In what is possibly one of the latest follow-ups I have ever done, today I'll be talking about the 3rd edition releases for Soldiers of Fortune. These tie in with
their older stuff and above all add their objective deck to the game with a few new choice options.
Deathstroke
Deathstroke has a
lot of text on his card so this will be a bit of a long one, but he does a lot. He's normally a fairly standard Free Agent (Unknown, Rival Batman) but can choose to become a Leader for SoF through the Contractor rule which then also adds Assassin 2 to all your Veterans (most of the crew). He is Assassin 3 and Veteran himself as well, meaning he plays very nicely with not only the SoF deck but also any other deck while being a great beater. Exploit the Weakness is a rule unique to him and makes it so whenever any friendly model with Assassin makes an attack within 8" (which includes himself) the enemy Effort Limit is reduced by 1. This is really good because it reduces how much they can shut you down and then increases your damage output at the same time. Technically it also affects Dodge too which is really nice with the high powered guns SoF have access to. Defensively Willpower 8 and Endurance 9 with his Defense of 5 means he takes a beating like a champ, while also having Kevlar Vest to reduce damage, Stealth to restrict when he's seen and Martial Artist to ignore Outnumber. He is also quite fast with 10" movement and Acrobat, but he also makes a free move at the start of the game from Scout. His 60mm base is awkward for placement, but he can semi-reliably get into most spots to do what he wants to do. On that note, what he wants to do is kill enemy models and he does that very well. Attack 5 and Reinforced Gloves on the card don't appear to do anything with his Weapon Master, but he also has Arsenal to attach 2 weapon upgrades after deployment so he can tailor his loadout to the enemy crew. His weapon upgrades are for 2 slots, Back and Hands, and he can take one of each. For the Back there is the Combat Bo and Modified Assault Gun options, while Hands have the Hunting Knives, Bastard Sword and Automatic Guns as options.
Hunting Knives give Combo:Hunting Knives and the Hunting Knives profile. They're blood/stun with Sharp and Overwhelming meaning they're hard to block but not all that great in general, and compared to the Bastard Sword even Combo doesn't really make up for the difference.
Bastard Sword gives Devastating Blow and the sword itself, which is 2 blood with Sharp and Devastating for some insane melee damage. He rolls 7 dice, 5 of which are at +1 to hit and the other 2 at 2+ with rerolls if you choose to use Devastating Blow (3+ otherwise which is still amazing) so he can quite easily destroy most things he touches.
Automatic Guns are fairly self-explanatory with their profile, but they have RoF4 instead of the usual RoF3 (cause there's 2 of them). It also gives Instinctive Shooting which is a bit wasted on these but is absolutely brutal on the beam from his Bo Staff so that is the one interaction I would take the guns in.
Modified Assault Gun is an amazing gun profile and in most cases this is the Back option I'm taking. It gives Good Aim but also a 2 blood, RoF and Ammo 3 gun with Medium Range, Assault and Red Dot so it's great for shooting before you can get into range for combat or just to mow down low defence models from afar.
Combat Bo is my favourite from a theme point of view but it suffers compared to other options. The Bo itself is his most consistently hitting weapon with Handy and it also has Reach, but it only does double stun so the Bastard Sword is often a better option just because it puts things down and they don't get back up. It also gives Electric Storm (situational, but still not great) and a one use Energy Beam weapon that's Short Range, Beam and Devastating with 3 blood damage on it. This shot alone can kill most things (9 blood if all 3 dice hit, but then it also has Bleed 2 for a potential 13 blood total if you double crit) but it still isn't a huge gain over just taking the Assault Gun.
Objective
Deathstroke's objective is a huge 4VP Violence objective that you have to remove the highest cost enemy model as a casualty to score. The downside is the model that scores it then also has to be removed from play, so if possible score it with your harder hitting henchmen (chainsaw prisoner, any SoF gun) or just finish them off with someone to score the VP instead of losing a big hitter mid-game. This is where the Bo for Deathstroke comes in handy because he can KO things easier than most and then cheap goons can finish them off while they're on the ground.
Thomas Wayne Batman
Batman in a Soldiers of Fortune crew? This is from City of Bane in Tom King's Batman run, and the rules here are very similar to the older Batman crew version. It's the exact same statline but on a 40mm base, and with Instinctive Shooting replaced by Precise Blow (which is really nice on this Batman). His base profile comes with an Amazon's Sword for a 2 blood melee attack with Magic and Sharp, meaning he can choose to either KO or flat out kill models in combat (something he's pretty good at doing given his stats) but he can replace it with his guns for $300 Funding. This option gives him Rapid Fire as well which is probably slightly weaker than Precise Blow in most cases, as the guns have Assault at RoF4 so cancelling the -1 to hit and also rerolling the Strength Die is huge. Blood/Stun damage on the guns means he's less reliably killing or KOing things, and they're short ranged (although Light!) but he puts out good damage regardless with them and I personally prefer them over the sword.
In general Batman is a pretty costly Sidekick and doesn't bring his own objective so he cuts into the effectiveness of the crew unless he's the Boss. As a Boss he has an interesting place though and fits well into the SoF stable even though he might not be the standout best of them.
Reinforcement Pack- Malicia and Infiltrate Op
These 2 are high cost Henchmen but both are very good. I wouldn't always take both because of their high cost, but in crews with the cheaper Leaders (DKR Bane, Scarecrow and Arkham Knight) they're easy additions because of their effectiveness. It's also important to note that neither have Elite tags on them so they can both be slotted in without any specific options having to be taken otherwise. They're also both Veteran which while being standard in SoF has a few synergies with other things (Bird and Deathstroke mainly)
Malicia is really just a tank and hard to put down. She's a stun damage beater with Reinforced Gloves, and although she's attack 3 she has easy access to Venom and Titan to buff her up a lot more and put out the hurt (she comes with a Venom to start as well). Her defences aren't fantastic but Medium Armour and Venom Enrage for Invulnerability more than make up for that, as well as the fact she exists in the same faction as the Militia Medic. She won't be going down without a concentrated effort (or Anti-Tank weaponry) and this is a big positive for her. I personally would use Malicia to hunt runners and Henchmen that are more likely to score VP because she is good enough to KO most henchmen fairly reliably and can also move 16" in a turn with Audacity. If she doesn't need to hit then she can just use that movement to put markers out herself, and the board control she has is very good
Infiltrate Op is hands down the most useful model in SoF. She brings the "Hidden Radio package" I love so much, but is also insanely tough to put down and has a ton of other tricks to play around with at the same time. I've already noted the Hidden/Radio combo for ridiculously easy marker dropping wherever you want on the table, but she is also Defence 5 with Master of Stealth so not an easy model to take out in any regard. Hacking plays into the marker game as well making her role clearly defined, plus she has a pretty great gun in the Light Assault Carbine if she needs to scare off threats. Assault and Red Dot are a great combo, and a RoF4 gun with Medium Range is always nice even if the damage is only a single blood. It chips away at enemies well enough, and with 3 ammo she can shoot most of the game for just $300. Always take Infiltrate Op, she's amazing.
SoF Plots
The 4 Plots for SoF are mostly based around having models and/or Suspects in specific parts of the board, and 2/4 trigger off of Menace objectives. The 2 Menace plots require you to have either more models within 4" of suspects than your opponent (easily doable with the movement, damage and Hacking available in SoF) for the benefit of a free piece of equipment immediately put on one model or your opponent has to have 2 or less models within 4" of your deployment zone which enables you to reduce a single enemy attack roll by one dice each turn. Secure Supplies (the first one mentioned) is far and away the better option here and I would tend to leave Threat Control at home because it really isn't hard to play around if an opponent wants to deny it. Their other 2 plots are Triangulation, needing Control objectives and to have 3 Suspects fit under an explosive template at the end of a round, and Enhanced Soldiers needing Violence objectives and more enemy models damaged or removed as casualty than yours. Both are relatively easy to achieve and play into SoF pretty well, and their bonuses are great too. Triangulation lets you move a friendly Veteran when an enemy moves into 4" of one of your Suspects once per turn, while Enhanced Soldiers can add the Overdrive objective into your hand for free at the end of every turn, which is really great for the potential it can give (free Doses or just points). I would take Triangulation and Secure Supplies (and make sure the deck is built towards them) and try and fit Enhanced Soldiers as well if the deck allows it but take generic Plots otherwise to reach 4.
SoF Objectives
SoF objectives can loosely be described as board control in a way most other crews can't. Their Control objectives are all excellent as are the Violence (Triangulation and Enhanced Soldiers go with these nicely) and while the Threat objectives are less numerous they're also quite good. I would start a SoF deck with Cyber Attack, Global Offensive, Black Ops, Ground War, Domination and Search and Destroy as the core, plus adding in whatever else to taste. Flanking and Stake Your Claim both fit very nicely as do Catch a Bullet and They Must Know Pain (and if you notice this is almost exactly 20 cards listed, that's intentional- it's how I would run most SoF crew decks outside of Scarecrow just by changing out the last 2 options).
