Deadshot

Another BMG mini painted, as I hone my crew for the Titan Games tournament in March. Deadshot was picked for the crew purely on the reading-up I have been doing about the character in-game - he seems to be a bit of a ranged attack beasts, and that suits me fine.  I have yet to play the game, but I am always a gamer first, so therefore wanted at least a couple of solid options (Deadshot and Solomon Grundy) in my crew. From the comic books, Deadshot is a character I have enjoyed reading about for many, many years, so that does not hurt either!

I struggled painting this guy, I have to admit, and so I am really glad he is finished. Unfortunately the pictures are some of the worst I have taken for a while, so please forgive me that; I totally accept I am no great shakes when it comes to pics, but these were all dull and needed lots of correction.

What  finishing Deadshot really means is that I now have a few options for the Poison Ivy crew, so I really need to get cracking on another crew to allow me to host games for (currently) non-player buddies; I have whittled down those options to 3 choices in the near future:

1. Watchmen - pro: I have Rorschach painted already which gives me a start; con: they will probably have the most unique play-style since they don't have Leaders or Henchmen. I would need to paint 4 minis.
2. Batman heroes - pro: I think I could put together a formidable quartet of characters so low model count; con: low model count can be a handicap from I understand. I would need to paint 4 minis for this option.
3. Villain crew - pro: I have 'spare' Free Agents amounting to around 185 Reputation; con the number of models to paint. I think I would be looking at a new Leader, and a Sidekick and/or Henchmen for better synergy and game options.

BMG Painting Summary

BMG characters owned: 66 (added the other Poison Ivy)

Percentage of owned characters painted: 15.2% (10 models)

Impudent Mortal's Warehouse District Kickstarter

This Kickstarter (click for link) project launched today and is already funded. The campaign is designed to develop a range of laser cut MDF items of Warehouse District terrain designed for 28mm-35mm table top miniatures.

The terrain will be ideal for games of Pulp City, Batman Miniatures Game, or other contemporary urban games like Heroclix (there are 1.5 inch grid options which sound HC-friendly), Spinespur, or Zombie gaming I reckon. Well worth checking out. While I wasn't planning to back many KS projects this year, this I one that I had to support and I look forward to seeing it grow.

Poison Ivy Crew (BMG)

Finally, I now have enough to field a crew for BMG after finishing the Elite Plants! It has only taken 15 months, better late than never.

The crew has been built around Poison Ivy as Leader of course, and these minis come to 351 Reputation and $550, allowing some options for upgrading the Henchmen (which I will worry about when I have a better grasp on the rules). There are no Sidekicks, and the maximum of 2 Free Agents for the crew size/cost. Solomon Grundy I see as my centre-table beat-stick.

If I take this crew to the Titan Games tournament I would drop the cheapest model (the 10 Rep Plant), to make it a legal list.

Before the tournament I want to try and get Deadshot finished, who would replace Riddler, and would take the the value up to 348 Reputation and $850 Funding.

Since I have yet to play the game, I have no clue how this crew will manage - only time will tell! Time to get some games in!

Elite Plants - Henchmen

On the heels of Turk, and the real Henchmen for Poison Ivy, I finished these Plants to give me options for my crew for the Titan Games BMG tournament. Unfortunately the lighting has washed out some of the highlights, but I am fairly happy with them.

So far the only Plants available are those in the pack with Poison Ivy, but I wonder if more may come eventually to bulk out the ranks. Each of the Plants may be taken more than once per crew, but they are not currently available separately.

Plants are not deployed at the start of the game; instead Seed Counters are placed (nice little laser cut acrylic tokens in the pack), and Plants can be deployed from these when the owning player Raises A Plan (one of the game's phases when counters are allocated for actions in the turn ahead). The downside is that Plants are immobile, but they cannot be displaced. they cannot control Objectives either.

The Plants are (l-r):

• Spore Plant - a more powerful Stun attack than the basic Plant.
• Plant - basic  Plant with a Stun attack.
• Creeper Plant - also a Stun attack, but with a Poison CRT Special.

Pleasingly, I have now painted 4 minis so far this month, which is great because in February last year I didn't paint anything at all for any games/ranges.


BMG Painting Summary
BMG characters owned: 65 (added Batwoman; Red Hood; Arrow; and Black Canary)
Percentage of owned characters painted: 13.8% (9 models)

Turk (Blackgate Prisoner) - Henchman

Turk is the first Henchman I have painted for BMG, and I am pretty pleased with how he turned out.

My understanding is that there are two types of Henchmen: some are named types who can be taken once per crew, while others are unnamed types who can be taken multiple times.

A couple of criticisms of BMG I would be open about is that I feel the game overly pushes the use of Henchmen at the expense of the stars - the costumed heroes and villains; but worse I feel, is that some of the Henchmen minis that can be taken multiple times are mostly or all included in packs with models that can only be taken once. I think given the premium pricing structure of the BMG range, that Knight Models could and should have ensured easier ways to get the multiples without buying redundant copies of models. It does not affect me - one of each is enough for me - but it clearly impacts on how some players want to play, especially as KM have set the game and range up that way.

The above gripes aside, the reasons for tackling Turk while I am building up my Poison Ivy crew were two-fold. Firstly, I wanted a ranged attack option for the crew, and Turk fits the bill. Secondly, a lot of the minis as analogues to the video games have orange prison jump-suits, so this was a test-run on that colour scheme. I have jotted down what I did, so I may be able to batch paint some future Henchmen I hope.

I may be able to get a couple of test games soon (with the possibility of a local opponent!). In the mean time I still have the Plants and Deadshot to get finished before the March tournament.

One last thing; as I add painted BMG character minis to the cabinet (anything that isn't an Objective etc.), I will track my progress at the end of relevant posts - basically a motivator to get more done!

BMG characters owned: 61
Percentage of owned BMG characters painted: 9.8% (6)

Objectives (BMG)

I started working on these at the same time as painting Poison Ivy, grabbing hold of the momentum I had at the time. Although these Objectives are fairly simple and basic models, since they are clearly gaming pieces (with game effects and rules), and each uses at least a couple of colours and is based, I am counting them towards my painting totals for the year!

Left to right:

• Riddle
• Loot
• Ammo 
• Titan Container

These are the official BMG Objectives from Knight Models, and since these were released the first Leader-specific Objectives have also been released (Joker's Gas Cannisters).

These pieces were fairly quick to paint as you expect, and help me get ready to play in the March tournament at Titan Games that I will be attending.

For my options requirements for a playable Crew, I have three Plants, a Blackgate Prisoner or two, and Deadshot to paint before March. I won't be using them all, but it covers a few configuration options, and I have started work on these.

Poison Ivy (Comics)

This mini was done pretty quickly by my standards, and for very practical reasons. I have signed up for a BMG tournament at Titan Games in March, so need a playable crew in time for that.

From the  BMG Leaders I had available, Poison Ivy had the easiest colour scheme to tackle with 4 main colour choices (hair, two costume colours, flesh), therefore seemed the best option in terms of fitting with the models I have. The nice simple colour scheme was a pleasant experience in terms of making this a quick-to-finish mini (at least by my usual slow standards). I am having a fairly good start to the year.

I plan to use Solomon Grundy as one member of her crew (for durable muscle), and maybe the Riddler too, although I am hoping to paint Deadshot instead (and have made a start on that mini; my understanding is he is a very useful and cost-efficient ranged option). I have decided against using Clayface due to his stupidly unbalanced base positioning; I have said it before, but I feel Knight Models should have opted for 50 mm bases for some of their bigger models, but that is by the by.

I will have to paint some Henchmen too in order to fill out the ranks, so will tackle some Plants and a couple of Prisoners very soon since I can cut down on painting time by doing stuff simultaneously. I have also been doing some painting on Objectives.

The next thing for me (alongside more painting) is getting to grips with the game, and I have the hard-copy on pre-order. I hope to get a couple of games to practice before the tournament day, but time will tell (and willing opponents!). I will be looking at online resources to help, such a the Cheaphammer blog which features head-to-head gaming comparisons of key models.