You are right of course, I was just hoping for a character that really belongs to the Shogunate faction and also fits the theme.

Dear Santa, please give me another hero to join my team. I'm the new kid in town and I don't have many friends. The other faction leaders always make fun of me because they have more heroes to order around. They often shoot at me and my friends and we are hardly able to shoot back, so it would be really nice if our new friend had some ranged combat ability. I'd take anybody: A soldier with a gun, a fireslinging demon, a samurai with a bow - just anybody! Please! Iroh

You are right about the doors drawn on the maps (Castle Ksiaz for example), but I' m not sure about the new closed doors introduced in Operation Hinansho since I don't have the pack yet. They may follow new rules not mentioned in the Revised rules.

If we take the rules concerning Vesper literally, the attack specifically targets a circle and not a character. So you can damage even characters that can't be targeted. If the person who wrote that rules knew what he or she was doing (I really hope so!), this special attack was designed with the purpose to do out-of-path attacks and damage untargetable characters. And have a great time with your battles. We want to know every detail of course!

I'm not sure about the closed doors because I didn't read the rules concerning them properly (I don't have Operation Hinansho yet!), but in all other points you mentioned you're absolutely right!

I think you are right. I'm sure I read about it here in this forum, but was unable to find it too. It was officially stated that the exchange made by the chronograph won't trigger overwatch. But of course, overwatch is triggered as soon as Hoss (or the other character) moves on or anounces an action. Maybe someone else remembers and finds the topic. I think the tactic suggested was to teleport an enemy adjacent to a Stosstruppen on overwatch, but it was clarified later that it wouldn't work.

I managed to play 2 deathmatch games using Natalya (Stamina pack), Zor'ka (Stamina pack), 2 Voivodes (MV 10, repair) and in the first game Irina (Stamina pack to increase everyones SV), in the second game Irishka (Stamina pack to repair everybody). Although I can hardly believe it myself, the team was gunned down both times by the following Reich team: Heizinger (Combat pack), Zermann (Command pack), Harbinger (Command pack), 2 Shocktruppen (Command pack). Everyone in the Reich team was rolling so many dice on their attack rolls that even their opponents repair abilities were quickly overwhelmed. Hoss and Karl damaged their opponents with out-of-path attacks while the Shocktruppen were on overwatch to prevent the Matriarchy characters from entering their path. The Shocktruppen on overwatch roll 7 dice while Heizinger is near! And their AV is improved! To add insult to injury, in both games Heizinger managed to control Natalya with the Patmos amulet, forcing her to attack (and damage) Zor'ka. I really don't know if I should be disappointed by the performance of the Matriarchy or deeply impressed by the performance of the Reich.

I don't think you can counterattack the Voivode since it didn't attack you. You can only counterattack Zor'ka if you have LOS to her or if she's in range of your out-of-path attack (Remember she can be anywhere on the board if her attack is relayed through a Voivode). Furthermore, I think only the original target of the attack may counterattack, all characters simply damaged by the attack may not.

1) If you are talking about the doors on the new Operation Hinansho game boards (doors that can be locked) I have to say that I don't know. What I know is that Doom can fire through the doors on the old maps because Doom can fire at targets out of path. 2) If Zermann is out of the smoke, he's completely unaffected by it and can fire on any legal target. 3) There are contradicting answers on this one, but it was recently clarified by FFG that attacks with Doom are affected by smoke like all other attacks are. So if Zermann is standing in Smoke, he can attack only adjacent targets and rolls 2 less dice. 4) If a character throws a grenade, the target circle may be out of path, but all circles before have to be on the same path than the throwing character. So yes, you may throw a grenade through a door on the first circle on a new path.

My answer was based on the official answer Miah just quoted. I chose that one instead of the ruling in the FAQ because it is quite new, it specifically mentions and contradicts the older ruling AND it doesn't contradict the rules concerning Smoke grenades which affect only attacks. So the new answer makes more sense if you consider the rules regarding Smoke grenades. I really hope FFG won't contradict it again. And I really, really hope that FFG will release a new, updated FAQ that includes and clears up some of the recent questions and answers soon. By the way, I' ve been waiting for some official answers for weeks (even months) now!

After taking a first look at Natalya who seems to be really powerful, I think every faction should get a totally unbalanced, overpowered Epic character. That would not only even the board, but you could also agree before playing to play "epic mode" (Teams may include Epic characters) or "normal mode" (without Epic characters). That way, each faction would get a new and really mighty character to fight against those other unbalanced characters. Furthermore, I think those Epics should be powerful beings like demons, mythological creatures like Asteros or important, charismatic faction leaders - not obscure mechanics in powersuits!

I got Natalya today and just read through her rulebook. She seems to be really powerful AND she can be in a team together with Zor'ka. What I thought was: Natalya with Combat or Stamina pack, Zor'ka with Stamina pack, 2 Voivodes to repair them both and either Irishka to repair them or Irina with Stamina pack to increase their Stamina value. With all that extra dice and very high values (attack 7, stamina 7 or 8), how do you even damage them?

MeisterH said: it would be awfully nice if they made a mini expansio with just extra packs, bonus tokens and character bonus tokens. You're absolutely right! It would add a lot more new options than a pack with a single new character, would be quite inexpensive to produce (at least less expensive than a character pack) and a lot of people would buy it if it contained packs or bonus tokens for every faction. I want it!

NichtTim said: I just tried to use some of the ideas i read on here and a few more questions popped up: How do the Schocktruppen get a command pack? There is no mention of one in the revised rulebook. Same for the Stosstruppen. The ability to heal themselves is not mentioned in the rulebook. Where do i get them? And how would Zor'ka get the electric truncheon? I thought she was not be able to drop any of her equipment and as a result can not receive equipment from other characters? Thanks again There are troop packs for the Union and the Reich that include another one of the troopers from the base game plus a lot of tokens for them, including cool Command packs. That way you can play two of the same trooper and / or use new equipment packs for them. And you're right about Zor'ka: She can't drop her equipment. But she has some tokens that are discarded after use. That way she gets free space in her inventory to get new weapons.

NichtTim said: Are there other characters to avoid? I just bought a few, so there was some variety when building a team. So far i own Yula, Wolf, Hoax, Georgei and Hoss. What other game mode would you suggest for a new player? We started with deathmatch because it seemed like an easy way to start the game. In my opinion you do already have the most important characters. When I play Reich, I usually play Heizinger, Zermann and Hoss because I think they make up the strongest team. From the Union, I consider MacNeal, Brown and Hoax the best team. The Matriarchy team included in Novgorod already is quite strong so it doesn't need extra characters. You can of course play Oksana instead of Zor'ka, but the resulting team is completely different from the team including Zor'ka and it is quite difficult to play. It's a great team nontheless, I just think you should leave it for later. For game modes, you should really try Objective or Story mode to have cool scenarios and simply other goals than just killing enemies. That way you often have the option to just avoid powerful enemy characters (like Asteros).

I want to thank Miah for mentioning me and pointing to the Anti-Asteros thread, but if you read it you'll notice that the Anti-Asteros team, the equipment packs and the strategy were suggested by GrandClam. I merely tried out the team and replaced one character, but kept the strategy. "My" team managed to win against Asteros once after losing three or four times. He is almost unbeatable in Deathmatch mode, even more so if used in a team together with Zor'ka. I don't even dare to think about a team like that! That said, my opinion on Asteros quite matches Moebius': Although I indeed have Asteros, I haven't used him for some time now because he's waaay unbalanced and overpowered, especially in Deathmatch.

Miah999 said: First about Anna, I think she's dead, or at least MIA. I don't think that being dead is an excuse for not serving the Reich or showing up as a Reich character!

It was recently clarified by FFG that throwing a Grenade is unaffected by smoke since smoke only affects attacks. It's in the topic "Rules questions, and answers from FFG". So just throw your Grenade following the normal rules for throwing Grenades. And just to further explain the area filled with smoke after you used your Smoke grenade: All circles sharing any path with the target circle are filled with smoke. That is, if you throw your Smoke grenade into a circle belonging to 3 different pathes, all 3 pathes are completely filled with smoke.

I looked up the bonus tokens. The Weapons cache is inded restricted to Union characters, while the X5NR-Stabilizier and Mask of Samhain can be given to everybody. They have the Tannhäuser logo on their backs. And yes, you're right about giving ashigarus rifle to the Shin agent, that's well worth it. And I definitely want Baron von Karloff, the Frankenstahl Golem and Behemoth to appear as Tannhäuser figures!

I'm sorry to say that, but I think the Sten Mark II and the Trench gun bonus tokens actually have a crate on their backs so you can't give them to a character before the game starts, you can only find them in a crate. I'm also quite sure the Weapons cache is restricted to Union characters. Please correct me if I'm wrong, because I' really like to give some characters automatic weapons. And just to get back to the topic again: I think it's one of the cool points of Tannhäuser that all the factions are different and have their own advantages and disadvantages, but a single character that doesn't fit that theme certainly would not destroy their play style. So even if you had a Union melee specialist, you'd play a team with one melee hero, two gunfighter heroes and two gunfighter troopers. That would not change your tactic that much. So I'd say the Union should get a melee fighter and the Shogunate and the Reich a ranged fighter, especially the Reich a non-demonic, non-occult ranged fighter. There are normal soldiers with guns in the Reich, aren't there? Maybe it would be enough if only one of there equipment packs would center on their "exotic" play style. The Apache mentioned before could have one equipment pack focusing on melee weapons and advantages, one focusing on healing and one with a sniper rifle or whatever.

Moebius said: When playing shogunate I pick the Shin agent with stamina pack, then I give it an automatic weapon via bonus token and you have a character that often rolls 7 dice on ranged attacks :-) I know it's off topic, but I need to know: Which bonus token do you use to give the Shin agent an automatic weapon? I really need this token too!

Can you play Natalya in a team together with Zor'ka?

1: I think "sacrifice your movement" means that you may not move during the turn. Otherwise it should state "sacrifice your remaining MP" or so. 2: I'm not really sure on this one but from the way "Art of surprise" is worded I'd say it works with overwatch attacks. 3: On this one I'm sure: Toniki isn't about wounds but about uncanceled successes after the opponents shock roll. These remaining uncanceled successes can't be shaken off because you can shake off only wounds.

I'm not really an expert in the different versions of Tannhäuser, but i'll try to answer as good as i can: The new English base game contains the Revised rule book. There's a sticker on the box that says so. But you can buy the rule book seperate from the game for cheap and use the old game components. I did just that with the old German box and had no problems. All the character expansions are usable with the new rules because they either contain a booklet using the revised rules or their rules are included in the Revised rules book (There's Novgorod, Yula, Ramirez, Gorgei and Wolf in the book). So you can play any character with the revised rules without problems. I'm not sure about the French Daedalus pack, but I don't think it's the same as the English version. The English version contains a new map with a hunting lodge on it, I don't think that was in the French version. A lot of the bonus tokens that were included in the French version weren't in the English version. On that I'm sure because I saw pictures of the content of the old pack and was quite sad when the bonus tokens were missing in the pack I bought. By the way, that's the one thing that may cause problems with the Revised rules: Some of the old bonus tokens aren't compatible and can't be used. Otherwise, just get the rule book so you can use everything. And just to be sure: The Revised rules are great!

From the topic "Rules questions and answers from FFG": Q : Additionally it seems it was ruled that Doom ignores smoke for the reason that it "does not require LOS". Doom is an attack, and it requires a target. According to smoke rules, it should not ignore smoke. Smoke rules do not talk about LOS. A : Doom does not ignore smoke. Please note that this question and answer specifically mentions Doom. It also mentions the older ruling and the argument that Doom doesn't need LOS. The answer is very clear - Doom does not ignore smoke, and thus is affected by smoke normally.