Mr J - a happy man!

Today was the day that we have been waiting for and we finally got a couple of games in. Two huge victories for Mr J's Crew. Both games finished something like 20 VP's to 3 VP's but to be fair we were more interested in play testing the rules than really playing and the Crew composition really favoured Mr J. You just have to have henchmen in this game.

200 rep Crew's

Batman Crew - Batman AC (130), Robin (68)

Joker Crew - Joker (90), Sniggering (25), Triston (26), August (25), Clown (knife) (15), Clown (tube) (14)

We played the Skirmish Scenario for both games.

Game 1 - The Dud!

The Joker crew brought an Ammo Crate, Titian Dose & 2 Gas Canisters. Batman brought 2 Riddles, an Ammo Crate and a Titian Dose.

I decided to keep the Objectives as close to my starting position as I could. I placed them in a line on the edge of Batmans deployment area.

The idea was to Run my guys in turn one directly towards them. I put Clown (tube) in the Sewer and kept Sniggering back to defend Batman's Ammo Crate.

The game almost had a hugely dramatic start because Batman was deployed next to a Sewer (to use his Explosive Gel) but close to a Lamppost and more importantly in Line of Sight of Sniggering. I started to think about the possibility of 9 Blood damage.....

If I could just get the first turn ..... but No! Batman got to go first and used his Explosive Gel to take out the Sewer and the Lamppost. Back in darkness and safe.

My Crew piled forward getting ready for the clash that would surely come in Turn 2.

I got to go first in Turn 2 and was able to manoeuvre Mr J forward and into range for the famous One Shot Gun. Now I had gone to the trouble of putting the One Shot Gun in Mr J's hand. I just knew that it would make the difference. I announced the shot with glee. 'Automatic Hit' I said and '2+ to damage'. What did the Dark Templar retort? 'anything but a one then'. He should never had said that .....

Sure enough - thats what I rolled. Utter disappointment! The opening salvo - a dud!

In truth this became a theme for the day. We both rolled absolutely useless dice. We couldn't get beyond the 1's and 2's most of the time.

Batman took to the air after that. The Batclaw is pretty cool and very characterful.

I moved onto the Objectives and Batman jumped Triston using his Sneak Attack. Our poor dice rolling continued but even so, Triston was taken down.

The game finished up with a bit of hand to hand combat involving Robin, Mr J & August. We knocked lumps out of one another but no one went down. August did a couple of Blood damage so he has earned the Blood on his shirt ;-)

The Joker crew amassed loads of Victory Points by sitting on the Objectives. I thought it was funny to be suffering Gas damage when claiming VP's. We had tested the movement rules, the hand to hand rules and the shooting rules. We found them a bit alien but that is usually the case with any new rule set. Counter management was proving to be a real pain - just something else to get used to.

We were disappointed that that so little damage was done by the combat and equally recognised that our dice rolling had been poor. Maybe Game 2 would be an improvement.

Game 2 - Handbags

This opened up with a bit of fun as I placed the Gas Canisters next to Batman and Robin. When they activated they both failed Willpower tests and took some damage. A very funny moment.

Batman set-up his Ammo and Titan Container along the line of my deployment zone. This was going to be more interesting. I advanced as I did in the first game. This time Batman did not mess around and took straight to the air. He got in position and used his ranged attack to take down my Clown (knife) Ouch.

The Joker was not impressed and reached for the One Shot gun. Ha, ha - this time there was success and the Batman was splatted with Blood damage.

We had allowed the Riddles to be placed up high so Batman & Robin stepped up and solved both Riddles. 

Batman was now ahead in terms of VP's and I was a man down. Could he keep me from getting to the Objectives? I had high hopes of taking out Batman himself. He had taken half damage and all Blood. I had a few turns to make it tell. He would have to come down from his high place to capture the remaining Objectives and start to score. 

How would it play out? As an aside you got to hand it to the Dark Templar - his painting is just outstanding.

I fired Explosive Teeth and Shotgun rounds at Batman for a couple of rounds and nothing! Crap dice! I was getting frustrated. My Henchmen did their job and made it the Objectives.

And Yip - you guessed they started failing Willpower tests and taking Blood damage. At least I was getting VP's. The Joker and Triston stayed in my deployment zone to challenge Batman & Robin. A major hand to hand combat broke out on the Batmobile. Very funny.

Tristan went down. Mr J ran out of Ammo and stepped in with the knife - but, yet again, rubbish dice rolling. It was like 'handbags at dawn'. Funny though.

Yet again - huge victory for the Joker Crew but this was more about learning how to play the game and we learned a lot.

Summary

It was fun. We both would have liked there to be a bit more carnage and it feels like Batman is very under powered. A lot of thinking to do but good fun. I think that the games lacked drama - there were no belly laugh moments and no great tales to tell. That might come on another day and lets face it we both rolled rubbish dice. I even passed a Willpower test of 4. Yes - that is two dice less than or equal to 4. I rolled a 1 and 2!

We both felt that 200 rep was nice to learn but really it needed 350 rep to get a bit more power into the Crews. Maybe then the stories will unfold.

For today ..... suffice it to say ..... Mr J has a big smile on his face.

The Opposition reviewed - Batman & Robin

I thought it was about time I had a look at my opposition this coming Sunday.

I will be welcoming a 200 rep, two man Batman Crew to the Fun Park: -

Batman (Arkham City) - 130 rep
Robin (Tim Drake) - 68 rep

So lets have a look at what they bring to the table. For a start they are both decent characters and have  good basic statistics so it will take a concerted effort to cause any damage, or at least enough damage to take them from the game.

Batman

Weaponry
Batman is armed with a Batarang. It has a Range of 40cm and does 2 Stun damage, (no Blood, this means I can attempt to recover some damage at the end of the turn). It has a Rate of Fire of 2 and comes with 3 ammo.

This means that it can be used 3 times during the game unless Batman can pick up more Ammo from an Objective.

Each time the weapon is fired it can do up to 4 Stun because of the ROF of 2. Also the trait Throwing is applied so the ROF is never reduced by moving. This encourages Batman to move around and he becomes hard to pin down.

The weapon is Remote Control so there is no need for Line of Sight. Batman also comes with Total Vision so does not have the standard Range reduced to 30cm due to Darkness.

Batman can also perform a Sneak Attack that can't be Blocked. This is allowed if the target could not see Batman when activated.

This is a nice steady amount of ranged firepower and could be very effective against my low Endurance Henchmen. - Ouch!

Agility
Batman can put 3 dice into Movement. He can exchange his basic Movement to use the Batclaw which allows movement of 30cm but must also have a height element to the move. Dice can still be used to extend movement both before and after the Batclaw move. This is a really cool piece of movement and far better than any of the Joker crew.

The Batman's Batcape also means that he will take no damage from Falling or Jumping. So he is happy to be in the high places that the Batclaw allows him easy access to.

Defence
Batman has a high Endurance of 8. It is going to take a lot to put him down. Bat Armour and Counter Attack are Batman's two defence options. The Armour gives a 5+ save and Counter Attack allows Batman to strike back at the opponent if he is forced to Block during his turn.

Robin

Weaponry
There is no ranged abilities to consider although Robin does have the use of 2 Short Range (up to 20cm's) grenades that can Blind opponents for a turn and do 1 Stun damage. Mechanical also means that it damages on a 3+ (I think). They have a template effect so will be good against groups. These could be nasty but he will have to be close to use them.

His other weapon is a Bo(a staff) that does 1 Stun damage. It has Reach (3cm's) and is Handy (reroll failed to Hit). Robin can put 3 dice in Attack.

Agility
Robin can put 2 die in Movement and like Batman Robin has the Batclaw but none of the other benefits so if falls or is Pushed off a building he will be in trouble.

Summary
So should I be worried? Well the game should be a challenge as both sides are adopting a very different approach. My Joker Crew have the numbers but are slower and many come with low endurance so are vulnerable to sustained damage dealing. Batman's high level ranged attacks could be hard to handle.

Batman looks like he will also be a hard nut to crack but if I can get him on the ground and out numbered the task may become more manageable.

Robin is impacted by Darkness and will have to get close to do damage. His Endurance of 6 is not a mountain to climb but I will have to be careful not to present a nice target for those Grenades.