With pre-painted miniatures, a great setting, and some really cool characters loaded with some great equipment it’s pretty hard not to be impressed with Tannhauser at first blush and on the surface it seems that the game is a can’t miss proposition; it’s an action game first and foremost and it doesn’t necessarily try to be anything more than that in terms of strategic depth or complexity. However, I found that the game falls short in a couple of key areas that may very well be addressed as the game system (did I mention that there’s already a horde of expansions planned for it?) develops over time with new characters, equipment, and scenarios.

My biggest frustration with the game is really that it sits somewhat uncomfortably between a simple skirmish game like Heroscape and a more detailed tactical game like Squad Leader--consider the difference between Serious Sam and X-COM if you’re more electronically inclined. I’d really rather the game went one way or the other, offering a slam-bang, no-holds-barred action extravaganza with really stripped down, meat-and-potatoes rules or a more meticulous, specific game that allows for more complex tactics, weapon effects, and decisions. For example, the way smoke grenades are handled in the game is really bizarre; it’s easy enough to toss one and figure out who’s affected, but the actual effect winds up abstracted to the point of nonsense. They simply provide a negative penalty to certain stats but somehow a unit that is fired upon from outside of the smoke gets the penalty. Last time I checked, you popped a smoke grenade for cover, not to help yourself get shot.

There’s a part of me that feels like I’m being hard on Tannhauser, criticizing it as much for what I think it should be versus what it is, yet I think the game’s setting has so much potential that I hope it develops more in the future. I believe that the game as shipped is complete (unlike, say, BattleLore, for instance) and provides plenty of fun and interest as it stands, but it’s kind of like watching a movie that you want to be better than it actually is. It’s not exactly a waste of potential or talent, but I think there’s more that could be done with the game than what is described in the rulebook. FPS games are often criticized for their shallowness, repetition, or simplistic gameplay and ironically enough, Tannhauser sort of falls victim to some of those complaints.

I do have to say though, turning the tide back toward the positive, that the game is very cinematic and offers some pretty damn exciting moments. In my last game, German Officer Guy was the last man standing against Big Machine Guy, Native American Bomb Lady, and The Night Vision Goggles Kid. The hallway was smoked out by grenades. The German guy threw the crystal skull and annihilated the guy with the goggles. He took them, grabbed a flash gun (sort of a fancy laser machine gun, I guess) and hosed down the hallway getting a couple of lucky shots in and won the game single-handedly. Sure, it was a Capture the Flag game but killing the other player’s characters was victory enough for me.

Tannhauser is a fun game, don’t get me wrong. If you dig FPS games, faux-Nazi mysticism, or miniatures-based games then you’re going to get your money’s worth out of it and there’s definitely a big bonus that you can play 2-10 players with comfort- and within 90 minutes to boot. The 2-player game is probably the best overall experience since it affords the most tactical control but with more players there’s an opportunity for collusion and cooperation. Or you can just go all-out and try to kill the crap out of each other. And hell, the system is flexible enough that you could theoretically make your own mods for it. Except in the board gaming world, we call ‘em “variants.”

Questions or comments for Michael? Send them along to gameshark.feedback@yahoo.com .

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