The Secret Identity

[Theblackdog]

We tried this in my latest game with my brother, but the game ended too early for the effects to really appear.

Basically, the Secret Identity rule allows heroes to start the game "disguised" as more generic units. A regular Hero can only be disguised as a trooper, but if you have heroes with other special abilities (piloting, mechanikal or medikal abilities, etc.) they can disguise themselves as regular minifigs with those abilities. A Hero who is disguised has the stats of whatever he is pretending to be (e.g. Heroes disguised as regular soldiers have the stats of regular soldiers) until he decides to assume his real identity, which he can do at any time during any player's turn. Also, disguised Heroes don't make other Heroes cranky. On the downside, they're dangerously vulnerable because their armor and abilities are lowered to the level of a normal minifig and they're unable to call on other units to RedShirt for them.

You need to ensure that this rule is used fairly -- players must choose which minifigs are their disguised heroes at the beginning of the game rather than choosing one halfway through based on tactical convenience. For more mature players, an honor code will suffice for this, but with younger ones you might want to take additional precautions.

[MasterEcabob]

This is basically what I'm using for the terrorists in Operation Weasel, except it's a bit easier to do since I know exactly who's who.

[tahthing]

theres not much advantage other than your oponent not knowing what to shoot at.

[Theblackdog]

theres not much advantage other than your oponent not knowing what to shoot at.

The test battle for this (which is now up in reports from the field) was only 3 turns long, but even there my brother managed to get his Champion dangerously close to my base using this rule. Also, the "no crankiness" clause means that you can use this rule to have multiple heroes without the annoyance of having their stats reduced. Once your first hero is destroyed, you activate your second hero, and so on.
To prevent misuse of this rule, though, I'm going to add that your hero immediately loses his Secret Identity if an opponent figures out who he is. Opponents may only make one guess per turn.

[tahthing]

or you add chivary(or how ever you spell it) like the rainbow knights then you get heros without crankyness.
thought yer being able to move your hero right up to there base while they focus on more frentening targets like tanks.

[warman45]

thought yer being able to move your hero right up to there base while they focus on more frentening targets like tanks.

i would be much more worried about a hero who could make a feat to destroy my entire base then a tank that will probably shoot itself.

[tahthing]

thought yer being able to move your hero right up to there base while they focus on more frentening targets like tanks.

i would be much more worried about a hero who could make a feat to destroy my entire base then a tank that will probably shoot itself.

percisely but if this hero was descised as a normal minifigure then you would shot the tank first, unless you're the highly suspicus kind in which cause you fire at all infantry first.

[lrdofbricks]

thought yer being able to move your hero right up to there base while they focus on more frentening targets like tanks.

i would be much more worried about a hero who could make a feat to destroy my entire base then a tank that will probably shoot itself.

percisely but if this hero was descised as a normal minifigure then you would shot the tank first, unless you're the highly suspicus kind in which cause you fire at all infantry first.

yaah the problems with that is my friends and me have brikwars that are so bloody he would be killed anyway. heroes have to rely on their armor to survive ro their scrap. especially in battles where more than 50 units can die in one turn (500+ men on 1 battle= pwnage)

[MasterEcabob]

I suppose it could also be pretty effective if you didn't tell anyone else about the rule and wrote down which minifig your hero was on the bottom of an index card or something.

Then when your opponent is gloating about how they've destroyed all your heroes you could just yell "I activate my trap card!" and reveal your hero's secret identity.

[Theblackdog]

Also remember that you can hide weapons, equipment, etc. under the hero's disguise. Imagine ignoring a force of enemy CC grunts because they're out of range only to discover that one of them is actually a hero with a bazooka.

[kidko]

Then when your opponent is gloating about how they've destroyed all your heroes you could just yell "I activate my trap card!" and reveal your hero's secret identity.

But, serious now, this is a good idea. I'm gonna have to try it sometime.

[pesgores]

Good rule, but won't work for me, since I mostly play Solo.

[Cpl. Halan]

do they have to be heroes? otherwise, you could ignore the CC grunts and discover they all have bazookas

[tahthing]

this is better for if you have a spy hero but you don't want to give him/her stealth since they work in disguise

[Theblackdog]

do they have to be heroes? otherwise, you could ignore the CC grunts and discover they all have bazookas

I suppose there could be a "secret agent" unit who performs a similar function for less cost, but if you want to disguise bazooka troops as CC grunts then either way you should pay more in CP or whatever (if anything) you use to keep the sizes of your armies constant.