The Brute

I played another couple of games this week and finished up the Brute for my Scarecrow crew.  The Brute has been a fun model to play with...except for the last game where he walked around a corner on the second turn and proceeded to get shot in the face by Harley.

He does add a lot of punch to the Scarecrow force.  He has an above average endurance of 6 and the Light Armour trait (opponents are -1 to wound him).  He also has Cybernetic, which gives him +1 to his block and recovery rolls.  When combined with the Sturdy trait (loose 1 action counter for every 3 wounds, instead of 2), he is "usually" tough to bring down.  His main downside is his defense of 2.

His Long Electrical Batons are very nice as well.  They have Handy (re-roll to hit), Mechanical (wound on 3+) and Reach (can target opponents 3cm away).  With 4 attacks (perhaps up to 6 if the Commander and Scarecrow are close by) and dealing 2 stun damage with each wound, the Brute can lay down a world of hurt.  

He also has a Gas Mask (immunity to anything that has Gas trait) which works well with how I am currently playing Scarecrow.  I like to take the Secret Laboratory upgrade for Scarecrow.  I explained how this upgrade works in a previous post.  One of the henchmen that I like to choose to release Scarecrow's fear toxin from is the Brute.  He is already geared to be up close and personal.  I can get him close to bludgeon enemies with his stun batons then release the fear gas on every model within 10cm.  With his Gas Mask he will be immune to the effects.

One more model left to go with the campaigns starting crew, Scarecrow.  

Militia Commander

I finished up the third henchman for my Scarecrow crew, the Militia Commander.  I tweaked a few details with the camo and armour on this one.  The crew is starting to come together.

One of the aspects of the Batman Miniature Game that has gotten me in trouble is the amount of traits characters have.  Most henchmen only have one or two special traits, not to bad to remember what they do.  When you get to leaders, sidekicks and free agents you might be looking at half a dozen (or more) each.  What I have been finding in my last few games is that I have forgotten to use part of some of these traits.

For instance the Mastermind trait.  I have been using it to roll two dice when solving riddle markers.  However I forgot about the second part of the rule, adding an additional "Take the Lead" counter to my side.  If I remembered to do this, it would increase the odds of me going first in a key round.

So i decided to make a one page quick reference sheet for my Scarecrow crew.  I wrote down all the traits my crew has in detail along with the book and page number.

It has helped alot,  I found that some of the traits that I seldom used did not do what I though that they did.  The militia commander that I just finished has a trait called "Kill Them!" (Henchmen withing 10cm of this character gain an addition attack counter, which can bring this above that models usual maximum).  I was confusing this with "Lets go!", which allows you to activate another model on a 4+ right after you finish with one.

If I had payed more attention to the Kill Them! trait, I would have kept him near the Brute.  Who does not want a 5 attack, mechanical, 2 stun damage Brute with Reach!

Kevin

More Militia

I finished up the second Militia henchman this weekend.  I am much more satisfied with how this one turned out when compared to his predecessor.  I started with painting the black parts of the pants.  Then I picked out the red areas but left part of the black separating the pants and the armour plates.  This helped break up the red and focus the eye.  I still have some fine tuning for the next one.

We have started a map based Batman campaign at Lord of War this past weekend.  I was able to get in a game using my Scarecrow vs the Gotham City Sirens.  It was a good game, I was not able to snatch victory in the end, but my crew performed much better this time.  

One of the MVPs for the game was the Militia 1 model that I had just painted.  The carbine that he carries (Damage: 1Blood, ROF: 5, Ammo: 2, Firearm, M. range, Assault 3) is great.  The assault allows him to shoot 3 times after moving.  However it was this model's personal traits that excelled; Veteran and Shooter.  Veteran allows the player to move 2 of this model's action counters when he is activated.  So I can put some counters in defense or special at first, then move them up to attack with the carbine.  Shooter was also very useful in this game.  It allows the player to choose to ignore one Ping! role when attacking with a ranged weapon.

This came came in handy twice.  My opponent set up one of Poison Ivy's plant with a range attack in a very great location.  It was on the corner of a building, giving it good lines of sight but also giving it a Ping! role if it was shot at.  I was able to get in close with the carbine wielding militia, chose to ignore the Ping! from the buildings ledge, and kill the plant in a single round (however not before the plant did some serious damage to Diablo).  The second time Shooter came in handy was when Ivy mind-controlled the Militia captain to stand between the carbine and her.  I ignored the Ping! from my own model and peeled off a wound or two from Ivy.

Scarecrow was also very very effective this game.  Especially with some of the new upgrades in the Arkham Knight Campaign book.  The "Secret Laboratory" is incredible.  It has several functions.  First it gives Scarecrow "Scientific" (increase Special to 4, but worth an extra victory point if killed).  It allows Scarecrow to choose which counters are lost due to fear (instead of the controlling player).  It also imposes a +2 penalty on your opponent willpower role when Scarecrow uses his "Inspire Fear" ability.  My favorite benefit is you choose two henchmen at the start of the game, use them to measure range when Scarecrow uses "Inspire Fear" as if Scarecrow was standing where that model is.  This allows you to keep Scarecrow relatively safe while sending a cheap henchmen into the thick of things to gas multiple opponents.  

My crew for the Campaign

On the other hand, I did find out it hurts when your opponent mind-controls your Brute with 4 attack counter.  Poor Diablo never knew what hit him.

Kevin

Scarecrow's Militia

I was finally able to finish up the first model of Scarecrow's militia today.  This was the first time I tried to paint a camo pattern on a model (well, since I was 15 years old or so).  While I am not entirely happy with the result, I don't hate it as much as I initially did.

I tried something new and it just did not pan out as I though.  I though it was going to be easy, and I was wrong.  I think one of the main problem was that I started with painting the model red.  In the end there was just to much camo.  This is one one of those situations where "less is more".  On the next henchman I started with painting the black, then adding select sections with the red camo.  We will soon see if it makes a difference.

I had a bit of a gap between Calandar Man and this first henchman.  I was not idle during that time, I was just working on a different project.  I picked up a pack of Blue Stuff from LoWG a few weeks back.  For those of you who do not know what Blue Stuff is, it is a reusable mold medium.  I decided to give it a try by casting up a few more jack-o-lantern counters to go with my Scarecrow crew.  I was very happy with how easy it was to use and the quality in the end.

The one in the middle is the original

The new Arkham Knight book is out now, and I am very excited about the new equipment lists for all the crews.  Cant wait to try some of them out during the Gotham City Map campaign at LoWG next weekend!

Kevin