Battle Report: Gundam Collection Tactical Battles

*I actually challenged myself not to post for a week because of this. 

  

My buddies and I are all currently crazy about Gundam Collection Tactical Battles (GCTB), that miniatures game played with 1/400 scale mobile suit minis and set in the Gundam universe. It's an instant hit for me and all the other guys because it combines two things we love the most: Gundam and miniatures wargaming.

We all had the chance to try out the game during one of Mechapinoy's Mechameets (a gathering of people from the local mecha community and forums).  Our games were a sort of the side event as the meets are usually centered around kit building and trading/selling/swapping.

Titans (Randy) vs. 08th MS team (Roe)

I'll talk about the game first. Gundam Collection Tactical Battles (GCTB) is a rather basic miniatures game with simplistic rules unlike most miniatures wargames out there. Each player build his own task force of mobile suits from a per-determined points value agreed upon by both players. The board is set and the battle is fought afterwards. The first player to wipe out the other player's force or completes the objectives wins the battle.

Each unit is capable of moving and acting per player turn. Actions range from shooting, assaulting and/or using a suit's special abilities like launching funnels. What's unique about Gundam Collection Tactical Battles (GCTB) is the inclusion of  Newtype (NT) abilities, a set of game-breaking abilities shared by all units. This gives low cost units a more or less equal footing against higher cost units in-game.


I found myself against 3 other guys: Roe of  Tiny Thingamajigs, Randy of Mechapinoy and veteran wargamer Arvin. Roe built his 08th MS Team roster, Randy brought along his Devil Gundam and Titans lists while Arvin had his Black Tri-stars with him.

Terrain pieces for the game. Yeah it was sparse.

 Now on to the match ups (note: we all had 150 LP teams with us):

First match: vs. Devil Gundam (Randy)
My fault not being able to take pics of this match. I had my team against the Devil Gundam and a Dreissen to fill up the points. I called this a 'big boss' scenario because of its similarity to the boss battle in Gundam vs Gundam video games. Suffice to say, I had my ass handed to me as expected. The Devil G is a beast through and through.

It was like this, really.

On to the second match:  vs. 08th MS Team (Roe)

I've fought with Roe a lot of time before. Fact is, whenever there's a new minis game around, chance are he's going to be my first (and bitterest) opponent. Gundam Collection Tactical Battles (GCTB) is no exception an he came up with the 0th MS team consisting of the EZ-8 with proxies for the other RX-79Gs.

So I set up with my usual 'Dodai Kamikaze' squad consisting of, what else, Dodais and a quartet of cheap Zeon suits. We set up the table and chaos ensues:

Both of us have close quarter oriented so the first couple of turns found both of our teams closing in one another. 

Midgame was brutal. My Dodais went down on on his three MS. The RX-79's and RGM proved resilient, almost rendered my sacrificial strategy ineffective.

I was down to one Dodai around the end game. Luckily my other suits where still intact, thereby outflanking Roe's remaining suits in the end. Good game.

Third match saw me up against Arvin's version of the famous Black Tri Stars consisting of a Dom trio and a quartet of Magella Attacks. His was one of the most well-thought of list throughout the day because of the threats coming on from the Doms as well as from the tanks.

Arvin going thru the rrrrrrrrrules

 The Doms were resilient while the Magellas are plain pesky and my force was never enough to deal with all of them. I lost again but it was another good game nonetheless. 

I officially hate Doms now

At the end of the day, I had a 2 loss/ 1 win record from the guys. Though I don't mind because what mattered most is that we all had fun. And the fact that we had some of the Mechapinoy guys interested in the game is a good sign.

More battle reports soon!