Getting Up To Speed

My birthday is finally over.

A month later, my pre-order from Knight Models via Outpost Games finally arrived, bringing these guys: Flash and the Black Flash.

Flash is a cracking model, really nicely defined and cast. Easy to paint (although the camera is never totally forgiving to my painting) and suitably quick to finish.

The sculpt is the New 52 Barry Allen. There are a whole realm of alternate versions of the Flash which may turn up in the range. However, I'm not too worried. I've never really been into the Flash (although I do like the TV show) as all the wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey stuff makes the generally confused chronology of most comics characters look positively OCD. The Flash often re-sets his own back story within his own stories!

The main reasons I have him is so that I can build towards a version of the Justice League; I can tempt people to play who know the CW TV shows; and because of the fact I was getting this guy for free.

In contrast to the Flash, the Black Flash has fairly shallow details that my eyes and brush work struggle with. What's more, his left hand is a little miscast, and his right elbow is a bit funny too. This is something that might bother me if I'd not got him for free, and if he was massively likely to hit the table.

The Black Flash is essentially Death for speedsters in the DC universe - kind of like the black rabbit of Imle from Watership Down.

I'd never heard of him either.

However, this model came as the free pre-order model with the new expansion rulebook for BMG called 'The Flash and the Arrow' (clearly cashing in on the TV shows). Included in the book are rules for vehicles (such as the Batmobile), teams (like the Suicide Squad and the Birds of Prey) and speedsters.

The new rules allow speedsters to spend 'Speed Force' tokens on different speed-related powers, such as moving really fast, attacking a lot, or even walking through walls. Some of these powers come with a risk of a Paradox happening, which then requires a 2d6 roll on the Paradox table. A result of twelve means Black Flash shows up to attack the speedster in question.

As you can see, with a 1 in 36 chance of showing up in games in which I use the Flash and fail a paradox roll, I can't see Black Flash getting too much table time. However, having said that, he'll probably show up the first time I need to test...

The expansion book full of useful stuff for changing up your games of BMG. There are new locations to play in, such as Central City, the island of Lian Yu, or even Gorilla City. The teams offer a chance to do some small but powerful line ups, without the usual bunch of henchmen. There's currently only one vehicle in the game, the Batmobile, but I have that so it's encouragement to get it done. There are a whole load of new traits as well, hinting at some really interesting future releases. Finally, there are new equipment lists and strategies for the existing crews.

There's something in there for everyone.

Well...unless you play the Watchmen...