With MechaStellar VER11 released we have been hard at work updating profiles to the latest VER. Last month we did Super Robots and G Gundam. For the November update we have added in a large number of units from Zeta Gundam updating all the AEUG profiles to VER11. We’ve also added in Gundam X to the AU profiles. And we’ve updated Jaegers and Kaijus from Pacific Rim to VER11.
We’ve also added in dozens of Kaiju for various Super Robot shows and updated the Core Rules to streamline Triggers and clarify Long Range vs Close Range Attacks. This is a very important blog post so please take the time to read through it. Thank you!!!
As we mentioned before, Rules updates are now on a 6 month schedule, that way players can master the game without having to worry up minor rules tweaks each month. That said, please keep giving us feedback so we can add it into the 6 month update. Here’s the VER11 After Action feedback form: https://forms.gle/aszwjLG1S2fs1wSQA
Update Summary
Balance Patch
Adjusted Vulcans for improved CIWS but lower ATK
Adjusted points weighting for Opener weapons
Adjusted Shield Rush to be a [Crash] attack
Roster Update
20 Units from Zeta Gundam
15 Units from Pacific Rim
33 Kaiju from Mazinger / Getter Robo / Combattler V and Voltes V
When we play MechaStellar we take notes while playing on what works well, what doesn’t and ideas on what to change of fix for the next core rules update. From there we typically note down a lot of items to try out and improve the game, a lot of these we consider Quality of Life (QoL) updates that improve the gameplay in small ways but aren’t really major changes. For example, letting you use Battle-Cry for free vs your Revenge target was an idea we penciled in several months ago, a minor change but a nice and thematic one. The goal is to note down all these small changes then every 6 months or so push out a rules update. This way we still incorporate feedback from the DEV team and playtester but slow the release of core rules updates making it easier to keep track of everything.
That’s the goal, but we were recently given a really great idea. Based on a serendipitous player comment we have a really great idea to simplify the trigger system, retaining the uniqueness of each trigger while making the overall mechanic smoother to use and easier to remember.
Now all weapons are default Crit weapons, so the Trigger TN is your Crit TN
Additionally, other specialized trigger weapons provide a bonus that is independent of the role. For example siege lowering cover, counter allowing you to counterattack, bullseye letting you target any unit, and barrage giving you bonus attack rolls.
Before each Trigger had its own special rule, Pierce weapons increased the lethality of saves, opener weapon gave bonus hits for each trigger on your next attack, etc. While unique, it did mean you had to remember a lot more rules, and judge in real time which was the best weapon to use vs each target. The change to making every weapon a “CRIT” weapon, and some weapons having a bonus effect means that all weapons start off fairly balanced. You can now use a Siege or Pierce weapon without worrying you can’t roll enough hits because you can’t make Critical Hits.
In retrospect, it’s a rather a simple and obvious change, so we’re really glad someone recommended. It’s gotten immediate favorable results form the Dev team and from playtesters so we’re going to push through with it, and so we’re doing the core rules update a little early.
Since we’re doing a core rules update we’re also going to include all those QoL updates in this version as well.
One of them was to update the wording of “Shooting vs Evade” and “Melee vs Melee DEF” to instead be “Long Range ATK vs Long Range DEF” and “Close Range ATK vs Close Range DEF”. This came about from players asking “Why can’t Evade a melee attack” and from question as to why you would use melee on Vulcans instead of shooting. They’re small things but we knew that going through with renaming it would make it crystal clear, now you roll a close range attack with your close range weapons which includes melee weapons, whips, boomerangs, and vulcans.
One unique benefit to this change is also that we can define a close range attack to be at 16″ or less, and now you can use a long range weapon (i.e. beam rifle) in close range and use your close range sensors. A benefit for melee battler types who prefer close range. Also a huge benefit for Kaiju with their higher Close Range DEF, now they want to charge closer to the enemy since they defend much better up close and personal.
Speaking of Kaiju we hope you’ve enjoyed our MechaStellar VER11 Profile Preview for Kaiju. Here they are if you want to catch up.
Based on a serendipitous comment we have a really great idea to simplify the trigger system, retaining the uniqueness of each trigger while making the overall mechanic smoother to use and easier to remember.
Now all weapons are default Crit weapons, so the Trigger TN is your Crit TN
Additionally, other specialized trigger weapons provide a bonus that is independent of the role. For example siege lowering cover, counter allowing you to counterattack, bullseye letting you target any unit, and barrage giving you bonus attack rolls.
Many combination triggers will instead become enhanced version of the original, i.e. breaker will be super pierce.
Dominate and Swarm will be removed, in their place we have AOE and IDF returning as Triggers.
Valor has been upgraded to be a real heavy hitter with a big payoff without having to wait till round 4-5.
Switching back to classic Mechastellar = each unblocked hit = 1 save (to a max of 5), this means that Focus still improves hits (and saves) which is great for Amuro types with high precision tearing through the ranks, it also means that super robots can pierce the heavens with a much higher save cap in the finisher phase
Rules QoL Updates
Update Battle Cry, clarified range and made it free if Challenge / Revenge target is closest enemy model
Updated Lock On so you can also bypass targeting the closest enemy model
Added [Crash] attack to Core rules
BR Saves = 1000 if target has no shield
Identified a problem with cheap HP squads which often die before the penalty can even get applied. Updated Mobility / Stun saves to apply the action penalty when target is HP<5000 instead of HP<50% which makes things a lot simpler on the tabletop and more useful against cheap HP grunts
Focus twice per turn can now be done by [Elites] instead of [Ace]
Alert can be used any unit and provides a blanket +1 DEF to all allied forces The old Alert CIWS bonus will be turned into a Captain’s trait in the future.
Removed [Kaiju / Warship] limitations on Alert and Flash.
Removed prohibition on Valor + Zeal, now you’re 2000pt Kaiju can use both to start clearing the field.
You can use Zeal before rolling Rally Saves, useful for people with high morale armies
Noted that you cannot use Counter if you have a Combat Action penalty.
Added Kaiju to the +1 Rally Save category
Clarified Iron Wall can’t be used against Push Pull unless you are larger size
Clarified that large units can easily get on top of high ground
You can’t contest a Control Point if the enemy is 2 sizes larger. Good for letting you run a big kaiju or warship and play king of the hill
End of game +10VP for each Control Point you own
Noted for targeting you can ignore units that are 2pts smaller than yours (i.e. Warship or Kaiju)
IDF weapons ignore cover. Also the penalty is Trigger -1, that way it can be negated by Target Lock
Squads & Havoc give bonus dice instead of bonus hits
Raised the Cap on Bonus Objectives and updated VP gain
Balance patch
Long Range Sensor +8″ = Weapon range +8″. Rifle, Sniper & Pistols Trigger -1, but ATK+1d10
Close Range weapons (<20″) got minor improvements. Beam Sabers are DMG 200 for example.
Battler = Increased Close Range (Melee) DEF, Sniper increased Long Range (Evade) DEF but gave it a Close Range (Melee) DEF penalty
Based on feedback changed Tactician to be any Sensors range
Update Jet Transform to be a dice penalty instead of a TN penalty
Increased VP for Elite Pilots and Frame 2 units
Fix Only the Brave Bonus Objective since it currently incentivizes letting one unit die early in a tag-team game, which doesn’t fit the theme of something like the Braves (Yuusha), instead we can accomplish the same end goal by instead tying it to being further away from allies, like the previous lone wolf trait
Lowered HP for Frame 2 units. Raised HP on some Barriers
In order to simply things for the upcoming Warship released, revised how Size affects attack, defense and HP and VP
Errors / Format Updates
Updated layout with increased vertical size and font size to improve readability, most profiles grew 20-30%
Updated layout to make the Defense section more evenly spaced
Fixed an error where untis had the wrong DEF (GM Nightseeker I/II, GM Spartan, GM Striker) or wrong ATK value (various Super robots and AU mobile suits)
Layout – Removed psycommu trait and put those rules into Bits / Funnels instead
Based on feedback update pilot traits of III to IV, to match the bonus pilot points it gives, more intuitive
Moved Bonus Objectives to profile sheets
Roster Update
Added 33 Kaiju from Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Combattler V and Voltes V
MechaStellar’s main goal for many years has been to make it easier for you to have a cross universe game fielding your favorite robots from various mecha anime.
As the years have gone by, the different versions of MechaStellar have often crept up in complexity, and Super Robots (and warships) have also been the most difficult to run. Not because they are bad units, but simply because of the sheet numbers of rules written onto each Super Robots’s profile. We’ve tried to resolve this by drastically removing extra or “oh shoot I forgot” type rules. You can read more about that in this post for super robots and this post for Elite units.
VER11 is meant to be the fun and fast way to play MechaStellar, and it’s also long overdue that we update Kaiju from VER9 straight to VER11. Including the various Kaiju from Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Combattler and Voltes V, Pacific Rim and Evangelion.
Perhaps a new series as well.
When designing Kaiju we decided to change our paradigm a bit. Several combat roles were consolidated and rebalanced from VER10 to VER11, while we had plenty of generalist and offense oriented roles, we didn’t have a dedicated defense roll. We’ve decided that Kaiju, and to a lesser extent Warships would be filling that role. While Warships boast superior sensors range and big long range weapons, Kaiju would instead have tremendous HP pools. And both types would have very strong Defenses.
Each Combat Role modifies a units base statistics, with the “Versatile” role being the ultimate generalist that raises all stats like Shooting, Melee, Evade, Sensors etc. Firepower on the other hand goes all in on offense and sensors, while a warship will go all in on defense and sensors. Kaiju are maxing out the DEF stats and also raising HP. Colossal and bigger Kaiju have even larger HP pools.
Kaiju are still in the testing phase and will be for some time. We need to design them in a way that they feel appropriate for their points cost, not too cheap and not too expensive. Super sturdy, but also able to deal with an agile target. These have been some the of the initial challenges so far, but fortunately switching to a dice-only system core mechanic in VER11 has made balancing a lot easier, and the compression of Performance Tiers to 1/2/3 instead of 1-10 has also been a blessing, where you can field your favorite Kaiju or Jaeger even if they are lower performance.
This is very important for players who prefer a certain rendition from the Showa or Heisei era.
You’re feedback is also very important, especially on Triggers. We are looking to do rules updates every 6 months so if something in the rules is Working or not Working please let us know so we can plan for the future update. Thank you!!
MechaStellar’s main goal for many years has been to make it easier for you to have a cross universe game fielding your favorite robots from various mecha anime.
As the years have gone by, the different versions of MechaStellar have often crept up in complexity, and Super Robots (and warships) have also been the most difficult to run. Not because they are bad units, but simply because of the sheet numbers of rules written onto each Super Robots’s profile. We’ve tried to resolve this by drastically removing extra or “oh shoot I forgot” type rules. You can read more about that in this post for super robots and this post for Elite units.
VER11 also drastically simplified the design math on how to build a mech and weapons as well, this made it easier to update some older profiles from VER9 like the Kikaiju from Mazinger as seen here. Even better, we’ve been working on ways to make units distinguishably different while also being much cheaper.
Cheaper units means it’s a lot easier to run an actual SRW style game with LOTS of Super Robots. No more having to juggle 5-10 different pilot traits in your head or having games starting off at 5000pts. Now for a 2000pt or 3000pt game you can field a very large number of super robots.
In this post we just look over some quick examples.
Starting off we’ll compared Shin Mazinger, on the left is VER10 at 750pts and on the right at 500pts. That’s a pretty big savings.
The ratio between attack and defense is lot different now as well, so there’s higher variability every attack if it will strike a surfeit of hits or completely whiff, one of the charms of VER11s dice pool only system. Similarly, the definition of “melee” weapon has expanded to include all weapons below 20″
Next up we look at fan favorite Voltes V. VER10 on the left is 450pts while VER11 is 250pts, quite a big savings. Furthermore, in VER9 and 10 Voltes V had two profiles, the 2nd one had its full assortment of weapons (likewise for Combattler V) sitting at 750pts. Whereas in VER11 all those weapons are optional add-ons, letting you field either Combattler or Voltes V and add on the weapons you want to use and will be considerably cheaper than 750 pts.
Here’s Raideen VER10 on the left and VER11 on the right, going from 950pts down to 250pts. Which is tremendously cheaper.
Raideen we have managed to compress several weapons, thanks to the new Finisher system which better simulate many Super Robot shows where a regular weapons is super charged for a finiger attack, like God Breaker in the finisher phase gaining the Energy Cutter attack. We also abstracted both God Pressure and God Alpha into the single Psychic wave which will be used by Dangaioh as well.
Raideen’s super attacks like God Voice become optional add-ons rather than the base kit.
Lastly, we’ll look at Baxingar, another huge 900pt unit dropping down more than half to 400pts. Likewise, in the previous Design Goals post, GoLion and Combattler / Voltes V have dropped down on number of traits significantly, and so has combiners like Baxingar.
The profile is more condensed, some weapons have become optional and more importantly it’s significantly cheaper. (Although it does make some of our old battle reports look lopsided lmao)
While these units tend be cheaper overall, “Hero” or “Villain” type units which are Frame 2 or higher elite level are also significantly higher in Victory Points compared to a grunt suit of the same performance or even cost. When running large games it’s not uncommon to bring several grunts or squads to fill up the points and send them racing to objectives because the loss of them is very low on the VP scale, meanwhile sacrificing a super robot (or Gundam type unit) can be disastrous for VPs. It’s added a fun level of tactical play to the game.
Those are just a few examples of how units are becoming cheaper. We’re also looking for ways to keep units from Gundam cheaper as well, that way the leap from Mobile Suit Gundam to Zeta Gundam isn’t a tremendous step up in points. Look forward to that in the future!
On one side we have the Garmilas Fleet from Space Battleship Yamato which has forged an alliance with ZAFT from Gundam Seed represented by a squad of BuCUEs as well as the Cosmo Rangers J9-II and the Baxingar robot. Since Baxingar has a space Shinsengumi vibe we thought it would pair well with Garmilas empire. As for Garmilas and ZAFT, well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, with the Plants looking on as Garmilas launches meteor bombs at Earth. Team Meteor Bomb.
On the other hand we have a heavy super robot force, with several interstellar robots including GoLion (Voltron) and GoShogun as well as the far flung Gurren Lagann. Then we have Earth’s defender, GaoGaiGar, and a pair of GM Customs, all that the Federation could muster. This is team Earth Defense.
It’s a bit of a wild mixup of forces, but that’s what MechaStellar is all about. Grabbing the robots you love and trying to figure out a good story to have them fight over.
Team Meteor Bomb
Garmilas 2x Destria Heavy Cruiser
Garmilas 2x Kelkapia Hi-Speed Cruiser
Garmilas 3x Astro Fighter Debake (we’re using one fighter to represent a squad of 3)
ZAFT – 3x BuCUE (we’re using a LaGOWE to easily identify the squad leader)
Baxingar
For Bonus Objectives they are using Baxingar’s Last Stand which gives bonus VP for each Save it fails.
Team Earth Defense
GoLion (Voltron)
GoShogun
GaoGaiGar
Gurren Lagann
2x GM Custom
For Bonus Objectives the team is using Defender of the Universe which gives bonus VP for controlling or contesting CPs.
Note: Unit Point Costs have changed drastically since this game series was first run, with some of the Super Robots being a lot higher in points.
Battle 1
GoLion starts the battle off and uses its Foot missiles in the Blue and Yellow lions to strike at the BuCUE squad, blowing up the cover. The agile BuCUE unit manages to dodge any serious damage.
Baxingar with it’s advanced deployment range, takes the midfield Control Point (CP) immediately. He uses the Zeal pilot skill to first attack the cover GaoGaiGar was hiding behind, then it fires off some powerful Antiship missiles vs the less agile GaoGaiGar. Fortunately, Protect Shade keeps GaoGaiGar alive to continue fighting.
GaoGaiGar moves up to return fire with Broken Magnum but Baxingar dodges it. The Garmilas Hi-Speed Cruisers move forward and continue to blast the slower GaoGaiGar wiping out its Protect Shade barrier and causing considerable damage.
That said, GoShogun is just as agile as Baxingar, it presses forward and strikes at the Garmilas Cruisers with the GoSaber, absorbing a hail of [AA] fire from the warships, but it manages to sink one cruiser.
The ZAFT BuCUEs use the Zeal skill, they launch into melee, attacking GoShogun with their double-bladed beam sabers. Then they disengage from melee and rush for the next control point.
Fortunately, Gurren Lagann and a Zeal skill gets their first. The GM Customs provide covering fire.
At the end of this round Team Meteor Bomb controls their deployment CP plus the center, although that will soon change as GoLion charges in Round 2. Meanwhile Team Earth Defense has their deployment CP + the Eastern CP. Both sides earn [M+4] Morale Points to use in Round 2.
Round 2
GoLion surges to the center CP and locks Baxingar in melee. The two melee specialists lock blades but neither score a strong hit. Meanwhile, GaoGaiGar moves towards the center CP.
The Garmillas fleet continues blasting with their positron cannons but GaoGaiGar and Gai’s courage somehow defies all odds and survives.
Gurren Lagann moves in and uses its drills to sink one of the Destria heavy cruisers. Meanwhile GoShogun hacks at another one.
The BuCUE squad captures the Eastern CP and fires their railcannons at GGG. The GM Customs move in to engage and contest the Control Point.
At the end of the Round, each player controls their Deployment CP while all other CPs are contested. They each earn [M+2] Morale Points for Round 3.
Round 3
In a shocking upset, Baxingar wipes out GoLion beating the Beast King in glorious melee combat, and with Zeal also manages to finish off GaoGaiGar who was already down to his last 300 HP.
GoShogun takes out another Kelkapia Hi-Speed Cruiser. Gurren Lagann has a chance to finish off the Destria Heavy Cruiser but instead….
BLINDSIDE – Gurren Lagann attacks from behind hoping for an easy victory.
That said, Team Earth Defense has been blowing through Morale Points to sink Garmilas warships. However, the benefit of the heavy warship force was that Baxingar hasn’t been spending that many Morale Points. They use giga Flash, and Billy the Shot with his blind swordsman otherworldly senses, manages to whir around and deals a devastating counter strike putting Kamina and Simon out of action.
The GM Customs at least held their own, taking down 2x BuCUEs while the Squad Leader escaped.
At the end of the Round Team Meteor Bomb has 2 CPs while Team Earth Defense has 2 CPs, each player earns [M+4].
Round 4 & 5
GoShogun engages Baxinger in the center, the last two Super Robots facing off. Baxingar has pulled off an amazing feat so far fighting off so many super robots, but can he last?
Alas, he is finally brought down. The last BuCUE captures the enemy deployment CP and fires on GoShogun who proves too agile to bring down. The GM Custom fires on the BuCUE but doesn’t score significant damage.
We continue to Round 5 with the last 3 units all surviving.
Heavy destruction on both sides, but for Team Meteor they had a huge victory, destroying several super robots yielded a huge amount of Victory Points.
Obviously a different strategy was needed here.
Game 2
This was a rather quick game. Due to some bad rolls on both sides it resulted in huge casualties by Round 2, but some fantastic camera shots to go with it.
Baxingar one-shotted GoLion in Round 1, and the Warships took out GoShogun. Meanwhile Gurren Lagann spiralled through the entire BuCUE formation.
This game GaoGaiGar got to use the Goldion Hammer to absolutely obliterate some Warships. A victory for Team Earth Defense, but the dice results skewed the game a bit.
Intermission
For the next game we opted to rotate the battlefield, making it much wider but with a shorter mid field. It was easier to fight in melee but also harder to control lots of CPs, one of Team Earth Defense’s objectives.
Game 3
Another Round 1 bloodbath with Baxingar going down immediately after GaoGaiGar lands a HELL & HEAVEN attack, shortly thereafter the Destria Heavy Cruisers blow GGG off the battlefield.
Meanwhile GoLion and Gurren Lagann do what they do best, by rampaging and smashing through giant warships.
The BuCUEs capture a control point and then are engaged with GoShogun who slaughters 2 of them in 2 Rounds. But thanks to the “Boost” rule the BuCUEs get to move each time they use Flash. The lead unit maneuvers behind GoShogun, goes first in Round 2 and makes a potent Blindside attack combined with Focus bringing him down.
But it doesn’t end there!
The hero BuCUE takes out Gurren Lagann next.
Off screen the warships get lucky and take down GoLion.
The lone GM Custom, last remaining Team Earth Defense unit manages to bring down a cruiser. He later avoids getting gunned down by the Astro Fighter Debake squadron.
Absolutely unexpected BuCUE victory!
While Team Earth Defense did pretty well on bonus objectives, no one expected the BuCUE would be the super robot reaper. The loss of all their forces was a huge amount of VP that launched Team Meteor Bomb to victory.
This was a fun trio of games with a lot of twists and turns, and heart pounding super robot battle cries anytime a theme song rotated through the playlist. We had a lot of fun playing these games and we hope you enjoyed reading!
With MechaStellar VER11 releasing late in August, we have finished conversions for all the classic Super Robots from VER10 to include favorites like Mazinger, Getter and Combattler / Voltes V. Additionally, by popular request we’ve also updated all the G Gundam profiles from VER10 to VER11. We’ve been posting previews daily.
Also the Solo / Co-Op campaign packs for MechaStellar have been converted to VER11!
As we mentioned before, Rules updates are now on a 6 month schedule, that way players can master the game without having to worry up minor rules tweaks each month. That said, please keep giving us feedback so we can add it into the 6 month update. Here’s the VER11 After Action feedback form: https://forms.gle/aszwjLG1S2fs1wSQA
For this month’s update we have a few format tweaks, weapon balance updates, as well as an expanded pilot upgrade system. See below for a summary of updates.
UPDATE SUMMARY
Conversions
Updated Solo Co-Op Campaign Packs for Federation vs Zeon to VER11
Patreon Subscribers have access to playtest version for Gundam IBO and SEED
Formatting
Based on Feedback Experimenting with making the profiles larger, starting with AU Gundam
Fixed some issues where text was not fitting in cells (thank you for those who caught those)
Various typo and formatting fixes
Balance Patch
Adjusted points scaling for Evade DEF and Melee DEF. Nimble Flyer & Angel Wings Cost+, Full Armor & Tracked Vehicle lower Cost. Units affected: Gouf Flight Type, Tracked Units, GP01, GP04, Tallgeese Flugel, Full Armor types.
Adjusted Combat roles due to Evade / Melee DEF. Guardian + Battler gain Close Range Sensors+4″. Guardian & Warships HP-600.
Discovered an error that affected weapons with combination triggers. Rebalanced all those weapons. Minor tweaks to some Barrage or CIWS weapons.
Removed requirement that all units must have a [CC] weapon, but they do need a minimum one melee type weapon. Adjusted HP accordingly. e.g. GMs are baseline 2100HP now.
Weapons & Mech Profiles
Fixed a weird error where Char’s Zaku II had 10d10 Zaku Bazooka
Zaku F2 and GM Command Role updated to Guardian
Updated Bigro to be Size 0
Rebalanced Big Zam & Neue Ziel, GP03 to be cheaper
Fixed an error where GP00 had Nimble Flyer & Shield
Fixed error on Gelgoog Cannon and Gerbera Tetra for HP, Slots and Weapons
Removed move bonus from GP01. Raised GP04 point cost.
Updated Beam naginata to be Counter, rebalanced Chevalier saber to be lower points
Fixed an error on Heat Hawk (Twin Heat Hawks was correct)
Updated Atomic Bazooka
Needle Missiles +10pts
Antiship Missile Rebalanced
Updated Dobergun
Pilot upgrades
Added Driven
In case you missed it, here’s some Design Goals post and a Battle Report featuring Hashmal from Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans.
If you like to play MechaStellar Solo or Co-Op with your friends, the Campaign Mission Packs for Federation vs Zeon have been updated to VER11.
If you want a simple mission pack for a Zeonic Front or Gundam Senki kind of campaign it’s perfect. You can also make custom missions too if you feel like tinkering.
There’s pilot progression where you can upgrade your Shooting, Melee, Evade, Morale etc. or purchase unique traits like Newtype or more mundane ones like Steel Resolve.
Setting wise its around 0081 to allow you to use any GM variant you can think of while playing. Do well on missions and you’ll have more points to requisition better GMs, Goufs, Doms etc.
In this MechaStellar battle report we are using the VER11 rules testing our some units from Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans including the infamous Hashmal Mobile Armor. The opposing player isn’t run Barbatos, but as a close stand-in they have the well known Berseker the Gundam Blue Destiny. Supporting it are a host of ground combat forces includes a squad of Gundam Ground Types, GM Ground Types, 2x Guncannon Mass Produced and 1 Guntank Mass Produced.
With heavy artillery and the a newtype ghost on their side, can they defeat this relic of the calamity war, the Mobile Armor Hashmal and it’s army of Plumas? Find out in this MechaStellar Battle report.
The battle opens with Hashmal going first, the player off course reasons
Well, what else would Hashmal do besides wiping out the landscape with its beam cannon
So Hashmal on its high perch fires off it’s AOE weapon, instantly vaporizing one of the GM Ground Types, despite their hefty HP. It then advanced up to the mid field.
The GM Ground types advanced, too far to retaliate, then the plumas began taking railgun shots at them. Next up the Gundam Ground types moved forward, unleashing their artillery cannons into a squad of Plumas.
Likewise the Guntanks and Guncannons began shelling the Plumas on the western flank. Their opponent that was flush with Morale Points and protected his swarms well. He later remarked
Man I love playing the villain
In later rounds, the Plumas began swarming over the west and east Control Points, the slower Gundam and GM Ground Types offering volleys of fire. Of the 6 Plumas on this side, 2 were destroyed.
Things were getting pretty dicey on the Eastern side. The Plumas ignored shooting and opted to charge into the Blue Destiny Unit 1 and Hashmal as well, who valiantly defending himself. The worst part is, by Round 3 with all forces in melee, the Guncannons and Guntanks were out of targets to shoot.
Designer’s note: Both players forgot about the “Overwhelm” tactical advantage which would have applied here
Surrounded, one team of Plumas managed to backstab the Blue Destiny bring it to low HP and activating it’s Berserker mode.
The Pluma Squads brought down the GM Ground Types with their drill tails. But the Gundam Ground types proved more than a match for them. Slow and steady they brought down all 6 Plumas on the Eastern front.
Alas, even while Berserk the Blue Destiny could not fight off Hashmal and all the Plumas backstabbing it.
It was a fun battle and did bring up several conversations on:
P2: Well, we know beams don’t really work against Nanolaminate armor P1: Right. The pilot would melt before the Mobile Suit Does P2: Yeah, but how about Beam Sabers P1: How indeed!
This conversation governed how Nanolaminate would be treated, and the ability would be revised. But more on that later.
With the Blue Destiny defeated, the Guncannons went in swinging and crushed a few more Plumas with their mighty fists.
Still, there were no match for Hashmal.
In Round 5, Hashmal blasted the low HP Guntank from afar with its Beam Cannon.
A close match! While the Federation player hit the objectives well, Hashmal’s wake of devastation wrecking so many units earned them a ton of Victory Points.
After Action Report
Ironically this is the first game we’ve played where both players were hitting the Morale Point cap of 10 often. Early game, players weren’t spending that many Morale Points and there weren’t too many casualties until Round 3.
The Hashmal player had a lot of fun, the profile will get a few more revisions until it’s ready for full release. Currently, having 3 different Counter weapons is a bit overboard. Likewise, Nanolaminate need another pass before its ready.
The Earth Federation Ground Forces did very well, and with significantly more HP and far less Armor Saves compared to VER10 the were very robust and most units survived until Round 5.
MechaStellar has a huge roster of mobile suits, super robots, kaiju and various other mech profiles you can use to battle it out on the tabletop. Still depending on what size of figure you want to use, whether it be small miniatures (1.5 to 3 inches) like the very common Gundam 1/400 miniatures or larger model kits and figures (5 to 8 inches) like the very common 1/144 Gunpla kits you will eventually run into some mech profiles that don’t have any miniatures or model kits.
Fear not! There is an incredibly easy and inexpensive option you can use to proxy figures called a Standee. They are also great in a pinch, if your friend wants to use [INSERT MOBILE SUIT] and you don’t have that in your collection.
Standee
A Standee is common on board games, where a small piece of plastic holds up a card of a character or monster. You can easily do this to represent your esoteric favorite machine or kaiju in MechaStellar. We’ll walk you through an example in this post.
Step 1 – Find an Image of the Mech / Monster
Preferrably you want an image with a white background to make it easier to print. For our example we want the Virgo, an amazing mass produced unit from Gundam Wing with very few models or miniatures available. Head over to your favorite website, and download the image.
Step 2 – Insert the image, Adjust Parameters & Print
For this example we’re using Microsoft word since the size you enter is generally what gets printed off.
When you insert the image, change the text wrapping so that it is “Behind Text”. This makes it easier to copy paste and rearrange.
In this example, we are going to make the Standee around the same size as the Mobile Suit in Action range of which we have several Gundam Wing Figures. So we make it 4 inches in height. For microsoft word we can fit 3 of these in one row, and fit two rows on one page for a total of 6 mobile suits on piece of paper.
If instead you want to use these at 1/144 scale, do a quick google search to verify the height. In this case you would do 4.4 inches for the height instead.
When you Print make sure you use cardstock. This way the paper is firm and stands up straight.
If you don’t have card stock available and just regular printer paper, you can grab a piece of cardboard and glue / tape it. But cardstock is much simpler in my experience.
Step 3 – Place the printed Mech / Monster on a standee base.
You can buy clear acrylic standee bases for very cheap. For example here’s a set of 48 for <$10
For small units you only need one standee, for larger units you might need 2 to make it easier to balance depending on how tall your paper is.
For a very large mobile armor like Hashmal we used 3 Standees to make it standup without falling over.
As a bonus example, for this one we just did a quick approximation on size since we were using 1/200 size figures. Hashmal was 5.5 inches tall, while the Plumas are 1.7 inches tall. We could fit one Hashmal and 6x Plumas on a single page.
That’s all there is to it, Standees are a cheap and easy way to use Mobile Suits, Super Robots, and Kaiju that have a hard to track down model kit / figure, or never had one in the first place. As is the case of many of the very interesting Kaiju designs in Getter Robo or Mazinger Z.
With MechaStellar VER11 releasing late in August, we have a small but powerful update for September a Gundam Wing Update. In addition to updating all the VER10 profiles to VER11 we’ve also added in the Tallgeese III, as well as options to add the Glory of the Losers equipment for the Gundams such as Sandrock’s Armadillo unit, HeavyArms Igel unit, or Shenlong’s Liaoya sword.
As we mentioned before, Rules updates are now on a 6 month schedule, that way players can master the game without having to worry up minor rules tweaks each month. That said, please keep giving us feedback so we can add it into the 6 month update. Here’s the VER11 After Action feedback form: https://forms.gle/aszwjLG1S2fs1wSQA
For this month’s update we have a few format tweaks, weapon balance updates, as well as an expanded pilot upgrade system. See below for a summary of updates.
UPDATE SUMMARY
Formatting
For Elite Pilot swaps, used the last column to show how many bonus points a pilot costs.
Fixed an embarrassing typo in the upgrade rules, Ace Pilots get 6pts for upgrades not 8
Various typo and formatting fixes
Weapons & Mech Profiles
Update large beam cannon and mega beam cannon affects GP03, GP00, FA7th, HFA 7th, Virgo
Updated Heavy Beam cannon affects Neue Ziel, Guncannon II, Virgo
Updated Heavy Gatling affects Heavy Gundam, Heavyarms
Updated Fire SPT Missiles to be Opener Trigger.
Updated grenades to be AOE
Added Guntank II
Updated GM Spartan to Performance 2
Rebalanced GP01Fb, GP03, HFA 7th to have Move 8″
Updated some named pilots to use the new upgrade system
Pilot upgrades
Rename overzealous to daring. Renamed Burning Soul to Hot Blooded.
Some traits got more expensive, like Steel Resolve
Added the following traits: Hot Blooded / Burning Soul, Fearsome, Guts, Persevere, Deadeye, Swift Strikes, Tactician
Standardized the pilot point system for pilots with a special trait like Newtype, Daring, Steel Resolve etc.
