Decoded top secret message from Union secret agent “Jeremiah” on Patmos: General Heizinger returned to abandoned Patmos archaeological site 2 days ago --- tight security measures --- workers and schocktruppen present no scientists --- workers digging into collapsed structures on site --- freeing giant monster obviously demonic --- demon easily slays several workers and schocktruppen --- immune to weapon fire --- Heizinger stops demon --- controls him with shard of amulet he carries --- takes him off Patmos --- Warning --- extremely dangerous new weapon for Heizinger --- demon strong brutal invulnerable --- amulet crucial to controlling demon Korgonagoss Special rules: Korgonagoss is an Epic hero, so he takes the place of one hero and one trooper in your team. Korgonagoss may not make ranged combat attacks. Korgonagoss may only be chosen for your team if Heizinger and the Patmos amulet are also chosen. If Heizinger dies or loses the Patmos amulet, Korgonagoss is out of control. If he is out of control, he always activates first, moves towards the closest character (whether friend or foe) and attacks him if possible. If two or more characters are equally close, you decide which character Korgonagoss attacks. Faction: Reich Skills: Athletics, Hand-to-Hand Combat AV: 7/7/7/6/6 SV: 7/7/7/6/6 MeV: 6/6/5/5/4 MoV: 8/7/7/6/6 Special object: Horrible Apparition: Ability. Once per turn, choose one enemy character on your path. That character has to make a Mental test. If he generates less than 3 successes, he is paralyzed with fear and may not activate this turn. This ability may only be used on your activation but does not use your action. Combat pack: Demon Claws: Weapon, Hand-to-Hand. Add one additional die to your attack rolls. When attacking with this weapon, all enemy characters adjacent to you become targets of the attack. Apply the same attack roll to every target. Immunity to pain: Ability. Add one additional die to your shock rolls. Blood thirst: Ability. Add one additional die to your attack rolls. Each Natural 10 you roll on any attack roll causes an automatic wound for each target instead of a normal success. Stamina pack: Demon Claws: See Combat pack Immunity to pain: See Combat pack. Impenetrable skin: Ability. You may reroll any one die from each of your shock rolls. Each Natural 10 you roll on a shock roll cancels two wounds. Command pack: Demon Claws: See Combat pack Immunity to pain: See Combat pack. Celerity: Ability. Add +2 to your current Movement value.

Dear FFG, here's a thing you really should do: Please start answering rules questions again. I think I sent you 4 or 5 questions in november and december and never got an answer! Or update the FAQ to include all answers you gave during the last year and everything concerning all the new product! Please!

I finished the tournament on the Crash site map yesterday, and the games had a lot more team interaction because of the objectives located in the center of the board. Still, there are again 2 entry points that are slightly better, and that's the one near the weaponry primary objective and the one near the sangfroid primary objective. For those who want to know, Oksana's Matriarchy team won again, but at least they were beaten in one game by the Union that came in second. Two Deltas with flame grenades can make it quite hard for opposing characters to get to their objectives if the grenades are used properly. I can only recommend using them! Still, it was a very close game since both sides had completed three objectives and a half and had a character in position to accomplish the last half. In the end, it came down to winning the last initiative roll.

Did anybody think of that at all? I have never heard of it. But it's right of course, the weapons destroyed by Yula are gone for the whole campaign. To add insult to injury, Yula herself returns for the next scenario even if she was killed. A Reich player really should use Yula when playing a campaign.

You got it right! There's only one small problem about it: Hoss will often attack a characters that doesn't share a path with him so he can't give his rolls to his target. If his enemies enter his path to bring him down, though, he can give them his bad rolls just as you described.

Tigan said: The last ban is kind of a pressure ban. If it’s your turn to last ban and there are 2 very good heroes on different teams still available you can leave them both open for pick and have a challenging match. If you use that last ban on one of the strong heroes, well, guess what your opponent’s going pick . That's exactly what I dislike! The first player is free to ban 2 figures he dislikes or doesn't want to play against, but the second player isn't free in his choices (not in his last choice at least) because his opponent chooses his team from the remaining figures first. I agree with you, though, that one player having both the last ban and the first pick is not without problems. Maybe I have another solution for the problem of overpowered teams, and quite a simple too: Play two or even three games against an opponent using the same board and the same game mode. For the first game, roll a die to decide who may pick his faction first. For all other games, whoever lost the game before gets to pick his faction first. That way, everyone has a chance to play the power team.

Banning 2 figures per player really limits your options a lot. Furthermore, I was wondering whether the player who wins the roll has too much of an advantage because he bans first AND picks first. He can ban away certain power characters from one or even two factions and then take the best of what's left. If he acts cleverly, he can really put the other player in a losing position. On the other hand, if two players agree to play UMTOMA against Nippon, there'd be so many characters per side that each player could easily ban away two or even three of the opponent's figures. You could have quite interesting teams and games using this setup.

You are right about the teams you suggested, but I was thinking about something different. Those of us who don't have the trooper pack, can we play for example a team consisting of Natalya, Irina, Irishka and 2 Voivodes? Is this even legal? The rules seem to say that only Zor'ka and Oksana can use Voivodes.

Speaking of possible Matriarchy setups, I was wondering whether you can play a team without Zor'ka or Oksana right now - that is, without the troopers. You see, the Revised rulebook stated you could only use Voivodes if your team included Zor'ka. Later, Oksana who could use Voivodes too was introduced. But what about the other Matriarchy characters? Can they use Voivodes if neither Zor'ka nor Osana are present? What about an UMTOMA team? What do you think?

The Reich team you described it quite brutal and hard to beat indeed. I think the Shogunate has only 3 possible ways of dealing with it: They could throw grenades from out-of-path if they con wound a Reich character with it. They could increase their Mental value to win the duels. They could avoid the Reich characters completely if the scenario or game mode allowed it. Isn't domination mode about board control? So if the Reich characters were turtling on one path, the Shogunate could maybe just have left them standing there and could have moved around the rest of the map as they desired. This Reich team is much less dangerous if the characters are forced to split up. However, the "Ban and Pick" system sounds interesting. But aren't you limiting the choices for your team too much? If you ban the Shocktruppen, who will be the second trooper in my Reich team - the Shocktruppen from the troop pack, a second Stosstruppen or a Shogunate trooper? If you ban two of the Shogunate Heroes, you practically ban the Shogunate, don't you? Or if you ban Heizinger and Harbinger, aren't you in fact banning the Reich? Since each faction only has up to five Heroes, you practically forcing your opponent to play with certain characters. That's quite a cool idea, now I think of it! Nonetheless, I doubt that I would use your system on a regular basis because certain great characters that I'd definitely want to play will always be banned.

Since you can only equip the repair token on one character if you aren't using house rules, I think it's quite risky to give it to a Voivode. Your opponent will try to kill off that Voivode as soon as possible, and once it's gone, your repair option is probably gone forever. If Oksana has the token, all your Voivodes can repair each other ad infinitum (or until your oponent concedes). The Strobo lamp on the other hand will have its cool effect even if you just put it on one Voivode and move it into the thickest fight to maximize the effect. And if that Voivode is killed, you just use another one to repair it.

Katsuyori and Moebius are right on everything! Just be sure to give Oksana the Voivode repair token and keep her well away from the fight. She only has to reactivate Voivodes that attack, repair each other, try objectives or whatever the game mode calls for. Great team! I just play a small tournament where every faction plays against every other in Objective mode, and a team including Oksana and her Voivodes just wins every time.

I looked over the French document too, but discovered that I am not able to read French anymore. It's been a long time since I did French in school, and I have to admit I never liked the language anyway. However, you are right about Agerr, he seems to be a good, professional officer doing his duty, being neither insane nor extremely violent . On the other hand, I always thought Zermann was quite a psychopath because he was possessed by a demon. But I admit I like the thought of him being a rather "normal, but accidentally possessed" Reich officer. Thanks again for your help!

Great read, thanks a lot! You are right about van der Agerr's rank, I'll change it to Hauptmann (Captain). I'm not sure about the sword, though. It seems like he had it only for his fight with the demon and then gave it to Heizinger. On another note, both Heizinger and Zermann are described here much less insane and much nicer than I had expected, aren't they?

An "Oberfeldwebel" is a high-ranking Unteroffizier in Germany, the US rank would be Master Sergeant or even Sergeant Major, I'm not sure on that. And I admit I never even heard of that magic sword before. Where was it mentioned and what kind of magic abilities has it? If it's really a special item for him, I will of course add it to his equipment. Thanks a lot for your comments!

Thanks a lot for your comments, MeisterH. You are right of course, the mechanics of Zombie master and Zombies are a lot like those used by Oksana and her Voivodes. I thought the Zombie master himself could be rather weak and spend most of his actions either ressurecting or commanding his Zombies. But your idea about the Zombie master growing stronger when he controls Zombies and weaker if the Zomies are killed sounds really cool. You'd get a Zombie master that would really enter the battle together with his Zombies. I will change at least one of the equipment packs to include that. If there are any other comments or ideas, please tell me! Meanwhile, I'd like to present another character, one that doesn't need a long introduction or background story. It's Oberfeldwebel van der Agerr, the Shocktruppen's legendary NCO! Oberfeldwebel van der Agerr Faction: Reich Skills: Athletics, Command, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Sangfroid, Strategy, Weaponry AV: 6/5/5/4 SV: 5/5/4/4 MeV: 5/5/4/4 MoV: 7/6/6/5 Special object: “Ruft Verstärkungen!”(„Call in reinforcements!“): Ability. Once per game, as an action, discard this token to introduce a Shocktruppen as a reinforcement without spending Command points. The Shocktruppen enters play like a normal reinforcement would. Combat pack: MP40 (disposable): Weapon, Automatic. Stielhandgranate (disposable): Grenade. “Zum Angriff!” (“Attack!”): Ability. You and all Shocktruppen friendly to you may reroll the lowest die result on any attack roll. Stamina pack: MP40 (disposable): Weapon, Automatic. Extra Ammunition (disposable): Hardware. Discard this token at any time during your activation to make an attack. This attack does not require an action. “In Deckung!” (“Take cover!”): Ability. You and all Shocktruppen friendly to you may reroll the lowest die result on any shock roll. Command pack: MP40 (disposable): Weapon, Automatic. Oberfeldwebel: Rank. Add +4 to your side’s initiative rolls. “Vorrücken!” (“Move forward!”): Ability. You may discard this token at any time during the turn. If you discard this token, a Shocktruppen friendly to you gets a second activation after all other characters have been activated.

I've been working on some ideas for custom characters I like to present here. Please tell me everything you think about them. Are they overpowered? Useless? Boring? And most important: Are their abilities worded clearly? You see, as English is not my native language, it takes me quite some time to find the correct words and phrases and I'm often unsure if anyone would understand what certain equipment tokens do. I tried to write a text with background info on each character too, but again, I'm unsure about the right words. I'll start with a Reich Zombie master (kind of) and his 2 Zombies. If you think he's a bit like a Reich version of Oksana, I admit you are right. Leutnant Heinrich Schmidt Background: No one who sees Heinrich Schmidt would guess that he is a soldier, much less an officer ranked Leutnant in the infamous Obscura Korps’ 13th Division. He is a small, thin young man (some would rather say boy) wearing thick glasses that give him the looks of a bookish academic rather than a soldier. In fact, Heinrich Schmidt is a bookish academic. Because of his immense knowledge of ancient languages, he was recruited by the Obscura Korps as staff personnel to sort out and analyze some of the ancient manuscripts and scrolls the Korps has collected in General von Heizinger’s search for more information on the Inferior Worlds. One day, Heinrich Schmidt presented to the General an old Voodoo text dealing with the process of summoning and commanding Zombies. Needless to say, Heizinger was very interested and ordered the given spells to be tested immediately. It is still unknown if it takes a special mental power to control Zombies, if you have to understand the old language or if it is just a matter of pronouncing the spells, but only Heinrich Schmidt was able to use the spells to actually resurrect and command Zombies. Heizinger himself and several others failed. Heizinger was deeply impessed by Schmidt’s ability and of course by the possibility to have lots of obedient servants and soldiers at his command. He immediately promoted Schmidt to the rank of Leutnant and ordered the Shocktruppen to protect him at all costs. Since then, Heinrich Schmidt has adjusted to his new position surprisingly well, cunningly ordering both Shocktruppen and Zombies around while searching for additional Voodoo texts to increase his abilities. He himself follows every order General von Heizinger gives him to the letter, feeling both a deep loyalty and gratitude towards the General because he not only placed him in a position of power but grants him access to new Voodoo manuscripts as well. Faction: Reich Skills: Archaeology, Command, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Reasoning AV: 4/4/3/3 SV: 4/4/4/3 MeV: 6/5/5/4 MoV: 7/6/6/5 Special object: Word of Resurrection: Ability, Occult. Whenever a character (except a mechanical being) dies, you may place a Corpse token on the circle where the character died. If you share a path with a Corpse token, you may spend your action to replace the Corpse token with a Zombie if less than two Zombies are in play. The Zombie may be activated later the turn if no Zombies were activated before. Combat pack: Walther P38 (disposable): Weapon, Pistol. Attack order: Ability, Occult. You may spend your action to activate one Zombie or two Zombies anywhere on the board, even if these Zombies had already been activated this turn. If the Zombies were not activated before your action, they may be activated as normal later this turn. Charge order: Ability, Occult. Discard this token at the start of any turn before any character has been activated. The Zombies are activated first even if you lost the initiative roll. Stamina pack: Walther P38 (disposable): Weapon, Pistol. Attack order: Ability, Occult. You may spend your action to activate one Zombie or two Zombies anywhere on the board, even if these Zombies had already been activated this turn. If the Zombies were not activated before your action, they may be activated as normal later this turn. Word of Obedience: Ability, Occult. If you are declared the target of an attack, you may choose a Zombie to be the target instead, if he is a legal target for the attack. Command pack: Walther P38 (disposable): Weapon, Pistol. Attack order: Ability, Occult. You may spend your action to activate one Zombie or two Zombies anywhere on the board, even if these Zombies had already been activated this turn. If the Zombies were not activated before your action, they may be activated as normal later this turn. Word of Recall: Ability, Occult. As an action, discard this token to place all Zombies in play adjacent to your miniature. If there aren’t enough free circles to place all Zombies adjacent to you, place them as close as possible. Special rules: You may use the Zombies only if your team includes Leutnant Heinrich Schmidt. If you use Leutnant Heinrich Schmidt, you must replace one of your troopers with the two Zombies. Both Zombies activate during the same activation. Zombies do not have equipment packs. Instead, each Zombie is equipped with the two tokens described below. Zombies may not use other equipment tokens. Zombie Faction: Reich Skills: Hand-to-Hand Combat AV: 6/4 SV: 4/4 MeV: -/- MoV: 6/5 Zombie equipment tokens: Zombie claws: Weapon, Hand-to-Hand. When making an attack roll, you receive one automatic success. You may use your actions only to attack. Zombie toughness: Ability. When making a shock roll, you receive one automatic success. You may use Command points only to counterattack.

Artemus Maximus said: Also, you were playing 2-player games? how would barricading 2 of the entrances work as far as preventing the 2-turn win? Good idea! Everyone who plays a 2 player game in Objective mode should probably block the 2 entry points I mentioned above. The resulting game would be longer and have much more team interaction. And you'd better not play a 3 or 4 player game in Objective mode on the Research center map.

There's even more: If another character enters your path in the same turn, your Shocktruppen will still be on overwatch and able to attack that character. The downside is that you only roll 3 dice for your attacks.

I recently finished kind of a Tannhäuser tournament. Every faction played against every other faction in Objective mode on the new Research center map from Operation Hinansho. Neither characters nor equipment packs were changed between the games. I talked about several things I’ve noticed in another thread, but wanted to post a complete overview using a matching topic. First thing is, the choice of entry points is really important. Two entry points really are better than the others because they are closer to several objectives. One is near a Command primary and a Command secondary objective as well as near a Strategy primary objective, another is near two Mechanics secondary objectives and an Engineering primary objective. If a player has the right entry point and characters with matching skills (or luck with the dice), he can win before the other player can even react. When my Matriarchy team started near the two Mechanics secondary objectives, it managed to win on the second turn. As you see, you can have short games with almost no interaction between the teams. This is even enforced by the locked doors. Because all the entry points are separated from each other by several doors, it takes long for a team to make its way towards the enemies, sometimes too long to stop them. Games on this board tend to become a race to complete objectives as fast as possible – a very short race often enough. Speaking of the locked doors, they can have quite an impact on game play. As you have to spend MP to open them, your range if effectively reduced. Okay, everybody knew that already. But you really often have a situation where a character has the MP to open a door, but none left to enter the room to actually do something. Or you have wounded a character and would have killed him in your next activation, but he retreats and closes a door behind him, blocking your line of sight and your shots. This is especially effective because closing some of the doors costs less MP then opening them again, thus allowing characters to escape their enemies for a turn – which can be critical of course. When dealing with locked doors, you really have to think different about the order in which you activate your characters. You will often choose to open a door with one character coming in from behind, so on your next activation, a character can move through and actually do something. Both Hoax and Alpha are quite good for opening locked doors. One invisible Hoax spends MP to open the door, the other moves through to attack someone. Alpha with "Go!Go!Go!" is nice because he can use the extra MP to open a door and then throw a grenade through it or move in to accomplish an objective. Characters with the infiltration ability are powerful too. Not because of their ability to open locked doors, but because they may enter at a different entry point and thus are near objectives that the rest of your team can’t reach. Infiltration is an advantage you really should use when playing Objective mode on this map. The tournament ended with the Matriarchy team winning against every other faction because it could accomplish missions faster than anyone else. Because of the Voivodes, they have more characters to move towards different objectives and quickly accomplish them if they have the matching skills or just roll more dice than their opponent. If Oksana is present to activate the Voivodes again, the Matriarchy can try to accomplish objectives eight times a turn while the opponent can only try five times. To come to a conclusion, I started a similar tournament on the Crash site map and experienced a lot more interaction between the teams. There are of course no locked doors on the map, and several objectives are located in the center of the map so the teams have to move there instead of staying near their entry points. The Matriarchy team has nevertheless already won two games. If anybody knows how to stop them, please tell me!

I have to admit I feel a bit ashamed now. FFG announced the Yula reprint the fans asked for, and I reacted with: "Now give us that and that and that!" I'm sorry FFG! MadRabbi666 is absolutely right. I read a lot of posts from folks wishing for a Yula reprint, and now FFG gives them just that. Thanks FFG for listening to the fans, and also thanks for the cool new Tannhäuser stuff you released recently!

Sorry, I'll explain. The "Ace of Spades" is the leader of the "Alliance of autonomous Aces" (or something like that), a group of excellent pilots fighting the Reich in Europe. Both the AAA and their leader are mentioned in the Revised Rules book where you can also find the AAA bonus token. The Golden Globe is kind of a secret society that also fights the Reich. They are also mentioned in the Revised Rules book, some booklets and the Operation Hinansho scenarios.

Sometimes even a single wound can be critical for the survival ure usefulness of an important character, so I think it's quite cool to have someone around that can repair Zor'ka if she needs to be repaired. I usually play Zor'ka with her Stamina pack so it is difficult to wound her. If Zor'ka is not wounded, Irishka just moves in after her and stabs enemies with her truncheon which is indeed great and the reason I always play Irishka's Stamina pack. If an enemy manages to wound Zor'ka, Irishka can move in an quickly repair her to keep her in top condition. So Irishka with her Stamina pack can repair but also fight.

Zor'ka, Irishka and Irina plus two troopers could form a good team too. Irishka supports and repairs Zor'ka (nothing new here), and Irina now increases everybody's AV, SV or MoV depending on her equipment pack. I'd probably like her Stamina pack best, every trooper would have SV 6. You could also replace Zor'ka with Natalya and take only the one trooper that fits your needs better.

I told you I'd go on with the list: Give us a Shogunate-themed Ronin mercenary and a Golden Globe agent and the "Ace of Spades" as Union characters.