Sunday 1 November 2015

The Long Halloween - Event Report

Yesterday I attended the Long Halloween Batman Miniatures event at Holmfirth Gaming Centre. Organised by Animosity Wargaming, this was organised differently from the usual tournament format, and was instead a narrative campaign in which two teams battled for control of Gotham.

The teams were organised as follows:

Law & Order
Batman Crew
Law Crew led by Batgirl
Law Crew led by Commissioner Gordon
Green Arrow Crew
Green Arrow Crew led by Speedy

Rogues' Gallery
Two Face Crew
Black Mask Crew
Poison Ivy Crew
Bane Crew
Evil Arrow Crew

One of the best things about the event was that it was another chance to play on some of the amazing boards that I saw at the Worldwide Tournament in Nottingham. Each board represented a specific location, and winning granted a bonus to your team in the next game based on the board; for example, winning in the Bat Cave granted a single model the Bat-Claw rule.

The Bat Cave
Gotham Rogues' Stadium
The Shipyards
Gotham Zoo
Crime Alley
A.C.E. Chemicals
Wayne Tower
G.C.P.D. Headquarters
Rather than give a detailed report of each game I played, I'm just going to give edited highlights. In addition to regular rules, there were bonus Long Halloween objectives which were worth 2VP per round positioned in the centre of each board.

Game 1 - Poison Ivy vs Green Arrow (Andy)

Reputation: 200
Scenario: Chance Encounter
Board: A.C.E. Chemicals

Poison Ivy Crew
Poison Ivy (Comics)
Mr Freeze
Prisoner 1 (Tube)
Pavilion A Lunatic
Spore Plant

Green Arrow Crew
Arrow (TV)
Bravo
Male Cop x2
Female Cop

Random deployment saw an early rush for objectives.
Most of the police arrive together, away from my big hitters.
Arrow turns up an shoots Ivy, who fails to dodge.
Spore plant pops up an rains fire down on cops who were trying to solve riddles. 
Ivy and Freeze went after Arrow, hurting him.
He fled, and shot Ivy again!
The police grab ammo and rack up points, whilst a Lunatic heads to the sewers.
Arrow heads for the Long Halloween objective and is almost killed by a plant!
Arrow faces foliage, Tube Prisoner scores Titan, Freeze looks for someone to kill. 
Already injured, Ivy gets ambushed by cops and manages to get herself arrested.
Freeze finds someone to kill...but fails...
The Lunatic uses the sewers to contest the Long Halloween objective.
An ineffectual shoving match sees nobody pushed into the vat below.
Freeze settles for denying the enemy VPs.
The final score was 34-21 to Andy, with the key difference being the arrest of Ivy. I was perhaps a little unfortunate in where my crew turned up in relation to both the scoring objectives and the Cops, who I would have been able to hurt more effectively than Arrow, however Andy did pretty much exactly the right things in how he went about the game and used his Cops to score points. If there was an error in my game it was sending an injured Ivy to deal with the police on her own. Had I sent Freeze in her place, or with her, the score might have ended up being draw. However, I didn't, so I lost.

Following the first game, it was revealed that the player who held the Long Halloween objective at the end of the game would get to 'be the Batman' and have a whack at a pumpkin piñata with a baseball bat whilst blindfolded - there might have been some health and safety infringements here.


As Andy and I had contested the objective, we got to bob for apples instead. I actually managed to get an apple, but it wasn't a prize winning one.

Game 2 - Poison Ivy vs Batman (Chris)

Reputation: 250
Scenario: Patrol
Board: Crime Alley

Poison Ivy Crew
Poison Ivy (Comics)
Mr Freeze
Prisoner 1 (Tube)
Prisoner 2 (Big Stikka)
Prisoner 4 (Bodyguard)
Pavilion A Lunatic
Spore Plant
Plant

Batman Crew
Batman (Arkham City)
Nightwing
Bravo

The crews face each other down a looong street.
Ivy and her crew begin the long walk towards the objectives.
Batman watches, waits and begins to snipe with remote batarangs.
Spore plant pops up to return fire...and misses...every time...
The fight begins around the central objective.
Bravo gets mind controlled.
Batman and Nightwing arrive in the fight...Ivy leaves.
Freeze and Big Stikka make a break for the end zone.
Perps and plants are no match for vigilantes.
Out of ammo, Spore Plant gets pruned.
Deadsho...erm, Batman snipes Big Stikka in one shot.
Freeze gets to the deployment zone, but Batman stops him grabbing ammo.
This game was like a nightmare re-run of my second game at Nottingham, only this time I was Ivy and Batman wasn't fluffing his attacks. I realised much later that I'd played hypnotise wrongly and should have got a shot at Batman or Nightwing, which might have had an effect. Again, I could/should have sent Ivy with Freeze and Big Stikka, but this might have put her in more danger and cost me 7VPs again. This was another tight game, in which my opponent played well and countered my numbers effectively. I'm not sure I did anything massively wrong and a dice roll here ore there (for example Batman failing to make contact with Freeze on the last turn) would have granted me the two VPs I needed to make it a draw. The final score was 21-14.

Despite losing two games, I hadn't felt like I'd been badly mauled (although Batman had taken out most of my crew) in terms of the VP totals, but I'd not actually taken down an enemy model. Looking back I think that this might be because Ivy herself is best against low WP mooks with her mind control turning them against themselves. In both the first games, I hadn't really managed to get her into combat with henchmen and she's actually quite vulnerable against enemy big hitters like Arrow (if she fails to Dodge), Batman and Nightwing. Personally I think Ivy needs some help to cope with the beatsticks - even Harley Quinn might be useful in this capacity.

Anyway, I'd already planned to switch Ivys (this was allowed) for the next two games, so it was time to see what Arkham Ivy could do...

In other news, the piñata was successfully knocked down and we all got sweets!

Game 3 - Poison Ivy vs Law (Reuben)

Reputation: 300
Scenario: Plunder
Board: Gotham Rogues Stadium

Poison Ivy Crew
Poison Ivy (Arkham)
Mr Freeze
Prisoner 1 (Tube)
Prisoner 2 (Big Stikka)
Prisoner 3 (Axe)
Prisoner 4 (Bodyguard)
Pavilion A Lunatic
Spore Plant
Creeper Plant
Plant

Law Crew
Commissioner Gordon
Catwoman
GCPD Detective
Bravo
Echo
Agent Ron
Agent O'Connell
Male Cop
Female Cop

The Detective and Spore Plant eye up the objectives.
Ivy considers the landscaping project ahead of her.
The Detective breaks from cover to try to get to Freeze's primary target loot.
He gets clobbered by the Creeper plant on the way.
Ivy grabs her ammo for early VPs
She uses a Plant to prevent the Cops scoring from Titan.
Catwoman and Freeze make for their target loot tokens.
Prisoners dose up on Titan and wait for the Cops.
Ivy uses her spray attack and mind control to mess with the Cops.
Freeze takes the Detective down again.
More poison and hypnosis. Agent Ron shoots Female Cop.
Catwoman goes after the Spore Plant on the roof of the stadium.
O'Connell and Gordon make short work of the Prisoners.
With so many miniatures on the table, we only actually made it to turn three (there was a lot of setting up to do), but the broad strokes of where the game was headed were clear. Behind the stadium, Gordon and O'Connell had secured their ammo objective and would eventually have got rid of the Tube Prisoner holding my Titan. In the pit, Ivy was making a mess of the Police and the Lunatic holding the ammo was racking up points. In the centre, both Freeze and Catwoman had grabbed their loot, but Freeze had control of the Long Halloween pumpkins, and would have scored more VPs eventually.

The game had effectively divided into three separate battles and I'd was winning two out of three of them. What's more, I think I'd done a good job of using Plants to stop Reuben scoring at the same rate that I was and built up an early lead that he was unlikely to catch up, despite making mincemeat of my Prisoners. The final score was 29-13, and I think the gap would have been roughly similar at the end of the game.

With the pinata down, the next competition for those holding the Long Halloween objective was a Batman themed pumpkin carving competition. Although mine looks fairly traditional, I'd actually done Mr Zsasz scars all over it.


This was won by Andy (who I'd played in my first game), who smashed his pumpkin and put a sign on it saying 'Bane Was Here!' He won a Penguin crew for his 'efforts'.

Game 3 - Poison Ivy vs Law (Simon)

Reputation: 300
Scenario: Plunder
Board: Shipyards

Poison Ivy Crew
Poison Ivy (Arkham)
Mr Freeze
Prisoner 1 (Tube)
Prisoner 2 (Big Stikka)
Prisoner 4 (Bodyguard)
Pavilion A Lunatic
Spore Plant
Creeper Plant
Plant

Law Crew
Commissioner Gordon
Batgirl
Alpha
Delta
Echo
Agent O'Connell
Male Cop
Female Cop

Prisoners, Cops and Batgirl make a rush for objectives.
Freeze uses a Plant as cover whilst he grabs loot.
He then hits the SWAT team with a freeze grenade, knocking Alpha down.
Ivy poison sprays the police, then hypnotises Female Cop to deny them VP's.
Meanwhile, Gordon and Batgirl fail to gain control of the pumpkins.
The Police in disarray and denied VPs whilst Freeze racks them up.
I think I played this one well. Very well in fact. Although, I think both the nature and the opposition, the scenario and some appalling shooting on Simon's part helped. Plunder suits Ivy, as the plants enable her to restrict the enemy's ability to score in the early rounds and get ahead quickly. Added to this, Ivy had almost free reign to mess with some low WP and low Endurance henchmen, poisoning and hypnotising to her heart's content. In fact, the Law crew's lack of a big hitter means that Ivy's major weakness isn't threatened - I think the Law crew is a good match up for Ivy.

The final score was an eye-watering 55-29. I would have been closer if either Batgirl or Gordon had been able to deal with the Creeper Plant and Lunatic, but poor rolling really ruined his day.

With all the games done, it was worked out that the Law and Order team had won the day, and the overall winner, with four wins was Chris and his Batman crew. He walked away with a copy of 'The Long Halloween' graphic novel, and a Two-Face crew (which was a dubious pleasure, as the leader of the bad guys had used Two Face and lost all of his games).

One of the really nice features of the Animosity events is that Scott, the organiser, tries to ensure that everybody leaves with something, so those who hadn't won a prize during the day were all given a TT Combat Terrain MDF kit. I got some rooftop scenery, which will add interest to my table.


It was an excellent, if looooong, day and I'd highly recommend taking part in Animosity events. Most of their days are narrative, rather than competitive, and they offer something different from regular tournaments that I personally think the hobby needs. Animosity currently run events in the Games Workshop games, Batman and apparently X-Wing is coming soon. Go to them!

As for my crew, here's what I learned throughout the day:
  • Poison Ivy needs to get stuck into opposing henchmen, and mess with them.
  • She needs to have help dealing with enemy beatsticks. 
  • The plants seem best used stopping you opponent from scoring VP's on their objectives, and the longer that they last in that job, the better off you are.
  • Mr Freeze was a durable as I remember, and if he can get to his loot, he's second only to Catwoman in reliable points (it seems to take him an extra turn to get to the loot), however, he doesn't seem that effective at inflicting damage, and that was something I was lacking.
  • The Prisoners were very weak, and I probably had too many of them. In a 350 rep crew, I'd make sure that I had one of the more durable Prisoners, like Little Spark or High Security Prisoner, simply as in both games against the Law crew, Agent O'Connell and his high Endurance proved an effective counter to my easy to hit chaff.
  • Overall, I like the Ivy crew as she works very differently to the other crews I have.


All in all, an excellent day. Happy Halloween!



6 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great day. I could be tempted by a future day based on your feedback. :)

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  2. Thanks so much for sharing. I'm really envious of the community that seems to have grown around Batman in the UK. Those boards are epic and the event sounds like it was a great time.

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  3. What an amazing day and great to see those boards again. Interesting to read about Ivy and I may yet be tempted into adding her into the collection.

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  4. What a cracking day it sounded! Amazing tables to play on as well. Great stuff!

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  5. Lovely looking terrain boards. Thanks for sharing pics and the writeups.

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  6. Really fantastic looking terrains and some lovely looking shots of them too. There is a nice combo between the minis and the terrain as the colours look bright and interesting which I'm sure would go a long way towards making the games more fun!

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