With this month's releases, we were given a great "new" team in the Teen Titans, but in this release came someone I am very happy to see in BMG. The Amazons are a part of the DC world that are often largely forgotten about, although they are one of my personal favourite groups, and in BMG they provide a very close experience to a team list.
In general they are Acrobats, with all that comes with that trait, and all benefit from the Amazon trait, giving them +1 to both hit and block, and a -1 to wound for opponents attacking them. This is a very good all-rounder trait that plays to their strengths as a combat based crew, and cannot be dismissed (or forgotten, that would ruin the crew). They are very elite, but their bonuses and killing ability compensates for this.
Offensive
Amazon Warrior 1 has a sword to fight with, which is pretty impressive in her hands. With +1 to hit from Amazon, she also rerolls to wound at strength 3+ and doing double blood damage. This, combined with attack 4, means she is pretty reliable at killing most henchmen outright, and even many free agents and sidekicks which is where she really pulls her weight
Amazon Warrior 2 has the same statline as Warrior 1, but replaces her sword with a spear. Still with the +1 to hit, she instead does blood/stun without rerolls, but gets Bleed:2 and Reach to compensate, letting her pick her battles easier and attack from defensive positions.
Amazon Warrior 3 is the ranged option for the crew, and with her bow she plays somewhat like a much cheaper Green Arrow equivalent. Having both Good Aim and Rapid Fire she can move and shoot 2 shots very accurately (+2 to hit between Good Aim and Amazon) doing a potential 4 blood. She has 4 ammo meaning she'll be shooting most of the game (probably until she dies because she can easily reach ammo objectives) and her funding cost is irrelevant as Amazons have no equipment or other options that cost funding.
Defensive
For henchmen, they have impressive statlines in this regard. Endurance 6 can kind of be expected for their price point, but defence 4 on the 2 front line Amazons is really great and helps keep them in the fight for as long as possible.
Outside of Amazon and Acrobat, which are both very useful, there is little to note trait-wise. Amazon Warrior 1 is a Martial Artist, and at defence 4 this is a great thing to have on henchmen, while Amazon Warrior 2 has Combat Flip. This is interesting for a few reasons, as it gives her some sneaky movement opportunities, but is primarily useful in getting her into spots where she can fight with her spear and force opponents to move into her to attack.
Overall
Being the henchmen in an offensive crew, they really are geared to fighting. They've got nothing special outside of combat abilities, but they really don't need it.
The one thing they are somewhat hampered by is their willpower of 5, meaning they won't have enough counters in any turn to do everything they want. This must be played around very carefully as if they get caught out after putting everything into attack, they will probably cop a beating from what's left.
Sidekick/Leader Amazon Traits
Before we go into detail with the models themselves, there are some traits the Amazon Boss options share that can be covered separately.
Amazon Lineage prevents them from taking any non-Amazon model while they are the Boss. This is a simple little fix to stop them taking villain free agents, and to restrict list options if Wonder Woman or Wonder Girl lead a Brave and the Bold crew. This is in effect locking them into taking another leader while they are here, giving them huge native buy-ins before you can start building the rest of your crew
Regeneration is a nice little defensive bonus, helping them heal damage they've taken. 1SC a turn to heal 1 damage is nice, and if they have blood damage on them this is usually not a massively bad thing to do, although it is using counters they could use to keep fighting.
Weapon Master is a nice extra hit bonus on all 3 of the models below, giving them +2 to hit on any target. Hitting anything in the game on a 3+ at worst is huge, and it means they are very dangerous in combat.
Superjump is yet another movement trait for them (you would think being high movement Acrobat is enough) and is really just a nice extra bit of counter efficiency. For 2MC and 1SC it allows you to place 8" in any direction, and really using 3 counters to move 8" instead of 4 counters, that's another counter to spend elsewhere. It lets them get up and around buildings far easier as well, which is invaluable with how populated boards are likely to be.
Bracelets of Submission is a trait shared by Wonder Woman and Wonder Girl, giving them some extra ranged protection. In effect a single free Dodge roll every turn, it lets them take an agility roll against a ranged attack when they get hit the first time each turn. If passed (which is a 66% chance, so likely) the hit is cancelled (but only one hit) and then it goes to proper Dodge/Ping/Bodyguard etc. It's great for counter efficiency, and stacked with Shield for a free Ping! the Wonder pair are very bullet resistant.
The newest Amazon care of the Teen Titans box, Donna Troy brings a lot of interesting things to play and is easily one of the most exciting of the new releases.
Offensive
Donna hits hard. It's that simple. +2 to hit on her sword, strength 3 with rerolls and attack 4 means she doesn't really hit much harder than Amazon Warrior 1, but the extra +1 is very helpful. Reinforced Gloves is ok but quite frankly useless unless both her weapons are stolen (the shield does the same but rolls 2 crit die) and her shield is alright but not as good as the sword.
Her one big thing of note is the Lasso of Persuasion, a unique trait for her. For 2AC she can choose an enemy in 2" to suffer the Hypnotise effect, which can be a great way to not only remove a threat to your crew, but add a bit of extra power to yours. Mind control in either an Amazon or Teen Titans crew is very good, and in Titans can be paired with Raven to reduce the chance of them passing.
Defensive
Like I mentioned above, Donna is hard to shoot. Layered defences of the Bracelets, Dodge and Ping means she isn't likely to be shot outside of expensive combos, while she is also a Martial Artist at defence 4. Wherever she is, she will take a bit of work to take down and at endurance 8 with Regeneration it's pretty reliable she can hang around.
In Teen Titans she combos especially well with Raven and Dove, who can both heal her very quickly when she has taken damage, while also not being especially easy to wound themselves.
Overall
There's nothing really left to mention now. Like the other Amazons, Donna is all about combat and doesn't have anything outside of that.
Teen Titans
Consider everything I mentioned above, but with one less token. As long as Donna is alive she is preventing an Inexperience counter from being in play, but as long as any exist she is going to be the first one losing a counter. Her points cost also makes it all but impossible to do anything higher than a 5 model list, so locked into only getting 60 free rep from the team rules.
It is important to note that she does have access to Living Legend in that team though. This should always go on her if she's in the list, because she is just amazing with it that one Moment of Glory.
Brave and the Bold
Donna picks up the Legend rank in BatB, making her worth a whopping 10VP when killed (6 on KO is also huge). Combined with this is the fact she can't any other model if she leads Brave and the Bold crews, and you have a model that has a lot stacked against her as a balancing mechanism. She's still good, but at the same time substantially worse than in the other 2 lists she can be in.
Offensive
About the same as Donna, except she has attack 5 and strength 2+. This means she's hard to block and wounds very easily. Reinforced Gloves is there, but like Donna isn't really relevant because the sword is flat out better.
Defensive
While she lacks the amazing ranged protection of Donna or Diana, Hippolyta has some interesting other tricks that keep her in the game. Sturdy means she only loses counters for every 3 damage she takes, and with endurance 11 she will be taking a beating before she goes down and can continue fighting easily. Martial Artist is pretty standard to the crew, but is also good to note.
Overall
The only Amazon to have crew buffs, Hippolyta is a great support piece for the rest of the crew. With Grand Strategist you can dictate your terms before the game starts, choosing strategies to benefit your crew, and Leadership helps against anything that forces willpower rolls, which is a godsend in a crew that is majority willpower 5.
Her willpower of 9 is also something that is very useful for her, as it means she is both versatile in game and all but immune to mind control effects. While she has a fairly standard spread of stats otherwise, her willpower is what makes them really shine in general.
Offensive
Her sword is majority of the time almost exactly the same as Queen Hippolyta, changing when her opponents are specific kinds of models. When a model has an armour trait Diana always wounds 1 better because of strength 1+, and for things with Ghost or Invulnerable Diana straight up removes and ignores those with any of her attacks care of Godkiller.
The magic shield weapon is the same as Donna Troy's shield (read- better than using Reinforced Gloves) just with a different name.
Her Lasso of Hestia is very worthwhile in setting up a second activation attack with Living Legend, as although it has low damage at only 1 stun, Stun as an effect can set her up for a second round of complete carnage against her opponent. It forces the opponent to make block rolls against it, as if they don't they can't spend counters period, and at attack 5 she isn't easy to block either, meaning she is fairly often doing this. The only downside to it is that it is single use, meaning you have to guarantee the target is worth using it on (so basically, more expensive models that will return a lot of VP)
Defensive
Defensively she is almost exactly the same as Donna Troy, save for having endurance 10 instead of 8. It means most of the time she needs an extra dice to take out, and most things attack 4 and below can't get a lucky one shot on her (and neither can assault rifles, not that they'll reliably hit)
Sturdy is the same deal as Hippolyta, less counters lost with damage means she is better off in the long run and can keep on trucking.
Overall
Same deal as Hippolyta, she is willpower 9 with all that brings with it. The biggest thing to mention that's left though is Living Legend. A second activation each turn, with 2 free counters, helps her massively in her attacking ability, and can be a really great way to pinball her around the table being super hard to lock down. With clever sewer placement she can use her second activation of turn 1 (after using a sewer in her first) to barrel into the biggest threat in the opponent's list and at the very least severely wound it, and then continue to use sewers every turn to speed around the table and kill anything nearby. The 2 activations can also be useful to take out multiple models a turn, against horde crews where she can quickly mop up enemies and reduce activation count.
Warhorse
The Warhorse is an interesting piece, as it is an upgrade card that has no cost. Despite this, I wouldn't say it should be "bolted on" to her card, as there are alternate ways to play her in 2nd edition that the horse is not necessary. It adds +1 to her movement and is 4 endurance to give her Animal, Huge and Swift (making her insanely fast, 9 inch basic movement and potential 25 inch movement in an activation), at the expense of not being able to use her Lasso or any of her defensive traits. Amazon Princess lets her use Charge for only 1SC, meaning a 25 inch charge is possible, and she is only blocked on 6s during this Charge. It depends entirely on what you want to do with it, although as an assassin model she is better off on foot for a sewer alpha strike.
List Discussion
With their low model count and high cost models, Amazons have very few list options and don't often fit well into 350 rep.
The regular list (Amazon Starter)- The starter set is probably the most well-rounded of all the Amazon list options, and is the highest model count list that doesn't leave a chunk of rep leftover.
Donna+3 Amazons- This would be a super solid list if only another Amazon henchman existed. As is, it's the starter set with 55 rep left over, so would be a nice list in 300 rep games but in 350 rep there's way too much of a gap to justify taking it.
Wonder Woman+2 Amazons- This Eternal list is by far the hardest hitting of all the Amazon list options by sheer virtue of having Wonder Woman present, but at 3 models it can very easily be controlled and picked apart if the henchmen separate. Best to drop the spear Amazon from this list to keep shooting in it and maximum combat damage (virtually no stun)
Hippolyta+Donna- Super low model count but it hits very hard, and can potentially be a very fun list to play. High endurance and is moderately tanky, but it folds once even a single model gets affected by control or high damage.
