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.