Aside from the Core Set, of course! The main Core Set I do get should come with the Revised Rules so I shouldn't need those but I was curious as to what else would be good/cool/fun/etc. to buy along with it. I really like the look of the Operation: Novgorod expansion and related minis, but I'm also interested in the Daedalus Map Pack (and Asteros !) as well. The Operation: Hinansho expansion seems neat but I can wait on the Shogunate stuff until later. Also, I was wondering about the Equipment Cards set and whether or not I should get it right away or wait. So what are peoples' thoughts and opinions?

Just my Opinions but here is my top ten…

1: The Equipment Cards - they really speed up setup and game play, I think they should include them in the core set with the book, but that might require a bigger box.

2: Novgorod - you just get so much and the Tesla map is my favorite, and despite the complaints, I like the inclusion of the duplicate map, playing double size games can be a lot of fun, especially if you have four players.

3: WOLF - He can be used by any faction so he adds some good variety.

4: Gorgei - See WOLF, but keep in mind he won't fight the Matriarchy.

5: Union and Reich Trooper packs, I love using double Shocktruppen, or twin Commando Alphas.

6: Hoax - I play Uinon and she is just awsome.

7: Hoss - Because the Reich needs teleportation.

8: Daedalus - By this point you'll want some more maps, and Gevudan has a lot of story telling potential. I mean how many movies take place in a cabin in the woods?

9: Hinansho - I love the jungle map and the Kitamon facility adds the door elements that Kasiz always needed.

10 : Everything else.

Hope that helps…

Although I totally agree with the statement about the Novgorod pack being great, if you are always playing two player games I'd suggest developing the two factions from the Core game before getting a third one. So I'd suggest getting the following after the core game: Equipment cards, Hoss and Hoax, Trooper packs. After that, Novgorod or a map set (probably Daedalus).

Which map is duplicated? I assume it's from the basic set?

Oh and thanks for the advice!

By the way, is there somewhere a person can read the alternate history setting for this game? I would hope that there's a booklet or something that comes with the games but is there anything online?

There are some things here:

http://miah000.blogspot.com/search/label/U-Chronic%20History

But this is all first edition, you'll have to wait till the novels for much more then character bios.

Well, I was more looking for the general history of the setting than specific characters (and I didn't find much of either on the site you sent me to). Is there some sort of timeline of events that comes with the game?

Yes and no, the timeline was thrown out when FFG took over and many changes have been made.

For instance Edison's birthday was moved from 1905 to 1900, and there are a lot of other small changes. I't been FFG's intention to timeshift many of the "U-Chronic" events since the revised rules, as one of the biggest changes in the revised rules was the elimination of any dates from all the fluff.

I'll go through what I have and update my links.

The page has been updated, the last article is going to be the one you want, it has links to much more info.

http://miah000.blogspot.com/search/label/U-Chronic%20History

Rydderch co`mpiled most of the fluff in his companion, posted in his blog here

My List: (with a prior comment)

In the revised rules pdf that can be bought online you will find the rules for a few expansion figures, in the reference cards you get again some more (in fact you get almost everything except the matriarchy trooper pack, having these rules would allow you to get a feeling of the expansion figure and decide wether to buy it or not, I did try every figure in a couple of games before purchasing them. It helped me, I decided not to buy asteros (and I was all for it before trying him) and decided to go for Yula when it was reprinted only after trying her (never caught my attention before).

On the core set, there are 2 figures that might help you balance the playfield between reich and union, if you stick just to the basic set the reich has some advantage and usually wins. These figures are Ramirez and Hoax.

If you buy Novgorod buy it together with the trooper pack, it opens your options and lets you play without the voivodes if you like a more classical faction approach. Oksana is also a game changer, I usually only play voivodes with oksana and troopers with Zorka (but thats just my way).

The order I propose is meant to keep the balance in the games, thats Why I propose to buy in "bundles".

1- The revised rules (In case you got the old ones)

2- Ramirez (just with that Union gets much more fun against reich and does not get beaten so often as he has a couple of nice things to kill heizinger)

3- Wolf, Gorgei (as both can be used in both factions and add lots of variety in setups)

4- Novgorod + Trooper pack

5- Oksana, Hoss and Hoax (again together to keep balance between factions, the three of them are among the most powerful characters)

6- All shogunate characters + Hinansho (so you get the complete faction and their faction tokens) As they are balanced today they usually are beaten more often than not.

7- Everything else (not as important as on the list above)

Thanks for the input Moebius. If I can afford it next month I'm going to try and get everything except for the Shogunate stuff. So I'm looking at getting all the Union, Reich and Matriarchy minis, the three "Mercs": Wolf, Gorgei and Asteros, the Core Set, Operation: Novgorod, Daedalus Map Pack and the Equipment Cards all in one go. I'll get the Shogunate expansion and minis a little later, probably after my bank account has recovered.

Miah999 said:

Thanks for the link! This is exactly what I was looking for! The one thing I like most about games/books/tv shows and movies that are in alternate timelines is the history of said timeline. I always want to know- how did things get this way? I'm looking forward to reading the whole article!

Your welcome, sorry it wasn't there the first time, but it can be hard to keep all the links for the blog up-to-date and accurate.

Tom O' Bedlam said:

There's no need to get everything at once. I think you'd actually increase the fun and excitement if you start by getting only a few things, try them out, try different game modes and combinations and THEN buy some expansions. If you act like you suggested here, you'll buy a lot of stuff that you'll barely use.

I agree with Miah, when the new stuff comes little by little you get to discover the new opportunities gradually.

Also be aware of asteros and natalya, these are epic figures and kind of drive the game around them, this is something that is not always welcome.

I hear what everyone is saying, but I've been a follower of the axiom "that it's better to have something and not use it than want it and not have it" Ok, I paraphrased a bit but you get the idea. It's happened all too often that when I go to get something that I waited on, especially if it's already been out awhile, I suddenly can't find it. And FFG's stuff has a tendency to come and go like the wind sometimes.

I may get a bunch of stuff at first but I'm still going to do a gradual introduction of new minis and rules as I feel I'm ready for them. It's just that I'll have the things ahead of time. I did this with Arkham Horror and it worked out fine. Started playing with just the basic set and added in more things when I felt I was ready for them. Still, I appreciate the heads up about Asteros and Natalya. Are there any other characters that have that much affect on the game? What about Zor'ka or Hoss?

Miah999 said:

No problem! I bookmarked it, too, so I should be able to find it again with ease.

Tom O' Bedlam said:

Asteros and Natalya are epic characters, Not only their stats ar better but their equipment is as well. Asteros on average has 4 (rolls 5 dice) sucesses on all his shock rolls and 5 (rolls 6 dice) successes in his attack rolls in my oppinion they are too good. You can find dedicated threads for them where this is discussed further.

Zorka is really good, with her stamina pack she rolls 5 rolls as well, and if playing also Irina with stamina pack its 5 dice with success on 2+ The games do evolve around her but thats the intended way for the matriarchy specially with voivodes. The difference is that her euipment is not as good as the epics, she rolls 4 dice when attacking for example, not 6 like natalya or asteros.

Hoss is really powerful, and his equipment is almost on par with the epics, in my experience he has won games himself, he can switch places in the board with any other figure, he cannot be attacked in melee (he just moves 1 circle and gets out of range) and has out of path attacks. He is almost an epic. The difference (despite being superior to almost any other hero) is that if wounded his mental stat drops dramatically and most of his usefulness depends on that (he is also discussed further on other threads).

To sum up there are heroes more powerful than others but not as unbalancing as the epics (specially when a side has an epic and the other does not), some may discuss hoss is that powerful and I have read of groups houseruling hoss as an epic.

Moebius said:

Well, I have to say that some of that didn't make much sense to me as I haven't played the game yet, but I got the gist of it. I gotta ask, though, what exactly is Asteros' role in the game? And is he only used with the Daedalus scenarios?

From the sounds of it I probably won't be using him or Natalya too much, at least until they release more characters on that power level. I know Edison is coming out soon and he sounds pretty grim from the description given. Any thoughts on what rank (such as epic, legendary, etc.) he might be classified as or whether or not he'll be another character that the game tends to revolve around (aside from the special scenario mentioned in the article about him)?

Epics can be used in any map, they take 2 slots in your team (they count both as a hero and a trooper) and when you play with them you have 1 less command point (on average you get 2-3 cps per turn).

They get an extra row of stats (so an extra wound), you can see more details in miahs blog. He has reviewed both of them. I dont use them ofen, and when I do (in tannhauser online as I did not buy the figures) is using homerules to nerf them and bring them back to hero level.

Moebius said:

I think that only Asteros costs 1 Command Point to your team (because is difficult to control). In the Natalya rulebook there is no info about the CP, so you play with all the CP if you play with Natalya.

That's right. Natalya replaces a hero and a trooper but leaves you with 2 CP. By the way, I think she's somewhat more balanced than Asteros by her decreasing stats and different equipment pack, so at least I'd advice others to buy her but not Asteros.

T0rrES said:

Oops, I stand corrected then!

I just started this game and got

Core Set

Novgorod

Equipment Cards

If the Core set includes the Revised Rules, that should do for quite some time, Pvthudson01! I'd advise you to play with the Core set factions and characters for some time before introducing the third faction and Novgorod to get used to the rules and mechanics (unless you regulary play 3 player games of course).