"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.