Imagine yourself playing a game of Tannhäuser, Deathmatch mode, your oponent chooses the Reich with the set-up: Hermann von Heinsinger, with command pack and the Eye of Horus bonus token instead of his "mighty" Walther P.38, Karl "Ozo" Zermann with his combat pack and the bonus token Masque of Samhain insted of his Stielhandgranate, Hoss Harbinger with combat pack and the bonus token Helm of Diomodes insted of Crown of Cernunnos and two Schocktruppen with command pack acting as von Heizinger's bodyguards.

How would you deal with this set-up? What kind of tactics and strategy would you use or is this set-up unbeatable?

Grenades, Grenades and Grenades.

+ a mass charge in the end with CP boosted stats to help overcome Herman.

One word... Asteros.

Rule #1 I would say is keep your army in a group as much as possible, sounds like that's what theirs is doing. I see one major disadvantage to their group already if you do this, Hass Horbinger can't use his teleportation pack anymore. Sure, he could, but it seems to me that they would be losing a much more vital character than you.

I'm not really sure exactly how to deal with them, but here are some ideas:

UNION:

Hoax 100%, she cannot be targetted by anything other grenades and bullrushes while invisible and it sounds to me like they don't have any grenades. Be sure to have combat pack so you get that knife and she can attack without appearing. I'd figure just boost her stamina with CP, seeing as she's defending- you have a better chance of not being beaten. I would use her to either force the enemy to move where you want them to, or to pick them off when they seperate. The Reich likes to sit back and shoot away, but what are they going to do when a wall of Hoax stands between them and their objective.

I was thinking, maybe try smoke grenades. I know they really suck in this version, but if you force the enemy into a certain area, you can give yourself an advantage. to this:

Ramirez, against non-heavy groups like theirs I like to combine Ramirez and Hoax to put as many models on the table as possible. I've found it to be very useful, though it doesn't pack the punch you would want it to. But now, you have a mass of models on the table- two of them can't be targeted by your Reich friends and one of them is immune to mental duels. Also, I would use his... stamina pack, I think? I'm pretty sure it consists of The Brother's bomb, the purple heart, grenade launcher, and smokevision. Brother's bomb is the ticket, heizinger is a problem though. Just make sure that none of your characters are within movement distance of the BBomb with heizinger is around. other than that, let it loose and watch them run. maybe flank them on one side with the BBomb and with hoax on the other.

uuuuummmm, lastly would probably be Macneal. His ability to one-shot kill comes in handy now and again no matter how badly things are going. Also, Nighteyes. I would use this for the smoke grenade setup.

Troops, obviously you want to get as many smoke grenades on the table as possible. I can't remember if deltas have a pack with 2 or not anymore. In the very least I'm pretty sure they have one that is smoke grenade+grenade. that might be alphas tho. whatever. anyway, like the one person said- grenades grenades grenades.

anyway, I personally believe Reich to have a slight advantage over the union in most cases- so all these ideas are just hypothetical. If all else fails, like Miah said- Asteros.

Choose your bonus tokens wisely, how about Countess Bathory, Send in the troops, and Presidential unit citation (I think). Now you have 2 free reinforcements (more grenades and twice as many troops as he has shocktruppen) and give Countess Bathory to MacNeal instead of his free overwatch token.

One MAJOR problem with this setup though: Hoax is revealed by smoke grenades.... good luck

Oh yeah, one more word: Oksana. Her voivodes are VICIOUS and make her invulnerable to lots of woundage when together. Also good mental value.

MATRIARCHY:

Sure their intelligence isn't quite as good, but I've found them to be a HUGE hamper on the Reich's mental-fun. Once had heizinger use Patmos amulet on Gorgei three turns in a row to no effect. Personally I've found them to have an advantage against the Reich.

Zorka: Just go destroy them, heizingers bodyguards better starting run or all 3 of them are going to die in one swoop. If Zermann is nearby, you won't even have to worry about his mask of samhain because you don't need to attack him in order to attack him. But yeah, just go kill them. end of story.

Irina: very useful in this situation. each pack makes zorka stronger. Let the Reich know, if they like to sit back and be cowards- so do you. Also she is extra troopage. Her equipment is useless so I usually drop it all and have her run around to crates in safe areas.

Irishka: Keeps zorka and voivodes alive and manipulates enemy movement, end of story.

Gorgei: Gorgei is for combat, I wouldn't use him in this scenerio

voivodes: Healing, Speed, Attack, explosions, Immune to mental duels. Reich doesn't stand a chance.

Here's what I would do:

Irina (second most crucial unit, actually): Mental pack. Have her sit back and MAKE SURE SHE NEVER SEES COMBAT. You want the speed boost she offers and the free reinforcements and the ability to pick up CP and what might be healing kits and grenades. More voivodes= hell

Zorka: Mental pack. Immune to mental duels and has trigulf- 'nuff said.

Irishka: Healing and her prox bombs. Use a pack that has the electric truncheon, give it to Zorka after she uses a discarding ability.

Voivodes: There are many ways you can set these guys up, I always have at least half of them geared for combat. (give them CV4 upgrade). People complain about how weak voivodes are, but I've found their masses to be staggeringly powerful when used correctly. You have so many attacks, you end up being BOUND to do SOMETHING. I've seen voivodes inflict 3 wounds on Barry and other characters many times. I wouldn't use the kamikaze upgrade, it's not very good- unless YOU have a nasty plan for it or something. Trust me, these guys are going to tear his army to shreds. Watch out for the shocktruppen, though- use Zorka against them. When I use voivodes I tend to have 2 with healing and 2 with combat. depending on who you play with you might be able to have all 4 voivodes with healing and CV4- that would be the best choice if you ask me.

Anyway, yeah. If you want a possibly fair fight- try the Union idea. if you want to HUMILIATE him, use the matriarchy. I gaurantee you he doesn't stand a chance when he is using that many mental stats. Use the send in the troops bonus token. More voivodes, why not? One time I tried a combat-based Reich against the matriarchy hoping that it wouldn't be so hopeless. When all was said and done, the matriarchy had only lost only 1 voivode and Zorka took 3 wounds (though she was healed back up to 7777 of course.)

SHOGUNATE:

I don't know, we have acouple months before they're out yet.

I actually played "the Untouchables" several times during the last week. For the opposing teams, I tried to use as many of GrandClam's great ideas as possible. The Untouchables were beaten by a Union team including these characters:

Hoax: Good attacker, difficult to attack, even chance to win mental duels.

Ramirez: Can attack several characters at once without actally targeting them, can damage characters out-of-path if he's lucky, controlls Hound Dog.

Hound Dog: Immune to mental dueld, good attacker.

Oksana: Can damage characters out-of-path without targeting them, even chance to win mental duels.

Voivodes: Immune to mental duels, can attack or self-destuct, can be activated twice a turn using Oksana

Alpha: Trooper with grenade.

Tactic: Send in Voivodes and Hound Dog first, use Vesper's special attack, try to kill Heizinger. Return Voivodes to play with "Call in the troops" bonus token.

One of the games was very close with the last Union survivor (Hoax) killing the last Reich survivor (Hoss), but in another game the last Reich survivor (Hoss again) was cornered and brought down by Oksana, Hoax and Alpha.

I also tried the Untouchables against a Matriarchy team. Zor'ka with her command pack just walked in and killed everybody. Twice.

lol, yeah. Zorka tends to do that.

Very glad that Hoax, Oksana, and Ramirez are kicking some ass and taking names.

One thing I don't like, people always play Zermann with his command pack so he gets 5 attack dice. I always use his stamina pack, he can what- shoot 7 spaces and move 9 or 10? And he's only 1 dice weaker, when he's probably not going to roll 5 successes anyway. Extra killing power is always nice, but Hass and Heizinger have PLENTY of that..

If I were Reich, I would give Zermann the stamina pack and switch out the schocktruppen for strosstruppen with command packs. that would be a good match-up I think. A well played Zermann could even up terms with Hoax. vovoides and dog don't stand a chance against strosstruppen. and the rest is up to the fight.

Plus, what is the point of Zermann with the mask of samhain? He shouldn't be getting shot at anyway.

When I play Zermann, I always wonder if I should use the stamina pack or the command pack because both are quite good. I think rolling 5 dice is an important advantage of Zermann, so I often use the command pack. As a bonus token, I think the obscura korps badge or the Countess Bathory (unable to check if this is spelled right) fit Zermann better then the Masque. The badge can increase his attack or mental value (that's also his range), the Countess can heal him if he kills another character.

Although the stosstruppen are very cool, I discovered that the sckocktruppen with command pack are quite good in the suggested team. They have a high attack value because the team tends to be concentrated on one path, they can set on overwatch without point cost, and they roll many dice.