Heroes are necessary for DT, but what good are each of them? Yes, I'm missing a few, but if I could find the stats easily I could comment on them. So this just includes the original core set and Cyclone/Seelowe expansions.

GENERAL: All heroes provide durability for their squads with their extra hit points.

AXIS:

Markus : Buy the monkey and his boyz. This is a package deal, no reason to split them up. Markus has 2x the hitpoints to tank for the extra damage dealing of the squad as they close. The squad makes Markus Fast and Markus gives them the extra CC attack action with Charge. In any case, Markus can only lead the Axis Gorillas and they can only be led by him. Just count 44 points spent or don't buy any of them. One interesting thing, since each fist has its own weapon line, if they are adjacent to two units then some attacks can be split, although I probably wouldn't recommend that unless one or both targets were walkers.

Manfred : Low end infantry killer with a bit of AT. Useful for any IA2 squad. His Assault skill allows a one turn burst of speed for his squad.

Sigrid : Again a generic leader. Usually slated to go with the Laser Grenadiers, but her Berserk skill and firepower can be equally useful to any IA2 squad.

ALLIES

Bazooka Joe : A generic leader, his grenade launcher ignores cover and Black Ops is useful for the entire game. Putting him with the BBQ squad isn't the best choice IMO because they have more than enough up front firepower at range 1 to be deadly on their own. He is better with the Gunners, Bot Hunters or Recon squads for that little extra umph he brings.

Rosie : Mainly useful for her hit points and Tank Head skill in support of a walker. Nice bazooka, but it is still just a bazooka. Again, the BBQ squad is so specialized and powerful that they don't need the longer range AT capability. Like Joe, she is better off with one of the other three squads, loaning a bazooka shot and her hit points.

Ozz 117 : Useful close range IA3 leader. His special ability works well with either IA3 rocket squad and he gives them a burst of range 1 punch that is nice to have.

I disagree with you on BBQ squad. Sure, it has enough firepower on its own, but what it needs is endurance. Since they need to get up close to the enemy in order to unleash their weapons, that means they have to cross a lot of terrain and move ahead of the advancing line. This means they are bound to get shot on the way, and if they don't have some extra Health to burn, by the time they reach the enemy there's a chance they won't be very formidable anymore. I'd stick them with either Joe or Johnny One-Eye.

I also think you underestimate Rosie's bazooka. It is considerably different from any old bazooka in that it can kill a medium walker in a single shot. That's something that scares the opponent. Assigning her to the Crack Shots makes it even more likely that she'll create piles of panzer wreckage, aided by the Spotter.

Durability issues are covered under the "General" heading, which is mainly that any available hero adds life to the squad by tanking or "taking the hit for the boys". True, I'm missing several heroes because I just have the currently available store bought ones, but IMO Joe is just the best of a bad lot to put in with the BBQ for tanking. Unfortunately, it also hurts the abilities Joe brings to the list and other squads because he is the best one to stick with them.

That is a nifty trick with Rosie, I'd thought about it for all the various heroes. It does make them real nasty in some situations, especially holding ground with a 2/3 cover save, but it also makes them more fragile. Another fun one for that would be Sigrid, especially since all "blanks" are to be considered "crosshairs" on the attack dice, lots of laser damage potential there...

Algesan said:

I'm thinking of sticking Ozz 117 with the Hammers as his ability could be used to make them immune to CC retaliation for 1 round. Most likely I'll put Rhino with the Tank Busters, Berserk combined with those 'reactor fueled bazookas' (how does that work, are they energy weapons?) should pretty much waste any enemy vehicle. Alternatively I might stick Ozz 117 with the Grim Reapers, for a little more flexibility.

Giving Heroic Attack to a Close Combat unit like The Hammers sounds like a very smart idea. Sounds like a good strategy to take on the zombies.

I posted this on another thread, regarding the Sigrid-Spotter combination, but I think this is a more appropriate place for it:

I'm thinking it's not quite right to have the Spotter's ability affect ALL of Sigrid's attack dice. A spotter makes it easier to hit someone, it doesn't increase the damage of your weapon. Spotters are paired with other soldiers "in order to increase their accuracy". After a laser weapon's initial hits are counted, the repeated rolls are due to the laser's cutting power, not its accuracy. I don't think these rerolls should be affected by the Spotter ability.

The same line of thinking would apply to a hypotetical combination of a phaser weapon and a Spotter. I think the Spotter would affect only the initial "to hit" roll, but not the subsequent "damage" roll.

I realize the rules don't explain any of the above, but I just don't think they considered the combination of such weapons as lasers and phasers with the Spotter ability. But I think it would be in the spirit of the Spotter rules that such damage-exclusive rolls be unaffected by it.

Well, I don't have the revised core yet, having spent a chunk of change to get a spare original core, all the extra infantry up to Gorillas/Grim Reapers (no Zombies or Tank Busters), one medium and one light for each faction. Give me a few weeks and I'll be adding to my stuff and making more commentary.