"Robotech Battle Report - 1/200 scale" Topic

On January 31, we ran a Robotech game. I have always been a big fan of the series, and I managed to assemble enough 1/200 scale models for a game. For rules, we used an adapted version of "Mobile Soldier in Action".

The game was set on Macross island, in the initial battle from the series (for those familiar with Robotech, it would have fit roughly with the second episode, "Countdown").

On the day the Earth officials activate the rebuilt alien ship, known as the SDF-1, the Zentreadi, an armada of 40-foot aliens, arrive to reclaim the ship. After pasting the Earth orbital defences, the Zentreadi attack Macross island, home to the SDF-1 base. The island is bombarded from orbit, and Zentreadi battle pods move in.

Our table was laid out to represent a portion of the coast of Macross Island, a fringe of the bombarded Macross city, and a communication relay which survived the bombardment, and would be the target of an initial Zentreadi attack.

For the game, the Zentreadi force of 16 pods, including 10 standard battle pods, three light missile pods, one heavy missile pod, a scout pod to help with targeting, and an officer's pod with an ace pilot to provide some oomph.

Zentreadi objective was to eliminate the destroids, and then take out the communications relay on the base. They could not fire on the relay until the destroids were destroyed.

The Robotech defence force side had a squad of Destroids – 3 Raidar X, 1 Gladiator and 1 Excalibur (note – the names I use match the Robotech/Palladium version of this story – these mecha seem to have all sorts of names for the destroids, so apologies for confusion).

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A squad of 3 Veritech fighters, together with Roy Fokker himself, were on hand to assist the destroids.

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The battle was fast and furious. The destroids had to survive two turns under Zentreadi attack before the Veritechs could arrive to assist (the VTs had been called back from a dog-fight in the upper atmosphere).

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While the destroids were able to pick off some of the Zentreadi, the wieght of alien fire began to tell and soon two Raidar Xs and the Gladiator were destroyed.

Nonetheless, the destroids heroically held on as the Veritechs arrived to support them.

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The Zentreadi managed to shoot down a VF-1J, and damage two VF-1A fighters, and continued to whittle away at the destroids. The Excalibur held out heroically, buying enough time before going down for the VTs to turn the tide.

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As the battle came to a close, the remaining Zentreadi pods destoryed the Excalibur, and targeted the communications relay. In the end, it came down to the initiative roll of the last turn. The Zentreadi rolled poor initiative totals, and the Veritechs finished them off before the aliens could zap the tower.

Great fun all round. I hope the pictures show up, and I didn't mess up the links.

Greg

looks fantastic!

always wanted to give something like this a go, very cool.

Very cool!
I've got a pile of those models in various states of build/paint… this oughtta go a long way towards inspiring their completion!

yes very cool.

Looks really good and sounds like you had fun.

Where are the figures from? I like the look of them but haven't seen them before and I'm looking at starting 10mm or 1/200th sci-fi.

I LOVE it!

Folks, I'm serious about this, all slobering over Greg's astounding paint job and presentation aside, those Nachimo 1/200 Robotech kits and Da BOMB!!!
If you even have a passing fancy for Battletech, then this is for you!
The Unseens, in all their glory, coming with two superbly details models to a box that can be found on eBay if you lucky to find them. There are some around there now, but, you've gotta keep an eagle's eye out for 'em.

Have a bunch myself and this is a great inspiration to get a force of each put together!

Great work, Greg!!!!

Very nice paint jobs! The table seems a bit small to me, but the battle sounds like a dang good time!

I dream of getting a Robotech game together.

Ho man, that's cool!

Way Cool!

Excellent work, great paint jobs, and great job getting all those 1/200 Nichimo Zentradi models.

Dude that ROCKS!
I am sooooo gonna have to make a setup for that.
Any chance you can share you adapted stats and house rules?

Sparrowhawk – the models are (as others have already guessed) nearly all Nichimo or Testors ROBOT 1/200 kits. Near as I can tell, the Testors ROBOT and Nichimo use the same molds to make the models.

Two of the battle pods are re-painted "gashapon" – they are so close in size to the 1/200 kits that you can go with them easily. I think they are in some collection called the "Macross: First Mission" – made by Bandai, I believe.

TankerJake,

Sure, I can share some of the rules we used. Just send me a message.

Fantastic figures; very well painted!

Looks good, and makes me want to do some Macross gaming. Maybe one of these years I'll get something together in 1:72 to go along with the 20mm projects I currently have on the drawing board.

Thats the coolest thing I have seen in ages can I have the rule mods you used for it.

Regards
Brett

Way coolness!! And great paint work too. Looks like a great game. I bet it would go over really well at a con.

Where in the name of all that is sane did you find these minis?????must have some omg omg omg must breathe.

Thats awesome! I have to agree with the others on the coolness factor! :)

Long time Robotech fan, never thought i'd see it wargamed in miniature…

A.

Great stuff.

Awesome.

Thanks everyone. We adapted a version of "Mobile Soldier in Action" for the game. Basically, I tried to modify the rules to make it play a little faster – there were 16 Zentreadi pods and 9 RDF mecha, so lots of stuff on the table. Wolfden, if you want to know about the rules mods we used, you can just send me a message.

The models are out there on ebay. The Nichimo boxes give you two models per box, so that's OK, especially to stock up on the Zentreadi pods. The Zentreadi officer's pod is tough to find though. I was pretty lucky to obtain that through a trade on bartertown.

For the RDF side, it's a bit of mix and match to get the parts for the different modes of the different variants of the Veritech/Valkyrie fighters. The jet-mode models were harder to find than the battloids and the guardian/gerwalk models.

Thanks Greg B and others that mentioned the makes.

Greg

Can the guardian mode veritech's be asembled as fighter modes? how do i message you?

wolfden

Wolfden,

I think I can get messages over the site – maybe it depends on your membership.

The Veritechs have a seperate model for each mode, and I mixed and matched parts to get the right model for each mode. So for example, there is a VF-1J fighter mode model, a guardian mode model, and a battloid model.

The only difference between the veritechs in the end is the heads. There are a fair number of the different battloids and guardian models on ebay, but few fighter mode ones – mostly VF-1Js.

Hi greg

cannot seem to find how to message would you be so kind as to email on wolfden@bigpond.net.au

regards
brett

How tall in inches or mm are the 1/200 models?

That is fantastic! This has to be the first time I have seen Macross/Robotech minis used in a Macross/Robotech game, I've seen them in Battletech games innumerable times.

Excellently done and makes me want to snag the 1/200 Nichimo kits I have seen recently over here in Japan.

I scored the Nichimo Officer's Pod Glaug a few months back at a local store in my part of Japan but that was the first and only time I have seen one. The others are around, especially the various Valkyries in different modes.

Coolness by far!

Me, I am keeping an eye on Kaiyodo's Revoltech line for Macross miniatures. The just released 3 Valkyrie variants late last year and I see the Regult mech is due to be released this year. So, maybe the Officer's Pod Glaug will be in the line too.

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gozer87 – they are approximately 3.5 inches tall, give or take. The rounds bases in the pictures are the large GW bases – so would give you some idea of scale I hope.

Greg

Brian,

The products in your first two links are a couple of years old now and very, very hard to get, especially the second as it had the Mac II as the "secret miniature". I sometimes see the gashapon in the first link on eBay and ones and twos in some recycle goods stores here in Japan but otherwise nothing.

There was no scale listed on either set as I recall but the second set appeared to be close to 1/100 or thereabouts. The first set I have seen used with Mechwarrior miniatures which is N scale supposedly.

I have my eyes on the new set that you have a link to and another set that I have seen in the Hobby Japan magazine, not sure when it will be out.

Brian,

Thanks for those links. I painted the models myself – I did not use a service (I never have – painting is big part of the enjoyment of the hobby for me).

For rules, I used Mobile Soldier in Action, with a bunch of home baked modifications. I will probably make more changes for when we play it again. I don't know that MSIA was concieved to work with close to 20 mecha in play at once.

That new 1/200 set looks interesting – if for no other reason than to get the VY-19, as well as some more fighter models, in the right scale.

I do have the female power armour from the third link. I would love to find male armour in the right scale, and fighter pods would be pretty cool as well. So hopefully those show up sometime. But in the meantime, I'm very happy to have found what I did.

My next project is to finish the models necessary to have Max Sterling's blue VF-1A on the table, and the models to finish a "Super" VF-1S (the VT with the "FAST" packs).

Greg

GregB, I'd like to get a copy of your Robotech mods for MSIA, if you are willing to part with them. (and if they are some form of soft copy of course). I'm interested in trying them out locally. Thanks. murdock@nc.rr.com

I would like a copy of the rules, too. Thanks!

paul_clarkmn@yahoo.com

So how would these scale with regular BattleTech mini's?

Much, much larger?

evilmike,

My apologies – I have no familiarty with Battletech minis up close, but only through images. From what I have seen, they would not scale up – they would be bigger than the battle-tech minis. I think the Battletech seems to be 1/285 or 1/300 (experts in the genre will correct me if I'm wrong)

The 1/200 scale seems to be about 10mm to me. So I think the Battletech minis would be too small to scale up with the Nichimo/Testors ROBOT.

Greg

Thanks Greg for sending me your Mobile Armor -> Robotech mod file! It is very well done!

And if anyone else does get them from Greg, they are a modification of these existing rules:
PDF link

What Greg provides is not stand-alone, but a modification of the above.

Thanks again Greg! They look great. I'll let you know how my test matches run.

Peter "Murdock" Robbins, trianglesimsociety.org

Weird! This past saturday I was laying in bed about to fall asleep when the idea of a robotech game took off in my head and kept me up for anotehr couple of hours lol.

Hey greg B would you contact me please, I have some questions for you – robofan5@gmail.com