BMG Team Builds: Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad

First thing first, we look at the special rules available for the team.  Their negative is significantly large.  The Suicide Mission Table lists the minimum amount of Victory Points that the Team must secure by each turn.  If the Team is not able to secure that many points, one random Suicide Squad member is immediately removed as a Casualty.  Dead.  Right then and there.  Now, the number of Victory Points needed by each round is not too daunting.  In the average 300-350 Reputation game, it is basically 2 VP per turn.  Not an insurmountable number.

The benefits are fairly large, though.  First, each Free Agent in the Team gains a Trait similar to Let's Go!, allowing the model to take their turn immediately following a member of the team for 1SC.  Allowing two Suicide Squad models to act in coordination with each other adds a lot of possibilities.  Also, this is the only team to allow Equipment to be purchased; Aerial Locater puts a Lantern effect on any model on the board for a turn, allowing Suicide Squad models a fair chance at shooting said models, and Airborne Deployment allows a model to be deployed on any table edge at the start of the Third Round.  While not as powerful as the Birds of Prey Aerie Two version, this is Equipment, and therefore not counted by the Snitch Strategy, though it can be countered by Broken Equipment.

(Special note: There are a couple of members of the Squad that have issues, or complications.  The first is Reverse Flash.  This does not appear to be Professor Zoom.  Nothing on the card for Professor Zoom states the use of that model as Reverse Flash; historically Eobard Thawne has not been a member of the Suicide Squad.  The other is Riddler.  The AK Riddler is a leader of his own crew, and brings massive changes to how the entire game is run by changing the Objectives of his crew.  Whether or not those changes are placed on the Squad, and not a Riddler Crew, is as yet unknown).

Now, with all that taken into account, let’s look at a couple of potential lists, using available models:

Mobbing (300)

Copperhead

Capt. Boomerang

AC Deadshot

Killer Frost

Not much more than a small crew that can work in pairs, trying to dish out enough damage to keep them safe.  Copperhead’s Technique followed up by anyone’s Coup de Grace (using the Squad’s special Follow Me! Rules) help even the odds a bit.  Watch the ammo.

 

Big Guns (350)

Black Manta

Deathstroke

AK Harley

That’s a lot of heavy shooting and more than a fair share of close combat.  Move them together straight at anything you want dead.  Each model has its own movement abilities as well, if you want to chase down a model, get across the board a bit faster, or head for an objective.  I have my doubts of using only 3 models in a 350 Rep list, but I also have my doubts about stopping this crew from doing whatever it wanted.

So, the Suicide Squad seems to be made for taking a small list of Free Agents and putting them together, which I think is what many people were looking for.  It has a huge disadvantage in the possible loss of models through Suicide Mission, but also provides a couple of fair positives in the equipment and pairing rules. 

For the future, though, there are quite a few models coming their way:

Amanda Waller, Black Spider, Bronze Tiger, Diablo, Gorilla Grodd, King Shark, Rick Flag, Enchantress, Slipknot, Reverse Flash 

I’m speculating that Amanda Waller may be able to override the Suicide Mission rule, when she makes it to the table.  Looking at the list also shows they will have a Speedster, a Magic-user, at least one more Large model, someone with Fire, and a couple of other mid-ranged models.  In all, probably Suicide Squad is probably going to be the most complete Team in the game.