In other words are there figures out there that you dread to face on the battlefield? Have you created tactics that help to defeat them or make them less of a threat? I've yet to see a horrible overbalanced figure in the series. But I've only played about a dozen games so my experience isn't all that much.

Capitol used to give me pause but with the acquiring of two Bronze Venusian Rangers (Sniper+2 Green attack dice and the use of a Heavy Artillery, adds 2 Blue Dice, Command Card) they don't just sweep forward without being challenged anymore. In my last battle not one of the Capitol Free Marines, with the use all actions for attacks power, survived being airdropped by their sky bikes.

My current army of concern is the Brotherhood. A friend has picked up two boxes. In the past game systems the Brotherhood and Dark Legion were designed to annihilate each other and from what I've seen in the cards it hasn't changed. My friend did tip his hand with one comment I made. One of the Technomacers has a force field that negates yellow dice and I commented on how few use them and only one die when they do. But then he told me how one gets more when certain things happen so I'm not a put out by the Technomancer's power anymore.

What do people think of the Bauhaus Vulkan Battlesuit. I've yet to see one die in 3 different battles. I don't think it is un-killable just hard and in the right terrain very difficult. The double cover hexes and "Cardinal forbid" the thing works his way into that victory zone with the hard cover. The one where you have to be within two hexes to target it. It's very tempting to get three more of that booster. Cause it comes with my favorite white armored Bronze Venusian Ranger and the Silver Vulkan Battlesuit.

Another Question on a side note : Peeps have been mentioning promo cards in passing. What? Where? When? How? Why? Give up the 411!

There's no particular fig I "dread"... Facing the Vulkan Battlesuit is intimidating, but there are counters (and if you know you're facing Bauhaus, you'll take one with you). Armor Piercing being the easiest one.

But there are particular builds that are just difficult to deal with : the all ranger army, with stacks of boni, and a hellish range, is just hard to counter for an Algeroth force, for example. And an Inquisitor-heavy build for the brotherhood (including the Keeper of the Art for boosting damage) can also be hard to counter. Not that counters don't exist, just that those armies are the most evident "cheesy" builds of the game.

There were 10 promo cards for the game, back when it was supposed to be collectible. Those we know are command cards that can be used specifically with some Unique characters (quite like Karak's command cards). Two of those where distributed to players :

-Necrotech Upgrade, for Golgotha. It's a silver card, that you can play by using 3 actions (a gold order token). When it is in play, Golgotha gains +2 accuracy. She can also discard the Necrotech Upgrade anytime to cancel the damage dealt to her by an attack.

-The other one is the Bloody Sword, for Algeroth. Don't remember its rank (you can see it in the Fall catalog 2007 that you get with the MC starter), but you can play it when Alakhai has damaged an enemy unit to make him gain 2 yellow dice for his attacks (supposedly till the end of the game). Yup, that makes his attack 4 yellow dice and one green dice. Here comes the Chaos force !!! In fact, Alakhai with the Bloody Sword would give me pause...

Don't know at all what the 7 others are... It seems FFG will distribute them in another manner (sell them in a booster ?)... No specific info, though.

Uf, this Bloody Sword seems terrible... For now, in charge of a Brotherhood army, I still have a problem with heavy armored units. I can throw a lot of dices, and with a solid damage, but I'm missing some serious firepower, or a good Mephisto Sniper Rifle. ;-)

Anyway, I see the game very balanced at this point (let's see in the future). Uhm... on a second thought, the Venusian Rangers seems to me very powerful and his "adjacent hit" power makes me tremble (as very powers of my units depends on the minis will be adjacent). And a very good combo for doing a lot of damage will be the "Point Blank" card (suppose is her english name, I'm thinking on the gold marksmanship card) with the bronze Capitol Ranger (a green dice means a range of damage between four and eight, it's risky but for a bronze unit it worth the risk, in my opinion)

When I play with poor old Capitol, I'm afraid of any living creature in the game... that lame 2 on health for most units... even just 1 for some units... "What were they thinking???"

Also, I think the Vulkan it's pretty hard to beat (even though it hasn't arrived here yet), and the Mortificator Master with his "choose the result on the dies" power it's also a hard one.

Mr.Glum said:

Poor old Capitol? Uff... In my experience, it's hard to say so. It's the weakest of the factions, so the "bulldozer" strategy isn't an option, but it's very versatile. A "hit and cover" method will work well... Besides, with some units that can cause many troubles on double-hexed, many fliying units, and the KA-67 for the army transport, your tactical possibilities will be dramatically increased.

As soon as Capitol get the Free Marine tank hunter, with his +2 yellow dice against big targets, and his armor piercing, the Vulkan Battlesuit won't be a problem for them anymore. Add Radio Target Coordinates to the lot, and you have a solid armor piercing damage from a long distance... Capitol forces don't have a lot of health, but Bait and Switch is a very powerful defense card.

Dealing with the Vulkan Battlesuit is a little bit more difficult for the Brotherhood, which don't have any armor piercing, but they have many ways to just immobilize the battlesuit... And I tend to think the Brotherhood is even more solid than Bauhaus (a lot of Armor 1 units, and some solid defensive command cards, plus a lot of healing...).

Algeroth will only have to sacrifice an adjacent silver unit using Devouring darkness to one-shot the Battlesuit... Easier said than done, but a solution nonetheless !

By the way, did other people miss that the Venusian Ranger commandant's "Burst Fire" is much more powerful than the trooper's one ? It hits ALL the adjacent targets... (add an "Artillery support" card to the lot, or the "Superior tech" comboed with the Etoiles mortant lethal strike, and watch those pesky Inquisitors/Rangers die in groups...) Didn't notice that until Coral Beach told me... It should have had a different name (like "superior burst fire") for clarity's sake...

Paptimus said:

Or "Massive Massacre"

Paptimus said:

Actually I did, thanks for pointing that out! Though I still love the Bronze Rangers. For a bronze unit they are in my opinion practically of silver value to me.