his works the ‘Leijiverse’. 

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Collecting Super Robot Figures and Miniatures

On this page we’re going to discuss the different miniatures available for Classic Super Robots of the 70s and the 80s to be used with the MechaStellar Wargame Rules. This post will feature Super Robots Wars (SRW) Gashapon trading figures made by Banpresto and also Yujin. After that we’ll look at larger size figures such as Super Minipla and Gokin such as the Soul of Chogokin series. 

Note that Mazinger and Getter Robo are extremely popular Super Robot series with lots of merchandise so we have posts specifically about those franchises you can read about here and here.

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VER9.4 Playtests – Dodge / Guard / Counter

Below you’ll find some recent playtest photos for testing out VER9.4 which will be updating how pilots work, taking a lot of their Momentum driven abilities and turning them into passive abilities instead.

Now, when a mobile suit is the target of a shooting attack they can choose to Dodge (+1 Evade) or to Guard (+1 Block). When they are in Melee they can choose to Counter (+1 Hit) or Guard (+1 Block).

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Roster Update – January 2024 – HP Upgrades

Here are the updated unit rosters early this month. All Frame 2+ unit received an HP boost.  Some units were adjusted to keep their old HP and instead improve Sensors, Move or their weapons.  The Dom series, a staple grunt for Zeon has had its cost reduced. Lastly, rebalanced GP02 Physalis.

You can find them on the game-downloads page here: https://mechastellar.com/game-downloads/

Be sure to check out the DRAFT VER9.4 Rules here: https://mechastellar.com/ver9-drafts/

MechaStellar VER 9.4 Design Goals – Evade and Guard

While it may not be apparent nowadays the three primary inspirations for MechaStellar were the MS Era tabletop game by IronHands, The Official Gundam 1/400 Tactical Collection rules, and of course Warhammer 40k.  Many of the early mechanics in VER1 and VER2 had some direct similarities but in the years since then the game has changed and developed in a lot of different ways.

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Playtests – Captain Harlock The Arcadia of my Youth

I had the downstairs 8ft table setup for a 2v2 2000pt each 40k game not too long ago. While the table was cleared off and setup for gaming I thought it would be a great time to get in some test games with Captain Harlock’s ship, The Arcadia, on a grand table befitting such a grand ship. Below the great are photos from various tests.

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Battle Report – Combattler V & GX Versus Gundam Virsago and Shin Mazinger

Here’s a 2v2 battle report using the MechaStellar VER9.3 Rules featuring two of our newer units, the GX from Gundam X and Combattler V against Gundam Virsago and Mazinger witht he God Scrander. We are using the SRW Optional Module which doubles HP, provides bonuses for Real Robots and Super Robots and most importantly provides secondary objectives for bonus Victory Points (VP).

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[MS] Battle Report – GaoGaiGar vs the Zonderized Federation Lunar Base

This is one of the many test games we did for GaoGaiGar in the last several months. For this series of games the setting is a SRW style Earth with multiple factions. This is a sequel to this GGG battle report.

The narrative was that the GGG organization failed to capture the Zonder machine lifeform which escaped into space and began to transform an Anaheim Electronics lab into a Zonder metal plant. The Lab housed several older Gundam and GM Types for testing as well as several newer prototypes which were zonderized and used to fight the GGG + J-Ark Team.

Below the break you’ll find a write-up for the battle report as well as an after action report and MechaStellar designer commentary.

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