I received the model from my LGS today. Nothing spectacular in itself although the rules do make her rather hard to take down. The 3 extra counters are replacement gold brick counters with interesting abilities.

Not sure what to make of the model as it is rather unique. Will be interesting to see how much it changes the game if at all.

So, no other characters get any new tokens with Natalya, is that correct?

And what is Natalya like, is she a "weird" character like Oksana that doesn't have equipment packs or does she have packs. Also, what kind of skills does she have?

No other character packs.

The main armament is a Volta's Lightening Cannon, which is a heavy, auto that can attack 2 adjacent targets. The standard equipment in each pack is the KBA suit which allows re-rolls of 2 failed dice in shock. Other options boost these two items or provide healing (stamina pack ) or initiative or an additional dice to a shock roll by a character adjacent if you take the command pack.

She can be repaired. She can repair herself as an action or by several other means.

All in all a tough cookie. Mia said he will provide a detailed overview soon.

The miniature size of Natalya is strange. Does FFG make a mistake and produced her in 32mm? Or did i miss she is a giant ?

Well, one of Natalya's abilities is named Massive, so I think its intentional. I think its supposed to represent the size of the suit. Unfortunately, with the figure, both the suit and Natalya herself are bigger than usual, so she just looks out of place. I think the figure would have looked better if Natalya (the human) did not fill the suit (mechanical part) so well. Of course, there's a lot of variation in the human frame, so her size is not entirely unrealistic...

Can you play Natalya in a team together with Zor'ka?

Rhydderch said:

u may cbe right, but for me a snormal sized girl in a giant battle suit would be nicer!

Rhydderch said:

Well, one of Natalya's abilities is named Massive, so I think its intentional. I think its supposed to represent the size of the suit. Unfortunately, with the figure, both the suit and Natalya herself are bigger than usual, so she just looks out of place. I think the figure would have looked better if Natalya (the human) did not fill the suit (mechanical part) so well. Of course, there's a lot of variation in the human frame, so her size is not entirely unrealistic...

u may cbe right, but for me a snormal sized girl in a giant battle suit would be nicer!

I got Natalya today and just read through her rulebook. She seems to be really powerful AND she can be in a team together with Zor'ka. What I thought was: Natalya with Combat or Stamina pack, Zor'ka with Stamina pack, 2 Voivodes to repair them both and either Irishka to repair them or Irina with Stamina pack to increase their Stamina value. With all that extra dice and very high values (attack 7, stamina 7 or 8), how do you even damage them?

??! said:

I read the text regarding Natalya´s use in the team over and over again, but I did not found any clue hinting that she can not be use with Zor´ka. Neither does her affilation symbol prevents them being in the same team. Oksana´s hate does not seem to influence Natalya to much...

I managed to play 2 deathmatch games using Natalya (Stamina pack), Zor'ka (Stamina pack), 2 Voivodes (MV 10, repair) and in the first game Irina (Stamina pack to increase everyones SV), in the second game Irishka (Stamina pack to repair everybody). Although I can hardly believe it myself, the team was gunned down both times by the following Reich team: Heizinger (Combat pack), Zermann (Command pack), Harbinger (Command pack), 2 Shocktruppen (Command pack). Everyone in the Reich team was rolling so many dice on their attack rolls that even their opponents repair abilities were quickly overwhelmed. Hoss and Karl damaged their opponents with out-of-path attacks while the Shocktruppen were on overwatch to prevent the Matriarchy characters from entering their path. The Shocktruppen on overwatch roll 7 dice while Heizinger is near! And their AV is improved! To add insult to injury, in both games Heizinger managed to control Natalya with the Patmos amulet, forcing her to attack (and damage) Zor'ka.

I really don't know if I should be disappointed by the performance of the Matriarchy or deeply impressed by the performance of the Reich.

??! said:

Probably both. I'm also one who've been steamrolled by the Reich, it ain't fun.

I think that playing deathmatch instead of other mode was a factor here. Reich is very good at "turtle defense" and the shocktruppen command pack made them better at it, perhaps too good. Deathmatch is the best mode to put the combat balance to the test, and sometimes Tannhauser is not up to it, I think that there are more things that balance this out though, in objective domination of flag modes the 2 extra voivodes figures make a difference against reich, if the go for a turtle they wont be able to protect all the necesary points and they will lose.

Hoss is really powerful, and really annoying to play against, in 3 cp games he renders the opponent effectively at 1 cp a 2 CP difference is really big, Other option is combat pack with the helm of diomedes bonus token (his mental is 7), the teleport ability is nasty in CTF (you can also switch with a friendly character) and being able to give bad dice to the target he can do loads of damage with some luck.

My last M-R game Matriarchy won Domination wih oksana (she had the stroboscopic lamp), two voivodes geared for repair and two to run as much as possible, Gorgei with combat and Irina with bonus pack. Reich made a turtle, and Oksana used all her actions in the game to activate voivodes, the mov 10 voivodes with 2 activations per turn move 20 circles every turn. We playid as if stroboscopic lamp effect is not cumulative, but even though the survivality of the voivodes was really high. (I think that if it was cumulative it would be too overpowered). Man, that game was fun :-)

My point, if we avoid deathmatch mode its not about faction combat power alone :-)

she has the Reasoning & Mechanics skills - so she can open any door with ease - which may be a big difference ... can't wait to get Hinansho!

but i would've expected Athletics skill for her...with Engineering could destroy all doors according to rules