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

YOU HAVE FAILED THIS CITY! CWs Arrow Preview and Rules

Beasts of War have an awesome preview from the team at Knight Models for the Batman Miniature Game.
(Click pics to view larger)

ARROW! This new Leader for the Green Arrow crew is CW's own hit series version played by Stephen Amell. (Can't wait for the rest of series 3 next week and series 4 has been confirmed!)

The Hood / Vigilante / Arrow is a stunning model that comes with two different heads. Hood up or bare head.

I think Knight Models have captured this character really well and the bare head option even looks like Amell himself.
The preview wasn't just the model though, I was his rules as well!

As the Leader of the new Green Arrow crew, Arrow clocks in at 125 Rep. A lot of points but he looks worth it.
With a ton of Blood damage, Willpower 7, 3 types of ammo and his Multifire rule, Arrow is going to be an absolute beast on the tabletop. Your opponent is NOT going to want to get in the way of his bow.

Although every time you take out a bad guy you MUST quote "You have failed this city!"

What do you think of this new addition to the game?

- Hendybadger

Batman (painting) Begins! The Arkham Dozen!

Just as I started to sort out some painting for my Batman minis from Knight Models, a challenge appeared.
Drew in the Arkham City Limits Facebook group has started the Arkham Dozen challenge.
A way for a group of people to keep each other motivated while having fun and getting some painted minis on the table.

The Arkham Dozen challenge is 12 Batman Game minis over 12 months. Minimum of one finished model a month. If everyone finished before that, another batch will start.
My initial choices are......

 Arkham Batman and Arkham Robin. A 200 Rep starter gang.

 Arkham Joker, Arkham Harley and two clowns. Another 200 Rep starter gang to face Batman.

Speedy, Green Arrow and Black Canary. 260 Rep (not quite legal) gang.

Nyssa al Ghul, Origins Deathstroke and a Ninja. 260 Rep to face Team Arrow.

The VERY rough base coats are down and I think I'm going to go with the well known schemes on all models. I haven't painted in a very long time so don't want to go for anything too adventurous to begin with.

The selection may change as the challenge goes on depending on releases. If something appears that I prefer it will make its way to the front of the queue.

I will keep the blog updated with the progress as I go.

Right, back to the painting table.

- Hendybadger

The Price of Being (playing) Batman!

Recently I have seen a few people mention the price of the Batman minis from Knight Models and say that the Batman Minis game is too expensive.
To be honest, I thought the same when I looked at it to begin with. I thought £12 a model was a bit steep. Until I looked into it further anyway.

The things to remember with this range is that is 35mm instead of the usual 28-30mm. The models are high detailed metal instead of sprue plastic and it's a licensed product. Licensed items always cost a little more anyway.

With this in mind I thought it may be a good idea to do a price comparison with Batman vs 3 of the top games on the market. X-Wing, Warmachine and Warhammer 40K.
I know all of these games are quite different. The game size, model scale, material used and such but as they are the most popular games our there is shows people are willing to pay the prices to play them.

This sort of thing can be a bit of a minefield though. Each game has several different forces, model sizes, army builds and more. You can do elites or swarms and this all varies the price to play.
For this article I'm going to pick the most popular force in each game, pick a starter force and expand it to a standard sized game.
I will also take into account any rulebooks, specialised templates and dice you may need to get started.
There are several expansions and optional extras out there but this is just what's needed. Tokens, scenery and tape measures are something most people will have already as well.

As it's comparing Batman to other games, I'm going to make two Batman forces. One of just characters and one swarm of thugs with a big character added. This should show the cheapest and most expensive options.

Prices will ALL be taken from Wayland Games as they are a large well known retailer that stocks all ranges. To make things a little easier, prices are rounded to the closest £.

First up is the Bat Family. A starter game for Batman is around 200 Rep and a standard is 350 Rep.
I know there is the new rulebook soon, but there is still a free download rules set so I count it as an optional extra.

Rulebook - Free download
Tokens / Templates - In Rulebook
Batman (Arkham) - 130 Rep - £12
Robin (Arkham) - 68 Rep - £12

Starter game - 198 Rep - Total £24

Batwoman - 95 Rep - £12

Robin (Damien Wayne) - 50 Rep

Standard Game - 342 Rep - Total £48

The other end of the scale for Batman would be a Joker Swarm with a big model for muscle.

Rulebook - Free
Templates / Token - In rulebook
Joker Starter (Joker + 3 Clowns) - 158 Rep - £25
Clowns pack 2 - 41 Rep - £12

Starter game - 199 Rep - Total £37

Clowns pack 1 - 51 Rep - £12
Killer Croc - 95 Rep - £16

Standard game - 345 Rep - Total £65

X-Wing is probably to closest of the top 3 to Batman. It's a small model count licensed game.
For this I'm going for a Rebel force. Starter size of around 40 points and standard size of 100 points.

Starter Set - £24
Rulebook, Tokens, Templates - In Starter
X-Wing - 21 pts - In Starter
X-Wing - 21 pts - £11

Starter Game - 42 pts - Total £35

Millennium Falcon - 27 pts - £23
B-Wing - 22 pts - £11

Standard game - 91 pts - Total £69

The next game up is Warmachine. A normal starter set game is around 11 points and a standard sized game is 35 points. For this list I'm going for the boys in blue, Cygnar.

Rulebook - £18
Templates - £16
Cygnar Starter set - 11 pts - £32
(Stryker, Ironclad, Lancer, Charger)

Starter game - 11 pts - Total £56

Hammersmith - 8 pts - £23
Hunter - 6 pts - £9
Trenchers x 10 - 10 pts - £33

Standard game - 35 pts - £121

For the final game, its the most popular tabletop game in the world. Warhammer 40K. Again, it's the boys in blue, the Ultramarines. Or just standard Marines.
For a starter game I'm going for the basic 1 HQ and 2 Troops at 400 points. For a standard game, the smallest you will probably find is about 1000 points.

Rulebook - £42
SM Codex - £30
Templates - £8
SM Captain - 100 pts - £15
Tactical Squad 10x2 - 300 pts - £40

Starter game - 400 pts - £135

Terminators x5 - 200 pts - £22
Land Raider - 250 pts - £36
Devastators x5 - 150 pts - £16

Standard game - 1000 pts - £209


OK, that was a lot of numbers. Again, all prices come from Wayland Games. I'm sure they could be found cheaper or more expensive on other site or in stores.
Like I have said, I know these are all different games with different scales, sizes, materials and army builds but I have just gone for a very general force for each. The sort of thing a new player would walk into a store and buy. This gives an average cost on startng and playing each of these top / most popular games.

As a quick recap -
Batman - £24 / £48
Joker - £37 / £65
X-Wing - £35 / £69
Warmachine - £56 / £121
WK 40K - £135 / £209

This puts the price of playing Batman vs -
X-wing - About the same.
Warmachine - Just over half
WH 40K - Around a quarter

We all know that our hobby isn't one of the cheapest out there, but if you are looking at Batman, it's probably going to cost the same or less than other games you play.
As with any game though, it doesn't stop after the first few models does it?

Well, that's about it really. The numbers are there and I can't argue with them. I wont say one game is better than another either. It's all down to personal taste.

Did this work out how you expected?
Were you surprised or shocked by any of it?
Let us know below.

EDIT - Some people have asked why I haven't compared Batman to Pulp City, Infinity and Mailfaux.
The new edition of Pulp City doesnt come out until next month and I have no idea what the prices will be yet.
As for Infinity and Malifux, I would love to add them here but at the moment I just don't know enough about the games to make informed lists and comparisons.

- Hendybadger

Batman Rulebook Pre-Order, Page Previews and Exclusive Minis!

Knight Models have put up pre-orders for the Batman Mini Game rulebook along with some stunning exclusive minis. To go with this, Beasts of War have a load pf preview pages from the book for you to check out.

The standard version of the book comes with a very nice Alfred Pennyworth model if ordered before Feb 15th. But, there is another version.....

A limited edition Joker rulebook! A 500 copy run that comes with an alternate cover (maybe more?) and  a Joker Red Hood instead of Alfred. This is the criminal that became the Joker we all know today.

A closer look at the Joker and Alfred models shows that they look fantastic. Knight have also confirmed that the Red Hood and Penny One WILL come with game rules!

In the page previews is a new gang equipment section. But this shows a lot of gangs not released yet.
Scarecrow, Mr Freeze (Yay!), Court of Owls, Wonderland, Green Arrow and Organised Crime. These should give you some ideas about what models are coming in the future. So many goodies!!!!!!

Another shot from the book, shows what could be future Gotham MDF scenery. Those buildings are impressive and I'm loving the monorail.

Downtown Gotham not your thing? How about a visit to Arkham Asylum?

Head over to the Knight Models Page if you want to grab one of these pre-orders.

I will leave you with some more page previews.

- Hendybadger