This past Saturday, I took part in the Batman Heroclix event at Gamers' Haven. it was the first time I participated in such an event. Though I had the opportunity to play before, this time was different for a number of reasons.
First, Action Man is really liking the models. As a growing little boy, he is getting very much into superheroes. I have never been much of a DC guy, but with his growing up, I'm discovering DC heroes and their villains.
As a minis guy, the Heroclix are pretty cool and they come pre-painted (okay I don't mind painting, but it saves me a lot of time). Plus out of the box, Action Man can play with them. Being plastic, I don't really care that they also produce a lot of action... A three year old boy and miniatures... not the best of combos.
The format was a sealed event: you buy 2 packs and make an army from what you get! This levels the playing field as everyone starts "equal". I took part in similar formats for Magic back in the 96 or 97...
To see who wins, you pick a faction (Joker, Batman, GCPD, Two-Face and 2 more), I chose the Joker because I like him... he's nuts and so funny. So it was a natural choice... I chose the Joker faction (which seems to be common).
I built my 300-point force as follows:
| Model | Value |
|---|---|
| The Joker | 127 |
| Katana | 76 |
| Arkham Asylum Guard | 45 |
| Aaron Cash | 44 |
For a total of 292 points. Close enough. The Joker was the most expensive models I got in my packs. Thinking about it for a while, I chose the 2 guards (Aaron Cash is a guard) because the Joker has an ability that allows him to pass on damage to his minions provided they are worth 50 points or less. That gave me a rather large war band with 4 characters (a few guys also had 4, most had 3 and one had 2).
Scoring was simple: win/loss and you scored points equal to the total of KO'd models you took out. Here is a quick After-Action Report:
Game 1: Jeremy
Jeremy is one of the local big wigs in Flames of War and someone who knows the game very well. His war band included Batman, Batgirl and Bruce Wayne. I won't go into much detail, but he proceeded to kick my butt, wrap it in shrink wrap and put a bow on it.
In spite of being unable to hurt him (dice and bat tactics on my part), I learned A LOT about the game. We went to eat and discussed the game some more. I got a new vision of tactics with my force and I planned on putting it to good use.
Result: Loss, 0 points scored
Game 2: Chris
With a new appreciation and tactics for my force. Chris had the 200-points Batman (a real tough hombre!) and the Black Cat. I cringed as that 200pt Batman beat me up in practice games. Beat me up bad.
The game started poorly for me: Katana went down before dealing any serious damage. But then Chris' dice went cold. And when I say cold, I mean REALLY COLD. For three rounds in a row, his Batman failed to roll a 6+ on 2d6... Finally, my Joker - down to his last health - managed to take down Batman. I really pulled one out of my rear end. I expected I was gonna get killed but Chris' bad luck saved my bacon more than anything else.
Result: Win, 300 points scored
Game 3: Steve
The final game was against Steve who had a force similar to mine. He had KGBeast, Katana, Poison Ivy and a lady cop named Sasha (?). Here I was able to block him in and have the Joker slowly kill him using his poison ability.
I managed to win that one. The Joker is very hard to kill when he is back up by though minions who can take the hits for him!.
GO JOKER!
Result: Win, 29X points scored
Finally
When the bust settled, I managed to win 3rd place! I'll admit I was both shocked and pleased! I had absolutely NO expectation but 3rd out of 10-15 (I did not count but I think there was 11 of us). That was a cool experience and I was able to come home with models for Action Man and I.
I cannot wait for him to grow up so we can play together!
One thing I particularly enjoyed was the map that would flip when the earthquake event happened. I am thinking of putting something together a small RPG game (using DC Universe OF COURSE) based on those events. The premise is simple: a major earthquake hits Gotham City and the heroes have to deal with it.
Well that's it for now! A big thanks to Gamers' Haven and to Ed Klein for organizing and doing a good job of it: keeping us on-track, making it all come together and give out a TON of prized. A great day!
But wait! I wasn't done yet... in another post, I'll talk about what I played AFTER I left Gamers' Haven. I wasn't done!
JP
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