Suicide Squad- Team discussion and my favourite choices

Hello again all! Going forward, I have decided to write up a few smaller posts regarding some of the various teams we were given in the revamped PDF. Team Arrow will no doubt follow this soon, as I am currently working on a few different things for them, but to kick things off I've decided to start with the "new" team, Suicide Squad. Largely unchanged from their original appearance in the 1st edition Flash and Arrow book, the Suicide Squad are a high risk, high reward crew, and are largely based around overwhelming damage and maximising VP gain.

Team Rules

The team rules are interesting in Suicide Mission is an active liability in terms of gameplay, and if they're not played to bad things will happen. Fortunately, simply playing the game will help stop this, as your own models won't explode should you gain a quite trivial amount of VP across the game. Simply by managing to score kills you should be able to keep up with the count, but a couple good turns of objective scoring will completely negate Suicide Mission. It is also important to make sure if a model that is important to your crew can be the boss in your list, it absolutely should be, if only to protect it from this rule, and the Volunteer rule also protects against this, despite it being very rare.
They do, however, have another special rule unique to the team in the form of We're Partners, For Now... which lets them make a once per round Let's Go type ability for the same cost, although they don't have to roll for it and this chain activating happens immediately. This is huge because it lets you set up big hits that can't be resisted, and like most of Squad you want to use these risk/reward rules to guarantee your VP gain and attempt to reduce counterplay. Anyone who can reliably KO followed up by Slipknot is very useful, as is simply doing 2 strong guns one after the other to kill as much as possible. The "downside" to this is that it's only usable by Free Agents, but the vast majority of the team are Free Agents so it's negligible.

Equipment

Squad only have 3 equipment pieces to choose from, and all are good in their niches. With the Squad getting more funding than normal (and most of the great gun pieces being able to lead) they'll almost always be able to take 1-2 of these, and in many situations all 3.
Aerial Locator System 0-1 $200
I've found the Aerial Locator to be more of a psychological choice than an actually useful one myself, but when it does work it goes off excellently. Lighting up a single model makes it very clear at the start of the turn who the main target is, and letting the opponent know this gives them another thing to think about, and forcing these levels of planning are important. When you so choose, it lets your guns shoot at a higher range as well, which is of obvious use. It's the first equipment I'll drop, as the other 2 I find far more useful, but it still has a very definite place in all my lists. It also has the benefit of being the cheapest Squad equipment, which is in itself something that can be very helpful in just finishing off lists.
Magazine- 0-1 $300
This is the one you'll probably always take. Keeps you shooting for longer and thus killing for longer, great on any Deadshot or Rick Flag for obvious reasons.
Airborne Deployment 0-2 $300
I always take this on big hitters without question. For $300 the ability to put a model on the board closer to where they need to operate is always useful, and putting it on someone like SS Deadshot who can come on and immediately Bullet Time is a huge boon to the crew. I play this as high risk/reward, and most of the time it pays off well. Use it for VP gain above all else, as you should be doing with most of Squad.

Strategies

Squad strategies range from very good to completely useless, they go the full spectrum. 

Suicidal Tendencies Value 1, Phase E

I'll start with this one, which makes them immune to the Run Away rule, because you should literally never take this strategy ever. It can be seen as "planning for failure" but I see it as "wasting strategy points in the event you're nearly tabled," and by the point it comes into play you've pretty much guaranteed lost the game. 

Direct Assault Value 2, Phase C

This one is good, if you're planning to take Fast Advance I'd consider this instead if only because it's a further distance forward, but it lets you move some guns into more favourable positions to control the board better. Depending on the crew, very valuable

ARGUS Telecommunications Relay Value 3, Phase ?

Squad's best strategy, but expensive (and rightly so). This strategy has the effect of Exhaustive Planner and Mastermind, but can optionally instead cancel the use of Exhaustive Planner (so you get an extra counter in the bag for 3 strategy points). I wouldn't take this if the opponent has Exhaustive Planner, just cause it's not worth keeping after that, but in a lot of cases it is a huge bonus to the crew. 

Objective- Beacon

The new objective given to them in their Batbox, it's the ultimate risk/reward objective. Only Squad can choose it, but anyone can control it and at 4VP it's already a big potential gain for an opponent if they just camp it. Then you add in the ability for controlling it, and you have an objective you absolutely need to reach ASAP. The ability to not only reallocate counters after allocating (in effect Scheming after Scheming comes into play) but also gain +1 counter on 2 models is a really great ability, although something you don't want your opponents to take. Luckily for Squad, you have the option of Airborne Deployment or Croc to take it by pure aggression early in the game, and you'll probably be dealing big hits at the same time to make it worth doing. This is definitely an objective worth using, as the potential gain from it is too good, but it plays into Squad's high risk/reward nature. 

 Overall, Suicide Squad Deadshot is one of the best options in this team. He's a Boss option, brings great shooting, Leadership for a little bit of crew support, he has it all. At willpower 8 he has a lot of counters to throw around (except for the golden turn of Bullet Time) and packs a lot of versatility.
Offensive
Bullet Time. Deadshot can put out a ridiculous amount of high damage shots once per game, most likely ignoring pings and being able to move as well. Put Airborne Deployment on him and turn 2 shove him into the opponent's crew to take out a couple of models (or 1 big hitter) and you'll be instantly at an advantage, even before the rest of your crew is factored in. If Deadshot can be somewhere he gets pings or extra ammo for his Custom MG, put him there with Bullet Time, because it increases his use exponentially. Outside of that one turn, he is still one of, if not the, best gun pieces in the game with Ranged Master and Shooter, and all his guns are either double blood or high rate of fire so he can easily at least KO most models in a single round.
Defensive
Kevlar Vest is about it, but defence 4 and endurance 7 are both very good. The loss of an endurance becoming standard was more than justified, as at 8 endurance he was obscenely good for his cost.
Overall
Deadshot is mostly just a gun piece, although Leadership helps a lot against Hypnotise or Charm abilities. Not much else to say, the reason you take him is for his huge output and just to kill things.

Offensive
Like most models in Squad, Croc's primary role is as a beatstick, working mostly as a large piece that rolls around and hits things. High strength, Claws, attack 5, all Croc is missing is a bonus to hit to make him a dominating combat monster, but what he does have is Power Strike and Charge. Power Strike is good to set up another big hitter, but with Croc's damage isn't the greatest, while Charge (coming from Huge) lets you get a few free automatic hits in on models for extra damage, and hopefully knock down some things for you to then claw into. Once per game the "golden turn" with Croc is starting his activation in base contact with a sewer, using it for 1MC and then useing Lord of the Sewers to charge out of it his basic movement, following up with 4 attacks. Ideally you will be doing a big hit with this activation, hopefully thinning out the enemy crew and getting Croc to a spot he's scoring or contesting.
Defensive
At Defence 3 and Huge Croc isn't hard to hit, and makes a big bullet magnet, but he has 13 Endurance and Tough Skin. He's taking a beating, with Sturdy not losing too many counters, and he can keep on rolling around relatively well until he's close to death. He has the advantage of auto passing any endurance roll (including to wake up from KO) and has rerolls on regular recovery rolls courtesy of Huge, can rarely be pushed or knocked down, and in general makes a great beefy threat. He'll die to a sustained effort, but in Squad you should be able to have your crew in general take out big threats where needed. However, he also has Runaway and Superior Sense of Smell, so he's immune to a good amount of abilities that would normally take him out of play (at least temporarily), and Runaway in particular makes him particularly tough to take out. Brave and the Bold hate it, as they can't rely on Arrest and instead have to make sure they do enough blood damage to kill him, all the while he can wake up without question and eat someone to regain some health through Cannibal. Superior Sense of Smell isn't the most useful, as he doesn't have anything that really makes him need line of sight, but it can potentially have its uses (against Sneak Attack for example)
Overall
Croc doesn't have much in the way of abilities that don't help him in combat, but he does bring a little bit to the crew. Lord of the Sewers lets you use sewers more than you normally would while adding another one to the table, and Coward's Reward can be a decent way of locking models into specific areas of the table. All in all not amazing bonuses, but when used right are great additions to his already great toolkit. One other thing to note here is Huge, as in Squad I've already mentioned you want to maximise VP gain, and Croc can be just the one to do that as he can come out of a sewer and already be claiming 2 objectives. If these are the Beacon and a 3VP objective, you've got a big potential scoring threat from turn 1, and even if he isn't attacking things he can still win games just by this high scoring.

Operating in a similar role to Deadshot above, Rick Flag is my regular Boss option, which may seem strange. Having Volunteer, you wouldn't want him as your boss, but being a Sidekick he has to be most of the time. I also find that to maximise the chain activating you wouldn't want him anywhere else, letting your Free Agents work better while he sits back as a static firebase.
Offensive
Rick Flag works not as a mobile piece like many others in Squad, he is instead used for immobile fire support, although for his cost he is good at it. With Multifire he can put out 5 shots a turn at double blood (or blood/stun into base contact with Light if someone chooses to attack him) and although he doesn't ignore pings or have any hit bonuses, by sheer rate of attack he can reliably munch through lower defence models with ease. He struggles somewhat against higher defence, or layered defences, but that's where the rest of the crew comes into play with debuffs to help each other out (Harley or Killer Frost are great here)
Defensive
Similar to Deadshot, defence 4 means he's not getting hit all the time, but Bulletproof Vest is a bit of a downgrade compared to Kevlar (which is reflected in his cost). He's usually more survivable against guns, but Deadshot is the more durable option overall. This isn't to say Flag is bad, just that he needs to be played a bit more cagey compared to the "balls out" Deadshot.
Overall
You guessed it, he's close to Deadshot in his abilities here too. Leadership is identical, but it's in the rest of it where the military feel of Flag comes into it and he really shines as a solo piece. Veteran lets him have some degree of versatility in any given turn (and can all but guarantee Multifire most of the time) while Order gives the rest of the crew a little bit of flexibility which is nice.

General- Other models

You may have already noticed, 2 of the 3 models I've discussed above are boss options. I do think having at least one in every list is invaluable, and I often take both for the reasons I've listed, but there are a great many other models worth taking in Squad depending on the type of list. SS Boomerang is another model almost always worth taking, as I've said in the past, as is King Shark for a similar job to Croc for a bit cheaper. Some more situational picks(but still very often great) are the Harleys, Killer Frost or Reverse Flash for a bit of a faster objective grabber and a bit of control, or Grodd or Ivy for a mix of damage, mind control and durability. Many of these models lose the Let's Go! ability though, so you have to plan carefully for them in your lists.

Demon's Heir Batbox- Review and discussion

Hello again everyone, a few days ago we were given two new releases from Knight and one of those fits perfectly into what I have been writing about recently- League of Assassins. Finally getting their Batbox, we didn't get what I would've expected (AK Nyssa or a repacked Ra's starter) and instead we got an all new Batbox! 100% new contents, a few great sculpts for much needed comic characters, and some more exploration of the Arab side of the League. Without further talk, lets jump in!

Starting with the leader of the box, and we have a new Talia with what is one of my favourite sculpts ever (even with the stupid special volume) and her rules are solid. As a leader/sidekick she has all the bonuses of leading a crew if she chooses to, but she can still work with Ra's or even under Merlyn in a list if you so choose and still operate very effectively.
Offensive
Her Twin Scimitars are a great weapon, and with Weapon Master she is hitting somewhat more reliably than otherwise. With Overwhelming, Sharp and Bleed:1 it is a weapon that will do damage when it wounds, but at 5+ strength she is relying on the rerolls to ensure things happen, and the Bleed:1 here is nowhere near as useful as on the Hassassins for obvious reasons. If you're looking for a leader to kill things in League this is not the place to do it, take Ra's or Merlyn instead, but Talia is still more than capable in combat while bringing more support capabilities to the crew as well. The other things Talia have going for her in this regard is her speed, as she has a 6" BMD between Special Volume (as much as I hate it on principle) and Acrobat, and she has True Love: Damian Wayne. Compared to True Love: Bruce Wayne on the other versions of Talia, this one will see far more use, as Damian is a great henchmen available to League, but is also very fragile so it's not unlikely he will die and trigger the trait on Talia.
Defensive
Talia doesn't bring much in the way of defence, only really relying on Martial Artist and Acrobat to keep her safe. At defence 4 and movement 3 she's not going to be an easy kill, but with her bigger base size she is still somewhat easier to reach than her other variants, and even though she doesn't suffer a defence penalty for outnumber it is easier to simply mob her. Overall, she's not bad defensively by any means, but she's not amazing either.
Overall
It's in Talia's support capabilities that she really comes into her own. Scheming and Business Agent are both kind of useful, but not the greatest boons, and Strategist is almost a given on League leaders now (Merlyn is the only one without it in standard), but it is through her own unique traits that she shines (like most of this box). Manipulative lets her move part of her crew to fully react to opponent's deployment (like for example if a sniper is deployed in prime shooting position, you can redeploy to counter it), and it lets her choose a model every turn to activate last. This is kind of like a reverse Persuasive in many regards, and it lets you choose a model that is likely to have a big turn of damage and mitigate it until the end of the turn, hopefully when you've already killed it mid-late game. Early on not as useful, and with a willpower roll harder to do than Persuasive on bigger targets, but it can work in her favour. What is likely her biggest bonus though is Mind Control Substance, which doesn't let her Hypnotise enemies as it may suggest, but instead prevents her own models from losing counters due to damage accumulation, and cannot have their willpower reduced ever. This is a great way at mitigating things like Discourage, especially as it is often used as a first step before an Inspire Fear is used, and protects against the prolonged effects of Terror to also help in this regard, so Talia is an obvious counter to Scarecrow or even to an extent Raven on the other side of the table. It is a great way to mitigate the weaknesses of willpower 4 on League henchmen as well, as they will rarely be losing counters and thus will be operating at full effectiveness, so they can stay in the game at their peak lethality for as long as possible, and have to be killed to be stopped as a threat.

 A somewhat minor character in the grand scheme of things, The Heretic is nonetheless a great addition to League as a crew, and a personal favourite of mine for a few reasons. As a character he has some interesting things about him in my opinion, and in game he is definitely a good take. Playing like a cross between Bane and The Merciless, The Heretic is quite simple- he kills things good and is a tank.
Offensive
Killing things is his job, and he does it well. Attack 4 seems a little low for this job, but with Unstoppable he shouldn't be blocked often, and he has a whole suite of special attack bonuses he can choose from depending on the job at hand. Devastating Blow is less useful here than in most cases, as at strength 2+ and Sharp he doesn't need any help with wounding, and at movement 3 with Large and Reach he has an effective 14" threat range, which is the highest in League, and an 8" threat range without any movement counters at all. Charge is worthwhile on him, as it's a little bit of extra damage with possible Knock Downs, and when hit bonuses are needed he can potentially just punch things with his +1 to hit, but this isn't that great because in League you're going to be doing the blood damage anyway, and you can usually just skip the stun. His one big thing that is unique to him is Juggernaut, which for it's cost is very very good. 1MC and 1SC to guaranteed push all models in contact 2" and then on top of that gain +1 to hit is a really good thing, especially if you can get enemies to hit terrain with it and also get an extra hit on them beforehand. With Reach too, he can hit whatever he pushes while they have to move to get back into contact. Excellent as a means of protecting or contesting objectives, as you can just force opponents off them without any potential to fail.
Without having played him I would guess once in combat, his best loadout is 2 special, 1 movement and 4 attack. That allows him to use Unstoppable, Juggernaut and 4 attacks, so you're as reliably wounding as is possible for him to do, and with his defensive abilities he can usually get away with not putting anything in defence.
Defensive
Not much to be said here, he's Desensitised and has Light Armour. At endurance 9 he can take quite a beating, and with Large gets to reroll all recovery rolls, so he won't go down all that quickly.
Overall
The Heretic isn't the "support" kind of sidekick. He's the "I kill things very effectively" kind of sidekick, just like most in League. He's a combat model through and through.

Likely to be a favourite of Young Justice fans, Cheshire finally makes her way into BMG through this box, and she brings a lot of quite interesting tricks. I'll note here that for a variety of reasons (armour and Cool Under Fire being the main ones) Cheshire is not good into Bane, but she is great in pretty much every single other situation.
Offensive
Her sword is great, as is the poisoned Sai, and neither are really a must pick choice. The Sai is lower damage, but a lot more potential to put on Poison, and with Combo she can still spray a lot of attacks at targets, and she gets rerolls to hit and block with them which is very good, but the sword still has Poison, and rerolls damage as opposed to hit and block, which at strength 5+ is very useful. Factoring in Poison and Toxicologist, she caps out at 10 blood on a single target per turn using the sword, and if someone does survive this, they're probably dead next turn.
If she can get into base contact with 2 separate henchmen, she should just use the Sai to guarantee hits on them (and thus Poison) and hope to get as much damage as possible, and then wait for them to fold from her Poison.
Defensive
Cheshire is hard to deal with in any way. Rerolls to block and dodge, defence 4, movement 4 Acrobat, you have to put in a big investment to take her out. The one big noticeable factor is that she doesn't have Martial Artist (which is really out of place in League) but it doesn't mean she still won't take a concentrated effort to do it. High potential to ignore fall damage is another thing that is quite good, but not really that useful in most situations.
Overall
Cheshire brings most as a support piece, as her kit is mostly based around Poison. She unlocks an equipment piece to buy a henchman Poison Master, but you only really want that on Hassassin 1 out of all the League cause he's the only other model with base Poison, but she herself plays around with Poison as well with Toxicologist.

The henchmen of the box, the Hassassins are quite solid and definitely cheap in League. All of them are solid models for sure, and their killing capability is almost unparalleled for their cost, but they are incredibly straightforward and don't have any tricks outside of murder.
Offensive
The Scimitar that 3 of the 4 have is quite a good weapon, and Martial Expert turns them into decently reliable damage dealers. At attack 3 they're somewhat easy to block, and
Hassassin 1 has Poison on his Scimitar, which is great for another little bit of sneaky damage (which can become a death sentence on lower endurance models), and synergises especially well with Cheshire for the bonuses to poison (and even for Poison Master on him)
Hassassin 2 doesn't have much in the way of special weapon bonuses, but he does have Tension which can bring him up to attack and defence 4 the moment he takes any damage. It's a careful line, because as soon as he takes 2 damage the benefit of being able to have 4 attacks is gone (unless Rebirth Talia is in the list), but he still keeps the option of being harder to both hit and block which is excellent
Hassassin 3 has Throwing Knives. Nothing to special, and he's the one I would personally drop first, because the extra ranged weapon is often not useful and it cuts into the funding of the crew (which admittedly Talia adds to). I would just rather take pieces of equipment (Hidden, Magazines for other weapons, Loyalty Tattoo, Ancient Weapon as I discuss below) or better ranged weapons, like Smoke Grenades (Ichi) or the Bows
Hassassin 4 has a different weapon set to the rest of his kind, in that he brings a Bhuj and a Hidden Blade (Hassassin's Creed?). The Bhuj has Reach, Heavy and Sharp, so he is the most reliable damage dealer of the 3, but he lacks any special crit to make the most use of Martial Expert. This is where the League equipment list comes to play, as Ancient Weapon has found it's home on this guy. Where it is normally not worth taking due to the unreliability of the crit, when you can get it on a 50/50 chance here (with Reach added) it is definitely worth using. The Hidden Blade is less so unless you really need to reroll hits, but it's there as an option anyway. He does also have Scout, the last of the brand new traits, which allows him to make a single basic move before the first Take the Lead phase of the game. This allows him to have in effect a Patrol on him (or use Patrol to make him even further up the table) which is good because he's further up the table, but has the downside of not being likely to be affected by crew buffs turn 1. Overall he's a faster option than the rest and a great damage piece for it, but pays for it by being more fragile.
Defensive
Compared to the ninjas, they lose out on a defence, Stealth and Martial Artist, meaning that despite their higher endurance (or equal in the case of Hassassin 4) they will statistically be killed much quicker than any comparable model in the crew. They are naturally 16% more likely to be hit than a ninja, from 4" further away, and with how prevalent double damage is on most models in the game, endurance 5-6 is without a doubt one of the weakest upgrades in the game when it comes to statistics. This is only compounded by the fact they have willpower 4, and so are severely hampered when it comes to defending themselves (or if they do it's at the expense of movement and attack). It's not a huge issue with these guys being as cheap as they are, but it's definitely something that factors in during games.
Overall
In general I'm very happy to see these models on the table despite their shortcomings (story of a League player I guess) and I'm very much looking forward to seeing their offensive potential. What makes me most happy about them is they're more Arab inspired and thus will fit well with Rebirth Ra's as well as his daughter, and as he is who I will be running most (at least until I can run a standard Talia/Nyssa list)

Objective- the Lazarus Pit
Thanks to Steffen over at the Iceberg Lounge, we have the exact wording and use of the League unique objective (and all others) before the box is out! The Lazarus Pit is quite a good objective in my opinion, but it has the potential to backfire greatly should the opponent play well around it. Being a 40mm based objective and obeying normal objective rules, it is harder to place than any other objective and much easier to contest, although the bonuses for it are great. 3VP means it is as good of a gain as Medical Supplies or Ammo, and brings League up to a potential 9VP max per turn from objectives, but it has another effect as well. A model can manipulate the Pit to make a willpower roll, and if they pass they recover 2 damage (blood or stun), but if they fail they must first allocate maximum into attack, then movement the turn after. This downside for League isn't huge, because they're a fighty crew anyway, but the potential healing just for sitting on an objective is awesome. Pair it with anything that has rerolls to willpower rolls (or just high willpower) and you've got a great combo.

Comic review- Damian Wayne

Here we have what will probably be the final part of my League of Assassins focus for the time being (excepting battle reports), as the title reads it is a comic review focusing on Damian Wayne. This relatively new character has had a big impact since his creation, and some of the stories surrounding him have been among the best DC Comics have produced in the last decade and a half. I will today be briefly going through all the "main comics" Damian has appeared in, and giving my opinions on each independently.

Batman and Son
Where else to start but the beginning? Obviously this is the best introduction to Damian, but it also has a lot of Bruce/Talia conflict in it and a lot of great League content. It's not only the first place Damian appears, but it also has the first appearance of the League Man-Bat Commandos, an amazingly well-written text story involving the Joker, and the leadup to the Zur-en-Arrh arc in Batman RIP. While the "Batman and Son" story only really lasts the first half of the TPB, it still crops up briefly throughout the rest of the story, and by the time of Batman and Robin we can see Damian as a well rounded character, albeit an absolute brat who is pretty damn unlikeable.

Batman and Robin by Grant Morrison
While not strictly a Damian Wayne focused story, its the beginning of the brotherly relationship between Dick Grayson and Damian, something which never really dies down, and the formation of Damian into a true hero. It is here that Morrison begins to shape Damian into someone other than the snotty brat he is traditionally seen as being, and Damian begins to learn more from the "Bat" side of the world as opposed to his League upbringing. The traditional Batman and Robin relationship is completely flipped on its head here as well, which is a large part of the pure charm this comic has, and anyone expecting the norm will get a major shock. In this, Robin is the straight and serious part of the duo, while Batman is the quick-witted one with the smart mouth, which as said is incredibly entertaining and great to read. This series is not only great for anyone wanting to read Damian, its also a great character piece on Dick Grayson, as it shows him trying to live up to Bruce and fill his shoes as Batman all while he wants to forge his own path, and him attempting to reconcile the 2. Batman and Robin is great, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Batman Incorporated
Like Batman and Robin, not exactly a Damian story, but this is the last step in Morrison's Damian story. The continuation of the war Talia declares on Bruce, it also brings in the Heretic, a bastard clone of Damian that is used purely as an enforcer by Talia, and comes into conflict with Damian as a result. The impetuousness of Damian is on full display in this shorter story (only 12 issues total) and it ends up having bad results. This arc defines Damian going forward into late New 52/Rebirth, and is a must read for fans of Damian and Talia alike.

Robin- Son of Batman
This limited series after Damian's own "rebirth" (but before Rebirth) is a short little story going into his efforts to shed his League past and come into his own outside of both the Al Ghul heritage and Batman. This is the first appearance of Goliath, and its here you come to enjoy him as the big pet of Damian, but it also has far more of a focus on Damian "righting his wrongs". The story is about him attempting to undo many of the things he did as a League agent wherever possible, and facing the consequences when he can't. Leads into Titans and Super Sons, and is an important part of his character development, but it often gets ignored so is of less importance to read.

Teen Titans Rebirth
Every Robin has to have a turn leading a team, and Damian is no exception. While there are some great interactions early on in this run, especially during it's formation, there is still much to be desired when it comes to Teen Titans. The plot often just seems bland, and it is in the crossover issues where the series really comes into its own, which is in itself usually due to the other characters involved (The Lazarus Contract has some great moments with Damian). All in all, I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to read absolutely everything about Damian, and even then its pretty mediocre.

Super Sons/Adventures of the Super Sons
Hands down, this is my favourite Damian comic. The dynamic between him and Jon is perfect, and Tomasi does an excellent job at playing the two off each other, often with hilarious results. It reflects the relationship between their parents on the surface level, but also has a level of childish imitation, as each are trying to live up to their larger-than-life fathers, and their upbringings clash many times. Super Sons is a far less serious story than any of the others Damian is in, and the content can almost seem silly at times, but that only adds to the child-like glee it brings when you read it. Super Sons is not only my favourite comic with Damian, it's among my favourite comics of all time, and I really seriously recommend it all the time. Seriously, it's a great read for pure dumb entertainment.

List Discussion- Secret Society, Rogues edition

Hi all, today we've got a little bit of a different list, because it isn't Brave and the Bold. This list is a Secret Society list, and the team itself has been the subject of a lot of discussion recently regarding its balance in the game overall, but this list is something I feel is more in the spirit of friendly play rather than an optimised list. As in the title, this list is themed around the Rogues and villains of the Flash in general. I've long wanted to play as many Flash villains as I could, so previously I played this as various Freeze lists with prisoners to fill points, but now in Society I can run a far more thematic list and still function. Until the day Central City Villains ceases to be Gorilla City Villains, this is where my Rogues will stay for the most part. Without further ado, here is the list!

The Society Crew

Models: 5

Reputation: 335/350

Funding: 1450$/1500$

[Boss][F] Reverse Flash(TV) [110/0$]

[F] Captain Cold [72/400$]

[F] Heat Wave [65/300$]

[F] Killer Frost [40/150$]

-Followers [0/400$]

[F] Captain Boomerang (Suicide Squad) [48/200$]

The only model I haven't already previously discussed in this list is Killer Frost, and really she's in there for a fringe connection to Flash rather than anything else. Her Stop!, as a Brave and the Bold player primarily, is of such great value to me that I'm a huge fan of taking her (in Suicide Squad as well) but as an Acrobat she has a good role in my list for a second high defence model that can grab objectives quickly with Reverse Flash. The other 3 move up as a firebase of sorts, shooting at anything that gets too close and then bunkering on objectives. With all the debuffs across the crew and the damage output I think this will be a halfway decent crew while sticking to theme, although I am yet to try it out seriously. 

League of Assassins part 2- henchmen in depth

Hello again all, for the second post of 2019 I'm following up my original post with something that was requested by a few people- a more in depth look at the League of Assassins henchmen! To keep my first post more concise I purposely left out quite a few henchmen, but in this post I will be discussing everything, organised by which set it comes in. I'll note here that every henchman in faction (ie League only, not from Bane) has Martial Artist, which is excellent when it comes to countering hordes, and at mostly defence 4 you can hope to need more of an investment to kill even the henchmen.
Bane's henchmen will be appearing later, in a dedicated Bane overview, and Damian has already been discussed, so they will not be in this article, nor will Goliath.

Lady Shiva set- League Agents 1-3

These 3 were the ones I was asked the most about in terms of being left out of my last post. 

Pros

The price. As the cheapest in-theme options for League, that's already of value, and they each bring some interesting tricks to the table. 

League Agent 1 has Sustained Defence on a Defensive weapon, which is really quite great in terms of sitting on objectives to either score or contest. 

League Agent 2 has Undercover which is ok, but there are better options of deploying up the table in League (Ki, Shadow, just buying someone else Hidden, Undercover equipment with Talia). 

League Agent 3 has the quite good combination of Fast and a Katana, making her by far the best offensive Agent, but she still has the double dip of issues from the Agents and League as a whole (low defence/endurance/willpower)

Cons

They're not awful, and they're certainly great cheap henchmen, but I have a couple of reasons why I dislike them. Defence 3 means they're the easiest models to hit in the crew, and without Stealth are far easier to just shoot off the board. This is only added to by their endurance of 4, which means a couple of well placed shots will take them out of the game, and its pretty safe to say this will be for good.

All in all, League Agent 1 and 3 have their places, with definite uses in both cases, but I think it is a far better investment to just hire other ninjas

Neeson Ra's set- Lotus, Yang and Ying

These 3 are ok, but they are of varying use. After the Shiva box, I would skip this one next, although the ninjas are still valuable henchmen, and I still see myself sneaking at least one of these 3 into all of my lists.

Pros

Yang is the best of the 3, because he brings consistency to the crew in damage. Combo on the katana, combined with Kill Them and Inspire, lets him put out 7 dice in attack, which is huge amounts of damage to anything.

Ying replaces combo with Hardened and Climbing Shoes as compared to Yang. Climbing Shoes is ok, when its useful its worth it, but that won't be often. Hardened, however, is always useful, as it means they are taking less lethal damage and have more potential to shake off big hits. 

Lotus has some great traits, and in terms of going against shooting he is the best option defensively because of Dodge and Reflexes. In terms of damage, he isn't doing anything special when compared to the other katanas, but he does have Rapid Fire shurikens, which lets him put a little extra stun damage on before the crew makes combat. This is ok, but I wouldn't value it over the other ranged attacks in the crew (smoke grenades and the bows).

Cons

Lotus is very expensive, and doesn't bring too much to play for that cost compared to stuff that's almost 20 rep cheaper. Sure, he can dodge guns, but with Stealth on everything else how much value is it? 

Apart from willpower on Ying and Yang? Not much. These 2 have very good traits, but in terms of usefulness Yang shoots himself out front with Combo. He is one of my favourite League henchmen period for his output, almost like a little Damian. 

2-man booster- Shadow and Seeker

I really like this 2 man set, and my love of Seeker has been well documented on the first post. Shadow, however, is in a strange spot when I look at League, as he is good in many ways, but lacking in some others compared to his fellow ninjas.
Shadow Pros
Smoke Grenade and Undercover are 2 things that are great on him, and will likely be the reasons someone takes Shadow. Sneak Attack is ok, but at willpower 4 it doesn't let him do it very often (as compared to Ichi, it has the extra caveat of him having to begin his activation further away, which means less counters to attack).
Shadow Cons
Shadow is only defence 3 (and the only ninja with this) and his Bo weapon is notoriously disliked. The staff that is much hated on Tim Drake is not that bad in Shadow's case, being a cheaper henchmen as opposed to an expensive Free Agent/Sidekick, but it still doesn't gel with the crew. He's the only one that doesn't do blood damage, and it reflects quite badly on him.
All in all, he plays like a worse Ichi without the katana, but this box is still definitely value for anyone playing Eternal League, as Seeker is one of their best henchmen period.

Rebirth Ra's- Goro, Ichi and Ki

These guys are the gold standard for League. As with all resin releases, they're great models that patch up weaknesses in the crew, and can do a lot to tune up the crew as a whole. I've already gone through Goro and Ki in detail in my first League post, but Ichi has a few tricks that I didn't mention. I went through the weapons he has, but Ichi has 2 big things that make him far more valuable than other comparable models in the crew- Feint and willpower 5. Those 2 combined mean he is not facing the big 2 issues in League, and when buffed he is even scarier. Being able to straight up negate blocks lets him murder things that are contesting or scoring, even if something is just blocking a zone he can cut through them with ease. Having 1 extra counter is often not relevant in Ichi's situation, but that is only because he is usually using Feint as a buff to himself, which is still better off than the other willpower 4 in the crew.

League of Assassins on the table and in comics

Hello again all, this time I've decided to put together a bit of a crew review of sorts, talking about League of Assassins in general. This is mostly because I have recently started a League crew, and I've found a lot of things with the crew I find quite interesting, but they're also one of the less popular crews in the game. I will be following this up with some of my personal favourite League related comics, as these were what ultimately made me decide to take the plunge into League.

Ra's Al Ghul

League have exceptional leaders, there's no denying it. Ra's in all his forms has always been efficient and deadly, while giving a lot of pre-game support to the crew, but I think as the game has progressed into 2nd edition the latest version, Rebirth Ra's, is by far the best. All of them have a statline based around being on the front lines, with defence 5 across the board, but they do it in different ways. Both of the Eternal Ra's variants have things to differentiate them both in statline and in traits, but Rebirth is mostly an amalgamation of the 2, taking what's best and leaving behind anything else.
Offensive
The cards say it all, Ra's is made to kill things. Bonuses to hit on 2/3, rerolls to wound across the board, and a special attack to add crit casualty? It's excellent. Arkham City Ra's instead brings Precise Blow to play, which allows him to land reliable damage on pretty much anything in the game(+2 to hit after Weapon Master, and 2+ strength), and Enervating on his sword helps to strip counters from the tougher/Desensitised targets. Neeson has nothing too special here, but Rebirth has something that is quite nice in Reach on his sword. It means he has a 2" extra threat range as compared to the others, which means he is in combat quicker, and that's what he wants to do the most. It's simple, but it works.
Defensive
Defence 5 alone is great, but add in high endurance, Martial Artist and Immortal and you have a leader that will take a beating. Neeson has Sustained Defence, which makes him incredibly obnoxious against anything with an attack 4 or below. There's really not much else to say about them, they're fairly straightforward in the defensive area.
Overall
Having played him, the pre-game that Rebirth has is slightly more versatile than what the others bring as cancelling an opponent's strategy is far more useful than a second extra strategy point (as Rebirth still gets an extra one). Once the game starts, Neeson is better at supporting a crew with his Order and Persuasive, but in general Rebirth brings more to the table through his pure efficiency for cost. The only case I can see someone not using Rebirth is in Nolan movie themed lists or if someone wants to bring along an expensive free agent, in which case Society is almost always the better choice with Rebirth anyway.

Sidekicks

League have a great deal of Sidekicks, and all of them have their own niche. They are all representative of some interpretation of the character and are good in that regard, although some cases it does in fact hurt the character's viability in this crew. They are all decent options, although as  with the leaders the newer options are almost always better as they are far more efficient for their points. 

Shiva

Shiva does as she should, she's a Martial Artist who punches things a lot. She has the unique characteristic of being the only model in the entire League crew who doesn't have some kind of weapon, but don't mistake her for a slouch in combat, as she can still punch pretty damn well. Her low base statline isn't great, but Adaptable can make up for it and she is still somewhat versatile in what she can do on any given turn. Her biggest issue is being a stun based model in a crew that don't otherwise deal out stun damage much, so you may find things simply waking up to be an unnecessary annoyance that can be easily skipped. 

Merlyn

Merlyn has the big benefit of being able to be a leader or a sidekick, so in the event he is leading a list he will be able to Inspire and give free Let's Go, which is a great thing to have. Otherwise, he is somewhat simple in how he operates, playing like a Green Arrow equivalent with a sword. He does, however, have built in Good Aim for free, meaning he can move and shoot with not just no penalty, but with +1 to hit, and Mixed Combat Style. Now anyone who has read my opinions on Ezra Miller Flash know what I think about MCS, and it's no different here. Merlyn can zip around as a killing machine at both ranged and up close, although it's counter intensive to do so, and is a great asset to League as they tend to bunch up more to back each other up. Merlyn is more of a self sufficient piece than any other in League, and tends not to provide much support to the crew as much as just murder. In saying this, he does have some very interesting traits to support both himself and others in Trickster and Outlaw Field Commander, which let him completely reallocate to decide his activation, and give out even more counters to the crew. As a leader option, this means he can give 2 counters out a turn to one model, which is pretty nice to have (although not as great as a Follow Me or Inspire is for obvious reasons)

Nyssa

The only Nyssa we have at the moment is the eternal variant, which is based off of the Arrow TV series more so than the comic (that she works with Ra's and uses a bow is enough of an indicator there). Nyssa is a really great model overall, with one huge issue. At only a single shot each turn, her damage output is incredibly low for her cost, and although she does a great job sitting on objectives and defending, she could really do with the simple addition of just getting Rapid Fire. It'd make a world of difference.

Talia

Talia has 3 different options, one of which is an old tournament Gold Card, but I won't mention that here as it isn't that great. Otherwise, you have the standard option with gun or the eternal katana option. As a Brave and the Bold primary, I have been using the katana Talia for quite some time there and I quite enjoy using her. Both models have affinities to various people (comic has Lex because of Hush, AC has Batman because of that game). Both have True Love: Bruce Wayne, which can now be triggered by the Dark Knights if one was to choose them as a Free Agent. AC Talia is a great model to have in the middle of a combat, and in general is just a tooled up ninja, while comic Talia fills a different role. She brings a double blood RoF2 gun and pays for herself in funding, while being able to hand out bonus counters to models with her Get Em. This doesn't go over a model's cap, but it allows you to allocate elsewhere and still maintain full combat effectiveness. Good use with Inspires and Kill Them, but it's heavily dependent on activation order and a good opponent will have time to mitigate the output of your crew. All in all, Talia is a good model to make use of, and she can put out a lot of hurt both through her own actions and through henchmen. 

Bane

Bane kind of just exists in the crew IMO. He does the same job as Lady Shiva, but thematically doesn't fit that well unless you take a lot of his merc henchmen with him, in which case he runs better in his own crew. His old spot of a Kill Them piece has been entirely replaced by Goro IMO, and doubling it up has diminishing returns as it means less actual henchmen on the table. 

Free Agents

Unlike many other villain crews, League have crew specific Free Agents. Shadowstorm is a better ninja but has the worse rank, and at his cost you probably just want to buy 2 other ninjas, but the other option is actually very good. The Scarecrow of the Nolan movies is a more fragile piece unique to the crew but can be an annoyance from turn 1, and brings some great support to the crew with his traits. Follow Me is yet another thing League have to give out extra counters to henchmen in the crew, and Death or Exile is an excellent long range Arrest-type trait that can remove KO models. Pair this with Shiva or Bane and it's really great, but otherwise it's not that useful as the crew have very little in the way of stun damage. This Scarecrow does have Hidden, so like Ki he can threaten objectives or bully models early in the game, but his one other redeeming quality is his weapon. At first glance it is low damage, and some may immediately write it off because of this, but it has the one big benefit of having Poison and Enervating/1. Hit a bunch of henchmen with it and they are very quickly operating at lower effectiveness, which helps your own crew operate better, and also traps them in what is likely a downward spiral of damage until they die.

Henchmen
League henchmen have some very very good traits and wicked statlines, but they suffer from having a low willpower most of the time. Damian I have already discussed elsewhere, and he doesn't change here, but the other henchmen are of varying usefulness. Most bring something to the crew, and while there are redundant options many henchmen like to play off of each other to benefit from support. Almost all of them (all the ninjas) have Stealth, defence 4 and Martial Artist, which on henchmen is remarkable and forces the opponent to play on their terms. With all of this said, there are some things you always want to have in a League crew in my opinion, and they are as follows:

• Bows

The first piece any League player should add to any of their lists is at least one of the 2 henchman bow options for a few reasons. League's low willpower is compounded by low attack, and a lucky round of blocks can spell disaster for the crew in general. This problem is completely solved by Seeker and his paralysing arrow, as you just have to hit to stop someone spending counters for the turn, and they're also at -2 defence to do so. All of a sudden you hit things on 3s at absolute worst, and with no counter spend it can help greatly against a lot of things. Control models or just simple offensive pieces can get shut down for one turn with this bow, and with other henchmen near it just allows you to remove the threats entirely. Ki is the standard bow, and he is far more static without Good Aim, but he has his own way of reliably debuffing the enemy crew so the rest of your henchmen are in a better spot. His Caustic explosion is a great way to do a small amount of damage to a bunched up group of models, and with Acid can help the crew hit models easier. With Handy on most models in League its a small bonus, but +1 to hit is always good and is even better with rerolls, so Ki is still valuable. Ki also has Hidden, which means he can be a threat from rooftops early in the game, getting into a favourable position from deployment, or can threaten objectives early to maximise VP gain.

• Goro

Goro is probably one of the most needed pieces in a League crew, because he is tanky, good at dealing damage and provides extra counters to the crew. Kill Them is his main thing, reducing the issue of lower willpower by pumping models full of attack counters, while he himself has a double blood sword at strength 3+, and can easily get rerolls to hit. With Light Armour, he is harder to damage, although he is Large and lower defence than the rest of the crew while lacking Stealth so is an easier target for shooting All this does mean he has an issue with finding his own niche, trying to be everything at once, but personally I like using him as a bodyguard for Ra's and a support piece.

• Smoke Grenades

Smoke Grenades are here mostly for the protection they give to the crew as opposed to any control they can have. The biggest threat League have at range are things with Night Vision or Scope, so by throwing down Smoke you can completely stop them from drawing line of sight to you, which can prove crucial for later game as you have a safer advance. Ichi is the best choice for this as he is a higher willpower model with a katana, but Shadow is also decent at doing it as well.

• Katanas

In terms of damage output, this is what you want. Lower strength isn't great, but double blood with rerolls to both hit and damage is amazing. Some of the platforms they come on aren't the greatest, being too expensive or having traits that are incredibly corner case, but most of the Katanas are decent enough in the crew. The best one in my opinion is obviously Damian, but Yang and Ichi also bring great value to the table with their damage capabilities.

• Bane Mercenaries

Bane's Mercenary henchmen are thematically quite disparate from the rest of the League crew, but they do provide some well needed niches in terms of henchmen. Dallas brings his Assault Rifle, albeit no longer with Night Vision, and a few of the other models available bring higher strength reliable damage on tankier platforms, with a higher native willpower than the ninjas. This does come at a price though, as they are expensive on their own even after you take Bane to unlock them, and all of the quite excellent Soldiers of Fortune are locked out of the League crew entirely.


Comic Review/Recommended Reading
Many of these comics are quite old, and as such may not be entirely canon this long after release (or in fact may not be canon at all) but they are all excellent reads for the organisation of the League, and give good insights to the main characters. These are some of my favourite League stories, and are great sources of inspiration for BMG.
Death and the Maidens
The introduction of Nyssa Al Ghul, this limited series by Greg Rucka is one of many stories written in the mid-2000s that represents what I see as the pinnacle of DC Comics writing. Like many League stories, it depicts a shadow war between the League and its enemies, although unlike any other this enemy comes from within. As well as giving Nyssa a sympathetic and heart wrenching origin story, it puts Batman and Talia in the middle of a decades long war between two immortals, and it is at its core a very personal story. This is my favourite of all League stories, and one of my favourite comic books of all time, so I would definitely recommend it to everyone.
The Demon Trilogy- Son of the Demon, Bride of the Demon and Birth of the Demon
These 3 stories have a lot in them that has remained the definitive character traits for Talia and Ra's (including the entire origin for Ra's). Although it is no longer considered canon, this older trilogy of one shots still stands the test of time, and is an excellent way of portraying the complicated relationship between the Al Ghul family and Batman as they team up against mutual threats but ultimately come to blows over their philosophical differences. The Son of the Demon story gives what is seen by many as the conception of Damian Wayne, although not confirmed it is heavily teased in Damian's early stories, and Birth of the Demon is almost entirely an origin story for Ra's Al Ghul, which is set as a period piece throughout history and is quite an intriguing read throughout. All 3 of these stories are collected as Birth of the Demon, and I would recommend them to anyone. 
For further League reading, I will be working on a pure comic based post on Damian Wayne in the near future, which has a lot of overlap with more recent League stories for obvious reasons.