Note: This was a battle report from MechaStellar VER7 there are a number of updates to gameplay and victory points since that time. For instance in this version only a single armor save was rolled but failing it was instant death.
The 2nd game that day we were able to accommodate another player who was joyfully able to play as Epyon as well as a Kaiju from Pacific Rim. Wing and Heavy Arms returned as Attackers while Gipsy, Big Zam, Gundam and Guncannon returned as Defenders along with Deathscythe. You’ll find the Battle Report below the break.
Note: This was a battle report from MechaStellar VER7 there are a number of updates to gameplay and victory points since that time. For instance in this version only a single armor save was rolled but failing it was instant death.
This is probably my favorite game we had of Defend the City. We had a tag team match with two players on each side. Defend the City is a game mode where the Defenders are trying to preserve the city while the Attackers attempt to destroy it.
The Attacker side had units from Gundam Wing (Wing & Heavy Arms) plus units from Gundam SEED (Freedom & Justice). In the 2v2 game each player picked a Commander trait, Wing had Vigilant Leader and Justice had Three Times as Fast.
The Defender side focused on Mobile Suit Gundam with an unlikely alliance between the Federation and Zeon. They had Big Zam, Zaku IIs, Gelgoogs, Amuro in the Gundam plus two Guncannons along with Gipsy Danger from Pacific Rim. In the 2v2 game each player picked a Commander trait, Big Zam had Resourceful while Amuro had Unyielding.
The players were using the Battle Damage and Climactic Events modules.
Below the break you’ll find the battle report. We were having a lot of fun with everyone at the table and the audience and so only remembered to take a few photos per Round.
We had a suggestion last month about raising the number of shots on weapons. Here’s a draft of what weapons would look like if we moved everything up to base 5 shots or higher.
Machine gun R24 Shots 8 RF+4H DMG200
Beam machine gun 24 Shots 6 RF+4H P4 DMG200
Beam Pistol 16 Shots 5 RF+1H P5 DMG300
Beam Cannon 48 Shots 5 RF-2 P5 DMG400
Beam Sniper 48 Shots 5 RF-2 P6 DMG300
Beam rifle 32 Shots 5 RF+1 P6 DMG300
Beam carbine 24 5 RF+3 P5 DMG300
Railgun 48 Shots 5 RF-2 P3 DMG400
Artillery 48 Shots 5 RF-2 P1 DMG500
Bazooka 32 Shots 5 P3 DMG 700
Missile pod 32 Shots 6 RF+3H P2 DMG300
Missile Salvo 48 Shots 5 RF+1H P3 DMG400
Fire support 48 Shots 10 RF-4 P2 DMG300
Micromissiles 40 Shots 10 RF+6H P2 DMG100
Needle Missiles 16 Shots 10H RF+10 P2 DMG100
Grenades 16 Shots 5 RF+3H P3 DMG300
There are a lot of things to like about having that bonus shot. It makes playing long range games a lot more viable and makes rapid fire not as huge an increase in overall shots. The downside is that the lethality of the base game gets high enough that a lot of things are being immediately one shot, including higher point units like the Hyaku Shiki. So there are three options to fix this.
Return Critical Hits down to 1s on shooting and 10s on Melee
Rebalance HP and give each unit additional HP
Do nothing and keep weapons balanced the way they are
For #1 this would definitely solve the lethality issue in most cases. The downside of removing this is that it makes cross era play more difficult. To use Hyaku Shiki as an example again, it has an extremely large Evade value (higher with an Ace pilot) where 1s and 2s are essential for a grunt unit to threaten it.
For #2 this isn’t super hard to do but it doesn’t solve the problem for all weapons, for instance a bazooka is still likely to accidentally one shot some units with a base of 5 shots.
For #3, well, things are working well as they are but I know there are still some issue where long range fighting runs into some issues when shooting at units with shields and decent evade.
As someone who likes crits, and how those can influence the narrative, I’m leaning towards #3 or #2 myself.
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’.
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.
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).
MechaStellar is meant to be played with your favorite mecha series and there are a lot of different options for model kits and figures out there. This post is intended for players who want to setup a Super Robot Wars style Game using figures from different mecha series and different manufacturers. We are going to cover different sizes and scales as well as a few different product lines should you wish to start or expand your collection of giant fighting robots.
In addition to the Federation vs Zeon Sandbox campaigns, the following MechaStellar Narrative Campaigns received an update in December. All of them had various typo fixes, some had minor rebalances to enemies. Both the Getter Robo and Shin Mazinger campaigns were converted over to the new 20 Level pilot advancement system.
Here’s an early Christmas present for all of our Gundam fans. We’ve updated the Federation vs Zeon sandbox mission packs for Solo or Co-op play and added in Missions 11-15. We’ve also made a few tweaks to the core rules and wargames rules as well as a few additions to the unit roster based on player requests. You can find the update summary below.
NOTE – This is only for Federation and Zeon unit profiles. AU Gundam and Super Robots will update later this month.
For this month’s update we have the long awaited After War Gundam X, an Alternate Universe (AU) Gundam show with a post-apocalyptic setting. This AU is unique in that is essentially a “What if” story set in the Universal Century with all the technology and terminology mirroring the Universal Century. In this What if scenario it looks at what would happen to the Earth and the colonies had our Amuro-esque hero fail to stop the colony drop operation and Earth was turned into a wasteland. Our protagonists are Vultures who scavenge the wasteland while dealing with rival Vultures in a Mad Max style conflict.
MechaStellar 