Author: Red Noa

Mecha Enthusiast Gundam Collector Super Robot Wars Enjoyer

Rules Updates in the Pipeline

Hello everyone,

Here are three rules updates and a balance update we are working on for the next few months.

  • Core Rules – Engagement Range

We get asked about this one a lot, especially for people who use Gunpla. Right now the only rules difference between using different sized models is the smaller ones have a 3″ engagement range and the larger ones have a 5″ engagement range.

The reason for that is 3″ works great for the 1/400 scale measuring center-line to center line while a 5″ engagement range looks a bit silly with how far it is. For all other figures and model kits the 5″ range looks more realistic, and depending on how you model your kit or the figure you are using their outstretched sword is often around 5″ in range.

To keep things simple we’re going to keep the 3″ engagement range only for the 1/400 range (or any other Mecha figure 2″ and smaller) while all other figures will switch to the 5″ engagement range. We tried it out with the 1/300 and 1/200 Gundam figures and generally everyone was happier with the result.

  • Core Rules – Target Lock

Just some general feedback we’ve gotten is that Target Lock is helpful for beam weapons and somewhat useful for artillery and bazookas but doesn’t do much for machine guns and similar PEN 0 weapons. We’re still evaluating two solutions to this, one of which will favor Sniper units but we want to make sure it doesn’t become too unbalancing or wind up heavily favoring artillery units instead.

  • Wargame Rules – Objective Secured

10th edition 40k has “Sticky Objectives” which lets you keep control of an objective after you take it over which is very handy for armies with low model counts. We’re considering doing something similar, that way if you want to run a force of say Amuro, Kai and Hayato vs a large Zeon force you won’t be struggling to keep and hold objectives.

We have a fun battle report test we’ll post on this one in the future.

  • Balance – Melee Weapons

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback about GaoGaiGar as well as Getter Dragon regarding High Crit melee weapons, so the Goldion Hammer and Getter Tomahawk. They are unfortunately still dominating melee combats. We’re going to adjust those two weapons to have a different damage value, similar to how the short range / thrown weapons work now where the high crit weapons like Tomahawk Boomerang or Wrecking Ball have a lower damage compared to Rocket Punch.

We may end up doing an overhaul on all melee weapons, for instance a Beam Saber may end up being DMG 400 instead of 500 but that warrants further analysis.

As always thanks to everyone who submit their battle report data to the google form. If you haven’t used it yet, it’s a pretty quick form and you can skip any of the section regarding Secondary Objectives and optional rules if you don’t use them. It also does not require an email address.

https://forms.gle/PJn5c66JoyJRFtTKA

Please let us know if you have any thoughts on the above upcoming changes.

[MS] – Gurren Lagann Miniatures

In these post we’ll go through some of the miniature, models and figures you can use for Gurren Lagann while playing a game of MechaStellar.

When playing MechaStellar we advise you to pick either a Versus movie scale (all figures are roughly the same height) or an approximate scale where some very large robots (i.e. 100+ meter robots like Daitarn 3 or Ideon) are represented by larger figures while everything else is around the same height. You can read more about the recommended size and scale here.

First let’s start with the smallest figure available. Pictured above is one of the Gurren Lagann Gashapon (capsule toy) next to other gashapon toys with the RX 78-2 Gundam (1/400 scale) on the left and Mazinger Z on the right.

Continue reading “[MS] – Gurren Lagann Miniatures” →

MechaStellar Roster Update – Sept 2023 – Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

For this month’s update we have long awaited Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!  This is a fondly remembered mecha show that became a phenomenon when it first released in 2007 being picked up by a large swath of the anime blogging community and soaring in popularity on various image message boards and forums being enjoyed by mecha fans and general viewers alike, it was later picked up for US Broadcast in 2008.

Continue reading “MechaStellar Roster Update – Sept 2023 – Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann” →

Asteroid Terrain for Gundam and other Mecha figures

One of the hallmarks of MechaStellar is combat with a backdrop against the stars. In this post we’ll look at a quick way to create asteroid terrain for your space battles. You will need some lava rock which you can find at garden or home improvement store or even Amazon as well as some clear acrylic flying stands and lastly a drill to put some holes into the rock. Below you’ll some photos of the asteroids and Gundam figures of various scales.

Continue reading “Asteroid Terrain for Gundam and other Mecha figures” →

MechaStellar Monthly Roster Update – Aug23

For this month’s roster update we have a long awaited update to the Stellar Warship roster for Mobile Suit Gundam. In addition to standard ship of the line units like the Magellan class battleship or the Chivvay heavy cruiser we’ve also expanded the roster to include heavy hitters like the Gwazine and the infamous White Base.

Continue reading “MechaStellar Monthly Roster Update – Aug23” →

MechaStellar Monthly Roster Update – July 2023

For this month’s update we are adding new units from Gundam Wing including some units requested by one of our all-star players that come from side story manga called Gundam Wing G-Unit, and was released in the US as Gundam Wing Last Outpost. 

First up we have the upgraded version for most of the Gundam Wing pilots including Deathscythe Hell, Altron, Sandrock Custom and Heavy Arms Custom.  We are using the Endless Waltz (EW) versions for imagery but we are keeping some of the original weaponry such as Sandrocks Beam Submachinegun and Altron’s Beam Stinger which were not present in the EW Movie.  Heavy Arms however, we kept the greatly expanded loadout from EW because who doesn’t love 4x Gatling Guns.

In addition to that we’ve expanded the unit roster for Oz with the Taurus and Virgo units.  While the Taurus is present in the Gundam 1/400 collection the Virgo unfortunately is not.  You can however find SD versions of the Virgo which we have used in playtesting, it’s a little bigger and bulkier but at least the height is close enough to the 1/400 scale.  These mobile dolls are powerful units and we’ve opted to try and make them as cheap as possible while maintaining their key abilities, this way your Gundam Wing pilots can mow them down by the dozens.

As a reminder you can always use proxy figures while playing, if you have a dozen 1/400 Rick Doms and want to use them as Virgo’s instead, go nuts!  Some ingenious players will use standees to hold a printed out image of a Mobile Suit, similar to what you’d see in a lot of board games where a tiny plastic clip (standee) is holding up a cardstock image instead of a traditional miniature.  And of course there are always virtual tabletops.

We’ve also included the Tallgeese II piloted by Treize Kushrenada, the Virgo II from White Fang, and the Mercurius and Vayeate used by Heero and Trowa while they fought off Quatre in the Wing Zero.  (Wing Zero & Epyon along with Burning & Master Gundam are Tier 3 units and we’re holding off on those for a while longer). 

Gundam Wing G-Unit / The Last Outpost is a sidestory taking place near the end of the TV series before White Fang is defeated.  A colony that was developed Gundams comes into conflict with an Elite OZ unit, the Stardust Knights.  We’ve included the custom Leos from the Stardust Knights as well as the variants for the Mecurius and Vayeate that appear in the sidestory.  The principal protagonists and antagonists, the G-Units, Hydra Gundam and others will be released at a later date, they still need additional time for development and playtesting.

That’s all for this month, we have another Gundam update next month then after that we will have Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!

Mecha Unit Profiles can be found on the game downloads page: https://mechastellar.com/game-downloads/

MechaStellar Unit Roster Update – June 2023 – GaoGaiGar

For this month’s update we are adding additional units from The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar. This includes the massive King J-Der, upgraded forms of the original characters released last month, along with Gekiryujin and lastly the rock and roll robot Mic Saunders the 13th. We are also adding in our first Stellar Warships from a Super Robot series with the Amaterasu, the Izanagi and Susanoh.

King J-Der is the rival to our protagonist GaoGaiGar, he is an enemy of the 31 Machine Primevals and thus frequently finds himself fighting on the same side as GaoGaiGar. Gekiryujin is the younger counterpart to Chouryujin, who grows the most after watching the altruistic nature of Choryujin (formed by the two brothers HoRyu & EnRyu). Lastly, Mic Saunders the 13th is often the comic relief but also the more unique robot of the series, using different discs and harmonics to accomplish a wide variety of effects. You can also include his 12 brothers to form a brigade on the tabletop.

We have a post on GaoGaiGar gashapon miniatures and larger figures such as Super Minipla and Super Robot Chogokin here: https://mechastellar.com/2023/04/28/mechastellar-gaogaigar-miniatures-and-other-yuusha-series/

Next month will be a Gundam roster update.

Next Series Poll Results and Update Schedule JUN23

Good afternoon everyone,

On the game downloads page we keep a poll to track user feedback on which mecha series they’d like to see added to the roster next. Normally we select the top two options of the poll which usually ends up being a Gundam show and a Super Robot show.

Thanks to a recent article by wargamer (https://www.wargamer.com/warhammer-40k-meets-gundam-mechastellar) we saw a huge spike in traffic for the month of May. As a result we also got a lot more votes in our poll for which series will be added to the roster next.

Before we got a huge surge in traffic, the top two choices were “The next Gundam AU” and “70s Super Robot Show” which was just barely beating TTGL and Dunbine. As you can see the results have changed quite a bit since then with TTGL taking a much larger share of votes.

To keep things fair, we are going to go with 3 choices winning this poll instead of 2. So in addition to the next Gundam AU (After War Gundam X) and TTGL, we are also going to do a 70s Super Robot Show since it was formerly the 2nd place finisher. For these we’ll do Combattler V & Voltes V.

Also, looks like we don’t have too many fans of the Braves series. If you’ve never heard of it before check out this post here: https://mechastellar.com/2023/05/29/where-to-start-the-braves-yuusha-series/

Here’s a roster look ahead for the next few months

  • June – GaoGaiGar part 2 (King J-Der, Gekirujin, etc.)
  • July-August – Gundam update
  • September – Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann

We’ll most likely have a draft for Combattler V & Voltes V in June or July. New poll has been added to the downloads page.