Continuing with Batman, this time we're not talking about a specific crew but instead a collection of 3rd Edition Henchmen and Free Agents. These are all the generic releases based off of D-List villains from DC Comics, and they're all really full of character and quite entertaining.
Kite Man
Kite Man is fairly cheap, and it shows. He has low attack and defense, plus endurance 4 so if he gets hit by blood damage he will die, but willpower 6 is pretty good and he has Charm to help keep him alive a bit longer. Charismatic is nice too cause it gives you an extra Free Agent if you want the option, and although they won’t come into play very often Pickpocket and True Love: Poison Ivy are both decent to have. The other thing to mention is he’s movement 6 which is super slow, but he has Kite to add to his move just by being near suspects at any one point in his movement and he ignores all obstacles and difficult ground so he isn’t cripplingly slow. His best use as a henchman is to fly around and reach those annoying spots most other henchmen can’t access and start manipulating
Phase 1 means it has counterplay, but it really is busted otherwise. You choose one friendly and one enemy model, and if you reveal more suspects than they do during the turn score 3 points. Really really easy if you have Backpack access and they put out a lot of markers because you can choose a henchman for Inspire access and 3 possible reveals, but also choose an enemy that can’t be inspired so they automatically are forced to just not drop markers to deny you (and thus restrict their own scoring) because they can’t natively win the count
The resource gives any enemy making a willpower roll within 4” of Kite Man suffer a -2 during that roll for 1 resource point. Obviously the main use here is Charm rolls on Kite Man himself, but it works great with Scarecrow and Ivy too
Killer Moth
Moth is very good if a bit expensive for a henchman, but he more than makes up for it. Movement 8 is pretty low but he has Bat Cape and Batclaw for huge boosts to his mobility, Echolocation which is nice but situational and the huge Radio. Not only can he be Inspired, it happens anywhere on the table and always effects him so he is a really great piece to send around and manipulate where you need to. His guns are both not bad and it’s mainly a choice between adding blood damage with Firearm or Slow 6 (which is huge) with Beam. Neither will be slaughtering enemies but they’re both nice to have especially with it not sacrificing his manipulating
This is clearly based around trying to get to an awkward position the opponent can likely not reach, and is best used on tall buildings. Phase 1 makes it a bit more difficult, but 3 points for just having a model and a suspect within 4” of a scenery piece you choose is really easy and should force the opponent into making some tough decisions about countering it.
The resource is also very good because it allows Killer Moth to teleport almost anywhere on the table with minimal setup and for only 1 resource point.
Calendar Man
Calendar Man is a really unique model that benefits crews in a lot of ways but mainly just as an objective runner. His stats are ok, and he does have a Taser for a weapon if he needs to use it (but I wouldn’t often). Trickster and Runaway both make him unpredictable and make sure he can’t be taken out as easily if KO, while Scheming 1 lets him mess with suspect placement to push either scoring or denial and Strategist gives you an always welcome Resource Point. Distract is nice as a debuff if he has Audacity and you can always make sure he has it if you really need it, but I wouldn’t especially make sure he is always in a position to use it. His big special rule is Seasonal Criminal which gives him a buff depending on how many total VP all players have scored, and they’re all really nice. After 12VP he goes to movement 14 until you reach 24, which is ridiculous for a henchman of his type, and 24-36 is +2 attack (not too useful and definitely the worst of the lot) while 36-48 is +2 defence to keep him alive a bit longer until you hit 48-60 and get Handyman for really easy manipulating late game. Cycling back to +4 movement is possible but at that point the game is all but over and it’s not very useful
This one is a bit interesting and really fun because it transforms the turn it’s played into a game of cat and mouse between players. If the opponent goes first it’s almost guaranteed denied, but otherwise you start them on the back foot and force them into playing a manipulate game just to stop this card (but also countering you or scoring in the process, so it’s mainly tilting away from heavy combat turns). 2VP is nice but not huge, and overall for what’s basically a free card anyway it’s good to have
This resource is amazing because it’s cheap at 1 point, counters enemy cards through normal play and can set up your own stuff really well
Condiment King
Condiment King is a bit of a weird character because he has a ton of traits to make his guns seem pretty impressive, but overall he isn’t really all that fantastic (which makes sense). Opponents can never score off him which is really great, but otherwise he’s based around his guns which are both short ranged Beams with Assault so fairly impressive, although they only do 1 blood each and have 2 shots. 6 blood with Gunman isn’t bad, and his movement of 10 means he can get where he needs to be to get work done with them. They do both have unique effects, the Mustard Gun giving Poison and the Ketchup Gun giving Slow 4 which are both nice, and they have an extra effect of Enervating equal to the number of objectives the opponent has played this turn, making him someone you want to activate in the middle of the turn (so as to either prevent early scoring or make the most out of Enervating later)
His objective isn’t great, as it requires both a lot of status effects and for you to reveal an enemy suspect within 4” of those enemies with status effects. Scarecrow can do it well enough with his ability to cripple models entirely, and CK helps obviously, but it takes planning to pull it off right
Clock King
Another one that plays around with manipulation and the board state, but this time as a Free Agent so not benefiting from Inspire. He does bring Mastermind for +1 to Take the Lead rolls, and Paranoid can keep him a bit safer once he’s damaged which is nice because he’s not necessarily an easy kill to start with (although not a difficult one either). Confusion is a great trait for when he has Audacity (which should be often) and lets you debuff a single enemy model a huge amount (-1 defense and attack, plus no special actions that turn) from 8” away which is really nice to have up your sleeve. 8” move makes him a bit slow, but then you get into his 3 unique traits though and that’s where he gets really interesting because he does a huge amount despite not being that physically impressive. Time Manipulation is really geared to shutting down the opponents scoring, when Clock King reveals enemy suspects he may look at the first 2 cards of either players deck and put one on the bottom, one on the top so you can either put something harder for you to score on the bottom or the harder one for the opponent on the top and something they can score more easily on the bottom. When he places a suspect though, Time Control lets him choose an enemy model that has to both not activate next and not place a suspect otherwise Clock King can search his deck for any objective and add it to his hand. You shuffle the deck after but being able to sculpt your deck like this is huge and something you really don’t want to happen on the other side of the table so it’ll control gameplay pretty well. His last thing is Time Bomb which chooses a suspect marker for a special action, and it ticks down from 3 whenever a model makes a manipulate within 8” (which you can use Time Control to try and set up a no-win situation). Once it hits 0 it blows up and every model under the explosive template that gets placed takes 1 blood and suffers Slow 4 which cripples their movement a lot
One of the more complicated in this lot of models, you need the opponent to have 3 suspects in the Raise the Plan phase, but for those markers to be either removed or have friendly suspects within 4” at the end of the turn. This is pretty easy to pull off with decent activation choices, and you should really only play it when you can guarantee it will be scored, but it’s easily achievable with most crews.
The resource is very janky, but I like it a lot. For 1 point you can choose a model within 4” of Clock King to drop an event marker in base contact, perform the rest of their activation and then teleport back to it at the end of their activation. It’s a great way to do what you want that turn but also play a bit more guarded and keep safer (or to move out of inspire range and get back in for next turn)
Psycho Pirate
Psycho Pirate doesn’t really do much on paper. Willpower and endurance are high but with nothing else huge in terms of stats, no weapons to speak of and only 3 traits he may seem crap, but the traits he has are amazing. Charm is one layer of defence, albeit an easier one to bypass than previous editions, and Plead is another way to attempt to force the same effect from range. Neither of those do anything outside of keep him alive, and 50 rep for an 8” move model isn’t great, so you have to look at Emotion Control to truly understand. When he activates he chooses an effect for all enemies within 8” and applies it until the end of the round (so he wants to activate early to make the most of it). Love makes them deal 1 less damage while Anger makes them take 1 extra depending on if you need to attack (violence based decks- some League, Two-Face or SoF builds and likely Court) or defend (almost anything else) which are both useful in the right situation. Fear is probably better than Love in most situations against melee though because -1 attack and defence is often higher damage reduction than keeping normal stats but taking 1 damage off (it’s 1 less Dice plus a higher chance to block the rest) and they get -1 defence on top so apart from gunlines I’d take Fear over Love. Sadness for -1 Effort is nice but not as universally useful as the others IMO so I wouldn’t take it
Gentleman Ghost
Gentleman Ghost is a decent control piece with ok damage output, but his main role is as a roadblock that will shut down specific members of the opponents crew and be difficult to take out in return. His stats aren’t fantastic, but he has Ghost to make up for it, and Ice Flash is always a great thing to have. All his attacks have Cold, his melee weapon is blood/stun and Handy which is nice although attack 3 is lower end, and his Flintlock is amazing both in damage and in control potential. It does have Reload, but you want to be shooting it both times.Gentleman Ghosts objective needs 4 enemy models to suffer movement penalties, which is difficult to pull off in most crews but insanely good in others. Put him in a Scarecrow or Freeze crew and all of a sudden it’s looking pretty reliable with what either of them bring (or take Kite-Man to get FA Scarecrow in a Freeze crew and make it a real drag for your opponent)
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