I just finished reading Miah’s excelent Edison preview and all I can say is: Ouch! He will be very powerful, to say the least. If I got all his unique extraordinary super powerful game-changing abilities and tokens right, he allows you to exchange one hero in your army for two troopers (that is, one extra figure and thus more firepower for the Union, exactly what they need). The troopers than can act as human shields for Edison and prevent him from being wounded AND if you play with one less trooper (so in fact with two heroes and three troopers) you get an extra CP per turn to recycle the fallen troopers even in 2 CP games while Edison is almost invulnerable. Oh, and did I mention that he has a powerful gun, a vest that blocks attacks and the ability to reuse equipment over and over again?
This is … wow! Tannhäuser is certainly leaving with a bang! If these are the abilities of a “normal” hero character, I’m actually a bit afraid of what Frankenstahl, the new epic, will bring to the table. Maybe it's time to wipe the dust off of my Asteros …

Yes he's that powerful, and maybe even more so, That's why I call him an "Epic Slayer".

Keep an eye out for more.

I just learnt the word "powercreep" (guess where ) and wanted to use it.

If what you say about edison is true, he can be unplayable if optimized:

Team proposal:

Edison, Oksana and 6 voivodes repairing each other. Who cares about skills if you can attempt an objective with 2 or 3 voivodes in a turn?

Edison, Ramirez (bonus) and 3 deltas (command) (without umtoma) or 3 zazizags (command) with it. Thats 4 fire grenades in a single team, more than enough to block half a map and prevent a fair game, with the extra bonus of not being blocked to you if playing umtoma.

Reinforcements are key, they allow a fully stocked tropper to come in midgame. With grenades and medikit, thats why call in the troops is the most powerful bonus token (IMHO) and the hero carrying it must be killed before any trooper. Edison does it better than that…

I think that the best use for Edison in my game group will be to be able to say: "If you play hoss with the reich I will play Edison, so why dont we do like USA and URRSS in the 90's with the nukes and leave them in the box or melt them"

Moebius said:

The scary point is: This already includes your extra CP or initiative bonus because normally it would be 8 Voivodes! So it's 6 Voivodes repairing each other and wearing the opponent down with constant attacks PLUS the option to get reinforcements even in 2 CP games.

Oh my god! I recently read Miah's new article "Change of Command" and just watched the two videos concerning Edison. This guy is even more powerful than I imagined him to be. This isn't even "powercreep", it's more like "powerleap" or "powerjump" if these words exist. Who will even be able to stand in Edison's path? We can only "hope" that the Frankenstahl will be totally overpowered as well to balance Edison out!

Looks like the Frankenstahl has 5 stat lines, so there's a decent chance that its an Epic figure. Its too bad the Shogunate remains so limited though.

??! said:

I have seen the videos and I agree. Nevertheless I would need to actually play some games in order to prove what my gut feeling says.

I think though that the main difference is being able to field 3 troops and get the extra cp in 2 cp games, not the abilities or the equipment, the reason: A troop can be reinforced, a hero can't. Also if he was an epic, opponent has to agree for it to be eligible, as it is not opponent does not have to…

In a game with reinforcements the priority is to kill enemy heroes, they do not come back and have better abilities and risk your troopers, if they get killed you get a fresh trooper with a grenade and a medi kit. Having 2 heroes and 3 troopers menas you have 3 re-inforzable characters and this is an edge. Specially if these are union troopers (one of them has the best weapon on the game and the other the best grenade).

The gun is powerful, specially the stamina menlo token (2 less shock dice = to extra automatic successes), but in the end is not more powerful than barry's when it comes to average sucesses , there is no need either, its enough to kill a healthy hero in one shot.

In my games If Edison is playing, Reich or Shogunate need to pick Hoss, then if Union plays with 3 troopers, Hoss picks command to offset the extra cp, if not maybe combat to offset fire grenade spawning.

If playing with matriarchy it is more tricky, I guess Oksana with FAS and Irina with Bonus pack plus whatever… although Union has the chance to spam fire grenades everywhere… that would need the oter appcoach, Zorka Sta, Irina Sta, and 2 Zazizags (and possibly gorgei…)

Moebius said:

You are right, this is his most powerful ability, even more so as it doesn't even requires one of his equipment slots. Those are filled with a rather powerful gun and other cool equipment with abilities using CPs. And that's why I also thought that a player facing him effectively has to take Hoss with his Command pack to tone Edison down a bit. But however, each of Edison's equipment packs seems to be powerful enough to be the center of a strong team build.

Well, I went and playtested edison in 2 games in domination mode to decide on its purchase (wonders of tannhauser online, no mini needed).

My first thought, he is good, good enough to be a top choice much like Hoss or Oksana, but way less decisive than an epic. Game did not evolve around him as with asteros. And that is good.

First game (Ksiaz castle against Matriarchy: Zorka, Irina,Gorgei,Boepripacy,Zazizag) Union (Edison, Ramirez, 2 Alphas, 1 Delta). Union brought 2 reinforcements during the game and Matriarchy one (call in the troops), Union won due to the +5 to initiative in the key turn when it initiative was key for that 4th circle. Edison didnt even shoot.

Second game (crash site against Reich: Hoss,Hermann,Yula, 2 Stoss) vs Edison, MCNeal, 2 Alphas, 2 Deltas. Reich Won. Hermann blocked the green and pink circle with command pack, and eye of horus, and watched the troopers burn trying to get in.

Just a brief experiene so far, but my first impression. It was fun. He brings some new challenges but games keep being interesting. The bad part, other union heroes are going to accumulate way more dust than they used to.

By the way, It may seem obvious but Investing in Edison means investing in the union troop pack as well… well played FFG but if you had kept the rule around using an extra trooper instead of a Hero, you might have sold even more trooper packs to this day (and maybe more natalyas as Oksana with FAS + voivodes + Natalya becomes a legal though really cheesy setup, remember that with FAS Natalya can be repaired as well…) But I disgress.

Edison is very powerful, but not game breaking, and its cool to fully use the troop pack with him.

I also realized you can run a Union vs Union game for the first time! One sample Scenario, American Minorities raise against the government power creep that has most of them benched in the important missions agaist the reich.

Bench: Team Ramirez Tala and Barry (plus 2 deltas, angry cause they never got to be alphas and blame the government for that)

First Team: Edison + Hoax + 4 Alphas (they are angry with the deltas for being angry about their situation).