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Good evening Dakkanauts,

The October Update is here and we have additional units from Gurren Lagann as well as a few requests from Mobile Suit Gundam including some terrestial warships such as the Gaw and Big Tray.

We also have a balance patch, the first one in four months. This affects a great number of weapons and units (including the fan favorite Big Zam) which you can find summarized after the break. If you want to read more in-depth check out these two posts.

https://mechastellar.com/2023/10/26/october-melee-and-close-range-weapons-overhaul/
https://mechastellar.com/2023/10/29/mechastellar-ver9-combat-roles-update/

All the new mecha profiles and rules can be found on the downloads page: https://mechastellar.com/game-downloads/

Core Rules Changes
-Updated terminology on various abilities where "Ignore Elevation" was replaced with "Fly"
-To continue making the rules size neutral, removed height requirements for tall terrain and instead allow players to designate what terrain pieces require Fly/Full Throttle to get on top of.
-Terminology change. Flawless Evasion and Expert Evade changed to Flawless Ace Evade and Ace Evade. Clarified that Improvise still allows you to use Ace Evade afterwards.
-Clarified that abilities like Giga Drill Breaker, Thunder Flash, etc. must be declared before the attack is made.
-Updated Target Lock such that when a target is within Sensors range, any 1s OR 2s become Critical Hits.
-Added a bonus & penalty for very large units in melee
-Added the ability for Skilled & Ace Pilots / Kaiju to attack a 2nd time in melee
-Put a limit on "Full Power" where choosing the same upgrade (i.e. DMG+200) costs an additional Power.
-High Ground now bypasses closest target rules for grunts
-Stun / Electric / Freezing / Push/Pull weapons now work based off of Armor Saves instead of automatically disabling or moving a target.
-Clarified bonuses apply only to a single target when making a multi-target attack
-Gritty Battles - Change 10 Armor Saves to 5 Armor Saves
-SRW Module - Added Redline and High Impact Melee rules. Adjusted Knockback to 2d10 inches.
-Upgraded Renowned Pilot, Fighting Spirit, Lone Wolf, Marksman, Berserker and their derivative traits.
-Updated Gunnery Expert, Marksman and Deadeye to give bonus shots instead of bonus hits to take advantage of the new Target Lock

Unit Profile Changes
-Adjusted Sensors math to match up with weapon ranges. All units received +2" to their base Sensors range.
-Adjusted Sensors on various units, several early Zeon units will have 4" Sensors to match their tech specs, in exchange
they will be rebalanced with +1 movement.
-Simplified movement formulas for the upcoming RPG mode. Modest movement bonuses to the following units: Char's Zaku, Ridden's Hi-Mobility Zakus, Dom High Speed Test Type, Cima's Gelgoog, Heavy Full Armor 7th Gundam, GM Intercept Custom,GM Night Seeker II, GM Custom, GP01-Fb, GP04, Tallgeese & Deathscythe, Taurus, Airmaster, Matador Gundam, Eva Units, Garadoublas, J-Der
-Based on feedback adjusted equipment and traits for Gurren Lagann
-Updated Crushing Strength / Lashing Energy traits
-Updated Mobile Doll Ver1&2
-Fixed error on Big Fau's role which should be Battler
-Fixed errors on GP01, Blue Destiny Unit 01, Gelgoog High Mobility R Type, Tauros D7, Energer Z, Escaflowne units which were showing the wrong weapons / traits
-Fixed an error on the Taurus & Virgo, Leo S/R/N and D-Unit which was displaying the incorrect Evade values
-Fixed a cost error on the Leo-S/R/N from G-Unit and gave each unit +1 Speed.
-Fixed a cost error on Sachiel and Shamsel. Fixed an error on Eva-01 EP 19 where it was using High Sync Ratio II instead of IV

Balance Patch
Combat Roles Update
Attacker = Melee+4 Evade+1.
Interceptor = Shooting+2, Melee+1, Evade+1
Battler = Shooting+3, Melee+3
Melee = Melee+6, Move+4
Raid = Shooting+2, Melee+2, Move+6
Sniper = Shooting+4, Evade-1, Sensors+2
(MS) Firepower = Shooting+3, Actions+1 Evade-1
(Super) Firepower = Shooting+1, Actions+2 Evade-1
Assault Types now have an HP penalty
-Updated various units to be Raid vice Attacker.
-Updated the following units to Attacker - Gouf & Efreet series, Boss Borot, Urah P9, Big Volfogg, Eva-01
-Updated Rising Gundam, Asura Gundam and GP04 Gerbera to the Sniper role.
-Updated GP01 to be Assault vice Indomitable

Unit Rebalance
-Rebalanced GaoGaiGar with lower Evade but Protect Shade/Wall requires far less slots. Updated to Melee role.
-Rebalanced Big Zam, Zaku Cannon, Gelgoog High Mobility Custom, Gelgoog Cannon, Dra-C, Kampfer, Alex 0080, Gunner Gundam, Gundam Pixy, Guncannon, GP03 Dendrobium, GP04 Gerbera, Tetra, & GM Custom, Dragon Gundam, Zeus Gundam, Asura Gundam, Getter-3/Poseidon

Weapon Changes
-Created Kinetic profiles for Rifles (GP01, GM Custom, Leo, Eva-01) and Heavy Pistols (Kidknuckle Ganmen, Gundam Maxter, Big Volfogg)
-Adjusted Beam Spray Gun / Pistol to be PEN 6 DMG 200 and improved Overwatch
-Updated Long Barrel Zaku Machine Gun to use an older profile distinguishing it from gatling guns.
-Adjusted some (beam) machine guns / gatlings to comply with the higher slot cost for range past 32"
-Updated Railgun and Antiship Rifle profiles
-Updated Bazooka / Railgun abilities to be +1 Hit vs Size 3+ Units instead of +1 PEN vs Warships
-As pointed out by a few players, Bazookas are better than beam rifles are destroying a Frame 2 Grunt such as a Dom (Bazooka 2 Hits to kill, Beam Rifle 2 Hits and 1 failed armor save). Reduced Bazooka DMG to 700 to put them on a level playing field. Similarly we are reducing the damage on Artillery Cannons to 400 to improve the survivability of Gelgoogs slightly against artillery.
-The following death ray weapons are now 2 Slots, RF+2 and PEN5: Getter Beam, Chrome Buster, Phonon Maser, Silver Legs, Diffuse MPC
-Rebalanced Micromissiles & Missile Pods
-RAMMING SPEED = Alternate version of Close Combat which gives +2 Hits but take 1000 DMG in return.
-Removed the Brawler trait and instead shifted the bonus onto the [CC] weapon for those units (i.e. Gipsy Danger, Maxter, Getter Robo, etc.) and added it to Shining Gundam and Kowloon Gundam as well.
-Melee Weapons Overhaul - Changed High Crit Melee weapons (Getter Tomahawk, Goldion Hammer) to instead be DMG 300. Units affected: Getter Robo, GaoGaiGar, Big O, Gipsy Danger, Tacit Ronin, Knifehead, Tresspasser, Garada K7, Glossam X2, Garadoublas, Minaret Gundam, Sandrock Gundam, Eva 01, Deathscythe Hell
-Close Range Weapon Overhaul - Similarly, the thrown version of these went through an overhaul and rebalance.
-Adjusted certain weapons to instead have the special move be part of the special quality instead of a separate weapon. Units affected Gurren Lagann's Giga Drill Breaker, Exkizer's Thunder Flash, Dino Geist's Dark Thunder Inferno, Great Mazingers's Blade and various playtest profiles.

Roster Additions
Mobile Suit Gundam
-GM Spartan by request
-GM Striker by request
-Gau Assault Carrier and Big Tray Land Warship added by request
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
-Dayakkaiser
-Twin Boekun
-Kidknuckle
-Mo-Shogun
-Sawzorthn
-Einzer

Here are two recent battle reports

https://mechastellar.com/2023/10/16/mechastellar-battle-report-au-gundam-vs-getter-gainax/

https://mechastellar.com/2023/10/30/battle-report-federation-vs-zeon-aces-2000pts/

Good morning Dakkanauts,

(Full update with photos: https://mechastellar.com/2023/11/29/mechastellar-unit-roster-update-november-2023-gundam-x/)

For this month’s update we have the long awaited After War Gundam X, an Alternate Universe (AU) Gundam show with a post-apocalyptic setting. This AU is unique in that is essentially a “What if” story set in the Universal Century with all the technology and terminology mirroring the Universal Century. In this What if scenario it looks at what would happen to the Earth and the colonies had our Amuro-esque hero fail to stop the colony drop operation and Earth was turned into a wasteland. Our protagonists are Vultures who scavenge the wasteland while dealing with rival Vultures in a Mad Max style conflictv (sadly no Gorkamorka races though )

While the show has a great premise, the world building doesn’t really go all-in on the post apocalyptic and it’s not long before we start seeing cities and other countries who look almost entirely untouched by the massive colony drop operation that happened in the 7th space war. (For those counting, in the Universal Century there were space wars in the OYW, Zeta, ZZ, CCA, F91, and Victory leading some to theorize that Gundam X is a what if scenario taking place after Victory, but technology wise appears to be more similar to the Zeta era.)

One thing you’ll notice while watching the show is that the themes are relatively upbeat compared to most UC shows and many of the characters are rather positive considering the quasi-post-apocalyptic setting. Our hero, Garrod Ran looks and acts like he just stepped out of a Yuusha (Braves) show

While the Captain and later his mentor is a combination of Amuro and Quattro. The supporting cast is great, with Tiffa Adill being an incredibly interesting take on Newtypes, and the slow budding and well-written romance between her and the protagonist is a breath of fresh air for most Gundam media.

As for the Mobile Suits since Gundam X is very similar to UC Gundam, many of the mobile suits are a homage to the iconic MS of the Universal Century although far from being identical like you’ll see in GSD. The Daughtress represents the GM, the Jenice the Zaku, the Septem the Dom, the Octape the Gelgoog, the Bertigo the Quebeley, and the snowboarding (oh yes!)

Juracg holds the model number of the Gouf but looks quite a bit like an Act Zaku. The homages are nice since Gundam X was not a high-selling show so finding model kits and figures can often be quite difficult, so you can always use your Zaku and GM figures as stand-ins. The Vultures love to customize their leftover warmachines so there is plenty of kitbashing opportunities as well.

As for the mobile suits themselves these were really enjoyable to design. We opted to start them at the bottom of Tier 2 performance and build upwards with the Daughtress and Jenice being Tier 2 versions of the GM and Zaku.

One thing you’ll notice while watching the show is how common solid shell munitions are, especially considering most of them are replaced with beam equivalents in the Zeta era of the UC. You’ll also notice that mobile suits are often hit by beams without the catastrophic effects normally seen, my personal favorite is the Witz episode where the Airmaster is trying to retrieve MS sized attache case from the Daughtress Fire Wallabys and beam rifles shoot the case out of their hands repeatedly.

Another example is how many times the GX is hit by remote bits, while a single shot from the Bertigo (Vertigo) Bits is enough to disable the Freeden’s ship cannon, it takes a hundred or so shots to pulverize the GX. This is in stark comparison to bits and funnels in UC such as when the Quebeley or Kshtariya dismember a MS with an all-range attack.

After consulting with the great minds at MechaTalk we opted to give all the unit from Gundam X the Anti-Beam Coating upgrade, reasoning that after the first 6 space wars anti-beam coating was common and cost effective (and the technology / production was not lost after the colony drops).

While having all the grunts be much more resilient to beam weapons it made sense to give out decent ARM PEN improvement to our protagonist Gundam the GX, this pairs well with the kit manuals that mention the Shield Rifle on the GX is considerably more powerful than a standard beam rifle.

For the GX Divider we originally went with an improved beam machine gun profile but after rewatching the episode where they take the scavenged battle ship beam cannons and adjust the firing rate to make the ‘beam machine gun’ we instead decided to do a prototype beam rifle profile. The Leopard is a more e[X]plosive heavy version of the Gundam heavy arms while the Airmaster is fun close range shooty version of the forthcoming Zeta Gundam.

The Virsago and Ashtaron were interesting to work on, while the Virsago resembles the Epyon it’s weaponry more closely resembles the Altron Gundam with Ashtaron being a great supporting brother (and often a rocket sled). We considered Raid and Attacker for Ashtaron but eventually settled on Attacker for the Evade and Melee boost since it excelled in both of those areas, although fitting its equipment loadout into its available slots was a challenge more often that not.

Last but not least we have a few more Land Warships with the Freeden as well as the mobile land fortress Bandaal (Vandal?) adding in some more unique options. For those who want to include warships in your Vs games you now have a few more options as long as you don’t mind mixing and matching universes.

While Gundam X is the highlight this month we also have another wave of Gurren Lagann units arriving including the Dai-Gurren and more Land Warships.

This month adds in Enkidu, Lazengann, the four generals of Byakou, Sayrune, Gember and Shuzack and their personal ganmen and warships with the DaiGunkai, Dai Gunten, Dai Gundo, and the Dai-Gunzan which later became the Dai-Gurren. These warships were a lot of fun to make, and while you will have to figure out proxy models to field them we hope you have a blast with them.

That’s all for this month. Be sure to read over the HP, Evade and Shield overhaul from earlier this month as this applies to all profiles. In general you will see a large HP increase for all grunt units, an improvement to shields, and an Evade boost to non-shield units which will make the game more forgiving for new players.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You can read previous posts on the HP overhaul or the Evade Overhaul or the Shield overhaul here:
https://mechastellar.com/2023/11/12/mechastellar-nov23-hp-overhaul/
https://mechastellar.com/2023/11/12/mechastellar-nov23-shields-evade-overhaul/
https://mechastellar.com/2023/11/29/design-goals-shields-ver9-2/

You can find the updated rules and mecha profiles on the downloads page: https://mechastellar.com/game-downloads/

Combat Stats

Gave all units without a shield +1 Evade
Raised HP of all grunt units a moderate amount proportional to their previous HP, raised HP a minor amount proportional to their previous HP for all other units.
Provided a bonus for Armor values of 4+
Adjusted penalties for when Armor exceeds Frame level

UNIT PROFILES

Finished converting Mazingers Kikaiju to the Kaiju profile
Fixed errors on Tomahawk Boomerang, Big Zam, Striker Eureka (HP), Dinogeist (Evade) and movement errors on G Gundam and GaoGaiGar
Fixed cost errors on GM Spartan (didn’t including Jamming cost), GM Striker (wrong Sensors cost)
Simplified cost formulas. Most units unaffected except for Performance 4 and 5 units.
Provided +1 Slot to all Frame 2+ units
Adjusted Super Alloy Z, Gundanium Armor, Cast in the Name of God, and 12,000 Armor Plates to provide bonus armor saves instead of HP.
Updated the pilot traits – Tactician, Merciless Melee & Furious Fusillade
Updated Ye Not Guilty
Rebalanced Zaku F2/FZ, Gelgoog Cannon & Customs, Big Zam, Zeong, FA 7th Gundams, Guncannon & MP, GM Cold District, Desert GM, GM Nightseeker, Mercurius & Vayeate, Pacific Rim Units
[S] Added to all Shields to show the Evade penalty for the Gritty Battles module

WEAPONS

Adjusted Shields to provide bonus blocks against DMG tiers
Adjusted most weapons to have either bonus shots or damage to compensate for the change to Shields and HP.
Updated most Stun / Push / Pull weapons to bypass Shields
Converted assault rifles into upgraded 2 slot weapon and gatling guns as 3 slot weapons both using the machine gun profile. Established a separate profile for Rifle which will be used for AC units in the future. Currently used by the Evangelion Pallet Rifle.
Merged Railgun and Railgun sniper into one profile with the sniper being a higher slot weapon.
Rebalanced Beam Rifle, Beam Carbine (& Heat Rays), Beam Cannon, Beam Sniper, Bits/Funnels

Warships

Adjusted formula for EQ Slot and HP and movement formula.
Adjusted Ship Artillery. Rebalanced warship missiles so they weren’t lethal to mobile suits without significant slot investment
[AA] weapons were missing the [360] tag
Upgraded Expert Gunnery Crew

Core Rules

Changed all instances of Super Titan to Super Robot to accommodate layout changes
Noted that using Focus in engagement range ignores rapid fire penalties
Make it Count adjusted to allow you to melee attack again [M-1 instead of M-2] or to shoot with the same weapon again
Modified Vigilant Leader to prevent castling
Updated Shields and Terrain Cover bonus. Fixed numbers on Destroy Terrain.
Gritty Battles – Provided info on combat stats after a Shield break
Stellar Warfare – Updated M-Particles and All Ahead Full

Wargame Rules

Updated the bonus for Performance Upgrade at 5+ and 8+
Updated Secure the Objective such that you retain control of a Control Point until your opponent captures it.
Added alternate Control Point Layout (Plus sign) for Simple Battle & Confrontation
Added VP in Simple Battle for Battle Damage or declaring Revenge or a Challenge.
By popular demand added in VP for Frame/Pilot destruction to Confrontation and Secure the Objective.
Increased Primary Objective VP for Secure the Objective.
Updated Secondary Objectives and raised the cap to 10VP

Happy New Year Dakkanauts!

For this month’s MechaStellar update (https://mechastellar.com/2023/12/24/mechastellar-monthly-roster-update-december-2023-combattler-v-and-voltes-v/) we are adding the classic combining super robots Combattler V and Voltes V, a well known staple for the SRW games. We have also updated the Core Rules to VER 9.3 with a changes that allow Close Combat [CC] weapons to prevent a counterattack and a streamlining of the SRW module. The Wargame Rules to VER 9.2 to account for some VP updates as well as the inclusion of the “Highly Skilled Pilot” upgrades which allow you to use a Skill like Accelerate or Bullseye for free once per turn. A summary of all changes can be found at the bottom of this post. You can find the updated rules and mecha profiles on the game downloads page: https://mechastellar.com/game-downloads/

Combattler V, Voltes V and Daimos are part of the Robot Romance Trilogy created by Toei, animated by Sunrise and directed by the late Tadao Nagahama. The character designs for Combattler V were done by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (of Gundam fame) while Voltes V and Daimos were done by Yuki Hijiri known for his designs on Locke the Superman. 

The shows share common themes and story beats, with Voltes V often being seen as an improvement over the original Combattler V formula by taking the sympathetic villain and keeping them for the entire show’s run, whereas in Combattler V the fan favorite villain lasted until the mid point of the show, at which point the show was greenlit for a second half and had to come up with new villains and plotlines. 

My personal thoughts are that Combattler V has a stronger first half than Voltes V, but a significantly weaker 2nd half, whereas Voltes V is strong the whole way through. Internationally, Voltes V tends to be much more popular, it’s a very beloved show in the Philippines even having its own live action remake with impressive CGI for the Voltes machines.

Both the shows are rather foundational in the mecha genre for they popularized the 5-man color coded pilot team of a combining super robot which would become a genre staple and also inspire the 5-man color coded team for the Super Sentai (Power Rangers) franchise. They also have excellent fight choreography and engaging story telling, highly, highly recommend if you haven’t seen it yet.

Both Combattler V and Voltes V are remarkably similar looking robots with a Super Electromagnetic (Choudenji) power source, they both have very similar attacks. For those familiar with their combination attacks in SRW the biggest difference are their finishing moves with Combattler V using the Choudenji Spin, paralyzing the enemy with Super EM waves then turning his hands into drills and spinning into a drill tornado and through the enemy, while Voltes V paralyzes the enemy with the Super EM Ball before slicing into it with its chest mounted Heaven Sword and finishing it off with a V Slash. 

We had a lot of fun designing both these very similar robots and adjusting their loadouts to make them distinct from one another. One thing that makes these robots very distinct is the fact they have 5-man pilot teams. We have been experimenting with 5-man teams for the last two years now and what we found works best and has the lowest mental burden is letting you select two pilot traits every Round. In this way these 5-man pilot robots have a lot of flexibility in their pilot traits. We also experimented with adjusting number of Actions, but found that Actions was simply too strong to balance around.

As for the Core Rules these were updated to VER 9.3 and have a few significant changes within. We’ve enjoyed knockback quite a bit in playtesting and it moved out of a module into the core rules recently. Close Combat [CC] weapons have been converted over to Push / Pull weapon mechanics featured in the last major update. These weapons can now knock back targets a significant amount, and we want to reward the choice for using a subpar weapon like fists or kick over say a beam saber by giving them a unique tactical option which is knocking your opponent out of melee before they can counterattack. 

The SRW Module by popular request received an overhaul to streamline its mechanics and cut down on the number of things to remember. Likewise the Stellar Warfare rules have been streamlined to make it easier to run a fleet of warships and provide incentives to have them provide Anti-Air fire on your home objectives.


Unit Roster Additions
Combattler V & Voltes V - 10 Units
Gundam (x9) – GM Command Early (Blue Destiny), GM Raid, GM Striker Metal Spider, Gasshia, Gigan, Psycommu Zaku, Bishop, Papua & Pazock Transport Ships
Great Mazinger - 12 Units

Unit profile Updates
Rebalanced Gurren Lagann to fit the entire Brigade + Warship into a 2000pt army
Added Faction Specific Commander traits for Gurren Lagann, After War Gundam X and Mazinger
Simplified various Super Robot Profiles to cut down on the number of things to remember when running a Super Robot army
Rebalanced I-Fields and other Force Fields.
Updated Warships to further lower costs on the expensive ships (example White Base 500pts -> 350pts)
Adjusted various Federation and Zeon units to be +/- 20pts to make it easier to form thematic team combinations.
Example: 2x Gelgoog and 1x Gelgoog Cannon = 500pts
Example: 3x GM Command [G] and GM Sniper II = 500pts
Example: 7th Gundam and 2x G-Line and 2x GM Command = 1000pts
Example: GM Night Seeker x3, GM Sniper Custom + Ambusher = 1000pts

Weapon Updates
Rebalanced Beam Machine Guns, Beam Pistols, Pistols and Rocket Punch attacks.
Updated AOE Death Ray type weapons including the Satellite Cannon
[CC] weapons converted to be Push/Pull weapons.

Core Rules Updates VER9.3
Increased engagement range for small size figures to 4″
Melee Clash – Included a note about weapons that force movement (like a Shoulder tackle [CC]) which preemptively ends melee before a Counterattack. Noted that in the melee example. Removed the Super Robot bonus on Melee stat of 10d10.
Based on feedback changed Vigilant Leader to +1 Accuracy within 24″
SRW Module Update – Due to popular request greatly streamlined the SRW module trimming it down to 1-2 special rules per type (Real Robot, Super Robot, Warship) and dropped the max Armor Saves down to 5. Modified the melee movement quirk to operate on Challenges. Adjusted Redline to require Full Throttle to reduce the action potential for Turn 1 Alpha strikes. Adjusted Victory Points in the SRW module to incentive attacking multiple targets each round instead of focusing on only one target.
Streamlined the Stellar Warfare rules to make it easier to run Warships while also providing some interaction with Anti-Air fire.

Wargame Rules VER 9.2 Updates
Adjusted VP
Highly Skilled upgrades added to Wargame Rules. These allow you to use a Pilot Skill for free once per Round

Solo / Coop Mission Pack Update
The first objective each mission is worth +30pts
Several mission in 1-10 received a minor increase in enemy points (+10-30pts)
Requisition Limits increased to +20 per mission, so by Mission 10 you will be at a requisition limit of 230 instead of 130. This will allow you to acquire more advanced units like the G-Line series by the end of the ground campaign.
Switched over to the granular 20 level advancement system with all pilot skills being usable

Here are three battle reports you might enjoy


Gurren Lagann and Gundam X
https://mechastellar.com/2023/12/13/battle-report-gundam-x-gurren-lagann/


Large scale Federation vs Zeon battle with 20+ units per side
https://mechastellar.com/2023/12/21/battle-report-gundam-odessa/


Amuro & Casval's Gundam with Guncannon support vs Classic Super Robots - Mazinger, Getter Robo and Combattler V
https://mechastellar.com/2023/12/31/mechastellar-battle-report-amuro-and-casvals-gundam-vs-classic-super-robots/

Happy New Year and many more to follow!

For this month's update we are adding the classic Space Pirate Captain Harlock and the stellar warships for the Arcadia, the Queen Emeraldas as well as Harlock's original ship the Death Shadow which was then salvaged and turned against him by his nemesis Zone.

Captain Harlock was created by the late Leiji Matsumoto the creator of several foundational anime and manga titles including Space Battleship Yamato, Galaxy Express 999. He has a very distinctive style and many of his works share common themes and even common characters which lead to some fans calling his works the 'Leijiverse'.

One important thing is that when it comes to Captain Harlock, the worlds created by Leiji Matsumoto there are many stories told but not all of them are sequential or connected to each other, think of them as space operas that reuse many of the same characters and tell similar stories but often with different backdrops and time periods, some use the Harlock name in the title card while others (Gun Frontier, Cosmo Warrior Zero) do not. Some fans have gone the extra mile and tried to put all the works into one continuum of several millennia but to be honest I think it's best to enjoy each work on its own merits rather than trying to find all the strings to tie them together.

Captain Harlock was originally going to be part of the original Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers in the US), with Harlock being Kodai's older brother Mamoru, however the idea was set aside and Harlock ended up getting his own series.

(However, the PS2 Space Battleship Yamato game has Mamoru as the ship captain instead of the movies Yamanami, as the game progresses he becomes injured with a telltale scar and later leaves with his own ship with an Engineer named Tochiro. You watch it here: https://youtu.be/djNEU1w9ou8?si=lr62y0SQi4yCz_Cw&t=241 )

Harlock has both manga and anime adaptations, the initial TV run has Harlock in a blue ship with the Mazon's (or Mazone) as the primary antagonists. Following the success of Harlock it would eventually be made into a movie called "The Arcadia of my Youth" which is one of the most gorgeous anime movies of the 1970s in my opinion. This is where things diverge, both in the ships's design which is now redesigned, green and sports a 3rd set of triple-barrel cannons instead of the gargantuan knife of the original TV series. It also changes Harlock's backstory when the movie begins he is the last military captain of a war Earth waged against the Illumidas, who are entirely different from the Mazon.

The Green ship design would be the standard moving forward in all animated media, although there are plenty of fans of the original design and it still gets high quality diecast figures made by Aoshima and Bandai.

Following the success of the TV movie a TV show series would follow and continue the storyline called Arcadia of my Youth Endless Orbit: SSX. Another great entry for Harlock, but unfortunately with the recent rampant success of Mobile Suit Gundam it did not gain the very long run and so finished after 20 or so episodes.

At this point there was also the Galaxy Express, taking place in the same universe more or less and featuring guest appearances by Harlock or Emeraldas in both the TV show and the movies done by the same director as Arcadia of my Youth.

After that there are many more entries for Harlock but none of them are going to be strictly sequels to either the TV show or Arcadia of my Youth, although you will see references to the previous works scattered around. For instance Endless Odyssey while sporting a similar name to Endless Orbit and the same ship design, is instead set after the TV shows Mazon conflict, but you can easily watch the show and never notice the link.

There's also a CGI film which in the West we might consider a reboot, but really it's just another retelling of Harlock's story with the same supporting cast and magnificent pirate battleship, the Arcadia. Generally when it comes to the Harlock stories most of them will involves Harlock and Tochiro or Harlock and Tadashi with frequent appearances by Emeraldas. You may see the same story told with the same characters with a different backdrop several times but each of them are enjoyable in their own right.

For MechaStellar we are adding in The Arcadia of my Youth version of the Arcadia although we allow players the option to convert it to the TV show loadout, or additional modifications for Endless Orbit SSX and Endless Odyssey. The Arcadia also sports a new mechanic to represent all the times Harlock will storm an enemy ship and execute the enemy Captain. We've also recently completed an overhaul to Warships which allow them to be played just as you would a Mobile Suit or Super Robot and removing some of the previous rules regarding readying and firing weapons which while fun, could be cumbersome if you were running multiple ships.

Updated game rules and unit profiles can be found here: https://mechastellar.com/game-downloads/


You can see some battleshots of the Arcadia here. https://mechastellar.com/2024/01/10/playtests-captain-harlock-the-arcadia-of-my-youth/

On top of that we are releasing MechaStellar VER9.4 after a lot of great feedback from the community. This update is pushing some of the pilot abilities back to being passive bonuses rather than being Momentum driven, for older players parts of this will feel similar to VER7 while giving attackers and defenders an important choice when an attack occurs.

Core Rules Update Summary

All units gain the following offensive & defensive options
-Attacker chooses Precision (+1 Shooting Accuracy) or Burst Fire (+1 Shot)Skilled Pilots improve these bonuses to +2
-The Defender choose either Dodge (Evade+1) or Guard (+1 Block, stacks with Shields/Cover) or Counter (+1 Hit in Melee).
--Ace Pilots improve the bonuses to +2
Criticals
-You always Evade on a roll of 9 or 10.  In Melee you crit on a 9 or 10. 
-Shooting Crits are on a 1 or 2. Target Lock increases it to 1,2 or 3.
Upgraded Challenge to give +1 Crit if the enemy is a Level 1+ Pilot
Made Revenge a special case for Challenge instead of Tactical Advantage
Updated the Focus action and allowed it to interact with IDF.
Removed the Size 3+ clause from Melee added it to the "Slow and Laborious Trait"
Full Power & World Shaking Havoc – Updated to integrate Push/Pull weapons.
Updated the following Skills & Traits
-Remove Ace Evade & Flawless Ace Evade
-M.I.C., Bullseye, Tear through Ranks, Improvise, Seize the Day, Unbeaten.
-Legendary / Renowned Pilot, Immortal, Elusive, Deadeye / Marksman, Untouchable, Lone Wolf / Operative, Tactician, Fearsome.
-Merged Renowned Pilot & Seasoned Veteran; Deadeye and Furious Fusillade; Merged Merciless & Melee Mastery; Heroic Spirit & Steel Resolve.
-Commanders gain access to all pilot skills even if they are a basic pilot
-Upgraded Decimator and Unyielding Commander Traits
Clarified multi-target abilities
The High Ground penalty gives +1 Hit against you instead of +1 Accuracy
Based on feedback simplified the Destroying Terrain module
Updated Shield Breaks for Gritty Battles
Stellar Warfare
-Removed the Hangar stat, Warships gain access to Full Power.
-Warships now use one action to fire one weapon just like all other units.  
-Ships can spend [M-2] to Dodge an attack

Unit Profile Summary
Adjusted points on several units
Super Heavy / Kaiju get +1 Evade
Finished converting Warships to a Super Heavy profile. Several units received considerable improvements to HP, Actions & Movement. Several units were rebalanced and had costs adjusted.
Reworked how Size affects HP & EQ to simplify points cost formulas.
With every unit getting the option for accuracy bonus, reversed a previous weapon update that gave auto-hits to short range weapons like tomahawk boomerang, rocket punch, drill missiles, hurricanes, stun attacks etc.
Updated [CC] weapons to gain a bonus on size, i.e. Smash is ARM PEN 5P, Gigantic Smash is 7P
Updated Awe Inspiring Arrival (Showtime, Mirror Coating Deployment) to be more flexible in Round 1 if you only control a single unit. Updated Stealth to only be 16"
Simplified Armor traits (i.e. Super Alloy Z) for Gundam Wing, Mazinger, Big O, Evangelion
Removed Shoulder Shields, gave those units an HP Upgrade instead
Updated Newtype to give bonus blocks instead of rerolls
Based on feedback reduced the growth of Sensors upgrades

Wargame Rules & Mission Packs
Updated Pilot Skills and Requisition Table in Mission Packs
Made a note about duplicate effects in Wargame rules
Added Warship upgrades - +1 Action = +50pts, Power, Repair 100HP +10pts
Moved expanded skills to wargame rules under highly skilled MS Pilot

Good morning Dakkanauts,

For this month's MechaStellar update we have the long awaited release of Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam.

Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam is a genre defining epic and sequel to the original Mobile Suit Gundam. To this day it is still regarded by many to be the best long running Gundam show and certainly by appearances in secondary media its popularity has not waned in the home country of Japan. In more recent years it even received its own unofficial statue in Okayama prefecture singlehandedly designed and built by Shoichi Nakamoto.

The original Mobile Suit Gundam was cancelled before its original planned number of episodes but was later revived thanks to fan response and very strong model kit sales, including those of the enemy mecha, typically toy companies only made toys for the protagonists and occasionally the main antagonist and rarely ever the rank and file, Gundam, however, broke that mold. The series was revived with a set of three compilation movies which along with new insert music became a huge hit which was then followed by Zeta Gundam.

Zeta's first run viewership numbers are one of the highest the franchise has ever had which would not be replicated until 20 years later with Gundam SEED. Laserdisc sales alone (1986 remember) accounted for 20% of Bandai Visuals annual sales when Zeta released.

Zeta took many of the conventions and tropes of Mobile Suit Gundam and polished it as well as establishing new ones and set the standard for what a Gundam show should be. Which is why nearly every Gundam series that has come in the ~40 years since have been compared to either MSG and/or Zeta Gundam in some capacity.

Zeta Gundam takes place 8 years after the events of the original Mobile Suit Gundam. The Titans have been formed as a branch of the Earth Federation with the express purpose of hunting down Zeon remnants, although thanks to their runaway military budget, prestige and nefarious leadership they quickly deem themselves superior to the Earth Federation and treat the regular military as inferior to them as we see when Bright Noa, the now legendary captain from MSG, first encounters the Titans. Seeing the new regime stomp all over the previous series heroes makes for a very compelling case for the resistance group we'll soon see.

The series opens with a blond haired man in a red mobile suit entering the colony surreptitiously to find information on the Titans new Gundam MK-II much like we see in MSG. Later, our teenage protagonist hijacks a mobile suit, although in this case for incredibly petty reasons as he tries to crush the Titans officer who made fun of him. He escapes with the red mobile suit, a man named LT Quattro who remarkably sounds like the previous series Char Aznable. They flee to the AEUG (Anti-Earth Union Group) who later enlist the services of famed Captain Bright Noa as well, in their resistant movement against the oppression of the Titans. Later in the series we also get Neo Zeon led by Haman Karm bringing a total of 4 factions vying for dominance in this war drama.

Zeta Gundam is notable for bringing back the protagonist and antagonist from the previous series but in very different roles that what would be expected or had been broadcast on TV so far in the mecha genre. Amuro, has been placed under house arrest after the events of Mobile Suit Gundam as the Federation feared his alleged Newtype powers that allowed him and the crew of the White Base to survive the events of the war. Meanwhile, Char having completed his revenge in Mobile Suit Gundam now finds himself adrift and has cast his lot in with the AEUG. Interestingly as well, Char ends up piloting something resembling a Gundam while Amuro ends up piloting something resembling a Gelgoog.

While yesterday's bad guy being tomorrow's good guy isn't a new concept, for example Space Battleship Yamato's Dessler, the complexity and nuance of Char's portrayal in Zeta Gundam was entirely unmatched by its peers and predecessors, and as the audience we are left to mourn Char's otherwise bright trajectory and redemption that is foiled by the finale of Zeta Gundam and concludes with Char's Counterattack

For MechaStellar this month we have our first wave of Zeta Gundam capturing most of the Mobile Suits in the first half of the series. For next month we'll capture most of the remainder including the mobile suits designed by Scirocco as well as Haman Karn's infamous Quebeley.

On the design side our goal with Zeta was to introduce a new wave of grunt units that would displace all the mainstays of the One Year War. This has been a fine balancing act over the years (Zeta first debuted in VER 3) and just in the last few months the open playtest drafts have gone through 14 revisions. The overall goal is to make a grunt MS superior to most OYW machines while also keeping the cost down. Naturally, balancing a 120pt Hizack against a 30pt Zaku II has a number of challenges but we've managed to resolve most of the early feedback by adjusting the HP formulas for units across the board, as well as increasing the HP bonus for Performance 5+ MS.

The Core Rules have updated to VER 9.5. This includes updates to Deployment, Challenge, Indirect Fire, Pilot Skills. The Destroy Terrain rules have moved to the core rules rather than just a module and this in turn has prompted updates to Havoc for Kaiju / Super Heavy units as well as the Crash through and Trample action.

The Wargame Rules have updated to VER 9.3. The major change here is that the end of Round Momentum generation has moved to the Wargame rules and is now keyed off of Control Points. Each Control Point you own generates Momentum at the end of each Round, for the 40k players all units have 'Sticky Objective' as a way to allow elite forces to hold their own against larger forces. Pilot and Commander traits have also been moved to the Wargame rules to keep all the various upgrades in one document. They have also received an update.



The Defend the City rules have been updated and simplified. You can read about them in a Turn by Turn gameplay example.



A new Turn by Turn gameplay example using larger sized Gundam figures has also been created. Here is setup and Round 1.

Summary of Updates
Unit Roster Additions
Added 28 Mobile Suits units from Zeta Gundam
Added 6 Warships from Zeta Gundam

VER 9.5 Core Rules
Moved End of Round [M] bonus and Commander traits to the Wargame rules.
Updated deployment rules to no longer be based on Sensors.
Updated Challenge to instead be a Defensive Bonus.
Updated Facing rules as well as warship firing arcs.
Noted that you lose [M-1] if you drop down the same turn you gained High Ground.
Added a note about Transforming MS to the core rules.
Added a LOS clarification to close a loophole where you could shoot but not be shot.
Simplified IDF so it cannot benefit from Skills or deal Critical Hits.
Capped Critical Hits at 3 for Shooting attacks.
Made Crash Through and Trample its own action as a Shooting attack option.
Upgraded the Havoc stat. Updated and moved Destroying Terrain to the Core Rules.
Updated Tear through the Ranks and Seize the Day to cut down on Alpha Strikes.
Updated Bullseye Skill to be more useful.

VER 9.3 Wargame Rules
Moved End of Round [M] bonus and Pilot / Commander traits to the Wargame rules
Updated Unyielding, Impressive Skill, Decimator and Merciless Melee.
Control Points give Momentum at the end of each Round instead of only once.
Updated Control Point layout.
Simplified Defend the City Rules
Updated / Consolidated Pilot Traits and the Impressive Skill Commander trait.

Unit Profile Updates
HP Bonus to all units.  Additional HP upgrades to units with Armor 4+ and Performance 5+
Tweak profiles on some GMs, Doms and Gelgoogs, Gundam X and Super Robots
Rebalanced several Warships to have higher HP but lower movement
Fixed error on Mazinger KiKaiju (+1 Evade)
Adjusted Ship weapons
Rebalanced e[X]plosive weapons
Rebalanced Vulcans and reduced DMG on variants
Rebalanced generic melee weapons (Blade, Hammer, Scythe)
Adjusted Push/Pull weapons and Arc/Stun weapons
Adjusted scaling on range upgrades for machineguns and pistol types, rebalanced those weapons including O Thunder and Assault Rifles
Cleaned up wording for Blocks to be "vs each attack action" rather than "vs each weapon" to close a loophole with tear through the ranks
Updated Incredible Luck & Newtype

Good afternoon Dakkanauts and Happy Easter everyone

For this month's update we are delivering the 2nd half of the Zeta Gundam update by including all the mobile suits in seen in the second half of the show for both the Titans and New Zeon factions. We've also added in a decent chunk of the Zeta Mobile Suit Variations (Z-MSV) and will continue to add in those and other side stories in the future.

Below we'll talk about the new units added. One thing to note beforehand is that MechaStellar made the choice a while ago to add a lot of granularity in Performance during the One Year War (OYW) of 0079. Our Performance stat is on a 10pt scale, the OYW is 0-4 while Zeta (0087+) is 5-7 and Char's Counterattack (0093+) and beyond is 8+. With only 3 points of Performance range to work (compared to 5 in the OYW) the mobile suits from the Zeta era are primarily differentiated by weapons loadout and improvements to armor, speed and sensors rather than the Performance stat. As a rule of thumb, any MS confirmed to have a Movable Frame is Performance 6+ and tend to have lower Armor values.

AEUG Roster
All the new units are from Z-MSV including the Gundam MK-III, the Hyaku Shiki Kai and their variants as well as the Dijeh SE-R (whose design came from the alternate timeline story Tyrant Sword of Neofalia).

The Gundam MK-III like the MK-II is shared by both the AEUG and the Titans. The Titans variants, Eagley and Halpuley, come from the Gundam Wars magazine that later introduced Gundam Sentinel as a fan favorite photo novel. The Eagley, designed by Masahiro Oda, is almost identical in design aesthetics to the AEUG's Gundam MK-III designed by Kazumi Fujita. For its profile it is lacking in the shoulder beam cannons and instead we gave it slightly higher speed as well as better Armor. The Halpuley is also a MK-III variant with a transforming system borrowed from the Gaplant, with some of its concept artwork highly resembling an aura machine from Dunbine. The AEUG has a Full Armor variant (along with the MK-II) that adds in some heavy beam firepower.

The Hyaku Shiki Kai is a customized Hyaku Shiki with upgraded armaments including grenade launchers similar to Zeta Gundam, as well as head-mounted pulse lasers (which we've labeled as beam vulcans) and shoulder mounted beam gatling. It also has a cheaper Frame 2 Mass Produced variant, as well as a Land Combat variant which is very interesting sporting a combo-beam rifle / railgun, shoulder mounted missile launcher and beam cannon as well as a Shield. The Full Armor variant has a hand-held Mega Bazooka Launcher labeled as a Long Mega Buster, an explosive bolt knuckle weapon and heavier armor.

Last but not least we have the Dijeh SE-R which is a higher speed version of the standard Dijeh. To reflect how different in design this one is, we opted to swap out its Indomitable role (bonus to Armor Saves, HP & Melee) for Assault instead giving it a bonus action at the expense of HP.

Titans Roster
The Titans roster gains the humble Guntank II as well as the dreaded Psycho Gundam MK-II as a 1000pt monster guaranteed to wreak havoc on the opposition. Speaking of which, we've also finished converting the Psycho Gundams, as well as the Big Zam to the Super Heavy type providing more HP, less Evade and access to Havoc to cause excessive collateral damage.

Next up we have the many unique transforming designs of the Titans with some stellar work by Mamoru Nagano. The first is the Gabthley piloted by Jerid and Mouar, we've given it the sniper role to be a potent long range threat. While the Gabthley was deemed not suitable for mass production, it's very powerful Feyadeen rifle can be seen being used by both the Marasai as well as the Hambrarbi. Next to that is Jerid's Byarlant, a rather ordinary machine in a time of conflict that saw a huge surge of transforming mobile suits (TMS). The Byarlant is the first machine since the Gouf Flight Type to achieve atmospheric flight, and what's more it could do so for sustained periods of time without any explosive risk to the machine. A customized version sporting parts from the Gabthley and other Titans machines would later be seen in the Unicorn OVA set in 0096.

Below that we have the Hambrabi with the murderous Yazan Gable leading his two wingmen. The manta-ray shaped transforming MS would be exceptionally lethal in Zeta Gundam often putting the strongest machines the AEUG had to offer on the defensive, they were a remarkably force to be reckoned with. As a bit of trivia, Methuss (me-tasu) meaning many eyed was originally the name for the Hambrabi which would have been the Zeta Gundam's sidekick, presumably the toy sponsors didn't want such a sinister looking machine and so it became an end of series bad guy instead with a new name.

Rounding off the TMS we have the Baund Doc, who first appeared in Mamoru Nagano's animated short Dragon's Heaven, and its descendant later featured in Turn A Gundam. The Baund Doc is piloted by either Rosamia Badam or Gates Cappa, (with Jerid Mesa using one in the finale as well). For Gates Cappa, since he pilots a two-seater with Flanagan institute researcher Loren Nakamoto we opted to give him the Tactician pilot trait.

Now we move onto the Mobile Suits designed and built by Paptimus Scirocco for the personal use of himself and the women he surrounded himself. To go along with Scirocco's penchant for designing advanced but very large and durable MS all of his machines were given Frame 5. The Messala is his first transforming MS and had a very impressive debut in the TV show, though later fell behind by the end of the series. The Bolinoak Sammahn and Palace Athene as body guard units fulfill a stealth + close range role as well as a heavy firepower long range role. Lastly The O is a top performance machine that despite it's bulk is capable of very fast maneuvers overpowering both the Hyaku Shiki and Zeta Gundam.

Neo Zeon Roster
We start with Haman Karn's iconic Qubeley machine which was the first mobile suit to have a miniaturized psycommu allowing her to bring its deadly funnels to bear. We've also included the PMX-004 Titania, which debuted in a sidestory game, it's background was that it was designed by Scirocco for her use as the potential Queen of Earth. Lastly, we have the Gaza-C, Neo Zeon's new workhorse unit and TMS. However, the mechanism for doing so was extremely flawed and the machine was only rated for 3 sorties.

Below you'll find a summary of updates for March 2024

https://mechastellar.com/game-downloads/

Unit Profile Updates
-Fixed an error on Sniper Units which was showing an accuracy 2pts higher than it should have been
-Due to Feedback updated the (Rick) Dom's Flash to also costs [M-1]
-Updated Psycho Gundam(s) and Big Zam to Super Heavy types

Roster Updates
-Added 22 Units to Zeta Gundam
-Gundam MK III + Eagley + Halpuley
-Hyaku Shiki Kai + MP + Land Combat
-Full Armor Gundam MK II + MK III + Hyaku Shiki Kai
-Dijeh SE-R
-Guntank II, Psycho Gundam MK-II
-Gabthley, Byarlant, Hambrabi
-Messala, Palace Athene, Bolinoak Samahn, The O
-Qubeley, Titania, Gaza-C

VER9 Drafts (https://mechastellar.com/ver9-drafts/)
-Brave of the Sun Fighbird added
-Brave of Legend Da Garn added
-OYW Vehicles (Tanks & Jets) added
-OYW Zaku I & RB-79 Ball added