Dark Knight Rises 2 player set part 2- Bane and League of Shadows

Welcome back everyone to part 2 of my overview of the Dark Knight Rises 2 player set. As we've already covered Brave and the Bold in the last post, this will be finishing up the set with the Bane half, also usable in League of Shadows (or in Talia's case, only usable in League). I have some very mixed opinions about these models depending on which crew they're in, but without further ado let's get into it!

The Bane henchmen from the set, these guys are in general really good. They bring some slightly different options to Bane crews, some of which are very welcome, and have a lot to like. 

Offensive

Each Mercenary brings its own different kind of weapon, and each has great uses in how it operates. 

Barsad and his Assault Rifle should be somewhat self explanatory, it's a big gun with big damage, and with Precise Aim and possible Night Vision in Bane crews he can be an early threat to anything on the table. 

Mercenary 1 is the first Bane model to have an Axe, something mostly seen in Joker crews, but here it is a weapon to be greatly feared and respected. With Venom, something he can take in Bane or League, he gets rerolls to both hit and wound for a turn at 3+ strength, all but guaranteeing he will cut down most things he hits. He is only attack 3, and thus easy to block, but he is a very reliable melee killer that will easily slot into any Bane crew. 

Mercenary 2 is of debatable use, being the second model to come with an automatic pistol in Bane (and both being standard). For 2 rep over Clover (and $50 less- important with Venom Lab) he gains +1 strength and replaces Rapid Fire with Reinforced Gloves and Mercenary, so he occupies a similar but subtly different role in the crew. While Clover puts out more shots he is scrambling for ammo crates once he runs out, while Mercenary 2 can just start swinging his fists and having decent chances at KOing models. He's not a bad choice to put Venom on, but not that good either, although he does do wonders with Handcuffs instead of a piece like Cuchillo, and it facilitates a more aggressive Arrest piece . 

Defensive

They have Bane stats. Defence 3 endurance 5 with a Bulletproof Vest, just like almost every other henchmen in the crew, and that's about all to say. 

Overall

Like most Bane models, these guys are very straightforward. Veteran for a little bit of counter reallocation is great, but otherwise they don't have much in the way of special tricks to play around with. 

They work very well in Bane for reasons I have already discussed, but their biggest weakness in a League crew is how inflexible they are from being locked into a specific leader option in Bane. While they are great with him, they can't truly capitalise on some of the other tricks in League crews by sheer virtue of Bane being the leader now, and access to some of those other options comes at a hefty investment. Rebirth Talia and Cheshire for example, are both pushing the rep costs of the crew much higher, and Ra's is just not allowed at all (although it makes sense for theme reasons)

As an alternate option to taking the Batman Tumbler, the one in the box can also be used as an upgrade card for any of the models with the Mercenary trait inside (so all the henchmen). It has the same strength, movement and defence changes as the Batman one, but gains 2 extra endurance to compensate for not being able to swap it with the Batpod. Defensively this means it is immune to being one-shotted by a lucky Carbine unlike the Batman one, but is still very scared of any Sniper Rifles on the table as they can straight up delete it with lucky crits. In comparison to the BatB version it also loses the jump ability while being more expensive in both rep and funding, although it's guns get a huge bonus in doing blood damage instead of purely stun still with unlimited ammo. The machine guns become obscene when attacking henchmen (and at a higher RoF4, something I missed in my last post on the BatB Tumbler) and the rocket launchers can clear out chaff very easily, while it doesn't lose the ability to charge if it needs to get through a combat situation. 

Unfortunately though, the Tumbler isn't really a great pick competitively for a few reasons, the largest being it doesn't have a great model to pilot it and it's super expensive. Mercenary 2 is ok as a driver but he is still not using his pistol to do so, while the only standard Mercenary without a funding cost is far, far better off getting stuck into combat with his axe, something he can't do without tossing the upgrade. As a means of getting to combat and getting some early shots off it might be ok, but that is still very costly when they could be buying almost 3 extra models for that price (and higher endurance total, thus more likely to even make combat)

Someone who had a previous eternal card that still saw a lot of play in that format, DKR Bane pushes out that old card with being almost a complete upgrade in every way. Compared to the old version, he gains Close Combat Master, an extra point of willpower and Born in the Darkness while losing Brutal and only costing 1 point more, which is a huge benefit to Bane crews, but in League he is no longer a sidekick, instead being leader only. This isn't a bad thing, however, as it compensates his massive improvement with a higher VP gain for an opponent when he is KO or casualty. 

Offensive
What's not to be said, the guy is a combat monster. Rerolls to hit, attack 5 with combo, double stun at 3+ strength, he can quite easily punch out most threats himself. What he also does, however, is facilitate combat henchmen and turn them into their own massive threats, having the double-tap of Kill Them and Inspire to give models 2 free counters every turn until he dies, which is a great threat to make an opponent deal with on top of his already impressive melee.
Bane's True Love is important to note, as it can put him at attack 6 and willpower 9 which is a huge gain, but it only applies in a League crew and not Bane, while also requiring an expensive (or garbage as we'll see below) Talia to have already died. Currently as written it also doesn't actually work as there is no model in the game listed as just "Talia", rather there is only "Talia al Ghul". It's an easy house rule and should always be accepted, but it needs a fix from KM because it's their mistake, and a mistake that's carried over from the original DKR Bane.
Defensive
Defence 4 is decent, especially at endurance 8, and he has a few traits that help him out defensively. Desensitised means he is always at his maximum amount of counters, Runaway makes him immune to Arrest and his unique trait Born in the Darkness gives him a few nice bonuses. Immunity to Sneak Attack is situational but always nice, meaning he can block anything but Speedsters provided he has the counters, and also gains a +1 to block when he isn't illuminated which is a nice little 12% increase in his likelihood to block all but attack 2.
Just for the sake of completeness, these combined means he is the hardest piece of all to deal with in straight 2 player box games, as the BatB side has little to no blood damage, he is immune to Arrest and can't be Sneak Attacked by Batman, while blocking everything on the opponent's side on a 3+ or better. New players may possibly find him a little bit too powerful for regular starter games (as he is also very newb friendly in general) and this should be considered for demo game purposes as well as simply introducing new people to the box set.
Overall
He packs Strategist which is helpful for the obvious extra strategy point, but otherwise he again has no real special tricks. He's a key piece in combat, but that's his only place.

Quite easily the worst model in the box rules-wise, Talia is unfortunately just not that great in any role, and massively held back by being League of Assassins only.
Offensive
There really isn't much to speak of, attack 4 and strength 4+ is good, but she only ever does a single blood in a crew where double damage is on every single other model available in standard. Sneak Attack helps her out a little bit in not being able to block her attacks, but she will only ever do great work when teamed up with another model.
Defensive
For her rep she is actually pretty great defensively at defence 4 and endurance 6, and Charm makes her a real pain to deal with using henchmen. A couple of good guns will down her very quickly, as will a dedicated melee leader (and there's a good chance most regular beater FA/sidekicks will too), but she's too expensive to just be put down to objective duty. Archie proved that a pure annoyance sidekick can work, but in Talia's case she is too much jack of all trades, master of none to be worth much thought.
Overall
Willpower 7 is quite good for her cost and lets her do a decent amount (although none of it is especially great) and she has a couple of other ways of assisting her crew in Millionaire and Scheming. Scheming isn't very relevant if you have a good plan of what you're doing and can get a good idea of your opponent's moves, and Millionaire would be far more useful in a Bane crew than it is in League, simply because they don't have all that many equipment options that are great takes, often meaning you'll be spending leftover funding just for the sake of it. She enables a merc focused list in League better, but at the same time she would have far more of a place if she was League/Bane like the rest of the box, competing with Bird for the sidekick slot.

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.

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.