Arkham Knight Batman Preview on CKP

Over on the Crits Kill People site, they have a preview of the new Arkham Knight Batman from Knight Models.

What do you think of him?

The release list for July also seems to have been leaked online. Joining Batman and Harley will be AK Robin, Killer Frost and some Arkham Inmates!

- Hendybagder

The Lunatics are taking over the Asylum

This week my latest Knight Models order arrived. The Court of Owls, Butcher of Gotham, Hush, Firefly and Court tokens.

But...... the box was MUCH bigger than it should have been.

Inside was an awesome sample of the new Arkham Asylum MDF kit! Massive thanks to KM for this!

Those tiny green bases in the middle are Arkham Lunatics on 30mm bases for a sense of scale.

This is a LOT of MDF. Over the next week I will be covering the kit on here to give you a good look at it close up.

There are also a couple of new scenarios that go with it.

'Breakout' is a two player Heros vs Villains scenario with set Objectives and Lamp Posts. This can be played at any size and includes a few Bonus VPs for either escaping or stopping the escapees. 

'Riot' is a 250 Rep per crew, three player game. One Hero crew and two Villain crews. Plus a selection on random Lunatics running around attacking anyone. Players only get two Objectives each this time.

Both of these scenarios have set deployment maps and include the Watch Towers which act as giant Lamp Post that illuminate the area around them.

For now here are some closer shots of the bits and pieces I am going to get confused over.

More on this soon. Time for me to get to work!

- Hendybadger

Bane, Two Face and Ivy Henchmen Conversions

While browsing the Arkham City Limits Facebook group, I spotted some nice repaints and conversions for henchmen.
Having a look through the Knight Models range, I started to plan some of my own.

There are 3 Banes in the range so far, but my Bane of choice is the Arkham Asylum / City Titan Bane. For his henchmen I'm using the Blackgate Prisoners. They match his costume and are also cheap in Rep to counter Banes 150 Rep price tag.
The Bane crew also has access to several skilled mercenaries but they don't really match the look I'm going for.

Luckily, the Bane Starter and Two Face starter Henchmen are armed with the same weapons. The Two Face Henchmen also have VERY similar outfits to the Blackgate Prisoners.
The plan for this is nothing more than some simple head swaps adding the Merc heads to the Two Face bodies and painting them orange instead of the split colours.

Looking into it a little further, the first expansion blisters for each crew are quite similar as well. The axe on the Two Face henchman will need to be split into two weapons but then it will just be head swaps again.
The idea behind these will be skilled Blackgate inmates that have managed to break into the weapons stores.

With the Bane idea, I'm going to be left with a few Two Face henchmen masks.
These would go perfectly on a set of Blackgate Prisoners. After the headswap, the orange jump suits will be painted in split colours and then I have 4 more cheap Two Face henchmen!

Then I came across this picture. Arkham Ivy with her hypnotised henchmen.
At the moment, Ivy only has access to Plants, Blackgates and Loonies so I cant really use the rules for Henchmen straight out of Two Face, Joker and Penguin crews.
As the Plants can't hold Objectives, some bodies would be really handy.
The idea here is to match the Blackgate cards to Two Face, Joker and Penguin Henchmen that are armed with the same weapons. Then either use them straight out of my other crews or get extra models to go with the green eyed look.

I'm sure I will have more conversions in the future, but that's it for now.

Which ones do you like the sound of the most?
Do you have any similar plans?

- Hendybadger

Knight Models Show Off Gotham at Barcelona Ficomic

Knight Models were at Barcelona Ficomic last weekend with an AMAZING display.
They have built large sections of Gotham City including some landmarks.

This just looks fantastic. I don't know if any of this will be entering the scenery range yet, but I'm trying to find out and will let you all know as soon as I do.

Nightwing and the Riddler fight it out it out on KM HQ.

I hope the GCPD station is produced. Would love a building like that on my board.
On the left you can also see a 'Hat' shop. A sign of things to come?

The Queen Industries tower is a mirrored wonder. Oliver knows how to spend his money.

The top of Wayne Enterprises. This would make an awesome centrepiece on anyboard.

Another view of the full city. If any make it to sale, I expect it will be the smaller ones shown here.

Bats walks out of Wayne Tower.
Isn't that going to give it away a little?

What do you think of Gotham City then?
Daunting or Inspiring?

- Hendybadger

Red Hood and Loki join Arrow, Swamp Thing and more for the Jan Releases

The Knight Models Marvel and DC releases have just hit. They are awesome!

First up we have the anti-hero, Red Hood (Jason Todd). The model looks fantastic and his rule can be seen below.

Red Hood is an 84 Rep Sidekick for the Batman and Organised Crime crews. He goes up against 3 other Batman sidekicks, but if you wanted short ranged killing, Jason is your guy!
The Organised Crime Affiliation is great as it lets him run a street crew from Under the Red Hood.
The down side? Jason can't work with Speedy / Arsenal so no Red Hood and the Outlaws.

Next up we have this months only Marvel release. The God of Mischief, half brother of Thor, Loki.
Loki gets his classic comic look which is stunning. He doesn't have game rules yet, but Knight Models have said there is a game in the works.

The next Batman Minis Game release is Swamp Thing. While we did see a preview a couple of days ago, KM have now added his rules card as well.
A 150 Rep Ivy Sidekick with Affinity: Batman and a massive 11 Endurance! This guy is going to see a lot of table time on both sides of the law.

The final model for Jan is CWs Arrow. The preview was up last week but here it is again as a recap.
I can't wait to get Oliver to lead my Green Arrow crew. Plus it's the same week as the show starts again!

 The Tokens this month are for the businessman of Gotham, the Penguin. The logo is great. Going to have to grab a couple of packs of these I think.

Last but not least are the Arkham City Warning Signs. These will be great for rooftop cover and LOS blocking.

Which is your favourite release this month?

What would you like to see with the new rulebook next month?

By the way, Knight Models have said that those people waiting for more Henchmen will be very happy next month.

- Hendybadger

Swamp Thing and Arkham Warning Signs Preview

The team over at Beasts of War have a couple more previews for the Batman Minis game from Knight Models.

First up is the avatar of the 'green' known as Swamp Thing!
No sign of rules for him yet but I expect he will be linked to Poison Ivy's crew in some way. Maybe a link to the good forces as well.

The second preview is a set of Arkham City warning signs.
Depending on the size of them, these could be great for adding cover to rooftops and blocking LOS between them. I can see Batman ducking behind one to avoid Deadshot.

What do you think of these?
Will they be on your shopping list?

- Hendybadger

Batman Holiday Giveaway!

Batman Holiday Giveaway!

(and I don't mean the killer from the Long Halloween)

We have 2 stunning Batman minis from Knight Models to give away to one lucky winner.

Arkham City Batman and the Dark Knight Trilogy Batman. 

To enter you just need to follow 2 simple steps.

1- Share this giveaway around!
2- Comment below with which is your favourite Batman and the link to where you posted this giveaway.

The winner will be announced in 7 days. Thurs 18th 6pm GMT.

Good luck!
- Hendybadger

Batman: The Rules - Crew Building

Today I am going to take a look at how to build a crew for the Batman Minis Game from Knight Models.
So you don't buy loads of models and find out they don't work together, Knight have ALL of the Stat Cards available to download from their website HERE. This will let you work out your exact crew and then go and buy the models you want.

To start off, games and crews are worked out in REPUTATION (points). 150 for a small game, 300 for a medium and 450 for a large.
A common size is also 350 Rep.
All picks must have the same Affiliation, like Batman, or be Unknown.

As well as the Reputation, you get $$$ to spend. $500 for every 150 Rep or part there of.
Some models come with a $$$ cost included for the gear they carry which is taken from your $500 per 150 Rep, anything left can be spent on extra equipment.

The other main limitation is for Free Agents. You can take one of those for every full 150 Rep
These limits can NOT be exceeded!

For example-
A large game lets you spend 450 Rep on your crew, $1500 on equipment and hire up to 3 Free Agents.

There are a couple of rules that can tweak this.
Lord of Business gives you an extra $500 to spend and Charismatic lets you take a Free Agent for every 100 Rep instead of the usual 150.

Lets take a look at the different types of models you can choose to take over Gotham. I will use the Batman Affiliation which includes most special rules.

LEADERS
These are the big guys. Often the highest Rep of your crew, they are also the most skilled and dangerous. You can only take one Leader per crew.
Don't mess with the BAT!

SIDEKICKS
These are the helpers and lesser skilled Heroes and Villains.
If you have a Leader in your crew, you can also take 1 Sidekick. OR, you can choose not to take a Leader and have up to two Sidekicks instead.
If a Sidekick is chosen as the BOSS instead of a Leader, their Funding cost is reduced to $0.
Ever wanted the Green Arrow and Nightwing to take down the bad guys without Batmans help?

ELITE BOSSES AND HENCHMEN
Some models come with the Elite rule. Elite Henchmen can only be taken one at a time. So far, they are also all named Henchmen. Batman could use one SWAT member but not all three as they each have Elite (SWAT).
Models with Elite Boss (type) can get around this and take multiples. Commissioner Gordon has Elite Boss (SWAT). This lets any crew he is in take more than one SWAT member.

FREE AGENTS
As I stated above, you can take up to 1 Free Agent per 150 Rep. You DO still need to pay the Rep and $$$ costs on their cards though.
Some Free Agents work for certain crews, like Robin with Affiliation Batman, but most are Affiliation Unknown meaning they can work with anyone. Some also include the Hates rule that stops they being taken with the named crew. Deathstroke has Affiliation Unknown but Hates: Batman, Green Arrow and Law. This means he can be taken by ANY of the bad guys but none of the good.

AFFINITY
Some models have the Affinity (name) rule. This lets them bypass several crew building rules and be taken alongside the named character in a different Crew as a Free Agent.
Arkham Bane is a Leader with Affiliation Bane. BUT, he also has Affinity (Batman). This means he drops his Leader and Affiliation Bane rules and becomes a Free Agent while Batman is on the same team. Normal Free Agent limits still apply.

NAMED HENCHMEN
The rest of your crew will be filled with Henchmen. Some of them are named like Agent Ron above. This means you can only ever take one Agent Ron at a time, no matter what.

HENCHMEN*
Henchmen without a name are also known as Minions and are marked with a * after the word Henchmen. If you want, you can take multiples of these in a crew.

CORRUPT
A recent addition to the game has been the Corrupt rule. This means a model with Corrupt can pick up to 3 Law Forces Henchmen to be hired into any Villian force they join.
Current examples are Commish Loeb joining Organised Crime and Branden joining Organised Crime, Two Face or Black Mask.

EQUIPMENT
Finally, you get to spend any left over cash from your $500 per 150 Rep. Each crew has an Equipment list with max amounts and costs. These items can be given to any of your Henchmen but each can only carry a one of each item on their list.


Lets make an example crew using as much of this as we can.

Batman Crew, 450 Rep, $1500, Up to 3 Free Agents

Leader
Batman - 130 Rep - $0

Sidekick
Gordon - 70 Rep - $200 - Elite Boss (SWAT)

Free Agent / Leader
Bane - 150 Rep - $0 - Affinity (Batman)

Named / Elite Henchmen
Delta - 33 Rep - $300 - Elite (SWAT) - Magazine $200
Bravo - 27 Rep - $300 - Elite (SWAT) - Magazine $200

Henchmen / Minions
Baton Police - 16 Rep - $0 - Whistle $200
Baton Police - 16 Rep - $0 - Flashlight $100

TOTALS
442 Rep - $1500

OK, I know that seems like a lot to pick up and take in, but it's easier than it looks.
Download some cards from the Knight Models Page, try making a crew and see how it goes.

Feel free to post ANY questions you have in the comments.

Next time is Setting up a game.

- Hendybadger

Batman Minis Game Printed Rulebook Preview

Just a quick one today.

 Over on the Knight Models Facebook Page they have just previewed some pages from the new Batman Minis Game printed rulebook.

Can't wait for this to come out!

- Hendybadger