Everyone has, at some point in their lives, wanted to be Batman. The Dark Knight continues to be DC Comics most popular character and shows no sign of slowing down. Fans have had ample chances to play Batman and his allies on the tabletop, from the 1989 RPG released to coincide with the first Tim Burton film to the Knight Models skirmish game featuring gangs battling their way through Gotham City. The company behind the massively successful Conan Miniatures Board Game, Monolith Edition, showed off their upcoming Batman Miniatures Board Game at Gen Con 50. I was lucky enough to play it in its current form and even snap a few pictures of the elusive World’s Greatest Detective in action.
The game will feel familiar to fans of the Conan game as they both use the same engine. One player plays a criminal mastermind from Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery while the other players play Batman and his allies, such as Commissioner Gordon or Nightwing. Each player has a pool of action points they use to accomplish things like fighting, movement and interacting with things in the environment. Managing this action pool becomes a case of risk versus reward; is it better to spend all your action points on a big attack in the hopes of taking out an enemy or holding something back for defense in case you don’t knock out the bad guy? The system has been tweaked slightly to better reflect the setting. “In the DC Universe, nobody ever dies,” said Frederic Henry of Monolith Edition, “so if you run out of energy crystals from damage you just have to spend some time recovering instead of being out of the game.”
Our game featured Bane and some of his thugs trying to plant explosives under GCPD headquarters with Batman, Catwoman and Red Hood trying to stop him. This game is objective-based rather than a big skirmish, which gives it a more story based feel for Batman fans. In addition to the missions included in the base game, expansions will include more boards and episodes around iconic locations like Arkham Asylum. Additional figures will also be available as expansions, with slight variations on character stats based on the interpretation of the character. Batman will have plenty of allies and foes to deal with in the main box, but Monolith promises to go deep into the Dark Knight’s bench for expansion characters and alternate sculpts. Unpainted versions of everyone from Clayface to Barbara Gordon have appeared on Monolith Edition’s social media.
The plans right now are for a Kickstarter launch in February of 2018. Monolith Edition means to primarily handle sales through the Kickstarter and directly through their company, so Bat fans should start saving their pennies now to get in on this action. The Conan system is a great fit for this world and the adjustments they made to the game like innate armor and Bat Gadgets as equipment make it feel like you’re putting on the cowl of your favorite Bat Family hero. For those fans who want to see more of the miniatures before hand, Monolith is running previews on its Facebook page leading up to the Kickstarter.
What’s your favorite Batman game? Let us know in the comments!
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Feature Image Credits: Rob Wieland
Rob Wieland is an author, game designer and professional nerd. He writes about kaiju, Jedi, gangsters, elves, Vulcans and sometimes all of them at the same time. His blog is here, his Twitter is here and his meat body can be found in scenic Milwaukee, WI.