For the second of our Arkham April features, we’ll be taking a look at this month’s new releases from Knight Models and seeing what’s on offer for both the skirmish level Batman game and larger “Supers” game, the DCU Miniature Game (spoiler alert – a full run-down of the DCUMG coming in May, along with the arrival of Darkseid!)

Plus, we’re offering you a chance to get five extra entries into our Arkham Campaign Book Prize Draw!

To find out how to enter, check out the details at the bottom of this article. You can get up to five entries for doing the social media business on our previous post, and five more for liking, sharing and commenting on this post. That’s a total of TEN possible entries!

The prize draw results will come with our final piece for Arkham April, an exclusive interview with the Knight Models team, later this month.

This month sees the release of the first Multiverse miniature, Catwoman (Modern Age). She comes complete with a card for both BMG and DCUMG. This is a classic comic-style, purple-suited cheesecake Catwoman, in the same aesthetic as the acclaimed Dynamic Duo figures. Though she has (of course) her signature whip, it’s a single piece so not plagued with the troubles as the rather-notorious Darwyn Cooke-style sculpt is. Dynamic and sassy, it’s a lovely model, with the separate leg and arm pieces not being too fiddly generally.

In BMG terms, this is probably going to become my go-to Catwoman. Her backpack means carrying about Loot for free is a cinch, and the Stun/Blood whip with Reach is that bit more vicious than her previous incarnations. At 69 points (BMG tends to be played at 350 points), she sits neatly in the middle of your everyday Free Agent price bracket. For DCUMG, at 6 points (games ranging from around 30-50 points) she is – quite rightly – a cheap option; whilst not particularly lethal she could be an annoying distraction with her Bad Kitty ability, and she’ll fill gaps in a lot of lists simply by virtue of being a neutral character. I’m not convinced she’ll bump Ravager off mine (at just 7 points, Ms Wilson’s ability to negate powers is invaluable), but she’s certainly got potential.

With this month’s other DCUMG releases – Aquaman and Supergirl – it’s fair to say that my kids were possibly even more excited than me. They’re not the only ones: when my mate Snap saw the Supergirl model, the reaction was like a Hobbit discovering that it comes in pints. And Supergirl is everything that you’d want: a neat sculpt in a great pose, and feels every bit in-game like a mini-Superman. Clocking in at 11 points, she’s in a very good place: I always feel like Superman is slightly over-costed, and she has plenty of clout (and frikkin’ laser beams). I’d have loved her to be Multiverse – she does, after all, appear on the Titans team list – but BMG is clearly not ready for Legend-level characters… yet. I was concerned that there would be assembly issues with the actual miniature, having had my fill of heavy metal capes (I’m looking at you, Batgirl) but the head and cape are one piece, and fit neatly into place whilst supported against the raised arm.

Ease of assembly is also there for Aquaman – only the right leg is separate – and the trident is held straight by the extended arm. The leg doesn’t dangle, either, in the way that Black Manta’s does (yet the pose is nicely echoic) making a great-looking comic Arthur. At 12 points, he’s in a similar spot to his nemesis, though I’m probably more excited by Supergirl if I’m being honest (who, being a point cheaper, gives me further room for Ravager – yes, I may be a little fixated there). A separate point to note about DCUMG is that the game itself is faster and a bit simpler than BMG, and as such more suited to novice/younger gamers (though there’s plenty of depth for experienced gamers also). As such, making the models both simpler to assemble and studier generally makes a lot of sense.

In the previous article, I discussed the Arkham Knight (Sniper), though I didn’t necessarily make it clear that he can be included in a Batman team thanks to his Affinity: Batman (Arkham Knight). However, for the Batfans out there, we get the new AK version of Nightwing, who merits a fair bit of consideration. Whilst he’s not radically different stat-wise, a couple of interesting abilities pop up. He gets Electrical Storm, long the mainstay of villain lists running Little Spark, and one of the most devastating special attacks in the game. He gets Charismatic, allowing you to select an additional Free Agent, enabling the creation of more thematic lists – especially Teen Titans, whose team ability is generally seen to be a little weak (though the recent errata has offset that somewhat). And he has the unique Heir to Cowl ability, meaning if there is no Batman, he is upgraded from Sidekick to Leader. This fusion of game design and comic lore is really well conceived and, coming in at under 100 points, is going to add a lot of flexibility to Batman lists (I’m already thinking Nightwing and Batwoman in a bat-family team up!)

The Penguin has since the outset of the game been my favourite villain to run in BMG, but whereas some other villains have a had a plethora of new goons to choose from (*cough* Joker *cough*), Penguin’s been a little lacking – which is fine, as he’s historically been ideal for running a host of big villainous Free Agents with all his extra cash and, like the new Nightwing, Charismatic. But this is a down-at-heel, broke Cobblepot – though he’s still got ability to bring the pain. Firstly, he gets a new Large character in the form of Big A, the Penguin Lieutenant. Large characters have rather fallen out of favour in BMG, but this may soon change with him on the table. His Taunt ability, forcing opponents to fight him, coupled with his 4 Attacks, means he’s going to be putting the hurt on a lot of objective-hugging goons. At 60 points, he’s not cheap, but he bears direct comparison to Diggle: a seriously tough (7 Endurance) piece of muscle. And, as a single solid cast figure, no assembly required.

The new goons that come in the Crew pack are the Street Demonz, and it makes me really smile to see one of the obscure Gotham gangs of the mid-90s in action (what next? Xhosa? LoBoyz?). I love the models, there’s a real biker look to them. They have a range of handy abilities; crossbow guy is going to see a lot of play, I suspect. I was all excited to see two have gas masks, which is great because Penguin crews can’t buy gas masks… but they don’t have the Gas Mask trait?! This is my main complaint with these, it’s a simple but annoying oversight. There was real potential here to present players with an interesting choice, and I genuinely don’t see why their abilities don’t reflect the sculpts.

As to the physical models, they are a little fiddly, with separate hands, but at least the heads are part of the body cast. Penguin himself is a great sculpt, really expressive model, with only his hand as a separate piece, and it’s also really interesting to see the new KM flagstone bases (AK Sniper comes with one too – hmm, quite a Hogwarts vibe to them…). In game, he’s going to be an interesting alternative to play, with his Goad and Plead abilities (the latter from the revised equipment list) meaning that much more manipulative, finesse style of tactics are going to be called for.

So there you have it, lots of goodies (and baddies) to pick from this month. What’s caught your eye? Agree or disagree with our analysis? Let us know in the comments!

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COMPETITION TIME!

To win a copy of the BMG Arkham Knight Campaign Book (REVIEWED HERE) and a promo Arkham Knight Sniper miniature, you first need to like Big Comic Page on Facebook.

Once you’ve done that, you get one competition entry for doing each of the following (maximum of 10 entries in total):

– Like this post (and our previous post) on Facebook (1 entry for liking each post)
– Comment on this post (and our previous post) on Facebook (1 entry for commenting on each post)
– Share this post (and our previous post) on Facebook (1 entry for sharing each post)
– Retweet this tweet (and our previous tweet) on Twitter (1 entry for retweeting each tweet)
– Leave a comment below (and on our previous post) (1 entry for commenting on each post)

The winner will be chosen at random from all the eligible entries at the end of the month.

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The Writer of this piece was: Sam Graven
Article Archive: Geeking Out
You can follow Sam on Twitter

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