Category: Gundam Tabletop

MechaStellar VER11 Design Goals – Pilot Skills – Focus & Valor Evolution

In designing MechaStellar VER11 we wanted to make a few Quality of Life improvements, both for readability, usability, and overall gameplay flow. Click here to see the MechaStellar VER11 roadmap.

Focus and Valor for MechaStellar went through the most changes while developing VER11, so we wanted to cover their development in depth in this post.  Focus and Valor were each trying to find their own distinct niche while remaining different from the other, a struggle we also had with Flash and Iron Wall.

In VER10 Focus was [M-1] HIT or DEF on a 3+ for this roll.

Very simple, very easy to remember, well loved.  We didn’t want to change it.

But early on in VER11 development as we were trying to simplify things and remove all the complexity that crept into VER10 we were looking at Elite units.  Initially, they were giving a Flat +1 HIT for Elite units and +1 Hit & DEF for Ace units.  That eventually changed into Elite = 4+ Hit / DEF and Ace = 3+ Hit / DEF which was well loved by playtesters.  This concept of upgraded Target Numbers (TNs) for Hit and DEF would eventually become the basis for the VER11 Elite unit system.  You can read more about that here.

VER11 Elite Units

Around this time we had settled on identities for Flash and Iron wall and were very satisfied with both.  We realized we wanted Focus to be offense only (rather than the VER10 HIT or DEF) that way Flash and Iron Wall were the distinct defense skills and you never had to decide which was better, Defensive Focus or Flash.

Because, Elite units now passively raised your target number we would have to do something with Focus, because it would not be less useful than before, and for Ace units it would provide no benefit.  We experimented with a few ideas.

  • Reroll misses
  • Bonus dice
  • Bonus Hits
  • Improved Trigger (i.e. Bullseye 9+ to 8+)
  • Bonus DMG

Reroll misses was initially good, but immediately stumbled with the barrage rules with questions of “does this apply to the initial roll, both rolls?”  Since barrage was well loved we would rather change focus than redo all of barrage.

Bonus dice was a novel concept and could definitely hits that dramatic feel of Heero Yuy somehow making that critical shot with the Twin Buster rifle and emptying your Morale Point (formerly Momentum) pool.  But while awesome for dramatics, it felt like a trap because a player could squander all their Morale Points, meanwhile the Valor skill was a more efficient use of resources.  (But more on Valor later).

Bonus Hits was decent, but not exciting.  Devs discussed making it +3 Hits to oppose Flash.

Improved Trigger was very exciting, but there would be time where it would do very little (you rolled no dice that were close to your trigger so Focus was worthless) or insanely good (you rolled a bunch of 8s and your Crit on a 9+, focus and you gain a bunch of Crit hits).  The devs considered keeping the original rule (Focus = 3+ to Hit) but if you’re an Ace, then instead Focus becomes Trigger TN+1.  Powerful but limited to Aces.  But as mentioned still very variable.

Bonus DMG was too powerful for [M-1] but we kept trying it for a long time. It was also stepping on the toes of valor.

The Devs also discussed “Maybe regular Focus does this, but [Ace] focus does this.”  For example, basic focus was +1 Hit or +100 DMG, and Ace Focus gave both. 

We had many options to consider here.  But ultimately we needed a way for grunts (or anyone really) to break through a tough defense.  Valor obviously can work but it’s a huge investment.  So that means Focus should be the breakthrough option.  Here’s a DEV conversation on that topic.

Focus improving dice outcome is probably the desired emotional outcome plus it links up with old systems but will be the hardest to balance I think…… on the other hand, we don’t really have way to make attacks breakthrough when defender rolls well. 
To use an example, Justice Gundam has incredible defenses, so even when a squad of high performance grunts  like Jegans or GM IIIs attack it, they aren’t making it through.

Ok, well this is where a skill should help. So Valor can already be used as breakthrough (but it’s expensive, and do you really want to burn M-4 on your grunts?). So the thought is that Focus should be the breakthrough button.

Yeah

and while the “improve hit chance’ has been common for a very long time; if we are changing the identity where Ace = Hit on a 3+, Elite = 4+, Grunt = 5+; then maybe we probably shouldn’t let Focus interfere with that.  Keep it simple and so less cognitive load. 

I agree with that, likewise less mental math

less “ok do I want to hit better, do I want a better trigger” just a very simple I hit better and certain elite units hit EVEN better than that. downside is in the past, Kamille in Zeta gundam with +X Hit traits, was a monster to be reckoned with

What if Focus gave you an automatic trigger?

What do you mean?

Like, Focus and turn 1 die into a 10 which is a hit and a trigger.

oh that’s good, really good.  Let’s try it.
 

Eventually all these ideas wound up with 2 Skills.

  • Focus = After rolling dice turn 1 die into a 10.  (Final version in the rules, although it did change another 4 times before reverting back to this)
  • Sure Strike = Improve your change to Hit.

While Focus would become the Trigger button, giving you a chance to do something awesome with your gun.  Sure Strike would help your unit hit.

There was a lot of discussion on sure strike and how it would interact with Elite units.  Initially Sure Strike was Hit on a 3+.  Later it became, improve Hit TN+1, so if you hit on a 4+, now you hit on a 3+.  But with Ace units becomes 3+, the Dev’s experimented with Sure Strike hitting on a 2+.  This….got a little crazy with barrage weapons and micromissiles as playtesters can attest.

Eventually, Sure Strike for the sake of simplicity and minimizing mental math just became [M-1] +2 Hits.

And at the end of the day, VER11 launched by combining both these skills into one.

Focus [M-1] Wow, the Lieutenant’s skills haven’t changed since the One-Year War

On your Turn, after rolling ATK dice turn one d10 into a 10 OR gain +2 Hits.

Valor Evolution

Valor started off with the VER10 [M-3] = +5 Hits.  Then we tried [M-2] = +3 Hits (+5 with Barrage weapons).

We tried doing +3d10 attack dice, with Barrage = +3 Hits.  This was decent and fun, but as we were developing the “dice roll only” core mechanic, we realized that we had very little dice to play with.  On a 10d10 max for attack, if Frame + performance capped out at 4 dice, Combat Role (Battler / Sniper / Firepower) was another +2 dice, that only left 4d10 left for weapons, so 2d10 for a rifle and 4d10 for a machine gun.  Valor would have to drop down to +2d10 to fit in that framework such that rifles cap at 10d10.

Ultimately, we decided to move away from the skill giving bonus dice, that way it gave more flexibility for weapons, if you wanted to have upgraded weapons, like twin linked rifles for instance.

Eventually we came up with the Valor phase where the attacker goes into overdrive and gives it their all and try to force through an attack even if the defender managed to initially block.  Valor would give bonus dice (outside your 10d10 pool) as a bonus attack roll.  This was awesome!

Since Valor was expensive we also gave Valor a rider ability.  Either DMG+100 OR Strike a Finishing Blow.  Finishing Blow meant if any hits from the Valor phase got through they would have to make a Finisher Save which would either deal a lot of damage or cause system damage like removing an arm, leg or head. 

Each time we updated Valor we would often end up updating Focus.  Focus was +1 Hit.  Then +2 Hits.  Then improved change to Hit (TN+1) which included the regular attack and the valor phase.  Then later improve Trigger by 1 (this would later become the ability of the Power stat).

At one point we were considering

  • Focus phase (bonus overdrive phase + dice)
  • Valor phase (bonus dice + finishing blow)
  • Focus Phase (bonus overdrive phase)
  • Valor (Finishing blow)

Focus = bonus phase was awesome at first but quickly became a slot because people would do it for every attack.  Still the Valor = Finisher idea persisted, and was very well liked, because one Dev came up with an idea that during the Finisher phase a Super Robot could have its weapon change.  For example, Gurren Lagann’s drill attack becomes GIGA DRILL BREAKER during the Finisher phase. 

So with Valor being settled on the Dev’s continued to work on focus, with various ideas of bonus dice, bonus hits, improved trigger, etc.  As the weapon triggers were slimmed down (bombard was removed for example, and siege was reworked to have the trigger matter a lot), Focus = +1 Trigger became the winning idea.

Meanwhile a separate Sure Strike skilled was developed to help Hit, either improved TN (Hit on a 3+ or 2+) or bonus hits (+3 Hits or +2 Hits).  Ultimately, as noted above, both of these were combined into a single Focus Skill giving the option for a bonus trigger or bonus hits.

We still had to figure out how to make Valor work as a useful skill and an awesome Finisher. 

We still enjoyed the VER10 rules of gain bonus dice = to the Round.  We went through a few variations to make Valor feel worthwhile for its cost.

The most math heavy involved rewarding ones Morale bonus so Valor dice = Round + [10 – your Momentum] so if your pilot had Morale 3+ you were rolling Round + 7 dice.  Quite powerful!

The morale effect later became, you can use Morale for your TN instead of your normal Hit TN, this way Guy Shishio with Morale 3+, Hit 5+, now hits on a 3+

We also briefly tested Trigger TN = Morale, but that was absurd lmao

We tried Valor = 3 + Round, or Valor = 2x Round dice.  All of which felt too powerful for [M-3]

Eventually we settled on Valor dice = Elite Level + Round.  It rewards your elite units using Valor while not making it too powerful for an [M-3] skill.

[Elite] Valor [M-3] We’ll crush the Hyakki empire once and for all!
• Enter the Finisher Phase: Roll Finisher dice = Elite Level + Current Round.
o Finisher Dice use your Morale TN if it is better than your Hit TN.
o Add any Hits or Triggers to your original attack

Lastly we had to figure out sequencing.  At what point do you pull the trigger on Valor.  Before or after the defender commits with Flash / Iron Wall.

This went through  A LOT of playtesting in both versions.  Eventually we opted for the fastest and cleanest sequence which you’ll see in the VER11 rules.

Tilt the Odds in your Favor
Both sides roll dice at the same time, then Attacker and Defender decide on Skills.

  1. Calculate Current Unblocked Hits = Total HITs – Total DEF
  2. Gain bonus +DEF equal to the Cover or Shield or Armor Level
  3. Attacker decides to use Focus [M-1] OR [Elite] Valor [M-3] (FINISHER PHASE PG. 21)
  4. Focus – After rolling ATK, turn a d10 into a 10 OR gain +2 Hits.

While Valor and Focus are very straightforward now, we’d like to thank our playtesters for their continued patience as these two skills were developed, changed places and eventually got to the end product.  Could not have done it without you.  Thank you!

MechaStellar VER11 Design Goals – Pilot Skills

In designing MechaStellar VER11 we wanted to make a few Quality of Life improvements, both for readability, usability, and overall gameplay flow. Click here to see the MechaStellar VER11 roadmap.

Updating Skills from MechaStellar VER10 to VER11 took a lot of time, a lot of patience and the ability to try many different methods to find the best fit for each skill with the new “dice roll only” instead of “dice roll + bonus” core mechanic for VER11.  Focus and Valor received the most updates so we will cover those indepth in the next post.  For this post we’ll cover the remaining skills.

To start, we knew that Morale Point [M] generation (formerly called Momentum) would be smaller and less guaranteed than VER10, so we wanted to make skills as cheap as possible while not making them so cheap they became too powerful.  We tried to set  a baseline of [M-2] for most skills, with [M-1] reserved for a useful but not super powerful skill, and [M-3] or [M-4] for a very powerful skill.  Let’s start with Zeal.

Zeal

Zeal has changed the least moving from VER10 to VER11, it’s still a skill that gives you bonus actions you can use for extra attacks or for utility actions.  The biggest change is that Zeal is no longer a pay what you want ability, it’s no longer M-1 for +1 action, M-3 for +3 actions.  Instead, it always gives you +2 actions.

While this does remove a little tactical flexibility, it remarkably speeds up decision making by removing a gigantic layer of “ok I could do this, and if I have this many actions I could do this, and then…” which sometimes led to choice paralysis in some players.  Now it’s a simple, use Zeal, gain +2 actions.

We’ve also tightened how bonus attacks work, if you attack the same target twice, or attack with the same weapon twice is will not use up both of your 2 actions.  Early on, ther ewere some concerns about what happens when you use Zeal and only need 1 action.  Since then we’ve added 3 more Combat Actions to the core rules, Lock on, Sensors Sweep, and Battle-Cry, in addition to Accelerate there are many valuable options you can use your 2 actions on besides just attacking.

There was a Brief time where we created an action that would turn one of your weapons into a Support weapon (using the VER10 rules) this way you could live out your Armored Core fantasies, of firing your rifle and shoulder missiles and pulse laser gun all at the same time.  Like VER10, this ended up being more trouble than it’s worth, and the ultra simple, ultra effective “Havoc” upgrade covered that “unload all weapons” fantasy much better with significantly less rules and headaches.  We’ll cover Boost / Power / Havoc evolution after we do Focus / Valor.

Initially, we set Zeal at [M-3] since it was often the most powerful skill in late VER10. However, as we continued to fine tune weapon balance, and expected unblocked hits dropped to 0-2 Hits we felt comfortable returning Zeal back to [M-2], the small bit of symmetry, 2 Momentum for +2 actions, makes it easier to remember as well.

Flash

We’re going to go over this one more in depth for the Boost / Power / Havoc post.  But for now here are the highlights.

We started off with [M-3] Flash = +5 DEF, same as VER10

Then we moved to [M-2] Flash = +3 DEF

While developing Barrage which initially gave you bonus exploding dakka dice = Triggers rolled, we previewed a system where Flash would do the same thing.  For example the Flash skill would have a Barrage 7+ effect, every 7+ rolled meant you could reroll those dice.

Later, when Barrage was upgraded to, all hits (not just triggers) are exploding dakka dice, we tried the same thing for Flash.

While mathematically it works out, we did run into a lot of player psychology issues where players were hesitant to use Flash because they didn’t roll that well.

Eventually we settled on the final version of Flash which lets you reroll your entire defense dice pool (hit or miss) making it stronger than barrage.  All for the low cost of [M-2].  This was a huge hit with playtesters.

Iron Wall

Iron Wall struggled a lot to maintain an identity in VER10, competing with Flash as a defensive skill and eventually trying to be an Anti-Zeal skill which would give you a decent +3 DEF bonus for the whole turn.

For VER11 we tried with that for a little bit but quickly realized that we wanted Iron Wall to feel DISTINCTLY DIFFERENT from Flash.

While Flash was doing the 7++ Barrage effect, we were considering have Iron Wall give you a 10+ or 9+ DEF Crit option.  (One of the bigger changes from VER11 is that there are no longer automatic 10s are Crits).  It was ok, but still made Flash and Iron Wall feel very samey.

We came up with an idea during the development of the expanded Saving Throw system, that Iron Wall could provide defense and also improve your saving throw.

Later on, we simplified it further to a very simple “Pass a failed Armor Save”

Now that’s a valuable skill!  Iron Wall started off at [M-2] but after considerable playtesting we decided that [M-1] was the best fit.

Alert

This is a new skill, although players of the older Super Robots Wars games will remember this skill name.

Alert was created just to give a little more flavor to Warships and Kaiju monsters, which as of this time we don’t really want them to use Flash.  Alert gives you the benefit of Cover (something Kaiju could do in the past) and also improves your Trigger number for counter weapons like your CIWS Anti-Air batteries on Warships, but also counterattacks like Godzilla’s tail sweep or Crimson Typhoons kaiju throw.

Currently, we did setup the mechanics that if we wanted to let Warships / Kaiju to use Flash they could and it would not be unbalancing (both units have super high HP but smaller defense dice pools).  We could also let Mobile Suits use Alert.  But for right now, we want to preserve the distinction between these weapon types, and Flash / Alert is doing that for us.  That many change in the future based on player feedback.

Next post we’ll discuss the evolution of Focus & Valor.

MechaStellar VER11 – SEP2026 Update – Gundam Wing Update

With MechaStellar VER11 releasing late in August, we have a small but powerful update for September a Gundam Wing Update. In addition to updating all the VER10 profiles to VER11 we’ve also added in the Tallgeese III, as well as options to add the Glory of the Losers equipment for the Gundams such as Sandrock’s Armadillo unit, HeavyArms Igel unit, or Shenlong’s Liaoya sword.

You can find the update rules and profile sheets on the MechaStellar game downloads page.

As we mentioned before, Rules updates are now on a 6 month schedule, that way players can master the game without having to worry up minor rules tweaks each month. That said, please keep giving us feedback so we can add it into the 6 month update. Here’s the VER11 After Action feedback form: https://forms.gle/aszwjLG1S2fs1wSQA

For this month’s update we have a few format tweaks, weapon balance updates, as well as an expanded pilot upgrade system. See below for a summary of updates.

UPDATE SUMMARY

Formatting

  • For Elite Pilot swaps, used the last column to show how many bonus points a pilot costs.
  • Fixed an embarrassing typo in the upgrade rules, Ace Pilots get 6pts for upgrades not 8
  • Various typo and formatting fixes

Weapons & Mech Profiles

  • Update large beam cannon and mega beam cannon affects GP03, GP00, FA7th, HFA 7th, Virgo
  • Updated Heavy Beam cannon affects Neue Ziel, Guncannon II, Virgo
  • Updated Heavy Gatling affects Heavy Gundam, Heavyarms
  • Updated Fire SPT Missiles to be Opener Trigger.
  • Updated grenades to be AOE
  • Added Guntank II
  • Updated GM Spartan to Performance 2
  • Rebalanced GP01Fb, GP03, HFA 7th to have Move 8″
  • Updated some named pilots to use the new upgrade system

Pilot upgrades

  • Rename overzealous to daring.  Renamed Burning Soul to Hot Blooded.
  • Some traits got more expensive, like Steel Resolve
  • Added the following traits: Hot Blooded / Burning Soul,  Fearsome, Guts, Persevere, Deadeye, Swift Strikes, Tactician
  • Standardized the pilot point system for pilots with a special trait like Newtype, Daring, Steel Resolve etc.

MechaStellar VER11 Design Goals – Quality of Life Improvements

In designing MechaStellar VER11 we wanted to make a few Quality of Life improvements, both for readability, usability, and overall gameplay flow. Click here to see the MechaStellar VER11 roadmap.

We’ve used the extra space to increase font size and make profiles a little bigger and easier to read.  We’ve included mech armories on the profile page so you can quickly swap out weapons for the intended machines, and even Elite pilots, quickly inserting Norris Packard into a Gouf Custom.   Of the dozens of OYW war variants we’ve made those simplier to take a basic profile and swap a weapon to represent the variant.

VER11 Weapon Triggers

The genesis of weapon triggers and the expansion of armor saves into weapon saves meant some reorganization was needed on the basic MechaStellar profile.  During this time it also gave us some time to implement the updated Elite pilot system which provides passive benefits to a unit like improving the TNs to Hit, Defend or Morale. 

VER11 Elite Units

These upgrades were in lieu of the previous VER pilot traits like Hot Blooded or Renowned Pilot or Headhunter which saved some considerable space.  Rest assured these traits will continue to exist in some form or another, returning as other pilot upgrades or bonus objectives.

Speaking of Bonus Objectives, these were formerly optional rules in VER10 but now they’re integrated into the core rules and on the mech profile.  Certain famous units will have built in bonus objectives like “Gundam Rising”, “Operation Meteor”, or “Gundam Fight, Ready, Go!”.  These bonus objectives are a powerful way to earn VP besides just destroying your opponent.  In a SRW style game, rather than drown yourself in objectives, instead you only choose one Bonus Objective to achieve each battle.  The full list of bonus objectives can be found at the end of the MechaStellar core rules document beneath the Vs. Mode header.

While we continue to update Mech profiles to VER11, we’re also going to update the Co-op rules and mission packs.  We’ve simplified the design math extensively so you’ll notice that almost all Mechs will be in 50pt increments.  This makes it far easier to army build, and it means you’ll have a lot of flexibility in the co-op campaigns to bring whatever low cost 50pts mech you want.

VER11 Core Mechanic

Although VER11 has made a lot of things easier and simplified a lot of design math, unfortunately one area that has remained complicated has been weapons.  While in the previous versions, weapons were independent of mech’s inherent characteristics like Frame, Performance or Combat Role (Sniper, Battler, Raid, etc.) which instead provided bonus Hits or Defense, because VER11 has switched to a “dice roll” only system those characteristics now affect a weapons dice.

That said, we’ve simplified and consolidated a number of the Combat Roles to make the rules for Gundam Build Fighters easy.  We’ve also included at the end of each section for Gundam’s Federation vs Zeon an armory list with many weapons having an easy 50pt price tag to swap in or out, or to add a bonus weapon while still making army building easy.  There are also simple instructions on how to remove and swap weapons with a simple formula to add dice based on the units Frame, Performance and Combat Role.  If it looks daunting at first, we promise it’s quite easy after you do it once or twice. 

August 2026 Update – MechaStellar VER11 Released

Better late than never, for the August MechaStellar Monthly Update we are releasing MechaStellar VER11. You can find the update rules and profile sheets on the MechaStellar game downloads page.

It’s been a long road from the VER11 announcement to release.  Check out the VER11 Roadmap post for all the design goals that went into VER11. 

Overall we want this to be the best Version of MechaStellar that is Fast, Fun, and most of all easier to teach to new players.  Switching to a “dice roll only” core mechanic does a lot to accomplish this, and we’ve rebuilt several systems like Pilot Skills, and Elite units to enhance this.  We think both VER10 and VER9 players will find a lot to enjoy in VER11.

We also want VER11 to be a more consistent and reliable edition which is why it went through a large amount of playtesting to try and iron out all the fine details. Some feedback from our beer & pretzel style gamers is that constant rules tweaks and balance updates made things hard to follow and easy to forget rules changes. Since MechaStellar started off as a garagehammer game we want to make sure we take care of those players too. Our plan is to only update the core rules every 6 months, rather than trying to patch the game every 4 weeks. (We’re still going to be updating the unit roster each month as normal.) That said, if you find something that’s broken, please let us know so can fix it for the next update.

Unlike VER10 MechaStellar is also launching with the Gundam Build Fighters rules from day 1 which has also been expanded to include simple to follow instructions on swapping out pilots and weapons and a system to design your own custom pilot.

With that said, please enjoy MechaStellar VER11!  On the initial release we have Mobile Suit Gundam Universal Century (UC) from 0079-0083.  In the upcoming weeks we will be releasing Zeta Gundam, CCA, Super Robots and Warships.  In October or November we will release Gundam 00 which will be the perfect accompaniment to the new Trigger Mechanic.  Look forward to it!

Please vote in the update poll to let us know which Tier 3 units you would like to see next!

As an aside, as the layout editor I wanted to say thank you all for your patience.  We had planned on releasing VER11 in August and the rules team finished before 01 August, but at the end of July I decided to update the format for VER11 and many profiles now use the bottom right quadrant to store the mobile suits weaponry as well an easy reference if you want to swap out pilots.  While it took a lot of time to implement (almost 2 months total to update UC Gundam from 0079-0083) I think it was well worth the effort but keeping the profiles cleaner and also minimizing profile bloat.

For example for MechaStellar VER10 final, the UC profile sheets had 86 profiles for Zeon and 69 profiles for the Federation.  In VER11 there are 64 profiles for Zeon and 60 profiles for the Federation (including 1 new one).  In total a reduction of 31 profiles.  With less profiles and more room from a cleaner layout we were also able to increase font size.

Also, due to an unfortunate glitch, all of our images got stretched and de-rez’d so I had to remove all of them and manually insert and resize all of them which unfortunately takes a lot of time.  On the plus side, it gave me a chance to adjust the file size for all the images, so the Mech profiles have gone from 32mbs down to 16mb in file size.

While the end product may not seem that different from VER10, altogether it took about 6 hours a week for 8 weeks to make this all functional.  I’ve learned a lot since then, and implemented a few tricks that will make updating Zeta, CCA and Super Robots much faster, so please look forward to that and thank you for listening to my layout editing gripes.

In the last few weeks while waiting for layout editing to finish, the rules team had a chance to tweak various rules and also update Victory points based on feedback from our all-star 40k players.  The Dev team also did some experiments regarding break saves, to resolve a problem with shields at a low power levels (One Year War) and while it developed a novel concept, ultimately we went with the simple solution that Siege weapons now also reduce Shield level by 1.  Thank you to all the playtesters who provided feedback on that.

Weapons were also tweaked to try and better align the expected damage for various weapon type, some of the siege weapons in particular were falling behind the crit weapons so various weapons were rebalanced, which is why some of the preview sheets (created 2 weeks ago) may not match the final product.  Thank you for understanding!

Thank you so much to everyone who volunteered to playtest.  And a big thank you to the Dev team, especially those who came out of retirement just for this update.  Thank you to Red, Yuria, Kyle, Tyler, Mike, Dominique, Charles, Rob, Yoshiaki, Sandeep, Alex, Jorel and Luyi; could not have done it without you.

MechaStellar VER11 Roadmap

MechaStellar VER10 had a long run and it was a significant departure from VER 5-9 which had the paradigm of you attack with a flat number of shots and your opponent rolls dice to evade.  Instead VER10 set a new paradigm with both the attacker and defender rolling dice to HIT and DEF.  This solved our #1 FAQ of “Why can’t I roll dice to attack?”.  VER11 will continue with that paradigm, reusing a lot of the same rules and thought processes from VER10 while cutting down on the number of things you need to remember on a mech profile and trimming down mental math.  VER11 will have the following major changes.

We will also cover these in depth in their own separate posts.

Removal of Bonus Hits & DEF

MechaStellar VER10 would have you roll your attack dice then apply a modifier, for example 6d10 + 3 HITs, so if you rolled 4 Hits your total would be 7 Hits.  Likewise for Defense.  VER11 is removing these modifiers and it will simply be dice pool vs dice pool, i.e. 6d10 vs 5d10; and whoever rolls best wins.

This had the advantage of being much faster with less mental math.  It also becomes more exciting because the variance on attacks or defense is much, much higher.  Sometimes you’ll have 6-10 hits, othertimes you might have one or none.  Likewise, this is also the biggest disadvantage.

That said, MechaStellar VER11 is significantly less lethal than previous versions.  And Pilot Skills will let you either mitigate that variance or multiply it, leading to some dramatic moments on the tabletop.

Mech Performance has also been flattened from 1-10 to 1-3 to represent three different eras. It’s now significantly easier to field your favorite units like the 08th MS Team even against superior models from Char’s Counterattack and still hold your own or reenact you favorite scenes like Unicorn’s Torrington base or Kondoh’s Revival of Zeon.

Rest assured, that unit roles like Sniper, Battler, etc. which provided bonus Hits or Defense before will still improve your unit.  Likewise, elite pilot bonuses like Barrage / Bullseye etc. have been folded into the Weapon trigger system, as well as passive pilot bonuses.

Weapon Triggers

The biggest change to VER11 is the inclusion of Weapon Triggers and the removal of Rapid Fire.  While working on small size units you would see in Dunbine, Votoms, or Code Geass, our previous paradigm of low damage but massive +HIT bonuses was not working out.  We were looking for alternate ways to make machine gun types weapons effective, without the tidal wave of hits they were causing.

This eventually led to the development of the “Barrage Trait” for machine gun type weapons that gave you a lot of extra dakka on your rolls while preventing weapons from going over the 10d10 attack dice cap.  Barrage was instantly a huge hit at the playtester tables, and eventually spawned the question of “should other weapons have Trait’s too?”

To do so, Rapid Fire, one of the last legacy items from our 40k roots was eliminated and replaced with Battle Field roles like Barrage Bullseye, Siege, AOE, etc.  Which were all big successes.  Eventually we decided that “Rolling a 10 = CRIT” should be removed and instead replaced with the weapon trait.  For example Barrage 10+, Siege 10+, Bullseye 10+.  Then for the sake of weapon balance the “crit numbers” now called “Trigger numbers” would change to be Barrage 8+ or Bullseye 9+ etc.

Weapon Triggers were the longest development items in the 4 months of VER11 dev time (April through July).  There will be multiple Design Goals posts featuring weapon triggers, how we prototyped them, the mechanical dead ends and the final products.  Since that will likely be a weeks worth of posts, those will come at the of the VER11 Design Goals series.

Here are some sample Triggers. Additionally, the number of saves you roll is no longer equal to the number of unblocked hits.  Instead it’s based on the number of Triggers rolled, making the game significantly less lethal when you cannot avoid a hit.

  • Critical weapons still Crit (2 Hits instead of 1).
  • Barrage weapons roll lots of dakka dice without needing to be in Rapid Fire range.
  • Bullseye weapons can target any unit and gain Crits vs targets without cover.
    • Elites no longer ignore the targeting rules
  • Siege weapons blow up cover and generate 2 Saves per Trigger.
    • See more on Saves below
  • Pierce weapons improve their Save i.e. Armor Penetration for each Trigger.
  • Counter weapons are the only weapon that can counterattack by default.
  • There are also Combination Triggers that combine 2 of the above Triggers.

Saves

Armor Saves are no longer the only Save in the game.   Now each weapon has a Save assigned to it, and all weapons can force a Save every time you roll a Trigger.  Since Saves are now tied to Triggers instead of Unblocked Hits, only lucky rolls are lethal.

  • Armor Penetration (AP) = Standard Pass the Save or take 1000 DMG
  • Stun Save (ST) = They remove actions or deal 500 DMG
  • Push / Pull (PP) = These Move the target or deal 500 DMG.
  • Break Saves (BR) = This weakens the targets Shield / Armor or deals 500 DMG.
  • Mobility Saves (MB) = The target loses a Move action or takes 500 DMG.

Morale

Momentum have been renamed to Morale Points.  You now gain Morale by making a Rally save at the start of your turn or from Control Points you captured at the end of the round.  Morale Point gains are more rare but Pilot Skills are now cheaper.

Pilot Skills & Elite Units

Pilot Skills have been revamped, with Flash and Iron Wall having clear identities.  Many Skills are now cheaper, while Valor is now integrated into the Finisher system.  Boost / Power / Havoc are now tied into skill usage for Flash / Valor / Zeal. 

Elite Units now have built in passives like improved TN to HIT, DEF or Morale.  Captains play just like regular pilots while Captains orders and Pilot Traits are now upgrade options.

MechaStellar VER11 Design Goals Schedule

  1. VER11 Core Mechanic
    1. Removal of bonus HITs and DEF
    2. Dice pool warfare
    3. How Mech roles & Pilots now provide bonuses
  2. Elite Units
    1. Passive bonuses from Elite Units instead of “remember this trait” making it easier to run a SRW game
    2. Traits and Captain’s orders moving to upgrade options
  3. Pilot Skills
    1. Revamped and cheaper pilot skills
    2. Boost / Power / Havoc and the Finisher Phase
    3. Multiple posts on the evolution of pilot skills
  4. Morale
    1. Changing the pace of Momentum regeneration
    2. Taking the 3 separate momentum generation systems and unifying them
    3. Adjusting roles and mech stats to play into Momentum generation and CP captures
  5. Weapons and the genesis of Triggers
    1. Target Lock & Triggers
    2. Barrage Trigger Evolution
    3. Siege Trigger Evolution
    4. Finisher Evolution
  6. Expanding Saving Throws beyond Armor Saves
    1. Adjusting lethality of the game

The desired end state for MechaStellar VER11 is to make this version the most fun but also the easier version to teach to you and your friends. As you’re reading through the design goals posts, if you see an opportunity to make the game more fun, simpler or easier to teach, please don’t hesitate to comment and let us know. Thank you all for your support and loyalty over the years.

MechaStellar VER11 Released

August 2026 Update – MechaStellar VER11 Released

MechaStellar Battle Report – Space Battleship Yamato 2199 vs Aquatic Zeon in the drowned City

As a follow-on to our previous battle report we had the aquatic zeon force in a partially submerged city fight (using our imagination for the water of course). This time against the crew of Space Battleship Yamato (2199 version). Yamato is well known for having dynamic fights and ever changing scenes, and having it fight inside of a colony, especially a submerged one seemed like it would be on brand for the venerable series.

In addition to the Aqua Zeon force from before, since Yamato is a very expensive unit, we added in a Gelgoog force and several Zaku’s all equipped with Antiship rifles. The odds were stacked against the Yamato crew.

(In this particular game we were not using Squad rules, but we did in subsequent games in the series)

A Black Tri-Star moves to the center point, while a lone Cosmo Tiger II takes the high ground, captures the CP and rains fire down below. (In this map we set a condition that you can only capture the center CP if you take the high ground, which was often a death sentence.)

Yamato does what they do best, BLAZING AHEAD FULL SPEED WITH GUNS LOADED

It uses Havoc to blow up the cover and begin attacking the Hy-Goggs who burn through Momentum. For a moment there, there was a chance that both Hy-Goggs with antiship missiles would get blown off the field.

The Cosmo Tigers begin weaving around the battlefield firing their lasers and capturing control points.

After 5 Cosmo Tigers make strafing runs one of the Black Tri Star goes down!

The Gelgoog team presses forward but the Cosmo Tigers luck their way out of being hit

Meanwhile the ship hunting Zaku team begins blasting away at Yamato.

Since we’re using the 2199 version which has a wave motion barrier, we realize that barriers in general haven’t been updated in a very long time. There’s a long talk about how we want to better reflect them but ultimately it gets put on hold for this game and later games in the test series. It’s been several months since we played this battle report, in the meantime we did update the Barrier rules which you can currently see in the core rules document.

A Cosmo Tiger in reserve ambushes and almost kills a Musai. (This is one of several examples where we realized we needed to put more limits on Reinforcements / Ambush)

A new Round, time for a Gelgoog Cannon to start unloading into the Cosmo Tigers

A Cosmo Tiger takes the high ground and tries to finish off a Gelgoog to no avail, their superior HP pool weathers the laser fire.

Yamato blazes forward, keeps the control point and blasts three amphibious units off the battlefield. In this test series we were demo’ing having [AA] weapons be free counterattacks, which was nice when dealing with superior numbers.

This was the series where we were testing updated warship reactions for increasing AA fire (+X hits on AA weapons and +X DEF vs Missiles) which also helped.

Speaking of, we got lucky on the counter attack and took out another Black Tri Star here.

A Cosmo Tiger finally takes out a Gelgoog, but it’s backside is open and it gets taken down later.

Another Cosmo Tiger finishes off a Gelgoog.

The last Tri-Star plus the Zaku Antiship team kept hammering Yamato until it finally sunk.

With Yamato lost is there any hope left?

Certainly not for Earth, it was carrying the Cosmo Reverse System!!!

Remember the Goggs? Well they decided to ambush this Round and torpedo the Cosmo Tiger on the enemy player’s home CP.

Another Gelgoog down

REVENGE! For sinking the Yamato

Cosmo Tigers unfortunately can’t handle melee

Melee death #2

Melee deaths #3

After Action Report

Overall this was a complete blowout on the Yamato forces and a bit of a shock. Yamato was king in other playtests so we weren’t expecting it to go down so easily, and relatively without a fight. Granted…..Zeon did list-tailor to be antiship focused but still.

As a result of this playtest we made several balance tweaks to Yamato, updated a few core rules for Warships to give Warships more options to increase their chance to hit with regular weapons and [AA] weapons. We also tweaked all the fighters weapons, and adjusted the speeds for jets. This test series was also prior to the Dunbine release which had a major update for all small units which make almost all of them either cheaper or with +1d10 Evade die.

As for Yamato, adjustments to the HP formula helped it a bit, and it sparked an ongoing conversation regarding Barriers. For future games in this test series, we opted for the classic Yamato (sans the Barrier) which held up better. This game in particular resulted in a lot of favorable balance changes to warships and fighters so we hope you enjoy them.

MechaStellar – Monthly Roster Update April 2026 – Nu Gundam and Sazabi

For this month’s update we have the long awaited public release of Nu Gundam and Sazabi.  As well as two other fan favorite mobile suits.  Nu and Sazabi were first used by the Devs all the way back in VER4 and hit closed playtesting in VER6. 

Since then Nu and Sazabi became a favorite pair from one of our all-star playtesters who proceeded to dominate his FLGS all the way back in 2021, if you’ve ever wondered why there were so many updates to Funnels despite very few funnel units (back then), now you know. Nu and Sazabi across many version had their profiles revised a total of 67 times.

Nu and Sazabi are very iconic mobile suits so we’ve put a lot of care into building them and rebuilding them for each version of MechaStellar for our playtesters, and now for the open public.  Of the holy trinity of Super Robot Wars there is Mazinger, Getter Robo and Gundam.  Typically with their final forms being Mazinkaiser, Shin Getter Robo and Nu or Hi-Nu Gundam.

We also included an optional ability for Nu to represent how in crossover games like SRW or Dynasty Warriors, Amuro and the Psycoframe have been able to do incredible things like turning off the Moonlight Butterfly of the Turn-A Gundam. Hope you all enjoy.

While SRW tends to treat Hi-Nu Gundam as a straight upgrade to Nu (and likewise the Nightingale as an upgrade to Sazabi) we prefer to treat them as a side-grade unit which is very similar in armaments but with a slightly different playstyle and unit stats.  After all, Nu and Hi-Nu are meant to be the same unit but different incarnations.

Here’s a synopsis on the origin of Hi-Nu from legendary Gundam expert Mark Simmons

In Beltorchika’s Children, the Nu Gundam is still called the Nu Gundam, even though it does use a mega bazooka launcher at one point. That’s why the cover shows the standard anime Nu Gundam – it’s supposed to be the same thing.

Aside from the Newtype magazine illo that balofo posted, the original source of images for these guys is in the mecha profile section at the beginning of the Beltorchika’s Children novel. The Psyco Doga isn’t pictured in this section, and aside from the Nightingale, all the mecha are listed with the same names and specs and model numbers as the movie versions. (At this point, the movie specs had smaller head heights. That’s why everyone says the Hi-Nu is 20 meters; the book just listed the standard specs for the Nu Gundam, and at that point they were saying the Nu was 20 meters tall.)

So if the Nu Gundam is just called the Nu Gundam in Beltorchika’s Children, and they listed the standard Nu specs and description, where the heck does the “Hi-Nu” come from?

Well, in the book’s mecha section, designer Yutaka Izubuchi took some liberties with his designs and drew them all a bit differently. What we now call the Hi-Nu started out as, simply, “that cool version of the Nu Gundam that Izubuchi drew in the mecha section of Beltorchika’s Children.” It was only later that this cool doodle got its own name and back story and was recognized as a distinct mobile suit. The “Hi” prefix, confusingly, seems to be an homage to the original Hi-Streamer novels. 🙂

Of all these guys, the only one that was reasonably fully depicted and clearly identified as a unique machine was the Nightingale. It’s named that way in the Beltorchika’s Children novel (unlike the Hi-Nu), it’s depicted in the mecha profile section (unlike the Psyco Doga), and Izubuchi drew nice pictures of it for Newtype and B-CLUB magazines. The one thing it didn’t have in the mecha section, unlike the other features machines, was a model number.

Whew! That’s pretty long and detailed, but I’ve seen people getting this mixed up for decades, and I keep hoping that if I explain it one more time it’ll stick.

— Mark

For this April we are releasing Nu Gundam, Sazabi, Hi-Nu Gundam and the Nightingale.  We hope you enjoy these Tier 3 Juggernauts and look forward to more in the future. Pictured above is the Nightingale from the “Gundam Artifact” collection which is slightly larger than 1/400 scale minis but still fits in nicely.

One last note, there have been some minor tweaks to a few of the weapons on the GBF rules.

MechaStellar Battle Report – Big O & Baxingar vs Aqua Zeon in the Drowned City

In this MechaStellar battle report we are keeping the fabulous teamup between the suit wearing Roger Smith (Big O) and the king/queen aesthetics of the J9-II team (Baxingar) face off against Zeon Remnants. Since we’re using a lot of amphibious units, we reasoned it was an abandoned and half submerged city which fits well with some of Big O’s environments.

This game series we were heavily testing our the “Reinforcements” mechanic which would take the Ambusher traits (and event) and turn it into an easy to use core rule. Thanks to this series we managed to avoid a lot of missteps with reinforcements out the gate, but our playtesters found several more loopholes we had to patch within 2 months of release.

While Big O and Baxingar both were able to Ambush, you do need to put at least one unit on the field so in this case Baxingar (in their Cosmo Bike form and thus hard to target) was first.

On Zeon’s side we also had some Musai’s taking part, because we really wanted to laydown the fire support. This was hot off the heels of a QoL update for Warships and they were a lot more fun to use and lot more worthwhile on the battlefield.

In universe, we reasoned that since Big O’s world is very….well, to avoid spoilers, full of mysteries, having space ships appear in the city wouldn’t be out of the ordinary. Who knows, maybe the movie was set in a colony all along.

A Hy-Gogg captures a CP, then Baxingar takes it’s turn firing an Antiship missile to obliterate a Musai and then laser’ing the Hy-Gogg off the field. A powerful turn (and due to this and other games we later realized that Valor should be a Round 2+ only skill.)

The other Musai gets LOS to support it’s allies and begin blasting. Baxingar is an absolutely glass cannon of a unit, but fortunately with the updated Momentum system it had enough Momentum to use Flash several times and dodge some painful hits.

The Black Tri-Stars are the Aces on this side and they start blasting. (We were also briefly tested a squad system in this game, to see how valuable it would be for Ace units; normally it was only for nameless grunts. It was fairly successful, but we found that individually the Black Tri-Stars were more formidable. More to come on the squad system!)

BIG O!! IT’S SHOWTIME!!!

Big O reinforces, in this series we realize that reinforcing units should have either limited movement, limited actions, or both. So we test out this idea several times and come to a reasonable solution that doesn’t allow for Reinforcing units to show up, blindside nuke a unit, then capture a CP all in one go.

Speaking of Blindside. Some Goggs reinforced on the enemy side last Round, as a limiting factor we let them attack if they used Zeal. Which they were happy to launch megaparticles supported by torpedos pods into Baxingars backside.

Round 2 Big O pulverizes that Z’Gok and captures the point.

Baxingar clears out the home CP by destroying both Goggs. We were testing out the “Tear through the Ranks” as a melee option instead of an event here, which we really enjoyed so it made it back into the Core Rules.

A Hy-Gogg on the Hy-Ground with an antiship missile. Who should send that into? The agile but glass cannon Baxingar, or the slow moving heavily armored Big O?? Hmmm

Big O withstands the blast then we proceed to beat down the Hy-Gogg. It’s at this moment we realize we should add something in the core rules to mention that very tall units can melee units on the high ground because…well look at this picture lmao

Two of the Black Tri-Stars move into position to Blindside Big O later.

The third Tri-Star gets a lucky critical and blows Baxingar off the board. While we made several of the aquatic units Elite to punch above their weightclass, the Black Tri-Stars ended up carrying the game.

Time to Chrome Buster and blow up the terrain and the Tri-Stars

Big O managed to take down 2 of them, but alas the third one got a blinside attack and then won initiative in the final round for another blindside attack. The ground shakes as the giant crashes down into the earth.

After Action Report

We ended up tweaking several of the aquatic units after this, since they didn’t feel as durable (or as cheap) as they could have been. Big O went through several revisions and one of our outspoken players, really loves this unit so we wanted to get it right. Eventually Big O went up a size tier (to reflect it’s weight, rather than it’s official height) which gave it a considerable HP boost and more slots.

This game we also tested out the squad systems for regular units as well as for elite units. We had tested it out a little before but this version felt a lot more stable and less likely to be all or nothing.

We also had a lot of fun with the Zeon team and ended up using them again versus a remarkably different force. Space Battleship Yamato complete with Cosmo Tiger squadrons. Stay tuned for more!