Feature Friday - Swamp Thing!

It's time for another Feature Friday, and this week we're looking at the fearsome Swamp Thing!

Swampy (as I will probably call him often...) is a Sidekick for the Poison Ivy band, which is really another way of saying one of two things: a) he's either a particularly nasty beatstick to support Ivy, or b) he can lead a band with deployable plants.  Now that's fluffy!  And hey, he's also got Affinity: Batman, so he can (if you are so inclined) work along with the Dark Knight Detective and his law band backup.

You have to be careful with the Swampster, though.  He shares the title of "BMG's Most Expensive Model" with the Batpod and Titan Bane at a whopping 150 points (!), so you'd better have a very precise plan for any game involving his green muscles.  Sure, it would be novel to put him in with the Batpod and Titan Bane for a 450 rep battle, but the chances of that happening are pretty slim.  And if you're taking him with Ivy, you're pretty much blocking out any chance of taking the Gotham City Sirens, so you'll seriously need to consider how you're going to chase after objectives.

But hey, enough playful banter about who he'll play with and how much he'll cost you.  Let's move on to Swamp Thing's card.

Let's start with the impressive parts of Swamp Thing's statline.  He's got a whopping Strength 2, the highest in the game, and a respectable Attack 4.  He has a listed Special 3, but Scientific gives him an effective score of 4 for purposes of action counter allocation - handy for his wide variety of Special Traits.  His Endurance 11 is especially impressive, as he can stay on his feet long enough to heal up some of those wounds over the course of the game with Regeneration.  Remember, though, that he can only heal 1 damage a turn with that trait, so you don't want to throw him in without any support.

On the less impressive side, Swampy has a Movement 2 and Defense 3, which means he's going to have a hard time getting places and an easy time getting hit.  He has limited ways to overcome these weaknesses (though he can't enter the Sewers because of Pollution Hate), so you might want to think of him more as a plodding tank than a beatstick-bruiser.  He's also got a Vulnerability to Fire, but that hasn't come up in BMG - yet.  When it does, though, Swamp Thing is going to be one sad treeman.

That doesn't mean he can't put out some serious pain, though.  His basic melee attack is 1Blood + 1Stun with Reach, and he has the ability to fire off Spikes if he really needs to - albeit at Short Range, with the limitation that he needs to Reload (fire only once every two turns).  On the plus side, Spikes are a Throwing weapon and not a Firearm, so they have the following advantages:

1. They do not suffer RoF penalties while Swamp Thing is moving.
2. They roll against his Strength (2+!) to injure.
3. They ignore Bulletproof Vests.

That's a lot of bang for your buck, depending on who's in your immediate vicinity!

I've already touched on Swamp Thing's band-relevant traits (Affinity: Batman and Elite Boss (Plants)), but let's have a look at some of the others before we move on to the juicy Special Traits that make him so interesting.  Immortal means that your opponent will never be scoring casualty-level points for killing Swampy, but be careful - Scientific adds 1 VP for the kill anyway (this means Swampy is worth 2ko/3cas, not 2ko/5cas).  He's also Large, which Endalyon discusses in great detail here.  Long story short, he's got a whole bunch of additional rules that aren't immediately apparent on his card, including a 12cm move, an immunity to most grabs and knock-downs, and a much-easier chance of shaking off the KO status.  Especially handy considering his Regeneration!

As a Large character, Swamp Thing has an ability to make him tougher.  Like Killer Croc, Swampy has access to Tough Skin, which reduces damage rolls against him by 1.  Suddenly, models that needed a 4+ to injure him need 5s, and models that already needed 5s...well...you get the idea.  This trait is an amazing way to avoid being injured, but don't forget that Swampy lacks the Insensitive ability that many other Large models have, so he - like Croc - will be losing full action counters when he's injured.  Remember my warning about Regeneration not being enough to save him by itself!

Sometimes only love can save you...

Last but definitely not least, let's look at Swamp Thing's remaining Special Traits: Roots, Natural Immunities, and Green Travel.  Natural Immunities is the easiest to talk about, as it makes Swampy immune to Blind, Poison, and Steal.  Add this to his already-impressive resistances to grabs, knock-down, and KO, and you have quite a durable individual.

Roots, on the other hand, is a very cool ability costing 2 special, and has a range of 20cm (and LoS).  It doesn't make Swamp Thing any tougher, but it does help him catch up to his target.  Basically, this ability forces one model to make an Agility roll or be Pinned Down for the entire round.  That means it cannot Move or spend MC and receives a -1 to its Attack value.  A lack of MC means no Batclaw, no way of escape.  You can use this to set up Swamp Thing's allies too, by snaring an enemy that may be trying to leave the range of a plant or other such attack.

Unlike a Grab, there's no way to resist this other than passing an Agility roll when the trait is used (which means rolling equal to or under the Movement stat).  As a balancing factor, most models that Swamp Thing is worth throwing at (bigger than mere mooks) are going to have Movement 3 or more, so there's a 50-50 chance you'll snare them with Roots - and a 50-50 chance you'll be wasting 2 Special to do so.  This is definitely a circumstantial ability, but one you shouldn't forget about!

Green Travel is costly as all hell (2 move, 2 special), but it's a true teleportation ability in a game where long-distance travel (like those pesky Sewers) takes multiple turns.  You can only use it once per game, but it allows you to pick Swamp Thing up and place him anywhere up to 40cm away, as long as his base can fit.  For those players more accustomed to Imperial measurement, 40cm is over a foot - on a three-foot table!  If you're really straining for mobility, you can even make a regular move followed by Green Travel, but be careful: you'll only have four action counters left after your massive leap.  That's not much to stay well-rounded, so you'd better have an action plan that either involves Swampy being safe...or your opponent dying really hard.

That's my quick run-down on the awesome new Swamp Thing.  How do you use him?  Is there anything I missed?  Share below in the comments section!