Batman Miniatures Game - 200 Rep Game Report

We played another 200 reputation game of Batman Miniature Game last week. Brad chose to run his TV Arrow and Huntress duo against my crew of Arkham Origins Bane, Ted Hunter, Dallas and Smash w/ a Titan dose.

Sadly the photos I had taken for this game got deleted. My riveting text description will have to suffice.

We rolled the Skirmish scenario and set up our sewers, lamps and objectives. I deployed first, putting Ted on the West, Dallas on the East and Bane & Smash together in the centre. The middle of the board was cluttered with lampposts, but there were only two sewer markers on the table. The low number of sewers would make them nearly useless so I was able to ignore them and make the heroes come to me.

I drew initiative first and had Dallas move up the East side. He was able to solve his riddle for 2 victory points but was then promptly taken out by Arrow in second round of play. The early loss of my best gun was disheartening but I tried not to let it deter me.

Smash and Bane move up the street in the centre of board. The Titan container I had placed was around the corner of the building so I sent Smash there. Although he was in the light and a viable target for Arrow, Smash was able to pick up some VPs from it for a turn or two.

Ted moved up to an enemy riddle objective and failed to solve it (losing me 1VP). Not immediately needed I moved him back a bit to pick up some VPs on a nearby ammo objective. Huntress and Bane were staring each other down, so I waited to who would blink first. Bane's 'large' evened up her 'acrobat', so when she elected to stay put I knew it was time to strike.

Arrow continued firing from the rooftops. He caused two blood damage to Bane who charged out from behind the bus and headed for Huntress. Landing a lethal blow Huntress suffered several stun markers and got knocked down.  Smash moved toward the fray, having popped a Titan dose but was unable to move far enough to join the combat.

Seeing that Arrow was running low on ammo, Bane left Smash to deal with Huntress and retreated around the bus. Ted moved in to take a shot at Huntress. The shot landed, and Bane and Smash finished off Huntress. Arrow indeed ran out of ammo and has to descend to street level for the final two rounds of the game.

Smash was nearly taken out by Arrow, but being outnumbered three to one was simply too much for him. Arrow suffered a KO but makes his check and gets up at the end of the final round, robbing me of the extra scenario VP.

Victory points were a resounding 23 to 2 for Bane and his crew at the end of the game.

Post-Game Thoughts

Bane is a beast needing three stun/blood tokens to start slowing him down. I even misplayed this on one round and he still threw down a whuppin'. I need to remember to use the 'Follow Me' and 'Inspire' special rules to make the crew even more effective as a unit.

I hate TV Arrow, because he starts the game with so much ammo. It's really tough to avoid him for the first 3 or 4 turns of the game, during which I know he will likely kill at least one of my henchmen. I know that if I can wait him out and take control of the ammo on the table he'll eventually have to come down to my level.

Ted Hunter is a great replacement for McGregor. That shotgun is scary to the opposition as moving doesn't penalize its rate of fire. Dallas is the larger threat in terms of ranged combat but if my opponent is spending time shooting at him, Ted is creeping up to shoot them in the back. With a shotgun.

The only thing Bane's crew seems to lack is the mobility to get onto buildings. You'll need to rely on camping on objectives, covering fire and possibly using sewers to trap more mobile foes. Being an elite force however they might find being outnumbered (up against Joker or Penguin perhaps) quite the challenge.

Huntress doesn't seem like a great partner for Arrow. Without a batclaw she's stuck on the ground and will almost always be outnumbered, especially if Ollie stays perched somewhere playing sniper. Sure she's got acrobat which provides her with high mobility and bullet-dodging awesomeness...but picking up the odd VP while Arrow hangs her out to dry seems an ineffective strategy.

If I were to play this list I would change it, to something complete different. Yep, you heard me. However, I feel like comic Green Arrow, Speedy and a cop might be a better crew at 200 rep. TV Arrow is a tougher cookie than comic Arrow but that cop can pick up some safe VPs while Speedy provides some run-and-gun on the ground. The stat drop in going down to comic Arrow isn't a huge loss in my opinion.