Giant Fighting Robots

[The Red Hobbit]

Hey folks,

I wanted to share a giant fighting robot wargame ruleset I work on.  It’s called MechaStellar and purpose is to provide some simple rules to duke it out with your favorite Mecha and Space Warships.

The rules are setting neutral but for several years were primarily geared towards recreating the mobility and lethality present in Mobile Suit Gundam.  Last year we added rules to incorporate other series to allow our players who wanted to do Super Robot Wars style games.  We continue to expand the roster to include giant robots (and Kaiju) from the 70s all the way to present day.

Currently the roster includes the following:

(UC) Mobile Suit Gundam, 08th MS Team, 0080 War in the Pocket, 0083 Stardust Memory and Gundam Wing.  For other Mecha series we currently have Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Escaflowne, The Big O, Evangelion, and Pacific Rim.

We’ve got a poll on the downloads page for which series to work on next including some fan favorites like G Gundam, GaoGaiGar, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, and GoLion / Voltron.

A brief synopsis of the game.

• d10 system with alternating activations
• Fast combat resolution with shooting vs evade or melee vs melee dice pools.
• A Momentum system that ebbs and flows during battle and lets you protect your units or tear through the ranks
• Gameplay is overall very lethal to match the shows we draw from so most grunt units can be destroyed in a single attack sequence such as a barrage of missiles or being cleaved in half with a beam saber.  So you’ll need to be very prudent with how you spend your Momentum to save your units.
• Optional rules for battle damage in small games if you want to focus on blowing off legs and slicing through limbs as well as blowing up terrain.

Units

• The system can be scaled for small style games (2vs2 or 5vs5) or larger games (30vs30 or 5vs30 for horde games).
• Real Robots (MS Class) tend to have higher movement and evade while Super Robots (Titan class) typically have much higher HP and more powerful weaponry.  You can easily mix and match these units in your games.
• We also have a Stellar Warship class to let you play out space battles with your Mobile Suits
• Units are defined by 3 key stats, Frame, Performance and Pilot level then differentiated by their equipment loadout.
• 150+ Mecha Units Profiles for Mobile Suit Gundam, 70+ Unit profiles for other series

Gametypes

• Standard versus mode with a few different game types with “Secure the Objective” being most similar to 40k Take and Hold style gameplay
• Small Versus games typically take 30-60min, larger games take 1 – 2 hours.
• A cooperative / solo mode if you want more of a Zeonic Front style game where you take your small squad through premade missions with a behavior table for enemies.  There are also coop / solo mission packs for Mazinger Z, Getter Robo and Pacific Rim.
• For the mission packs the early games typically take 20-30minutes to play, while the later more dangerous mission take around 30-90 minutes.
• Defend the City / Rampage Mode which lets you earn VP while your giant monster rampages through the city or for stopping it with your giant robots.

Models & Miniatures

• We usually play the game using the 1/400 scale Gundam miniatures that are 1.5-2″ tall.
  • They are inexpensive, fully painted, easy to transport and you can reuse existing 28mm terrain.
• You can also use larger models like Mobile Suits in Action (MSIA), Revoltech, Chogokin, Robot Spirits, or model kits like Gunpla, Moderoid and Super Minipla, you just need larger terrain to match the figures.
• Here’s a detailed post on different lines of Gundam minis, we’ve also got similar posts for Mazinger, Getter Robo, Big O and Evangelion miniatures.

The game rules and mecha unit profiles can be found on the downloads page here: https://mechastellar.com/game-downloads/

Here’s a turn-by-turn gameplay example with photos using units from Gundam’s 08th MS Team.

The game is updated at the end of each month with either new units or balance updates and we are always looking for more feedback on the rules, units and overall feel of gameplay to help with that.  If you have any questions give me a shout.

 

[Tony S]

I must first admit that giant fighting robots don’t really interest me.  Not even sure what a Gundam is to be honest.

But I certainly admire the massive investment of time and effort you’ve put into your passion project.  Even if I won’t ever play stompy robots, I tip my hat to you.  Well done!

[Mr. Average]

I for one definitely DO play with giant stompy robots, and a new set of rules is always welcome! I love the idea of a small number of towering titans surrounded by large armies of tanks and smaller units.

I’ll read these rules with great interest!

[The Red Hobbit]

Thank you Tony that’s great to hear!  It’s definitely a passion project, but a fun one at least and going on 7 years now it hasn’t grown stale yet.

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Thank you Mr. Average I hope you have fun with the rules.  We don’t have profiles for the Magella or M-61 Tanks or the Saberfish / Dopp Fighters but plan on including those in the future.  We’ve ran into some balancing issues in the past where very cheap units like those tended to disrupt gameplay by having too many turns.  In the meantime, if you do like space battleships we do have rules for those to support their giant robots.

[Mr. Average]

There was a game back around 2000 called Ronin War which was long on theme and apparently short on execution, but which had that kind of a setup: many small tanks and robots, and only one or two super-gigantic mechs as the core of the force. I have long sought a game that could do that properly, and have found few. Most either treat all vehicles as equal, or make mechs and tanks simply larger accumulations of small arms. I would love a game that treats them as two separate simultaneous classes of combat.

[Mike]

Makes me want to play Adeptus Titanicus again.

[The Red Hobbit]

I have not heard of Ronin War but I’ll be sure to check it out.  Doing a combined arms force of Tanks and Mechs would be a bit hard in MechaStellar, most Mecha Anime tend to have the giant robots vastly exceed conventional vehicles.  Vifam and of course Macross/Robotech still have potent fighters but not much in the way of tanks.

In Gundam the Mobile Suit takes over since it’s more maneuverable and uses less fuel than a fighter, and more mobile and agile than a tank while packing the same (or better) armor and firepower than a tank.  The Guntank (halfway between a tank and mobile suit) is very effective on the tabletop, we’ve had to adjust indirect fire several times so that an army of mostly Guntanks didn’t lay waste to the opposition haha.

The only Mecha show that comes to mind that features tanks as an effective accompaniment would be Fang of the Sun Dougram, which Battletech drew from. (Dougram itself being the Unseen Shadow Hawk.)

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I’ve always meant to play Adeptus Titanicus, I’ve heard it’s one of the best GW rulesets on the market, but I’ve been trying to keep my 40k budget at a reasonable size so I still have yet to take the plunge.

[Mike]

Oh yeah they re-did it didn’t they…

I was thinking about the original version.

Not sure how the versions compare. May have to investigate.

[The Red Hobbit]

As I recall the latest one was designed by James Hewitt who also updated Bloodbowl.  I’ve heard nothing but good things but haven’t had a chance to look it over myself.  Someday though!

[willz]

Wonderful concept, rules and game.

[The Red Hobbit]

Thank you very much!

[Author]

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