Read the introduction to the series here and catch up on previous articles here.
AAE101 NO MAN’S LAND
Based on the 1999 event, in which an earthquake hits Gotham City.
WHAT TO BRING: Three extra Special tokens for each player.
THE SETUP: WHERE’S BATMAN?: Before characters are placed on the map, each player must choose one character from his or her force to be that player’s champion. The champions are set aside until brought into the game by the Return of Batman effect.
WHAT IT MEANS: Said effect won’t come into play until mid-game, so don’t make your champion too big a part of your force.
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MORE SETUP: TERRITORIES: After all players’ forces have been placed in their starting areas, but before the beginning of the first round, each player receives three control markers. Beginning with the second player, each player places a control marker on the map at least 5 squares from any starting area being used by a player and all other control markers, and at least 3 squares from the edge of the map. Players take turns placing control markers until all players have no control markers or all players agree that control markers can no longer be placed legally. Control markers can’t be moved or destroyed.
WHAT IT MEANS: You’re setting up zones to occupy on the map. You’re going to have to defend yours and/or take others’, so build your team accordingly. Also pick your control marker locations carefully. There’s going to be little cover and hindering terrain will be a dangerous place to be (in fact, any terrain that’s not clear grounded terrain or water terrain WILL be hindering terrain).
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STILL MORE SETUP: NATIVE SURVIVORS: Once per turn when making an attack roll for a character on your force that has the Batman Ally or Batman Enemy team ability or the Gotham City keyword, you can roll 3d6 instead of 2d6; use the two highest results.
WHAT IT MEANS: It pays to stick to the theme!
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TURN THE DIAL: At the end of each round.
WHAT IT MEANS: Steady-moving event dial.
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AFTERSHOCKS OF THE CATACLYSM (white, slots A-J): All walls are
ignored, and blocking terrain and elevated terrain are hindering terrain instead. Beginning with the second round, at the beginning of each player’s turn he or she can choose an opposing character occupying hindering terrain and roll 2d6. On a result of 9-12, deal 2 damage to the chosen character.
WHAT IT MEANS: First, realize that a printing error on the dial means there’s only an X where the lime color indicated on the card should be. That erratum given, you may want to be really careful about using Stealth-dependent people with less than Invulnerability to protect them. An opponent can get an easy shot on them through this effect. On the other hand, the utter and complete lack of cover means range is king. It might be worth fielding a lot of Stealth anyway just to not get sniped to death when you have to venture out to claim and hold territory later.
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CITIZEN WAYNE Â (black, slots A-E): Once per turn for the duration of an action, you can modify any combat value of a friendly character (except damage) by +1 for each full 75 points (or fraction thereof) of your champion’s point value (maximum +3).
WHAT IT MEANS: It’s a bit like Contingency Plan, but without having to build up those pesky tokens. It also pays here to use a champion in the 100-point range to gain the +2 boost.
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BLOWING THE BRIDGES Â (orange, slot C): At the beginning of your turn, choose an opposing character’s starting area and roll a d6 for each character in it; on a result of 1 deal the character 1 penetrating damage.
WHAT IT MEANS: Campers may pay for turtling. Be sure to build a force mobile enough to be out of there by round 3, when this effect shows up.
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CLAIMING TERRITORY Â (blue, slots D-J): At the end of your turn, immediately score 20 victory points for each of your characters occupying the same square as a control marker.
WHAT IT MEANS: This is extra incentive to get your force out and about. Characters with good speed values, mobility powers and defenses are key get and hold your territory. Consider especially characters with Defend who can use a cheap meat shield to block enemy attackers. You’ll probably want to avoid team formations that require most of your team to stay clumped together, as this will cost you a lot of points down the road unless you can KO the enemy quickly outright without surrendering too many points to them in turn.
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SCROUNGING Â (yellow, slots E-I): At the end of your turn, choose up to two of your characters that are 3 or more squares from all control markers. For each chosen character, roll a d6 and subtract 3; the character is healed of damage equal to the result (minimum 0).
WHAT IT MEANS: 50% chance at free healing! Mobility powers are good for this effect, too. If a territory holder is getting too beaten up, run away for a shot at healing while replacing him/her with a fresh defender.
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RETURN OF BATMAN (cyan, slots F): At the beginning of the round starting with the first player, all players place their champion on the map 6 or fewer squares from (but not in) their starting areas.
WHAT IT MEANS: Hope you got all you needed from the Citizen Wayne effect, because that’s done now. ‘Course, you’ve got your “Batman” in the game now for a 2nd wind.
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CONSOLIDATING TERRITORY (red, slots G-K): When making an attack, for each friendly character that occupies the same square as a control marker and that is 8 or fewer squares from the attacker, you can modify the attacker’s attack value by +1 (maximum +3; the character does not need a clear line of fire to the attacker).
WHAT IT MEANS: Here’s when holding your ground earlier can really pay off. But you won’t get long to enjoy the advantage, as the next condition thoroughly invalidates it despite multiple clicks of overlap.
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DESTRUCTION OF THE HALL OF RECORDS Â (purple, slots J-L): At the beginning of the round, remove all control markers from the game.
WHAT IT MEANS: Ummm…just what it says, which is odd. All the markers would be gone as of slot J. So what’s the point of it being on K and L? I dunno. Looks like another error to me.
Note that this supercedes the previous Consolidating Territory effect even though they overlap for a couple of rounds. Use this condition’s appearance as a cue to move off of currently wrecked buildings or blocking terrain or at least make sure you won’t be shoved out into the open completely.
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RECONSTRUCTION Â (grey, slot K): All walls are no longer ignored. If characters occupy blocking terrain or elevated terrain when this effect is revealed, move them to the nearest unoccupied square of clear grounded terrain.
WHAT IT MEANS: Buildings are back…for a while. If you weren’t careful about your position in previous rounds, you might be shunted into a bad spot in full view of enemies.
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JOKER’S LAST LAUGH (green, slot L): At the end of your turn, choose an opposing character 6 or fewer squares from your champion to which your champion has a clear line of fire; deal 1 penetrating damage to the character.
WHAT IT MEANS: Someone’s gettin’ it unless your champion is completely isolated from the enemy (or the enemy is all hiding).
Note that while this dial should thematically end at this point, it doesn’t have the red line indicating that the dial should stop turning, so the whole cycle can start over again, except this time without control markers, because they only get placed before the game.
(Yeah, seems like a mistake to me, too.)
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SUMMING IT UP: Interesting dial that focuses more on positioning and map control than on the usual slugfestivities. It’s hindered a bit by incompatibilities and what look to be straight-up production mistakes, but it’s still playable.
Next: In a Batman-related set like Arkham Asylum, it’s no surprise that the other event dial is also Batman-inspired.
