First view of BMG December releases

Last Friday Knight Models published their releases for this month, and as it was expected the Animated Series are here as miniatures so some of us are coming back to our childhood.

As it use to happen when a new line of products is released, a new Batman has come to us. This new version of the Dark Knight can maybe hurt to the Adam West version, only for 5 more points it offers interesting things (it has a cost of 80 reputation points), but without being as powerful as the most expensive versions.

Although it doesn't have Attack 5 neither Sneak Attack, it still is a good close combat fighter thanks to he still has Strength 3+ and the Reinforced Gloves. Regarding the rest of the "bat-stuffs" he keeps what every Batman must carry on: Batarangs (on this case the cheap version of them: the Batlings with a range of 20 cm), Batcape (although Adam West doesn't use it) and Batclaw, also he still is the best detective in the world as the Detective trait shows.

The huge difference with this Batman is on the lack of the Bat-Armor (as Adam West), but instead of that the ignores the outnumbered rule for being Martial Artist; and the most remarkable thing is this is the first Batman with the Acrobat trait!

You can see the stats of this Batman here 

The second and last of the releases of that new line of miniatures is a new version of Catwoman, although on this case is not as powerful as the Arkham City one, but she is one of the cheapest Free Agents of the game, it costs 50 reputation points, the same as Damian Wayne. 

Her defensive skills are the same: Defense 5, Acrobat and Movement 4, although the main reason for her low cost have something to see with the lack of some traits that did the old version so much powerful: Total Vision and Primary Objective: Loot (combined with her high mobility and defensive skills), also having the same Endurance as a low cost Henchmen: 4, which means a good attack can end with her in just a moment.

Her Whip is perfect for annoying objectives to the rival thanks to its Reach. Her Pickpocket can be very useful in some situations: for going for all the battlefield stealing weapons to the KO characters, and this time she doesn't need a CRT to do that just having her friend or foe target knocked out; or thanks to her mobility including her Climbing Shoes, and also with Reinforcements (1/C) strategy, she can be a pain for those enemy shooters that are split from their mates. Imagine that Catwoman on a Penguin crew picking the weapons of her fallen mates.

Regarding her hates she still doesn't want nothing to see with Joker's crew as well with Law Forces, which was recently added to the other version.

You can see her feline card here

Coming back to the more traditional miniatures, one of the gangs has been highly increased this month is Green Arrow thanks to the addition of a close combat fighter as Katana, who can also be included on a Batman crew (she is one of the Birds of Prey).

If katanas themselves can repeat failed impact and injury rolls, Tatsu's Precise Blow made her impacts even more precise adding a +1 to the impact rolls and allowing her to repeat the collateral dice. But the really powerful on her, apart from her ability for killing without too much effort, is the control she can has on her enemies thanks to the possibility of taking out defense counter (Feint) and the additional action counters the enemy loses if he/she is damaged: to every counter is lost for every 2 wounds the katana is able to apply, the Enervating of her Soultaker Katana increases that lose of counter in 1 more. All this makes her the perfect candidate for struggling with the most powerful characters. She also has some Shurikens (Batlings) to disturb her enemies.

In terms of defense, she can be quite hard thanks to the combination of Adaptable + Defense 4 + Martial Artist in close combat, and Adaptable + Defense 4 + Movement 3 + Stealth + Acrobat against ranged attacks.

Take a look of her stats here

And if Katana is a great adding for the "Good guys" gangs, for the evil ones another expensive character is here: Black Manta, the main enemy of Aquaman (does it mean something?). If Katana can be included on the good guys gangs with the exception of Law Forces, with David happens something similar with all villain's gangs except Organized Crime.

His profile is at the level of a Leader and although it seems he can be overpowered, not having any 5 on Attack and/or Defense and not dealing all blood damage on close combat attacks makes him an equilibrated character. As Katana, but without having to pay for it and without re-rolling the collateral damage dice, thanks to his Weapon Master he has better chances in close combat thanks to the +1 to impacts he can apply.

One of the things can inflict more respect on the rival is his distance weapon, to its 40 cm of range and Night Vision it must be added the chance of killing with a CRT Collateral roll. Another interesting thing is his ability to use twice Tracking (it was already know on Lady Shiva) thanks to the 4 SC he can use for being Scientific once the points has been counted, so for example he can let the objective he was controlling and prepare himself for his next planning phase. Also he can jump during that free movement.

You can see the card of this new villain here

Another of the strong releases of this month is a new version of Riddler as a Leader this time commanding his own Robot, which can give another point of view to the playing style of his gang. If the other Riddler had the chance of repairing the BOTS, that new one makes the opposite thing, something similar to Heat Ledger's Henchmen Bomb but not only once per game and damaging on 4+ instead of 2+: once per round he can destroy a BOT for trying to make lethal area damage.

In terms of defense he has a trait shown on Militia Brute 1: Cybernetic, but on his case the negative effect has not so much impact due to his Endurance rolls are to 8-, and for being Large he can repeat those checks (Resilient), and he also recovers contusion damage to 3+, so even with Defense 3 it can be difficult ending with him. Also, instead of the trait Luck he has an Energy Field which avoid attacks on a 5+ and without having to pay for that.

Offensively that Riddler can be quite hard to deal with him. His range attacks have unlimited range, ignore Bulletproof Vest and add some difficult to the Ping! rolls for being a Beam weapon (that kind of weapons are the worst enemy of the SWAT Delta), although he can only use it once time each two rounds. On close combat he can still increase his chance of impact thanks to Confusion, and although he has Strength 4+ he damages to 3+ due to the Mechanic of his weapon.

But that increase on his offensive facet has a negative impact on his objective controlling one, when trying to put a Clue Marker this time he has to do it at 4+ instead of 2+, and again he will miss Luck trait for re-rolling that.

The card of that new Mecha Riddler can be seen here

For closing the character releases of this month, as 3rd consecutive month a new Scarecrow member for the gang is shown, the second of the Milita Brutes and main reason why Arkham Knight must be included on the crew if both Brutes are also in. As his "brother" he still has the same mobility and defensive problems with Movement 1 and Defense 2, although he still has his Light Armor, Cybernetic and Sturdy making that value 2 a little tricky.

Regarding the rest of the traits and weapons are similar to the Harley Quinn's Gatling Brute shown last month: it also gives 1 extra VP if it becomes a casualty, and he handles an Anti-Tank weapon perfect for taking down enemies as the recently shown Batmobile, that although the rules about vehicles are still unknown, that weapons ignore the Armours and can repeat damage rolls against that kind of models, but it still is a very expensive weapon with a $850 cost. The main difference with Harley's brute is the lack of the free Push on close combat.

See his card here

And for closing this month, this month is Wonderland Gang the one receiving some gang counters.

As a last comment just sayin that the DataBank has been updated with this month releases and removing Catwoman from Law Forces. Also Affinity With trait can only applied once, i.e. Poison Ivy who has Affinity With Bane can't be included on a Batman gang if Bane is on it, so some character has been removed due to that.

Regards and we keep reading on La Biblioteca de Alfred.