Optimising Kaos Agent - Tactica Tuesday

Joker has the quite polarizing Kaos Agent. It's an ability that new players find overwhelming powerful because it takes care of the planning stage of Raise the Plan. This has lead to listing the ways the Joker can be beaten previously (part 1) (part 2). The point of Kaos Agent is it perfectly emphasizes the Joker play-style of laughing at your opponent's plans. There is no such thing as strategy and tactics against the Joker, he drags you down to his level and beats you in unit efficiency. The criticism of playing the Joker is brain dead simple isn't quite what it seems, because I'll go over ways to optimize the use of Kaos Agent.

There is one turn where Kaos Agent is perhaps not a turtling defence. On the first turn, you're going to want to place maximum amount of dice in Movement. The reason is that when the Joker Inspires his Henchmen, he can overcharge any stat that already has their maximum allocation. Defence isn't necessary as necessary on the first turn, as any first strikes are probably from ranged weapons. Positioning is. This means you want as much Movement dice to position your Clowns where you want them.

 The usual advantage of Henchmen, especially Joker's thugs, is their ability to dog pile on a model. With Distract on many Clowns or easily bought with Clown Paint, Joker Henchmen can easily reduce the Defence of even the most impressive fighters in Gotham. The issue is being able to chain all of these attacks together, which is easily why "Let's Go!" exists. When assigning dice in the Raise the Plan, placing a single die in Special for each of your models allows for a chain of activations that can result in your opponent losing their precious models.

Then there are individuals with Passive Skills. Currently, the only Joker Henchman who fits the bill is Master of Ceremonies. He has Elusive, giving him +1 Defence against Ranged Attacks. It's a Passive ability which would require dice assigned to be able to activate. There are currently no other units that have a Passive ability on Joker's Henchmen, but if they ever make a Bodyguard or Counterattack Henchman, this would be something to keep in mind.

This is normally my 'go to' on Joker thugs, but I realized it stars our very special Master of Ceremonies

Otherwise, siting on Defence is the base state of a Joker Henchman. Honestly, once a Clown has Activated, the necessity of going for a KO isn't as necessary unless it's your strategy at fighting the swarm of Clowns. This allows for Joker Henchmen to decide if they want to take hits on the chin or block attacks. That's the threat of Kaos Agent Henchmen. Activated models are always fresh, models that have already gone are not a threat to take out and models you want to take out always have defence. Or Neurotoxic Drugs if that's what your Clown is jonesing for.

The exceptions to the defensive setup is when you want to Overcharge on your attack. This is something that would occur in the late game where you can Activate the Joker for Inspire but know that your opponent is unable to damage the Clown. The targets of the Overcharging attack could be the Titan Clown, due his impressive Attack 4 becoming 5 dice but Sturdy to limit retaliations. Borgon is also Sturdy but with his Stun+Blood Hammer, he could be setting up as a Squire with his Attack 4. Overcharging any Axe wielders could lead to amazing dividends, as they can easily kill most models in the game.

The other way to optimize Kaos Agent is knowing when to not use it. Since Kaos Agent allows you to re-allocate dice when the model Activates, this means if your stat is lower than it normally is, you couldn't put dice there. So, if your opponent is running the Riddler, his Confusion can lower your attack. Suddenly, you might not be able to put the hurt on his smug face. Multiple Grabs lower Attack and Defence as well, meaning it's possible to make your Clown unable to retaliate if enough models get a little handsy.

Joker's Kaos Agent has been accused of being the most simple way to play Batman but with these tips in mind, your opponents might be surprised by how much advantage you can squeeze out of your models. There isn't always a simple option, despite what Kaos Agent is supposed to be for the Joker. Furthermore, the Joker's Kaos Agent is an ability that modifies the gang composition, so even if your opponent is able to take out the Joker, the rest of your force still benefits from Kaos Agent. Kaos Agent is an ability just like any other, your responsibility is being able to squeeze out as much value as possible to triumph over your opponent.