The Killing Joker

As previously advertised, I spent today at another Titan Games Batman Tournament in Lichfield. I always enjoy them and it's a good chance to catch up with friends from the world of BMG and blogging. Not only was Leon/Pulp Citizen from Eclectic Gentlemen Gamer there again, having notably more success with his Court of Owls crew, but I also finally got to meet Simon from Brummie's Wargaming Blog, who was running his newly finished Bane crew.

I took my Joker crew and went all out on speed and aggression with my choices as a change from the stealth and sehannigans I'd used with my previous tournanment crews (Harley, League, Batman and Ivy):

• Titan Joker
• Victor Zsasz
• Titan Clown (with Bat-Claw and Clown Paint)
• Contra-Auguste (with Clown Paint)
• Sniggering (with Extra Ammo)
• Prisoner 01 
• Prisoner 04
• Pavilion A Subject

Game 1 - Plunder

My first game was against Chris' League of Shadows crew, and I immediately spotted that we had extremely similar crews. He had a small ranged advantage and I had a bit more speed and bulk, but the two crews were pretty evenly matched:

• Ra's Al Ghul (Batman Begins Version)
• Victor Zsasz
• Smash
• Dallas (with Night Vision Goggles and Extra Ammo)
• Yang
• Shadow
• Prisoner 01 (with Loyalty Tattoo)
• Prisoner 02

Chris immediately took the advantage by using Ra's Al Ghul's bonus strategies to secure an extra objective for him to score points off, whilst using Snitch to deny me doing the same. The first couple of turns saw us both rush for objectives and warily circle each other, aware that the one who broke cover first could leave themselves exposed.

Chris broke first, and his Victor Zsasz rushed into the midst of my crew and failed to have an impact. He was leapt up by my crew and beaten into the dirt. This gave me the advantage and I set up bait to draw Ra's Al Ghul out into the open. Chris took the bait (although I'm not sure who was baiting who) and Titan Joker and Titan Clown leapt in to decapitate the Demon's Head. They whiffed.

This lead to Joker being taken down by a counter ambush and suddenly I was unable to break through the League's lines to halt their stream of victory points. Although I carried on fighting, I was unable to keep up and ultimately lost 51-37.

Despite the result, this one of the best games I've played of BMG as it was so cagey initially, and then just exploded into action. The game was also characterised by me remembering special rules three seconds after they would have been useful. That's what happens when you have six months between games. However, this shouldn't take away from the way Chris played, he used his crew, especially Ra's, with precision and would finish the day in second place.

Game 2 - Patrol

Have slipped down the leader board significantly, I found myself facing another, very different, League of Shadows crew played by Greg:

• Talia Al Ghul
• Solomon Grundy
• Lotus
• Yang
• McGregor (with Loyalty Tattoo)
• Dallas (with Night Vision Goggles and Extra Ammo)
• Pavilion A Subject

With the goal of this scenario to get to the other side, I decided to load one flank. Titan Joker, Titan Clown and Prisoner 04 making a concerted rush against Solomon Grundy, Talia and McGregor, whilst the rest of the henchmen risked Dallas' firing lanes to grab loot and Victor Zsasz went up against the Ninjas (whom I'd managed to injured with my gas cannisters). Meanwhile, both of our lunatics hit the sewers in an attempt to sneak into the scoring zones.

Prisoner 01 and Contra Auguste made a dash for the loot, and managed to grab it, despite being in view of Dallas who only managed to hit Prisoner 01 once (in fact that was all he'd hit all game - Greg had some terrible luck with him), and found himself under fire and taking damage from Sniggering. My henchmen retreated and managed to block sewers and prevent the League's other objectives being scored from for the rest of the game.

Zsasz almost took down Yang, but was forced onto the defensive. However, he was able to tie up both ninjas for the entire game, preventing them achieving much. He even managed to finish off Dallas at the end of the game for a few bonus VP's.

The big fight saw Titan Joker and Titan Clown knock out Grundy in a single round, but they were unable to finish him off and he went all Cape Fear on me and just kept on getting back up. Talia proved particularly dangerous, and not only managed to kill Prisoner 04, but also did enough damage to the big guys to ultimately make me back off to prevent Greg scoring from them.

MVP, however, was my lunatic. He popped up from a sewer and managed to rack up 10 VP's from various objectives, ultimately helping me to win 26-12.

Game 3 - Skirmish

Firmly back in mid-table mediocrity, I found myself up against Chris (there were several guys name Chris at the event - 4, I think) and his Watchmen. I've played Chris before at the Long Halloween event, and he gave my Poison Ivy crew a schooling with Nightwing. He crew, predictably, was:

• Ozymandias
• Comedian
• Rorschach
• Silk Spectre
• Nite Owl

Without putting too fine a point on it, this game was a nightmare for Chris.

It began with Comedian failing to destroy a lamppost and getting shot (just once) by Sniggering. However it continued with me getting in on Ozymandias with Titan Joker on turn two and knocking him down, then getting first turn and being able to knock him out.

This was shortly followed by Titan Clown and Zsasz mobbing Rorschach and knocking him out as they responded quickly to some clever objective deployment from Chris. Comedian and Silk Spectre tried to respond to the situation, but Joker was able to catch up with them and knock out Spectre and seriously injure Comedian, with the injured Ozymandias was unable to prevent my henchmen scoring continuously from loot and ammo objectives.

Although Chris was able to knock out Joker late in the game, partly due to me getting cocky, it was too late to balance the scores and the game ended 30-12.

Chris had a terrible start to this game, and it would have been worse if Titan Clown and Zsasz had not been whiffing their attacks as they tried to finish of Rorschach and Silk Spectre. Titan Joker was immense, and rolling well, showing just what a beast he can be.

Results

Not only had I managed to win two of my three games, the last round had saw nobody else in the competition manage to win a game. Everybody drew. This saw me surprisingly leap up the table into third! This amazing late surge saw me win two blister packs (Arkham Knight and some Joker Clowns) and a tournament exclusive alternate card for Prisoner 02 (BA). The main prize though was an excellent day's gaming, at a cracking venue, meeting and playing some really nice people. I couldn't fail to win.

In terms of the game itself, what did I learn?

• Big guys, like Titan Joker, are really powerful, but very swingy. When the dice are good (such as in game 3) the can almost single-handedly win you the game, but when the dice run cold (such as in game 1), the lack of re-rolls can be a real problem.
• Having Distract (from Clown Paint) on the Titan Clown is a great combination, allowing him to weaken defences before clobbering them. I didn't really use the Bat-Claw, but that's probably because of the crews I was facing.
• Speed and aggression works as a crew tactic. By being up in my opponents' faces I was able to force the game on them, and although it sometimes didn't work out, I felt like I was dictating the games for a lot of the day.
• I need to work harder to get my Bodyguard into position. Prisoner 04 was never quite where he needed to be when Joker was taking damage.
• Zsasz is great against chaff, but struggles to hit tougher opponents.

Overall, another great day from the chaps at Titan Games and I will almost certainly attending their next event. I would heartily recommend that you do the same!