I'm really, really excited about the Shogunate faction but now I'm curios, what kind of special "powers" could they be possesing?

The Reich have theire demons and occult objects.

The Union use alien technology and have the most powerfull guns.

The Matriarchy dominates the battlefields with legions of robots, electricity and reincarnated Slavic Gods.

So what coulde the Shogunate have? Well I did some quick "research" and used google translate on the word Han'ei and got the word "Reflect". Also in the information text about the Shogunate they mention "Onmyodo paranormalist Yami Seimei has been appointed Minister of Spiritual Well-Being in Japan". So does that mean the Shogunate will have soldiers with "forcefields" that reflects attacks and maybe somekind of ghost summoner?

What do you guys think?

My guess would be lots of melee weapons, melee abilities and abilities that show crazy loyalty that let them fight past death, or sacrificial things were they can give up a point of health to be more powerful for a turn.

Kamikazi Suicie Bombers

Japanese Demons al la classic Japanese block prints.

may be some sort of half demon/ half human, like a "fox child"

a sumo who's simi-bullet proof, sort'a like the "Blob" from X-Men

almost any character similar in style to any character from Samuri Wariors (video game) the really crazy weapons and over the top Samuri look is awsome

I'm going to do up a blog post with some pictures later.

I'm more concerned about getting new Boards,the new Fraction is great but are we just going to add them to the same old boards?I'm sure they will get their own Board sometime down the line BUT until FFG figures out a way to open up the Pathfinder System Tannhauser is stuck with lack of replay issues.

OD

Old Dwarf said:

What do you mean "open up" the pathfinding.

Well here are my current hopes: miah000.blogspot.com/2011/05/and-then-there-were-four.html

I am quite sure that the Shogunate will appear in a big expansion box like Novgorod with an own "home" board, which means some japanese styled area. Old temple maybe? A buddhistic graveyard? Shinto shrine? Old fashioned japanese castle? I hope it will be two sided with two different areas, though

I'm not too worried about maps as I think FFG will release something to be excited about as far as they go -

since acquiring from TOY, they've listened to fans by releasing:

- revised rules,

- equipment cards,

- [announcing] a new faction while increasing options for existing factions simultaneously

looks to me as if they have a plan for supporting from the ground up and started by building a good foundation. while new maps are great for reply value, i think you get more unique situations from characters because they simply affect gameplay more than a map.

one small thing i always wondered about is if they descided to go with a modular set up for new map(s), how would they handle aesthetically? They all have z-axis perspective where the vanishing point is the center of the board....with modular boards i guess would have to be center of each tile like in Mansions...still looks a little odd to me but i'd take that over a fixed map!

I made a modular map with a seperate z perspective for each "room", to be honest, the pathing is the hardest part, as I restricted my self to what would fit on a piece of 8.5x11in paper (8x8). But larger 10x10 or 12x12 squares could be far more interesting path wise.

You can see the beta form of this concept here: miah000.blogspot.com/2010/10/tile-map-pack-beta-01.html .

It sounds like their hero keeps dying and coming back. Maybe the Shogunate will involve cloning and bioengineering?

I think that the shogunate will concentrate on spiritual/religious powers. High tech is so Union-ish.

It might be that the Han'ei project (reflection) is a project to reincarnate/reborn old japanes warriors. If we take Iroh for an exampel, he just pops-up from nowhere in 1946, but his ledership abilities suggest he's hade many years of experience, he doesn't fear the reaper (aka death), he is called the "Daimyo" (a sort of land lord in old Japan) and he keeps coming back from death. So my theory is that the "Reflection" project forces spirits of old and mighty warriors, in Iroh's case a Daimyo, in to a new body, either a randome persons body or they actually recreats the old body. Therfore Iroh doesn't fear death, since he just keeps coming back and has already been dead and that's the reason he is called Daimyo and have such good leadership skills.

Does it sound too improbable?

MeisterH said:

"Daimyo" is a hand of the Shogun, which is why Iroh is called it. However it does sound like he is immortal and he's probably been around for a long time ... that or he is another time traveller perhaps?

I'm so looking forward to the Shogunate I really want to know which direction they take.

sejestephan said:

Yes, right. Even more precisley, a daimyô is some kind of semi-independent warlord/king who wields armies and lands on his own. The position and title of the daimyô has been removed during the Meiji restauration, but it seems that at this point in the Tannhäuser-Universe, history has already changed, since daimyô still (once again?) exist. Oh, how I like that

sejestephan said:

Another time traveller??

Yeah, Hoss is a time traveller right?

Yep, Hoss' father "threw" him into the future to save him from the destruction of their island. But it also seems that Hoss is very very old, as he was in Delphi, and "waited centuries" to gather power and info.