In this battle report we have a 3500pt game using the MechaStellar VER10 rules. When the Space Revolutionary army descends on Earth there’s only one man handsome enough to stop them!
One side we have the Space Revolutionaries including Captain Harlock onboard the Arcadia, and two members of Operation Meter, Duo Maxwell in Gundam Deathscythe Hell and Trowa Barton in Gundam Heavyarms Custom. As for this Super Robot Wars (SRW) story we reasoned that Harlock and his unflinching principles of Freedom clashed with the government of the Earth Sphere alliance, and he enlisted the aid of Operation Meteor.
On the other side we have the Fabulous 7, Treize Kushrenada in the Tallgeese II and Roger Smith in the Big O, two very handsome leads. Then upon realizing how expensive the Arcadia is, we went in search of another fabulous team of pilots to complement them and we wound up with the Baxingar team wearing opulent furs and sporting a playing card aesthetic. In their world they represent the famous Shinsengumi on a backdrop of space, we thought it would be fitting that this group of idealists would be at odds with Harlock.
Forces
Note: The rules may have changed since this post was written so don’t be surprised if some abilities have changed in points or in rules.
Space Revolutionaries (3500pts)
- Captain Harlock on board the Arcadia (2000pts) – Commander
- Traits – Legendary Captain & Dreaded Captain
- Gundam Deathscythe Hell EW (750pts)
- Gundam Heavyarms Custom EW (750pts)
The Fabulous and Magnificent 7 (3500pts)
- Tallgeese II with Treize Kushrenada – Commander (650+450pts)
- +300pts +30VP – 3 Free Skills, 2x Flash and 1x Valor
- +100pts +10VP – Grand Strategist
- +50pts +20VP – Performance Upgrade (6)
- Big O (500+550pts)
- +100pts O Thunder
- +200pts +20VP – 2 Free Skills, Valor + Iron Wall
- +100pts +40VP – 2x Performance Upgrade (7)
- +100pts +10VP – Guard Mastery (+3d10)
- +50pts +5VP – Additional pilot trait – Hit on a 3+
- Baxingar (1000 + 350pts)
- +100pts +10VP Morale 3++
- +100pts +10VP – Free Valor Skill
- +50pts +5 VP – Merciless Melee
- +50pts +5 VP – Feint Bonus is +2 Crit Range
- +50pts +5 VP – Army of One
Round 1
Treize Kushrenada in the Tallgeese II is up first. He uses Grand Strategist for Support DEF +12″ x2 on the Dobergun giving it Support DEF 24″, since he’s only the unit on the field for his team, Support DEF applies to himself.
He moves up and uses boost to capture a CP and hit Heavy Arms in Rapid Fire range with the Dobergun. Valor is cancelled out by Flash, and Heavy Arms takes minor damage. But in return Tallgeese gets hit with a Quad Gatling Counter for 1400 DMG.
On Heavy Arms Turns he unleashes the Chest Gatilng for 1800 thanks to a Finisher save and then a Micromissile burst for further damage. At the end of this Turn, Treize uses Trust and gets lucky recovering a big chunk of HP. Heavy Arms does the same.
Tallgeese player: I’m reminded of VER7 when Tallgeese was killed by Overwatch by Heavy Arms at our FLGS. At least this time Tallgeese survived!
Harlock in the Arcadia fires off a barrage at Tallgeese but even with Support ATK, Tallgeese emerges unscathed thanks to Boost + Flash. Fortunately, the Dreaded Captain Trait shaves off more Momentum from the Tallgeese. Harlock then moves towards the side Control Point.
Tallgeese player: I was really worried because I thought I was going to be shot off the board Round 1, but I got super lucky on dice rolls. Well, maybe only this Round.
Meanwhile Deathscythe uses his actions + Boost to get on top the central CP.
But Tallgeese isn’t alone, Baxingar is formed by combining 5 Cosmo Bikes of the Space-Shinsengumi members. It arrives on the table edge ready to blindside the Arcadia. The Baxingar members and Harlock had a falling out recently over provincial space government.
On the other side, Roger Smith, hired by Treize arrives. BIG O – SHOWTIME
End of Round Momentum
- Space Revolutionaries = 6
- Team Fabulous = 7
Round 2
Tallgeese is luckily up first! He challenges Heavy Arms, moves into melee and also captures the enemy deployment CP. Valor is cancelled out by Flash, but the Tallgeese manages to strike a minor blow to Heavy Arms. At the end of this Turn, Treize uses Trust recovering a huge chunk of HP, lucky!
Heavy Arms turns around, uses a move action to get onto the CP while staying in melee and triggers a Momentum shift. He then unleashes the Chest Gatling on Tallgeese, he opts for Valor to try and pull off a Finishing Blow but Tallgeese with Flash manages to avoid taking significant damage. What’s worse is that Tallgeese uses Counter and dishes out 1200 damage thanks to a failed Armor Save.
Heavy Arms uses Close Combat [CC] and manages to kick Tallgeese out of melee, but not far enough to hit the building behind it (or be kicked off the CP).
Big O is up, and boy does he have one heck of a turn. Treize activates Grand Strategist to give him Support ATK and boost Big O. Big O uses Cannon Party for 1800 DMG and Missile Party of 2200 DMG thanks to Finisher. It’s Laser vision causes a failed Armor Save and lastly it uses the Moby Dick Anchors to pull Heavy Arms into melee (and off of the Control Point).
He uses his fists with Sudden Impact but Heavy Arms luckily dodges it. End of Turn Harlock uses Trust to restore Heavy Arms HP.
Harlock is up next, he moves first and then drops two Antiship Depth Charges on the pursuing Baxingar team who burns through their free Flash skills. The space buster does minimal damage to the Baxingar team. Harlock then puts the Arcadia on the Control Point capturing it.
Baxingar is up, Treize uses Support ATK boost again thanks to Grand Strategist, and now at range 24″ is also able to support Baxingar. Baxingar fires off it’s Antiship Missile with Valor and scores only 3000 DMG after Harlock pulls off one heck of an Evade roll. Baxingar closes out with it’s shoulder mounted hyper beam cannons to cause minor damage.
Deathscythe is up next, he uses Boost to gain Fly and bounce between the top of terrain pieces and moves in to intercept Baxingar. He gets into melee engagement range and pops off the Machine Cannons and Vulcans from the high ground, with Finisher it scores 3000 DMG!!!
Harlock Player: If I could sustain these rolls I would have crushed the Earth Sphere alliance. In retrospect I’m lucky Baxingar didn’t use Counter and knock me off after using Vulcans.
The Beam Scythe with high ground advantage scores only 3 hits after Valor vs Flash, but luckily nabs a failed Armor Save and Finisher Save scoring a big chunk of damage.
End of Round Momentum
- Space Revolutionaries = 7
- Team Fabulous = 7
Round 3
Baxingar is up first, and challenges Death Scythe. He starts with a close combat attack to smash him off terrain, and he chooses “Tear through the Ranks” which will give +1 Action regardless of if he destroys Deathscythe thanks to his “Merciless Melee” pilot upgrade.
Valor is worthwhile here, and even with Flash Deathscythe gets nailed for 3 hits and 3 failed Saves pushing him off high ground and into a building for 2000 DMG.
It then uses its Hyper Beam Cannons as a free action to shoot at the Arcadia, doing small damage, but Harlock Counters with the Space Buster. Dreaded Captain is a great combo with counter, but the Baxingar team has incredible Morale and so it leads to low results. Lastly, Baxingar fires off it’s Foot Missiles scoring more damage on the Arcadia.
The Harlock player is in a tough spot, if he activates the Arcadia he can’t move closer to any enemies and can’t trigger a Momentum shift (they are critically low on Momentum right now). For Deathscythe, he has to choose to either reengage Baxingar or try to support Heavy Arms.
Duo opts to save Trowa. He goes in for melee with Treize, burning off Momentum with the Fearsome trait, then Valor vs Flash scores 3 Hits on the Beam Scythe and 1 failed Armor Save, but Tallgeese survives.
And Counters. Deathscythe barely survives. But on Treize’s turn, the Tallgeese finishes off Deathscythe, too low on Momentum. He then takes the center control point and high ground.
Trowa declares revenge on Treize. He uses a Move action for a Momentum shift, then disengages, and uses Zeal to unload on Tallgeese with 2x Fire Support Missiles and then moves into rapid fire range with the Quad Gatlings.
Thanks to Flash and Boost Tallgeese survives with 300 HP.
Harlock Player: So close to a Revenge VP boost!
Treize uses Grand Strategist twice for Support ATK to give Big O an edge. Laser Vision followed by Sudden Impact destroys Heavy Arms.
Down to one unit! Albeit an expensive 2000pt unit. Can the Legendary Captain Harlock pull off a victory still? Let’s find out.
Harlock moves closer to Tallgeese generating a Momentum shift, it’s Space Buster forces Tallgeese to use their last Free Flash. Then as the last unit, Pulsars + Missile Support ATK blows Tallgeese off the building.
Enemy Commander destroyed Round 3.
Harlock then claims the central CP, currently it’s their only CP.
End of Round Momentum
- Space Revolutionaries = 4
- Team Fabulous = 7
Round 4
Harlock is lucky enough to go first. Space Buster with Dread Captain luckily drains Momentum then a Rear Arc attack of the Pulsar Cannons annhilates the low HP Baxingar.
Big O moves forward and with Laser Vision and Big O Thunder does a decent chunk of damage to the Arcadia but it’s still not close to 50% HP.
End of Round Momentum
- Space Revolutionaries = 6
- Team Fabulous = 5
Round 5
Roger Smith in the Big O is up first, he needs to knock the Arcadia below 50% HP to score some serious VP and win the game. Big O challenges Arcadia for a massive defense boost thanks to “Ye Not Guilty”.
Even with Valor and Finishing Blow, Big O’s piledriver arms were unable to break through Harlocks defenses and bring the Arcadia below 50% HP.
The Arcadia returns fire is also unable to push Big O below 50% HP.
Victory Points
- Space Revolutionaries = 414VP
- Tallgeese +180VP
- Commander +30VP
- Baxingar + 204VP
- Tallgeese +180VP
- Team Fabulous = 288VP
- Deathscythe +149VP
- HeavyArms +139VP
If they got Arcadia below 50% HP that would have been +151VP enough for a Victory! Close match!!
After Action Report
Team Fabulous
I was initially planning on using Big O to tank hits and have Tallgeese & Baxingar team up move up the flanks to destroy whoever was unlucky to get in there way. When I noticed two of my heavy hitters had a really fun ambush ability I completely changed my strategy. I got really lucky Tallgeese didn’t get blown up in Round 1, but thanks to that my heavy hitters got in super close in Round 2.
I was really impressed with Big O, although I’m kicking myself for not using Final Stage! Baxingar is interesting, I used Army of One with the free skills, but it probably would have been better if I put more free skills on it. I also feel like it’s too much of a glass cannon so I need to be more careful with it in the future. Treize in the Tallgeese was fun with strategist but I’m not sure I rolled a single Crit defense after Round 1 ='(
Space Revolutionaries
I was very worried after I lost both my mobile suits and only had a Warships left. I was counting on Arcadia to blow through Baxingar with it’s paper thin defenses, I knew Big O would be tough to bring down and same with Tallgeese being a dodge tank. Boy did I get lucky though, if they had a little more Momentum and kept Treize alive I certainly would have lost.
Overall I’m happy, ever since the major warship update, warships can now hold their own on the battlefield, and Harlock being the best of the best really showed off at the end.
I do think if we raised the points for our armies a little bit, I could have upgraded Heavyarms and Deathscythe to be a lot more dangerous. Overall really fun game! I hope our favorite Big O player enjoys hahaha.
Forthcoming Rules Update
Thanks to this battle we’re making various updates to the MechaStellar rules
- Updated Fearsome / Warmonger Trait
- Updating the defensive profile for Tallgeese
- Updating weapons on the Arcadia
- Update to [AA] weapons
- Updating the range of Ambusher abilities to be 20″ instead of 16″
- Update Warship Overwatch ability to be Counter focused
- Update Antiship weapons to give Finisher instead of bonus hits against large targets
- Lower the [M] cost to disengage by 1 if your unit is larger
- Bumping up Big O & Giant Robo to be Size 2 to represent their bulk / weight. Rebalancing weapons to compensate.
- Updated Captain’s Orders and Overwatch to be a simpler and with broader usage
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