I have just bought the basic Tannhauser, and I would like to buy some expansions, but in my game group, they just won't want to play an unbalanced game…

1- I have read that I can play with Union and Reich buying Ramirez, Hoax, Hoss, Yula, Wolf and Sergei, and we will have a very good game with a good balance and so many tactical options, but i have read that Asteros, Edison and Frankenstahl will break my balanced game. So according to this, what do you think, should I forget Edison, Asteros and Frankenstahl and buying the other heroes? (pls, be sincere, i really dont want overpowered characters that we will have to ban later or being-insta picks for having a balanced game, i mean, i dont want to buy Edison and having to play ALWAYS Edison and Frankenstahls for having a nice match)

2- I wanted to buy the Matriarchy, but as I told before, if Union and Reich, with only those characters i have said, they have nearly a 50% of wins, I dont want to have a Matriarchy with a 50% of wins against the Union but a 90% of wins or 75% or 60% of wins over the Reich, because we just won't play the Reich and we will have to play always Union against Matriarchy… Is it Matriarchy so overpowered? Is it zorka so overpowered? And oksana and natalya? Can I play balanced games with Reich VS Matriarchy ?? Even if the Reich is unable to win the Matriarchy more than 30%, can they win the Matriarchy if they use any heroes or troops of the Shogunate?, or is the Shogunate completely useless against the Matriarchy too?

3- The last point is for Shogunate… They can't win any other faction on their own, that seems so clear to me for all those things i have read in the forums…. But have they any heroes or troops that i should buy for playing them with the Reich??? Which ones?? (this third point is similar to the second one, but it's for having on the first point Union and Reich, the second point for Matriarchy and the third one for the Shogunate)

PD: Thank you all and sorry for my English if it's not so good…

Game balance (or lack of it) is mostly noted when playing deathmatch so first tip here, dont play deathmatch.

Yes, the figures you mention are overpowered and I dont like them either. I would add 1 figure to that list, Oksana. Mightly fun to play with but horrible to play against, a pair of voivode that move 10 and are not affected by difficult terrain that activate twice per turn means 2 flags/circles captured in the first turn and game over in the second turn.

Matriarchy is a perfectly valid option and reich can win against them, but the reich player needs to get out of his comfort zone to do it, fortifying a path with hermann and command pack just wont do it.

I have won many times with reich against Matriarchy with hand to hand build, Hoss (command), Eva (with elizabeth bathory) 2 stoss truppen (command) , and Karl/wolf could be an example.

Hoss is key here, he cannot be attacked in hand to hand which rules out zorka and voivodes (he moves 1 circle away) leaves the opponent with 1 cp use per turn (no reinforcements) and reichdoktor synergy with the stoss and elizabeth batory token is really good.