Gundam Miniatures Game?

[Hero of Man]

I've had good luck asking for obscure things here before, so let's try again.

Has anyone had good luck finding a good rules for a Gundam miniatures game? If so, what scale? Barring that, does anyone have any interest in such a thing existing?

[Section9]

I have a copy of a set of rules called Mobile Soldier in Action I can send your direction.

Otherwise, there's Robotech RPG if every player controls one Mobile Suit, or Battletech, or Heavy Gear or Jovian Chronicles. It does take a bit of prep to stat up the Gundams, but I think JC is the best bet.

[Hero of Man]

I've never heard of MSiA before. Is it pretty good?

I'm not overly familiar with Robotech(the scope and scale of the series is a bit overwhelming), Heavy Gear seems really clunky, and Jovian Chronicles always looked more like an RPG; a very crunchy one.

I was thinking more something using the scale model kits and some kind of vehicles/Magella Attack Tanks etc.

[Section9]

I've never heard of MSiA before. Is it pretty good?

It's a bit high-detail. I don't think it will work too well with more than 1-2 mecha per player. There are rules for shields and losing arms/legs, etc.

I'm not overly familiar with Robotech(the scope and scale of the series is a bit overwhelming), Heavy Gear seems really clunky, and Jovian Chronicles always looked more like an RPG; a very crunchy one.

Well, there was a big Robotech RPG Tactics kickstarter that should ship in February or thereabouts. They're trying to finish the KS print run completed before the factory shuts down for Chinese New Year. That's a tactical minis game, not really an RPG. It's tagged "Robotech RPG Tactics" because the minis game is being sold by Palladium studios, same folks who bought the rights to Robotech for making an RPG out of it (and are using the same logo between the Robotech RPG books and the minis game).

Heavy gear and Jovian Chronicles are mechanically very similar. The dice mechanic is a bit unusual, roll a bunch of d6s and for every extra 6 you roll, that's a +1 to the die roll. Two 6s means the result of your roll is a 7, three 6s makes an 8, etc. JC is closer to Gundam in terms of setting. Most of the combat is in space, humanoid mecha have an advantage in zero-gee maneuverability, but non-humanoid fighters have better total thrust and tactical speed.

The reason Jovian Chronicles seems like an RPG to you is because the first couple editions of Heavy Gear and Jovian Chronicles had tactical, RPG, and even campaign rules, all in the same book. Some of the perks and flaws for the various vehicles are really more RPG elements than combat issues.

But JC is a really good integrated system for handling up to a dozen craft per player. Ships and stations are handled as groups of components, so you can pick out individual components to attack.

It really helps if you have some kind of spreadsheet to design your craft, but you only need to do the designwork ONCE. After that's done, the combat mechanics are very quick, and have a threshold system I like: multiply your margin of success in the attack by the weapon damage multiple. If your total does NOT beat the targets armor, Ping! no damage. If you beat the armor value but don't double it, that's light damage and the target's armor value drops by one point. If you beat DOUBLE the target's armor value, that's heavy damage and the target's armor value drops by two points. And if you manage to beat TRIPLE the target's armor value, that's an overkill/very obviously dead result.

No sandblasting through armor like Battletech.

And Jovian Chronicles is cheap in PDF format. I think you can get the basic rules and the mecha catalog (which has the ship construction rules IIRC) for under $20.

I was thinking more something using the scale model kits and some kind of vehicles/Magella Attack Tanks etc.

OK, so you're really talking about BIG models then, and probably only one per player.

MSiA might be better for you, pm me your email address and I'll kick you a copy.