Operation Unthinkable - Urban Terrain

So this month, I set myself the target of clearing some of my backlog of urban terrain features I've been amassing and not painting. This isn't really very exciting stuff, it just needed doing.

First up some barrels as scatter terrain and another length of chain-link fence.

 

I stuffed up the barrels a bit as I added sand to the bases before the paint was fully dry, so they don't really bear close inspection. However, they're hardly the most eye-catching piece of terrain, so it doesn't really matter. The flames are made from one of my Flames of War destroyed tank markers and it allows this drum to serve as an additional lamppost in BMG games in an emergency.

 

I had planned to do three more sections of fence, but I got fed up doing this one and I'm also conscious that in my Batman games, the fences have essentially be creating 'dead-zones' on the table as nobody wants to go over them. Therefore, not only did I just do the one, I also made a hole in it to allow more access and cause a problem in zombie games.

 

Next up some pipework for buildings.



I picked these up for about a fiver in my local game store, Wargames Emporium. I can't remember the manufacturer, but they seem to primarily do bases. These pipes will add some detail and variation to my rather bland rooftops and walls, also providing some limited cover. I intend to fixe some of them to an industrial building I'm planning to get from Sarissa Precision, to further industrialise it.

Continuing the roof theme...

The chimney is from Ainsty Castings and I picked up the radio mast from the Vapnartak show in York for £2. It's a bit chunky, but at that price, I'm not complaining. I was pleased with how the chimney pots came out as the colour I used may tempt me to add some brickwork to my city - I've been eyeing up the Mars Attacks scenery from Mantic Games.

The planter is actually meant to be a skylight from Ainsty Castings, but I just couldn't think of a way to make it look decent, and I figured that a rooftop greenhouse might make an interesting addition. The glue is a bit messy, so I may add some 'wooden' strips to the edges of the glass. Overall, I'm quite pleased with it.

And as a final Brucie bonus...

 

This is one of two warning signs from Knight Models. It's a really simple build and fun to paint. I suppose the same, or better effect could be achieved by printing the image out, however, I got the urge to spend money the other day, and with my birthday round the corner, I'm not buying miniatures. I picked up the warning signs and an MDF SWAT van, so there's more to come. As I bought them at the end of the month, the KM products don't fall under my rules for Operation Unthinkable.

 

So, another month done and another job cleared. Next month I'm going to finish off my Flames of War Germans. As I recall, there's not a lot to do for this one:

• 3 Zvezda Opel Trucks
• 2 Marder III Tank Hunters + adding crew to the 2 I've done
• 1 Objective Marker

And that's it. There may be a few other bits and pieces to do, and if I get time, I might have a go at repainting some of my Panther tanks that I dropped some years ago and haven't got around to fixing up since.

Batman Beginners

In my on-going quest to recruit more players to the Batman Miniatures Game (mainly so that I can play them), I managed to have a 200rep game with Mike. I picked the crews for both of us with the intention of giving a good picture of the game (and to get some of my most recently painted models used), and we discussed a lot of rules and decisions quite openly as we played, so it wasn't full blooded competition...yet.

The scenario was Skirmish (a straight fight with bonus points for taking down leaders and numbers), and the terrain was largely scatter terrain as we were playing at  Pete's (also, I feel too many buildings plays into Batman's hands). The crews were as follows:

Batman Crew (Me)

• Arkham Origins Batman
• Agent Ron (Magazine)
• Gotham Policeman (Whistle)
• Gotham Policewoman (Whistle, Flashlight)

Joker Crew (Mike)

• Arkham Harley Quinn
• Deadshot
• Ringmaster (Clown Painting, Thrower)
• Tube Clown (Clown Painting)
• Knife Clown

Turn 1

Mike took the lead and Deadshot took to the sewers. Ringmaster bat-clawed onto a loot objective and Harley and her boys moved en masse towards the starting position of the Batman. The Female Cop also climbed into the sewer, whilst the other cops edged forwards (the Male Cop failed to solve a riddle). Batman took the opportunity to leap onto a container and teach Mike all about remote-controlled batarangs and the shooting rules (we had discussed this beforehand - I wasn't being a total dick). Tube Clown was knocked out in one go and wouldn't see action for the rest of the game.

Victory Points: Batman 1 - Harley Quinn 1

Turn 2

I took the lead and Batman swung down towards Knife Clown in order to dish out some old fashioned justice. At this point I realised that despite his points cost, Origins Batman doesn't have Combo and his Shock Gauntlets only work on a Critical - he's not actually as good in combat as some of the cheaper Batman options. Despite this, he was able to lay enough smack-down to knock out Knife Clown, who similarly wouldn't be seeing action again.

Mike worked out that Harley might as well have a go at Batman as she'd struggle to run from him, used Disarray to remove his defence dice and came barrelling in, trying to his a home run with his head. Unfortunately she failed to connect (even without defence dice, with Defence 5, Bat-Armour and Endurance 8, he's a tough nut to crack).



Meanwhile, Ringmaster grabbed his loot and swung again towards the ammo crate in my deployment zone. He took fire on the way through from Agent Ron, but careful use of Unpredictable saw Ringmaster able to shrug off the stun damage from the cop's sidearm.





Victory Points: Batman 2 - Harley Quinn 2

Turn 3



Up popped Deadshot, and down went the Male Cop in a hail of Rapid Fire bullets. Up until this point, I thought I'd made a mistake using Batman as he was too powerful for Mike's gang to cope with. However, with Deadshot now holding the centre ground, I suddenly felt very vulnerable.

Harley swung wild again, and slipped away from Batman's grasp. In an attempt to even up the score (and demonstrate the Coup de Grace rule), I had Batman throw his attacks at Knife Clown on the floor before following up. However, he narrowly missed removing the henchman as a casualty, and Knife Clown was left on three blood and one stun.

The Female cop came out of the sewers near the downed clowns, but didn't have enough counters to Arrest either of them this turn and instead decided to beat an unconscious guy on the floor and trust that nobody was filming this.

Agent Ron continued to pour fire at Ringmaster, but although he repeatedly caused damage, the clown's ability to hold dice in Special meant he was consistently removing stun damage at the end of turns, making the cop's gun only half as effective as it should be., and he had no trouble dropping his loot and controlling the ammo instead. I'd also forgotten how much Endurance Ringmaster had and it dawned on me that Mike had stumbled on a perfect use for the elite clown - durable objective grabber.

Victory Points: Batman 2 - Harley Quinn 7

Turn 4

Things had got a little sticky, although I took the lead, Deadshot could draw line of sight to both of my remaining cops. Realising that the Female Cop would at least get a Ping! roll, I decided to activate Agent Ron first in an attempt to use the last of my ammo to bring down Ringmaster before heading for cover. Once again, my shooting had an underwhelming effect and realising that his nightstick would be largely ineffectual against Ringmaster in full defence mode, he headed off towards the remaining riddle.

Deadshot took aim at the Female Cop, and I prepared for the worst. Fortunately, he only managed to hit her once (from three shots, with re-rolls!). Frustrated, the assassin wandered over to control some loot so he could at least add to the score this round.

Wounded, but still active, the Female Cop now went into action. She arrested Tube Clown and with only a single attack, succeeded in inflicting the last remaining point of blood damage on Knife Clown, taking both of them out as casualties in one turn. Batman continued to pursue Harley Quinn, hurling batarangs around her van, and inflicting significant damage on her.

Victory Points: Batman 6 - Harley Quinn 11

Turn 5

Mike took the lead and once again decided attack was the best form of defence (I'm really not so sure about this strategy when the Batman is involved), and launched Harley Quinn at the caped crusader. Her Disarray trait, once again, messed with his ability to hurt her, but this left him with more than enough defensive capability to shrug off her attack.

However, his own attacks failed to connect, as did the Female Cop's, although they now had her outnumbered with me guaranteed first activation on the following turn.



Deadshot moved away from the loot and fired wildly at Batman, but failed to hurt the vigilante. Agent Ron used the distraction to make a break for the riddle and managed to solve it in the full knowledge that he was no in Deadshot's sights. Ringmaster still guarded his ammo.

Victory Points: Batman 7 - Harley Quinn 14

Turn 6

Batman laid into Harley Quinn, knocking her out, despite her best efforts to block him, and the Female Cop arrested her almost immediately. Between them they managed to amass a whopping 13 victory points from taking down the band leader (including the 3 extra points from the scenario).

However, all of this action left Agent Ron vulnerable. Deadshot took aim, fired and hit...once. He succeeded in knocking the policeman down, but he wasn't out. With Ringmaster still on the objective, neither side dropped below 50% and the game was over.

Victory Points: Batman 20 - Harley Quinn 17

Although I had more points, this is technically a draw. To be honest, that's what it felt like, and I'm conscious that had Mike made a determined attempt to escape with Harley, he might have got away with a big win.

As ever, the MVP's turn out to be henchmen with Female Cop scoring 13 of my points and Ringmaster scoring 14 of Mike's. As always, I found Deadshot to be a horrendous threat, even though he actually didn't live up to his billing in this game. Origins Batman in a hard case, but he is very vulnerable to bad dice and after using him for the first time, I'd be wary of being over-reliant on him in combat. He seems to be at his best jumping on isolated henchmen, or taking on bigger fish with support. I'd hesitate to throw him at someone like Big Bane, who only costs 6 points more.

This was good game, and it seems to have had the desired effect of encouraging Mike to get into the game. What's more, Pete has now bought the rulebook (and managed to snag an Alfred) and another of the Watchmen. He's talking about also getting Dark Knight Batman and the Batpod...

Hopefully this all means more games are on the way.

In A Different League

As I mentioned last time, today I went to my second Batman Miniatures Game tournament at Titan Games in Lichfield. It's a great little venue, and I hope that little plug is enough for the guys that run the shop to excuse me for swiping a couple of pictures to use as part of this event report...such as this one:

I managed to arrive in time (unlike the last event) and so had three games, all against different crew lists. For some reason, my games took a long time, and I was often one of the last to finish. I'd like to think that this was to do with having a slightly larger crew. However, it's more likely that I need to pick up the pace a bit, or be less cagey.

A discussed previously, my crew consisted of:

• Bane (Dark Knight Rises)
• Talia Al Ghul (Crossbow)
• Scarecrow (Dark Knight Trilogy)
• Ying
• Yang
• Lotus (Climbing Shoes, Trained in Shadows, Magazine)
• Pavillion A Subject (Loyalty Tattoo)
• Pavillion B Subject

Game 1 - League of Shadows vs. Bane

My first game was against Kyle and his Bane crew. He'd only actually played a couple of games previously and had only started painting his crew earlier in the week. His crew consisted of:

• Bane (Arkham City)
• Deathstroke (Comics)
• Mohawk (Titan Dose)
• Ted Hunter (Night Vision Goggles)
• Blackgate Prisoner (Tube)

 The scenario was Plunder and so the goal was to grab objectives as quickly as possible. I was aided in this not only by my 'Hidden' characters (Scarecrow and Lotus), who were able to begin racking up victory points from turn one, and the MASSIVE wall crossing part of the table and therefore protecting me from the guns of Deathstroke and Ted Hunter (the worst named character in the game) for the first few turns.

Kyle countered my rush for loot and riddles by marching Bane straight up the centre and camping him on a Titan Container for 3vp per turn. We both managed to grab our ammo objectives and so honours were fairly even until the rest of the Bane crew came round the corner.

I used my Pavillion A Subject to lure Mohawk into attacking him. There then followed a series appalling luck on both sides as Mohawk failed to take down the lunatic, Bane fluffed his attacks on Mohawk, Deathstroke's shot at Bane was caught by the lunatic (using the Bodyguard trait), and Yang took down Mohawk only to be sent sprawling by Ted's shotgun. When the dust settled, Mohawk was off the table and I had two characters knocked out.

Crucially, I got first turn in the next round and Bane (keen to make up for his previous failure) rushed Deathstroke and pummelled the assassin into the ground, doing 8 stun damage in one go. Ted Hunter was forced to retreat with Ying on his trail, firing as he went. Lotus and Talia also managed to finish off the Tube Prisoner and avoid Big Bane's attacks, and when Scarecrow used Death or Exile to take Deathstroke out of the game it was all over.

Having a henchman spare to camp on an ammo objective miles from the action, meant that I eventually had achieved a sizeable victory, although I'm under no illusions that the terrain severely helped me during the scenario.

Game 2 - League of Shadows vs. Green Arrow

If you remember, when I was putting this crew together I commented on the fact that I didn't have a lot of range or manoeuvrability. I was conscious that I didn't have a lot to counter enemy shooters or bat-claws. Shooters WITH bat-claws would be even worse.

Enter Tony's Green Arrow crew:

• Green Arrow (TV Series)
• Speedy
• Catwoman
• Agent Ron (Magazine - I think)
• Agent O'Connell
• Male Cop (Whistle?)
• Female Cop (Whistle)

From the moment I saw this crew I knew I was in trouble. I knew that Green Arrow had the ability to get to wherever he needed to in order to be able to ignore my Stealth. To add injury to insult, the police Whistles enabled Tony to further reduce my manoeuvrability.

The scenario was Patrol, which meant that I needed to get models across the board, and I really couldn't stop Green Arrow getting into my deployment zone at the end of the game. I decided to try to grab some loot objectives, and head en masse towards the enemy. Lotus got himself into trouble and was ganged up on by all but two of the opposing gang. He was blinded, knocked down and had his loot stolen by Catwoman, but somehow, he managed to survive and lure Speedy out into a position where the rest of the gang could attack him. This was my chance to strike. 

Unfortunately, I didn't get the initiative in the following round. Speedy blew up my gang with his explosive arrow and ran for cover; Green Arrow peppered Bane with arrows; Catwoman disappeared with the loot; and the cops retreated away from the remains of my crew.



I was unable to do anything other than vainly pursue the retreating cops, picking up pitty points from passing riddles and haemorrhaging henchmen to a withering hail of gun and arrow fire. I was beaten so badly that a crowd gathered because nobody had actually seen the 70% Run Away rule come into effect before. I was spared that indignity, but it was a HEAVY defeat.

I retrospect, I still don't know what I could have done differently to win in this game. I feel that by playing fairly aggressively, I at least gave myself the chance to win. I could have limited the damage by hunkering down and playing for a draw, but that would have been no fun for anyone. Perhaps I could have split into two groups and sent one on a flank march whilst the others stayed back...but again, I suspect one of the groups would simply have been mobbed. Fundamentally, I think this was a bit of a mismatch of crews in a scenario that forced me to advance towards Tony's 'guns'. Barring ridiculous dice or massive errors from Tony, I was always going to struggle...I just didn't realise how much.

Game 3 - League of Shadows vs. Poison Ivy

My defeat in the second game was so bad that it propelled me from one of the top tables, right down towards the bottom end of the standings, where I faced Leon who writes an array of blogs that I follow, most notably for me Eclectic Gentleman Gamer, where he's recently been detailing the construction of his first crew. I was really pleased that we got the chance to play, because Leon's blogs were amongst those that inspired me to begin my Gotham project before BMG existed, also because I've been watching this crew grow over the past few months.

Leon's crew consisted of the following:

• Poison Ivy (Comics)
• Deadshot
• Solomon Grundy
• Turk
• Spore Plant (Titan Mutation, Extra Ammo, Night Vision)
• Creeper Plant (Claws)

This scenario was Skirmish, which is essentially a straight fight with bonus points for taking down leaders and numbers. I began by running Bane, two ninjas and his bodyguard straight up the middle using the vehicles as cover from Deadshot. Lotus hadn't learned his lesson and immediately made a grab for some loot, and Scarecrow lived dangerously, running into Turk's line of fire to solve a riddle.

Scarecrow managed to evade Turk, but found himself too close to Grundy for comfort. A Spore Plant popped up near to Lotus, but was immediately cut down to size by Shurikens (and a cry of 'Bonsai!'). When Grundy came round the vehicles after Scarecrow, he found himself surrounded by Bane and the ninjas and hit the deck after two rounds of combat. Scarecrow had managed to haul himself to his feet and used Death or Exile just to clear the big lummox (even though it scored no victory points thanks to Immortal).

At this point, Ivy decided to pop up and make herself a nuisance, and Deadshot began sneaking shots through onto Bane (which were absorbed by his per lunatic).  Ivy managed to mind control Talia and set her against Lotus. This looked like it was going to be a major problem until Talia passed a Willpower test and Ivy was forced to flee. Lotus and Talia had chased her into a corner by the end of the game, and narrowly missed taking her down.

With Grundy down and Deadshot out of ammo, Leon was on the back foot. I managed to chase down Turk with Yang, but I foolishly let the Pavillion B Subject get taken out by the plant. Despite Scarecrow solving another riddle in the last turn, it would up 12-7 to me, a five point difference, which is technically a draw.

This was a cagey affair, where he was trying to avoid getting too close, whilst I was carefully avoiding being shot on what was actually quite an open table.

Being on the bottom rung of the ladder, Leon and I ended up bringing up the rear of the tournament. I'm still quite impressed that my defeat in game two was so bad that it cancelled out my earlier victory as I'm sure there must have been people who lost more than I did.

Overall, I quite enjoyed playing the League but this crew was severely lacking the ability to dictate the play or my opponents' tactics. When an opponent came towards me Bane, backed by ninjas (with Scarecrow on clean-up) was more that enough to cope with some of the game's biggest hitters (Deathstroke and Grundy). However, I really struggled when my opponent became more evasive, and even Ivy was able to slip through my fingers. Going forward, I probably need to add some proper shooting to the crew as Talia's crossbow, although not awful, is not enough to counter enemy fire and put off rooftop shenanigans.

However, once again, this was a great day's gaming, and a win, a draw and a LOSS, is a pretty fair outcome for the day. I had three great games, against three different crews run by three great opponents. It's also proved a timely reminder of the rules as I'm demoing the game tomorrow and there was a fair amount I'd forgotten.

"Gotham...must be destroyed!"

It's been a long time since I've managed to squeeze in a game of Batman. In fact, my last game was well before Christmas at the tournament at Titan Games in Lichfield. As it happens, that's where my next game is going to be too.  As a result, I've been beavering away to get a crew ready for it.

However, until the weekend, I wasn't really sure what crew I would be taking. My options were to have another crack with the Joker crew (this time with the Joker); use a Batman crew starring the Origins Batman I 'won' at the last event; or use my ever expanding League of Shadows crew.







 As you can see, eventually the League won out, for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I can't quite get my Batman affiliated models to make a round 350 rep without dropping something really useful. Secondly, I felt I should give a different crew a run out just in case I end up playing any of the guys I played last time; I don't know if they have more than one crew and it would prevent re-runs. I also have never actually used my own League of Shadows models in a game. Finally, I really want to give the Bane/Scarecrow combo a try to see if I can make it play as good as it looks on paper.

If you squint a little, you'll probably notice a little bit of a Dark Knight Rises theme running through the crew: Bane, Talia, escaped inmates including Scarecrow. This probably means that it's trying to do too much and will largely disappoint. However, it does mean I'll be able to hilariously mumble inaudibly through my hand all day in a Tom Hardyesque manner!

In order to put this crew together, there were two minor jobs to do. Firstly, I had to finish of two of the Arkham Lunatics that have been sat half done on my painting table for a month. They're neither my favourite models to paint or my best work, but at least they're done. They'll add some much needed bodies to the crew, grabbing objectives and tying up the enemy in a variety of sneaky ways.

I also needed to address to fact that I had very little shooting in the crew. Without having bought the Ninja blister pack that has a bow in it, I was left with either using Mr Freeze again (as my only official Free Agent with a gun), or risk relying on just Lotus' throwing stars.

That was until I remembered the special tournament prize card version of Talia I got at the last tournament. Not only does this version pack a medium range crossbow, she also costs less Rep and so allows me to use both Lunatics.

The down side was I needed to give my Talia model a crossbow (well, technically I didn't, but I'd feel a bit off not having one in a tournament as a visual reminder to my opponents). Fortunately, the ever useful Apocalypse Survivors sprues from Wargames Factory provided the bits I needed and here she is.

Technically, the crossbow is a bit large for the weapon she's supposed to have, but given that it's a medium range weapon, I figured that a full sized crossbow made sense too. She doesn't have any ammo (yet), I'm going to explore the bits box to see what I can find, but I think the model works as is anyway. She's a ninja...she'll have extra arrows secreted about her person somewhere...

In other news, I've finally got the new rulebook for the game and it's a thing of beauty. It only has a few rules changes and clarifications, introduces a bucketful of new crews (Mr Freeze, Scarecrow, Court of Owls, Organised Crime, Riddler and...the Wonderland Gang!), and came with a limited edition Alfred model. He's next in the paint queue, after I've finished Victor Zsasz and the final Lunatic.

I've also, finally got Pete to crack and buy one of the Watchmen (he says he'll buy the others, but is painting them one at a time), and I'm demoing the game for Mike on Sunday - he's interested by the idea of a Suicide Squad based crew. Added to Wes' Green Arrow crew and Matt's completely proxied Law crew, we might...just might...begin to get a few more games played.

Hooray!

Anyway, next stop is the tournament. I'm not going with any great hopes of winning as I can see the glaring holes in my crew build, so I suspect others will see them too. However, the object, as ever, is to have some enjoyable games.

I'll be back with a report next week.



Alone Against The Horde

I've been threatening to do some Zombie gaming for well over two years now. I've took part in Zomtober for the past two years and they finally hit the table last October for Halloween Weekend (it's a thing). However, I've also toyed with solo gaming (I had a crack with 7th Voyage a while back), and my long term goal has always been to do a solo zombie campaign.

With the arrival of the man-cave and the terrain I've been doing for Batman, this is now a reality.

I've decided to use 7ombieTV from Crooked Dice as I like the tongue-in-cheek tone of rules, however I'll also be drafting in ideas from All Things Zombie from Two Hour Wargames, which has more campaign detail (although I'm not overly keen on the amount of tables this game uses).

To get to know the rules, I concocted a quick scenario (I've no idea how balanced it is) in which something has gone wrong at an industrial plant and the dead have begun to walk. I'll be controlling two Cop Co-Stars and a bunch of Survivor Extras as a growing horde of Zombies appear (using the Spawn Cards from the 'For Ghouls and Colleges' supplement). 

The Cops (Officers Newman and Redford) have a goal to protect (help the Survivors escape) and to serve (prevent any Zombies leaving the table). Each turn, a new Spawn card is drawn and whatever is detailed on it appears at the edge of the table. To escape, the Survivors need to leave the table from the opposite end of the table from the industrial plant. The Cops begin off table in their cruiser (vehicle rules are taken from 7TV).

OUTBREAK!

With the sirens blaring, the staff of the plant head towards he exit in an
orderly fashion.

Some head for their cars...

...whilst others consider barricading themselves in, but are unable to get the
warehouse doors closed!

And then the first zombie appears and things begin to
get panicky...

A straggler among the survivors is called over to the safety of the warehouse
as a living corpse closes in...

...but the doors are finally dragged shut keeping the zombie out, which begins
to batter on the door.

And eventually the door buckles, letting the the living dead through. 

The Survivors flee through the warehouse, with the
zombie in hot pursuit.

As the Survivors scatter, the police finally arrive and begin to fire at the
encroaching zombies, knocking them down...but they keep getting up.

Realising that they not facing ordinary perps, the police back off to the
safety of their cruiser.

But the dead just keep coming...

A close encounter forces Newman and Redford to quit
 the 'safety' of the car and back off even further.

Although they get some distance between them and the approaching horde,
 a faster looking specimen specimen breaks from the mob...

...and manages to wound Officer Newman before being taken down.

The fight with the fast zombie allows the rest of the horde to swarm the
 police officers.

Newman is finally dragged down, and wracked by anguish, Redford is forced to
 leave his partner to his fate and back off again, firing all the time.

Redford begins to find his mark and takes down zombie after zombie,
 but it just isn't enough.

Reford finds himself cornered, but he keeps firing and
 loading, loading and firing, trying to keep the dead contained.

Despite heroically holding off the horde long enough for the
spawn cards to run out, Redford eventually succumbs...

...and the infected spread out, unchecked, into the city...

I really enjoyed the game, and it's probably for the best that the virus escaped for campaign reasons. However, I discovered a few things:

• I need to remember the Heroic Action, things got more manageable when I did
• I was not using the correct rules for zombie casualties and they were getting up sooner than the should, however this nicely reflect lack of knowledge of how to deal with them at this stage in the outbreak
• The Survivors all escaped mainly because the Spawn Cards were kind early on in the game
• In a steal from ATZ I was only using events when the initiative dice were even, this is something I'll keep
• When creating scenarios, I need to put obstacles in the way of Survivors just running off as the speed difference between them and the Zombies is massive

Having got to grips with the rules, the next stop is to try to run the ATZ Day One scenario using 7ombieTV rules.