The Scarecrow, former psychology professor Jonathan Crane, is a specialist in exploiting our inner fears and phobias, now comes to the Batman Miniature Game with a whole new crew.
The Master of Fear uses a wide variety of experimental toxins to twist the psyche of his victims, and as he is evil by nature, he is one of the Dark Knight's most recurring and terrifying nemeses.
This time, the Scarecrow has recruited a group of characters specialized in distorting reality that will help him to enhance the mechanics of his crew. Get ready to spread fear all over Gotham City.
This new crew introduces a never before seen mechanic: The Pile of Fear. A stack of 12 cards that you can add to your objective deck through the abilities of your models and the resources of the crew. Once inside your deck, whenever you draw or discard one of these fear cards you will trigger a very unpleasant effect for your opponent.
In addition to this Pile of Fear, the Scarecrow crew will be able to form a Terror Pile with the cards from the top of the opponent's Objective Deck, the opponent cannot see which of their cards we are building this pile with.
The Terror Pile has two functions within the game:
The first is to control the objectives cards that the rival can score (If the cards are in the Terror pile they are not in the opponent's hand and therefore they cannot score them or use their resources).
Secondly, if the rival wants to recover these cards, they can decide to reveal them when they are going to carry out an action, but this entails paying a price that varies depending on the type of Mission revealed, and may even disable the model's action before it is carried out. Also, the crew has ways to force the opponent to reveal the cards in the Terror Pile.
This game mechanic allows the crew to score their objectives, whilst hindering the opponent's game, a very satisfying control game style for lovers of this strategy.
âBoo!â The Scarecrow
THE DECK
"Boo!" is a perfect example of how the crew can score points. In this case it does not require placing suspects or causing casualties amongst enemy models. Simply by adding a card from the fear pile to your deck of objectives you can score this card and you have several ways to do it.
The "Boo!" resource can help you to increase the difficulty an opponent faces when trying to defend against your control effects, many of them require failing a willpower test to activate, this card is such a central part of the Scarecrow crew gameplay that it is the first time we see 4 copies of such an objective card in the Batman Miniature Game.
With "Deepest Fears" we have the other core card in this deck, and again there are 4 copies of the card within the deck. It is scored by placing a suspect within 4" of an enemy model that suffers an effect. The crew are experts at causing effects on enemy models. In addition, when this card is scored you can use "Tangible Fear" and "Inspire Fear" from a greater distance. This means that these abilities will help you to speed up the rotation of your deck, and thus allow fear cards that appeared earlier to recycle and put more effects on rival models.
In addition to all this, in "Deepest Fears" we have a new keyword: "Burn". This keyword allows you to discard the card from your hand by paying the indicated cost of resource points. Therefore a card with Burn will never get stuck in your hand. If you find you can't play it, just discard it and draw a new one.
This is a card to score when interacting with rival suspects (We remind you that Nightmares can manipulate within 4")
By scoring it you can continue adding fuel to your game, either by finding another copy of "Fear makes you predictable" in your deck (If you think it will be easy to score another copy) or by filling your deck with fear cards.
Its resource allows you to discard cards from the top of the deck to speed up the resolution of fear cards.
A set of objective cards that stay in play and will be completed as the game develops, perfect for playing in an activation where we can't score a card directly, as they stay in play until they're scored.
Scoring "Test Patients" shouldn't be a problem as we have a good variety of Nightmares at our disposal in the crew. Some of the other non-Nightmare models in the crew can also use their abilities "Casting fears" and "Subliminal Suggestion" to make them attack more times, this, when added to the range of 4 for melee attacks, makes "Test Patients" an objective card that will be scored practically without help while we do other evil tricks.
In the same way What Do You Fear? should be completed slowly, but inevitably, thanks to the Fear Cards mechanic of the crew.
Scarecrow
The Scarecrow is one of the most iconic villains of the DC universe. No matter what powers, strength, or confidence you have, there is one thing you can't be brave without: Fear. In the same way that there can be no shadows without the existence of light, there can be no courage without fear.
To represent his way of playing with fear in the Batman Miniature Game, Scarecrow shows that he is clearly the leader of his crew by being the model with the greatest capacity to introduce Fear Cards into the objective deck through his "True Fear Spray". With this he can put several Fear Cards into play with a single attack depending on his location (Something he can easily achieve thanks to his mount).
He can also use âInductionâ to put fear cards into the deck once per round when he places a suspicion or when he uses his special âInspire Fearâ. An ability that forces an opposing model to pass a willpower test and, if the rival does not pass, they receive a penalty (Or in the case of not having passed it by the required amount, receive a good amount of Blood damage).
The Scarecrow can, through his special "Casting Fears" make an allied model with the Keyword "Nightmare" make an attack. He can also redirect an attack made to him onto a Nightmare by removing a card from the terror pile. Thus being surrounded by "Nightmares" gives the Scarecrow range, attack options, and defense.
âThereâs nothing to fear but fear itself.â The Scarecrow
Linda Friitawa
Linda Friitawa is the Sidekick of this crew and an excellent addition to the crew. This Intel Support, just like Scarecrow, has the special abilities âCasting Fearsâ, âInductionâ and âInspire Fearâ to manipulate Nightmares, control the table and add Fear Cards to the deck.
Linda Friitawa also has the ability to speed up the frequency at which the fear cards appear with her special ability "Shady Dealings". With this ability you discard two cards from your hand to draw two new ones and thus give added momentum to the entire strategy, or get rid of the cards that are not useful to you at that time.
Arkham Assistants
Among the models of this crew you will find two Arkham Assistants. These assistants can cause allied models with a "Mental Disorder" make an attack rolling an additional dice thanks to their "Subliminal Suggestion" ability. All Nightmares have some kind of "Mental Disorder", so they are perfect targets for this.
To round out this synergy between Assistants and Nightmares, Assistants have "Protect Me" to redirect incoming attacks to Nightmares. Since Nightmares can return to the game even after being removed as a casualty, they make a perfect dance partner alongside Assistants.
Hugo Strange
Also joining the crew is Hugo Strange, the Doctor of Arkham Asylum, and he arrives as a free agent.
He synergizes very well with the rest of the crew thanks to his ability to spread drugs and Hypnotize opponent's models. Hugo Strange brings an extra layer of control to any list that includes him.
Nightmares
To finish this review, the cheapest models in points of the crew, but the catalyst that makes everything work are The Nightmares.
Nightmares don't move normally, they have no movement attribute, but they can move between friendly suspects and can manipulate and make melee attacks within 4". So they are super versatile, even though they have 0 move attribute.
âFear is the key.â The Scarecrow
Additionally, some of the crew members can redirect attacks to nearby Nightmares, and Nightmares, while not especially tough, can come back from among your eliminated models, making them ideal protection for your more expensive models.
Final overview of Scarecrow crew
You can see Scarecrow crew overall as a very strategic crew, with an inclination towards the control game that does not allow the opponent to play the way they would like, but at the same time it is a crew very capable of scoring many objectives from turn 1 of the game.
The fact that you have the ability to score objectives quickly, can make your opponent decide to rush and expose themselves more than necessary, trying to eliminate the "apparently" fragile nightmares. But when you have the most important models of the rival crew within reach you will be able to manipulate the game as the eliminated Nightmares return to the gaming table to continue your relentless plan.
If you like to control the game, manipulate your rival's models and the cards in their deck, accompanied by a quick scoring objective deck with the ability to reveal many cards, and above all, you like to spread fear, the âTrick or Treatâ Bat-box will be made for you.
Comments