Although the answer seems obvious, I just wanted to confirm the following:

Oksana has 4 equipment slots. Two are occupied by Vesper and Lucifer. One is occupied by a Voivode equipment token which effects all her Voivodes and one is either left vacant or occupied by a bonus token. Is that correct?

Her voivodes are therefore effected by the Smilan-B coils that they all have, Oksana's Voivode item and 2 items that they each have as their equipment. Is this correct?

I have no idea why the Matriarchy Character Sheets have their equipment slots truncated. Why could they have not laid them out like the others?

You are right, if you count the special powers every voivoid already have (Smilan-B Coil) plus the Oksana's item they end up with 4 itens. But since the Smilan-B Coil is not an option you end up with 3 itens for them but lose Zorka. I think its a great trade if you wanna see what voivoids can do on their own, but the only way to make it work for me is if you select the repair stuff for Oksana, so every voivoid can bring back each other as an action. That makes them very powerful in my opinion.

Otar, that is an interesting idea. I will have to try it. There are so many options, it will be interesting to see how they all interact. Oksana has more options than Zorka. For now anyway.

So try this then, Irina with stamina pack to make everyone tough and Gorgei to kill stuff, both voivoid packs have something to increase combat +1 and the other choice is free, but i like the one that attacks in area and the one that makes you move through with no bull rush, so all the voivoids walk around as a pack, raising each other, giving combat bonus to each other and killing with melee in general with gorgei to finish stuff, Oksana activating them again to bring back or attack more as needed and Irina looking pretty (or if you find some nice weapon on a crate she can kill too). The weak point is AOE (granades mostly) and not having CP on voivoids, but stamina 7 makes up for it.

After having played against Yula (with our **** card board cut-out since we can't get our hands on her... please hurry, ffg!)

A separate token for the coil would be helpful, since Yula tends to break them- quite often

Horsa said:

Until now I was quite sure that the fourth slot is left vacant at the beginning and can be filled by collecting dropped items.

Otar said:

Sorry to say that, but Irina's Liturgy doesn't work with the Voivodes (Revised rules, page 34) so the Voivodes only have stamina 6.

On another point, Oksana's fourth equipment slot can either be filled with a bonus token before the game starts or it can be left without a token and filled with an item collected during the game, that's up to the player to decide.

??! said:

I reread the rules once more, and I do not really agree. I am still convinced that no bonus token will be added in the preparation phase. Sadly, I do not have the book with me now, but I will underline my interpretation of rules that the slot will be left open until the game starts with arguments this weekend.

Oksana rules booklet, page 4: "She also has one free equipment slot intended to hold a bonus token or equipment tokens recovered during the game."

I admit that you are right indeed!

Otar said:

I actually tried out this team because I wanted to play a team built around Oksana for some time. Although the team lost a Deathmatch against the Reich, the game was pretty close with Hoss being the only survivor. I think about using Irina with her command pack to bring back Voivodes as reinforcements or exchanging Irina wth Irishka who can fight and repair Voivodes. If you have any comments on that or other suggestions, I'd be very interested.

First i gotta know how you lost you 4 voivoids, my main concearn using that team is to always have at least 1 voivoid to get back the other one in the pair and then use Oksana to bring back the other pair with the pair i already have. That way you can block paths and still kill with Voivoid melee attacks since they help each other on the combat value.

But since you make me aware that voivoids dosen`t get the bonuses for Liturgy i decided to run Oksana on 6 voivoids + Gorgei, since you can use another trooper instead of a hero and 6 voivoids raising each other looks really mean! But i haven`t had the chance to play all week, including this weekend... You could try that and tell me how it goes.

I am confused, how can you have 6 voivodes in a game. There are only 2 trooper slots which equates to 4 voivodes. Are you running a specific scenario?

Otar said:

The team started to fall apart after the Reich moved in in force and killed Oksana. So the Voivodes couldn't repair themselves any more. Next time, I will protect Oksana even better and use your tactic of multiple repairs to keep the Voivodes coming. On the point of fielding 6 Voivodes, I have to agree with Horsa: You can only field 2 troopers which means 4 Voivodes.

Well you should have not let her die, she can cancel wounds when near a voivoid, so she must have 2 at all times around her. And if the enemy is hunting her down you have the strategic advantage of putting your other 2 voivoids in position to stop the path and as always you have Gorgei free to retaliate those who get near and i believe the out of path attacks from Reich are not enough to kill Oksana with 2 voivoids around her. Thats my strategy.

And you both wrong about 6 voivoids, since you can remove a hero and add a trooper, in the Matriarchy`s case that means another 2 voivoids. That`s a basic rule guys, but of course no one use it since it looks bad to remove a hero and use another trooper, but in this case i think it might be effective. Or maybe its the old rule and i need to read the revised to find the page...

P8 section 4 of the rule book states 2 troopers and 3 heroes. Where in the rule book does it state that I can replace a hero with a trooper? Great if you can but I cannot find it.

That's a version one rule, I'm pretty sure it hase been removed from the reviesed rules.

That explains the confusion.

Tannhauser has a rather checkered history and as such, it is not surprising that there is less support for this game than one would expect and rules confusion. I doubt FFG ship many products which contain v.1 and v.2 rules so blatantly mixed together. The later releases are certainly nicely done but it is not obvious to me why there is no update to the FAQ when it is clear that one is needed. Some players did say they were waiting for the new rule book to be released. We will see if this changes anything, whenever it comes out. Looking forward to the new expansion and new epic figure.

Horsa, you are right, its from V1 rules... So no go on 6 voivoids.

Otar said:

I tried your strategy but lost again against the Reich. I kept two Voivodes near Oksana to protect her, only removing them during their activation to repair other Voivodes, then using Oksana to activade the Voivodes again. The problem is that the Voivodes don't do much damage, even when they support each other. Two or three attack successes are easily canceled by a shock roll plus shacking off a wound with a CP. Furthermore, the Voivodes are prime targets for overwatch attacks or counterattacks. A shocktruppen with combat pack on overwatch can really make your Voivode's life miserable.

However, the team held itself quite well for several turns. The Reich destroyed several Voivodes with out-of-path attacks but failed to do much damage to the important characters because Oksana was protected by Voivodes and Gorgei had a stamina value of 6 and had several good shock rolls. Oksana's team used many activations to repair the Voivodes, so normally only two of them were able to attack. Gorgei and sometimes even Irina attacked as well, but it was not enough to really damage the Reich characters, overwatch attacks made by shocktruppen further hindering the Matriarchy. The turning point came when Heizinger moved forward and successfully used the Patmos amulet on Oksana, forcing her to move away from her Voivodes. She was immediately attacked by shocktruppen who severely wounded her. Although she managed to get back to her Voivodes, it was over. During the next two turns, she and the Voivodes protecting her were brought down by grenades, and without her, the remaining Voivodes were disabled quickly. Gorgei killed Heizinger immediately after he used the amulet, and managed to kill Zermann later, but the shocktruppen and Hoss cornered and killed him.

I just dont get this part "The Reich destroyed several Voivodes with out-of-path attacks" since voivoids are immune to mental attacks, and unless you guys ruled otherwise, no out of path attacks other then granades can hit them. So this is odd, and its all about positioning. Let the voivoids be on the last circle of a path with Oksana in the other end of the same path, that way she is going to be around 2 voivoids and all 4 help each other rolling 7 dice against difficult 4, thats not much but can be done 6 times if someone gets near you to attack, and if they just throw granades you repair the voivoids and thats about it. I dont know how you played by my game is pure defense manuvers with this team, and only using Gorgei to attack and retreat behind the voivoid lines. Maybe use Wolf then instead of Irina, or using her new lythurgys to make her do real damage... I dont know... I just know it works for me =)

Hoss and Karl Zermann can target Voivodes with their out-of-path attacks because these don't require mental duels. They roll 5 and 6 dice if supported by Heizinger with his combat pack, so they destroy Voivodes quickly. So my Voivodes won't roll 7 dice in combat because some of them will be destroyed, and the more I repair them, the less I attack. Furthermore, the Reich doesn't need to get near the Voivodes to attack, my Voivodes have to get near the Reich characters.

Ok im sorry, FFG have to make its mind or i have to erase all i ever read from old rules... Had to check the rules because i was sure i was right about this!!!

Pg. 2 Operation Novgorod: B. Null Characteristics: "Voivoides, for example, have a Null Mental Characteristic. This means that they are unaffected by all things Mental - duels, mental attacks, and all other actions related to this characteristic."

So thats why i have in my head that the 2 attacks you mentioned dont work, because both have the Mental trait on it...

But of course, to prove me wrong yet again...

Pg. 12 Revised Rules: Null Characteristics: "For example, a voivode cannot make a Mental test, cannot participate in Mental duel, and cannot be the target of any effect that would require either."

No more mental attacks on the list!!!

Im starting to hate my memory... Its too confusing...

I know what you mean about memory, I almost wish I had never played under the old rules.

And I caution anyone thinking of getting in to Tannhauser, to never read the onld rules, you can read the fluff text, but the rules will only lead to confusion like this.

Just in case anybody wants to know: Oksana's team finally managed to win a game. It slowly wore down a Union team (so no out-of-path attacks) in a game that took nearly two hours and a half. I stopped counting how many Voivodes were killed by the Union characters only to pop back into life minutes later. I had to send all 4 Voivodes into battle to deal some wounds but kept Oksana waaay behind the lines and made her even harder to attack with the Masque of Samhain bonus token (Works well against a Union team!). Furthermore, I exchanged Irina with Irishka to have another good attacker and another option to repair Voivodes. Unfortunately, she was killed early while protecting Oksana from an advancing Hoax. Gorgei also died, but only after throwing a grenade that dealt 3 wounds to Hoax and another three to Ramirez due to horrible shock rolls. The Voivodes had to deal with everyone after that, attacking as often as possible to deal more wounds than the Union characters could shacke off. The game ended with a wounded Barry trying to chase down a wounded Oksana while two surviving Voivodes do their best to stop him. One of them rolled 3 successes in his attack. Barry, who had his Stamina pack equipped, had to roll only 4 or higher to avoid the wounds, but managed to roll an incredible 3,1,1,1 and died - maybe even of shame! I think it was the longest deathmatch game I ever played.