We played and enjoyed Tanhauser at our local game club in Brooklyn, NY. One common comment from all players (aside from "Cool", 'Neat", "Let's play that again") was that smoke grenades seem like a game killer: it is just too easy for the Union to toss a few and completely foul up the board. Yes I know both sides are impacted (save Cpt. O'Neal) but still...

Has anyone given thought to having the grenades expire after a certain number of turns? I'd put a victory point marker (say 3) under the smoke and decrement it every turn and remove it after three. Also, I thought I saw a piece of equipment that was an arm or something that could pick up a smoke grenade. Or, was I just wishful thinking, and should get used to fighting in smoke shrouded buildings?

I personally never found the smoke grenades to be that deadly in our group.

Helpful? yes, but by no mean over powering, no more than hermetics.

Though this is just my group, I have noticed in my gaming travels that various game groups have complete differnt style of play.

My main game group seems rather "defensive" holding on and waiting for the game to develop, which is against my whole game philosophy, which is attack attack attack.

If you are playing at the reich, and are having problems with smoke screen try this token out and see how it works out...

tannbunker.myfastforum.org/about21.html

I took the smoke screen tokens from both TH and Nov and there is 15 in total into a baggy . My buddy and I use the smoke grenades in the following manner . Let's use the commando from Delta as an example ( pathing circle and range are all still taken into consideration ) . Delta throws his SG to his targeted circle . On that circle goes a smoke token ( at this point the path is not engulfed as I will explain in a bit ) . Then when Delta has finished the rest of his turn its then the Reich's turn . Right after the Reich player has taken a turn we place another smoke token on all adjacent circles to the original SG circle regardless of path , of course any walls willhelp contain the smoke to some degree ( it kind of simulates a smoke grenade billowing out from the area it landed ) . Then right after the Union player has had his go we ' expand ' the smoke one more circle in all adjacent circles . This is where it stops . As Delta has a mental value of 3 then 3 is the number of character turns that the smoke expands . The belching smoke then stays like this for 3 more character turns , and then we remove the outer rings of smoke , turn by turn , to simulate it dissapating slowly . Again this takes three turns too . Of course the walls on the maps will help contain the smoke but if you look at most pathing on the maps its not complicated to play this way . The one room we've seen that may run out of tokens is the main foyer in the mansion ( the pale blue path ) . That room is fairly large . If I am Union I usually take Delta's Stamina pack anyways , and give Tala her Stamina pack so theres only really one smoke grenade in the game but with Delta's combat pack ( 2 SG's ) then this can be performed a couple of times . We haven't play tested this FULLY yet but we both seem to concur it to be a more logical way of playing SG's . I mean , some circles contain 3 different paths and for one SG to completely fill all three could see up to 15 or more circles filled and some are tiny , filling only half a dozen . seems odd but ah well , we dont mind this house rule . Comments ?

Just wanted to add , that if you did not feel the smoke should dissapate at all then that's workable too . you could reach the 3rd turn and keep the smoke in the configuration it gets to for the remainder of the game . Dry , breezeless rooms and halls could have that effect . Outdoor environments or caves may have different results , hence the smoke eventually fading away .

Keep in mind that smoke grenades last 15-20 minutes.

each round in tannhuaser represents a quick fast pace movement of combat which represents no more than one minute.

@CLSMerc:

This is a lot like the poison gas scenario LO.ST. where the gas spreads from path to path (nice use of the pathfinding system).

An unofficial translation of the scenario (originally written by the game designers) is available at the Blacksheep Archive

my group doesn't think Smoke grenade favour union

when

shanara + panthos amulet

Doom form other path

and thier melee troopers that always add 2 success

in the game

Reich Own