Riddler v Joker - Gotham Invitational game 4
- johnjsalango1
- Sep 19, 2025
- 12 min read
Having survived encounters with Penguin and GCPD the Riddler crew faced what I believed would be their toughest challenge against Joker. This was based on the three things, firstly that Quelle's ability to really screw around with audacity would be severely compromised by Trickster which essentially means that Joker's henchmen in the crew ignore the initial placement of audacity and can flip it around amongst themselves. Apart from Harley Quelle had no target for her Disarray. Secondly Joker's crew has many ways to score their cards and does not rely on just popping down markers. Finally Joker's crew are really quite killy with good kill output from Borgon, Katana guy and Pandaman. Even Joker can do serious damage if he shoots before moving. All in all I felt Riddler would need a lot of luck not to go down hard here.
The crews remain the same as in previous appearances with Pandaman having the extra magazine and gas lady having clown make up for 'distract' should she be able to use it. I am hoping she makes it past turn one this game.
Starting cards looked good for Riddler except for 'Showtime' which is impossible to score on turn one but two damage suspects and a sneaky 'Stinky fish' can all be easily played and possibly scored.
Riddler was once again dealt a lucky hand. Riddles everywhere would allow all the riddle markers to get into play, 'Psycho riddle' could then auto score as a ? card on any enemy manipulate, Joker could easily throw down suspects for activate' and 'riddles of the night' would be a certain phase IV score. Maybe Riddler might have a chance after all?
Turn One deployment - no phase I or II cards played. Joker has initiative
As can be seen in the pic above Riddler did not fail to remember 'Level up' and banged down his opening suspects at either end of the table. Joker looking at the layout of the sewers realised the 'stinky fish 'could score easily on his right flank and popped Gas Lady out to drop it. It wasnt impossible for Riddler to stop it if Echo grappled over but seemed unlikely.
Knuckles then moved through the sewer and moved again to be a sort of bait for Borgon to bring him closer. Essentially Borgon can kill something every turn and it is better to have him killing stuff where you prefer than where he prefers. Having said this it would have been bettar to put Knuckles into the Joker deployment zone later in the turn as bait. However he did put the ? card 'Psycho riddles' into play
Dynamite who has previously been used as a throwaway suicide bomber has been upgraded in my mind as he has some decent damage output as well. Here hehad inspiration and audacity so banged through the sewer and came out next to Sickles who he then striaght up killed. He then moved just a bit to maximise his explosive threat should he be attacked. Dynamite also played a 'poisonong Gotham'
Riddler then did a decent Riddler activation, moving, using the 'Riddles everywhere' resource to put down 3 Ridddle markers, putting down a couple of suspects and then 'Goading' Dynamite out of his explosion range. All in all a clever set of moves. The spending of a resoutce will also make it easier to replace Riddle markers later in turn if needed using Finn.
Katanas moved and put a suspect down within 4" of a sewer increasing the chance of 'poisoning Gotham' scoring however it also then scored 'Psycho riddle' and removed a riddle marker. If 'poisoning' scores this is a decent trade as it is harder to replace a Riddle marker than it appears and will allow freer suspect placement. The suspect became teeth as 'Bite the dust' was played.
Bat Guy (above) then activated and both burned a 'riddles of the world' to get the second resource out and put one up as a ? card. He then moved, dropped a suspect and played 'activate the riddle' for an easy score..
In the previous outing for Riddler Fireworks had a very short but eventful game and the hope was he would last longer here. As the saying goes 'its the hope that kills you'.... First he moved and dropped a suspect within 4" of a sewer scoring 'Poisoning Gotham'. The suspect became explosive due to the play of 'Let them do thir thing' and bounced 11" back over but just touching Borgon who took limited damage and scoring. This allowed 'Riddles of the world to score' and removed another Riddle marker in short order. However Katanas explosive teeth suspect had now made its way over to cover Fireworks and exploded after the next activation doing minimal damge. The minimal was however enough to cause an explosion roll for Fireworks and once again he went boom causing three blood to Katanas! He is literally a .walking liability. On the bright side he scored a little one point 'Expendable'
Bagman it was who caused the teeth to cover Fireworks by moving and dropping a suspect. Lastly he used 'riddles of the night' as a resource to pop back a Riddle marker. At this point Joker moved a little to keep a good inspiration range but did little else as far as I remember
Finn then moved, dropped a riddle towards phase IV and also used his special action to 'drop a riddle' boosting the screen back to 3. I have not played a game in which riddle markers were up and down so much.
Borgon the mindless monster moved directly into contact with Knuckles for his free attack. Knuckles efforted once but Borgon's rolls were so bad only the strength die got through doing a mere 2. Knuckles could not believe his luck. And he was right not to do so as with his actual attack Borgon chopped him into small pieces. Knuckles the bait was dead.
However the trap did work in a sense as Query now opened up and did a couple of blood on Borgon but more importantly was able to spread onto Katanas with another couple of blood - just enough when added to the damage from Firework's demise to kill him. This was a fair exchange against Knuckles
Pandaman decided to use his extra ammo against Finn as his gun is really useful even after losing dice and put 4 blood and a couple of stun on Finn.
Unable to use disarray Quelle decided that discretion was the better part of valour and moved to be a t least 9" away from Borgon to negate 'mindless monster' and put down a suspect. Trickster has negated Quelle's main value.
Harley leapt into action crossing the distance to Bagman and knocking him into next week, then using inspo from Riddler did some suspect shenanigans scoring 'Let them in on the Joke' but in turn allowing the scoring of 'riddles of the world' a ? card for Riddler but again removing a Riddle marker
As the last action of the turn Echo moved into contact with Harley and inflicted 3 stun after both efforted for one. She dropped a suspect using Inspo from Riddler and then revealed Harley's suspect using her free reveal action. As a bonus she remembered to put another? card into play 'Psycho riddles'
At the end of the turn 'both Stinky fish' and 'Riddles of the Night' scored leving Joker on 11 and Riddler on 10. Bagman as expected decided unconsciousness was better than the nastiest happenings in the awake world.
Turn 2 Riddler won initiative and played Showtime and Psychopaths into play as well as an Ace chemicals marker. Riddler still had 'psycho riddles' in play. Showtime reeled in 5 suspects and was guaranteed to score as long as Joker remained alive
Finn kicked off the activations using 'riddle me this' as a resource to move the Ace Chemicals marker diminishing it's potential scoring and getting a resource in play (though pointlessly as nobody else was able to drop a riddle this turn), moved over to Harley and literally knocked her into an alternate universe after efforting twice and rolling high whereas Harley just whiffed bad. Continuing his movement to get away from Borgon's death reach until he finally put down a suspect. Again Joker played a cheeky little 'expendable' for one point.
Borgon went for Echo which turned out to be a poor choice as her defensive tech and his poor rolls left her untouched apart from her defensive efforts. That was unexpected.
Quelle now mistakenly took Query's audacity as Quelle is strangely trickster and can do this. It was a mistake however as she did not have a great deal to do as she merely moved, put down a suspect, burned a resource and sucessfully demotivated borgon causing enervating 2 which might help - or might not. It would have been better to let Query keep it and use Persuasive.
Pandaman now with a clear shot at Finn took the shot and killed Finn dead as a doornail. This was a blow as now only Batguy had the drop a riddle ability and he was unlikely to get Audacity.
However suspecting Dynamite might do choppy chop on him Bat guy activated next and moved, dropped a suspect and played 'activate the riddle' for points. In retrospect Batguy could have dropped a riddle at this point as his action instead of moving and left 'activate the riddle' to another character.
Once again Joker did little having guarded the suspects from Showtime which scored. simply moving a tad more efficiently for inspiring his team. This released an audacity for somebody.
Echo toddled over to Dynamite and KO'd him comfortably and put 'riddles of nowhere in play. She was protecting the nearby suspect with her innate ability but her KO of Dynamite - who did not explode- also guaranteed 'Psychopaths' would score.
With Riddles of nowhere in play Gas lady had to remove a suspect to stop it scoring. This would inevitably score the ? card but again would leave Riddler short on Riddle markers, especially if Pandaman could use his final shot on Bat guy to stop him dropping a riddle as he was the last source of the skill. Gas lady doing a million percent better than game 1.
Query fired her LMG again putting 2 on Borgon and 3 on the unconscious Harley. Then in a brazen act of ignoring the rules jumped off the building in the belief she still had Audacity!
In an unecessary show of violence Riddler goaded Borgon to move 4" which might be useful and then walked over to the unconscious Dynamite and stabbed him for lots of damage killing him dead.
Turn 2 ended looking good for Riddler. Harley and Bag man remained KO and Borgon was taking damage. In phase IV Riddle box hero scored as it always does and 'Psycchopaths also scored easily due to the mayhem of the round. Scores 17 to 16 in Joker's favour.
Turn 3 start 'Let's Dance' and 'Ace Chems' in play for Joker, 'Riddles on the storm' for Riddler. Riddler won initiative.
Turn 3 Audacity, Joker not bothering to put them on as everyone in Joker's crew had it.
Dramas from the start as Quelle activated and shot her precise gun into Borgon inflicting 6 blood after needing Handy and accurate. Huzzah enough to kill the mindless monster! But no Borgon can discard one damage leaving him on 9 blood, just alive! Seeing this Quelle again moved out of Borgon range and played 'activate the riddle'
Borgon could now have gone before somebody finished him off but instead Pandaman decided to try and take out Bat guy so as to stop any Riddle dropping and allow easier scoring. He aimed and fired killing Bat guy outright with 6 blood. Then weirdly jumped off the building taking 2 damage in the hope of being useful next turn should he live.
Query decided to exit the Borgon zone as she could only do unarmed stun damage now, she dropped a suspect and finally was able to do Persuasive on Joker which ended badly as it turned out. Might have been better just doing Borgon.
Persuaded that it was his turn Joker actually did stuff this round. First he demotivated Echo lowering her defence then shot her with his really useful gun. 6 blood put Echo down as she had too many stun to Acrobat. Dead dead dead. This was a real blow as in two activations Riddler lost two unactivated minis and Echo was a key player.
Out of activations Riddler Goaded the Gas Lady out of position and put down a couple of suspects but was scoring poorly. Out of desperation he put 'riddles of nowhere' into play which would be easily countered by Gas Lady if she removed one of the available suspects in range.
However she did not choosing instead to play a 'stinky fish' just outside Riddle marker range. This way she would gain two points without removing the riddle marker but thinking on it would have been better to save it and just remove the last riddle marker. As a result 'Riddles of nowhere scored'.
Borgon dripping blood had nobody in his kill zone and without the ability to do anything but kill just moved towards Quelle.
At the end of the turn none of the phase I cards scored but Joker's 'stinky fish' and a phase IV 'riddle me softly' scored for Riddler. Scores remained close with Riddler just going into the lead with 20 to 19. Crucially Harley now awoke but Bagman remained in the land of Nod. This was quite a turn around in terms of personnel as Joker now had the advantage going into the final round and only one point behind. Everyone has Audacity going into the final round.
Turn 4 No phase I cards but a ? card 'Diversion tactics' was still hanging around
Query now showed her value as she was able to move and drop a suspect out of reveal range and then used her Persuasive skill to ensure Pandaman was the next to go instead of Borgon who could have taken down Quelle.
Instead Pandaman limped to the sewer, used an inspo from Joker and tunneled to the other side of the board popping up to play 'explosive teeth' in the hope of a score and removing the last riddle marker (and scoring diversion tactics as a ? card). This was a desperation move to be honest and might not pay off as he rolled 6 on the timer and there would not be 6 more activations...
Quelle now did the decent thing and finished off Borgon putting the another 'Riddles of nowhere' into play as the layout of the dice meant it could not be stopped. 'Riddles of nowhere' seems to come around frequently as there are four in the deck and mostly it does not score early doors as it is easy to stop but recycled to the last round it can and does become good.
In the embers of the game Joker moved and played a final stinky fish' far enough away from everyone who might deny it. He could have shot at quelle but that was pointless at this time. 'Riddles of nowhere then scored as no suspect had been revealed.
Riddler played a card to pop out a couple of riddle markers with little hope they would be of value but had nothing else to do as all suspects were already out so ambled over to attack Harley but with no success. Yet another 'Riddles of nowhere' went into play!
Gas Lady then did a clever thing using the resource on 'let them in on the joke' to lower the number on Pandaman's explosive teeth by two and then moving into position into a sort of a line in anticpation of Harley's move. This did the trick and the explosive teeth did in fact move and explode over Joker scoring an unlikely two points! 'Riddles of nowhere' also scored again.
The final move fell to Harley who had luckily survived Riddler's feeble attack. In a proper desperation move she found a space she could reach just outside Riddle marker range and dropped a suspect which became 'Let them do their thing'. She now needed to roll 2d6 and get between 4 and 7 for this to land the explosive template on a target to score. Decent odds. She rolled a 4 and landed it on Quelle so scoring the card!
In phase IV stinky fish and a 'riddles of the night' scored leaving the scores at Riddler 28, Joker 25. Another super close draw.! This game hung by a thread until the final three activations. Had Riddler managed to kill Harley and had the Gas Lady not reduced the timer on the teeth then Riddler would have had a comfortable win.
This was a really swingy game which at different points looked in the bag for both sides. Several lessons learned here. Firstly Query is more than a gun and if she gets audacity can really muck up the opposition plans with Persuasive. Riddler did much better getting the Riddle markers out than previously and I need to remember that if the drop a riddle guys are in postion turn 2 they literally have no other job than drop a riddle. Pandaman can shoot reasonably into the dark and very well into the light and might as well shoot turn one. Had Finn remembered he had a grapple gun he might have taken him out turn two but forgot!
Riddler has finished his games for now and has 3 draws but has scored quite well in each. I suspect he wont get first place but might get second depending on how the last two games pan out.
Next up Joker v Penguin
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