Heroes fall. Villains fight and boarders are remade! Hey folks it’s your Warden again, The Warp Forge making sure that the criminals of Gotham City are documented and accounted for (Then released back into the wilds from the Asylum, but we won’t talk about that…) with the results of the top 3 new kings in Gotham City from the LVO BMG Standard tournament!
This Year’s event was an absolute blast with players duking it out to secure the title of the New Lord of Gotham, Villains clashed blood was spilled and every game was close and down to the wire but as with all tournaments there can be only one, so let’s look at the top three lists that made it to the new table!
3) The Three Jokers – Robert Bishop
In Third place we make Nygmas symmetry green with envy as there not one but Three Clown Princes of crime in 3rd place. If folks are scratching their heads about why there’s three Jokers, don’t worry there was a recent graphic novel called “The Three Jokers” which these characters follow the story where Batman discovers there’s never fought a singular Joker but three instead! It’s a Crazy story and what’s also crazy is Robert Bishops list:
- Joker The Criminal
- Joker The Comedian
- Joker The Clown
- Bouffon (Jokers Gas)
- Gas Puppet 1,2 & 3
- Joker Paramilitary 2
- Street Jesters 1,2 & 3 & 4
Unfortunately, this time I don’t have the deck list to read but as a Joker player myself I can make a good educated guess at how this Crew plays.
So to start off with taking a look at the three Jokers All of them have flexibility for the crew. All of them aid in a utility belt for the crew. The Criminal has a good ranged weapon being his Thompson and can really dish out straight damage by making Suspect markers explode with his Detonate trait (This includes enemy suspect markers) and by having the “Good Aim” trait he can also get some really good damage off by making one of his ranged dice hit on a 2+.
Then you have The Comedian, the deadly dealer of dirty plays. He can help redeploy friendly models in deployment which keeps your opponent guessing, discards your opponent’s objective cards with his “I Am Chaos” trait and with his “To prove a point” trait can stop certain models he targets from suing specific types of actions. Yes, the Camera can also be used as a ranged attack to blind enemy models.
And Last but not least you have The Clown! The one that puts the fun in funeral! Now this one in synergy with the rest of the crew is truly an underrated piece that if you’re not used to the Three Jokers will blindside you. What I mean is that this Joker plays really, well with your deck. He really interacts with specific Joker objective cards by moving Explosive teeth markers as well as moving poisoned fish markers giving any who are in contact with it the poisoned effect if their Endurance (for 40k this would be their wounds characteristic) is under the rolled total is the distance it moves. This one would be the Joker the helps the Joker player consistently score their cards for a hight VP rate, it’s no wonder why these pack of clowns got so high on the roster!
The rest of the crew is rather straight forward. Horde and poison. Paramilitary 2 is a staple among many, many Joker crews. His custom Assault gun and his Knife along with having a bulletproof vest makes him the best gun goon in Joker arsenal. Since his inception I’ve yet to not see him an a list.
Buffon is a great piece with his staple guns because he can go around Gun Ho, not feel any hard penalties for moving before shooting and has a high rate of fire. In addition this guy’s been equipped with Joker Gas which poisons models, which is exactly what you want to be scoring certain cards in the Joker deck, so even if he runs out of nails he still has a use giving his opponent the giggles!
Likewise, the street Jesters are amazing pieces which play into the Jokers madness of Gotham, some inflict straight forward damage and have really good weapons like Street Jester 2’s Twin Katanas, others play with more poison like Street Jester 3 who has her Expansive Gas Launcher which is a Joker Gas launcher making shotgun blasts of poison.
And to cement the crew all together, the crème de la crème, the Gas Puppets! These are relatively straightforward pieces on the surface. Their just pawns, zombies, who just deal effects with Joker gas and other such wonderful toys, but what makes them cement the crew so well is their expandability. You see, the Joker likes scoring VP from hurting models. The models don’t have to be enemy models. It can also be friendly models too. So, when you need other pieces like the paramilitary and the Street Jesters around and the enemy is just out of reach, you can hurt these “Victims” and score VP. They will offer the Crew effects and with their Death Pack trait they can also finish off an enemy model you may have put a lot of effort trying to take down, but they will go down if they’re looked at. They are great distraction carnifex’s and beacons to score if you’re in a pinch.
2) Soldiers of Fortune – Steffen Wifstrand
In second place, is anyone scared of the big, bad, Bane? You should be! In Steffens list we have:
-Bane Titan (Venom Lab)
– Infiltrate Op
– Militia LT. (Handcuffs/Venom)
– Stealth Op (Venom/Titan)
– Mercenary 1 (Venom/Titan)
– Cuchillo (Backpack)
– Militia Solider 1
– Thug 6
As for the deck list:
Osito X1
Black Ops X2
Cyber Attack X1
Domination X3
Free For All X2
Global Offence X2
Ground War X2
Invasion X3
Confusion X1
Die Hard X1
Overdrive X1
They Must Know Pain X1
Valuable Commodities X1
So this Crew is a perfect combination of theme and viability on the table. The crews’ goons are rather straight forward. There are all ‘Jacked on Venom and that means buffs. Real. Good. Buffs. It allows them to hit a bit harder and these Mercs are already very good with the Veteran trait and they have the equipment to get the job done!
The you have the centrepiece of the Crew: Titan Bane! This Bane is just as much of a Monster as you expect him to be with one of the highest endurance values (That wounds to you 40k players) in the game, he hits ultra-hard and he’s got Titan to boot which is an upgraded version of Venom. He plays hyper-aggressively by using the Titin to slingshot him right into the enemy and whack anything he touches. Even the best fighters like Deathstroke and Red Rain (Vampire) Batman will have a hard time taking on this Titan Monstrosity.
How the crew works is very thematic towards a band of Merry mercs! They Hug terrain to score cards like Ground war. They want to gain board presence with cards such as Invasion, Domination and Free-For-All. You have some good utility with some of these cards like Free-For-All where you can spend the resource to use Venom doses without spending the cost for them. Something that really helps when you’ve juiced up your goons, and to play into that aggressive playstyle there are cards such as They Must Know Pain, Global Offense and Banes Childhood Friend Osito! The crew is flexible, can score from a variety of situations and can really bring the pain! It’s certainly understood why the Big, Bad Bane is rolling around in the top three!
1st – Soldiers of Fortune – Tezlin LittleChief
Coming in hot taking away the Crown of Crime is none other than Tom Hardy who Allies himself with Jervis Tetch and Julian Gregory Day!
Bane DKR (Venom Lab)
Mad Hatter
Calendar Man (Venom/Titan/Applicator)
Militia Soldier 2 (Venom)
Infiltrate Op (Neurotoxic Drugs)
Cuchillo (Backpack)
Militia LT. (Handcuffs/Venom/Titan) Thug 6
What I really love about this list is that it’s an unusual list. What I mean by that is that it has some good and decent models, like Calendar Man who have their own buffs when their crew scores VP and juicing him up on Bane special serum just paints a funny picture in my mind of a hench man in bright red spandex and a calendar cape doing a Livesey walk up to his next target, but then you see models that have a use but don’t often see play like The Mad Hatter in which the general community consensus is that he’s weak as you can really buff him like you can with a henchman but here Tezlins found a way to make him work, overcome the obstacles of more popular builds and prevail as the King of Gotham this year at the LVO! When is it the last time you heard of underdog models making it and winning Tournaments? It’s moments like these that really speak to me that BMG is still one of the most balanced games I know. Hardy’s bane isn’t bad but most folks look to the other bigger banes for efficiency in a beat stick Leader but while our old pal Tom is no slouch in combat it’s the fact he’s the cheapest Bane, can buff his henchmen aggressively and he can hold his ground that really speak volumes which plays right into Tezlins deck.
(Osito x1, Calender Crimes x1)
Invasion x3
Search and Destroy x3
Ground War x2
Free For All x2
Black Ops x2
Cyber Attack x1
Die Hard x1
Valuable Commodities x1
Overdrive x1
I’m Feeling Weird x1
Domination x3
The deck is a near-enough standard deck for Bane but what really plays into the playstyle of the Crew is the ability to score VP is to ensure damage infliction and effects in a spread. The Calendar Crimes plays heavily into the Crews board presence by making sure you place suspects on the board which then plays into further cards such as Global Offense and Black Ops. You also have sufficient plays to inflict effects with the Mad Hatter and his Mind Control device ability which allows you to remove a suspect marker and take control of an enemy model temporarily straight up. It’s a trait that really comes in handy in a tight squeeze if you’re under pressure. As you remove enemy suspect markers and inflict damage by hypnotising enemy models you’ll then be playing into other cards such as Global offense by killing opponents models with their own, I’m feeling weird and Domination by making friendly models move away from the centre of the board.
So there we have it! This years LVO has been an absolute roller coaster of a ride with many popular crews and models with more generally assumed competitive rules, but in the end you gotta trust your own instincts and play your game plan and that is how you grab the crown! It’s been an absolute joy looking at these lists and a massive thank you to Lance who once again made the one of the best BMG tourneys you’ll see this year!
As for me, I hope to bring you more BMG in the future soon! With Adepticon around the corner with another massive tourney ahead I look forward to seeing the mayhem return once again to the Streets of Gotham! In the meantime check out aome awesome mats you can get from BMG from the Frontline Gaming Webstore! This is The Warp Forge, signing off and I’ll see you same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel!
– The Warp Forge