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 FEB23 Update – VER 8.8 Released

For this February’s update we are updating the Core Rules to VER 8.8 with a renewed focus on trimming down Mental Math we’ve updated several Pilot Traits and the Focus action. We’ve also updated the short range weapons (16″) including beam boomerangs, heat rods and the infamous Rocket Punch as well as Machine Guns and Gatling Guns. Lastly, “Finishing Blow” has been added to add some more variety to Melee combats when it comes to assigning ATK and DEF dice.

We’ll have two in-depth posts exploring the weapons update and the focus/pilot traits update, here’s the first one focusing on short range weapons and machineguns. We’ve also updated the VER 8 Example of Play to match the rules update. Below the break you’ll see the summary list of updates for MechaStellar VER 8.8

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MechaStellar – Mazinger Z Tactics

Mazinger Z is the original piloted Super Robot and set the standard for fierce Mecha vs Kaiju action in the 1970s. Many Mecha iconic attacks first debuted in Mazinger Z including Rocket Punch, energy beams from the eyes, a powerful chest mounted weapon. Mazinger Z is portrayed as an Invincible Super Robot with a myriad of attacks, in this mecha tactics post we’ll look at how best to use the different Mazinger Z units on the tabletop.

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MechaStellar October Roster Update – Version 8.5 Released

For this months update we are continuing with the Mazinger Z series releasing an additional 13 mecha units profiles found on the downloads page. We’ve also updated the MechaStellar core combat rules to VER 8.5. This is a small but important update with key changes to Indirect Fire and Obscuring cover based on feedback from players. It also makes some changes to Stellar Warfare and of course balance changes to existing units. Read more below the break.

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MechaStellar Battle Report – Mazinger Z and Mobile Suit Gundam

Below are a pair of battle reports we put together while doing final testing of the Mazinger Z units released in September. The models used are the Gundam 1/300 S.O.G. line and the Mazinger Z gashapon line. You can read more about model sizes in these two posts.

Below the break you’ll see the battle report as well as a post mortem on the mecha tactics used for the Mobile Suits from Gundam, Mazinger and the Kikaiju.

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MechaStellar Battle Report – GP03 Dendrobium vs The Delaz Fleet

Here’s a short battle report on using GP03 by itself against a portion of the Delaz fleet. This Gundam tabletop tactics game involved GP03 Dendrobium, three Musai class cruisers, 9 Zaku IIs, and 3 Rick Dom IIs.

One of our players mentioned having issues running GP03 against large numbers of units so we opted to use the Zaku II over the F2 since they’re a cheaper unit and we wanted to try and overwhelm GP03.

The models used are the Gundam 1/400 collection for the Zaku II and Rick Dom II, the 1/1200 Gunpla kit for two Musai and the MSiA Peer Gynt for the larger more detailed cruiser and GP03 Dendrobium. You can read more about miniatures for Gundam and Stellar Warships in these posts.

Below the break will be a more photos and a battle report that tracks Momentum and damage to GP03 Dendrobium as well as a post mortem discussing the Gundam tactics and misplays.

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[MS] September Update – MechaStellar VER 8.4 Released

For Septembers roster update we have 24 new mecha unit profiles including the foundational Super Robot series, Mazinger Z. We are also releasing MechaStellar VER 8.4 Core Rules which streamlines some items in the Stellar Warfare section and provides another option for [Focus] as well as changes to Disengage. Lastly, there’s a large balance update that will address some points cost issues, movement and evade as well as improving the durability of some units.

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[MS] The 3rd Angel Sachiel vs The Megadeus Army

Recently a player asked about a matchup between Big O and Sachiel. One piece of advice I had was to field more units using the mass produced Bigs we see in flashbacks which would be much cheaper than Ace Pilot. The minis used are the Kotobukiya one coin figures for Big O and the Seika figures for Evangelion.

For this matchup we are using a draft version of the Flashback Big O and Big Duo to try and take down Sachiel. Hopefully we have better luck than last match. Below is a battle report and the mecha tactics employed.

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[MS] Battle Report – Eva 01 + Megadeus Army vs The 14th Angel Zeruel

Continuing off of our previous two games we decided to do a teamup match using an Evangelion along with the mass produced Bigs for the Megadeus Army, with 1200pts that would mean facing off against Israfel or Zeruel. We went with the most deadly angel. The minis used are the Kotobukiya one coin figures for Big O and the Seika figures for Evangelion.

Below the break you’ll see a battle report and the mecha tactics of the game.

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MechaStellar VER 8.3 Released – Stellar Warship Update

For August’s update we putting the Stellar back into MechaStellar. Our Stellar Warship rules for VER 8 have been in testing for a close to a year now, and we are now satisfied with where they are at to start releasing them this month. This month we release the Musai and Salamis from Mobile Suit Gundam. In the future we’ll release additional Stellar Warships from Gundam as well as other Mecha series such as the J-Ark from GaoGaiGar. Below we’ll talk about our Design Goals and the mecha tactics to employ.

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