Animosity Dark Victory Batman Tournament @ Holmfirth Gaming Centre

Didn't get chance to post this weekend as was busy prepping for my 4th Batman Tournament this year. This time at the amazing Holmfirth Gaming Centre in Thongsbridge. I'll link you to there facebook page as it has the most info on. Its a brilliant place in an unexpected location. The shop is ace and has many well known brands of miniatures and stocks tons of different paints. There are some amazing tables to game on as well as huge 18 foot 40K Apocalypse table of which some of the titans and knights are worth visiting to view alone.

Check out the Animosity page as well as they run all sorts of events for 40K and all sorts.

Holmfirth Gaming Centre Facebook Page

Animosity Event Organisers

Onto the tournament itself. It was a bit of a road trip for myself and Pulp Citizen around 2hrs and 120 miles there and back again so was an early start and a late finish as it started at 930 and finished a little later than planned at 8pm.

We played 4 games at 350 rep $1500 through out the day and was narrated more so than anything else. We played some tweaked missions as the story unfolded throughout the day. Two face was trying to take over Gotham and cause mayhem and chaos.

Earlier in the week my pre order of Suicide squad came and in the end as I loved the movie I decided to have a crack at a couple of the Suicide squad members as they are fabulous sculpts. I didn't have time to paint more than two from the set so not enough to take the Suicide squad as a list so settled for painting Killer Croc and Slipknot and include them in my Bane list as Free Agents.

The list I took was as follows. Dallas for ranged threat, Bane and Venom Soldier for melee punch. McGregor with back pack for loot running. Killer Croc as a distraction as he can start the game in the sewers and pop up anywhere on the board. Slipknot was chosen for two reasons he comes with a grapple gun for $100 which is really cheap and he also has the Arrest rule. The trouble with Bane in the past and Venom Soldier (mini Bane to some) is that they put out a lot of stun damage meaning enemies can recover from it unlike blood damage. Slipknot is also fast enough to hover out of harms way and swoop in when Bane has put them down. I had some great arrests throughout the day.

I planned to stick to 3 Strategies for the day just keep things simple though I had to change a couple purely because the customised missions change what objectives you could take.

Objective Trap
Change of plans
Titan Container located

Leader

Origin Bane 93

Henchmen

Venom Soldier 57 + Venom Applicator +2 $100 + Venom Dose $100

Dallas 35 $600 + Ammo $200 Night Vision Goggles $200

Smash 30 + Titan Dose $100

McGregor 27 + Backpack $100

Free Agents

Killer Croc 64

Slipknot 42 $100

Total 350 $1500

Game 1 

Player: Mark
Mission: Patrol
Table: Jokers Funhouse

Bane VS Green Arrow

Arrow (TV)
Arsenal
Animated Black Canary
Spartan (Diggle) (they had gear but i forgot)
O'Connell

This game table was pretty cool what you can't really see if that most the buildings are made up out of mirrored tiles its brilliant. Its deceptive as you think its got great lines of sight when it hasn't. Also some gaps are to small for large guys like Bane and Venom to fit through.

This game is a corner to corner deployment and is a slog to get to your own objectives on the opposite side of the table. I was fortunate that my opponent decided to take Safes as an objective (Loot and Safes can be score by either side). I really hate this mission especially for Bane as his crew is normally sooooo slow. As my opponent gave me two objectives to score from I decided to Turtle up and let him come to me.

My opponent was running a Green Arrow crew lead by the TV version. It was quite a small crew but had plenty of mobility and some nifty shooting. Mark took the Maps strategy 3 times and filled the table with lamp posts making it even more of a deathtrap for me to travel across. I however having Dallas had the advantage with his unlimited range and Night vision goggles allowing me to see with unlimited range.

I punched out the lamp in my deployment zone asap then moved Smash and McGregor to sit on my opponents Safes and begin to slowly get points. A few shots with Dallas put a little bit of damage on Arsenal but he managed to dodge a fair bit of incoming bullets. Croc popped up in his deployment zone and kept Spartan and O'Connell occupied. Croc went down eventually after being tasered for several turns and finally being arrested by O'Connell. My big guys bided there time until Arrow, Canary and Arsenal got to the middle of the table. Venom soldier got a few hits in on Arsenal and Bane knocked out Black Canary for Slipknot to zoom in and get of my first arrest. Arrow shot the crap out of Smash killing him. So Dallas no devoid of ammo sprinted down and took Smash's place scoring from the safe. Arsenal tried to flee but was run down by Bane swiftly followed by Slipknot's second arrest of the day.

VP's at the end of the first match 23-11 Victory for me! I got a bonus for game two which was a circle of power which auto gave me the lead on round one of my next game without drawing a counter from the bag.

 Jokers Fun Hose board.

Mark's Team Arrow.

Game 2 

Player: Chris B

Mission Plunder (modified)

Table: Container Yard

Bane vs Harley (Joker crew)

AK Harley

Mr Hammer

Borgon

Asker

Ringmaster

Sniggering + Ammo

Triston + Ammo

Contre Auguste

Knife clown

This was a very close fought game and could of easily swung either way. I made some mistakes which I think cost me the game. The mission was plunder and objectives get deployed across a central zone. This was very fortunate for me as my opponent took Joker Gas canisters which when used in other missions would go in my deployment zone hurting my crew before they can even close with the enemy. The mission was standard plunder with the exception that one of your objectives was replaced with explosives and you got a bonus for controlling your own at the end of the game (for the narrative). Both Chris and I finished the game with ours.

 Dallas was great taking out Mr. Hammer and Borgon from a far. Croc popped up and tied up Borgon and Contra Auguste for most the game and prevented Chris from scoring on his titan container objective. Croc was a little bit of a disappointment combat wise mainly because without any re-rolls to hit or to wound I struggled to cause much damage. Croc is tough and I have plans for his use in the future though and as a distraction is great.

Now I started with a good lead was scoring all my objectives 6 vps per turn but Chris now had clowns on both his safes a joker gas can and his explosive (loot). Venom Soldier tried to charge up the left side and to try and contest the ringmaster who was carrying the explosives and sitting on a safe. Unfortunately I failed to roll high enough on his movement dice and was left in the sights of Triston's shotgun and Sniggering Assault rifle and he was gunned down. Now here comes the mistake I put Bane down a sewer to try and pop him up by the ringmaster but in doing so I removed the threat he posed to Harley Quinn and she leapt over KO'd Dallas and the contested McGregor who was carring my loot and sitting on my ammo reducing me to 2 vps from 6 per turn for the last 3 rounds.
This ultimately cost me the game and it ended a hard fought draw as we failed to cause any more damage or push off Harley.

Final VPS where 32-31 to me a close and hard fought draw and probably the best game of the day.

Game 3
Player: Leon (Pulp Citizen)
Table: Destroyed Football Stadium

Mission: Custom

Bane Vs Court of Owls

High Court Member

Gotham Butcher – Ancient Training, Camo Vest, Genetic Alteration 

Brandon O'Malley – Climbing Claws

Strix – Genetic Alteration

William Cobb – Grapple Gun; Ancient Weapon, Genetic Alteration, Camo Vest

Xiao Loong

This was a custom scenario. Deployment was a on opposite sides. There was a 40cm square central objective zone. Again one objective was replaced. This time with two explosive markers. These behaved like loot but you could'nt score pts from them every round. They had to be picked up and taken to your opponent's deployment zone to score a bonus 4 vps.

The Bonus from game 2 was instead of a token of power for the winner was if you secured your own explosives in game 2 your got a bonfire to place in game 3. These fires obscured vision and restricted movement through them. It was a neat idea and we both liked it. It also looked ace on the ruined football stadium. I had to get Bane on this board especially as he blows one up in the Dark Knight Rises movie!

This was quite a close game again. Dallas shot all his ammo off over 3 rounds taking down the Butcher. Croc was kept down the sewers until round 4 as the Sewer I wanted to pop him out of the Butcher was sitting on and later Xiao Loong. Sadly he couldn't take down Brandon O'Malley who managed to get into my deployment zone with some explosives. Strix was beaten up by Venom Soldier and Smash and then arrested by Slipknot. Bane started to get the beat down on Cobb who fled to avoid a similar fate as Strix. Smash managed to swiftly sneak past Xiao Loong and planned to clobber the court leader only to fluff his attacks completely four bloody 1s!!!! The Court Leader swiftly backed away but not before discouraging Smash reducing his Willpower for the following round. Slipknot carrying explosives zipped off with his grapple gun. Cobb began pursuit. Bane caught up but failed to inflict any further pain on him. McGregor managed to jump on my ammo. Slipknot zipped into my opponents deployment zone and the game finished.

Final score was 25-20 to me. 1 more point scored and it would of been a victory instead of a draw!

Game 4

Player: Kieron

Table: Liun Yu

Mission: Fight for Gotham

Bane Vs Justice League (Batman crew)

Batman(Frank Miller)

Flash

Hawkgirl

Blue Lantern (Gotham Policeman 1 lol ;) )

This was another cool board. Quite open we forgot to use the fog rules restricting visibility including for nightvision to 20cm. Dallas didn't get chance to fire anyway,  Objectives were deployed as normal in the oppositions deployment zones with loot being allowed 20cm further out. Bonfire's were allocated by our leaders and I was fortunate enough to get one. We also had one from a previous game a pyre of dead ninja's apparently so we went with it!

This was quite a small crew and they had taken the much feared bat signal (though a new FAQ has now reduced its VPs to 3 per turn). I split my main scoring objectives into opposite corners mainly to force Kieron in to having to stretch his small numbers even further. The table had a river across the centre which though wasn't impassible meant only the corners and the bridge were points of crossing. Again with my slower Bane crew I turtled up to defend using Bane, Slipknot and Venom soldier to defend the signal and guard the nearby ammo. McGregor snagger Kieron's loot and legged it. Hawkgirl flew high and landed round 2 smashing down Dallas. Batman skulked by the bonfire with the policemen. Smash advanced and snagged my loot. Croc popped up and made jumped onto my ammo. Flash zipped about the table punched out Smash. Picked up my loot then dropped it to help out the policemen fighting with croc. Eventually Batman ran over and between the three of them KO'd Croc and arrested him.Venom soldier disappeared down the sewer and popped up turn 5 and jumped onto my titan objective. Hawkgirl was fighting for her life against Bane who fluffed his attacks over round 4 and 5 clipping her with one punch in round 5 but managing to stun her with lethal blow. Dallas got back up and tried to sneak a single shot off at her and missed. Hawkgirl then decided to flee rather than face a full burst from Dallas in Round 6 and a very angry Bane who was hoping to turn his luck around.

The game ended 16-12 to me another very close game.

 I finished 8th and Leon Came 3rd. The Scoring system goes by Tournament points (TP's) determined by the victory points difference you beat your opponent by. As you can see the top spots where closely tied all scoring 12 and then total vps scored throughout the day are used in case of a tie. I had 1 win and 3 draws scoring me 9 Tournament Points. Everybody got a prize who took part both supplied by Knight Models, Secret Weapon miniatures, Multiverse gaming.

 The Final results.

My Prize I chose a pack of resin Jersey Barriers to go with my new buildings that came in the Suicide Squad box and a Detective Harvey Bullock tournament card which I didn't own so I am really chuffed with the card!

All 18 of us who took part in the Animosity Dark Victory Event

Huge thanks have to go to Scott Kelly and Chris Marshall who organised and ran the event. Looking forward to returning again.

I have to include the final print of the campaign. Scott does these wonderful newspaper front pages on the run up to the event putting out titbits of the story and including events that happen in the games through out the day.