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.
Continue reading “[MS] Battle Report – G Gundam Shuffle Alliance Tag Team”
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.
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.
Above you can see a comparison photo showing the heights of the 1/400, the 1/300 and the MSIA figures.
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.
Continue reading “MechaStellar VER 8.8 Design Goals – Finishing Blow”
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.
Continue reading “MechaStellar VER 8.8 Design Goals – Mental Math & Focus”
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.
Continue reading “MechaStellar VER 8.8 Design Goals – Short Range Weapons Update”
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
Continue reading “MechaStellar FEB23 Update – VER 8.8 Released”
Here’s an indepth look at some of the design decisions that went into the MechaStellar VER 8.7 Unit Profile Sheets Update. For your convenience I have included the relevant summary line item list for each of those categories from the main update post as well.
Continue reading “MechaStellar VER 8.7 Design Goals – Unit Profile Sheets”
Closing out the VER 8.7 update here’s an indepth look at some of the design decisions that went into the Weapons update. For your convenience I have included the relevant summary line item list for each of those categories from the previous post as well.
Continue reading “MechaStellar VER 8.7 Design Goals – Weapons Update”
Here’s an indepth look at some of the design decisions that went into the Balance Patch, Unit Profile adjustments and Weapon adjustments. For your convenience I have included the relevant summary line item list for each of those categories from the previous post as well.
Continue reading “MechaStellar VER 8.7 Design Goals – Balance Patch”
Here’s an indepth look at some of the design decisions that went into the MechaStellar VER 8.7 Stellar Warefare Update. For your convenience I have included the relevant summary line item list for each of those categories from the previous post as well.
Continue reading “MechaStellar VER 8.7 Design Goals – Stellar Warfare”
MechaStellar 