So, I just brought home a shiny copy of Operation Novgorod tonight, and I'm not too sure how I feel about it. In the two games that were played, the Matriarchy won handily.

I was playing the Germans in the outdoor Russian map. The first engagement went just about as I expected: I lost a Strauss and a Storm trooper, he was down three of the four Voivodes and Irishka was in a bad position. Eva trotted up and whipped her for three damage (no stranglehold...), which was where everything started going south. Before the end of the turn was called, he used the Liturgy of Faith to heal her for one. Then the next turn started, and he healed her *again*, before anyone else had a chance to go. Arg. So I ran up and sacrificed Eva to take out Irishka, only to spend two turns dumping bullets into Irena, who spent VPs and LoF uses to stay alive and flick off shots with free rerolls and a 1-point upgrade. Eventually, she fell, leaving 3 victory points behind. I had two. He was down to Zor'Ka. I had Ozo, the Marquis, and a ShockTruppen all at full.

Sounds like a clean sweep for me, right?

Yeah, not really. Heizinger, Ozo, and the Shocktruppen shoot her. 1 damage between them. She runs forward and reduces Heizinger to 1 wound. Next turn, Heizinger heals with his ring, but it doesn't matter because she blows him to smitereens. Ozo and the Truppen shoot her again. 1 wound. Next round, Zor'ka swings at Ozo for 2 wounds. The Germans fail to do any damage. Next round, she kills Ozo, and the truppen fails to deal damage. Considering I had 1 vp and he still had 3, it was all over after the initiative roll.

I wasn't around for the match against the Union, but the Russians swept them out on the same map losing 2 drones. One of which because he used it as a grenade.

How do you actually *kill* Zor'ka? You can't deal auto-wounds, you can't auto-kill her, and she has stamina *7*. And this isn't counting the fact she'll be healed once per turn out-of-turn by Irena and healed by an action by Irishka. All the strategic positioning doesn't really do much when Zor'ka can pretty much bulldoze an entire platoon alone.

Use a different map. I've found the mansion favours the Reich with its close quarters and the occult basement the Union since it's more open. I haven't played the Matriarch yet, but I'm guessing walls would help Heizinger to mind screw oponents without getting shot at and protect him and Doom-gun (name escapes me) from being electrocuted from being on the same path as Zor'ka.

And you could always cut the machine units from 4 to 2 so you've got less on your plate.

Oh, and did you stock up on abilities that get you bonuses to your dice like mad minute and machine guns? For the Union at least I'd stock up on those then have Brown and maybe a trooper for for instant kills while the rest attack Zor'ka

actually, I didn't. I went with the Combat pack for Eva, Stamina for Heizinger (because I heard my brother talk about Presence, and Sha-Na-Ra is less effective when you roll 2 dice...), Mental for Karl, Stamina for the Shocktruppen and Stamina for the Strausstruppen. Maybe that was my problem.

Turns out I would have lost even sooner, now that I look at the rules by day. The Magnifier hits entire paths? Egads!

My brother is talking about taking Zor'Ka with a custom pack including the Magnifier, Imposing, and the Tesla coil. His plan is to run Zor'Ka full steam into the enemy's face and force them to deal with her. Assuming you have a Shocktruppen with Keep Firing! and Mad Minute activated, you'll be rolling 6 dice. Wounding on 4+, you'll deal a little under 4 hits on average. They are reduced to 3 hits by the Tesla coil, which is about how many wounds Zor'Ka will save. If she only rolls two, she can re-roll the lowest non-1 dice from Holy Commisar. If she still takes a damage, she can be healed with liturgies. If both of those are used up, Irishka and the Viovodes can walk up and heal her. Even if she totally FLUFFS it and takes 3 wounds, she can call a Viovode over to take the hit for her. She's practically immune to TNT, as Tala will rarely roll more then 2 hits against combat 7 with it, and between the Tesla Coil and 6 dice, Zor'Ka won't be scratched. She can laugh off Strangleholds and the Heavy Flash Gun. She walks through grenades.

The point is, I cannot think of a combat action with a greater then 50% chance of dealing *one* wound. Considering she can be healed 6 times in a turn and can pass off fluffs to Viovodes, she's a scary juggernaut. Sha Na Ra is a bit of a hail Mary, as Von Heizinger will rarely roll the four wounds needed to kill Zor'Ka, and the fact is the odds are in HER favor in the mental dual. Don't even bother if the opponent swaps in Presence.

On the one hand, I congratulate Fantasy Flight on making a hero that really *feels* legendary. The last few turns had bystanders looking over our shoulders as the men of the Obscura Korps gave thier everything to take down an underdog who turned out to be, well, a god. On the other hand, I don't forsee many Novgorod games played until the other two factions get legendary heros of thier own to balance out Zor'Ka.

Thanks for the tactical tips, though. I'll try taking a bunch of combat packs to the indoor map the next time I try.

The key is not to use those things on her. If she shrugs off automatic wounds, use nades on Vs (I'm guessing 2 hits?) if they get near her and flash everyone else as soon as you can. In the meantime, keep your guys with machine guns and knives on her (she needs one free space on the path she's targetting) and either keep the rest of the Matriarch away with with heavy fire of try to draw them onto your path so Magnifier targets them too.

Also, reinforcements actually come in handy here since the Matriarch doesn't get them. Use that to your advantage.