Bane vs Riddler vs Harley. Clash of the Titans!

Hey guys, Bruce here with a brief rundown of a recent 1vs1vs1 game of Batman we played the other day.

One of the things I really love about this game is the way the rules are very easily adapted for custom scenarios. Ideally the game is made to be played with two players, but with a minimal amount of tweaking the game can easily be playable with 3 or 4 people.

We set the board up slightly larger than the usual 3x3 to account for the extra models and then we chose deployment. I deployed 20cm from the bottom left corner, Martin took 20cm from the bottom right corner and Sam took 20cm from the center of the far side of the board.

This game was a bit of a Monster Mash; Bane, Hammer and Grundy all getting into a big scrap in the later rounds.

Bruce: Harley Crew

AK Harley Quinn, Mr. Hammer, Clown (Tube), Master of Ceremonies, Punker, Triston, Sniggering, Bragg, Worker, Harley Thug 4, Clown (shield).

Martin: Riddler Crew

Riddler, Solomon Grundy, Hush, Mk2 Bot with Grapple gun and Broken Equipment, Mk2 Bot with Grapple gun, Mk1 Bot, Prisoner 1.

Sam: Bane Crew

Bane, Smash, McGregor, Scarecrow, TNT, Titan Soldier.

Bruce sticks to his tried and tested method of having multiple small groups of the weaker goons, with at least one gun-man in each group.  

 

 

And of course, where would Harley be without her trusty side-kick, the mighty Mr. hammer? 

 

 

The Riddler bots start of doing what they do best: scattering across the board and dropping their markers in hard to reach places.

 

Sam made use of his high gun count by securing the high ground at the center of the board.

 

 

 

 Bane squares off against Grundy. A battle of the titans!

 

The Titan Soldier grabs some loot early on.

 

This Riddler bot thinks he's safe at the back of the board... 

 

 

...but Triston and Pipey came sneaking up behind him and reduced him to scrap metal. 

Sniggering and Shield goon secure a canister of Banes precious Titan.

Meanwhile a mob of goons are hanging frustratingly out of sight, baiting Sam's Henchmen to break their formation

The ground shakes and Bane and Solomon meet in the center of the board!

 

Hush slips away, leaving the two brutes to duke it out. He whips out his pistols and shoots Scarecrow down off the roof. Scarecrow will live, but he will not live well. 

 

 

Never one to miss out on a fight, Harley fires off a round of her machine gun into the Bane/Grundy combat, then prepares Mr.Hammer to go and join in.

 

 

Sam's Titan Soldier takes the bait and is soon brought down under the power of Bragg's shotgun and Punkers Chainsaw.

 

Grundy takes a breather from his scrap with Bane by clocking Smash in the jaw and knocking him out cold. McGregor keeps his distance, hoping Bane will be able to finish Grundy off before he does any more damage

 

Bane lands a shattering blow and Grundy goes down like a wet bag of sand. 

Hush has got one chance to defend himself before bane pulls his arms off...

 

...but with the help of his trusty pistols he manages to lay Bane low! 

 

Unbelievably, Solomon rolls double 6's on his endurance test and fails to regain consciousness!

Bane, unhappy to admit defeat, rises to his feet to teach hush a lesson in pain, but Mr. Hammer seizes the opportunity and knocks him straight back out again. 

 

After a peaceful nap, Solomon decides to get back in the game and starts a fight with McGregor.

 

 Between Hammer, Harley and Master of Ceremonies, Solomon and Hush are finally removed from the game. Grundy didn't net me any points as Sam had already KO'ed him, but at least it was a big threat removed.

 

McGregor tries in vain to shift the clowns from the ammo-crates, but the damage has been done.

 

With just 1 turn left, Sam has lost enough of his crew to force a Willpower check, he fails it and his crew run off the board leaving Bruce and Martins Crews to battle it out in the last turn.

The game ends, and its a close one... only 3 points in it!

Martin's riddler bots had done their job well, netting him 4-5 points for almost every turn of the game.

Sam had earned plenty of points for KO's and casualties, but hadn't done so well on the objectives.

My Clowns managed to just take me into the lead due to the sheer number of objectives I was able to hold each turn.

I really, really love this game. I love the Batman aspects, I love the Models, I love the scenery, I love the tactical options made available by the rules, I love how balanced the rule set is and I love that all the different crews play so differently.

My observations (right or wrong) on how the crews play:

Martin's Riddler gang relies heavily on having fast (grappling hook) robots, zipping about and dropping markers in hard to reach places. He counterbalances the armies fragility by taking a huge distraction in Solomon Grundy. His opponent is forced to leave the bots to their business and focus of taking out Solomon or risk having a Close Combat Monster wipe out all their scoring units.

Sam's Bane gang are geared towards earning kill points, bringing lots of guns and heavy hitting c/c units to the table. Sam is still quite new to the game, but he definitely reaped the rewards of playing aggressively. It was only when he was hesitant about running head on into my squad of goons that I was able to get the upper hand and shoot him down before he could get close enough. The Bane crew certainly seems to do well when it comes to storming the C/C models up into their opponents deployment, and keeping the gunmen at the back, defending their own deployments zone and sniping out anyone foolish enough to get too close.

My Harley crew is built in a way that gives me a great amount of board control. I have sheer volume of numbers and although the goons by themselves are pretty flimsy, in small squads I find them to be a formidable challenge, even for C/C specialists like the Titan Soldier. I leave a few behind to guard my opponents objectives and then swarm the board, grabbing as many objective points as I can.

I had a really great game with Sam and Martin and its a very satisfying feeling that we have played enough games now to have a good grasp on the rules without having to start and stop mid-game anymore. Once the current Six Up Save 40k league is done, we are thinking about having a Batman tourney or league in the new year. Please comment below if that's something you would be interested in seeing.