Tannhäuser Tuesday - Operation Hinansho Detailed

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Operation Hinansho

This expansion contains:

Two-Sided Map :

Kitamon Research Base in Japan

Union Airplane Crash Site on Okinawa Island

The new maps have paths that follow a new basic rule - if the base of a character can fit in the space between two circles without touching them, then they are NOT adjacent.

 New Rules for the new map features and tokens.

Bunch of Tokens including those for new rules like Volatile Rubble, Locked Wooden Doors, and Locked Reinforced Doors. There are also the full Faction Tokens for the Shogunate - Objectives Tokens, Command Point Tokens and Flag Tokens. The remaining tokens are for Story Mode, and Covert and Gate tokens.

New Circle Types:

Locked Door

Sniper Circle

Covert Circle

Volatile Circle

There are a number of new circle types in this expansion.

Locked Doors

When a Locked Door token is on the appropriate circle, the door is locked and characters may not move into that circle.  The Locked Door tokens contains 2 skill icons; green and red. If a character adjacent to the locked door has a skill matching the green icon, they can spend one movement point to open the door. If they do not have that  skill, the door is unlocked by using 3 movement points.Anyone next to the door can spend one movement point to close it and it is locked again. Any character adjacent to the locked door with a matching skill to the red icon may try to smash the door, permanently destroying it. Reinforced doors require the Mechanic skill and Wooden doors the Athletics skill.

Covert Circles and Tokens

Now they're getting tricky. Covert circles can target Sniper circles if their icons match in color. They may also target characters in circles that match the color of the covert targeting icon (green in the example picture. Additionally, the character inside the covert circle can be targeted by anyone they can target, BUT… only Natural 10's count as hits when attacking the character in the Covert circle.

Just to make it more fun, grenades thrown from a Covert circle and using the Covert ability don't bounce. Grenades thrown at a Covert circle follow the normal rules.

There are also Covert Tokens that can be placed in certain scenarios.

Volatile Circle and Volatile Rubble

Before they are activated, characters pass through these circles normally. Once activated, all characters that share the volatile path take three automatic hits and a volatile rubble token is placed in the circle. Any character that passes through this rubble takes 3 automatic attack successes (in addition to the movement penalty of the rubble.)

Gate Tokens
You can now connect two maps together using these new tokens. Put two maps next to each other and place a couple of these tokens down to bridge the gap between the two maps.

I think you could also use these to connect the stair cases on the original maps to allow an upstairs and downstairs to be easily identified…



The rest of the rule book is not included, but the Gate Token section mentions you can play these big double maps with "Large Teams" - 5 Heroes and 4 Troops, or with 4 teams.


The Cost
I am not sure why FFG did not release the Shogunate items as one big box set like the Matriarchy, but it probably has to do with price.

$29.95 - Operation Hinansho
$12.95 - Iroh
$12.95 - Mizu
$12.95 - Itami
$19.95 - Troops
$85.85 - Total - I don't think the included Equipment Cards raise the price by $25.90 over the Novgorod set which is also a full Faction. Being able to buy them piecemeal also spreads the payment out into manageable chunks, instead of the one big hit.

$59.95 - Operation Novgorod
$69.95 - Base Game


Operation Hinansho and the Matriarchy Natalya pack are currently listed as being 'On the boat' which typically means 4 to 6 weeks.

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Tannhäuser Tuesday - Shogunate Itami and Mizu Report

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Mizu and Itami, the final two figures in the initial Shogunate release are here and bring a few interesting wrinkles to the faction.

ITAMI

 

Itami's primal scream is so disturbing that he can cause his opponents to run away in terror. He can also force his will upon an adjacent figure an force them to take an action. He is also strong enough that any enemies next to him have to overpower him just to move and he gets stronger for each adjacent enemy character.

Itami also includes a Bonus Pack for  Ramirez which includes his MK 19 Mod A1 gun, a AN-M11 Thermite grenade, and a FR19 grenade which puts out a sticky fire retardant that puts out fires and prevents future fire grenades in that Path. It also causes a +1 to movement for each circle in the path.

MIZU

Mizu is ninja-like in her ability to evade and confound her attackers. She can attack a character twice in the same turn, counterattack without spending a command point, throw smoke in reaction to being attacked, and can ignore the effects of smoke. If that isn't enough, she can dodge attacks.

 

Mizu Kage also includes a Bonus Pack for Irina that includes 3 new Liturgies. The first has Irina reduce the defense of opponents figures on the same path, the second lets her do direct damage from a Mental Duel, and the third has all non-Matriarchy figures moving one circle less.

 All in all, these are fun sounding packs and I am looking forward to playing them.

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Tannhäuser Tuesday - Shogunate Releases

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The first new figure is Hellbo…err, Itami, a hoofed demon that the Shogunate  assigned to Iroh Minamoto’s 3rd Division.

As the FFG press release says, "There, they hope he can make use of the strange powers he draws from Naraka, the Realm of Suffering. Itami can wrack others with pain and bend their very wills, and an unholy penumbra that seeps out of his every pore drains the life essences of those around him. Enemy combatants tremble at the primal suffering in his bellowing voice."

The second character is an “international liason” for the Shogunate.  Mizu Kage is a ninja-like character equipped "with Willow and Winding Stream, her deadly sai blades. 

Currently, Mizu operates with a directive from the Lord of Spiritual Wellness Yami Seimei to collect information that the Shogunate’s Reich allies have been withholding. With her sai, shuriken, and happo, she can decide to tread a path of blood or conduct an infiltration, unseen and unheard."

These single figure pre-painted character packs come with the usual tokens and character sheets along with equipment cards. The rulebooks include "unique scenarios designed to pit Mizu and her team against that of a thief from the Union or Matriarchy, or to test Itami and the limits of his strange abilities against a demon of the Reich."

I'm curious to see what those scenarios are like.

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Tannhäuser Tuesday - First Shogunate Figures Release

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The first Shogunate figures (the ones pre-released at Gen-Con) are now available in stores.

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Tannhäuser Tuesday - The Shogunate Begins!

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Fantasy Flight was selling the first two packs of units for the Shogunate faction at Gen Con 2011, so I had to buy them and here they are...

As you may or may not know, the Shogunate faction introduces a new style of play called Allied Forces. This allows you to combine the Reich and Shogunate figures into a single force. The Matriarchy and the Union are also uneasy allies.

I am hoping that once the full Shogunate faction is released, this rule will be rescinded. I like the idea of 4 unique factions and the idea that when you bring your force to the table, you are not sure just who they would be facing.

First up is the leader of the Shogunate force, Iroh Minamoto. He is the Shogun's enforcer - known as "the Diamyo." His best attack is with his Special Object - a katana called Dual Soul, or Dyuaru Kontan. When using this weapon he add an extra die to the attack roll and each Natural 10 counts for two successes.

The second pack is the Shogunate Troops - the 3rd Division Ashigaru and the Shin Agent.

Also included is a new crate token - the Land Mine:

There is also a new pack for Hermann Von Heizinger:

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