Gotham Invitational game 5 - Joker v Penguin

And so to the penultimate game in pool one of the Gotham invitational which features Joker v Penguin. Both crews are yet to see a victory or a loss and this is Joker's final outing. A victory for Joker would ensure surivval in the group and for Penguin would give a good chance of winning the group with one game to play against the GCPD. The battlefield is once again Joker's amusement park with only the position s of the sewers changed.

Joker's crew remains the same as in previous games and despite the draw v Riddler has improved as I get to grips with it. It has however benefitted slightly from the resurrection of the App which has allowed me to remember who has what equipment. In this case Pandaman has an extra magazine so can shoot 3 times while Borgon is now on Neurotoxic drugs which makes him 2" more dangerous and also harder to kill as now has Dodge. Combined with Sturdy and desensitised it will be tricky to take him down unless somebody has silencer, which nobody in Penguin crew has.

Penguin crew is still difficult for me what with the sideboard and the business counters. It's like playing a separate gem of Tetris whilst playing Batman! On paper the crew is well equipped with 2 radios ( Elite and Hypno), a grapple (Elite), and extra magazine (Gun thug) and finally a backpack (Hi vis guy). Penguin's crew were hoping to deal with Borgon through bullets but this has become trickier... Of benefit is the realisation that Loose Lips that I thought was a bit useless can actually inspire other Penguin Hencmen and is himself inspired by Penguin. This only affects Elite, Gun Thug and Hi vis but is useful nonetheless.

Starting hands - Penguin

Decent hand but not outstanding'Get it' and 'Goods raid' both should be easy scoresbut the other two will depend on Joker's actions as require an enemy within 4" which is not guaranteed. Might be playing 'Negotiations' as a resource to cycle it and nullify an enemy.

Starting hand - Joker

An excellent starting hand for Joker with all playable Turn One and only 'Been a gas' being tricky to play. Whether they all score is different but as always with Joker his cards seem pretty scorable in general.

Turn 1 - No phase I /II cards, Joker has initiative

Joker's set up

Katanas taking his life in his hands next to the explosive Fireworks who has yet to get to the end of turn two! Pandaman on overwatch. Joker maximising Inspire rang with Harley for protection and at bottom 3 dangerous pieces blocking the sewer exit but also ready for an Alpha strike.

Penguin and Deadshot placed central and covering eachother with good guns. Have decided Deadshot on a building wastes his handguns so he is to be more active as in game one. Instead the very dangerous Gun Thug is on the roof and with an extra mag is happy to shoot into the dark as can still do 6 blood with reasonable luck. Hypno is looking to sewer and Hypnotise - preferably Borgon but Fireworks might be a laugh! Loosey is misplaced unfortunately and will have to sort in his activation while Toxic is looking to maximise his range and should Borgon come out possibly kill with a lucky crit!

Turn 1 - no phase I/II cards in play, Joker initiative

Dynamite went through the sewer using a Joker inspo then moved a bit in order to get a line of targets for dropping a suspect and playing 'let them do their thing' which turned the marker into a bomb which then moved and exploded over Hi vis andHypno. Strong start scoring 2 points straight away.

However this was countered by playing 'Not buying' which meant that in his turn Penguin could get Hi Vis to pop down a marker near Dynamite using Penguin inspo for an immediate respone 2 points.

Fireworks then moved up and dropped a suspect hoping for a bigger number on 'Teeth' but only rolled a 2 which made it unlikely to score. It did not.

This was followed by Gun Thug just moving to the edge of the canopy in anticipation of either dropping a suspect outside deployment or maybe jumping down. In any event he can now shoot every subsequent round.

Gas Lady just took a move and dropped a Stinky fish well out of anyones way so this would score.

Penguin now organised a killer move which sadly was not rewarded with success. Hypno manipulated through the sewer into the space left by Gas Lady's move away so within the enemy DZ. He then Hypnotised Borgon into moving and hitting Joker. As a result Borgon should have battered Joker but due to a combination of terrible dice (1s & 2s) and Joker efforting not a single blood got through. Seeing this Hypno then moved out of Range of a Borgon attack! At some point during this he also dropped a suspect for a quick 'Goods raid' within the enemy deployment.

As a reward for this cleverness Harley who was within threat range popped over with her extra 2" from fast ran over, KO'd Hypno and revealed the suspect (using Joker inspo) and scored 'So long it's been a gas'. A poor reward for Hypno who was too clever by three quarters.

Toxic now played 'Unlimited funds', moved and fired his magic cover ignoring beam weapon at Fireworks mainly just to get started on 'Unlimited' which needs 3 ranged attacks to score. an exploding Fireworks would have been a bonus but sadly not.

Katanas the did a simple move and drop turning into 'Teeth' but again like Fireworks' failed attempt only rolled a 2. This undramatic turn was matched by Penguin simply moving and dropping a suspect (using a Business token) however the teeth moved a healthy distance towards him but not quite.

In an attempt to score the 'Teeth' Joker now moved and put 'Kill them' on Borgon for an extra 2 attacks! added to his extra movement from 'Neurotropic drugs' Borgon was now super dangerous. The move worked as the 'Teeth' now dropped on Fireworks scoring and not causing Fireworks to Boom.

Elite who has grapple and radio used follow me on Hi vis to give him +4" move and then sped away to drop a 'Get it fast' in a safe place with a 7 on it until it scored even after counting business tokens.

Pandaman with extra ammo decided to shoot at Gun thug still with two dice and took him down to just one life left. This was the first of 3 good shots by Pandaman who would end up as POTM (Panda of the match).

Loosey was thinking of unlimited funds and just took a random shot at Katanas which actually did hit and spent another Business counter to move closer to the crew he could inspire rather than the free agents he could not, but stayed less than 8" away from Penguin to benefit from his unusual inspiration.

Borgon was now all hyped up but with no place to go as everyone had wisely stayed beyond his kill range. Noting that Deadshot still had not activated he decided to find some cover and sit this turn out!

With no good targets for his rifle Deadshot decided to move out and let rip with his handguns and chose to shoot at Fireworks. In retrospect this was a bad move in many ways of which the most important was he could not kill Fireworks unless he went Boom and also it placed him as the nearest to Borgon should Joker again win Initiative. In any event he did damage on Fireworks but he did not explode.

At the end the turn Penguin had 6 points and Joker 8. Hypno remained KO. Penguin had 3 Business tokens left going into turn 2. End of turn cards drawn for Business card use had no effects on Penguin's crew. Initiative would be vital...

Turn 2 Joker wins initiative. Cards in play 'Ace Chems' for Joker and 'Smuggled goods' for Penguin. 'Get it fast' still in play from Turn 1

The Borgon missile was fired at Deadshot. Borgon was easily within movement range and hyped up with the extra attacks from Joker's 'Kill them' but did not get the extra attack action from 'Mindless Monster' as Toxic was actually closer than Deadshot. It was a tough call as he probably would definitely wiped Toxic whereas while he would damage Deadshot decent defence dice might limit it. As it turned out even after efforting twice Deadshot went down under a barrage of 5s and 6s answered only by a solitary 4 in defence! Choppy chop chop. This was a less than ideal start for Penguin....although he did score a 'not buying' off it and the slowest 'Get it fast' finally scored. And lets be honest Deadshot wasn't really part of the gang just a literal hired gun and another business counter was gained so no tears there. As an aside This was an error as Borgon without audacity should only have been able to mindless moster and attack Toxic as the closest enemy and essentially would have killed Toxic rather than Deadshot. This probably had ana effect on the outcome but too late now and was not picked up by VAR at the time....

However Penguin did also manage to trade as Gun Thug, although 'leaking claret' - as they said in the 19th century - put 9 whole damage into Borgon leaving him on one life.

Dynamite then activated moving the ace chemicals marker into contact with Hi vis to score. Then he decided enough was enough and ran into the corner dropping a suspect which became 'valuable commodities' on the assumption everybody would have better things to do than chase him down for two points.

Next Penguin did the decent thing and shot Borgon finishing him off before moving into contact with Fireworks and dropping a suspect to play 'profitable negotiations'. This was clearly an error as he had already fired at Borgon but the negotiation failed in any event to no effect on the game. It later became clear this was more than a rules error for Penguin...

Harley fresh from unconsciousing Hypno now bounced over to Elite and 'Distracted' him as a special action before largely whiffing her attack. Only a few stun went on and one converted to blood using 'Hardened' ability. This seemed right at the time but would come back to bite Elite later.

However for now Elite shrugged off the stuns and manipulated the smuggled goods marker a huge amount due to the stacked business counters, moved himself 10" to the stinky fish and revealed it passing the poison test like an elite. This scored 'This is mine' and completed a good turn for Elite. Even better his placement next to Gas Lady would stop her from shooting unless she stripped Audacity from somebody else.

Fireworks, still amazingly intact dropped a suspect for explosive teeth but then rolled a 1 so feared it would not score.

However for no really good reason Hi vis moved up into contact with Fireworks and the teeth followed and thus scored. This was a cheap giveaway by Penguin in an attempt to set up an outnumbering situation for 'Everyone has a price' which requires an outnumbering attack.

Unable to shoot due to Elite standing on her toes and without Audacity or inspiration Gas lady just moved

Loosey keen to score the outnumbered card 'everyone has their price' shot Fireworks for enough to kill him and score the card and even better luckily Fireworks did not go 'Boom!' even though this would have been ideal from Joker's point of view. with cunning aforethought Loosey then burned a 'Territory fight' to make a marker within 4" into a no effort zone with a view to stopping Harley who was in this zone more attackable.

It would not be Gun Thug attacking Harley next turn however as Pandaman blew him away with asecond great snipe.

Toxic seeing the opportunity to KO Harley moved, activated 'Electrical storm' for 2 stun and then casually did another 6 stun to absolutely ensure the KO. The inability to effort hamstrung Harley's defence and she would have gone down without the 'Electrical storm' but style points count!

Things were looking up for Penguin but then they looked down. A misplacement earlier in the turn was now spotted which revealed Penguin had part of his base in the light from the streetlamp behind the red kiosk. Joker immediately whipped out his gun and shot him with only one die for 3 blood before moving nearer Katanas and saying 'Kill them' to give Katanas 2 extra attacks on activation.

With only Katanas left to activate he moved into base contact with Penguin and used 'Feint' successfully as Penguin failed to stop it. Finally with Penguin unable to effort due to 'Feint' Katanas efforted three times and despite Joker using a sideboard card for an extra defence die and the use of 'Protective' from his Umbrella Katanas inflicted 8 blood using his 'Sharp' blades. This was enough to slice and dice Penguin. Frankly this was disastrous for Penguin and might well be the moment when his crew were relegated as the effect on inspiration and lost business counters was huge. Additionally at this point the sideboard cards were lost though I was yet to realise.

Turn 2 ended with Smuggled goods scoring 3 for Penguin. Business counters were now Zero and the sideboard of cards usable only when Penguin lived was also gone. To make matters worse Harley immediately awoke rolling double one! Although in some measure of compensation Hypno also rolled double one and awoke. The scores were Joker 12 Penguin 17.

Turn 3 Penguin has initiative. 'Smuggled goods' is again in play for Penguin whilst a second 'Ace Chemicals' and 'Lets Dance are in play for Joker. '

Lets Dance' will inevitably score as Penguin has to put down Harley again immediately or it's game over. Loose lips is now the boss but the 4" inspire range is going to hurt.

Toxic chose violence as his first action and again sent Harley back to sleep and scoring 'Lets Dance'. Toxic then put another 'Get it fast'into play which luckily would score in 3 as there was now only one business token (gained from 'Lets dance'). He was able to drop this suspect using the inspiration from Loosey. He then moved and 'electric stormed' over GasLady

Gas Lady had one job this turn to roll the Ace Chemicals barrel into an enemy and she achieved it. Scoring a handy 2 and adding a ssecond business counter to Penguin's crew.

In a similar vein Elite was all about the scoring moving the Smuggled goods token and then moving into contact with Harley. He could have attacked her but did not. This was because as 'Everyone has their price' was in hand and waiting was better.

Fresh from slaughtering Penguin Katanas charged into Loosey but surprisingly only did 4 actual blood 2 stun so Loosey remained sort of alive! Katanas was still carrying 2 stun from his efforts v Penguin so did not effort.. He then used his Joker inspo to drop a suspect and score 'In on the joke' (Business counters up to 3!)

Feeling that his time was running out Loosey ran over to Harley and stabbed her with a very 'Sharp' knife allowing misses to be rerolled and essentially killed her. This was ungentlemanly and wholly uncalled for but he did not want her awake again. Simply by waking Harley had used Toxic's and Looseys activations without doing anything. She was essentially the Austro Hungarian navy in WW1 - a threat which absorbed resources without doing anything! Loosey did score 'Everyone has a price' by killing her while she was outnumbered.

This was quickly matched by Joker though who moved up, revealed a suspect and scored 'It's been a gas' popping the enervating 2 down on Dynamite who would not be bothered. In fact Dynamite was so unbothered he was entirely forgotten by all this turn and failed to activate! As a final act Joker put 'Kill them' on Katanas.

Hi vis moved and used a business counter to drop asuspect and play 'Get it fast' which after adjustment was only 1 activation so a definite score.

That left Pandaman who eagle eyed had spotted another misplacement by Penguins crew which left Elite just in the light of a streetlamp. Kapow! Elite was dead in one shot. Pandaman leaned back and lit a cigar!

Hypno now attempted to Hypnotise Gas Lady to help score a card which I cant remember as after moving close enough Gas Lady refused the offer of Hypnosis and Hypnos moment was gone. Sad disappointment.

This ended the turn but Get it fast and Smuggled goods both scored. Penguin was back up to 5 business counters and Harley was not waking up from being dead. Despite losses Penguin was now leading 24 to 20 going into the last turn but only had four guys left whereas Joker had five.

End of Turn 3

Turn 4 - 'Psychopaths' was in play and Dynamite was still in the corner with 'Valuable commodities' Joker once again had initiative.

Everyone who needed it had Audacity. Pandaman was just relaxing.

Things were happening fast now and some photos were missed!

Filled with Bloodlust Katanas went in for the kill on Loosey to put a marker on Psychopaths. With the 'Kill them' from Joker he was loaded with dice and 'Sharp' and frankly should have killed Loosey without breaking sweat and did not effort but thanks to some poor dice on his part and 4 solid saves by Loosey he did not. This was very disappointing for Joker ameliorated a little by revealing the suspect he was stood on and scoring another'It's been a gas' with Pandaman who was just chilling now getting the enervating 2!

Loosey showing great presnce of mind dropped a suspect and played 'Profitable negotiations' choosing 'youre expendable' in the knowledge that Penguins crew were not going to kill anybody this turn so would 'definitely' score especially as it was going off in one turn. He remained in contact with Katanas as well.

Dramas now. Joker moved away 7" from Katanas and dropped a suspect which then became an explosive template for 'Let them do their thing' He then rolled 9" which dropped it over Katanas scoring 'Let them in on the Joke' but not killing him as Joker had confused it with explosive teeth and thought it was two blood! Aaargh. Profitable negotiations now scored and it seemed Psychopaths would not!

Read the words Joker, read the Words!

Hi vis moved and revealed an early Joker suspect to score 'This is Mine' however this was quickly negated by Dynamite reentering the game and dropping a suspect within 4" of Hi Vis for a quick 'Let them in on the joke' Business counters were now maxed out again but with everyone with Audacity they were less useful now and with no sideboard even less use.

Hypno - whose overall contribution had been negligible - attaempted to Hypnotise gas Lady again but once again she was not having it and his cunning hypnotism based scoring plan was foiled again. He dropped a suspect to foil Psychopaths but then wandered off feeling useless Instead Gas Lady shot her poison gas weapon at Loosey and both killed and poisoned him. This revealed a question of timing around the card 'seasoning the mix' which scores if a model is killed or KO'd whilst having the poison condition. However clearly he was now dead and would not roll against poison until the end phase for effect so the card did not score. However It did add respectability to Psychopaths

To end the turn Toxic just did a quick reveal to score a final 'Its mine' and the game was over. Psychpaths did not score but Valauble commodities did.

Final score 32 to 28 in favour of Penguin and an unexpected victory considering not just the scale of the losses but the fact that both Penguin and Deadshot were lost early game. Three misplacements cost them, placing Deadshot within Borgon range and leaving Penguin and Elite in the light probably cost Penguin a decent victory. Penguin did not use the business counters and sideboard efficently and with his loss the sideboard disappeared at the point it would have been useful.

Joker scored solidly as usual but was left rueing the confusion around explosive teeth and the explosive template of 'let them do their thing as this was a 3 point swing. Not enough to win but might cost second place in the table now they have played all 3 games and could lead to relegation if Penguin scores 27 in his final game and does not lose.

Going into the final game between Penguin and GCPD/Batman Riddler tops the table after three draws and a points total of 83

Joker also has 3 draws but 79 points so lies in second

GCPD has 2 draws but a healthy 64 points so a draw and 20 points would see them top the table and play the second place team from Pool B A drawer with 16 points sees them play the winner of Pool B. A loss would relegate them. High stakes.

Penguin has two draws and 52 points. A loss would relegate them and a draw with a score of less than 26 would do the same. In short Penguin needs either a win or a drawer with a score of 32 to advance to the semi final against the winner of Pool B.

Final game Penguin v GCPD/Batman