MS Gundam Anime - ground war gaming in 1/200 to 1/250 scale

[Ironclad Paul]

Hi, thought I would post this to try to force myself to look at it all again in an attempt to regenerate some interest for myself in gaming it again and adding to the collection (hopefully).  sad to say but once the initial interest passes these things languish in boxes until something happens, maybe this is it? (its worth a try anyway)
back in the early 2000's when buying stuff from overseas could be very cheap, I managed to amass a large lot of Gundam Gashapons (trading kits) in 1/200 to 1/250 scale.  1/300 was relatively new for gashapons back then and the prices put me off that scale, whilst the slightly bigger stuff was floating about cheaply (around £1-2 a model) and having mecha in slightly different scales didn't bother me as I just made the stats greater for the bigger mecha (er, Mobile suits)
 I always had a long time interest in MS Gundam and what started small ended up with some large games at shows. then it all went away quietly..  so, recently came across some pics of parts of it on 2" hex boards.
Each pic shows a different theme, Zeon Zaku, heavy MS, Feddy selections and lastly a morass of post One Year war suits (Zeta, Double Zeta, Turn A, Seed etc.)  I dont mind mixing periods (like scales) if my players don't mind.
Then lastly pics of a show game from 2006 depicting a Federation Earth space base, with 1/250 White base ship and two naval vessels in the harbour. all on a 3" Square hex board layout. the building are all card and bright colours because its an anime, of course.
 Back then I used the 40k Gundam variant which was free online but in the end for the numbers I was using it was deemed to be too slow and I moved over to my own version of SJ ogre rules variant. simple and fast, though even that faded away eventually and I'm a bit in rules limbo now for mecha. (I know Mekatac is great and I love it, but not for these large numbers).
Anyway, I had fun putting it all together and running it back then but it did end up as a creche somewhat and possibly due to that I stopped demo games at shows and retired from all that soon after.

So, looking at it all now, I'm thinking I may go back, dig it out and add a few more big vehicles, Zeon Dobday and Gallup landships or Feddy Big Tray landship are growing in appeal to me for this scale and shouldnt be too hard to scratchbuild (like the White base, from cardboard).   Watching a series may also bring it all flooding back possibly, but which one..?

anyway.. all food for thought.. the last pic was some Zeon Magella tanks I converted from B5 Gropos tanks, but never used them.

[Daeothar]

That is really awesome!

The amount of mecha assembled, painted and based is simply impressive, and that table just as much so.

I've long been on and off working on a similar project for Battletech (in 1/100), and I can only take inspiration from what you've achieved there.

Hopefully this trip down memory lane will rekindle the big robot love, and we'll get to see you adding tot his already cool collection...

[Ironclad Paul]

Thanks!  I too am currently planning a 1/72 mecha game which is mostly but not all Dougram and Battletech stuff but using Mekatac.   though I'm having second thoughts at the vastness of the terrain needed to hide behind!  might need to reign back the ideas.   hence the smaller scale thoughts again, not that this solves my storage problems much.
 A lot of the gashapons are pre-painted (not all though) so I can't claim the pre-existing base level paint jobs but I did weather a lot of them simply to remove the pristine look, not that its out of place in some cases of course.
cheers.

[Daeothar]

I thought about Battletech in 1/72 when I first wanted to do something in that universe, but came to the same realization you did; it's all too massive. It would be really awesome, and I know of at least one club that managed to create just such a game (or was that in 28mm?), with matching terrain, but the effort was suitably gargantuan.

On the other side, there is the original FASA scale models for their game, at 1/285 (or something?), and that was just too small; I really wanted the mechs to be impressively large, and look that way too.

Then there were the Clix models, and while larger than the FASA metals, they were all over the scale range (to fit the clix bases), and also did not have any of the unseen, which I really want in there.

So I finally settled on 1/100, because that's about 15mm scale, and infantry would not be too difficult to source. And there are/were many kits of Dougram, Robotech, Crusher Joe and other ranges that were suitably scaled, if often difficult to get here in Europe.

Also, the N-scale terrain for my Dropzone Commander would not look too out of place either, so no need to create yet another terrain set in a different scale.

And now I'm very seriously contemplating getting the entire G1 Transformers range (as in another Future Wars thread here on the LAF), and those also are in 15mm/1/100.

So the math works out...

[Westfalia Chris]

Daaaamn. Spot-on, Paul. Love the scenery - the large buildings in particular.

[Ironclad Paul]

Thanks, the large H shaped buildings are modular and stack with a small bit of Velcro holding each level in place. I could have stacked them taller but needed to spread out for that game.  When not in use they nest into each other for smaller storage space.  This is why they have sloping sides, so they can nest into each other better.
 transformers is another use for this terrain planned but not yet achieved critical mass.
This terrain has been used well for Robotech a few times, using the 1/200 kits and micro machine tanks etc. Here's a robotech battle pic..

[boywundyrx]

Very cool and timely - I'm looking at running a MS Gundam game with the 1/300 Strategy of Gundam gashapons at a con at the end of March.  I've been collecting them for a few years, I think I'm done (?) but it's been slow to straighten the bent bits, then blackline them, glue and base them.  I have enough basics done for maybe a 6 player game, 4 for sure.

I have either a snowy setting or something in the red sands of Australia (i.e. a re-purposed Marian mat), if I can get some buildings painted in time.  I was just working on the scenario last night, stealing from the CAV rules and the great Ironhands Gundam site.

For rules, right now I'm using Ganesha Games' Samurai Robots Battle Royale - I'm familiar with the family of rules so it's easy to jump too, though I do wish it had a bit more weapons customization.  I've also heard that guys are working on a mecha adaption of TooFatLardies' What a Tanker game, called What a Clanker (it may be custom-made for Gundams).

Look forward to seeing more!

Cheers,
Chris

[Ultravanillasmurf]

So I finally settled on 1/100, because that's about 15mm scale, and infantry would not be too difficult to source. And there are/were many kits of Dougram, Robotech, Crusher Joe and other ranges that were suitably scaled, if often difficult to get here in Europe.

There was a wide range of 1/100 Macross kits from Arii and Imai back into the 'eighties.
http://ultravanillasmurf.blogspot.com/2017/09/macross-models.html

[Ironclad Paul]

Hi Chris, thanks and yes I remember the 1/300 SoG which were very nice, though sadly they were just starting to be released when I already had bought lots of my 200/250 stuff so I had to leave the 300 alone.  I guessed that 1/300 would have been popular with gamers as 6mm and 1/285 scifi are very popular already.

with regard to snowy terrain, some years ago it snowed at xmas here and took a few models outside. then my friend Peter added the captions and hey presto !  xmas Gundam comedy;

Not used samurai battle system yet but will have a look. The Ironhands site with MS ERA rules captured my attention straight away and I have played a few good games with them, great stuff though teaching the dice system is trying at times.  I do like it though I used it for a much smaller scale space version of Gundam mixing 1/1200 scale ships and 1/550 mecha.   I attach a few pics of the smaller scale space version below, the musai's are finished and opposed by WIP federation fleets.  the worktable shots are all WIP 1/550 MS from different sources (Bandai MSIA toys and bottletop odds n ends, mostly sadly too expensive to even contemplate buying now!) mobile armors are SD kit versions as they don't look out of place to me 
I don't think the ships/MS difference in scale is too bad for the space version and I'm fine with it for practicality purposes, suits me 

[boywundyrx]

Thanks for the additional pics, the ships look great.  The SOG stuff is handy for meshing with other 6mm terrain, this is a posed shot of my guys and some WWII buildings (WIPs) and the Martian buildings I need to finish for the end of March.

[fluffy05]

I have only seen a few Gundam shows.

Your collection is AWESOME

[OSHIROmodels]

Nicely done Paul 

Good to see you back as well.

1/48 mecha would be the best thing to do though, you know it to be true