So, We Meet Again Batman...

I managed to convince Wes to come over for another game of the Batman Miniatures Game. To keep things easier we decided to build up the gangs we had last time to 300 Reputation points.

My Gotham Knights lined up as follows:

Batman (Dark Knight Rises)

Nightwing

Agent Ron (Extra Ammo)

Agent O'Connell

Gotham Policeman (Whistle)

Gotham Policewoman (Whistle)

Wes' League if Shadows were the following:

Bane (Dark Knight Rises)

Deadshot

Scarecrow (Arkham Asylum)

Turk - Prisoner (Extra Ammo)

High Security Prisoner (Climbing Shoes)

Once again, I've done the battle report in Comic Life. If you look closely, you'll see the few terrain pieces I've added recently, including sewer markers and Arkham Asylum Gates from Fenris Games.

Wes sent Bane into the sewers early and had the rest of his gang spread out. Seeing a opportunity, I rushed Nightwing forward to get a shot at Scarecrow, but stuffed up the damage rolls. Nightwing got a face full of poison gas from Scarecrow, and a clip full of bullets from Deadshot.

Meanwhile, Batman and the cops edged up towards the advancing Blackgate prisoners.

Trying to protect Nightwing, one of the cops rushed Scarecrow, but fluffed his attacks and ended up being skewered on a poisoned syringe and pumped full of bullets. In a way, he succeeded in protecting Nightwing.

Working with the Police, Batman took down the two Blackgate Prisoners in quick succession whilst the cops took position by the sewer entrances, forcing Bane to appear away from the action.

Bane elected to go for big points and charged Batman, however his blows failed to connect and he went down under a barrage of fists and nightsticks.

Deadshot went after Nightwing in the asylum ground, but the injured vigilante and out-of-ammo assassin fought each other to a stalemate.

Seeing Bane go down before he could reach him to help, Scarecrow backed off, but not fast enough to escape Batman, who swung over and knocked him out cold.

I won 14-2 on victory points, but early on I almost threw the game away by being reckless with Nightwing and his supportin cops. Wes suffered by splitting his gang up so much, and he probably shouldn't have put Bane in the sewers and out of the game.

This was another fun game and were really getting the hang of the rules. I need to pull my finger out on making objective counters so that we can add them to the game and play more varied scenarios.

As an added bonus, not only has Wes begin to make noises about building his own Green Arrow themed gang potentially using Robin's stat card forBlack  Canary), but Matt (who came round to heckle) also seemed keen to use his own SWAT team and a Batman model I gave him to enable him to get into the game too.

Just need to work on Pete now...

The Scenic Tour of Gotham

In the spirit of spamming my own blog, this is my fourth post in four days.

For your delictation today, loyal reader, I have a few scenic pieces for my Gotham board.  First up, a couple of Ammo Objective markers. 

These were easy to do as I'd already painted a load of crates (more than I conceivably need) some time back so sticking them to a base and adding a few spare firearms from the bits box, and Bob's your uncle.

I now need to come up with ideas for markers for Riddles, Titan Containers and Loot, and preferably without spending money (any suggestions gratefully received). In theory I need two of each, but there are a range of special rules which raise the possibility if more and is like to do some personalised ones for the  the free agents that bring their own such as Mr Freeze and Catwoman.

I've also taken the opportunity to finish off some scenic pieces that have been sitting around half painted for months.

The rubbish bin and refuse piles are from Ainsty Castings, and although less than glamourous they should liven up an alley on the board, provide a route onto a low roof and possibly save somebody's life as cover.

I bought the crate from a stand at Triples this year (I can't remember the name of the company). It's not the best casting in the world but it was cheap. I've done it army green because a) that's the colour spray paint I had available, and b) Batman villains are always knocking off military supplies.

I have another to do, and I'm tempted to do something more thematic with it, such as a Wayne Enterprises logo.

We're all of to the Other Partizan show in Mewark tomorrow, so I might even be able to keep up my relentless posting with a show report tomorrow.

Welcome to Gotham...

So last night I introduced Wes to the Batman Miniature Game. I'm still learning the game myself so we only played a small game of 134 points (I had a card printing issue which limited things) and didn't use objectives or strategies. Technically we played the Skirmish scenario, but it was really just a straight fight.

The crews were as follows:

My Gotham Knights:

 - Batman (Dark Knight Rises)

 - Gotham Policewoman (with Whistle)

Wes' League of Shadows:

 - Deadshot (treated as a League of Shadows leader)

 - High Security Prisoner (with Night Vision Goggles)

 - Prisoner

Rather than do a full report, I've done another comic using comic life.

Technically, I won the game by a massive 2VP's to nothing, but in reality it was touch and go. Batman fluffed both his initial attack on Deadshot and his first round of combat against the High Security Prisoner. By the end of the game Batman had only 2 endurance left, and the Policewoman had just 1. What's more, Batman only KO'd the High Security Prisoner by virtue of a critical in the last round; if he'd still been standing, he probably would have finished off one oft characters to win the game.

Deadshot is a beast whilst he has ammo, and we learned a little about how to use henchmen to run interference. Having used other versions of Batman, I think I prefer the Arkham version to the Dark Knight Rises Batman, but that may be because Deadshot completely negated his stealth ability.

All in all, this was a fun learning experience, and Wes seems keen to play again. I want to try out objectives and a larger game, but after initially being wary, I'm really beginning to enjoy the Batman Miniatures Game, it has a lot of depth and character to it.

"There's...too...many...of...them!"

Following on from the first two games in the X-Wing campaign that Pete and I played a couple of months ago, we recently found time for scenario three.

Following my failure to prevent the escape of the damaged Rebel blockade runner, I assembled my forces for another strike on the traitorous enemies of the Emporer. 

My mission was to either destroy four satellites or damage part of the blockade runner. My force was as follows:

Marek Steele

4 Academy TIE Fighters

1 TIE Phantom

3 TIE Interceptors

Defending the blockade runner and the satellites were:

1 E-Wing

2 X-Wings

2 A-Wings

The squadrons flew directly towards each other firing wildly to little effect. I'd decide to focus on the satellites and flew straight past the rebel ships, keeping my eyes on the prize, foolishly allowing them to k-turn behind my ships.

On the right I managed to evade the X-Wings and swing round behind the blockade runner before eventually destroying the first satellite.

Meanwhile, on the left, concentrated fire from the A-Wings and E-Wing had quickly dismantled the Interceptors leaving only the Phantom to complete the mission.

The satellites were proving very resilient as the rebels could recharge the shield on the satellites each turn. Splitting fire between the satellites and the enemy ships meant that I was losing the battle.

Even the evasive TIE Phantom eventually succumbed to volume of fire leaving just Maarek and two TIEs to complete the mission.

When Maarek Steele was destroyed by a blast from the blockade runner, it was clear the mission was a failure and the remaining Impetials withdrew.

In short, I was battered!

I made a number of mistakes in this game which contributed to my defeat:

1) I should have aimed at destroying part of the blockade runner as it is a bigger and easier target than the satellites.

2) I should have attacked in two lines to respond to any rebels that got behind me, an error which cost me all three interceptors.

3) I should have engaged the rebel fighters earlier to thin their numbers.

After the opening couple of turns, Peye was able to dictate the game I I was desperately trying to evade his ships. He played well and I flew like...well...me!

Next time Rebel, next time...

The Seeds of Inspiration

I always find it difficult to get any painting done during the summer. Despite being a teacher and having an obscene amount of holiday, for some reason I'm never in the right frame of mind to get stuff done.

I never really help myself either due to being so flighty. I go through phases of deep obsession with topics during which I will paint related stuff, only to be distracted by a chance reference and then spring off into a different obsession.

However, this time, one of my random encounters has brought me round to painting Batman stuff again. I stumbled on an animated movie 'Assault on Arkham,' and it was pretty good. For once it was a batman film which had the villains as the central protagonists as the Suicide Squad, featuring Deadshot, Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang (I kid you not) and others, are tasked with breaking in to Arkham Asylum. No sooner was the movie over than I was in a fully-fledged bat-fad.

Unfortunately, I had nothing to paint.

A quick visit to Firestorm Games website (can't recommend them enough) sorted an order for Poison Ivy and a couple of Two-Face's gang (I have a Clix to use for 'Face), and while I was waiting for them to be delivered, I started hacking and glueing some artificial flowers to make some mutated plants for Ivy.

I only had to wait two days for the order to arrive, and having made the plants I got on with painting Ivy. She's an excellent model but some of the detail is so fine that it's beyond my skill to really bring it out. However, I'm pleased with how she's turned out and the addition of the flower to the back of her base ties her in with the plants well.

As a final shot, here they are together.

Starting Small

We've started yet another project...

A couple of weeks ago, Matt, Wes and I went to the Joy of Six wargames show in Sheffield. It was organised by Wargames Emporium and Bacchus Miniatures and was a show focused on 6mm gaming.

There were only a handful if traders, but there were lots of display games, seminars and people to chat to. I really liked this format of focused show and it persuaded us to take the plunge and have a go at a 6mm project.

A rather intense discussion of different periods led to us deciding on the American Civil War - mainly because we figured that the painting might be more straight-forward than some more ostentatiously outfitted conflicts.

I was particularly pleased with the decision as I've always had a keen interest in the Civil War. I did own the beginning of two 28mm armies, but sold them a few years ago due to storage issues. I personally think that as far as historical wargaming goes, the American Civil War provides limitless scope for re-fights, campaigns and one-off battles. What's more, most painted units can largely be used across the conflict without worrying too much about accuracy.

So, each of us bought a pack of infantry, Matt and I split a command pack and Wes bought a house. I opted for Eastern theatre Union (which gives me an excuse to be crap for a few years), Matt went for the Western theatre and Wes bought Rebs. The plan is to coerce Pete into joining the Confederacy. In the long run I'll probably paint up some confederates too.

I've painted my first brigade: four regiments and a command stand. Overall, I'm really happy with them.

The flags are from Warflags and resized to fit 6mm.

Wes has also begun his rebellion with some skirmishers. Given that he's only been painting miniatures for a couple if months, these are frankly excellent.

So that's the beginning of the project. We're not sure what we're working towards yet, but I'm going to copy Wes and do some skirmisher and sharpshooter bases for a bit of variation.

Russian Into Battle

We've taken to playing 500 point games of Bolt Action recently in order to all be able to get games in and to really get to grips with the rules.

Due to the small game size we've been playing without army special rules as we've found that they can be unbalancing in smaller games

This week my newly finished Russians went up against Matt's partisans that double as Volkssturm when fighting Allied forces.

My Soviets:

2nd Lt & 1 man (SMGs)

12 Regulars (rifles + LMG)

8 Veterans (rifles, 2 SMGs, tough fighters)

3 Tank Hunters (rifles, panzerfaust)

Anti-Tank Rifle team

Sniper Team

45mm Anti-Tank Gun

Matt's Partisans (this might be wrong)

Officer & 1 man (SMGs)

12 Regulars (rifles)

12 inexperienced  (mix of rifles and pistols)

6 Veterans (SMGs)

MMG team

Inexperienced Captured Puma

I began with my sniper in the big hotel on the left and the tank hunters lurking around the centre of the table. I brought on my anti tank teams in the centre to threaten the road and hopefully tame the Puma. Meanwhile my veterans went up the left whilst the regulars and officer went up the right.

One element of the game I was pleased with was my use of 'kill zones'. The threat of the sniper made Matt bring all of his infantry on the right, bunching them together, whilst the Puma used it's Recce move to avoid the first shot from the AT Gun and never came out from behind the house in the centre for the rest of the game. 

Meanwhile, Matt used his MMG to control the ground between and beyond the houses in the centre. This effectively divided my force later in the game.

In the picture above the advance of Matt's regulars caused my tank hunters to retreat to the ruin by the road, but were countered by a devastating charge from my veterans, which destroyed the partisans, but left the vets hemmed in by the MMG.

Meanwhile, despite a brief exchange of fire, the right side of the table was tensely poised. My regulars were stranded in the woods, but being on ambush meant the the first of the partisans to appear would get a face full of lead. The inexperienced unit were in the larger ruined house, with the veterans and officer behind it.

To break the stalemate I advanced the AT rifle into a vulnerable position in the ruin and the inexperienced unit duly took the bait and assaulted. Despite being successful, the casualties they took (along with some earlier in the game) meant that the inexperienced unit was somewhat weakened.

Then came the exchange. Matt got the run of the order dice but was let down by his rolling to wound as the partisan officer and veterans advanced to pour fire in to the wood, and the inexperienced unit assaulted from the ruin.

However, when the dust had settled, the Russians were still standing and began to pin the partisan veterans into oblivion. Matt fired his MMG into the maelstrom, which allowed my veterans to finally cross the road and add their weight to proceedings.

By this point the battle was won, but it's worth a brief note about my tank hunters. They'd lurked, hidden, retreated, advanced and finally found themselves within striking range of their target, the Puma. The only problem was that attacking it would expose them to both the Puma and the MMG if they missed.

But they had a panzerfaust and weren't afraid to use it. The tank hunters advanced into the open, fired and...missed. The Puma's MMG spat fire at point blank range, but also missed. The tank hunters prepared to assault but then noticed the MMG in the cornfield turning in their direction. I imagine that the expressions bore a startling similarity to those of Richard Attenborough and Gordon Jackson at the end of The Great Escape...

Overall, I was pleased with how the game went and generally things went according to plan. Matt was unlucky in the exchange of fire on the right. For the first time I made extensive use of the ambush order in a game and it served me well, controlling fields of fire and making my opponent consider their moves carefully.

Playing amongst the buildings was a cagey and brutal affair and my tough veterans were fearsome. I was pleased with the durability of my big unit of regulars, and I was particularly happy with the effect that my AT gun had even though it didn't fire. However, I'm not all that sure of the effectiveness of the tank hunters.

I'm now considering whether to change my set up for next week when I'll be up against Americans or Germans.