Kublacon Report: Robotech!

Strike Team: Zentraedi Hunting!

 Max Sterling had hunted in the asteriod belt before. The Zentraedi liked to attack with a mob of battle pods led by one larger Glaug Officer Battle Pod in each group. That's okay. The chaos of an asteroid field suited his squad of Vf1 fighters just fine.

Warning lights lit up across Tracker's console. " Watch it team-incoming missiles! Zentraedi warpods spotted in the asteroid field!"

Two USN Strike teams have been sent out to the asteroid belt to find and defeat any Zentraedi battle pods. The rules used are Mecha! From 7th street games. the combat is Mecha! is fast paced fluid and three dimensional, actually using 3D flight rules, giving you the simulation of the action, pace, and drama of Japanese animation giant mech combat! 

Kublacon Game Report: 

This year at Kublacon I went way back to my roots. Mecha! was the first set of rules I helped write and publish with a gang of my gaming pals, when most of us were still in college. When we wrote the rules, we always wanted to play Robotech/Macross- but Zentraedi pod models, even with access to Japan town hobby stores, were rarer than hen's teeth and very expensive if you could find them.

Flash forward to today, I got a scad of models from the ill fated Robotech Tactics Kickstarter- and ran my dream game at Kublacon!

First turn- missiles acquired from across the table! 

Zentraedi were hiding in the asteroids with the objective of capturing intel from the base

The good guys! 

My players were well versed in Robotech, and did as much roleplaying as gaming, throwing out qoutes like," I rolled a 1 because that pineapple salad was bad".

Zentraedi make it to the base, and have to stay 3 turns to download the intel.

Max Fokker comes in from behind and causes great havoc!

Typical of the shows, Rick Hunter scored a lot of hits, and took as many too- but Max Fokker stole all the kills. Lots of smack talk- just like the show- ensued!

Behind the movie magic! 

Pilots looking as handsom as the show!

Over all the game went really well, especially since I have not played the rules in over a decade!  I'm going to tune down the Zentraedi armor a bit, and add more of them in for the next game so we have more boom!

Thanks for taking a look!

Robotech Playtesting!

Mecha! rules, the first published rules set I worked on

Kublacon game convention is next week, so I've set up my Robotech game in our work game room for some playtesting. I've not played Mecha! a rules set I worked on like 29 or so years ago (eesh)
so I need a refresh. And you know some game balance tuning might be good.

Zentraedi ambush side

Ace Pilot human side 

The scenario is as follows: Reports of Zents have been spotted in the asteroids near a secret human research facility. Ace Pilots are there to scout, flush them out, and engage.

 The Zentraedi's objective is to get one of their command pods onto the facility and download the specs for the new Human Destroids and learn their secrets.  Should be a fun battle.

Stay tuned for more! 

Mecha!: Zentraedi War Pod

I've got my mind on my Mecha, and my Mecha on my mind

Back in the Late 80's my self and a group of college buddies launched a new game company called Seventh Street Games. The name was the based upon the street where the house that most of them lived. Our first foray into actual publishing and making models was a game called Mecha! "An Explosive System for Science Fiction Combat!" The rules turned out pretty well and were distributed to many stores across the states- it almost ended up paying for the publishing costs- but it was a great spring board into my career. And because of that, and the fondness of mech combat, I'm dusting off the old rules, seeing what still works well, and then updating them for 21st century game play.

Here's the cover, and  the Intro, that basically explains the game approach.

Rules Cover

Intro Blurb

Mech Models: Then and now

Back in the day we were really trying to recreate the fantastic Macross genre fights between all the Zendraeti  mechs vs the stalwart human pilots in their Veritech mechs. The trouble was, those models were rarer than hen's teeth to find, even though I lived next to some of the best stores in Japan Town for a source.

But those days are now over!

Thanks to the Robotech Kickstarter, both Veritech and, more importantly the Zentraedi War Pods (my personal favorites) are very easy to come by via Ebay and flea markets. I scored a bunch and although a bit smaller than the old school models ( a pod measures 70mm to the end of it's top barrels)  the details are tight and models are easy to assemble- and fun to paint!

Examples of model sprues

War Pod Test!

here's my first war pod test paint. I based it on a wonderful blog post that I found by Collection DX
Which features some nice weathering and the grey legs instead of the typical white.  Here's my take on that theme.

Death on a stick!

My war pod is mounted on a battle pole using the battle nipple (yeah, it needs a new name) That I had cast up for my starship! game and models a decade ago.  I may update it, but honestly it works really well, and protects them models much better than having magnets as an attachment.


So, we'll see how this shakes out- I am keen on painting up a slew of these and getting the gang back together for some battles! Stay tuned for more!

Oh, if you have any of your own mechs to share, I'd love to see them. Also looking for any extra decal sheets :)
Cheers!