First Battle

After about 6 months of reading the rules, collecting minis, and making terrain, I FINALLY got a chance to play the game. It was an impromptu game between a friend and I. We were at our LGS for miniature night, and we weren't really feeling up another match or Warmachine/Hordes. I just happened to have my Batman minis and rule book with me, so we decided to give a whirl.

Since I didn't have enough objective tokens for a true scenario, nor did I bring my terrain, we just grabbed some Warhammer 40K terrain off of the shelves at the store and just went for a scrap on the streets. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, so I'm just going to go over my initial thoughts on the game mechanics itself. I am also certain we did things wrong, but we'll figure it out as we go.

We played Batman vs Joker (because, yeah!. And that's all I have at the moment). The crews were probably not even reputation wise, but we were just trying to get a feel for the mechanics.

Pros:

Game Speed
Even though we were constantly looking up rules, the game went pretty fast all things considered. It probably ran about 2 hours and change, which is really good considering some of our games in other systems run easily that long. This is a huge win in my book. I had figured the longest portion would be the Raising the Plan phase (i.e. assigning action tokens), but it actually went pretty quick. Model activations were simple to execute, and the fact that models can only see 30cm (since the game always takes place at night), really help limit ranged attacks and reduce the need to always be behind cover.

Variety
Both bands played completely different. Batman swung around buildings with the Batclaw (i.e. grappling hook), then drops down and pummels his opponents while the two cops tried to move up to engage the thugs. But the Joker has some nasty tricks too. His One Shot gun has a chance to take anyone out with a single shot, and almost killed Batman in round 2. Also, the Trickster ability, which allows the Joker to reallocate his action counters when he activates, is incredible. The fact that he grants that ability to his henchmen is just icing. Once we add in scenario objectives , it should really mix things up. I can't wait to see other crews on the board.

Balance
In our game, there was only 1 casualty (the poor meter maid got got knocked out, then stabbed in the gut!), though Batman had Joker down to one health. Most attacks in our crew just did stun damage, which can be recovered at the end of the turn. Lethal damage, such as wounds from a firearm or a knife, don't recover so easily. This really balanced out the mobility of Batman and his Batclaw. Even the Joker was almost knocked out, because Batman didn't want to get swarmed by a bunch of thugs, he had to beat cheeks and couldn't finish him off. By the end of the game, the Joker was almost back to full health.

Cons:
Lots of Special Abilities, no descriptions on the cards
Each model has some special descriptors on it. However, the details of those descriptors are not on the cards, so that means looking up the definitions constantly. This puts a bit of a learning curve on the game, especially when you look at Batman's or the Joker's cards. Once I get to the point to run demos, I'm going to have a print up of all the abilities relevant to each crew for easy reference.

Metric System
All measurements are done in cm. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for someone so used to inches for nearly all mini games, judging distances is vastly different. 17cm seems far. But when you realize that it's not even 7 inches, it really changes your perceptions. Fortunately, you can pre-measure in this game (I think). Without that, us Americans would be really thrown off.

Loose Tokens
Action and damage counter sit on top of the cards. The risk of this is that they are easily jostled. I nearly knocked all my tokens off the cards from the wind stirred up by closing the rule book. Also, the official damage tokens are overly expensive. for about $10, you get 8 stun markers and 8 wound markers. They are well made, but I'll be looking for alternatives. If I can find a way to use magnetic tokens, then have a metal tray or clipboard to fasten the cards too, this would be perfect.

Last Thoughts
Overall, I think this a really fun game and can't wait to play again. My friend mentioned the idea of doing a Mordheim-style campaign where your henchmen and heroes can gain new abilities. Perhaps an idea for the future, Knight Models?