Five Myths of the Batman Miniature Game

I've recently joined the Batman Facebook group to answer questions. I find it funny that so many prefer Facebook over the Batman Forum despite having their art projects and rules questions disappear if not immediately answered.  I've talked about why joining a forum would improve your learning curve before, but reading through the Batman Facebook has been instructive. The first thing is seeing how often players ask what's necessary, the second is awesome models, the third is random rules questions but it is the fourth thing that I'm going to address today.  They're the "myths" of Batman when people want to generalize the Batman Miniature Game.

5. "I need to know the comics to be able to like this game" - the Batman miniature game is a good game, period. It's competitive but can be played from the Casual of 40k/WHFB to the Cutthroat of Warmachine/Hordes.  We're just lucky to have a playable game that is Batman.  In fact, because of this Batman game, I've been reading and watching a tonne more DC material just to get a better idea of who or what things are.  Some of it is weird, sure, but most of it is good.  It's a game where instead of some random fluff cooked up, we're playing with history - especially with so many alternate versions readily available of all sorts of heroes and villains.  I started with Black Mask and Watchmen; but to be honest, I had no clue who Black Mask was.  That's what got me started on my DC media consumption - I could find out!

Left to Right - Guerk, vc110388, Studio, Nanotanks, Gorman

4. "Models looks the same and everybody will play the same." - I had the same doubt when I started, I thought everybody would be playing Batman but that's not the case.  There's a lot of rich variety in the history of the criminal underworld of Gotham that many factions or subfactions can be played (such as Birds of Prey and Gotham City Sirens - or if you don't mind converting everything, Suicide Squad).  The other concern is that if people play the same faction, their models will look the same in which case I'm sure the picture above can dispel that.  The middle Batman is the 'studio scheme' and the basing of the Batman extends the individuality even more so.  After all, GW has hundreds of Space Marine factions available and they all don't look the same even with being the same unit.

3. "Guns are too powerful."  Coming from Infinity, I'm used to slicing up the table so Line of Sight across the board is rare is second nature to me.  This little decision to table design solves many of the gun problems.  The other is understanding a host of rules that balance the game, such as the entire game occuring at night which limits Line of Sight to 30cm.  Unless a weapon is Light, it cannot be fired if an enemy is within 5cm and if a model moves then the Rate of Fire of the weapon is reduced to 1.  There are Pings! which can halt attacks, 4+ for any miniature, 5+ for solid object or elevation and 6+ for fences or Objectives. Lastly, Knocked Down does not reduce a target's Ranged Defence.  There are a lot of safety valves that makes guns fair - the issue is if people remember them.

2. "Swarms are too powerful." I used to think that and I do think they're an easy option. Due to the low Willpower of the Henchmen in Swarms, there isn't a lot of options or outcomes, so there is very little mental burden on the Swarm player. This sort of 'brainless' style is mostly attributed to the Joker. The Elite force, on the other hand, still needs to Raise a Plan intelligently and play tightly. This is why I think swarms are easy to pilot and when you begin, you'll see a lot more swarm victories because each of their mistakes is smaller than the Elite force.  Once the Elite force swings out of the bumpy beginning of the Roller Coaster learning curve, then you might find them to be stronger. The Elite force will know when and where to dictate the fight, Swarms lack the mobility to keep up.

1. "Batman is Expensive."  I will certainly agree that individual models are expensive but that's because of the licensing Knight Models pays. If you look at characters vs non-characters, they have the same price of Batman compared to 2 cops.  What makes Batman affordable is that you only need half a dozen models to play at a competitive level. You can easily buy an entire faction for $100 CAD ($82 USD as of this publication).  The purchase of a single "4 man box" with a blister or two can easily fill all your needs.  Tales of a Tabletop Skirmisher has a UK break down, comparing Batman with X-Wing, Warmachine and 40k here. The sale of Skirmish-level games is that they only need X models to play, you decide where you want to call it off.  With the Batman Miniature Game you easily know whether to buy a new model or not and with the evenly paced production, they won't be running roughshod over your wallet.