Thursday 18 February 2016

Court Of Owls Crew

This will be my first Court of Owls crew which I take to a tournament. I am looking forward to using a new crew with different qualities to my existing options (Poison Ivy, who I haven't really got to grips with; and Black Mask, who I would probably be sticking with if it had a few more affiliated Henchmen options).
The line-up comes to 350 reputation and $1100 Funding (these models cannot actually take any remaining Equipment options. I think that on first glance, until I get a few games in with them for better insight, there are a few inherent strengths and weaknesses:

Pros
  • Good Defense on the whole (it will be nice to be playing with two-thirds of the crew at Defense 4, rather than most models at Defense 2!)
  • A mix of defensive Traits for most Henchmen such as Stealth and Elusive; with Equipment all 4 Henchmen will have Stealth
  • Cheap Large Free Agent
  • Very cheap Leaders (but they are not front-line fighters)
  • Blood Damage from all models, and decent weapon Traits with plenty of Sharp on 4+ Strength for most models, allowing 75% chance of Damaging in basic terms)
  • Relatively low VP's conceded overall due to KO'ed (since mostly Henchmen)
  • Recovery from KO'ed is very good

Cons
  • Lacking ranged attacks (1 model with short range attack)
  • Extra VP given up as Casualties
  • Limited choice (no non-Court Free Agent or Henchmen fixes for apparent deficiencies; relatively few crew configurations at 300 and 350 Reputation due to the specific bands of Reputation values)
  • Inability to fully utilise Funding above 300 Rep (if Funding is a mechanism of balance, then this increasingly limits the Court as Reputation limit increases)
  • Limited vertical mobility (no Batclaws or Flight; Climbing Claws are available but are slower to access models which have used Batclaw to get onto higher elevations such as assault rifles and Riddler Bots)

In terms of combat it is looking like these 3 are my best and most efficient combatants:
  • Strix: best overall as accuracy is joint second in the list, and potential damage output the highest
  • William Cobb: is second due to accuracy based on Precise Blow with Combo
  • Brandon O'Malley: looks set to put out some decent damage at the cost of reduced probability of hits
In terms of 'to hit' and 'damage' probabilities, the Butcher is simply not as threatening as he looks.

In terms of mobility, Strix and the Butcher are pretty evenly matched, while Brandon O'Malley offers Tireless for cheap Running.

Defensively Xiao Loong is hands down the best option, in close combat at least, while Strix has Acrobat (for Dodge) and Butcher has some durability with Tough Skin and Endurance 8. What may not be immediately apparent to opponents is that through a relative lack of Free Agents and Sidekicks, the crew gives up a relatively low VP total for KO models, but a relatively high VP total for casualties.


16 comments:

  1. That is a might fine crew and the Butcher model is so much bigger than I imagined! Best of luck.

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    1. Thanks very much Michael. :)

      Yes, the Butcher is huge, and overly so I feel; in the comics the character looks to be drawn at around 8-10 feet in height, whereas this would be easily 12 feet or likley more in scale terms.

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  2. Looking good. I think you're in all kinds of trouble if you run up against Riddler as you'll struggle to take down bots and solve clues at the same time. You also need a plan to deal with Deadshot/Dallas asap, given that they are so common.

    Once the fight starts, you'll be fine. :)

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    1. Thanks Kieron.

      Objectives wise I will be taking Ammo, Titan and Loot, to minimise enemy scoring from my own.

      Yep, going to have to figure out solutions for assault rifles and the likes of Deadshot. :)

      Sewers on roofs may be a solution....

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  3. They look awesome. The NMM Gold is great, as is the black.

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  4. Very nice and good to see them all together. I agree with Michael - the Butcher is huge! Much bigger than I imagined and probably with a similarly large price tag...

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    1. Thanks Jez.

      I do think the Butcher should have been more in line with the size of the Titan Thugs, but it is what it is.

      Then again, the depiction of the size of the Butcher did seem to vary somewhat in the art.

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  5. Looks great dude. It was a pleasure to see them in the flesh and to fight for the streets of Gotham on Tuesday night. Looking forward to this Tuesday's game at Axis Chemicals were it appears Bane is upto something.

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    1. Axis Chemicals and Bane eh? Well I am afraid the big guy may get worn out chasing the shadows in which the Owls lurk. Either that or he will pummel them into the ground! :P

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  6. Now that is quite the faction.

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    1. Thanks very much Stuart. :)

      Still working on the unpainted stuff for it, so there may yet be a change to the final line-up. :)

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  7. A good looking team, more colourful than I expected.

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    1. Thanks very much Wouter. :)

      I am purposefully keeping the palette quite limited, but the 'black' and 'gold' seem to contrast and complement well enough. :)

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  8. An awesome group shot. The simple colour scheme boggles the (mine at least) mind in how great it looks. You're now my go-to reference for dark simple colour schemes ... ^_^ ... not as if you weren't before. :)

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    1. Those are very, very kind words FourEyedMonster - very humbling. Thanks you. :)

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