Sunday, 21 April 2019

Dark Knight Rises 2 player set part 1- my thoughts on Brave and the Bold

Hi all, this month we have a very exciting set of releases all based around the Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, and a lot of things to consider. To start I will be discussing the main release of the month, the Dark Knight Rises 2 player set featuring Batman vs a Bane focused League crew, splitting the box into its 2 halves for separate posts. The box has some really nice minis in it that have some great roles in their respective crews, but also a couple of duds unfortunately, and it is important because it's bringing into the game the return of proper vehicles in the form of the Tumbler and Batpod.



Brave and the Bold
The 3 cops in this pack are great in that they're generic police officers, but they are of vastly differing value to a Brave and the Bold player. Agent 1 and 2 are valuable for a variety of reasons, but Agent 3 is not very good when considering other options.
Offensive
Being cheap henchmen, they don't have too much in the way of offence, but for their costs they're not bad either. Automatic Pistol is an ok weapon for what it does at its price point, Extendable Batons are great, and Agent 2 has a new type of weapon that is really great in the form of Pepper Spray. A short ranged Beam weapon (so no picking up ammo, and only 6+ ping) with Reload, it does no damage but has the Blind effect. It means you're able to potentially shut down some big hitters, and for $0 funding the fact it has diminishing returns on higher defence characters isn't even a bad thing.
Defensive
There isn't much to be said for any of them defensively, and they're all fairly standard defence 3/endurance 5 cops. Agent 2 is a lower endurance 4, but at his cost that is more than tolerable, while Agent 3 has a Bulletproof Vest to protect against guns.
Overall
All 3 have Arrest, which is of great benefit to any Brave and the Bold crew, and they're relatively low cost
Agent 1 is pretty much a replacement for Agent Ron from 1st edition, albeit better with Street Guy replaced with Undercover to deploy further up the table and an extra endurance for only 1 rep more. She's not as useful as some other henchmen in Brave and the Bold, but she definitely has a place.
Agent 2 is the standard version of stripper cop, and damn he is a good replacement. Losing the jank with defensive on the baton, he instead has his pepper spray to support the rest of the crew in a couple of different ways. Very valuable model and arguably the best in this box period in terms of points/value comparison.
Agent 3 is slightly different to the already standard Arkham Guard 1, and for the points increase I'm not entirely sure he's a great take over AG1. Replacing Hockey Gear for Bulletproof Vest is largely match-up dependent (although Bulletproof Vest is more useful in general) and the extra willpower is always good, but if it comes at the expense of other better models in the crew it isn't worth taking. This is the one with the toughest competition in standard for that reason.
It's hard to do a box titled Dark Knight without the Dark Knight himself, so here he is! A new Standard version of Christian Bale Batman, he hasn't had too many major changes from the old version but what has changed is quite useful. 
Offensive
An Attack 4 Batman isn't something one would normally even consider at 120 rep, but in looking at his traits he is actually something of a great beater. Combo means he is counter efficient while having more attacks than the average Batman, and although it is a 50/50 chance to block he can easily make himself impossible to block through use of Sneak Attack, which itself gives him a +1 to hit and helps his hit and run style of attacking. He isn't the brawler you see in Anniversary Batman or Batfleck, but he can definitely run around and pick off models where he needs to which is very helpful. Also of great importance to him is Arrest, which makes him ridiculously self-sufficient when it comes to taking out the models he hits. This in Bat-Family is also something really great, as it means he enables a very easy triple Arrest list with his good cost and native Arrest so others can buy it. 
Defensive
At Defence 5 he is already hard to hit, but with Master of Stealth he is very hard to get into a position to shoot at until he is threatening you, while Bat-Armour MkII can potentially block hits and is still nice to have, even at a 6+. 
Overall
This is quite a good Batman model, although it misses out on some of the upper-tier abilities I find best in general (mainly being rerolls). With a 5" BMD and movement 4 he is already very fast, plus Batclaw and Batcape as standard he can get where he needs to be very easily when he needs to be. For the same rep as the old version he replaces regular Stealth with the superior Master of Stealth (bringing with it a +1 to hit on Sneak Attack), which is enough of a reason he should at least be considered as a competitive option, especially factoring in his upgrade cards. Both in Brave and the Bold and Bat-Family, he performs well in roles that aren't greatly filled in his points slot while facilitating other options in the crew. 
Another very important part of the box, there are 2 upgrade cards given for Batman to play with representing the Batpod and Tumbler he uses in the Dark Knight movies.
Batpod
Working in a very similar way to the old Batpod model (albeit for 5 rep and $100 more), this operates as mostly just a more streamlined version (and with an actual listed base size!). The strange thing about it is that it lacks the Batpod trait from the Compendium, but has the Mechanical Mount and Fast rules to make it work effectively the same way. It has the same movement abilities as the Joker Bikers, but also comes with a +1 movement to put Batman at a whopping movement 5 and adds 4 endurance to him. Coming with a disruptor is a nice addition, and between that, defence 5, Batarmour Mk2, Master of Stealth and ECM he is pretty safe against guns even without Acrobat.
Offensively it has a great 4 ammo (which is likely to not all get used with its endurance) across 2 guns, both of which are medium ranged and firearm doing double stun. The fact the machine guns have Anti-Tank and not the rocket launchers is odd, but the weapons basically operate as better riot guns when in range, and combined with Batman's Arrest and movement potential can be a death sentence.
Tumbler
The new vehicle in the box, the Tumbler operates pretty much as it looks- like a tank. Even though it lowers Batman's defence (to 4, still good) and only gets Ping on 6s, it compensates by having 5 extra endurance and Heavy Armour for a -3 to wound (all but guaranteeing 6s to wound on most things) and an extra +1 to movement like the Batpod. The Tumbler has the same guns as the Batpod with unlimited ammo, and when it's destroyed is immediately replaced by the Batpod which is a major factor in the cost of the Tumbler. As far as movement goes, it can charge (but no other attacks other than the guns thanks to Sealed Cabin) and gets a 7" BMD, with the downside of not being able to jump or climb. However, to get around this it ignores terrain 2" high or less when moving, and has a once per game use of Boosted Jump to make an 8" place for 1MC and 1SC (effectively a one use Super Jump). Transport is likely to not see too much use, but it lets a model on a 30mm base be carried around alongside the Tumbler without being able to use its own attacks while inside.
The first (and likely only) Catwoman from a live-action movie to make it into BMG, DKR Catwoman is a nice profile but not all that adventurous in terms of a Catwoman profile. The same statline as Modern Age Catwoman, she is a close-mid range character that is somewhat geared towards combat, but is probably still better off as an objective piece. 
Offensive
She has 2 weapon profiles, and her Heels are effectively just the Retractable Claws every other Catwoman has and as such aren't much to speak of. Attack 4 gives her decent chances of failed blocks, and a good amount of attacks to work with, but she will still only really KO henchmen somewhat reliably. She does have a automatic gun though, which she can use if something is close enough (if they move into base contact Light is awesome) and in most cases she's more reliably damaging by shooting things instead of hitting them up close. Pickpocket means she can take weapons from KO models, and as such can take some great weapons from other models, but I would only recommend doing it if she's not putting herself at risk in the process. 
Defensive
By pure virtue of being a defence 5 and movement 4 Acrobat she is very survivable, although she lacks Martial Artist to truly capitalise on it. Night Vision on her is mostly a defensive ability as well as she has no ranged abilities over 8", but it does make her less open to sneak attack if the occasion arises. 
Overall
Climbing Claws is pretty standard fare for Catwoman, and as always isn't that useful with her movement potential, while Undercover can come in handy often and helps protect her early game. She lacks any of the special movement or VP shenanigans the other Catwomen have, but she is also cheaper to make up for it and has somewhat of a different role. She could be interesting as a Batfam addition, but I'm unsure of just how useful she is to the team without testing her on the table. 
As is seen in The Dark Knight Rises, Catwoman also has an option to take her Batpod. For the same cost as Batman with a steep increase in funding ($400 extra) she gets almost the same statline with the loss of ECM and Disruptor. Her guns, however, don't just do double stun like Batman's do, with the machine guns being double blood for great potential damage, while the rocket launcher is blood/stun explosions. The damage output more than makes up for the lack of other special traits and explains her extra funding cost, but at the same time it is an $800 investment to do that, and is only really good in Brave and the Bold (the funding difference is way, way too expensive to take it in Bat-Family where it does only stun damage, especially at the expense of great equipment)

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