Team Arrow- Overview and my favourite options

Welcome back all, to another team overview. I've previously covered Suicide Squad and Birds of Prey in team overviews, and this time I've decided to continue with Team Arrow. Many of these models I've already discussed, but I really enjoy playing this team and I think they definitely have what it takes to be considered a competitive crew.

Team Rules

Team Arrow have a few unique rules, both bonuses and downsides, which all play very nicely with what is in the crew.
Perfect Planning... is a slightly smaller benefit for the team, but it forces an opponent to deploy their entire crew before the Team Arrow crew, with the exception of Hidden and Undercover. This allows a Team Arrow player to deploy reactively and be able to determine what angles they are going to take earlier in the game, and is effectively giving them a free Ambush strategy (right down to an opponent's Ambush cancelling this). It also allows a single model per round to spend a pass counter in their activation to reallocate 3 counters, in effect giving them something in between Veteran and Trickster in its use. This is also very good, as it again plays into the reactive nature of Team Arrow and lets you make decisions based on the board state.
...Bad Choices is the downside to Perfect Planning, meaning Team Arrow cannot pass more than once consecutively. It isn't great, but it's minor enough with the options in the crew that it doesn't outweigh the positives at all.
Technological Support is the big one. This is the best special rule for a Team Arrow team, and gives the Multitask trait to a single model in the crew after deployment. Some models are restricted from taking the Fighter option (most importantly Speedsters because that would be busted, but mainly models with attack or defence 5, or that have Adaptable) but the other options on Multitask are still available to these. Fighter is as always the best option to take, and on a great deal of attack 4/ defence 4 models in the crew is a must have, but the others have their situational uses as well depending on your list.

Equipment

The 3 equipment options in a Team Arrow list will pretty much always see play, and are all well worth taking. They all play into the primarily ranged based team, and help with shooting more than anything else.
Magazine is pretty standard, extra ammunition to one weapon. Slightly more costly than normal at $250, but you'll usually have space for at least one anyway.
Red Dot is probably the best piece of equipment in this list, and if you're not taking it you have to have a very good reason. Giving rerolls to hit on some great ranged weapons adds a little bit extra consistency, and with the lower amount of models and shots in the crew anything helps. Giving it to Captain Cold, Harry or any other good damage gun piece is invaluable, even for $300
Tactical Gloves is an upgrade for Green Arrow only, and gives him Reinforced Gloves. Same as he gets in Brave and the Bold, it can be a great cheap way of giving him a little bit more punch when he needs it. Not always going to be useful, but for how cheap it is why wouldn't you take it if you had leftover funding?

Strategies

Team Arrow have 2 unique Strategies available to them on top of normal options, and both are very good.
Archer in the Dark only works on 2 models in the crew (Green Arrow and Malcolm Merlyn) but what it does for these models is very helpful. Being able to place 6" after shooting their ranged weapons lets them relocate very easily, and for only 1 strategy point has a lot of janky potential in its applications. You are able to move with them to get into a good shooting position, then shoot an opponent before placing back into a position of safety (or back to ammo for next turn). The strategy is only one use, but that one use is almost always guaranteed to be valuable and as such should be taken most of the time (unless of course you don't have Green Arrow or Merlyn in your list)
The Hunter's Hour is excellent. The extra 4 inches it gives on vision range helps with keeping your own stuff safe, and the amount of Beam weapons in the crew means you don't even really care about the high likelihood of pings at this distance. It also lets you shoot earlier in the game than normal, which combined with the ability to very easily deploy reactively lets you take control of the flow of the game from very early. Awesome combo with Green Arrow too, who can jump around from 16 inches away and pop very reliable shots onto whatever he needs to.

What kind of Team Arrow review would this be if I didn't talk about Green Arrow. The lynchpin of the crew thematically (although not 100% necessary in gameplay terms), Green Arrow is an excellent ranged attack piece and obviously plays right into every benefit this crew has. In this review I will be talking specifically about the 2 versions above (Miller and New 52 comic) but any Green Arrow can slot into this team and work well.
Offensive
Green Arrow is a shooting model through and through, something which is true of every version. They all have traits related to helping them shoot better, and all have a "regular" Arrow profile of Mechanic, Aim and 2 Blood. Each version also has their own trick arrow with its own extra bonuses to further differentiate them, and they are all quite good. It has to be said, whenever a trick arrow doesn't have One Use in the profile, it should always be bought a Magazine as equipment to give it a second one, because the utility is just too good.
Miller Arrow is actually the most different in terms of weaponry, as his regular Arrow profile does more damage per shot (3 blood vs 2 otherwise) and at ammo 3 he will be shooting for a while. This comes at the expense of not having Rapid Fire to shoot more than one a turn, but with having Good Aim and Ranged Master for +2 to hit (with an easy reroll on top from Red Dot) he is quite reliably hitting models when he wants to. Even defence 5 should fear this, and that's even before we talk about his trick arrow. While not having it's intended purpose just yet, the Kryptonite Arrow is good purely for being a single shot with 4 blood, letting him very easily damage weaker henchmen and possibly even outright kill in many circumstances. For 75 rep he is definitely a worthwhile option in terms of offensive capabilities.
New 52 Arrow is significantly more expensive at 117 rep, but his cost is well worth the investment. Rapid Fire, Good Aim and Master Marksman means he will be doing very reliable amounts of damage whenever he needs to, while having the usual 3 ammo on his regular Arrow so he can keep doing what he does best until he can get to an ammo (or keeping him less tied down by ammo). His trick arrow is the same as his regular one in terms of damage and traits, although with the always great Stun attached. With how easily he can hit, he is almost guaranteeing shutting down a model for that turn and likely protecting his crew from a big threat (or setting it up to get hit by Hawkman or Hawkgirl) and this is only better on his melee as well. With Technique he will likely be Paralysing models on damage, and although he has no benefits in this regard he can still use it where necessary, likely pairing it with Adaptable for attack 5
Defensive
Every version of Green Arrow is defence 4 and either endurance 7 or 8, which is good while not being especially amazing(that is to say, he needs an investment to kill but it won't take the whole game). They are also all Acrobats with just their movement stats differing from each other, ranging from 2 on Miller (so not likely to Dodge at all) to the quite impressive 4 on New 52 and TV Arrows (66% chance to pass Dodges).
Miller Arrow has the great benefit of Desensitised which means he won't lose counters from damage at all, but with the downside of having One-Armed, giving him a -1 to all block rolls. This is not huge on Arrow though, because he will usually be zipping around the edges of a fight early-mid game so won't be needing to block very often.
New 52 Arrow has a combination of an awesome statline with also having some great defensive traits to play with. Adaptable is usually going to be in defence, putting it at the excellent defence 5, but the option is there to put it into movement or attack as well. Movement is not great, as 5 counters in movement just means he's overextended and probably going to get hurt (it makes Dodges easier, but you need to be hit to Dodge and so defence 5 is still better in this regard) and attack 5 lets him punch things easier with his Reinforced Gloves upgrade. It is still almost always worth putting it into defence however, just to keep him alive. He also has Hardened, which turns a single blood into stun every turn and lets him shake more damage, and Stealth, making him harder to see to shoot at (combine this with Hunter's Hour for best results), but his biggest benefit is his Sidekick rank, which means he is giving up less VP in the event he does die in game.
Overall
Green Arrow doesn't have too much in the way of special abilities that don't help in a fight. Affinity Batman on Miller Arrow is nice, but irrelevant in Team Arrow, and otherwise there's nothing really to speak of in this regard. All but Animated have Batclaws and can move quickly, but that's about it.

So we've discussed Green Arrow, and now we've got someone who's traditionally been his begrudging ally and a definite frenemy when it comes to the methods of heroism, Hawkman. Despite the pair not being the greatest of friends (in fact Hawkman is only in here because of Legends of Tomorrow rather than an Arrow connection), Hawkman complements Green Arrow's playstyle perfectly, bringing a brutal melee character to pair with GA's primarily ranged presence. Hawkman is also one of the best models to take the Fighter option of Multitask on, as he becomes a flying beatstick with attack and defence 5 on top of his already impressive kit.
Offensive
Hawkman is a primarily melee based model, and somewhat straightforward, although he does have a sneaky little trick in Team Arrow. His Nth Metal Mace does blood/stun and is Handy, which at attack 4 and strength 3+ means he is doing great amounts of damage(but not one-shotting the biggest guys), although it does also have Magic, which is handy for the Invulnerable models in the game (and also demolishes Deadman). This is only made better by becoming attack 5 with the Fighter upgrade from Multitask, making him harder to block and just having more attacks. In looking at this it may seem like the Claws part of Fighter is wasted, but that's where you have to factor in Savage Fighter. +1 to hit on a Push attack is great, and while in 2nd Edition BMG you have to be unarmed to Push, Hawkman now having a way to get Claws means he can be a reliable way to deal with rooftop campers, or just to clear off objectives while keeping decent damage. In Brave and the Bold he is still a great Batsignal piece, but somewhat overshadowed by cheaper options, while in Team Arrow he is well worth the cost for the toolkit he brings as opposed to some others.
Defensive
Hawkman is relatively standard in terms of his points cost, but he has a few nice little tricks that can help out a lot. Endurance 9 is great, and with Hardened means even an Assault Rifle can't one shot him (it will still knock him out, but then he has the potential to get back up). Fire Immunity is helpful in certain situations as well, but the greatest thing he has for defence is Hover. For 1SC it means he is only hit on 6s in combat, and although it does have a downside vs ranged attacks you can quite easily decide when it's worth using Hover and when it isn't. In a Team Arrow crew use your ranged pieces to quickly take out guns, then Hover to your heart's content with Hawkman to have a very tough threat.
Overall
Fly and Flying High are both great at mitigating his lower movement speed, both to keep up with the fast members of Team Arrow (GA and Flash mainly) and to relocate wherever he is needed and put out damage. Teamwork 2 with Hawkgirl isn't hugely useful as they're both likely to be doing their own thing with their counters, but it is potentially also very good if they're both on the table and near each other.

The other half of the Hawk pair, Hawkgirl is a bit more of a finesse piece to Hawkman's blunt object. Like Hawkman, she is an excellent choice for the Fighter upgrade, and honestly arguably better with it than Hawkman is for 10 rep less. 

Offensive

Same melee weapon as Hawkman without any fancy damage abilities, but she has a lower attack stat as standard, which hurts a bit. However, she also has two big abilities to help her out in combat in the form of Unstoppable and Weapon Master, which means she has a +1 to hit on top of Handy and for a special counter can make an opponent need to block twice to prevent each strike, ensuring usually at least one hit will go through. When she gets given Fighter, however, she becomes attack 4, which means she is pretty reliably putting out a ton of hurt while she is very hard to block consistently. 

Defensive

Like Hawkman she has Hover and Fire Immunity, meaning she is potentially quite annoying to take out, but she does have 2 less endurance than Hawkman. Hawkgirl really shines though when she is given the Fighter upgrade from Multitask (just like Hawkman) and she becomes defence 5, making her very hard to hit (although still weaker than Hawkman)

Overall
Just like Hawkman, she has Fly, Flying High and Teamwork 2(although to Hawkman instead of Hawkgirl obviously). She does, however, have an extra movement, which means she is able to move around faster and get where she needs to be. Otherwise there isn't much to be said in this regard. 

Additional mentions

This team list also contains a lot of models I've already discussed, and pretty much all of these I like very much in Team Arrow as well.
The Flash is a great addition to the team, and like I have discussed before the DCEU or CW Flashes both bring a lot to play in any crew, something which stays true in Team Arrow.
Both Harry and Captain Cold bring reliable guns with extra strategy points, which plays right into the Hunter's Hour strategy (and both love Red Dot) while being relatively cheaper options to use, while Diggle and Heatwave are always good at their job (and can be even better with Multitask, especially Heatwave).
Katana gives some much needed melee in what is largely a shooting based team list, and has the great combination of speed and damage to be very useful exactly where she needs to be.
Huntress is a great opening piece as well, being able to put early pressure on an opponent while the rest of the crew advances into shooting range, and with Hunter's Hour she can protect herself relatively easily while she does this from a longer range 

Brave and the Bold henchmen review part 2- Sons of Batman, Alfred and the GCPD

Welcome back everyone, today we've got the second half of the Brave and the Bold henchmen up for discussion, with more of the Eternal picks. Some of these models are still very valuable if they can be found, while others I would personally just skip. But enough of that, lets just get right into it and move on to the model talk!

Sons of Batman

One set that is relatively unique in that it is 100% straight out of a comic, the Sons of Batman are made to go together with the rest of the Frank Miller range
Offensive
SoB 1, being the cheapest of the lot, has the lowest offensive potential, and he is based around using his Batlings for ranged attacks. It's not great, but it's something, and with Brutal he can fish for knockdowns to assist other things
SoB 2 is the gun piece of the 3, being higher funding but also having a decent amount of ammo to keep himself shooting. Having a template shotgun (read- the better kind) with 1 ammo he can help to punish bunched up hordes, and his other gun is ok but not great. If he can stay on an ammo and shoot the shotgun its better, but he is also not that likely to get more than 1 shot with it anyway.
SoB 3 is an expensive combat piece, with Reinforced Gloves and Counterattack for pure punching, while also being a decent strength of 4+ which lets him damage easier. His one major downside is that he is attack 3, and as such very easy to block, and at 39 rep that is not great at all.
Defensive
All 3 Sons have some nice defensive traits, although they aren't hugely defensible. Hardened helps them from being outright killed in many situations (Carbines for example) but at defence 2 and endurance 5 on SoB 1 and 2 they aren't really that likely to not just be knocked out instead if not just killed anyway (although they are cheap enough that this doesn't really matter). SoB 3 however, is defence 4 and endurance 6, which means he is easily the most survivable of the lot (still having Hardened) and is twice as difficult to hit. This is a big difference, and a big reason for his higher defence is the previously mentioned Counterattack, and if he can protect objectives loaded up for a counterattack he can do work, but at the same time its also very unreliable and for his cost quite expensive (as he needs to first be hit, then block hits, then gets to make normal attacks). SoB 2 also has Street Guy as standard, but this isn't great at all because it basically just means he is defence 3 when crouching for free, when most other henchmen in faction are defence 3 standard and either have Street Guy or can purchase it for quite cheap, so he doesn't bring anything fantastic in that regard.
Overall
SoB 1 and 2 have nothing special here, being cheap and having traits that are useful for attacking or defending. SoB 3 however has a few different traits in Follow Me! and Bluff that give him an optional toolkit to help out a crew. Follow Me! is great because it speeds up the crew a bit more and can help them get up the board quicker, while Bluff is of little use because it simply makes opponents easier to block. Although this is helpful, he is still only willpower 5, and can't realistically do everything he is built to in any given turn, honestly being not that great at any job for his very high price point. All 3 of the Sons of Batman are alright, but none of them bring anything fantastic to the table that you can't get elsewhere, and outside of Frank Miller Batman and Green Arrow the cops bring far more of a unified theme to the crew. 

GCPD

A few models that have long been considered mainstays of the BatB roster, the beat cops are somewhat overshadowed nowadays by newer options, but there are still a couple of real gems in there. 

Offensive

There's not much to be said here. 

Policewoman, Policeman and Agent Ron all have weapons that are handy and single stun, which are potentially ok if a little unreliable. Policeman and Ron both have heavy to compensate for weaker strength, and as cheap henchmen this can't be considered bad, but the platforms it's on aren't great, and you're better off taking something with an extendable baton for melee. 

Agent O'Connell has a taser, which I have given much praise of in my other BatB henchman review, and will still value here. He's a great little offensive piece and can put some damage into henchmen

Agent Ron and the Detective carry guns with them, although they are slightly different. Both are short ranged, blood/stun firearms with light, but Agent Ron has an extra shot each turn over the Detective, giving him a slight leg up in that regard (but the Detective wins in almost every other way)

Defensive

Most of these cops are somewhat fragile, but they all have the huge benefit of being defence 3 over 2. Endurance 4 on Policeman/woman and Ron means they go down when they get hit, but the Policewoman has one huge thing that makes her punch above her weight much more than she has any right to- Defensive. Rerolling block dice means she is for her points one of the best objective sitters in the entire game, and it lets her hang around contesting/arresting/scoring against henchmen for a great amount. She'll still drop to any actual beater, but her survivability is great for her 14 rep cost.

Agent O'Connell is pretty great defensively as well as offensively, as he has endurance 6 over the lower levels of the other cops. This puts him at 1 higher than most other BatB henchman options, especially in the sub-40 rep options, although in the grand scheme of things the bump from 5 to 6 endurance isn't overly huge due to a prevalence of double damage models. Still great, just not gigantic.

Agent Ron also has Street Guy to help him against guns, which is in theory nice, but really isn't a massive ability in his case, and it's available as the cheapest option for BatB equipment so anyone can take it pretty easily. In comparison to QRT2, who also has Street Guy but also has other gun protection traits (and so he should for the point difference), Agent Ron really isn't that great vs guns, because he still goes down to a couple of good shots very easily. 

Overall

As they should, all of these cops have Arrest, which is value in itself. 

Gotham Policeman has Lantern, but that trait is so situational it doesn't justify taking him in any list over the much better Policewoman, who for 2 rep less brings so much more to the table, or over Arkham Guard 1 for a little bit more, who again is so much better. He kind of always sat in that spot of "not great, but there's not much else in that price bracket" so he got slotted in after the Policewoman, but now that there are somewhat comparable options he is pushed to the bench.

Policewoman has nothing special in this regard, but she is just such insane value that in Eternal formats she is highly likely to always be seen in a BatB crew. 

Agent Ron has nothing else to note, and like the Policeman (who he is really just a more expensive version of) he is largely irrelevant nowadays unfortunately.

Agent O'Connell has Veteran, which is great on him because it allows him to react on the fly to what is happening in any given turn. He has seemingly been replaced in standard by Sierra the SWAT, although in Eternal it is still a very serious choice between the 2, as Sierra has a Bulletproof Vest over O'Connell but lacks the ever needed Arrest, which makes for a big question. 

The Detective is the biggest star in this section, as he has a couple of traits that allow him to do a lot of work in a BatB crew from very early on. First of these is Detective, which is somewhat of a thematic trait across the whole BatB crew and helps prevent passes, but Hidden is the real clincher, as it lets him get right on objectives very early in the game (Bat-Signal is a long standing tradition) and attempt to get an early lead for the crew (or at the very least force the opponent to dedicate resources to him)

Alfred

Ending my henchman talk for now with the trusty butler of the Bat, none other than Alfred Pennyworth. A now quite old limited edition model, Alfred is somewhat harder to find, even for an Eternal model, but unlike some other limited models (the Batmen in particular) Alfred isn't an especially powerful model. True to his character, he is an understated (and often overlooked) support piece who can still provide a lot to the crew

Offensive

Alfred isn't a model you want in combat. He's attack 2 with nothing else special. Keep him away

Defensive

Defence 3 and endurance 5 isn't much to write home about, but it is enough to keep him respectable. He will die to an effort, but you should not have him in a position where that's easy to do. He needs to be protected, but can help out a lot.

Overall

As already mentioned, Alfred is a support piece. Right from the start, he has Business Agent so your crew has $350 funding extra to play around with, which should usually go into having a better ranged presence alongside 2 Whistles to get the most out of it, but can really be used in a lot of ways. Informer helps out the often low model count BatB by giving them an extra pass, letting them play with activation order a bit more, and Medic is pretty self explanatory. Alfred helps keep key pieces alive longer than they should be, which in turn helps the crew immensely. All in all not the most oppressively good piece, but he is useful for his cost. 

Brave and the Bold henchmen review part 1- SWAT, QRT and Standard options

Now that I've finished League off until new releases arrive, I've decided I'll be going back to my roots in a way for a few more posts. My first crew, and what has always been my main crew, is Brave and the Bold, and there are quite a lot of henchmen to talk about for them. In this post I won't be talking about things I already have, so Damian and SS Katana won't be covered, and I won't be talking about Goliath either (because I'm very indecisive about his actual use, and want to use him a bit before I write about him, and because he fits into a few different places that change him up so I feel he's better suited to his own post). So in this post we will discuss a few of the metal henchmen, all of the resin henchmen, and at the end a little piece on where I think Brave and the Bold sit currently from a Standard point of view and through the lens of their henchmen.

SWAT

The Elite option for Brave and the Bold, the SWAT are somewhat similar to Bane henchmen without the blood damage melee options. Expensive but relatively tanky, elite and hard hitting, although unlike Bane they are best used as supplementary pieces, not making up the whole crew.
Offensive
The main role of the SWAT is to damage enemy models, but they all do it in somewhat different ways. Fittingly, they all have the Cop trait, giving them a +1 to hit vs models with the Criminal trait (that also stacks with any other bonus to hit- see Whistles)
There are a couple of melee models in the SWAT, namely Sierra and Echo, but Foxtrot also sits in this role somewhat. Sierra is a great piece in general because of his versatility, survivability and damage capability, but his Taser is an excellent option when paired with an Arrest. Going after henchmen with him is a smart choice, as wounding on 3s in melee is nothing to sneeze at, although he is somewhat easily blocked like most henchmen. Echo has great abilities in being able to give enemies Stunned through Lethal Blow, while being able to somewhat reliably get out blood damage at the same time and is relatively cheap in BatB for doing so. Foxtrot, however is kind of in an odd spot. He has nice traits defensively, but his offence is poor. He has 2 Flash Grenades, which are decent in a control use and to set up other models in the crew, while also doing single stun damage, but he also has Charge, suggesting he should be up in the action. Charge on him is a trap though, as at strength 5+ he isn't reliably doing the damage, and IMO his points are far better spent elsewhere, especially factoring in his Elite trait.
In sticking with Brave and the Bold henchmen in general, the SWAT really shine in their ranged weapons. They have at least one model to reliably cover any distance, put out good damage and can quite easily kill anything they can hit. Lerida is the star nowadays, as he is the only Standard legal gun option, but damn does he do it well. Red Dot for rerolls to hit, Assault 2 on a double blood, medium ranged Firearm does work and is very reliable even before you factor in that he will usually have a Whistle. -1 to opponent Ping is another thing that makes him a great option, as it ensures he will be hitting more often, and as such also damaging, which helps his reliability at any range. Alpha occupies much the same role as Lerida, although he is better at different ranges. With Shooter, Alpha is better at shooting bunkered down targets within 8", and with no range listed he is better further than 16", but Lerida has the all important Assault and Red Dot to let him have that degree of versatility in his actions each turn. Bravo is a somewhat debatable choice, as many people disagree on the value of Shotguns in general, but I sit on the side of the fence that says the single shot is too unreliable to bet on often, despite it being able to move and shoot freely. It's ok damage, but for what he has I am not a fan for reliability reasons. Delta on the other hand is a great little package of value, having some great versatility that I will mention later, but also bringing an Automatic Pistol. These guns aren't fantastic, being short ranged, but a decent rate of fire and good damage on them for a relatively cheap funding cost makes it worth taking. Once he's sat on an objective he can freely fire away without much threat of being shot back, which is a great thing to rely on.
Defensive
The SWAT all pack Bulletproof Vests at defence 3 and minimum endurance 5, with a few of the more front line ones being endurance 6. Delta and Foxtrot also both bring shields with them, giving them an extra layer of defence both against shooting and melee, although their shooting defences with everything else added in make them very tough to take out. Foxtrot even has a little extra bonus in this regard with Street Guy, making him the ultimate henchman piece to advance up the table and take objectives. Sierra also has Hardened with his endurance 6, letting him be a little bit more survivable.
Overall
The SWAT are damage dealers more than anything, and as such don't have Arrest like many other cops, but they do bring small little differences to justify their higher cost and Elite slot. The previously mentioned ping reductions from the gun pieces fill this role, but many of the other SWAT models (Sierra, Foxtrot, Bravo) have Veteran for a little bit more versatility in their counter distribution, while Delta comes with Undercover for some deployment options.
In general though, the SWAT are somewhat less taken for their job, purely because that Elite slot is a hotly contested group for each SWAT model to have (usually taken by Lerida or Sierra) and Gordon is a big investment to take more than 1 (although still very good, 70 rep to unlock a second 30+ rep henchman is a lot). In my opinion you're usually better off taking 2 QRT for the same cost (albeit higher in funding), Damian or a couple Arkham Guards with rep to spare.

Arkham Guards

These guys were the first of the 2nd edition BatB releases, and even a year and a half later they're phenomenal henchmen. All 3 are great value for a variety of roles, and can go a long way in any BatB crew, but especially ones built towards KOs like Speedster crews. 

Offensive

When compared to some of the other options in BatB they don't seem like they do much in the way of damage outside the Assault Rifle, but they have some great clutch weapons. Assault Rifle is obvious, big damage for high funding, no frills killing, but the other 2 play into the Arrest style very well. AG1 has an Extendable Baton, something which can do surprising amounts of damage to other weaker henchmen when needed, but can also keep him safely out of immediate retaliation range with Reach. The Riot Gun on AG3 is one of my favourite ranged weapons in BatB period just because of how much value you get out of it in most cases, and in general he is just great for his cheap cost. Unlimited range, possible 6 stun, Mechanical and 3 ammo all for $100 and 22 rep is a steal, I'd take him whenever you can fit it. 

Defensive

Not much to be said here. Defence 3 and endurance 5 are good for their cost, and Hockey Gear keeps them safer when Sharp comes out to play, but they'll go down to big hitters without question. 

Overall

Arrest is their one big thing, but they are definitely good at it. Pair these guys with the Police Training strategy and you have a surefire insurance policy for your KOs. Tireless on AG3 only helps this, as does Radio on AG1, both letting you maximise your output before the second hit of an Arrest taking things straight out of the game. The only downside I see to them is willpower 4, but as a second rank piece they are definitely a great addition to any BatB collection.

QRT

My personal favourite across all the BatB henchmen, the QRT are strangely still Eternal but still excellent. Although funding heavy, they provide some great tools for the crew and are some of the best gun pieces in faction. 

Offensive

QRT1 has a Riot Gun and Extendable Baton, both great ways to reliably deal stun damage and knock things out, and he himself can then follow up with an Arrest on it too. He's basically Arkham Guard 1 and 3 rolled into one model offensively, which is amazing
QRT2 brings my favourite gun in the game, the Carbine, adds a Silencer to it, and has an Extendable Baton to top it all off. Carbines are great because Just a Scratch lets you dice out opponents and at least deal stun damage for every hit, so it's not a loss in terms of actual damage counters, and stun in BatB isn't an issue cause of easy Arrest access. If he does do blood, great! If he doesn't roll damage, oh well they've still taken that much stun. Great against Armour in any form (LexCorp for example) and Bulletproof Vests
QRT3 is the heavy hitter of the bunch, with a lot of ammo. She brings versatility in ammo types (the one use Anti-Tank and Enervating shots can be very handy in the right matchups) and her basic Precision Rifle is great at just putting damage onto things, being an unlimited range Firearm with 2 blood and a stun for damage, as well as having 2 ammo. 

Defensive

All 3 are defence 3, endurance 5 with Bulletproof Vest, which keeps them well protected against guns, although they will struggle against big melee threats. QRT2 also has Street Guy, so he can crouch for free and have even greater defensive ability against guns, but is still just as weak to combat.

Overall

The QRT don't bring much in the way of special traits or versatility, but what they do have is great. QRT1 has Arrest, which is always valuable, and QRT3 has both a Radio and Tracking, which means she is a great follow up piece and can easily get around Aim on her guns. 

Diggle

Other than Damian and Goliath, Dig is the most expensive henchmen in all of BatB, but damn he's good at what he does. He's a tanky and reliable short ranged damage dealer, and he works very well in the right hands. 

Offensive
His offensive kit is made up of two weapons I have already discussed my feelings on with the SWAT, and Diggle just does it better than them. Master Marksman for rerolls to hit is huge and really great on a henchman (put a Whistle on him for more fun) and with attack 4 the Taser lets him hit quite hard and not be hugely susceptible to being blocked. 

Defensive
At 60 rep defence 3 isn't too great, but with endurance 7 and Kevlar Vest he takes an investment to get rid of. Even compared to higher defence models at the same cost, he has the other tricks to offset this by a great margin.

Overall
Diggle has a few different things here that can be helpful in games, but at the same time are also somewhat counter-synergistic to each other. Lantern in theory can help him in lighting up targets for the rest of the crew (see here- Green Arrow for theme synergy), and because of his short ranged toolkit he isn't as highly threatened when doing so, but he is also a Bodyguard, so if he's in range to use that Lantern is almost entirely useless. He does also have Scheming:2 which can come in handy occasionally, but if you have a plan for the turn it's not the greatest. 

Harry

One of the newer additions to the BatB henchman roster and the second CW model in this list, Harry is another choice that is well worth taking. He sits at a higher price level, but brings a lot to the crew that just can't be had anywhere else. 

Offensive

Harry has a very good gun, that's about as concise as I can put it. 4 ammo across the game (no more as its a Beam, but that's all he needs) on what can only be described as a shorter ranged stun/Beam Assault Rifle, plus the one use expansive blast, he is a great piece when used well. Stun damage might seem not that great on paper, especially not for $500, but when you consider that BatB have Arrest all over the place, and that he's doing a lot of stun at once, it is pretty great. -2 to Ping! with it is something else to look at in a positive light, as it means he is reliably landing hits even through obstacles, and damaging a lot easier as a result. 

Defensive

For his points Harry brings nothing in the way of special defensive tricks, being a bog standard defence 3/endurance 6 model. 

Overall

Harry brings a lot to the table in this regard, and its in the pre-game that he truly shines. He is one of the only sources of extra Strategy Points in the entire faction (the others being variants of Batman), and the only source of Smuggler in faction. Smuggler is of less value in BatB than in other crews like Penguin, as BatB tends to just buy extra guns (or whistles) over Magazines and Radios, but its still a nice option, and Leadership is a great protection against potential Mind Controls. Scientific tops off his trait list, but more as a thematic way to have him give up more VP than a regular henchman rather than giving any inherent value. 

Final Thoughts- BatB in Standard

Honestly, I think in comparison to a lot of other crews Brave and the Bold struggle to build lists in a standard format. Of their non-eternal henchmen, only 7 are less than 50 rep, one of which by only 2 rep, and 3 of those are Elite, so require a 70 rep model to unlock more than one. That leaves only 3 henchmen to put in lists, one of which costs $600 Funding, so there are a multitude of layers that make standard list building prohibitive for BatB despite having a plethora of good options. They have a ton of variation in more expensive models, and more than enough leader options to leave them comfortable for a long while, but what is really needed is henchmen to bulk out crews and fill odd points gaps. A replacement model for Gotham Policewoman or Policeman to fill the sub-20 gap would go incredibly far, as would reprinting the QRT in resin (they're newer sculpts, and the rules are still great). With only those 2 additions to the BatB line, you have a crew that can be versatile and stand up in a 2 list format, instead of being very static and monobuild in terms of henchmen options. While it is really great that most heroes have now been redone in some form for BatB, it's the henchmen that really need it now. I've tried to get myself into a Standard frame of mind many times now, and with what we have I find it very restrictive and quite frankly uninteresting. As is, I'm playing League and teams in Standard, but not Brave and the Bold, just because I find my lists lacking in too many ways.

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.