Saturday 7 January 2017

Watchmen Crew

A long-time coming in painting terms, I first started the Watchmen back in the middle of 2014! I have thinking of using them as my main crew in 2017, but they do have a few issues which make me reticent.

Choosing the Crew
Not a problem, but noteworthy is that the Watchmen are an atypical crew in that they only (currently) have a pool of 5 models to draw from. Consequently at 50 Rep increments from 150 to 350 Reputation there are only very limited crew constructions that can be selected.

What I See
For me there are a few major concerns for a Watchman crew, especially if going into a tournament. Comparing them to Court of Owls with whom I had successes in 2016 (two tournament wins and a third place out of 18 among other results), this is how I feel they compare in some key in-game areas:
  1. Pre-game: With Ozymandias' Mastermind and Great Strategist, Watchmen are clearly better here.
  2. Numbers: Watchmen have the lower model count, a disadvantage for claiming and contesting Objectives, therefore Court of Owls have the advantage. They felt horribly outnumbered in the first game in which I used them.
  3. Deployment: Rorschach having Hidden and Nite Owl having Archie trumps Undercover on William Cobb.
  4. Mobility: with the new Equipment upgrades available to the Court, they are much, much more mobile than most crews, including Watchmen. With the proliferation of Fly, Grapple Guns and Tireless coming out lately, Watchmen feel pretty slow to be honest.
  5. Ranged Combat: Neither crew is top tier, but Watchmen edge it with Comedian and Nite Owl vs Strix and the High Court Member.
  6. Close Combat: The Court may be the best close combat crew around, so no contest. After that first game, my opinion has only strengthened.
  7. In-game management: Here I think of the stuff that offers synergies to other models, and I call it a tie between the Traits the Court Leaders offer, and the Bodyguard Talon against Comedian's Demential Laugh and Nite Owl's Archie and Arrest.
  8. Durability: Beyond the various individual Traits helping model durability, I feel the Court edge it based on their ubiquitous Stealth, Reanimated Owl rule and overall combined Endurance.
I give the Court an advantage in four out of eight areas, Watchmen an advantage in three, which leads me back to thinking they will have a very steep learning curve. Watchmen may arguably be a sub-par choice compared to the Court of Owls, which itself was an arguably sub-par crew until it got additional Equipment upgrades in the Flash and Arrow expansion.

All of the above aside, Watchmen do boast some impressive qualities: Ozymandias seems to have pretty much the best Dodge in the game (89% chance of success except against Silencers); Comedian seems a decent all-rounder for his Rep cost (but slow and a lower-than-typical Defense for his character type); Rorschach may be the hidden gem of threat. So it will be interesting to see how they stack up.

12 comments:

  1. A good looking crew!
    Despite the fact they aren't the most competitive crew, I hope you'll let them see the field and I'm curious on how they'll turn out.

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    1. Thanks Wouter. :)

      I think they will only be getting the occasional run out in non-Tournament games unless Knight make any positive changes.

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  2. Love the comics and the film. All super heroes should be this dark.

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    1. Each time I watch the film I get more from it, that is for sure. :)

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  3. terrific post and I thoroughly enjoyed all your Pros & Cons. I'm a huge fan of both the Watchmen and Court of Owls and you've made both sound very interesting to play.

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    1. Thanks mate. :)

      Court took a while for me to get used to, which I thought might help with Watchmen but hasn't.

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  4. I think more practice at home before running them out at a tournament. Perhaps aim for something later in the year at Titan.

    I can see some synergies there. I still think Nite owl needs deploying later in the game. The strategies used were worth it. I can't help but think you should of spread out your objectives more. Overwhelm the defenders at one point before moving onto the next. Comedian was doing good i think it took Bane to punch him out twice before being arrested by Slipknot.

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    1. I think you are right about Nite Owl. The problem with splitting up Objectives will be more mobile opponents wills till be able to single me out, but more importantly that i cannot cover 6 Objectives with 5 models.

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  5. I can't comment much on the gaming aspect of these minis as I seem to have gravitated mostly towards the painting part of the hobby. But this I can say, those Watchmen minis look awesome for the tiny size they are. So much details brought out through painting. Thumbs up!!! ^_^

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    1. Thanks very much FourEyedMonster. :)

      I only wish they hadn't taken two and half years to complete the five of them. :)

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