4 - "Ruling Gotham from a Shadow Perch"

I had a great day at Lords of War running a few Batman intro games.  We had some great new players come out and try their first game.  Hopefully we will see them again soon at one of our Batman Sundays!

I managed to squeeze a little bit of painting in each night this week and was able to finish up two more models for my Owls crew, the High Court Member and Henry Ballard.  The nice things about the Court of Owls models is that each model has its own distinct look.  You never get board painting them. 

The High Court Member was very different to paint, he is wearing a suit and not a costume.  I wanted him to fit in with the rest of the crew colour wise, so I used the same brown pallet.  I was happy how the red turned out on my 1880's Talon last week so I thought I would use red as my highlight colour for the tie.  I did end up making the suit a little to bright but was able to tone it back down with a glaze of sepia. 

I am not really sure how to use the High Court Member in a game, he is very different from any other leader I have ever used.  To start with, his reputation cost is that of an henchman.  His stat line is also nothing to write home about.  His gun is also very average, not great but not crap.  He does have a few special traits that can help support his crew.  First he has the leader rank so he can "Inspire" for the extra action counter.  "Discourage" allows the HCM to lower an opponents willpower by 2 until the end of the next raise the plan phase.  Which could be really nice if the target is something your heavy hitters (Strix or Damian) are going after next round (less counters for them to block and counter attack with). 

If the HCM does get close to the enemy he can use "Demoralize" which makes enemy henchmen with in 6 inches loose one action counter (of the HCM choice!).  Good for getting rid of those defense dice too.  However I imagine that the trait that I will use the most is "Distract" (-1 defense to a model within 4 inches).  Anything he can do to make the enemies a little easier for the talons to hit.  He also has "Scheming", but I find that rule very situational. 

Henry Ballard is a little more straight forward.  He has a good stat line like most of the other talons.  "Invulnerability: 1" is a nice rule (ignore the first damage he takes each turn).  He has a owl Knife that does a single blood and is "Handy" and "Sharp" (rerolls to Hit and to Wound) as well as Claws (unarmed attacks cause 1 Blood and 1 Stun).  He also the "Reanimated Owl" and "Weakness to Cold" like all the talons. 

I think that if you upgrade Ballard with "Ancient Training" equipment to give him "Master Fighter" (+1 to hit with unarmed attacks) he could be a fairly good hitter.  4 attacks with +1 to hit would be great at taking out any henchmen.  If you need to go after something more difficult you could always switch back to the Owl Knife for the re-rolls but less damage.  The Invulnerability also increases his durability.   

I have got some work cut out for me to get this crew done in time for Adepticon but I am very excited to get it done! 

Kevin