League of Shadows Bane Crew BMG

Well some new leadership is in order for my Mercenaries for the Batman miniature game. I have a new version of Bane to lead them this time the Dark Knight Rises or DKR(movie version) he has slightly different skills but is still great at knocking the crap out of people and KO'ing them but converting all that stun to blood damage is a struggle with all versions of Bane. So as an experiment I have decided to switch my crews affiliation (I lose the Venom Soldier as he is Bane only) to League of Shadows I get more options for Sidekicks, free agent and henchmen wise but can only take DKR version of Bane. There is one character in particular as to why I have switched affiliation.

First up of the new leadership is the main man (in my eyes anyway) DKR Bane. I really love the iconic pose of this model. The only annoyance and real a shame was the casting quality of it. It was so plastered in mold lines and had a terrible one down the right side of his face meaning I had to more or less file the eye socket and eyeball into shape. Paint scheme wise I pretty much copied the colour scheme from the movie (which surprised me how much dark blue was in there rather than black). Positive thing was that he was a single piece model.

Downside to this Bane doesn't count as large so can be knocked down by other normal size characters, does not move as fast, loses the lethal blow attack and finally the master fighter trait (+1 to hit). The trade off he has combo unarmed which means for every 2 unarmed attacks he dishes out he gets a 3rd free so can dish out a lot of attacks, strategist gives the crew 1 more strategy point so can take extra strategies or better ones, Desensitized means regardless of damage his will power doesn't get reduced so he can still perform to the max until he goes down. Bane also has true love Talia which means if she becomes a casualty he gets +1 willpower and +1 attack until the end of the game. Taking of Talia.........

Here she is! Talia Al Ghul will be his sidekick (replaces the venom soldier bodyguard points wise) she is not as monstrous in combat but has a katana which does double blood damage per hit and she is quite quick and agile with acrobat Talia can't romp about on her own as she is likely to get mobbed but paired up with someone they can be a nuisance together. I had Talia used against me in the tournament and she chopped up Mohawk quite ably. Colour scheme wise I didn't want to go all in black like Knight models did and went for brown leather and cream riding jodhpurs. (Much to Kieron's amusement with his love of Jilly Cooper novels!) I think she fits in with the mercs in this colour scheme more.

I think If I was to go the ninja side of the LoS I would probably use other characters instead of Talia (Unless I get hold of Talia's alt card)

Finally a different Free Agent this time Deadshot gets replaced with DKR Scarecrow. Now this guy at a glance doesn't seem to do a lot. Not great in combat his drug spray is short ranged though potentially useful against a clump of henchmen. But the reason why I'm taking him is for one special trait 'Death or Exile' This character can target one ko'ed miniature within 20cm from him, the targeted miniature becomes removed from the game as a casualty. This is an awesome trait similar to arrest but with a range of 20cm! Meaning he can hang around behind Bane and remove the characters Bane puts down. Well thats the plan anyway. This guy was easy to assemble just comes in two pieces body and the out reached left forearm/hand.

As you can see its still fluffy with Bane, Scarecrow and Talia (though there is no movie Talia so  far) all starring in the The Dark Knight Rises movie.

At the moment the new list is as follows

DKR Bane
Talia Al Ghul
DKR Scarecrow

Smash with Loyalty Tattoos (gains bodyguard trait)

Mohawk with Climbing Claws
McGregor
Dallas with Ammo + NVGs
(cheesy some will say but really my only range threat)

Batman Miniatures Game Huntress Free Agent & Tournament news

 Meh another one of those weeks last week again most the family has been ill mainly my wife Louise and my eldest Carmen spending the first half the week sleeping with them both catching a nasty viral bug. So it has been busier for me than normal. I did game with Pulp Citizen on Tuesday night and tested out another combination for my crew.

Friday I took off as my youngest was poorly again FFS!!! So had an early start to the weekend and around looking after folks I got a bit of painting in and finished Huntress pictured below.

Saturday was the day of the Tournament In the end I took my original list of

Origin Bane
Deadshot

Venom Soldier
Dallas with Ammo

Ted Hunter

Mohawk with Titan

McGregor

It was a positive experience and it was great to get 3 games in and was a good learning experience as well. It was good to meet Kieron of Cheaphammer!!! in the flesh. We didn't get paired up for a game but his Titan Joker gang look awesome and scary!

First game was Plunder against a great guy called Chris Carr and his Two Face Crew with Lobo as a Free agent. It contained a fair few guns and I was a bit concerned at first. There was plenty of cover. A fast advance (one of my strategies) saw my crew in the centre with Bane smashing down henchmen left right and centre and jumping on my own objectives early on I managed to prevent Two Face from getting into the area. End result Win 45vps to 35vps. I also managed to take out Two Face which was awesome Lobo was not far off but he was beginning to chew his way through my own henchmen.

A brief break for lunch and onto the Second match against Dan (sorry forgot his surname) this time was Patrol (reach your opponents deployment zone) against a Batman crew (without batman) it was lead by Commissioner Gordon with Azrael and AK Red Hood two swat and two cops. This was a massive defeat for me 39-7 It was a hard board to slog across with a large wall with two openings in to get through and to my objectives.

In hindsight I should of just dug in on my side and let him come to me but I didn't and he managed to neutralize my guns and then pick off every one else one by one as they tried to get through the wall. I also let him get into my back field via one of two sewers so he managed to sit on his ammo objective and rack up the points. Superior mobility was my downfall.

The Final Game was against Greg Joynson and his League of Shadows crew. It had an interesting line up Talia boss, Free Agent Grundy, Dallas, McGregor, Yang, Lotus and Pavilion A. This was perhaps the most enjoyable game as we sort of had similar henchmen. It was a close fought Draw I really could of done with someone to dish out the blood damage as Bane managed to KO both Lotus and Yang but could remove them as casualties. His Dallas with NVG's I managed to Neutralise early on with Deadshot allowing my Dallas to KO Grundy again I couldn't cause enough blood damage to remove him either. This I think would of won me the game had I been able to score those much needed points. In the end it finished 17-14 to me which is a draw.

Overall the day was awesome it was a great bunch of people I finished 7th out of 12. Pulp Citizen with his Court of Owls managed to comes 6th and Kieron fought well and finished third well done mate!

Defo going to be doing more batman tournaments. My list is going to be tweaked a little or I may take another crew altogether next time. Onto which is Huntress who I finished on Friday. Huntress is a Free Agent being able to join Batman, Arrow crews currently though this may change when the expansion for the game gets released soon as Birds of Prey and 'Teams' may change how crews are configured. A joy to paint a painted the cape separately and the attached it at the end. Pinned for extra security.

Titan Tournament Bane Crew

Been a MEH week this week, Both kids in and out of school being ill, burst water pipe in the kitchen MEH! Despite not getting much hobby stuff done I Did get a great game of Batman in Monday night at Pulp Citizen's .Getting a bit more familiar with my Bane Crew i'm taking to the Tournament this Saturday. We forgot a few things still so have made a sheet of all my characters abilities so I can just take a glance during play and hopefully use them a bit more to there full potential

Crew composition is currently looking at being the following 

Origin Bane 93 rep

Deadshot 76 rep $300

Venom Soldier 57 rep

Dallas 35 rep $600 + Ammo $200

Ted Hunter 31 rep $250

Mohawk  30 rep + Titan Dose $100

McGregor 27 rep

For a total of 349 rep and $1450

L-R Deadshot, McGregor, Mohawk, Bane, Venom Soldier, Dallas, Ted Hunter

I tried Night visions goggles on Dallas on Monday's game and though nice I still spent two turns legging it to an ammo objective to get a final shot at the end of the game. So going to try in the game tomorrow night extra ammo just to see if  I can live without the NVG's are really needed plus some strategies can give me extra lamposts so another thing to consider.

Bane was much better and knocked down a couple of henchmen. I need to pair him with some one who can do blood damage though and finish off those he puts down. Venom Soldier was pretty good as well need to pair him with Bane more still and remember some of his abilities like Hardened (turns first blood each round into a stun).

Deadshot was great and simple to use, Mohawk did pretty well against Strix with his Ice Axe combined with a Titan Dose boosting his attacks upto 6 doing 1 blood each managing to mortally wound Strix allowing Deadshot to gun her down after she sliced down Mohawk. Ted was nice missing his first few shots but shooting down Cobb in the back and KOing him in the final turn managed to leg it into the enemies deployment zone and jumping onto an ammo counter snagging some much needed extra VPS.

Another possibility may be to drop Ted and take Smash instead. This would do two things give some one to follow Bane and Venom finishing off those they KO and would also free up $300 funding allowing cash for NVG's or a batclaw.

Lots to think about still!

Playing against a Poison Ivy crew which will have some guns in and plays different with there static plants. I'll also be facing Hush and Deadshot so should be a different game style to play against tomorrow night.

As promised a shot of the lamposts from the TT Combat City Scenics Street Accessories set. Sadly not had time to work on the 6 barricades that come with set but maybe I can get them done this week. At the moment i've started the League of Shadows mainly priming and the flesh has been done. Not sure how I want the ninjas to look yet whether to go for a blueish hue or maybe even greenish tone to the black.

Talking of Green very tempted to start working on my Green Arrow crew as well. I spent last night basing Green Arrow and Arsenal and filled in a some gaps on them both as wellas Black Canary and they are ready for painting.

Batman Game: Deadshot

Hobby work has slowed down this past week real life has been busier than normal. Deadshot arrived mid week and was rapidly cleaned, based and painted finishing him off on Saturday morning. Lamp Posts are also finished and they are probably a bit basic looking but will perform there job as markers and don't really need to be too fancy (Thanks for reminding me of that PC!) I will take some pics of the lamp posts for Wednesday as they are all packed away for a game this evening. Anyway here is Deadshot pretty much copied off of the Knight Models paintjob.

Deadshot supplies a good amount of mobile firepower and will be able to shoot pretty much nearly every round (basing that on a 5 round game) coupled with night vision allowing him to see anywhere on the board if he can see you and your range he can shoot you! Being a Free Agent Deadshot can be used in most villain type crews so can be used in my Penguin Crew.

Next on the cards is the League of shadows a marvellously lucky purchase off of a Facebook trading group netted me pretty much every option bar one miniature for an even more marvellous price. They have all been cleaned up and based. So expect to see Ra's Al'Ghul (Dark Knight Rises version) and a bunch of ninja's being worked on next.

Sewers, Skips and Mercs

Its been another busy weekend I'd hoped to put up a post on Sunday but before I knew its now Wednesday! Its not been without any hobby time far from it! My package arrived Saturday afternoon with my order from thr Troll Trader. Comprising of two MDF kits and a booster for my Bane Crew the mercenaries Mohawk and Ted Hunter. So work began at a fast pace and on them all.


First up the Sewer markers these are a requirement for the batman game you randomly generate D3 per game with some abilities or special rules allowing you to increase the number.

These are part of the TT Combat range by the Troll Trader you 4 sewer covers, 4 Lamp Posts 4 Construction barriers and 2 large barriers or for the princely some of £3.95 posted! Bargain! They kits punch out really easy and I only had to use the scalpel on a few bits at I felt might get damaged if I just popped them out. The Second kit is the security hut but I will build that once all the prep for the tournament is over.

Sewer marker simply painted in a metallic colour washed with various brown, black and green inks and then drybrushed with the metallic colour with a bit of brown added. Nice and simple

The Lamp posts also a requirement are still wip but they are almost base coated so progressing nicely.

Finally the two Mercs first up my favourite of the two is Ted Hunter armed with a nice medium ranged shotgun he is handy to run and gun as it is ROF 1.  Ted comes in two pieces body and left arm with shotgun. A little bit of filling was required to smooth the arm join.

 Mohawk the second merc in the set armed with a pair of ice axes. This guy comes in four pieces head, body/left arm, right arm and legs. The head was a pain in the ass to put on it had no obvious way of connecting and appeared to be cut at an angle. I fitted it as best as I could and used a bit of putty to smooth out the join. 

 The duo together.

You'll notice in the background a pair of skips I've had these along time lurking on the table and I did a quick and dirty job on these last week in order to get them ready to use in Tuesday's batman game. They are by Ainsty Castings and paint up a treat. They fit in well with the slightly larger 35mm batman figures and so will also be perfect for 28mm gaming.

 Tried to use a lot of extra inks as if its been standing empty for a long time and water has begun to stagnate in the bottom of it.

The Entire Bane Crew ready to rumble. I am pleased to say my step is also a bit more accessible so providing the weather stays dry pics on it shall resume :)