First steps in Crime Alley!

THE FIRST GAME

So today I had the chance to give Batman the miniature game by Knight models a try. Gabriel, Batman's main man (amongst other games) at my tabletop lgs, was ready to teach me some batman over a 200pts demo game.  

We were a bunch of guys with their batman costumes on on this Halloween day ready for a scrap at l'Abyss. I've previously red the rules once and watched a ton of BatReps (no pun intended). 

My opponent picked Lotus, Yang and Ras' Al Ghul from the league of shadows to face my Batman on his Batpod flanked by his problem child, Damian Wayne aka Robin. 

To keep things simple we where going to play the Skirmish mission without the Strategy option. basically it's a punch the other guy in the face type of scenario, with all the usual objective rules. 

After rolling for and placing all lamposts, sewers/vents, and objectives we were ready to play in no time. A brief recap on each other's characters and their different abilities and we were picking in the bag to see who was going to go first. 

I got the first turn, so I got to raise my plan before the league of shadows. This is a step I really enjoyed all game long, mostly because it really feels like actually raising a plan. You got to figure out what you want to do with everyone during this crucial step and it is definitely worth taking your time to carefully plan what you're going to do ! I got better at it as the game went on, adapting my counter dispatching to the different situations that occured in the game. 

First turn didn't go so well however! I zoomed with the batpod past everyone, right under the nose of Ras' after shooting my only rocket on him. He didn't break a sweat, moving his head aside to avoid the explosive projectile in a slow, calm and confident movement. He then ran up to the batpod and tried his best to cut his best student in half with his sword (yeah Ghul got such an ability). The dark knight got lucky and if I remember correctly his MKII armor even deflected a blow. I was not going to make thast kind of mistake again! 

Later on Batman had to deal with the two ninjas while Ras' was going for the objectives. I think my trainer gave me a chance there by taking the leader of the league away from the action to score some objective points. The two ninjas did their best at trying to kill Bruce but eh, he's Batman. He didn't score any objective points but managed to kick Yang's ass and handcuff him good while keeping Lotus in check. 

While Batman couldn't score a single point, caught up with the two ninjas, Damian took care of things; after missing a riddle the young detective managed to grab two bags of loot and batclaw up a tall building, sitting on his pot of gold, long enough to secure victory. The little brat even managed to stun his grandad twice with his batlings. Good game young man, good game!

the game finished 7-2 (or was it 3?) for the Bats. If Ghul would have stayed next to the titan canister back there it would have finished 7-6 but he decided to turn around and get back into the action, too late however to really make a difference. The last chance for the league to win or tie the game came from Lotus who needed to score 4 wounds on the batman and grab  big vps at the end for doing so but Wayne, high on titan serum, got really fast all of a sudden and put 6 counters on defense, not letting anything pass through his martial technique.

So this was my very first game of Batman. I must say I really enjoyed the game. The models let me unimpressed to a certain level at first but the game itself really makes up for that. And do not get me wrong, the models are fine and all, just not "Infinity" fine, especially when it comes to the finishing (mold lines, flash, etc). 

This game is fast paced, action packed and a ton of fun. Very cinematic too. The rules are not too harsh but I recommend going for a recap of all models's special abilities before games; it is important to let your opponent what's what and what it does but more importantly it lets YOU review all those nifty abilities before the game so you won't forget to use everything to its maximum potential! I still managed to forget about my reinforced gloves twice during the game but that's another story.

Now about the tokens; we played with some 2d custom tokens (printouts on bases) and while it was quite handy at the moment, I'd say that if there's something you want to get along when you buy your models well it's those Lampost, sewer and objective markers. First the overall look of the table is going to step up a notch but it is also clearer for players to see where's what. It doesn't sound like much of a deal but if you want your game to flow at its best, get those markers Robin! 

Oh and last but not least, hats off to l'Abyss for putting on thematic music while people are playing; it is quite fun to listen to Batman's soundtrack while moving the Batpod around. This is a simple thing that stores can do to enhance the experience that I haven't seen, or most accuratly heard in a long time!

 

AND NOW....THE SHOW!

Most models are unpainted or primed or wip at best, sorry about that. I'll make sure there's more painted models next time around! Hope you'll still enjoy these pictures:

Batman riding down the street at furious speed!

Damian batclawing down into trouble

Daddy's little monster sittin' on top of the world!

Off the bike and on to the fight!

Yang and Lotus assailing the Batman