[MS] Battle Report – GaoGaiGar vs the Zonderized Federation Lunar Base

This is one of the many test games we did for GaoGaiGar in the last several months. For this series of games the setting is a SRW style Earth with multiple factions. This is a sequel to this GGG battle report.

The narrative was that the GGG organization failed to capture the Zonder machine lifeform which escaped into space and began to transform an Anaheim Electronics lab into a Zonder metal plant. The Lab housed several older Gundam and GM Types for testing as well as several newer prototypes which were zonderized and used to fight the GGG + J-Ark Team.

Below the break you’ll find a write-up for the battle report as well as an after action report and MechaStellar designer commentary.

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October – Melee and Close Range Weapons Overhaul

We’ve received a lot of feedback regarding GaoGaiGar and to a lesser extent Getter Dragon specifically regarding weapons that give 3 Hits on a Critical Hit.  The chief complaint being that these units can often stack many hits to the point where it’s almost impossible to resist them in melee.  As a result we’ve had to look over these units and this weapon type and consider solutions.

For those who exclusively play Gundam units the bottom line up front is that Beam Sabers and Heat Hawks are dropping down to 300 DMG per hit, Heat whips and Dragon Fangs are now a melee attack option.  Units with high crit abilities such as Sandrock or Minaret Gundam are having their weapons reworked.  For the Super Robot fans read on below the break.

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MechaStellar Unit Roster Update – June 2023 – GaoGaiGar

For this month’s update we are adding additional units from The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar. This includes the massive King J-Der, upgraded forms of the original characters released last month, along with Gekiryujin and lastly the rock and roll robot Mic Saunders the 13th. We are also adding in our first Stellar Warships from a Super Robot series with the Amaterasu, the Izanagi and Susanoh.

King J-Der is the rival to our protagonist GaoGaiGar, he is an enemy of the 31 Machine Primevals and thus frequently finds himself fighting on the same side as GaoGaiGar. Gekiryujin is the younger counterpart to Chouryujin, who grows the most after watching the altruistic nature of Choryujin (formed by the two brothers HoRyu & EnRyu). Lastly, Mic Saunders the 13th is often the comic relief but also the more unique robot of the series, using different discs and harmonics to accomplish a wide variety of effects. You can also include his 12 brothers to form a brigade on the tabletop.

We have a post on GaoGaiGar gashapon miniatures and larger figures such as Super Minipla and Super Robot Chogokin here: https://mechastellar.com/2023/04/28/mechastellar-gaogaigar-miniatures-and-other-yuusha-series/

Next month will be a Gundam roster update.

[MS] Battle Report – GGG vs The Zonderized Federation

This is one of the many test games we did for GaoGaiGar in the last several months using the MechaStellar VER 8.8 Rules. For this series of games the setting is a SRW style Earth with multiple factions.

The narrative was that the GGG organization was deployed to a Federation base where a Zonder had begun to Zonderize the Federation mobile suits there. It was up to GaoGaiGar, HoRyu and EnRyu to stop them.

Below the break you’ll find a write-up for the battle report as well as an after action report and MechaStellar designer commentary.

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MechaStellar Roster Update – May 2023 – The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar (Yuusha)

For this month’s roster update we have the Braves series, also known as the Yuusha series.  The Braves or Yuusha series was a long running Super Robot series from the 90s produced by the animation studio Sunrise (most well known for Gundam and countless other Mecha series) and sponsored by Takara. The Braves series produced 8 shows over the decade, each show is independent of each other but have recurring themes and designs. 

For this month we are releasing units from the first show, The Brave Fighter Exkizer, as well as the final and most well known show The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar. You can find the profiles here. If you are new to the Braves / Yuusha series then read this.

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Where to start the Braves (Yuusha) series?

For most people the most well known Braves show is The King of Braves: GaoGaiGar released in 1997 and then followed up with the GaoGaiGar FINAL OVA in 2000. It was the final show in the Braves franchise and studio Sunrise went all out delivering a tour-de-force in the Mecha genre, it was beloved both by Mecha fans and casual viewers when it was released.

Although still very popular today, not many people know that GaoGaiGar is the final show in a series. This post hopes to illuminate some of the other shows in the Braves / Yuusha franchise you may be interested in.

(Note: Yuusha is the original Japanese name that is translated as Braves for this series, when searching for information on these shows if you can’t find what you are looking for using the Braves keyword, try using Yuusha instead.)

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MechaStellar – GaoGaiGar Miniatures and other Yuusha Series

GaoGaiGar Gashapon Yujin Yuusha Retsuden

On this page we’re going to discuss the different miniatures available GaoGaiGar and the overall Yuusha / Braves series to be used with the MechaStellar Wargame Rules. This post will feature Yuusha and GaoGaiGar gashapon (capsule toys) as well some other small figures that were primarily produced by the toy company Yujin. We have also included the Yuusha Retsuden collection as well.

When playing MechaStellar we advise you to pick either a Versus movie scale (all figures are roughly the same height) or an approximate scale where some very large robots (i.e. 100+ meter robots like Daitarn 3 or Ideon) are represented by larger figures while everything else is around the same height. You can read more about the recommended size and scale here.

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MechaStellar VER 8.8 Design Goals – Finishing Blow

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.

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