Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

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Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

I was looking through some old artwork since I was curious if the Gouf was ever depicted in a space battle. It wasn't produced in large numbers but since it was developed in space I was curious if there was any artwork of it fighting in space as a last resort kind of weapon. While the Gouf is very optimized for ground based combat, Zeon has had goufier space units such as the Gigan and Gassia / Gatsha that look better suited for ground combat than space combat so I suppose it's not impossible.

Is there a list of mobile suits that are ground use only? I figure any mobile suit with "Ground" in its name would qualify, but even those can be fitted for space combat such as the Blue Destiny Unit's 2 & 3. If there's no list then I'll include a starting point below. I'll exclude units that can be modified for space type, but I'll include units that would probably be too costly or pointless to modify into into a space type when other space capable GMs already exist. Also, excluding Amphibious units for obvious reasons.

Federation
GM Ground Type & GM Sniper [G]
GM Land Combat & Desert GM
Armored GM

Zeon
Zaku Desert Type
Zaku Cannon & Zaku Tank
Desert Gelgoog
Xamel
Gouf?
Efreet?

On the Fence:
-I don't know how easy it is for Doms (or its variants) to retrofit into a Rick Dom.
-The Gelgoog Ground type and its Gunthar variant, I don't recall if they are easy to retrofit back into a standard Gelgoog or if it would be too expensive / time consuming.
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Zeon

- Shamblo (aquatic, but is mostly seen on land, and definitely can't function in space)


Federation

-Loto (how can a tank be fully used in Space? best from ground type or inner colony)
- F-50D Guntank, similarly can't be used to full potential in space

Zanscare Empire

- The Gedlav should qualify, but people keep using it in space
-ZM-S06G Zollidia, mostly seen in ground combat in Mexico and the South Western united states, its purpose built for the ground and dosen't have a flight system. Despite this they decided to paint it Grey and Red for desert use, instead of the shades of Brown for the Gedlav.

New United Nations Earth
Britova
Gable

ZAFT

BuCue
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Thanks for the additions!

We see the LOTO being used in space during Unicorn. Also, the original Guntank was usable in space, although it wasn't great.
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Mafty wrote: Wed Jul 06, 2022 11:56 am ZAFT

BuCue
LaGowe
As seen in Astray, Waltfeld's BuCue can function in space by utilizing AMBAC for maneuver (it's likely help that by that time it's refitted with a crane on its back).
Mafty wrote: Wed Jul 06, 2022 11:56 am Zanscare Empire

- The Gedlav should qualify, but people keep using it in space
Gedlav's performance is overall poor both in space and on Earth. However, its compact design make it ideal to operate the Einrad, and that thing can go anywhere.
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

The Human Reform League's Fanton is confirmed in 00N Chapter 3/Page 10 of 00N compilation book to be ground only with no space version. Presumably this also applies to its export variant, the Anf.

The HRL were using the mobile armor Xiaoshou as its mainline unit in space before it was replaced by the Tieren Space Type later on.

The Advanced European Union also had a unit with the designation AEU-03 that is described as "land-based" in Page 36 of the Gundam 00 1st Mechanics sourcebook. The book says this unit and the "air-based AEU-04" were combined to make the variable land-air AEU-05 Hellion that we see in the show.
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

The Dijeh is also ground use only.

A few other ground only units:

Tragos
GM Cold Climate Type
Land Hyaku Shiki Kai
GINN Ocher
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Wed Jul 06, 2022 8:27 am Gouf?
Efreet?

On the Fence:
-I don't know how easy it is for Doms (or its variants) to retrofit into a Rick Dom.
-The Gelgoog Ground type and its Gunthar variant, I don't recall if they are easy to retrofit back into a standard Gelgoog or if it would be too expensive / time consuming.
Gouf is definitely ground use only, Efreet is supposed to be designed for both ground and space use though.(https://twitter.com/chibaastray/status/ ... 6994406400)
The original Cross Dimension 0079 manual and period publication never mentioned it to be ground only, the game also originally planned to have the final battle in space(according to the above tweet)
It is likely later wrongly attributed to be ground only because the numbering is in between the ground only Gouf and Dom.
And since it was little known, it sadly failed to appear in 08th MS team. It was supposed to be Norris' MS in the script, but the director didn't know of the Efreet and thought it was the name he gave it to his Gouf and thus we get a newly designed Norris custom Gouf(07B-3) instead according to the director interview. The storyboard still have him shouting at his Gouf Custom in ep10 calling it Efreet(temp) in the text box but in the show and film comic it was changed to something like Yeba for unknown reason, with some settings saying it is his wife's name.(The comic 08th MS team UC0079+alpha actually left the call as "Efreet" according to the Japanese CRE wiki)

Later appearence as Efreet Custom, Efreet Nacht, etc. seems to be ground only and you even get a Efreet Custom (Space type).
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Great additions folks, I hadn't thought of many of these.
yazi88 wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 12:32 am The Dijeh is also ground use only.

A few other ground only units:

Tragos
GM Cold Climate Type
Land Hyaku Shiki Kai
GINN Ocher
Is the Rick Dijeh Amuro uses in Moon Gundam a brand new model or is it a modified space use version of the Dijeh he had in Zeta? As I recall Char's Dijeh in MSVR is a regular Dijeh with a Schuzurum/Sturm Diaz gyre binders added.

I wonder how easy it would be to modify a Cold Climate Type for space use. The GM Command is descended from it and with the backpack swap looks fairly easy to adjust it to space use.
MythSearcher wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 1:53 am Gouf is definitely ground use only, Efreet is supposed to be designed for both ground and space use though.(https://twitter.com/chibaastray/status/ ... 6994406400)
The original Cross Dimension 0079 manual and period publication never mentioned it to be ground only, the game also originally planned to have the final battle in space(according to the above tweet)
It is likely later wrongly attributed to be ground only because the numbering is in between the ground only Gouf and Dom.
And since it was little known, it sadly failed to appear in 08th MS team. It was supposed to be Norris' MS in the script, but the director didn't know of the Efreet and thought it was the name he gave it to his Gouf and thus we get a newly designed Norris custom Gouf(07B-3) instead according to the director interview. The storyboard still have him shouting at his Gouf Custom in ep10 calling it Efreet(temp) in the text box but in the show and film comic it was changed to something like Yeba for unknown reason, with some settings saying it is his wife's name.(The comic 08th MS team UC0079+alpha actually left the call as "Efreet" according to the Japanese CRE wiki)

Later appearence as Efreet Custom, Efreet Nacht, etc. seems to be ground only and you even get a Efreet Custom (Space type).
Fascinating, I had no idea Cross Dimension planned on having a space finale, that's a nice find there! Did they mention any story as to how it would wind up in space? As I recall almost the entire game is set near the base in Africa.

Didn't know they were planning on the Efreet for the 08th MS Team. I prefer the use of the Gouf Custom myself, it's a nice nod back to the original Gouf as the imposing and at first unbeatable blue machine to give the Gundam a run for its money.
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 3:42 am

Fascinating, I had no idea Cross Dimension planned on having a space finale, that's a nice find there! Did they mention any story as to how it would wind up in space? As I recall almost the entire game is set near the base in Africa.

Didn't know they were planning on the Efreet for the 08th MS Team. I prefer the use of the Gouf Custom myself, it's a nice nod back to the original Gouf as the imposing and at first unbeatable blue machine to give the Gundam a run for its money.
No, the tweet only said that was originally planned, with a (continued) tag at the end but no reply to that tweet, and it will be quite tedious work to find back the tweets around that time to see if there's a follow up(at least not something I can do at work XD)
My best guess will be either they didn't have time to finish the whole story they originally planned or just ditched the idea early on for budget reasons.

Wel, I also like the Gouf Custom more but I guess the Efreet also kinda sad because even the director didn't know about it.
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

I'm a bit surprised as well the director wasn't aware of it. Most people I know learned of the Efreet thanks to the Blue Destiny, looks like that came out a couple years prior to 08th MS Team; I'm also surprised Cross Dimensions and Blue Destiny were released within a year of each other, must have been a late SNES title.

The Efreet as a space use model is interesting, I'm assuming they'd have Gundam Pixy / Pixie also be space type, but they we've have two very close range suits in space combat which is generally a bit of a disadvantage. I suspect they would plan on swapping armaments for those two units in their space modifications.

Regarding the Gouf. Would the Flight types also be Ground use only? I don't recall if the type of propulsion they were using required air or not.
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 7:54 am I'm a bit surprised as well the director wasn't aware of it. Most people I know learned of the Efreet thanks to the Blue Destiny, looks like that came out a couple years prior to 08th MS Team; I'm also surprised Cross Dimensions and Blue Destiny were released within a year of each other, must have been a late SNES title.

The Efreet as a space use model is interesting, I'm assuming they'd have Gundam Pixy / Pixie also be space type, but they we've have two very close range suits in space combat which is generally a bit of a disadvantage. I suspect they would plan on swapping armaments for those two units in their space modifications.
I don't know, because in recent games we also get quite a lot of close combat MS in space.
Regarding the Gouf. Would the Flight types also be Ground use only? I don't recall if the type of propulsion they were using required air or not.
Well, since the flight types still have the atmospheric use radiator for cooling, they can't really operate in space.
H and H-4 have thermonuclear rockets, those can work in space and they somehow rejected using thermonuclear jet engines(Gundam Officials didn't state the reason) might be trying out things as opposed to the MS-09 project? Anyway, the H-8 version which is a local base modification does use thermonuclear jets and performed much better.
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

If you want to include aerial MS, there's also this guy. The fun part is that it was originally designed for space, but because of poor cooling and limited fuel capacity, they replace the propulsion system with jet (which fix both problems).
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Actually Blue Destiny and 08th MS Team came out the same year (1996, though 08th has a 1995 copyright date on it, like Stardust Memories from 91, has 1990 on it). I'm not sure how popular Blue Destiny was, but given the length of time it takes to animate a show or video game , maybe they were both in production at the same time, so it might have been too early to include it. Or maybe they couldn't use one design in another series due to legal issues (that whole Sentinel thing). That being said cross promotion across the franchise would actually work quite well. So what exactly did the Tweet say? Were they intending to include the Efreet?

As for the ground use MS how about the Gomel from AGE , if I remember correctly, wasn't it able to move through sand?
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

MythSearcher wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 10:45 am I don't know, because in recent games we also get quite a lot of close combat MS in space.
Which close combat focused MS were you thinking of in space? The only ones that come to mind for me are the Gyan and GM Striker.

To clarify I mean close combat type (白兵戦型) or melee type (格闘型)

Not the Fighter Type (戦闘型) (GM, Gelgoog, etc.)
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

What about the GM Quel? It's apparently mean for urban environments(which aside from the Draken E, Jegan Man Hunter, and Gwigsy is something we really don't see too often). Granted the urban environments are in space colonies, but that still counts as ground based.


On a side note anyone else wish we actually got to see the GM Quel in actual combat?
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 12:28 am
MythSearcher wrote: Thu Jul 07, 2022 10:45 am I don't know, because in recent games we also get quite a lot of close combat MS in space.
Which close combat focused MS were you thinking of in space? The only ones that come to mind for me are the Gyan and GM Striker.

To clarify I mean close combat type (白兵戦型) or melee type (格闘型)

Not the Fighter Type (戦闘型) (GM, Gelgoog, etc.)
Ok, sorry, what I wanted to say was there are quite a lot of close combat designs in games, you can obviously see the melee weapons having much more damage than the long range weapons.

Also, I said recent, but come to think of it I didn't play any Gundam games in like over a decade now(at least no Gundam game that is published within this decade), so yeah, I probably am very wrong about stuff.
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Mafty,

The GM Quel is essentially a slightly modified GM Custom, so everything you see in 0083 is what you can expect out of a GM Quel. It's major claim to fame is that it may have been a test bed for movable frame on the arms. They can still be used in space though, in Gundam Legacy we see GM Quel's alongside the GM Cannon II being used in space. There's even a sturm faust used like a club that detonates on a GM Quel's chest, fortunately it's a named pilot so the plot armor prevents all the damage hahaha.

Mythsearcher,

Ah I see what you mean. Yeah for games, typically you have to make the Melee weapon higher damage otherwise what's the point of ever using it haha. I'm surprised you haven't played any games in a decade now, although I suppose I'm similar. I think after Gundam vs Zeta Gundam the next one that came stateside was Gundam Vs (PS4), which probably was about 10 years now that I think about it.

SRW 30 recently released and is rather enjoyable, it is considerably easier than previous titles for better or for worse. It is very pleasing getting to use the FA Hyaku Shiki-Kai. GBO2 has been out for a bit now, not a perfect game but it has its moments especially if you have a team that can cooperate. Gameplay is fairly slow paced and they've done a good job blending in suits from different eras, so you can play as an upgraded Zeta Plus and play a better ranged game than the Jagd Doga (Quess ver) for instance. Then there's SD Gundam Alliance which I think is still on track for this year.
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Sun Jul 10, 2022 11:42 am There's even a sturm faust used like a club that detonates on a GM Quel's chest, fortunately it's a named pilot so the plot armor prevents all the damage hahaha.
Actually, it's vaporization/thermobaric bomb. Despite being WMD, the thing is just harmless in space (Lilia is just unhinged at that point).
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Kuruni wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:14 pm
Underrated GM Custom wrote: Sun Jul 10, 2022 11:42 am There's even a sturm faust used like a club that detonates on a GM Quel's chest, fortunately it's a named pilot so the plot armor prevents all the damage hahaha.
Actually, it's vaporization/thermobaric bomb. Despite being WMD, the thing is just harmless in space (Lilia is just unhinged at that point).
Wow really!? I'm floored, the vaporization bombs in 08th MS Team were so insanely destructive in their area of effect I'm surprised the mcguffin from Gundam Legacy is small enough to fit on a sturm faust rocket. :lol:
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Re: Ground Use Only Mobile Suits

Underrated GM Custom wrote: Mon Jul 11, 2022 1:18 pm

Wow really!? I'm floored, the vaporization bombs in 08th MS Team were so insanely destructive in their area of effect I'm surprised the mcguffin from Gundam Legacy is small enough to fit on a sturm faust rocket. :lol:
Looks at Mk82 and presumably also bazooka sized nukes MS-06C used.
Also MS-09's 360mm Giant Bazooka rounds are supposed to be able to sink Cruisers with one hit.
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