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It didn't feel appropriate to continue posting in the News and Rumors thread now that it's been out for a while...

FIrst off, miniatures comparison. - I took various photos of Knights Models miniatures and they're Gotham City counterparts. I'll let you all make your own conclusions. Unfortunately, I was completely inconsistent with what sides I photographed on. So for clarity. Black Bases = Knight Models. Blue/Grey bases = Gotham City Chronicles.

Comparisons


I think I'll need to paint up someone for a proper comparison, really.


As for the game...






Test Game

I've only played a few test rounds of it so far and it feels like it does sit in a comfortable middle ground of 'board game' and 'Miniatures Game' - In a very similar space to Mantic's Dungeon Saga and FFG's Imperial Assault - Though without the latters interlinked campaign. Instead everything is more standalone missions, but there's plenty of replayability when it comes to options (Part of me thinks that's a little closer to Elder Sign or Arkham Horror). - My main worry is can there end up being an 'optimal' setup for each scenario. Although, I wonder if that can end up being mitigated a little like Elder Sign, by randomising some elements - EG, each player rolling a d3 for their character choices, rather than picking the team with the optimal synergy.


How's the test game going so far? Well, in Batman's first turn, he batclawed a mobster, pulled him towards him, clotheslined him, ran up, punched another badguy in the face and freed the first out of 4 hostages. Which was like... All pretty awesome really.

Villain turn, the Riddler played on his computer a lot, used some rerolls and brought on reinforcements of the guys Bats just killed. These Badguys then used a bunch of movement to climb on top of trucks, surrounded Bats and then just opened up on him.

Which hurt, a lot...

Second turn, Bats, really heavily bleeding, has done a bit of a hail mary, running through, grappling up onto the back of a truck to solve a riddle, allowing a second out of 4 hostages to escape. Except now, he's pretty much exhausted and I have a feeling this is a BAD THING(tm).

Now it's a question of working out the Line of Sight rules to see how safe he is hiding in that truck. An interesting thing of the game though, is that it's highly unlikely he can just be shot at again. - After a unit is activated, they get put at the end of the queue, making it more expensive to activate again until they fall back down it.

I'm kind of curious to see how it goes, but I have the feeling that playing a 1 hero game was a bad idea (there's 1 hero missions, 2 hero missions and 3 hero missions). Sure it might be 'easier' to play, because there's less things you can do. But, because there's less things you can do, doing the wrong thing, is BAD. - For example, Batman has a choice of up to 4 points worth of gadgets at the start of the game. I went for the Batclaw (adds movement) and the Batcape (adds armour against ranged attacks). - I might have been far better instead of one of these by getting a computer to help me solve riddles, and baterangs to throw at people.


Other Thoughts

You need access to the internet and FAQs to play this game, including visiting various sites and forums (like, say, maybe this thread in the future?) I've come across a few instances where there's game mechanics either just missing from the rulebook (including diagrams not translated properly, but that isn't a big deal, I can guess that carte means card), or things just not explained clearly. - This is certainly one game where asking Uncle Google is not something you should feel shy about doing at all. Overall, I'm pretty darned happy with the game, but I don't think it'll directly be replacing either DC Universe or the Batman Miniatures Game (though I didn't buy versus mode). It's its own thing, that feels more like Imperial Assault with solving Missions and puzzles, than the back and forth gang war in the streets that BMG has.


I urr... Um... I might end up buying ALL THE THINGS that I didn't buy here when the new kickstarter launches for the second season in the start of June

Thanks!

So stuff like batclaw... pulling.. clothelining... are actual things you can do in the game?

Well, the clotheslining was a bit of flavour.

Essentially the Batclaw is an item on the Utility Belt Batman can pick at the start of the game. It had 2 properties.

1) Can ignore one point of elevation change when moving.
2) "Attraction 1" - Batman can use 1 point of 'energy' to move 1 opponent from an adjacent space into his own.

Alternatively I could have picked a grappling hook which can't pull people but allows you to ignore 3 points of elevation change.


So what I did was mine an enemy towards me using the Batclaw, then spent an energy token to perform an attack. This then opened up a gap to run through, attack a second guy and roll to free a hostage.