The Batman Miniature Game FAQ was released, on Friday, August 19th to much applause from the Batman Miniature Game community. Knight Models has clarified a number of lingering questions regarding the game in this FAQ. Certainly, as with every FAQ for every game I have ever seen, there are likely new questions that need to be answered.
You can find the Batman Miniature Game FAQ via the Downloads section of the official Batman Miniature Game website. Like many players in the community, I sat down with the new FAQ and gave it a full read this past weekend. Here are my five takeaways from the new Batman Miniature Game FAQ.
5. Timing of Objective Cards in Phase 4
This was a big shift for many Batman Miniature Game Players. This ruling effectively states that if you play a scoring card out of hand during phase 4 of the round you cannot play a card that you draw to replace it. This is a significant change from the way players have been playing the game.
Mechanically, the game state is frozen as soon as scoring begins during this portion of the phase. All tokens, markers, cards, etc. are frozen in time. Each scoring card, either in play or in hand, is evaluated if it can score. Any card that is successful is scored, resolving its effects. Then any final clean-up tasks from scoring occur, including drawing back up to a hand of 4 cards. Any drawn cards are not able to be scored since the game has now progressed from its frozen state.
4. Clarification on Reveal and Remove
While the community has been playing that Reveal a suspect marker is when a model performs a manipulate action on a placed suspect marker to remove the suspect marker and that remove simply removes a suspect maker from the table it’s good to see this now in the official FAQ. In our opinion the game needs more of this kind of “standardized language” and we are hopeful to see that in future evolutions of the game.
Additionally, there is further clarification regarding when a card indicates removing a suspect. If it’s not specifically called out, then removing a suspect only means a friendly suspect. This makes a ton of sense based on the way most of these objective cards are written. It’s another case of using “standardized language” for an effect.
3. Splitting Attacks Against Models with Bat-Armor
While I hadn’t seen anyone actually do this in a game, it’s good to see this clarified. The concept is that a model, most likely via ranged attacks, would split their dice pool so that they are targeting two models with the attack. The idea with that is that the strength dice could be assigned to the pool that is used for the model that is not using Bat-Armor.
In our opinion, this is a great clarification. Most models with Bat-Armor are pretty expensive in the game and this gives them a small boost.
2. Traits Interacting with Attack Dice
Another clarification, and one that’s seen some controversy, is this one.
Q. Does a trait that interacts directly with attack dice (like Master Marksman) affect the strength die?
A. No, because it is not an attack die, even if it is part of the attack roll.
This really opens up a question regarding which situations this actually applies. Equipment like the bulletproof vest is a good example as its language specifically says remove an attack die. Is the intent here that a bulletproof vest cannot remove the strength dice, or is this an oversite? Future updates to the FAQ will hopefully clarify this further.
1. The Boss Model and Inspire
Yes, a boss model if they can be inspired can inspire themselves. Now it’s worth noting that you have to be a henchmen-level model in most cases to be able to be inspired, but in some teams and other situations, this could be very handy indeed. Like most games, gaining an extra action is massively valuable and might mean the difference between winning and losing.
This is especially good news for those games where things aren’t going the best or for those crews that have a bit of a squishy boss model. Crews like Penguin, Riddler, Organized Crime and a few others may often see another model stepping in for their boss midgame. Being able to nominate a well-positioned henchmen model that can not only inspire others around them but now can inspire themselves will be good to see in the game.
Wrap Up
Do you have FAQ rulings that you think are bigger than the ones we brought up here? Let us know via our social media or email.
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