11/04/2010

Meka Tac GSR Patrol

I recently discovered a free ruleset to play with giant robots or mechs called Meka Tac and written by Lloyd Krassner. I read and translated it into Spanish to play with my mates but then I discovered GIANT STOMPY ROBOTS , a Meka fansite with lots of optional rules, and a revised edition of Meka Tac, with many changes and improvements in it. I liked so much what I read that run to print the game cards and grabbed some forgotten plastic mechs and readied this game. As I was playing solo I borrowed some rules from Two Hour Games like the PEF (Possible Enemy Force) system, and here is the result.
All pics are clickable.


A 240 tons Nova Clan Mech Lance is commanded to patrol the bottom of a canyon where a possible enemy infiltration is expected. The Lance consists of one 60 tons Nova Cat Mech piloted by the commander Janis, one 70 tons Crimson Hawk, one tons 80 Black Hawk and one 30 tons Koshi small scout. They can read multiple signals on their screens (3 PEFs markers) and move forward to check them.
Both two first possible enemies resulted to be a false alarm, so the whole Lance headed for the third marker behind the top of a big hill. The first to pass the crest of the hill is the Crimson Hawk and it runs into an enemy Mech, a Skorpion mech assault class which shoots in opportunity, exchanging some damage with the Crimson Hawk, which after that, reverses and gets some cover behind the crest. The Koshi and the Black Hawk get close and poorly fire against the Skorpion. Now the Skorpion moves to close combat with the Crimson Hawk, firing all its armament and making a total of 23 damage points! Janis is too far to help. The Skorpion attacks first again and made 19 damage points against the mauled Crimson Hawk, but now the Black Hawk charges it on its flank and smashes the pilot cockpit(critical hit), killing him instantly and leaving the mech unmanned. The Koshi keeps moving forward and spots a hidden enemy scout mech class, a Frog (a Koshi variant), shooting against it. The Frog ignores the Koshi and runs passing and firing to the Crimson Hawk, adding some more damage to its already debilitated structure. Suddenly, some reinforcements appear, a PEF which splits in two, one of them being a Wasp and the other still unknown. The Wasp flies straight ahead and fires all its weapons against the Crimson Hawk but fails. Now the Frog shoots at Janis and then jumps over her, but she turns around and shoots it down with its two Laser Cannons and SML salvo! Two enemy mechs down. Now the Black Hawk closes to the Wasp and releases all its weaponry, making two critical hits that ruins its computers and produces a reactor core. In the next turn and before the Wasp's reactor explodes like a bomb, Janis goes up the hill, shoots at it and wrecks it. Chalk up another one! In the meantime the Koshi discovers the last enemy mech, a 40 tons Hunchback armed with one plasma projector, one small flamethrower and one small mortar. The Hunchback closes to the Koshi hoping to kill it in one go but misses the plasma and mortar. The Black Hawk come in help, producing a lot of damage and one critical hit that destroys the mortar. The Hunchback tries it again and this time kills the little Koshi, but then it is quickly dispatched by its big brothers. The Nova Cat Clan has lost one 30 tons mech but salvaged an almost new 80 tons Skorpion and win the day. The game was great fun and fast, and the rules gave me the feeling of commanding giant robots into battle. Soon I will be playing another game!

9 comments:

  1. Greta writeup! I got the chance to play some GSRG last weekend at a con, it was a blast...very inspiring!

    http://miksminis.blogspot.com/2010/10/fall-in-day-2-some-games-played.html

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  2. I had a blast too!
    BTW, I didn't know your blog, it's awesome!

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  3. Very cool!

    We've been leaving the figure on the table if the pilot is killed but the mech is not destroyed - counts as cover according to its size.

    Did you use 3 inch "hexes" for the MWDA mechs?

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  4. Thanks RF! I left the mech standing in the case of pilot killed and lying on the ground if destroyed. In both cases they give cover according to its size.
    I didn't use any modification. I just measured from the border of the bases using normal distances and ranges and it worked OK.

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  5. Good to know! I'm currently working on the combined arms rules (infantry, armor, aircraft, etc.) and those should be posted on the site in a few weeks.

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  6. Great news! I was using Meka Leader rules for infantry and vehicles plus some house rules.

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  7. mentioning a game on this blog is a recommendation for the ruleset :)

    gotta give this one a try when I finally get some time to play... unfortunately the number of games to try is growing too fast for me, even if only because I've been getting totally no gaming time lately.

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  8. A 100-ton Mad Cat? i thought it was only 75 tons!!

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  9. You're right Yuber but I configured with 100 tons to add more weaponry and equipment I guess...

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