I've been playing some games against shogunate and decided to change the usual setup to a very H2H oriented team, nand surprisingly I had lots of fun and the team worked surprisinggly well:

I was using Artemus H2H home rules wich favor slightly the H2H approach but at the end the effect was minimal as both teams were mostly H2H focused.

- Setup:

Eva (combat) changed pistol for Elizabeth Bathory

Yula (combat) Changed Pistol for Obscura Korps Band

Hoss (Command), after some doubts changed prescience for Helm of Diomedes

2 Stosstruppen with Command

The idea was that Hoss was able to pump eva or the stosstruppens and having them auto healed via Elizabeth Bathory or the infernal sustenance.

It worked wonders. Having the stoss with free inventory space meant they could take whatever they found in crates and everything was good news, but the real boon was the Hoss effect. there were 3 insta kills in the game (from full health to dead in 1 roll). As soon as eva had a 0 in her roll I used Reichdoktor. That meant 4 success gainst 2 dice + the result of the orher 4 dice (2 more successes on average). That kills any trooper that rolls all successes in his shock roll and shakes off a wound. The stosstruppens roll 6 dice at game start and 7 dice by midgame, I usually saved a command to spend in stosstruppen combat roll so on average 5-6 sucesses, 7 or 8 with Reichdoktor, at least 2 wounds go through.

Its risky, Eva fell in both games, but both times she had insta killed a hero before. But its also deadly, as the opponent gets to shake just 1 wound per turn due to Eye of Akenathon with also increases insta kill chances.

The best part of all is that I got to play Reich very differently. Instead of having a "Turtle Team" I had a redically different approach with the same faction.

I reckon that against Matriarchy or Union (with their fire grenades) it might not have been as fun. But I think its definitely worth trying. Have you tried this approach as well?

hey moebius, sorry havent been around to get some TO games in lately! gotta rematch still!

it's nice to play up the melee side of the Reich sometimes when you feel like being more direct & offensive with them. Against the Union or the Matriarchy (who punish Melee with their guns & Tesla Coils), i've found it's not necessarily less 'fun', just different - more 'cat & mouse' with movements, trying to set up that one killer Melee attack (hopefully with multiple attackers at once). Against Union, i'd try to draw them in closer with an out-of-path weapon, then move in with Melee attackers. Against Matriarchy, I'd stick to mainly out-of-path guys, unless you think you're going to be up against Gorgei and Natalya, who are naturally vulnerable in melee.

Eva & Yula are pretty squishy, but was wondering if you were taking advantage of the Sneak skill exception for escaping Melee - Eva, Yula, Mizu, Hoax, Shin Agent - they all have weaker stamina but melee focused. Having them escape freely when engaged in Melee and run away to not get locked in a sometimes disadvantageous situation can mean the difference between life & death for them, so i've found... As long as they have back-up though, which isn't always possible And Hoss is just a Hoss no matter what you try - i always advise to take grenades against him as the best weapon.

if anyone else is interested in the optional Melee rules we use, i can submit to miah for his TH blog or post on BGG.

Hey!

I didnt remember the sneak ability, but most melees were "sadly" over in 1 turn.

Both Itami and Iroh did not last more than 1 attack from Eva. Against Iroh she rolled two 0s (the other three rolls were fails) but it was enough, 6 successes against 2 dice shock roll.

Against Itami was pretty much the same story.

By the way we were playing the first scenario where the objective is to escape with the secret token, Shogunate secret token is "Hardware" and yula destroyed it with the krueger, I bet that situation was not in FFGs minds when they designed the scenario...

What made the Reich have an edge was the Reichdoktor ability as the interaction with the Baroness Bonus token and the stoss truppen command pack which essentially prevented the 2 wound cost, I used reichdoktor almost every turn.

Hope to catch up soon for another match!

WOW over in 1 turn mostly? I admit, i think i end up picking Yula or Eva most times i play as the Reich mainly to assure myself that the dice i got for the Reich from Chessex don't have a problem with them - i NEVER get those natural 10s with them when i need them! But MacNeal & Barry - no problem! (w/o re-rolls).

Reichdoktor is really good - especially when faced with spending/saving essentially all your CP just to escape melee - it translates as a free attack. The Shogunate really need a unique analog to Hoss...Hope FFG comes through on this!

lol @ the scenario with the hardware token