Take the Lead: A Batman Miniature Game Battle — Wayland Games Blog

Have you played the Batman Miniature Game yet?

Take a look at Jack and Andy’s battle report about their latest tabletop adventure in Gotham!

If you missed it, you can read their first blog (on crew selection and set-up) right here.

TURN ONE

Andy - The Brave and the Bold

I took the lead and planned to have Commissioner Gordon, Lerida and Guard 2 establish a fire base to put down at least one of Jack’s crew, whilst Arkham guards 1 and 3, with Foxtrot, held Jack’s Objectives, and Batman used his mobility to move around as needed.

Gordon called in air support, illuminating the chemical plant, with the intention of having a sniper take a shot at Reverse Flash, although Jack reminded me I could not use Hidden Sniper in turn 1. Advancing up the street, Reverse Flash and Black Manta engaged SWAT and the Arkham Guards, with little effect from the guns, though one of the guards was hit by Manta’s Death Ray. Starting off hidden by the control building, Batman moved to a dominating position near the centre of the board from where he managed to hit Manta squarely with a Batterang!

Jack - The Secret Society of Super Villains

I started the first round with Eobard using the Speed Force before we raised the plan to move him 8 inches closer to the objectives and then made him a little tougher to take down with the Matter Control power. Andy went next and activated Gordon, I then passed twice to see just what Andy would do - and he activated some of his henchmen. Manta moved up the road and Death Ray’ed one of Andy’s Swat guys while Snart and Rory moved into better positions for turn 2.

Finally, I activated Thawn who, as I had hoped, had soaked up a lot of Andy’s gunfire, running him into a position to do something fun next round. With the victory points for the round counted I used my Misinformation Strategy to move my Ammunition objective (which Andy had moved earlier with his own Change of Plans) close enough to my other objectives for Thawn to grab points from all three of them simultaneously.

TURN TWO

Andy - The Brave and the Bold

Jack took the initiative, and used Reverse Flash’s speedster powers to knock both Arkham Guard 3 and Foxtrot back, unfortunately, into range of Heatwave who was able to set fire to both of them. This somewhat scuppered my plans, especially once Batman’s attacks were less than stellar against Manta, who was able to stab him for some blood and stun damage.

Lerida and Guard 2 managed to fire ineffectually again, although Gordon did call in a successful sniper hit on Heatwave. At this stage, things are starting to go somewhat awry.

Jack - The Secret Society of Super Villains

Round 2 kicked off with me getting the initiative. For the Speed Force round, I again gave Thawn Matter Control to keep him safe in case one of Andy’s bullets found its way past my defences. Then, having positioned myself last round, I used Kinetic Tornado to push 2 of Andy’s henchmen, damaging one and KO’ing the other. From here, I was able to move on to my objectives hoping to score some points.

Following this, I saw the opportunity to change my tactics and go on the offensive so moved Heatwave up and flamed the 2 knocked down guys from Andy’s crew setting them ablaze and Captain Cold moved up to Freeze Ray Gordon. Batsy swooped in and gave Manta a bit of beating which ended with Manta being able to hold his own but taking the worst of it.

TURN THREE

Andy - The Brave and the Bold

Things didn’t go well this turn at all! The dice abandoned me completely with Foxtrot and Guard 3 both being out of action, Guard 1 being knocked down and, worst of all, Commissioner Gordon being attacked and taken out of action by Heatwave and Captain Cold. Batman exchanged blows again with Black Manta, whilst Lerida and Guard 2 snuck off towards a manhole to take some objectives. Things are definitely slipping out of my control but, with all of Jack’s crew away from my objectives, I can at least plan to try and take and hold mine for the last few turns of the game.

Jack - The Secret Society of Super Villains

This round went well for me overall but was a close thing to start off with, first Thawn created a dangerous paradox in the Speed Force phase (luckily, I was able to dismiss the result with I Know What I Am Doing) and this was followed by Manta being very close to falling before the wrath of the Bat. However, things then turned in my favour with Heatwave and Gordon trading shots leading to both being close to casualty status after the exchange of fire. Captain Cold moved in and finished off Gordon with some well-placed icy beams and Thawn pushed away Andy’s Arkham Guard after giving him a few quick punches.

TURN FOUR

Andy - The Brave and the Bold

I started the turn using I am the night to move Batman towards my objective and, hoping to take the lead, my plan being to launch a Batterang at Black Manta, before Batclawing into both of my objectives, and ramping up a load of victory points, whilst Arkham 2 and Lerida came to reinforce and re-arm. Batman could then go hunting in the last few turns of the game and claw me back to at least a draw.

Nope.

Jack got the initiative, and was able to get an immensely lucky Death Ray from Black Manta which took Batman out of the game straight away, leaving me just an unarmed Lerida and Guard 2 skulking in the shadows, being chased down by Heatwave and Captain Cold…

Jack - The Secret Society of Super Villains

The fourth and, as it turned out, final round started out with me getting the initiative at what was definitely a turning point for the game. I could see that Andy was going to change the focus of the game back onto the other side of the board around his objectives if I didn’t do something so I decided to go for the Hail Mary play. I activated Manta and Death Ray’ed the Bat.

And hallelujah! I hit, he failed his Bat armor save and I wounded with a critical! Black Manta’s Death Ray has special rule critical Casualty meaning the Bat was removed from the game with a rather large hole in his face. Thawn then KO’ed the last of Andy’s henchmen blocking my objective grabbing and Snart and Rory moved to finish off Andy’s remaining henchmen. But, given the situation, we decided to call the game there.

END GAME

Andy - The Brave and the Bold

Well, that didn’t go quite to plan. I like my crew, but it’s quite swingy, good dice can be very, very good with them, however today it was not to be. Next time I’ll be sure to give Batman an armoured cowl, to give him immunity to crits, and I may drop one of the firearm equipped henchmen for someone a bit cheaper, to give me a bit more funding to spend on gear and upgrades.

Tactics wise, I think mostly I was sound, though I should perhaps of abandoned the fight with Black Manta sooner, and also used Gordon, Guard 2 and Lerida to go after Heatwave and Captain Cold. I suspect a bit of focused attacking from them would have seen those off fairly quickly. Here’s to the next one!

Jack - The Secret Society of Super Villains

So, while the game had not gone the way I thought, it did go well for me with my crew working well together and being very adaptable for attack or defence. The biggest thing in my favour was most definitely Thawn. He presented a massive threat in terms of possible point scoring and his Speed Force abilities while being very hard to take down. Manta obviously did well for me in taking on the Batman and Captain Cold and Heatwave both did their part by taking care of Gordon and a couple of henchmen.

For next time I don’t think with this particular crew I could do much different to be honest. Using a small crew like this requires no small amount of luck which I definitely got in spades where it counted here, mostly on defensive rolls and that all important Death Ray hit against Batman. I look forward to the new challenge Andy is bound to bring next game and I am already looking at what roster changes I can make to keep him guessing and on his toes.