Soldiers of Fortune- Batman 3rd edition

Interestingly enough, 2 of the crews I had previously written about in detail on my old BMG blog have now in 3rd edition been rolled together to become the Soldiers of Fortune. What was previously Militia and Bane are now one crew and are all around in a really great spot with a ton of variety and some good models.

Bane
DKR Set, Part 1 and Part 2
Bane's crew are pretty numerous and are all fairly good, but tend to be very expensive and a lot of them have the Elite tag to restrict them in lists.

The Batbox has some of the most expensive models in the faction, but they’re also really good. Kabuto is basically a League ninja plus extra Bane flavour and so is amazing, Dreadnought Op is a wrecking ball of great proportions, Elite Op is an assault rifle with Shooter and Light Armour (not as good overall as Barsad, but still good), Sharpshooter is a fire and forget zone control piece with an amazing gun and Support Op brings some really good versatility with his grenade launcher (the regular grenade is good, medium range grenade is better. This is even more apparent with smoke grenades). The Bane in the set is a bit of a support piece, a bit of a wrecking ball as he has traits which buff up his own crew but also has a ton of great traits himself on top of his attack 6 with Reinforced Gloves and Master Fighter. I Will Break You is huge in terms of versatility each game and gives him a great variety of options, he has good use of his Venom through having it and Venom Enrage for survivability, and being Desensitised he is insanely hard to take down- especially from stun damage. Meanwhile he can run around the table (albeit a bit slowly) and knock enemy models out fairly easily without much care- just be careful of enemy beatsticks like Ra’s that will take him down fairly easily. 

Bird’s set are less obvious utility but still useful. Clover has a lot of competition from the other pistols in the crew (particularly the Mercenary one but also Carlo Grotti the prisoner and the dual pistol thug) and Schoolboy is not worth taking compared to the Militia rocket (even in general, he isn’t good) but Cuchillo is a really worthwhile objective runner just to drop markers down. Bird himself is excellent too, letting you take Elite: Soldiers of Fortune in any crew while himself having decent enough stats and the always awesome smoke grenade.

The DKR set is a bit weirder in that it has DKR Bane who is excellent and a really good cheaper option for a Bane crew, 2 Mercenaries who are both great (the axe one being a mainstay in SoF crews IMO) and Barsad (easily one of the best assault rifles in the game) but also the Tumbler and DKR Talia al Ghul. Talia is a League model exclusively but I feel like I should mention her here as it is in a Bane themed box (the box is all able to be taken in League), and really Talia is still not up to scratch. She doesn’t do anything particularly special and as such I really don’t like the idea of her in any League crew (although she could be decent in Soldiers of Fortune, but that isn’t an option). The Tumbler is mostly just really expensive and it doesn’t do a huge amount, while stopping you from manipulating while inside it (which is a huge downside and the real reason you don’t want to take it)

Militia
My previous crew review
Deathstroke in 3rd Edition by my good friend Jason
I won't cover Deathstroke here as he's already been discussed on the blog, but I will mention that he can be a Sidekick for 0 funding and thus lead a Soldiers of Fortune crew which is a great option to have and adds to their quite large stable of Boss options.

Militia have 2 great characters in Arkham Knight and Scarecrow, but both do very different things for the crew. Arkham Knight is a really great and mobile damage dealer with some great pieces of equipment for both himself and the crew (Radio? Yes please) and in general is a great option for being a cheap damage dealer in the crew. Scarecrow on the other hand is really cheap as a Sidekick, but is a control piece through and through with his ability to really reliably shut down whole sections of the board and with his equipment not even be there. The action economy that Scarecrow can take almost complete control of is really crazy as he can make sure models without Audacity simply can’t do anything on any given turn which will have huge effects on the game in general.

The henchmen have traditionally been a little bit average for their cost, but in 3rd edition they have some really amazing standout options that go a long way to making the crew fantastic. The Brute should now be left at home as he is often too slow to have any real effect on the game for his high cost, but the Militia Lieutenant in the Batbox is fantastic as he has all the good tools you want in a henchman (not one but 2 decent weapons, the Radio trait and Follow Me for a bit of support ability) and the others without funding costs are cheap enough that they work as great list fillers if you want to keep in the Soldiers of Fortune theme instead of dip into Thugs and Prisoners (although they are also great). The carbine is useful because carbines are always decent, although the rocket launcher struggles a lot with the typical struggles RoF1 weapons have in the current rules.

Bane the Bat
Bane the Bat is the 2019 Black Friday model, and boy is he a crazy model. A prime example of how big beaters became ridiculously powerful in 3^rd edition, Bane the Bat is very similar stat wise to Rebirth Bane (that is to say very good at hitting but not great at defending) and there are really not that many differences between them. For 9 rep more Bane the Bat loses Cool Under Fire and a Venom Dose but replaces it with Batcape (situational but hilarious), Light Armour (excellent to help protect him), Batman Lives (lets him take William Cobb which is a bit cute, but the special action to remove a non-Batman affiliated model from play is really good and the free move if he starts his activation out of LoS makes him terrifyingly fast) and the Bat-Signal weapon which is also great. He loses his hit bonuses when he uses it and it can only be used once, but attack 6 doing double blood and with sharp you will very reliably be killing most models which is a great option to have.

He also brings along his own objective card, which is quite simply 3VP if all of the opponent’s Leaders, Free Agents and Sidekicks are KO or dead. It’s not guaranteed and will require effort to make it happen, but if it does you’ll be pretty happy. The resource on it is great too, for 1 point the opponent loses LoS to Bane the Bat entirely in his next activation (note here that it doesn’t have to be used in Bane’s activation either- you can spend it early in a turn and then save Bane for later)

Decks- Generic picks and predictions
Starting with the obvious, this deck will almost definitely arrive with a few cards to trigger off of Veterans. I'm expecting a mix of effect-based (Scarecrow) and damage-based (Bane and Arkham Knight) cards to come alongside the usual suspect stuff, and I wouldn't be surprised if there are resources that allow them to pop suspects for either buffs on their own models (Venom/Titan type things) or for forcing fear tests on the opponent.

Soldiers of Fortune are a deck that I am personally quite excited for and look forward to seeing what comes of it, but I'm also considering what cards they like in the generic deck. As they are they have to take a full 20 cards from the generic set, but that doesn't mean they can't still attempt to tailor the deck to their faction a bit. Catch a Bullet is really great because of the plethora of high-powered guns in the faction (Arkham Knight, Sharpshooter, the 2 assault rifles), Die Hard is always worth taking, I’m Feeling Weird is great with Scarecrow lists (especially with Arkham Knight or the grenade launcher as well for Smoke access), Dirty Job, They Must Know Pain and Overdrive are worth taking in the right list builds (mainly Bane melee builds) and the “enemy deployment package”  of Flanking and Stake Your Claim is something to consider if you’re able to do it (Arkham Knight taking HSH with Radio for example) although it won’t be as easy as crews with easy access to Hidden.

Arena Rex- Gorgon Overview

Up next for Arena Rex I'll be continuing the Greek theme a bit by talking about the Gorgons! A cohort of 3 models only (the 3 Gorgons of myth) these are a trio of larger models that are all amazing sculpts, and they're pretty terrifying on the table too despite almost always being lower model count than your opponent.

The faction benefits are fairly standard and not really that game changing, just giving each Gorgon an additional tactic on top of the faction bonus. You can only get the Gorgon card by taking all 3 Gorgons and nothing else (but you would already expect that) and Poise is their passive ability that keeps them from exhausting when they change to their second card, instead keeping their current fatigue level. This is a huge way of keeping them going and staying efficient even by taking damage, and stops them going into Clear Turns as much as they would normally.
Petrify is Medusa's tactic and the most expensive of the lot at 2 Favour, but it gives a model engaged by Medusa a Fatigue which is a huge way of shutting down an enemy cohort where you need it and can be really useful
Slayer affects Stheno, and gives her wild for that clear turn. For a model that's almost entirely based around having as many attacks as possible this just plays into it and gives her the option for even more attacks.
Slither is for Euryale and lets her reposition, displacing other models when she does. It's good both offensively and defensively and in general is just useful to keep you in positions you want to be in.

Euryale is my personal favourite of the Gorgons with an amazing sculpt, and her rules are really interesting too. Both her forms have Swift, which stops enemies reacting to her first action each activation, and Constrict, so enemies in base contact take 1 damage when she activates (you can use Slither here to force it more as well which is a great way to chip out damage). She is immune to Taunt on her first card which helps a lot in clearing some of the more annoying enemies early if they are protected (bypassing Otho, Ur-Kek or Krios to take out the heavy hitters can go a long way) while her second card turns her into a really damaging attacker with Hot Blooded giving free Favour dice when she power attacks (and this is pretty valuable with attack 7 and the rerolls granted from power attack). Her first card is fairly standard stat-wise with nothing too fancy, but it is all around good for what she does. 0 armour on either card hurts, but Def3 or possible counterattacks with ATK6 or 7 means she isn’t necessarily fragile. She makes for an excellent combo with Medusa (as can be expected) as Medusa can keep her safe through Taunt while Euryale puts out the hurt. Her second card has a statline purely based around combat and as such has a great damage tree (albeit one without tricks, it’s almost entirely damage) on top of ATK and MOV 7 so she is throwing around some meaty stats in the offensive department.

Easily the most well-known of the mythic Gorgons, Medusa is somewhat of a lynchpin in a full Gorgon cohort. With a well-rounded statline and damage tree Medusa kind of does all roles fairly well, although her main use is in Taunt and Ichor. Taunt is there to keep the far more fragile other Gorgons safe while Medusa has her first card up, and Ichor can also potentially heal them if need be as Medusa takes damage (or to deal damage to attackers- really useful in addition to Constrict from Euryale to do a lot of passive damage). Ichor comes at the expense of generating Favour from her vitality track and she needs to take wounds for it, but it’s a tradeoff that is very much worth considering in almost every case because it can work spectacularly well when it all fires off. In her second stage she loses Taunt for Mirror, which is basically a guarantee that the opponent won’t be getting an advantage through Favour dice as you will add your own for free if they attempt it. All in all Medusa is a really great model, and even if she didn’t have to be taken in a Gorgon cohort the synergy she has with her sisters and the cohort benefits are more than enough to convince me to do it anyway.

The last of the 3 Gorgons, Stheno has a more Indian-type aesthetic than the rest which is unique and refreshing in terms of sculpts. She is even more than Euryale an attack piece and she shares a statline with Medusa with the exception of her 0 ARM which makes her pretty prone to damage should she get hit (yet another reason to keep them together, Medusa can cover her a bit with Taunt). Her tree is pretty good though with a mix of damage and pushes and 2 awesome bottom results (3 damage or a recover, both will help) and her special rules boost up her attacking as well. Dance of Death is a bit of a defensive ability, and it lets Stheno choose the direction of the first push of any attack or counterattack targeting her, but keep in mind being on a 50mm base there isn’t much that will be able to easily push her in the first place so it keeps her very safe from lethal hazards and can really mess up placement for pushing (something Stheno herself can make use of to put them into hazards). Her first stage always gets a single net success even if her attacks fail, which will be a push so she can control the board a bit better, although she can’t make counterattacks so you have to be careful when she is defending in stage 1. In her second stage she becomes a very different model to most, as she gains a free attack every turn but loses the free move that everyone else normally gets so if someone is already engaging her she can put out a lot of attacks but if there isn’t anyone engaging she will have to spend fatigue to walk in which is something to consider.

Bushido as a Beginner Part 1- First Steps

Hi all! As you may have seen I've recently gotten started with Bushido and have painted up some of the ninjas of the Shadow Wind Clan and am now looking into playing the game with a few friends. This post I'm sure will be the first of many as we go through and learn the game together and have new experiences.

To start off with, the story of how I first got into Bushido. Honestly I haven't really delved into Japanese history all that much and as such I don't know that much about it, but I do love ninjas and already played them across Batman and Malifaux. A friend managed to get an insanely cheap deal on the Rise of the Kage board game which included a few ninjas in it for the Shadow Wind Clan, and I bought these 6 off him to use as proxies in Malifaux and Batman. By the time I got around to painting them though there was a bit of a spark for Bushido in my local area, so I decided to grab the card pack and download the rulebook and see how it went. As you can see above, I started with 6 ninja models (Kerasu, Katsumi, Ghost, Shizuka, Yuto and Kouhei in order). With all of these models costing over 20 rice each it meant I can currently only really play 4 model lists so I need to work out the best way to do this and keep things functional for scenario play while still just using models I like the look and rules of.

To start my lists I looked at the themes I could play with the ninjas, and how I wanted to theme my lists with specific models. Ghost goes in every list because I love his model and rules, but otherwise there are minor variations tailored towards what different scenarios will like more. These are likely not the most powerful lists available because I still haven't played a game and am very new to the rules, but I've tried to put some practice from other games into it to try and achieve something that is decently strong while still being something I like. I am also aware Kage Kaze Zoku is considered a more difficult starter faction and isn't really recommended, but it's what I have and I'm keen to play it so I'm willing to be damned to lose for a while until I get the hang of their tricks.

With what I own, I'm leaning towards the Skirmish Mission primarily because it is the theme that I like the abilities of the most (and the theme of in general). This list uses Ghost, Katsumi, Kouhei and Shizuka so it is a bit of a rounded fighting and scenario list but I really have specific uses for each model and have thought a lot about combos here. The first thing I've added is Hotai's Coin on Katsumi because a model that's over half of my list has to be consistent and rerolls is an easy way to do that. The chance of him rerolling back into 1s is also quite low so it's not like he'll be losing it very often. After this I added Poisoned Weapons on Kouhei because adding it to Rapid Fire on his ranged attack can put out a lot of Poison tokens and hurt the opponent quite a bit so it helps boost up the output of the list. In terms of Event cards I've chosen Dawn Raid, Lockdown and Smoke Field so I can control the battlefield and get where I want to be safely and sooner, but also so I can use Lockdown to stop my opponents from scoring where it is easy for them and let myself compete far easier between that and the double pass tokens from ninja themes. For Terrain I'm looking at starting with either Rice Bail Barricades or a Smoke Field, both of which will block line of sight in certain areas but with the Barricades also blocking movement and having extra bonuses in terms of placement. Lastly, Skirmish Mission gives me 2 Enhancement or Terrain cards for free, and there are a few things I'm looking at here depending on the situation. The Shadow Wind terrain to add a Hidden Tunnel Entrance is both something I want to make from a hobby perspective and also to add a bit of versatility to the list in terms of movement angles and being able to flank the opponent to get into tough positions. Otherwise it's Cat-Like Agility to protect whoever it goes on, Signaling Flare for a way to combo my models and pressure the opponent, or Vial of Raijin's Breath on Shizuka to make her an even more effective objective runner and ensure I can score as much as possible.

Having looked through the cards I've also marked down my first 3 expansions to the faction and have some things planned. Hiretsuna and a Karapan are fairly simple choices because they're cheap and seem decent for their cost, but also because they are more fantastical and a bit silly so I want them just for a laugh as well as opening up 5 model lists. The other option I'm very seriously considering is Dudioko because she brings an excellent ranged attack with her bow, options to block off angles of the table with her terrain and in general just seems quite good. For the moment I plan on testing her out using a model I already own, the old Nyssa al Ghul model from the Batman Miniatures Game who fits aesthetically quite well in the faction. Should I also want to try out some other profiles I intend to proxy as well, using the Arkham City Talia al Ghul as either Rin or Makoto, the female Torakage from Malifaux as Bikou and either of the bow ninjas from Batman as Ujimushi. These are less of a priority to me though and will likely end up in my just buying the regular minis anyway should I like how they play.

The biggest step for me now after these planned first additions is in the Shadow Wind terrain, because it's really great and thematic so I want to make things up to use. I have plans for how to create a smoke field (and I will be making 3 of these between the terrain, Dudioko and the event card) but am still working out how I want to make the secret passage. At least one of these cards will be making an appearance in my Skirmish Mission lists because the option is there to get them for free, why not have that extra bit of versatility?

In general I’m having a lot of fun with Bushido and I’m excited to start playing it once lockdowns ease up, and I’m doing a lot of research in the mean time so I have the hang of the rules.

Arena Rex- Helleniki Overview

Kicking off a bit of Arena Rex writing after my general rules overview, I've decided to write up a bit about the cohort I play, the Helleniki. They're great fun and play like really heroic Ancient Greeks, with some characters bringing to mind Frank Miller's 300 in both sculpt and playstyle. In general, Helleniki are a tag-team based cohort who like to play off of each other and keep themselves covered in traditional phalanx style.

Before we get into it, I feel it is a good place to explain exactly why the Helleniki are my favourite cohort (apart from just having beautiful models, because I love the Morituri models just as much). I am a history student at university and my main field of study is Ancient Greece and Rome, putting the world of Arena Rex in a real spot of interest to me. In particular though I love Greece and the tales throughout, and so a Greek warband that touches on so much of their rich history is something I could never resist.

Starting off with the Cohort Benefits, the Helleniki have 2 passive ability and 1 tactic

Ekstasis is the main faction ability working off their sense of heroism and the phalanx. While they are in base contact with an enemy they can reroll an ATK dice, and while in base contact with a friendly they can reroll a DEF dice. It's consistency at its simplest and makes you more reliable, while also staying thematic and forcing positioning play

Hubris is a fairly straightforward ability that gives Helleniki the option of taking damage to add favour dice to their next attack or defence. It’s a great extra level of resource management that can really swing things in your favour and possibly even act as a form of damage reduction should you be successful in your defence (2 damage for the possibility to remove 2 successes= well worth it)

Heroic Challenge as a tactic is pretty good but it is costly at 2 Favour. Basically you shift both a friendly and enemy gladiator 3” towards each other, although they can’t be affected more than once a turn. It’s a good way to pull things out of position while also possibly getting your own things in a better position (useful for Ekstasis) although I don't really find myself using it too often

The model will always raise eyebrows but it is very historically inspired and he works great in game. Antaeus is a wrestler with all that entails (his high defence and non-existent armour shows that) but his real tricks are in controlling a section of the board. He has 3 pushes to start his tree (or optional damage, but his pushes are what I take him for) with a 40mm base and his special rules play right into the push/control playstyle. Hip-Toss lets him spend a Favour to be displaced by the opposing model whenever he attacks or defends which means he is unlikely to be pushed into hazards often if at all, but also he can line up perfect attack runs to set up pushing the opponent into hazards and still benefit from Ekstasis on the attack. My main use for him is to shove enemies into pits, but he also has the advantage of Enervate to stop opponents removing fatigue unless they are in a clear turn which messes with the activation order of an opponent in huge ways. He has a stack of health as well, but if you can get someone with a high-damage tree he will fall fairly easily. 

Archidamos is in general pretty simple in how he works. He's a decently fast attacking model that can do great amounts of damage, but he also has the lowest defence and health of the Helleniki so is a bit fragile. With protection though (Theophania or Krios make a great partner for him) he can be a real pain for the opponent and makes a tough model to face. When he does die as well he takes Fatigue off of friendly models near him (which with the cohort bonuses should be at least one) and can change the course of a game with this.

Argos is kinda weird for me in that he never wins games by himself, but he is solid enough I will always take him in my cohorts for what he brings. He can get to absurd levels of armour with Shield Wall and his stats are all around good considering this and his damage tree is pretty good but what I really take him for is Tactician:Phalanx. This gives the cohort another tactic to use and it lets you move around a lot better, plus Argos can use it during his activation for a Fatigue instead of a Favour which opens up a lot of positioning options 

I’ll be honest, Daphne is not a model I have got uses for. I haven’t put her on the table but I don’t really see all that much that makes her worth taking in my cohorts over other options with more specific synergies (Prophet is amazing but not necessarily always worthwhile) and her stats aren’t something that grabs me in a big way. I see some uses for her, but I just think she doesn’t fit into my list style at all. 

Dimitrios is someone I always used to take by sheer necessity, but now that the starter set is out I find him being edged out by options there. He is fairly un-subtle overall with good stats all around (and Telesto as a mount which I will mention below) and Feint is a good ability as a resource drain, I just prefer taking someone like Krios now who is even more of a drain. 

Krios is really amazing. He has decent stats, a great damage tree (2 4s on the bottom!) and 2 amazing special rules. Taunt is the simplest way to dictate engagement and force target priority on an opponent (use it to bodyguard things like Archidamos or Antaeus) and Anchored flat out stops him being shunted around by opponents which in turn means he can’t be affected by hazards of the non-living kind. There is the downside of not being able to follow up on pushes or benefit from Heroic Challenge, but that’s something I’m more than willing to take considering the rest of his kit 

One of my favourite sculpts in the whole range because of how unique it is (taking inspiration from the lesser-known Minoan society) Phaedra is also a great model. Her damage tree is mainly based around pushing and a little bit of damage, plus Momentum for extra follow-up and ignoring push resistance for bigger based models so she can get things around really well like Antaeus (but slightly different). Overall her and Antaeus are very similar offensively, but Phaedra is a far better tank. Def 1 Arm 2 is pretty average, but with 16 boxes (equal highest in Helleniki) and Bronzed means she can flat out stop damage when she chooses to which prevents big spikes. 

The titan/beast/mount for Helleniki, Telesto is really interesting in how it works and can be really great but it’s an odd model and I like my proper gladiator options more. Affinity and Mount are fairly standard rules across the game, letting Dimitrios mount it and also preventing Dimitrios from being hit by Wild attacks, but otherwise you’re looking at some really interesting tricks. Atk5 is pretty average for a mount, the other stats being good as well but its damage tree is phenomenal and Divinity is really useful for a crew that can generate a lot of Favour as it keeps Telesto in the game longer without needing a clear turn (although with him being a beast there are times you want to become fatigued to trigger Wild) 

My favourite model in the cohort alongside Archidamos, Theophania isn't all that much of a damage dealer or control piece but she at supporting and putting your opponent into awkward positions when deciding who to attack. She herself is pretty good defensively and has a way to generate Favour off of failed attacks against her, but her main trick is Interdict. This lets you be displaced by the target when she declares an assist provided she is engaging either the defender or the attacker and is mainly used to put her in base contact to trigger Ekstasis but can also be used to edge her around so she is getting into/our of engagements with enemies to open up her options. She works best with the models in the cohort that can either draw attacks easily and act as a tarpit (Krios or Antaeus) or need someone to help assist them (Archidamos) but really can be used effectively with most of them. Argos also has good synergies as you can displace her to trigger Shield Wall to greater effect.

Putting it into practice

Overall Helleniki have a ton of great models and they can work in any number of combinations, but my personal favourite for a 6 model cohort is this

Theophania

Archidamos

Antaeus

Krios

Phaedra

Argos

The intention for this list is to stay real close to each other, using both reaction moves and Argos' Phalanx to keep formation so as to maintain the defensive benefit of Ekstasis as much as possible but also to keep the special rules of each model going (Argos, Theophania, Krios especially). As mentioned above Krios is your main defensive piece but ideally will always be getting killed first (because he uses Taunt to keep the opponent hitting the rest) while Archidamos, Antaeus and Phaedra run interference and mess the opponent around however they can. Theophania should mainly be assisting combats rather than initiating them (but she's still a great fighter when you need her) and Argos is mainly there to help out and use Phalanx to move things into position

Gaining Grounds Season 1- My Thoughts

Alongside the recent errata, Wyrd released a new Gaining Grounds packet for Season 1. There's a ton of changes and most of it is new so there's a lot of playstyle adapting to be had but at the same time it is also tipping the balance of who will be seen more commonly. Alongside this post I have also updated all my older posts (Parker, Tara, the Viktorias and Misaki) with these schemes and strategies as well so if you're interested in any of those crews head over there for more specifics!

Strategies
Symbols of Authority- The return of one of GG18s fan favourites, Symbols is a capture the flag type game of attack and defence which puts a great twist on the usual kind of play. Each player gets 4 markers in their table half but they have to be 8" apart, so you can't simply bubble and defend like some crews would want and it rewards you for having the mobility and reach to score. The classic bury crews, high movement and placement will be really good in this strategy (Seamus, Misaki, Colette, Tara and Viks come to mind) but also things that can control aspects of the board are going to be great in the defence game so I think Rasputina will come out as a real star here as will Zipp. One other thing to keep in mind is if you remove more than one of your opponent's Symbols a turn you lock yourself out of points, so don't do that in any circumstance (even if it's just a "because I'm here and I can" you're better off concentrating)

Recover Evidence- A twist on the old Headhunter strategy from 2E, combined melee/scheming crews will get a real kick out of this. Players choose 5 enemy non-master models to get Intel tokens after deployment (or they drop on the centreline if you run out/have a 5 master list), and the goal is to kill those enemy models to make them drop markers and then pick them up to score. Any crew that is both fast and has good damage can be really nice at this because they can get into the thick of it early to score VP from turn 2 (Mei Feng, Viks, Lady J, Nekima). It does have one major downside in that the rules of the scheme shut down aggressive self-buries by letting the opponent choose if a model with Intel can be buried or not when they would normally be buried by friendlies (this doesn't stop you using things like Glimpse the Void or Pine Box on your opponents to put them in worse positions) which is the biggest reason Tara isn't golden in this strat. The opponent choosing which models get Intel markers means you won't be burying the models you want to unless you have a lot of them or they're Masters.

Corrupted Ley Lines- Acting as an almost football-esque game, Corrupted Ley Lines requires you to move around the table with a Lodestone and claim markers. The markers behave like they do in Turf War in terms of where they are and their terrain stats, but in order to be claimed they must have a Lodestone-bearing model in base contact at the end of the turn. Models can throw around the Lodestone by interacting (any model within 1” of the bearer can throw it 6” with an interact) and when the bearers are removed from the table (be that by burying or by death) they immediately pass it on to the nearest friendly model. It’s an interesting style of play requiring heavy use of positioning and movement but at the same time seems quite interesting if a little less interactive with the opponent than others.

Public Enemies- A slightly less obvious version of Reckoning, this requires a bit more planning instead of just outright killing off models. It works off cost now instead of station but is fairly similar overall. It also prevents you killing your own models to deny VP (or death via condition) as it gives the opponent Bounty tokens anyway if you do this. Crews that were good at Reckoning will still be great here, you’ll just be playing it slightly differently.

Schemes

Breakthrough, Take Prisoner, Assassinate, Claim Jump- All the same as before with very little affecting them, so you play them the same way as you did before. All the crews you would've done it with before will still do it just as easily (exception being in Arcanists- Soulstone Miners don't do them as easily)

Vendetta- It's the same as before, you'll play it the same as before but with some of the errata points changes affecting how it comes out.

Hidden Martyrs- A bit like the old Frame for Murder, you need to pick 2 models adding up to a total of 13 or less and have one get killed and the other survive on over half wounds to score both points. It’s difficult and you have to play mind games on the opponent to do it well, but it can also be used as a way to get a benefit out of opponents killing your important models (Obedient Wretch in Hamelin is perfect here) 

Sabotage- A harder form of Search the Ruins, the terrain now has to be within 3” of the enemy deployment zone and in order to score you now have to have the markers out of LoS of the opponent for the first point, and have no enemy schemes nearby for the 2^nd. If you were playing Detonate before this is something you’ll still see, you just need to work for it

Catch and Release- This is a bit of an odd one because you need to have a selected minion engage an enemy master or henchman and nothing else for the first point, then have it escape and stay unengaged at the end of the game for a 2^nd point. Once the first point is scored though the opponent will do their best to counter you so the second point is a real effort to do, but you can combine it with something else (Hidden Martyrs) for a damned if you do/damned if you don’t situation

Let Them Bleed- Basically you have to get the 2 highest cost non-leader models in the enemy crew to half wounds to score the first point, and to get the second point you need to have no more than 1 enemy model on their maximum wounds at the end of the game. Models with summon upgrades are completely ignored for this, and Insignificant is a big downside here as well (looking at the Bayou lists with as many Insignificant models as possible) 

Leave Your Mark- This is probably the one I would skip the most just because of how boring it is on top of being difficult to score. You need a scheme within 1” of the centrepoint but your opponent can’t have one to score it, and the second point you need 3 schemes within 4” of the centrepoint. It’s predictable, easy to counter and not all that interactive so really I just dislike this scheme in general

Research Mission- Any crew that can put out multiple kinds of non-scheme markers is king here because it needs a model within 4” and LoS of 3 different kinds of markers to score the first point and 3 models within 2” of 3 different markers for the third point (and for both points these markers must be in the opposing table half). Neverborn can do it incredibly easily (Nightmare alone with Bandersnatch and Widow Weaver) as can things like Tricksy, Infamous and Foundry plus the obvious other “marker masters”. There are also other tricks to do it with things like Blown Apart and just using Strategy Markers so overall this is a pretty good scheme to take. 

Spread Them Out- Simple in theory, you just need to have 3 markers that are 10” apart to score the first point, and do the same but wholly in the opponent’s table half for the 2^nd. Obviously not done by bubble crews but anything that is running flankers and semi-independent models anyway you don’t really care. 

Runic Binding- This one is quite fun and although it needs a bit of investment isn't terribly difficult. The first point basically requires you to trap 3 enemy models in a triangle formed by 3 of your scheme markers, with no restriction on which enemy models they have to be but the corners of the triangle have to be less than 10" apart. That's really quite easily achievable for crews that can lock down opponents or mess with their placing while also getting markers out (the initial ones that stuck out to me were Lucius, Tara, Rasputina, Jack Daw and Zoraida with Misaki and Colette to a certain degree). The second point is much more difficult, as you need to put 3 scheme markers within 4" of a single enemy model (which again you don't need to choose until you can score) pretty much demanding you take ways to move or place extra scheme markers without interacting. All in all I think it's a very interesting scheme and I'm looking forward to trying it.

Malifaux Season 1 Errata- My Thoughts

Now that it's out, we can see the big changes to Malifaux 3rd edition through the errata and new Gaining Grounds pack! This is something I've been eagerly anticipating for a while to see how certain things will get ironed out and there are definitely some big (but necessary) changes in there. In conjunction to this post where I will talk about the errata and a second post generally on Gaining Grounds Season 1, I'm also now focusing on updating all 4 of my existing tacticas (Parker, Tara, the Viktorias and Misaki) to add the GG1 schemes and strategies.

Errata

Arcanists
Overall got off pretty light, but a couple things got hit in important ways

Order Initiates- -1 cost, makes them a bit more valuable in Marcus crews. I'm not sure just how far this will go but I can see one sneaking into lists a lot more

Steam Arachnid Swarms- I personally would've gone further, but what did get changed is an excellent start. Gone is effective stat 7 with built in Onslaught, now they get stat 5 (with -1 for effective stat 6) and no mask so they aren't insanely efficient beaters they're just good

Soulstone Miner- Reduced armour, reduced Mv and they now don't count for schemes until the activation after they unbury. It's definitely a very healthy change (and it still lets them do marker schemes)

Soulstone Cache changed so it now only adds stones if enemies within aura 3 are killed, so no longer triggers off of friendlies. Slight change but a bit healthier in terms of resource generation.


Outcasts
My main faction, I personally don't think there are many big issues with what changed and the buffs are really great. I won't mention Bayou Smugglers and the First Mate here cause they're under the Bayou section, but they did get changes which affect Outcast keywords.

Mad Dog went up to 10SS which reflects his role as a highly efficient blaster model

Rusty Alyce went down to Mv4 so she is harder to set up in shooting positions and easier to keep engaged so she won't be popping models off the table with her shooting as often

Pride got some clarifications, and his irreducible damage was halved. Stops him being an irreducible bot and opens up his actions a bit more

Aionus picked up a TN on Sever Timeline and lost his built in crow for pass tokens. This makes the crew a lot less consistent but all around makes them a bit more balanced IMO, especially as summoners tend to not have ways to generate pass tokens in-keyword and that is still a thing for Aionus, just harder

Ashes and Dust had a few changes, the biggest being losing Incorporeal (but gaining a new ability that gives him Incorporeal but without damage reduction) and losing his built in crow on melee. It makes him less of a mainline beater and more of a counter-schemer, but his role on a flank has pretty much not changed from before.

Now for the buffs! Some really great things here that open up playstyles
Johan gained Rush for threat range extension, Rebel Yell now has the tome built in (so he's a great counterpick for condition removal) but his Relic Hammer is a lower stat now (5 instead of 6). It puts him in a great niche though and he will definitely see play in Infamous crews while being a tech Versatile pick elsewhere.

Benny Wolcomb. Wow. In terms of most improved this is definitely it, cause Benny does a lot for a Hamelin crew now that makes him kind of not terrible. +1 Df and no longer needing to discard for his Sack O' Rats already works well to support the crew, but he also replaces Nihilism and Diseased (which are really not super useful anyway in Hamelin crews) with Covered in Rats (like Rat Catchers, he can gain Shielded for rats around him when his activation ends) and Loyal to the Very End which lets him discard a card to drop schemes (friendly or enemy) when any Vermin models die within aura 4 of him. This is really great because it helps you scheme in unexpected ways and when used on rats is effectively just card cycling with a scheme marker added in which is really great. He also gained an extra inch on his Loyal Rats with Tiny Hats pulse so he can counter scheme far better than he did before as well which gives him a role in Parker, albeit not a great one still, and makes him really worth taking in Hamelin. It also enables the Benny Engine a bit more but I think in general it is still almost always a major waste of AP and takes a chunk of your list for very average effect so I wouldn't bother with it unless you can incidentally summon a bunch of rats off pulses mid-late game. His gun is now more accurate with stat 6 and gains the Rat Bomb trigger although this isn't that great (needing the rat to be nearby to trigger it, but that then creates Friendly Fire) and his sword is now stat 5 instead of 6, so he is a bit more of a ranged piece but still I think he is better suited in melee because of the rest of his kit (and spreading Blight with his sword)


Bayou

Infamous got touched from the bottom and the top, bringing their internal balance a lot closer. They also benefit from the Johan changes in Outcasts

First Mate is now a Beast, but he lost built in Crit Strike on his Anchor (so a lower damage ceiling, differentiating his role from Mancha Roja) and lost Carry the Loot. The changes make him still a great counter-schemer but not also a really good beater at the same time.

Bayou Smuggler got a lot of buffs that aren’t amazing in their keywords, but they’re better as Versatile models now. They now work as marker-based models, having lost Life of Crime, Change of Plans and Attuned for a kit that reflects them better more and just plain functions better. Not being able to use Soulstones now isn’t a huge loss, nor is the loss of Life of Crime when instead they get Carry the Loot (even though it’s once per activation its extra card draw which is very useful). Instead they get synergy with markers as they gain Full Pack to give Shielded 1 for every marker within aura 2 when they activate (great synergy with Zipp, Ophelia and Mah) and when they move they can choose one marker within aura 2 when they move(which would be any that trigger Full Pack for the first AP) and they can place it in base contact after they’ve moved. This works on any out of activation movement too which is really useful to relocate themselves and markers near them. They also lost the Forage bonus action and replaced it with Appraise, which is far better and gives them a bit more of a role instead of just stumbling around not accomplishing too much. 

Big Hat

Som’er Teeth Jones can now only target Big Hat minions with his “Make Me Proud, Boys!” to stop the Test Subject loop. That’s about the only reason it happened, but it needed to happen.

Lenny Jones is a change I don’t fully understand to be honest. The original wording of the trigger is to draw the discarded card but the action doesn’t discard cards, so the change to being a flipped card reads like it actually works now. 

Tricksy are affected by the Soulstone Miner change, but also Mah and Big Brain Brin both got changes to make them a bit more balanced

Mah’s Creative Cussing is now once per activation so she can’t stack ridiculous amounts of focus on her crew turn 1, which was easily the most unbalanced thing the crew had (positive flips will make everything good)

Big Brain Brin had his Calculate the Possibilities action reworked and reworded as well as being made once per turn. It can’t choose Jokers anymore so if you discard them that’s just bad luck, and the discard of 10 cards isn’t a cost, its an effect so if you fail the action and don’t cheat you don’t discard the cards. These changes are really just there to remove the super amounts of consistency in a Mah crew (but also any other keyword hiring Brin OOK) and he’s still good, just not ridiculous

Zoraida is the last model to have been affected and she got hit in a few ways. Her reach has been reduced a lot through her Mv going to 4 and Eyes in the Night becoming an aura range (so no more drawing LoS through things she can’t even see) which goes a long way to making her less oppressive on the table. She also gained +1 cost for if she’s hired as a 2nd master, and her Voodoo Effigy ability now triggers at the end of her activation instead of the start which is probably a sidegrade if anything- it means she isn’t getting out Voodoo upgrades for her activation but it means she can relocate to get those upgrades out where she wants them.

12 Cups of Coffee also changed the wording on Twitchy so it no longer makes minions move wherever they want every turn. It now only triggers when enemy models end their activations in aura 6 so is a big reduction in movement over the course of a game but still definitely a good upgrade. Its also traditionally been common on masters too (Zipp and Brewmaster in particular) so for them its unchanged. 

Ten Thunders
Minako Rei's Kharmic Debt trigger is now after succeeding, making it a bit harder to get out (but still built in on Df). She also had a +2 increase to the TN of Create Katashiro, but with +2 to the stat if she uses a Shadow Marker to do it. This means she is less valuable out of keyword (without further investment of Last Blossom models) but almost unchanged in a Misaki crew

The Manos nerf in Resurrectionists affects Yan Lo a bit but not massively, Manos is still excellent and so is Yan Lo.

Kitty Dumont had her Under the Table trigger change to enemy only, in a slight nerf that shuts down the Thunders card engines. Using her to hit your own models and draw cards wasn’t healthy and saw her being taken a lot OOK just for this, so it puts her back in a place where she isn’t an always take but will still be commonly seen. 

Sensei Yu’s Brutal Sensei ability now specifies they need to be damaged by enemies, again affecting the trend to hit your own models and generate resources.

Lust changed in a few ways, mostly around her Lascivious Music action. It is now a bonus action, and only ever reveals 3 cards, but the opponent must also discard a card as a result of the action. Its still good (and now you'll always be taking it cause she has no other bonus actions) and helps shut down your opponent a bit more while playing into her kit. She is also now Df5 for extra survivability, and her Seduction action also now gained the Love Hurts trigger for some extra damage. Having the trigger on both regular attacks is nice and adds a bit more options

Yasunori got a big change in how he works but mainly to bring him in line with the Riders in how he functions. He now only gains masks for every 3 cards in the opponent’s hand instead of every 2 which mainly affects his damage reduction but also makes it easier to manage for an opponent in mitigating the output. +1 cost is small but noticeable, and he replaced Onslaught on his sword with Quick Reflexes so he now has to target different enemies with his mask trigger. All in all it definitely weakens him significantly, but he is still a very strong model in a lot of ways

Chiaki got a few specific changes to her Split the Soul trigger to make it less prevalent across the game. It now has to be a non-master Retainer model and costs a card to do, keeping it stuck to keyword and costing resources to get off (cause she can’t stone for the trigger, it’s not super reliable you’ll get it without cheating before needing to discard)

2 upgrades changed in Thunders, those being Fermented River Style and Masked Agent.
Masked Agent now only prevents resistance triggers of models engaged by a model with the upgrade, so is reduced range but still affects the models you would be getting most effect from anyway, and With Me changed to now be within 2” instead of 3. It’s still a really effective upgrade just not as massively effective as it was before.

Fermented River Style was the problem for Shen Long, and now that it has changed he is a much healthier model for the game. The only negative flips it converts now are its own action duel flips (not damage flips, not simple duels and not Shen being attacked) which is a huge change but one that needed to happen, because Drunken Kung Fu was really the worst part of the upgrade from a balance point of view. Falling Rave Kick no longer has a damage track and doesn’t move him 6” for a Chi, it instead places him in base with the target for a Chi. This is important because the action is now 2” range and doesn’t push him once it’s ended so he can’t push out and shoot through Demise anymore (its an either/or decision). The action now also has a TN to meet (needing a 6, or 4+Chi) and just does a flat 3 damage and Staggered which is still great but not as big as it was before.

Guild
The only faction to come out of this errata with more buffs than nerfs, Guild have overall been pushed up into a pretty good spot with what's changed. They got scheme pools that benefit them more and they got put into a better spot in terms of balance, their only issue is that they still have a few keywords that are low on 3E releases (Dashel isn't out, Nellie is missing half her keyword and Lucius is missing some key models). By the end of the year once they've all come out I think Guild will be pretty solid overall.

The Enslaved Nephilim adding card draw to Perdita is very welcome, cause she needed it big time in some way.

The Dispatcher I don’t really know what it did before and I haven’t looked at Dashel much, but the changes seem good. It’s harder to kill, and it’s a bit more open with Stay at Your Post, while they took out the ability for it to simply feed cards through other models interacting with it.

Greed traded her old Use It On Yourself for Guitar Bash, and gained extra range on Unchecked Avarice which gives her a bit more versatility and changes what was a bit of redundant kit anyway. All in all it doesn't skyrocket her into mass playability but it gives her a niche and makes her ok in Crossroads at least.

Agent 46 had his Inhuman Physiology change from an always-on ability to a bonus action. This competes with Mimic, and means you have to choose between taking someone else’s better actions or making the opponent not able to cheat against you. This either/or interaction I think is very healthy because there were some very unfriendly interactions with 46 and some of the high-powered guns he has access to.

Frontiersmen had Backup change to Deputy, which is mostly the same effect but once per activation and only works on Frontier models. You do now get a positive flip to the duel so it is great in Frontier crews, but you won’t see them OOK that often now I think. Their Tomahawk triggers changed as well so instead of being able to give themselves Shielded on a ram they now heal other friendly models on a tome. Its short ranged at aura 3 but a 1/2/3 heal in a crew with Survivalist is great.

Pale Rider is a model I personally had a lot of issues with before, although mainly the gun in combination with Mimic and his Devastation trigger. Devastation now being a turn earlier than before is not something I would be a fan of had the action not changed to be flat 2 irreducible damage (instead of 2/3/4) and for it to not give out Slow at all so it is a huge cut in effectiveness from what it was. The other 2 triggers both also got slight changes in wording (Hatred Unleashed now not being able to charge while engaged, but they can take a melee action instead) but mostly its Devastation that got affected. The Rider is still a very strong model, but more in line with the others in how it works now 

No Prisoners almost got a complete rewrite, for what reason I couldn’t say. It still has On the Prowl, but the grenade has been replaced with Riot Gear which is great in the right matchups as it reduces damage from a lot of the more annoying ways of getting chip damage out (pulses, blasts, shockwaves and hazardous terrain). The minion ability is no longer Run and Gun, instead it’s a once per turn ability called “Catch Them!” which is a really strong ability that lets you place friendly models near the attacker into base contact with the target if the target is within aura 8. It costs a card to do it, but it’s amazing threat extension (imagine it on Lady Justice, Executioners or Witchling Thralls) and can work to your favour a lot. 

Neverborn
Stitched and Inhuman Reflexes are the only pure faction changes, but they also have the changes from Agent 46 and Zoraida through dual faction.

Stitched got hits to both Fiendish Gamble and Gamble Your Life so they are in line with other attack actions (and Gamble is now an attack and able to be easier resisted) and they went down a Df. For a model that was tilting Dreamer crews so hard this is quite a good change because it doesn't shut down the action, but it does make them far more risk/reward in almost all respects.

Inhuman Reflexes doesn't have Butterfly Jump any more, instead having Scamper. It works now even if they aren't the target (just if models cheat near them) but it's harder to get out of engagement as soon as you cop a hit.


Resurrectionists

Archie had a few big changes in important ways, and all around he is much less likely to be seen out of keyword now. He lost Ruthless replacing it with Rush for a bit of threat range extension, although losing Ruthless means with his terrible Wp stat he has gained a huge weakness against Terrifying models and likely shouldn’t ever try and attack them unless you really want to cheat for it. He lost built in suits on both his Hurl Corpse and Leap, but his Leap is now stat 6 instead of 5, and he is now Mv4 instead of 5 so he’s slower most of the time. He did gain a bonus action that gives him a suit of choice or positive flip to his next action, but keep in mind this does compete with Leap and is a big decision to make.

The Valedictorian had a little change but a meaningful one. +1 cost is the first thing, but Valedictory changed so you can no longer pick up Jokers. This change is really not massive but it means you can’t just pick up the Black Joker by discarding any card so you aren’t able to mitigate the danger of flipping a Black in that way. 

Reva has had a ton of work done to make her work better as she was a bit odd before. The main additions are the change to Forgotten Dead (it doesn’t need a card now, and the Corpse Candle gains Burning 1 so it’s basically free resources) and Channeled Flame being added. She also gained Swift Action on Embrace the Flame so she reduces a lot of burning and can heal a great amount that way, but Channeled Flame is basically a much better version of Blaze of Glory that a few models already had (reduce burning on themselves for positive flips). Reva’s version is not only burning on herself though, as she can pull it off any friendly model in aura 8 to gain positive flips in duels so you’re far more able to manage burning and maintain the shielded the crew can get without having to worry about burning cancelling out that reduction. It may not be as huge a change to her crew and keyword as some would like, but its definitely enough to make Reva herself a solid master and she can play some great crews now depending on scheme pool

Manos the Risen had a big change to his Reliquary upgrade, with it no longer giving out Demise:Eternal and instead giving out Lantern of Souls (still excellent just different) and having its Regeneration dropped from 2 to 1. It’s still a great Reliquary to hand out, but this goes a long way to stop it just getting chucked onto Archie and enabling negative play experiences for the opponent. 

On the Table- BMG, Warcry

Hi again all, with another update on my hobby progress. Branching out a lot more lately and the last couple weeks I've been jumping around a lot more.

The local Blood Bowl 7s league started over the weekend, and I managed to get 2 games in. Despite losing 2-0 vs Chaos and 2-1 vs Skaven, I managed to avoid any serious injuries and get a few skill ups that mean I should be well off for later in the league. Planning on finishing up my last 3 models once the current stuff is finished off and keen for more games!

I've still been working away at my Batman backlog, focusing on getting specific things done in batches. This batch has been "rich people and Donna Troy" as I'm finishing off Bruce Wayne, 2 versions of Lex Luthor and obviously Donna Troy. That then finishes off my Teen Titans and Organised Crime collections, and only 7 more models to go for Batman once these are done (the new Batman and Gordon models from the starter set, the old comic Katana, DKR Scarecrow, sniper Deadshot, new Ra's and Ubu). I'm still playing away with my Batman crew, although once Donna is done I'm going to be playing Teen Titans a lot more to try and work things out with them.

To break up painting for the same game over and over, I decided to start painting my Chimera for use in Warcry. It's so far the only thing I've started for the game (although I'm planning to paint my Untamed Beasts soon) and its been really enjoyable to get it quickly done. Big monsters aren't something I usually do so it's been a nice change of pace.

League of Shadows in Batman 3rd Edition

Hi all, continuing off my last BMG post being a discussion of the Batman crew adapting to 3rd edition, today I'm following up with my other main crew the League of Shadows. As a crew they operate very differently to Batman in that they have very little shooting and are primarily melee focused, while their decks are more heavily tilted towards Violence with a side of Menace and Control objectives over the Protection and Control of Batman crews or Menace and Violence of Joker.

Equipment
2nd Ed Equipment
Most of the equipment is exactly the same usefulness as before, with the big exception of Combat Braces. Now that you always get your full blocks this has gone up in value massively and on your higher defence pieces (Damian and ninja) they become a lot harder to hit.

General Thoughts
2nd Ed thoughts
League got a big boost in damage with not having to wound to deal damage (the dreaded 5+ is only on the strength die) but they are also easy to block and low willpower which are still not fantastic. Their ranged weapons are also mainly bows and thus struggle a lot from the fact that RoF1 weapons lose dice very easily and are almost completely ineffective. They are however good defensively and with their deck and certain traits in the crew play a good manipulate game as well as killing.

DKR Set
2nd Edition overview
These models are still very niche in that they are almost entirely locked into Bane, who himself is not a bad option in League but also doesn't do the great things Talia or Ra's do, and DKR Talia is still just kind of meh in everything she does. The henchmen are really good, just that they flat out can't be taken in most League lists.

Henchmen and Batbox
Pre-Batbox henchmen
Demon's Heir Batbox
The older henchmen are for the most part still pretty good, with a lot of them occupying a niche in the crew. The ninja are all still pretty hardy models and katanas are always good (Yang now with Combo is really good value) but overall there's only a couple of them that are super worth it (Yang and Ichi mainly, but also Shadow for the Smoke Bomb). The bows are almost entirely not worth it, especially compared to the new Acolytes. The agents are not really great- the Hassassins are around the same cost and mostly better. Agent 3 with Fast and a katana is ok though cause those are both valuable traits (and gives her a 12" movement for 23 rep which is dirt cheap). Only ones left mentioning now outside of the Batbox are the upper bracket of League with their 3 older high-cost models- Hayabusa, Robin and Goro. Robin I have already discussed from a Batman context and in League he becomes insane because of his blood damage and will reliably kill whatever he touches, Goro is a multi-use tank (although is prone to easy KO), damage dealer and support piece and I would recommend him often in Eternal games, while Hayabusa is another very interesting piece in how he works because of his set of traits. In effect a better statted ninja (although not Elite) he also has Acrobat, Combat Flip and Undercover which are all very helpful when just playing a League game (he as a 13” movement and Undercover so can be very threatening) plus his Ancient Bow giving him the option of a ranged attack without Aim like other bows.

The Batbox stuff for League is among the most valuable in my opinion, because it puts out a ton of work and are all around good. The Hassassins are all cheap henchmen with good damage, being able to score almost all the League cards which is great, and they have a few other sneaky tricks (Hassassin 1's poison, Scouting on Hassassin 4). Talia is already a great leader, but now has Order added on to her kit making her the premier manipulate-based leader for League because she plays around with board control a lot. She can put out good damage herself but she's not on the same level as the others, instead being a lynchpin of the crew through her aforementioned manipulate tricks (Inspire, Order and Scheming) and Mind Control Substance for a bit extra way to stop your henchmen from being KO easier (and from staying KO). Talia's card is one of the more difficult to score and really relies heavily on placement and killing the enemy, but the resource on it is a great way to turn on a lot of your other objectives while also countering your opponent. Cheshire is a really good fast objective runner that can get where you need her, plus she has good damage and tricky uses of poison to shut down opponents. She is tough to take down between Acrobat and Defensive, and her objective card can be built towards pretty well and she plays very nicely with a ton of cards. The Heretic on the other hand is a pure bruiser and mainly exists just to hit things and make sure they die while he soaks damage and takes heat off the rest of your crew. His objective gives him a Bodyguard effect for Talia as a resource (1 resource point instead of an effort) and the scoring on it is a bit similar to Ubu needing a model to take 2 models to attack one of yours and that model survive. In general though the Heretic just moves around and kills models but he can also choose to deal double blood or double stun, push things around and he's tough to remove with Desensitised, Large and Light Armour

3rd Edition options
Much like I did with Gordon, I will gloss over the new Ra's model because it is in effect the same model as before on a different base size (40mm or 60mm) and I already discussed the old Ra's previously. Lazarus Pit Owner is excellent though as the Pit is a card you will always be adding to your deck, and having it as a way to all but guarantee Ra's will be kept safe that turn is huge given his impact. In general Ra's is good but not mandatory given League have a pretty good stable of leaders.
Ubu is an interesting model and a great character, but not as finely tuned as a lot of his other expensive henchmen brothers in League. He is pretty tanky which is great for him as a Bodyguard, although Defence 3 isn't fantastic for his cost and he can still go down to a big hit or two quite easily. He is able to Effort regardless of how much blood damage he sustains which is great (and means your leaders are going for even longer) and also helps his sword do tons of damage as it should. He has no bonuses to hit with it, but with Reach doing 2 blood his attack 4 is pretty good and will mean he can get out damage, as well as his strength of 3+ with rerolls from Sharp, and Bleed:1 for 3 damage crits. His one most unique thing is Inspire Fear to play a bit of a shutdown role and means with Audacity he can really mess up an enemy crew through damaging one thing and scaring another.

The Acolytes are a set of new henchmen that are separate from the Ninjas and Hassassins, based more off of the Arrow interpretation of the League. They sort of exist as a middle point between the Hassassins and Ninja in almost every respect (statted like Ninja, traits like Hassassins) and have some very good things they bring to the table. Acolyte 1 is basically a better Hassassin and that’s all that needs to be said about him, Acolyte 2 is really great at throwing out a bunch of lower damage attacks with his knives (useful for objectives). Acolyte 3 is a really good way of getting around the traditional huge weakness of bows with Falconry (although he needs Audacity to do it) and getting the bonus of extra dice on top of it so he will roll 2 dice+strength at the cost of a suspect marker. Acolyte 4 is ok but definitely the weakest of the bunch because of how bows suffer from cover and moving (he has Good Aim but moving before shooting is useless with RoF1 weapons). The Enervating Gas arrow is a good way to shut down groups of enemies and restricting their Effort Limit, but with how many other amazing options exist in League I would give it a miss. 

Lady Shiva is the last of the new things, and I'm honestly not a huge fan. Her unique objective isn't great as she is pretty much the only model that can ever benefit from it unless you dip into Free Agents (or The Heretic, that's about the best combo with it) and she herself is the only model that deals purely stun damage in the entire crew. She's good at it provided you're attacking models higher than 80 rep (anything below and Arrogant kicks in which is not good) with an all but guaranteed +2 to hit and Combo, but at the same time anything else in her points bracket will pretty reliably simply one-round what they touch and not just KO them (and she can't kill them either without her objective cause of Moral Compass). Her biggest benefit is being almost always defence 5 Martial Artist, and decent movement to go with it, but she doesn't have any specific in-built synergies with the crew so I would personally leave her at home.

Building Your Deck

Even though League have 2 faction plots that revolve around Menace objectives, I think they’re largely a trap as Menace won’t be seen as much over Violence and Control (for me at least Control is the better option when adding in the generic cards) and as such you should pick plots accordingly. A bunch of the one-off League cards are great both for scoring (Blood for Blood, The Fire Rises) or resources (Lazarus Pit and again The Fire Rises), while otherwise the cards that come in 3s are useful to take. Eradicate the Order and Multiple Threats are a bit too intensive in what they do to be considered strong cards IMO and rely too much on not interacting with your opponent (which runs counter to a lot of your deck) but From the Shadows and Under Their Noses are both great in League and Do Not Deviate From the Plan is both a solid objective in itself and has a great resource to help score any other suspect-based objective. In terms of generic cards there are a few good options. Flanking is always good given your access to Hidden and Undercover, while Dirty Job and They Must Know Pain play into the Violence-heavy playstyle of League and can help go to plots more. With what I’ve already mentioned as being my favourite cards it’s up to 19, and for the remainder I tend to choose Die Hard because it’s fairly easy to score and League have models that you can take it on and then put them into really awkward positions to keep them safe while still being relevant to the game.

On the Table- Blood Bowl, Batman

Hi everyone, thought I'd jump in with another quick update of what I've been working on the last couple of weeks and what I've been playing.

First up is the old faithful Batman. I've been playing a lot of Batman 3rd edition and I'm really loving it, having found my groove in both list and deck building with the Batman and Bat-Family lists (although I'm still experimenting with League and Titans, and Watchmen are on my mind) so I'm making sure I have all my options painted up ready to go. I've finished off all the Return to Gotham cops, so my backlog isn't huge for Batman, but I'm moving into some other options now before doing all of their bases at once. On the table currently are Bruce Wayne, Donna Troy and 2 sculpts of Lex Luthor for my limited Organised Crime collection.

I've also signed up for a Blood Bowl 7s league at a local club for the next couple months, and I'm using it as an excuse to finally finish off my Skaven team I've had sitting around for a while. It's all very close to finished now apart from 2 Gutter Runners and a Blitzer, otherwise I will have almost every option painted at max availability apart from a Rat Ogre (which I use Glart or Hakflem for because I much prefer their models). Skaven are one of my 2 favourite teams (alongside Goblins, who will be my next team)- I love how they are a very fragile but very quick team and they can run the ball like nobody's business.

That's all for today, but I have a lot more content planned coming up for a few different things so stay tuned!

Arena Rex- My Thoughts

Something a bit random today, I've decided to write up an overview for the game Arena Rex which is one I really love for thematic and gameplay reasons on top of the gorgeous sculpts. It's been a while since I've played a game so I may be slightly rusty on the exact rules, but my overall thoughts on the game still stand.

The game is made by Red Republic Games and can be found here. It's a great little game based around combat between opposing cohorts of gladiators in an alternate-history world where the Roman Empire is fractured into a bunch of smaller states and each have their own cohorts to represent them. Ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt are all represented in these ways with their own special rules as well as a traditional gladiator band and a group of combined Vikings and Native Americans which help add to the uniqueness of the setting (America is Atlantis as far as they are concerned). It is also possible to play a cohort of wild animals with their beastmaster or the dreaded Gorgons as their own factions although these have their own playstyles and are somewhat different mechanically to the rest. The miniatures themselves are beautiful boutique resin pieces in roughly 35mm scale, they don't require huge amounts of cleanup or gap filling and for more problematic pieces (mainly spears and whips) they provide metals instead of resin so as to avoid warping or snapping. Below you will find my own Helleniki warband with most of the original models for that faction, which are some of my favourite sculpts in the entire range (I prefer ancient Greece to Rome in general, something reflected in my university studies as well).

In terms of gameplay it is a super simple skirmish ruleset that is based off card count over any specific points system. Cards are incredibly well-balanced and usefulness of certain models tends to come from synergy with others (what may seem like a bad model with one thing may be amazing with another) and they still have a system of having "stronger" models like many of the wild animals and Gorgons by giving them 2-stage cards- this means they count as 2 models for list building so a 3 model Gorgon list is in reality a 6 card list- and these cards reflect how these models get weaker as they get injured (or in some cases angrier and more unruly). The other things of note in the ruleset are the uses of terrain (you don't use huge amounts of terrain, but they are known as "hazards" which fatigue, damage or even outright kill models pushed into them) and the favour and fatigue systems which forces alternating between models in your own cohort but also adds a degree of resource management that all players need to keep an eye on. Fatigue can be gained to boost your own actions (which themselves are limited to set numbers) or to take extra during your turn, while they can also be gained to react to opponents in their turn in a variety of ways. However, fatigued models cannot do as much as fresh models and the opponent gets bonuses against them, while the worse step of exhausted is almost a death sentence in most cases. This is what plays into the resource management of the game as you want to play with fatigue for as many bonuses as you can but you don't want to get caught out with too many exhausted models or else you will suffer, so fatigue management becomes a big thing to learn (mainly when and where to remove fatigue to keep yourself activating for longer). Favour is the other resource to play with, and basically becomes extra dice to add to your attack or defence pools that become extra successes over normal dice or can pay for special abilities on model cards that require favour cost. They are limited in how many you get though, and often the only way to get more is to take damage on your own models so it's another thing to be careful about when and how you're using them.

The combat system in Arena Rex is the biggest part of the game and encompasses all the rules I have already mentioned. It’s pretty simple in that attacker rolls their Atk stat in dice, defender rolls Def stat in dice and each 4+ each player rolls becomes a net success. Defender successes cancel attacker’s successes, and if the attacker has any left over they consult their damage tree. Each success is one step down the tree and you can choose to go any direction down it but you are forced to go down one branch (no jumping across). There are different results on the tree with different effects but the main ones can all be seen on the example of Hermes below- numbers are a damage number, the straight arrow is a push (1” for each result of push, which also does 1 damage and attacker can then follow), gain a favour with a wreath (same symbol as on the health track which is also favour gain) and the circular arrow lets you move and lose fatigue but you must end your activation. Looking at Hermes he may choose with 4 net successes to start either with 2 damage or a push, although either one result in 2 damage on the 2^nd success that can then be chosen as either 2 damage or a push, but also optionally to sacrifice all further successes and gain a favour. If he was to choose the damage or push he could then use his final success to deal another 2 damage for a potential 8 (which is then reduced by the defender’s Arm stat). There are some other more advanced rules that can be involved with combat (biggest being counterattack as a reaction) but that is generally the main sequence of the game.  

The last thing of note is the way scenarios are played. Most involve some degree of zone control and are quite simple last man standing type deals (or rather, first to have uncontested zones so you can wrestle and force someone out without killing them outright), monster hunts or “bodyguard” type missions where you have to protect a specific model while your opponent tries to assassinate them. Games often go for 30-45 minutes and play really smoothly so it’s a good side game to play when you want to space out longer games during a games day. In general Arena Rex is a really great game and quite thematic (you really feel the sense of gladiator combat and every action has an impact) so I would recommend it to anyone.