This is Round 1 of for the MechaStellar gameplay example using the Defend the City / Rampage game mode. If you want to read over game setup and army lists read this post here.
Note: MechaStellar is often a very lethal game so the longest Rounds are 1 & 2 while 3+ are typically much shorter since there are fewer units which you will see in this game as well as other examples.
Here is a 1000pt game using units from Mazinger Z. Player 1 (Toeizinger) has the Toei versions of Mazinger Z, Diana A and Boss Borot while Player 2 (Kikaiju) has Kingdan X10, Garada K7 and 2x Doublas M2 Kikaiju. You can find the profiles for these units on the MechaStellar game downloads page. The figures used are from the Go Nagai Robot Collection, you can find more information on Mazinger figures here.
The players are using the “Defend the City / Rampage” versus mode where one player is rampaging through the city and the other player is trying to stop them as soon as they can.
This post will be a turn by turn gameplay example using MechaStellar VER9.5 rules. This example does not cover individual rolls for the units such as evade or melee. If you are brand new to MechaStellar and want to see how the a turn goes from start to finish including every dice roll then check out this gameplay example using Mobile Suit Gundam’s 08th MS Team.
Below the break we will cover the game setup, deployment, and the 1st round of a 5 round game of MechaStellar. We will go by turn by turn each round and include some insights into the Gundam Tactics.
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.
In this post we’re going to talk about some classic Super Robot shows, which we will loosely define as the piloted Super Robots created in the 70s and 80s. The shows will be listed in Production order. We will update this post as we add additional classic super robots to the MechaStellar roster.
Mazinger as well as Getter Robo are both large franchises and each have their own where to start posts.
Kunio Okawara painting of the original RX-78-2 Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam is a long running mecha franchise that created the “Real Robot” genre. To give a brief explanation, the Real Robot genre typically has a more militaristic feel where logistics, geopolitics, and the fragility of human life in a conflict are often at the forefront. That’s not to say Super Robot shows cannot do the exact same (and have done so), but Real Robot shows generally embody those traits while trying to stay as grounded and realistic as they can within the boundaries of their setting.
Trying to shoehorn every single mecha anime into a strictly Super or Real Robot classification is generally an exercise in futility, but the broad strokes of Super Robot and Real Robot can be useful when describing a show to someone else.
Mobile Suit Gundam (1979) followed in the footsteps of Space Battleship Yamato (1974) by delivering a science fiction show with the main theme being “War is Hell”.
We’ll update this post periodically as we add more Gundam series to the MechaStellar game roster.
Since Turn A Gundam is Tomino’s end to Gundam I thought it would only be fitting that the first Tier 3 Gundam unit on the MechaStellar roster be from Turn A Gundam.
Draft profiles for Turn A Gundam and a few supporting units can be found on the VER9 drafts page.
This draft is all the units planned for the FEB 28th release and now includes Amuro’s Dijeh and Kamille’s Zeta Gundam.
Amuro’s Dijeh is at 450pts, that way it pairs well with the Hyaku Shiki at 550pts to form a 1000pt team. Since the Dijeh was developed from the Rick Dias we used that as a base and worked to make the unit relatively low cost to stay in the 450pt range while also being a high end unit worthy of Amuro.
Kamille’s Zeta Gundam has two profiles, one for when he first gets the Zeta Gundam and one to represent him at the end of the show where he has the Hyper Mega Launcher as well as some of his unique attacks including the shooting his spinning beam saber (the beam confuse) and the Biosensor infused Waverider Crash. This final form was given a point limit of 750pts to match a number of other units that are at 750pts both currently released and those still in the playtesting phase.
When it comes to protagonist units we often like to make versions that are at 500pts, 750pts and 1000pts for people who enjoy playing the Defend the City / Rampge Endurance mode which allows for waves of reinforcements at set points costs such as 500, 750 or 1000. If those aren’t an option then we’ll usually have a partner unit add up to 1000pts, for example Shining Gundam (Final Fight) and Rising Gundam are 1000pts.
These drafts also includes an HP update that is going to affect all units in the February update. The HP update was originally an attempt to make a potential design change with 5 shot weapons work, however, as we learned from many playtest games the base of 5 shots was simply too lethal.
However, while testing we had a chance to test out the increased HP values against the current armory of weapons and we found that it didn’t drastically change the game for Armor Penetrating weapons but did give a nice boost against high rate of fire weapons like machine guns and missiles which have been a little too powerful against expensive grunt units like the GM Custom and Hizack.
The Beam Carbine profile has changed from 4 Shots RF+3 PEN 5 to 4 Shots RF+2 PEN 6. This affects the Hizack, Marasai, Zeon Amphibious units and the GM Command, as well as any Super Robots which had a heat ray type weapon.
Explosive weapons have received a rebalance, in general most of them went down by DMG 100 but gained increased shots instead.
Core Rules and Wargame Rules drafts have been updated with various tweaks
Added note about Transforming MS to core rules
Updated Crash through and Trample
Shooting limited to 3 Crits
Based on feedback Tear through the Ranks and Seize the Day cannot be used in Round 1 to cut down on alpha strikes
I’ve taken all the proposed changes posted in the last week and a few other clarifications and revisions and uploaded them on the VER9 Drafts page: https://mechastellar.com/ver9-drafts/
I’ve also included what a potential HP boost looks like for UC Gundam units.
Here’s an update summary for the drafts
Core Rules
Updated Deployment, Challenge and IDF
Updated Crash through and Havoc
Destroy Terrain moved to core rules
Wargame Rules
Major update to Control Points
Defend the City game mode simplified
Pilot / Commander traits moved to Wargame Rules
Unit Profiles
HP Bonus to all units
Tweak profiles on some GMs, Doms and Gelgoogs, Gundam X and Super Robots
Adjusted scaling on range upgrades for machineguns and pistol types, rebalanced those weapons including O Thunder and Assault Rifles
MechaStellar 