Next Roster Addition Poll Results

Here’s a quick update for the poll we have on the game-downloads page. We keep an eye on this poll to see what our players would like to see added to the roster next. The last poll saw G Gundam and GaoGaiGar as the top two results for the poll. Since we’ve updated the poll, Aura Battler Dunbine took an early lead but was taken later that month later by Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.

Based on the polls now we’ve had a lot of Gundam fans stop by, since the next Gundam AU is currently taking the lion’s share of of votes. In 2nd place is a 70s Super Robot Show (Combattler V, Daitarn 3, etc.), in third place is TTGL and 4th place is Aura Battler Dunbine.

Bringing up the rear are Captain Harlock, 80s Super Robot Show and more units from the Braves series.

[MS] Battle Report – G Gundam – Gundam Maxter & Dragon vs Zeus and Royal Gundam

Royal Gundam Zeus Gundam

This is a short battle report using the MechaStellar rules for a 2v2 Tag Team match of the Shuffle Alliance, on one side we have Gundam Maxter and Dragon, on the other we have Zeus and Royal Gundam.

In this game the players were using the double HP variant. Since the players were still getting used to the units and the Gundam Fight rules this fight a few tactical mistakes were made leading to an early game victory.

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MechaStellar Low Grav Battles Playtest Photos

Salamis Cruiser RGM-79

Here’s a collection of photos for one of the test games using the Low Gravs variant of the Stellar Warfare rules. For this series of games we have two Salamasis cruiser and two Musai cruisers each with a sizeable number of Mobile Suits onboard duking it out on the moon. Below you’ll see a very brief battle report to go with it, out of the 10 test games Zeon won 6 and the Federation won 4.

The minis used are the Gundam 1/400 collection and the older gunpla kits for the Salamis and Musai cruiser.

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MechaStellar VER 8.8R3- April 2023 Update

One of our players noticed an error affecting Twin-Linked (TL) Missile Pods as well upgraded Missile Pods for instance on Big O. Since this error was affecting a large number of units we worked quickly to push out this month’s update early. The Roster Update will still take place at the end of the month and include more units from G Gundam.

We also completed a Rules Review we started in March. The purpose of the rules review was to check for syntax errors and other oversights which can crop up when you change game terms, for example several sections of the rules were updated from Skilled/Ace Pilot to Tier 1-2 Pilot/Kaiju/Captain. The rules review also checked to ensure that certain terms were defined early on, for instance the [M-#] term came up several pages before it was officially defined. Lastly, we looked over certain key sections and reorganized some of the bullets to make it easier to follow for new players. Many thanks to Mike, our board game action economy expert and Big Duo Enthusiast, for spearheading this endeavor.

Below the break you’ll find the summary of changes.

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[MS] Battle Report – G Gundam Shuffle Alliance Tag Team

This is a short battle report using the MechaStellar rules for a 2v2 Tag Team match of the Shuffle Alliance, on one side we have Gundam Maxter and Dragon, on the other we have Bolt Gundam and Gundam Rose.

They were using an older version of the Gundam Fight rules and so did not play with the double starting HP variant.

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MS – G Gundam Miniatures

In this post we’ll look at some of the models available for G Gundam including the smaller 1/400 collection (1.5-2″), the slightly larger 1/300 (2-3″) and the Mobile Suits in action 4.5″ figure. On the whole models for G Gundam are hard to come by, both for Gunpla plastic kits as well as action figures and gashapon. The images will also be added to the larger Gundam 1/400, 1/300 and 1/200 miniatures page. You can find the tabletop rules for MechaStellar on the game downloads page.

Fortunately, the widely popular Mobile Suits in Action Line (MSIA or MS in Action) line of action figures from the 1999 through the 2000s has the biggest variety of models for Mobile Fighter G Gundam.

The MSIA range has a good level of detail and is very sturdy even after all these years and are great for posing and letting the kids play with them. Since they come with large amounts of accessories similar to the more modern Robot Spirits / Robot Damashii line its usually best to keep some plastic bags on hand to keep all the accessories (beam sabers, weapons, special attacks, etc.) in one place.

Pictured above is the Shuffle Alliance. Many of the popular Gundam’s from this series also have a battle scarred version which have a good deal of weathering and battle damage on the model and often come with a piece of terrain as seen above where Dragon, Shining, Rose and Maxter are all battle scarred.

The Mobile Suit in Action range is also one of the only places to find some of the more esoteric designs. Pictured above is the Matador Gundam, Zebra Gundam, Mandala Gundam, and Cobra Gundam. There were only a few fighters that did not receive MSIA figures, that said some of the more popular ones (such as the Windmill Nether Gundam) are very hard to find these days.

While many of the Mobile Fighters from G Gundam received a Gunpla treatment, they are difficult to find nowadays. Since then typically the only Gundam’s to receive model kits are Shining Gundam, Master Gundam and Burning / God Gundam. Although 20 years later, Rose Gundam received a new kit but on P-Bandai only.

Gundam S.O.G. 1/300 and 1/400 G Gundam

For the smaller gashapon on the outside edges we have the 1/300 SOG Burning and Master Gundam released as part of a special set at the end of the SOG range. In the middle are the 1/400 range which includes Burning / God Gundam, Shining Gundam, Master Gundam with Fuunsaiki, Nobel Gundam and the Dark / Devil Gundam. Unfortunately there aren’t any other fighters in the 1/400 range.

Mobile Suit in Action Gundam S.O.G. 1/300 and 1/400 Burning Gundam Master Gundam

Above you can see a comparison photo showing the heights of the 1/400, the 1/300 and the MSIA figures.

MechaStellar VER 8.8 Design Goals – Finishing Blow

Finishing Blow started off as a Melee experiment when we were working on solutions for what to do with units who were able to break past 20d10 Melee dice. At the time we were coming off with different ideas for what to do with those extra dice and what could be a good universal option that would applicable to a Real Robot as well as a Super Robot.

We eventually settled on “Glory” as our solution for units with high dice pools, thanks to a suggestion from one of our players but we kept Finishing Blow in a design notebook for use later. While we were prepping for the G Gundam release and working on VER 8.8, in particular the Focus action we decided to consider looking over the Finishing Blow system again.

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MechaStellar VER 8.8 Design Goals – Mental Math & Focus

Kou Uraki face 0083
Wait what was your shooting accuracy again?

This is the 2nd in-depth post looking at the changes made in VER 8.8, you can read the full VER 8.8 summary here and the design goals post on the weapon rebalance here.

With the update to VER 8.7 we upgraded several of the Pilot Traits to have 2 effects, a good number of these ended up giving a +1 Evade bonus.  While this was a nice bonus, especially for several units who were middle of the road for Evasion, I personally got a lot of great feedback on these our players and other members of the team regarding that.  Mainly that with VER 8.7’s goal of reducing mental math, adding a slew a +1 Evade bonuses runs counterproductive to that goal.

And that’s a great point!  So in VER 8.8 we went about trying to scrub as much mental math as we could from the game.  No longer will your gameplay halt every time a Skilled or Ace pilot comes up and you have to add in several steps of bonus accuracy and bonus evade, and “what was the target number again??” 

Lesson learned! Let’s see what we can do instead.

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MechaStellar VER 8.8 Design Goals – Short Range Weapons Update

This update kicked off with the complete reworking of the thrown weapons from last month.  Our first new series added in 2023 is G Gundam, we began prototyping units in April and started playtesting in July of 2022, with G Gundam being the next release all forthcoming units receive heavy playtesting the two months leading up to release. 

During the playtests for G Gundam models, one unit in particular stood out.  Gundam Maxter almost exclusively uses short range weapons, with a pair of magnums and several different punches including a cyclonic, burning jet of fire, and semi-visible bursting machine gun punch.  We were able to utilize existing weapon profiles to at least give each punch a different special effect but something was lacking.  What we observed was that many of punches (and even the twin magnums) felt rather samey, and it didn’t feel like there was a good time to use one over the other. 

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