Secrets of the Third Reich - Guide to mechas

Maybe one of the coolest and most liked parts of Secrets of the Third Reich are the Vehicle Design Rules. A list of weapons, chassis sizes, armor thickness and additional equipment makes up the last few pages of the Secrets of the Third Reich Rulebook . This final part of my guide to Secret of the Third Reich support options is a “bonus” part suggested to me on The Miniature Page by one of its members.  Building a mecha can be tricky for newcomers and veteran players might try to squeeze out as much punch of a mecha as they can for the smallest amount of points to make it both worth including but not too expensive as it should cripple the platoon should it be lost in battle.

First of all, you need to read page 152, first line says that mechas should follow the rule of “What you see is what you get”.  As simple as that. Considering that custom mechas can look very unique in appearance and style – this is needed to easily keep track of the main weapons (that are not for show) during a game.



The vehicle design rules are quite cleverly written to allow you to customize  almost every aspect of your mecha , and each choice brings more options and limitations at the same time. Each mech build contains a fair amount of information.  I will write the mech building in the proper order to make it as easy as possible to follow. The pictures attached to this post should help understanding all that is being described.

Either you already have a model for a mech or you are going to build one yourself from scratch or do a conversion. The first step is all about the size and appearance of the mecha – you have to decide how to categorize the “Chassis size” first. To help you out a little page 152 in the SoTR rulebook hints at what the original SoTR range mechas are classed as. A Comanche mecha is classed as small chassis. As such if you have a mecha that is around that same size you simply have a “small chassis mecha” in your possession.

The chassis size is the most important part of the mech as you will soon learn. The rule of thumb in my opinion should be how many crewmen would be able to squeeze into the mecha, each chassis size has its crew limits. Small mechas can only contain 1 crewman. Medium mecha can have 2, Large 3 and Titanic size 4.

Seing as this is a Vehicle Design Rule guide, I will use a mecha from of different origin than SoTR and use the SoTR Comanche mecha for reference. This mecha I intend to use, an Urban Mammoth model,  is taller than the Comanche no doubt. But the hull size above the legs would hardly support more than 1 crewmember. So “Small chassis” would be fair enough.

Now looking at the chart on page 152, the first column shows chassis size, the second the amount of crewmen. Small = 1 crew. Next we see the default speed class of each chassis size. Small Chassis is speed class II making the mecha able to move 4” Slow/ 8” Medium / 12” Fast speed.

Next we see that the basic cost of a small chassis is 1RP, after this we are informed that you can increase the Speed class by one step for a set number of RP.
Small chassis mecha with speed class II can be upgraded to Speed Class III for 2RP.

Now that we know the size, amount of crew and speed of our mecha we are informed about the limitations of the chassis size of our choice. Small Chassis mechas comes with 3 Weapon hard points. A weapon hardpoint is a place where you attach a weapon, some weapons take up more weapon hardpoints we’ll learn soon enough. The small chassis mecha can also have a maximum of 1 Medium Weapon, no Heavy Weapon and the armor class may ranged from no armor at all to medium armor at the most.

The information inside the chart on page 152 have given us the bare bones of the mech building, making it know what we may and may not pick from the wargear on page 153.
Page 153 contain Armor class, Weapons and Vehicle equipment.

Looking again at my custom mecha, it has some sort of dual gatling gun weapon and a claw. The armor itself does not look all that bulky, and it has some sort of engines at the back. This should be taken into account in accordance with the “What you see is what you get” rule.
First thing you buy from page 153 is Armor for your mecha. Small mechas could have a maximum thickness of “Medium armor class”. Might as well pick that to be on the safe side, medium armor will add 4RP to the total cost of the mecha. Write it down and proceed to the Weapons.
The text below the Weapons headline informs you on a few important notes. Weapons that range from Light AT + are considered “Main guns”.
This is important since the SoTR rules only allow “Slow movement” if you want to fire any vehicle main gun that turn.

Weapons of Light infantry – Very Light AT are considered “Secondary weapons”, this include Flamethrowers even though they are considered Light AT value against vehicles. 
You may twin link weapons, paying 1RP more on top of the basic cost of the weapon intended for twin linking – BUT – you may only twin link machineguns (LMG/HMG). A twin linked weapon takes up 2 weapon hard points instead of one. Twin linked weapons receive +1 to hit, making machine guns extra deadly as they already come with +1 to hit within 24” range.

Fair enough, my model receives a twin linked HMG – and the claw would pass for a “Vehicle close combat weapon”. The HMG is 2RP + 1 for twin linking, the Vehicle close combat weapon is 1RP. Total cost of my weapons is 4RP.

The jet enginges on the back will serve to make the model a “Drop mecha”, depending on the chassis size this ability varies in cost. But small chassis mechas pay 2RP to receive the Drop Trooper rule. One should be aware that you can only have a maximum armor class of Medium armor on a Drop Mech.

With chassis, armor, weapons and my drop ability bought – we now take a look on the Vehicle equipment section. All vehicles come with a radio and may as such be used as spotters for friendly mortar teams or for vehicles firing AT rounds through buildings.

The vehicle equipment contains all kinds of gear, most of it situational, some of it always useful. Radiation shielding, vehicle camouflage, infrared sights, anti-zombie apparatus, sealed hull etc. Each comes with a description on the useful effects of the gear. Optical Range finders should be a given on any mecha with a main gun as it would receive +1 to hit with the AT gun. Machineguns do not benefit from that however. As my mecha does not have any need for any of the gear listed I sum up the total of the points and see what I got.

Small Chassis 1RP
Medium Armor 4RP
Twin Linked HMG 2+1 RP
Vehicle close combat weapon 1RP
Drop ability 2RP

A total of 11RP. And that’s how the mech building works.
So what is the point of including mechas and what are the perks of such a unit in the game?
Well, beside looking cool (even though I admit I love tanks as much as anyone) they first and foremost have 2 unique abilities. One being the vehicle close combat weapon and the other the drop ability. 

The vehicle close combat weapon is used as part of the vehicle movement – not during actual shooting phase. As long as you can move your mecha about it need only be base to base to punch  enemy vehicles with its weapon. 1 attack for each weapon, the strength is determined by the mech chassis size. Small chassis = Light AT class strength hit. You cannot hit infantry with these weapons though.

The Drop ability allows you to deploy an armored vehicle behind, or amidst enemy lines to spread havoc. Just remember that the Drop Trooper rule makes the mecha count as having moved when it enters, so you cannot fire any main guns, and secondary weapons receive -1 to hit.
Mechas are also unique in their armor penetration zones. Whilst vehicles have front/flank/rear armor  mechas only have “Front/Back” and have a 180 degrees Line of Sight. The fron/back arch is also determined by the 180 degrees that make up the fron and back of the mecha base. This makes the mecha somewhat harder to hit in the softer rear armor than it would be to hit a vehicle in the side armor.

Once hit, the opponent must also first roll on a chart to see what part of the mecha was hit, leg/arms/body. And if leg/arm – which leg/arm was hit? Admittedly the mechas are harder to take out of action as there is only a chance to hit a mecha body on the roll of 6-8 with 2D6. If hit your main fear would be the crew panicking and bailing out more often than the actual damage result. Crippling to results to arms and legs make up the majority of damage rolls on a mecha. Weapon arms may be blown off, legs shot away from beneath you or maybe just a scratch that make the weapon for on a roll of 4+ whenever you intend to use it and your leg propulsion systems would be reduced by 1 speed class.

While historical vehicles are locked to what weapons and armor they can have and the mecha can be custom built to suit your platoon and be tailored to fit your needs making for a more flexible unit than a historical vehicle. Mechas also come off slightly cheaper and more powerful compared to most historical vehicles of equal class.

One thing that is being debated at this point is the introduction of Soviet “Spider mechas”, mechas with multiple legs. The rules are described in doomsday , and in short they say that any penetration results resulting in arm damage should be counted towards the legs instead as the spider mechas have no arms but lots of legs. With each leg blown of the speed class is reduced by 1 and when only 3 legs remain the mecha topples over. And you don’t have to roll on the armor penetration results until you have 4 legs left.

The problem at this point is that the spider mecha rule has no cost attached to it, and the soviet mechas do seem to get it for free. While the legs may seem vulnerable enough a few weapons such as explosive charges are less useful against a mecha with 8 legs than against a mecha with 2 legs.
At least against 2 legs you have the chance of knocking it down with 1 attack, while a spider mecha may lose 1 leg and move away using the 7 that are left. The other thing is that flamethrowers attached on such a mecha could prove to be overly powerful and cheesy. Mechas as they are built now are dangerous foes when sporting a flamethrower – be it when they charge up front or drop behind you. But imagining a spider mecha that is almost unstoppable – will with very high certainty always reach your lines and BBQ your infantry – to have that special rule at no particular cost would be quite unthinkable.

This is discussed with the new smaller West Wind made spider mecha about to be released. If you are a kind enough player (and want to avoid long discussions) you will just keep to the Spider mech used along with the KS-1 Nayk Spider mecha profile until proper clarification around the spider mech rule has been released.

More pictures on the Titanic mecha conversion show to the right is made up of both Tiger Mecha parts and a Kryo mech. You can see more WIP and painted up pictures of it here: http://anatolisgameroom.blogspot.com/2010/08/konigstiger-mecha.html

Know your support options - UK

Last nation of this little series of guides to Secret of the Third Reich support options are the British. And they have some pretty cool stuff – especially after the Doomsday book release where you can find a split between the special forces that are “righteous” or try to defeat the enemy “by all means”. The split between MI-13 and the Temple makes the British unique as it is the only faction in this game that has two sub factions that allow you to theme your army around either good or “evil” if you want.

Starting with the core game support options:

British Steel, reliable heavy infantry. They were the first “heavy dudes” on the block to sport Packed LMG throughout the unit as standard equipment. The German Drop Troops may have the Drop ability but the British Steel have more bullets flying per soldier than the other heavy infantry in the core rulebook. At 6RP the cost is affordable looking at what you get. You can customize the unit with one Anti Mech rifle and  flamethrowers for all 5 for free.

If you want some blast templates you can upgrade them with Piat-D Light AT/Very Light HE weapons for 1RP for the entire unit. I play mine as pure long range support thus my unit comes with 4 Packed LMG and 1 anti mech rifle. They have Nerves of Steel which allows you to reroll failed cool checks caused by enemy fire – taking into account that these boys are Elite you get a high probability that they will stay in the fight unflinching if you take casualties.

Para Snipers, these guys have two drawbacks. The cost of 6RP is 2RP above regular sniper teams.  And you can’t field them at all if you already have included a regular sniper team in your platoon. Looking at the cost and what they bring along for those points, a couple of things stand out. They have the Deep Insertion rule meaning you can deploy them anywhere on the table outside of the enemy deployment zone, and they have those Very Light AT “Webley Sabot” pistols and radio equipment. The common use of snipers calls for camping in some tall building at the far back of your table with good line of sight. I can’t really think why I would like to put an expensive unit like this close to the enemy without supporting units to cover my ass – the use of Deep Insertion may be very situational in that sense. I can’t really recommend them as regular snipers are expensive enough.  Besides, the British have a whole slew of more cost effective support options that you might be interested in.

Battlemaster APC/Battlemaster Recon, is actually the only non combat vehicle in the entire game. And also the only transport with something that resembles vehicle armor – as it comes with Light Armor to the front making it durable enough to withstand both Light and Heavy Infantry class hits.

The Battlemaster and Recon variant both cost 3RP, as such they are quite affordable if you want to transport a unit of infantry or two into the thick of it quickly. I usually go for the Recon variant, it has 10 seats instead of 15, but that is enough to transport a full Rifle Squad and all other support option infantry. The Recon is also Speed Class IV instead of III which allows you to haul ass over the table if the terrain allows you to do so. The Battlemaster is a glorified transport, but it can serve its purpose well – better than regular transports that can be picked apart by regular Light Infantry weapons. The major drawback of this transport is that it’s “Medium” chassis which makes you unable to field them in squadrons of 1-3 / support slot. Spending more than one support option on these transports is not advice. Better use them for a specific unit to rush forward or act as mobile reserve. 


MI-13 and Temple characters and units
The core rulebook contains 3 “MI-13” characters, while the Doomsday book expands upon their organization with MI-13 commandos. The Doomsday book introduces a couple of “Temple” units. Important to know is that you can’t mix units and characters from these two organizations in one platoon.

Dr Lazarus
At 6RP Dr Lazarus should be considered on the expensive side as characters go, but he has one very good skill – “laying hands” which mean that all Down models within 4” of Lazarus stand up recovered at the start of next turn instead of having to roll a die.  A platoon joined by Lazarus also become Monster Hunters meaning that everything with Uncanny Resilience is treated as “Unarmored man” instead – severely punishing German players that did not equip their werewolf platoon with Light Personnel Armor.

He is also very difficult to kill with Light Infantry strength weapons and he ignores all Down results. Lazarus isn’t the most offense inclined character, his combat skills are not that great and he should be used to max out on his “Laying hands” ability at all time – keep him near something expensive and keep that unit alive.

Maxwell
The pet vampire of Dr Lazarus, which can be bought for 5RP if you include Lazarus in your platoon.  Maxwell is a regular vampire – with the exception of not being able to use his Deep Insertion and does not cause any Horror. He also has to stay within 12” of Dr Lazarus. Getting a Vampire for 5RP is a bargain – though it becomes a bit expensive as you have to invest 11RP into this character duo. It pretty much depends on what your platoon looks like. It’s a fun character duo, and adds a lot of character – and if you look at it from the other way around (from a Germans POV) you get a Vampire and Lazarus for 11RP instead of only a Vampire for 8RP AND you don’t have to use up any support option slots.

Ash
One huge advantage and one main weakness of this lady is that she can set terrain within 24” on fire but comes with no armor. While having the ability to get Heavy Personnel armor through one of her abilities you cannot use that protective ability and her fire attack in the same turn. She really needs to stay in cover behind friendly infantry to minimize the possibility to be shot at with Light Infantry class weapons. One hit and she’s dead. Snipers are her bane, she does not have “Thick Skull” a regular 4+ to wound will drop her dead.  At 8RP she is very expensive considering how frail she is. The setting things on fire ability is very useful against pesky Soviets in camo using Ranger special rule while standing in a forest. But if you can hit them with your fire, you are also in range of their massive SMG firepower!

Black Jack
The British equivalent to the US Sentinels – with the difference of actually having the extra armor in his profile making him harder to kill. Though he does not inspire friendly units with his presence the way US sentinels do. At 8RP it really comes down to adding “flavor” to your platoon. You don’t really need this character – but it can be cool to have one around. Both the original Cyborg looking model and the one people substitute with the most (Hellboy) are very cool to have on the table. 

If you get him, use him with his standard equipment (Webley Sabot). Better to hit one target hard than maybe hitting a few but doing no damage. His main purpose is close combat anyway as you won’t get your RP worth shooting any of his weapons. (And yes, I count myself amongst those that don't care if Hellboy would have been 3 years old in 1949).

Paddy Mayne
MI-13 commando character Paddy Mayne comes at 7RP and can only ever be included in your platoon if you have a unit of MI-13 commandos as well. That restriction makes him a bit harder and more rare to field. He has a few nice rules though. Instead of having monster hunters rule he instead inflicts damage easier against all models with “Horror” in their profile – this means he is more useful overall against “weird” support options than his regular “monster hunting” friends of the British intelligence service. Any unit he joins becomes Utterly fearless, and if you attach him to the MI-13 commandos you might use his “Operating behind enemy lines” special rule which allows them to enter the table from ANY edge you wish upon their activation! Drawback is as I said that you have to include the MI-13 commandos to be able to field him, and those two eat up a lot of points. But if could definitely be worth it if you intend to raid the back of the enemy table. Just make sure you don’t throw them away on some suicide mission.

MI-13 commandos
A very good support option. Though only Veteran, at 6RP they come with Deep Insertion, Ranger, Monster Hunters and Nerves of Steel. Explosives, assault rifles , Light Personnel armor, IR-tech and may be upgraded with a Piat-D which can fire 5” flamethrower blasts at the enemy! You can also swap some assault rifles for Corrigan Gut Guns, which are improved Shotguns that are RoF2, Heavy Infantry class strength and have an improved short range of 8” making it easier to hit anyone standing inside that range. At 6RP, 7RP with the Piat-D upgrade they are one of the best support options you can get in the British arsenal.

Mr Smythe
Evil counterpart to Dr Lazarus, and head of the “Temple”.  At 4RP Mr Smythe is affordable, he does not have that many skills that would make him useful against the enemy BUT he is mainly there to unlock the “good stuff” – Flesh Golems and Templar Assault Squads.  See him as a evil mastermind that brings his own retinue to the battlefield more than someone that goes on a killing spree on his own.  Unlocking the Temple support options so that they can be taken outside of the support option slot is quite valuable on its own.

Flesh Golem
With Smythe in your platoon you can include up to 2 of these without  having to spend any support option slots. They are only Light Personnel armor, but the Hard to Kill makes up for that to some extent. At 5RP they are neither cheap nor expensive, and with their Super Strength (Medium AT) attacks they are able to beat some sense into pretty much everything. However, the drawback of these lumbering piles of flesh is that they suffer from the same mindlessness as zombies.

You need either Mr Smythe or a Templar Assault Squad officer within command range from these beasts at the start of their activation or you won’t be able to activate them as normal – instead they will just move towards the nearest enemy model.

Templar Assault Squad
At 5RP, 6RP with a packed LMG these are strong contenders with the MI-13 commandos and as such are best compared with that particular unit.  Considering that Mr Smythe allows you to field as many Templar Assault squads as you can afford within your platoon organization limits they can really give you an elite platoon. The unit is Elite instead of Veteran and slightly cheaper than the MI-13 commandos.

They pretty much have the exact same equipment as the commandos – but instead of the Piat-D and meat decoys for zombies the Temple Assault Squad have “Choke grenades”. This is a once per game ability that is similar to grenade attacks but instead of killing the target unit lose its next activation and receive -2 penalties to close combat attacks – regardless of how many members of the target unit were under the template. They can also sneak further according to their ”living shadows” rule.  I like them a lot and the MI-13 and Templar Assault squad take turns to serve in my UK platoon.

Battle Chaplain, this is a upgrade for your command squad medic. For just 1 RP you get +1 Cool and monster hunters to the unit he joins. Against zombies and anything with Uncanny resilience you also get the Combat Monster rule. Not much more to say about this upgrade, it is worth it. You still retain the Medic ability but with improved cool and a few nice abilities to go along with this kit.


Major Clive Goddard, never used him and sadly I probably never will. The RP cost is just way out there to be honest. 8RP for 1 single British steel trooper with combat monster.  Sorry….

WASP, now this is a unique mecha due to its Vertical Takeoff and landing “VTOL” special rule. While other units and mechas may drop onto the battlefield only the US Jet Rangers and the British WASP mecha can use their jetpacks after deployment. The WASP can either walk around on the ground or hover above ground and fire from above, you can choose which mode the mecha will use at the start of each turn but be aware that it will stay in that mode for the remainder of the turn. If you hover above ground you will be a clearly visible target. Using the WASP will need great timing and ability to be easily baited into crazy situations by enemy movement. The mecha is Very Light armor, meaning even Light Infantry strength hits can destroy it.

As for historical vehicles, the most popular seem to be the Bren carrier armed with a flamethrower to be used as a throw-away one hit wonder. Among the tanks the Cromwell and Centaur seem to be popular choices and I have a duo of Cromwells myself. Your standard mid range tank, with Medium AT gun, LMG and Medium armor to the front it is more similar to the Sherman and the Soviet T-34/76 than the T-34/85 and German PzIV. Affordable and good enough if you like to include something historical in your platoon.

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This concludes the support option guides for the four major nations of Secrets of the Third Reich. Next week I will write a final segment completely focused on mechas and the vehicle design rules (VDR).

Know your support options - Soviet

The Soviet support options are mostly dominated by new additions from the Doomsday book. Not to say that what they had in the core rulebook was bad. The Soviets have a bunch of very good and affordable characters to pick from.




Vasily Zaytsev
My favorite Soviet character, one of two sniper character in the Soviet arsenal.  Vasily comes with your regular sniper equipment, but what really makes him shine are his “Killer without equal” rule. And if you would know me, I’m a person who can manage to roll 10 dice and end up with 8 dice showing results ranging from 1-3. This becomes a problem with “one shot” weapons and units. The “Killer without equal” special rule makes Vasily hit everything and everyone (including Chameleon snipers!) on a die roll of 2+.

You will most likely hit something each time you use him AND while you are at it do take advantage of his special rule and pick off enemy models in hard cover and important units like the Chameleon Snipers. While it may be fun to shoot down regular infantry part of a fire team that is not what you should use this character for. Use him to kill high priority targets and expensive models/units and he will have earned his RP worth. The second benefit of Vasily is his inspiring presence special rule that gives +2 to cool to any unit within a 10” radius! Very good if you like to support Vasilys location with additional troops.

Nika
The other sniper character, same RP cost as Vasily. She is more of a solo character, with her Deep Insertion rule and explosive charges she can pose a real threat to enemy armor. She is also Utterly fearless so no chance to inflict Suppressing fire against her. Other than that she works just like any other sniper, and to really benefit from that role she should be put in hard cover and at least 4” above ground level to get all the bonuses to hit that a scoped sniper rifle give you. The explosives and deep insertion make her a nice addition, but if I have to choose I always end up picking Vasily – mainly due to my crap die rolls.

Hammer & Sickle
A crazy good duo, for the same cost of a Sentinel or a Vampire. Sickle replaces the platoon commissar, and Hammer acts as his bodyguard. If you want to turn your command squad into a monster for 8RP this is the choice for you. Hammer is hard to kill, has a packed LMG and super strength. Sickle adds “utterly fearless” to all units within 10” and comes with a Cool of 10. You might be tempted to run havoc on the enemy with such a beefed up unit but as with everything in the SoTR universe – one bullet can mean death. And such a juicy target will attract the attention of a lot of enemy firepower. Try to use the benefit of the “utterly fearless” radius and don’t send Hammer away to bash tanks on his own in the open unless the tradeoff in points justifies such sacrifice.

Zombie hordes
Soviet platoons may field zombie hordes just like the Germans, with zombie bomb upgrades (medium AT blast).  They are identical to German zombies except for the lack of a “pinger” which makes it impossible to control their movement. Still a good meat wall – but an enemy might walk by them with a mecha and attract their attention away from the soft targets. But just like German zombies, they will annoy the hell out of your enemy as they soak up a lot of Light Infantry classed firepower.

Urzine
Just like with any other situational unit it is hard to fork over 8RP on this large angry werebear.  It can punch vehicles to pieces, and with hard to kill rule revised it has become a bit more durable. It is still easy to hit though and very hard to use – you will be too cautious to risk it and the enemy will just stay away from it as much as possible with his vehicles. The difference between the Vampire and the Urzine is that the vampire could turn into mistform and be somewhat invulnerable (except for Medium AT+ blast and flamethrowers). The Urzine is large enough to attract a lot of attention making any daring move a gamble against the bad odds. From a fluff perspective, the Urzine is a cool unit, though from a gamer perspective it is just too expensive to be fielded in a regular 50RP platoon. Especially considering what other support options you can squeeze in for those points.

Siberian Subhumans
The posterboys of Soviet support options.  Ridiculously cheap for what they bring in terms of firepower and special rules.  Being “Tough” they don’t suffer the same way from the monster hunter threat and enemy flamethrowers as German werewolf units do. They are also fast, come with SMG’s and upgrades to make them multipurpose.

I would however advice on either keeping them clean and stay at the extremely affordable basic cost of 4RP or upgrade one or two with flamethrowers up to 6RP. This is a unit that is supposed to move around and get close to enemy units – adding a RPG reduces them to a static role in which other less specialized units may do just as good of a job. 

Samokhin Mech Ace pilot
Only available in a Mech platoon, my buddy Millmir have played with him and it makes the command mecha a lot more resilient as you can choose whether or not to bail with your crew when the armor gets penetrated by enemy AT fire.  Having Samokhin around for those 5RP is very valuable for other reasons as well. You get +1 on the penetration roll against enemy armor, all mech crews in your platoon receive +1 to their cool and the mecha Samokhin is commanding has 1 speed class above usual. Great and useful character all-round.

Koschei the Deathless
I have only played with this character during the beta testing phase. This is another one of those “cool story” but maybe not that good for a 50RP-game character. Pro’s, you cannot kill him and all Down results are ignored, Goner results turn into Down results. In order to kill him you have to kill the model carrying the “egg” which – if the opponent is clever – is placed with a loner somewhere at the far back of the battlefield, ideally with a sniper or a medic camping inside a building. The downside with Koschei is that he doesn’t have much to him besides being invulnerable. He can mess you up a little if he comes into close combat – but as he lacks armor he is easy to inflict Goner results against so he is easily neutralized. If you have 5RP to spare Vasily, a unit of Siberians or a light mecha is a better and more useful choice.

Guards armored squad
Excellent unit, you can go balls to the walls with the upgrades but I would advice on keeping a balance of RP spent on a single unit and the rest of the platoon. At the basic cost of 6RP they are great, with upgrades up to 8RP they are worth it. 10RP and you start to put a lot of eggs in the same basket but it’s your choice. If you uprade skip the RPG and go straight for the Grenade Launchers which have 36” range and no “move or fire” or “long range” penalties to them. Remember that grenade launchers scatter when you miss your target – making it highly probably of  still hitting something if the target model is standing next to a lot of friends.

Siberian Brute Squad
They basically do what Siberian Subhumans are supposed to do – get in close and personal. Their weapons are massive shotgun-like guns that fire a Flamethrower template sized punch. The blast is not very powerful, only light infantry, but you will cover and automatically hit a lot of models with each attack. The difference from flamethrowers is that you won’t automatically hit everyone in a small enclosed space like a room in a building. Firing at models in a building from the outside will only hit those models standing within LoS. Their close combat weapons have two modes, either regular attacks at Heavy Infantry strength, or a single Light AT slap. You decide when to use which. Overall a very good support unit – if you have a tendency to rush your Siberian Subhumans into close combat you should try these guys.

Historical vehicles
Just as with the US, German (next week UK) platoon suggestions I would advice on going for a medium ranged tank that is cost effective. You always have to consider that you will only ever get to fire the main gun on a tank 6 times per game in perfect conditions. Often even less. Thus machineguns really become important as you will always be able to fire them after having moved at full speed.

The Soviet's have a nice range of tanks, the most popular and iconic would be the T-34/76 & 85.  Those two would probably be the best option in a 50RP platoon. Medium front armor is durable enough and AT gun/MG mix is good. At 10-12RP the T34 play in the same league as the Sherman, Cromwell and PzIV tank. All decent medium range tanks that are cost effective.

You could opt for a SU-85 or something like that as well of course, they are pretty cool as well - but as getting immobilized isn't rare you may want to have a tank with a turret for obvious reasons.





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I will talk about the Spider Mecha after I write about the UK support options. There will be a standalone fifth part completely focused on mechas, mechbuilding, tactics and special rules.

Know your support options - Germany

Since I have some painting related stuff coming up later this week I thought I would post part 2 of “Know your support options” a few days earlier than I had planned.

This week, Germany – the  nation with the most weird units in Secrets of the Third Reich. This has to a certain degree been balanced with the Doomsday book, allowing the other nations to  catch up a little.

Still, the Germans have a wide variety of very good support options and a couple of interesting characters as well. German Grenadier squads which form the backbone of any German platoon can be customized rather well - which does not make the German player depend on support options to get the job done to the same extent as the platoons of the US. But adding support options with specific battlefield roles allow you to customize your platoon options quite a lot so that the whole platoon works together in a way that the other platoons can't compete to the same extent.

Just as with my US guide, I only write about the units and characters that I have had the chance to play with to this date.

Wolfgang Faust
A cheap character that is often purchased to boost your platoon initiative to 10 as long as he’s alive.  Almost always giving you the edge over the situation and allowing you to go first each turn.  He comes with one other very good skill and one penalty. First, he’s a “Wolf runner”, a genetically modified human that is in between human and werewolf shape. This gives him the ability to field Werewolves and Wolf Runner units as part of your regular platoon- they will not take up any support option slots!  The penalty of Wolfgang Faust is that you can never field anything above Light Vehicle armor starting on the table. You can get Medium armored Drop mechas but there is no way of getting heavier stuff.

Often Light/Medium armored vehisles are enough though and all in all, having those Werewolf units as part of your platoon gives you the option to field even more standard support options which can turn a Wolfgang Faust platoon into a very tough force. A tip, if you play the WF platoon, buy the Light Personnel armor upgrade, since your werewolves and wolf runners will receive the comfort of at least having some protection against fire and monster hunters should you run into any of those.

Werewolves
They come in packs of 3 and are loners, so you get 3 activations for 5RP. Activations are always valuable in SoTR as much of the game boils down to activating the right unit at the right time, and often trying to “push” your good activations towards the end of the turn where they can move about freely when everything on the opposing side has activated. They are superb in close combat, they will tear through unit after unit given a bit of luck. The first unit which comes into contact with a werewolf is dead meat. What a player can do is try to flee away from your charge leaving your werewolf standing in the open and getting shot to pieces. One of the more difficult to play assault units in the game since they completely lack ranged weapons. They are however worth including for the 3 activations, and to scare the enemy throughout the game running around along the flanks.

Just avoid getting caught by a flamethrower inside a forest!

The Doomsday book has the “Blitzhund” upgrade for Werewolf packs, paying 1 additional RP you will get a faster and more agile Werewolf – and it is totally worth it as very very few units will have movement ranges that can take them safely out of the Blitzhunds charge range.

Wolf Runners
One of my favorite units in the game. They are not as good in close combat as the werewolf pack but they are a 5 man unit with SMG weapons and a few nice upgrades. They are as tough to kill as the werewolves and fast enough to outrun regular units if they need to. I usually use them to race ahead  and contest some good terrain with them until the rest of the troops arrive. They are good at suppressing the enemy with their 5 SMG’s and RoF 10+ the enemy receive -6 to their cool checks!

Frau Tear
At 16RP this lady is EXPENSIVE!  Taking a close look at what you get: 1 Vampire commander (8RP), Uncanny Resilient and Utterly Fearless troops! No real need to upgrade the platoon with morale since you won’t need it for anything else than throwing back grenades (which does not happen often enough to justify more points put into non units). It might however be a good idea to buy Light Personnel armor, just like with the Wolfgang Faust platoon, fire is absolutely brutal against Uncanny Resilience.  You don’t have to fear anything else than monster hunters and fire.  I very rarely play with Frau Tear, simply because 16RP is a LOT of points in SoTR and you will get a good few units for that amount of points. Still if you like to play a vampire themed force of utter evil – this is it.

Vampire
At 8RP the Vampire is a very expensive and situational asset. You won’t often cash in those 8RP in kills. And while the vampire can move around in mist form and deep insert making most opponents a bit nervous – the vampire is still one lonely model. You should never let him slip into a vehicle with more than 2-3 crewmen as they will gang up on him and kick his ass.

He is good at hunting down lone platoon support units like HMG teams, Mortar teams,  Chameleon Snipers etc, he might even have a fair chance to rip apart a lonely fire team. The problem is of course, once again, Fire and Monster Hunters special rule. Fire can kill him even when in mistform – and he dies very easily as he’s treated as an “unarmored” soldier in that case. A vampire is very hard to play with, you will be tempted to use him in situations that might be too hard for this guy, it takes some practice to learn what targets are good pickings. If you can spare the points you can add a Vampire, but there are better and more flexible support options for less RP out there. Still a cool looking unit and battlefield presence though.

Drop Troopers
A favorite among German Players, one of the best support options in the game for a couple of reasons but mainly because their ability to drop down and unleash hell with flamethrowers. Their Heavy personell armor protects them from a lot, but don’t leave them in the open. One should also consider what purpose they should will in each battle as their unit upgrades make this unit very versatile.

You can upgrade the unit with Anti Tank rifles, Packed LMG’s and Flamethrowers – you also have to chose between Assault Rifles and SMG’s.  If you want to use them as an ultra aggressive punch in the back of the enemy line then go for flamethrowers and SMG’s which will allow you to hit stuff easier. If you plan to use them as a tough fire support unit then arm them with assault rifles, packed lmg and anti tank rifles and really make sure to use those “no range penalty” weapons as much as possible. They come at 6RP with a lot of configurations for free, those are always well invested RP. You can also upgrade one guy with a twin linked panzerfaust for an additional RP if you want to turn them into heavy hitters against vehicles.

Zombie hordes
A very cheap unit that can annoy the hell out of the enemy. Especially if you use them as a stretched out meat shield. Place your regular troops behind the advancing zombies and enemy Light Infantry class weapons will almost always have to fire at the tough zombies – which stand back up at the start of each turn as part of their special rule. Enemy units will waste a lot of fire to wear down the zombie horde, Down isn’t good enough for them.

German zombies also come with a Pinger controller allowing you some control over zombies within a 6” radius. This can be extra useful is you have included zombie bombs and don’t want them to wander off aimlessly. Zombies are really just a defensive unit, look at them as something of a minefield – they will slow the enemy down but they won’t win you the battle.

Sturmzombies
Now we’re talking, these zombies are limited to 10/unit. They can also be upgraded with a more powerful zombie bomb as well (Heavy AT!). They are not as braindead as the regular zombies and have better movement and allows you to control them like any other infantry. They do lack ranged weapons however. They are also more expensive than their less enhanced brethren. 

Sturmzombies are great at punching enemy armor to pieces and rip units up in close combat. If you can get them in, little will stop them. You can bet on the enemy becoming distracted by the presence of Sturmzombies as they have to be dealt with quickly. If you are not careful they will be destroyed by massed fire from multiple units.  A good idea might be to have them in reserve around an objective you know that the enemy has to claim.

Drohne
Another favorite of mine. 3 brains in a jar, with twin linked Packed LMG and the ability to hover over terrain  during their movement. Their combined firepower is good, and the twin linked guns make you hit a bit easier. They are a little fragile with their low numbers, things start to go downhill pretty much as soon as you lose 1 Drohne. Bulletproof is a very good ability though, and if you can force yourself to use Suppressing fire instead of trying to kill stuff they are good at that too, combined cool check penalty is -4 which is often good enough to suppress Green and Veteran troops.
Their drawback is the “Tweaker” rule, making you roll a D6 every time you issue orders to this unit. On a roll of 1 the unit shuts down for the remainder of the turn. As such I never give them orders. At 5RP they are a very nice addition to almost any German platoon if you can spare the support slot.

The Von X children
Doomsday also includes rules for Hans the hunter, and Gretel & Ilsa. Just as with Frau Tear they are more of “adding character” than really being “good” additions to your platoon as they are all expensive and hard to play with.

Gretel & Ilsa can only be fielded with a Sturmzombie platoon which is a bit hard to play. The girls go for 14RP and each can take control of a Sturmzombie unit boosting it with their own unique special rules. However, there is one slight problem. Gretel is the Platoon commander and though both girls have super strength Gretel is completely unprotected, she has only Thick Skull (restraining myself from making any blonde jokes).  As such she is very easy to kill. Ilsa is Bulletproof and can take a hit or two without having to worry too much about it and is as such better suited to run along with their Sturmzombie friends. I think the Sturmzombie platoon led by Gretel and Ilsa is one if not the hardest platoon to play.

Hans the Hunter, at 7RP he is quite expensive for what he brings to the table looking at his rules. He is a LOT of fun to have around though. Small chassis vehicles can be harpooned and dragged by Hans. Medium+ vehicles can drag Hans if he Harpoons them which can make for some hilarious and cinematic game sequences. He can be fielded with any German platoon, but can never join any unit. He can be upgraded with “pet” Bomber zombies of the Sturmzombie kind if you like.

I can’t wholeheartedly recommend using him – but he does add a lot of flavor, and SoTR is very often about just having a great time and experiencing WTF moments with your friends as crazy stuff happen. Having Hans around will increase the amount of those moment.

Historical Vehicles
Germany has a wide array of heavy hitting tanks. I would recommend going for the PzIV for your regular 50-55RP games since it is affordable enough to include, packs a great gun and machine guns to match the Sherman tank. If you want to go balls to the walls you can always include a Panther or Tiger tank, though in 50-55RP games these expensive vehicles with very heavy guns rarely get to do much tank killing. Even a PzIII could do the trick if you make sure not to expose the paper thin side and rear armor.

This concludes the German guide, next week I’ll take a look at the Soviet support options.