The Watchmen - Feature Friday

The Watchmen belong in the Batman Miniature Game.  There's been controversy of who fits or who doesn't but with Nite Owl II being a Batman analogue, this group of heroes are so good at their jobs that they can cause even the police to strike.  It's not like they're a Plant Consciousness or the Main Man.  I've covered Silk Spectre previously as "the Glue" to the Watchmen.  If she's what makes them stick then the question is "What do the Watchmen do?" Or:

First, for those concerned about Dr. Manhattan and just starting out, he is not in the game.  There are not plans for Dr. Manhattan to be included in the game nor will there ever be.  For those who ask, "Why?" I'll whisper No. Sorry, channelled Rorschach for a moment there.  There are plans of adding the Minutemen to the Batman Miniature Game as part of the Watchmen faction.  When? Who knows?

Now that you understand the direction of the Watchmen, you've got to understand what they are before moving onto how they play.  The Watchmen are a band that has no Equipment.  You will not be fiddling with the Funds mechanic at all with this faction.  The Watchmen lack a Leader. This means that they all count as Free Agents for scoring: each individual loss is painful; however, that means they dodge many assassination clauses of scenarios. Finally, because this is a group of fearless supers who stood on the precipice of nuclear annihilation and survived, they ignore the Runaway mechanic.  When the Watchmen show up, they do so until the bitter end.

How do you use the Watchmen? With the intention of superiority.  Each individual Watchmen is an exemplar in its role.  They were designed to be undercosted to make up for the lack of flexibility other factions can put forth.  When you compare Watchmen to the same type of model, they usually cost less and are better at the job too.  The Comedian is an unparalleled Opportunist; Silk Spectre is vastly undercosted Acrobat that waltzes through the match; Nite Owl II can jump anywhere he's needed; Ozymandias has the body of an uber Bruiser but combined with a Mastermind;  and, Rorschach has unparallelled mobility combined with the damage output of a Bruiser.

This strategy really coalesced for me during my match against Endalyon.  During our Saturday Showdown, he played his League of Shadows to test drive Nyssa.  I won the game fairly handedly. I know that's a spoiler but you can watch that game.  Each of my three models had their own theatre of operations with a little bit of crossover with Comedian and Nite Owl II.   Endalyon split his forces into thirds that were technically an equal force.  The Batman Miniature Game is balanced where an equal force would be a fair fight but with the Watchmen being intentionally undercosted to combat their low footprint and lack of flexibility.

The Watchmen are bullies. They can push around any other model within their supposed "weight class".  The Batman Miniature Game is an incredibly mobile game with multiple theatres of action, unlike the "let's push our models towards each other" of pure strategic wargames.  This means a threat to the Watchmen is when their particular portion of the map has them out-pointed.  Your solution to combat the Watchmen is either quality or quantity.

A strategy that really worked for me in a previous game was having my Acrobat stay behind to block Penemue from scoring his own objectives.  If you see the Silk Spectre performing this back line strategy, ensure to send more points than she's worth.  Triumph over Silk Spectre will reward itself as once you've pushed through to Objectives you're going to start racking up Victory Points.  The Comedian is tough with 9 Endurance and Hardened; however, he has the lowest Defence out of the Watchmen.  I think that's a nod towards the Joker but I digress.  The Comedian will be able to drop the first Henchmen you send after him but what of two or three more?

Like These Guys Have a Shot Against the Bad Guy

Rorschach and Ozymandias are much harder to pin down.  Using a Special Attack to Grab Rorschach will prevent him from freely using his Grappling Hook to come to the aid of another Watchmen.  Rorschach is also scary with his Handy and Bloodthirsty so the option is to drop him in a single turn.  Knock Down, Ganging Up or Distract will make his Defence manageable and then move for the kill.  Ozymandias is best ignored if you can't deal with him, but if not, he's the sort of expensive Leader quality stats. He's the type that requires your entire force to dog-pile down and win through the combined force of quality and quantity.

In conclusion, the undercosted abilities of the Watchmen are balanced by the multi-theatre action of the Batman Miniature Game.  Where Black Mask or the Joker can bring a large enough swarm of goons to split their force, the Watchmen cannot afford that division.  They need to ensure that their combats are decisive, based on their superiority.  Fighting against a swarm or a monolith is not fair for the Watchmen's health. This knife's edge is what makes them so fun to play and that's why I recommend you shouldn't dismiss the Watchmen.