Team Builder Series: Battle Royal Batman Team

Earlier this summer Fellfrosh, Kije and I decided it would be cool to have another HeroClix Battle Royal, after a few weeks that idea evolved into a themed or story driven battle where instead of random teams that people put together on the fly we had pre-build teams as well as a Heroes vs. Villains structure for play. I got asked to make the Batman and Batman Villain teams for the game and while we never did play it, despite Fell creating some cool new rules for it, I thought I’d post up the teams I made. I have to say that this is a pretty dang good team that could cause some trouble in any situation.

The Players:

Name	Rarity	Points	Amount
Batman	Veteran	111	1
Talia	Veteran	56	1
Robin	Experienced	22	1
Spoiler	Veteran	22	1
Huntress	Veteran	35	1
In Contact with Oracle	Feat	50	1
Total: 296

Breaking down the team:

Despite the funky sculpt the Batmans from Legacy are some of the best figures in Clixdom under 150 points, you’re getting a vicious 12 attack value, lots of Outwit and Exploit Weakness with full dial Stealth (thanks to the Team Ability) and Willpower all for only 111 points. He’s also got a very deep dial, 9 clicks, for someone without superpowers and his damage never drops below 2. What I like most about the figure is the mid-dial Charge, it shows how Batman can take a beating and still be around to do some damage to anyone since it’s paired up with Exploit Weakness and Willpower. Numbers wise his attack does drop fast at first, but since he starts at twelve he’ll still be hitting most figures quite easily, his defense is also quite good, starting at 17 and only dropping every other click.

Veteran Talia is another great figure from Legacy, and while she doesn’t have the Batman Ally Team Ability she more then makes up for it with her 5 clicks of Flurry, 4 clicks of Willpower and Exploit Weakness and some front loaded Leadership, Stealth and Incapacitate. Since this team has quite a few members those 2 clicks of Leadership are quite useful, and that Stealth will help her get into close combat where she can just start cutting opponents to shreds. Now Exploit Weakness and Flurry don’t work together but it’s a nice trade off, either do 2-damage to someone with a damage reducer or hit some weaklings for a possible 4. She’s comparable to Batman in Defense starting at 17 with willpower and has a good 10-attack value, but she does drop fairly quickly in both.

Spoiler is a great tie up piece, and for 22 points the Veteran Version has the Batman Team Ability and several clicks of Leap/Climb and Combat Reflexes. Her first click is great for the points, 16 defense, 9-attack and 2-damage with a 9-movement, you really can’t get that with any other figure around the same cost and while she drops fast you’re really not investing much in her in the first place. She’s there to get into people’s way and to kill medics and other low point support figures.

When I initially created this team Icons wasn’t out yet so I was using the Veteran Hypertime Robin but have since switched that for the Icons Starter Experienced Robin since they’re the same points and I feel that the Icons Robin is much better -- even though the Hypertime Robin does have a starting 9-attack. With the Icons Starter Robin you’re getting a very nice annoyance piece; he’s the same cost as Spoiler’s Vet too. He’s got a full dial of Stealth thanks to the Team Ability, coupled with Leap/Climb for most of his dial, several clicks of Smoke Cloud and, get this, Energy Deflection, so even if you aren’t in a place to take advantage of his stealth he’s got an 18 defense against ranged attacks. With a starting 8-attack and 16-defense he’s comparable to Spoiler but his numbers don’t drop quite as fast as her’s.

The last figure in the team is Vet Huntress, and she’s the only figure not to have stealth somewhere on her dial or via team ability. I was hesitant to add her for just that reason but I felt that this team needed another long ranged attacker besides Batman, who’s going to be in close combat latter on in his dial anyway, but couldn’t think of any other Batman Ally that could fit the bill for so few points. Also since this team was for an actual game I was limited to the figures that I knew I had access too. But with an 8-range and Ranged Combat Expert for 2 clicks she’s not bad for 35 points. Plus she’s got the JLA Team Ability which means she can move without taking up an action. Her defense is a 15, which is the lowest starting defense on this team, but does at least 2-damage for 2/3rds of her dial.

Finally is the feat that makes all the figures on this team even scarier, yep In Contact with Oracle on everyone! I was going to put the REV Batgirl on this team instead of Huntress and Spoiler but thought that it would be cool to represent Barbara via this feat card (since I was going to use it anyway). What’s great about this card is that unlike Perplex its effects last until your next turn so if needs be you can buff someone’s defense instead of damage, range or attack value. The only downside is that to use the card the figure must have activated, but that’s a minor problem and one you won’t run into much especially with the two Willpower figures

.

The Plan:

With the exception of Huntress everyone has Stealth to start with so using that to you advantage is key, keeping to any type of hindering terrain for two reasons. First it keeps your opponents from being able to outwit any of your powers or attacking you with a ranged attack. Second since most of the Bat Family has Leap/Climb if you can force your opponents melee units into hindering terrain you’ll have a movement advantage since Leap/Climb ignores hindering terrain’s movement penalties. Now there’s no guarantee that the above two rules will always work for you since there are many ways to get around each of the advantages that Stealth provides you, any figure with the Superman Ally or Ultimates Team Ability can automatically ignore hindering terrain so stealth can’t be used, also the Feats Trick Shot and Thunderbolts can be used to bypass Stealth. Like Leap/Climb, Flight also ignores hindering terrain for movement purposes, but there aren’t as many pure melee characters with flight as there are with ranged. Still, expect to see units using Unstoppable, Swingline or Running Start so they can bypass some or all of Hindering terrains movement effects.

While both Batman and Talia have ranged attacks there are times in their dial where you’ll want to get into melee combat with them, especially Talia who is quite scary with her Flurry so you’ll want to get her into a place where if she looses Stealth she can attack with that power. While moving her, Batman and Spoiler make sure to take advantage of Robin’s Smoke Cloud, which allows you to lay down hindering terrain for one turn. Place your units behind, but not inside, hindering terrain. This is so you can still take advantage of Stealth with out having to worry about halving your movement when you move out of hindering terrain. When moving, if you can’t attack, you’ll want to use In Contact With Oracle to up that unit’s defense so they’re that much harder to hit.

If your opponent has any low point figures like medics, Con Artists, DEO Agents and the like you should plan on taking them out with Spoiler. Most of these low cost figures only have one or two clicks of their support powers and low defenses so her 9-attack and 2-damage is great for knocking them down to uselessness, you don’t even have to kill the unit -- just damage it -- in most cases. Huntress is also good for this, though she should be moved up behind the others since she has no stealth and the lowest defense on your team. Also try using her as a reserve piece to take out figures that have already taken lots of damage from Batman or Talia. Huntress is capable of doing 3-damage for a while, but her attack isn’t as high as theirs, so she’s great for the killing blow but not as good for the initial strike.

Summary:

This is a pretty straight forward Stealth team. It does rely on some tactics and works better against some teams then others, but all the pieces are worth their points and you can make them even better with ICWO which is key. It’s a strong team that could win in our Battle Royale or in any tournament.

Discuss it in our forums.

Written by Spriggan on December 28th, 2005