It's hard to believe that 2017 marks the 5th Anniversary of the Batman Miniature Game, especially since the first expansion was only released last year. The expansion book has something for experienced and new players alike, so we thought we'd put together a short review!
There are two very large additions to the game in the Flash and the Arrow expansion book. The first is a new game phase for the "Speed Force" which occurs when one of the players has a character with the Speedster special rule in their crew. Speedsters have an additional resource for their speed powers. There's a table of speed powers, and many of the speedsters have special power that only they can use. The downside to using the speed powers is the possibility of causing a Paradox to occur, which can have wide ranging repercussions.
Sadly there are only five models that make use of the Speed Force rules (six if you include the exclusive Black Flash that came with pre-orders of the expansion book). On the upside speedsters feel thematic with only a minimum of extra complexity.
The other main addition to the book is focused on "Teams" which are a new way to build your crew. There are rules and character lists for building four different teams: Teen Titans, Birds of Prey, Secret Six, and the notorious Suicide Squad.
Teams are a fun way to build a crew wherein you take all heroes or villains and forego the addition of henchmen. Each team has some benefits and drawbacks. New characters are being released regularly to expand the rosters of the available teams. Another great thing about teams is that it allows players to collect figures from different crews, expanding the versatility of your collection.
One downside to the book are the sections for "Vehicles" and "Legends." These pages really feel like a premature inclusion. There is only one model available in the very exclusive and quite highly-priced AK Batmobile resin kit, which is both a Vehicle AND a Legend model. Additionally, this model is only available directly from Knight Models. Including these rules for a model that very few players have access to seems a waste.
Of course there are lots of new powers in the book, as well as expanded equipment lists, crew and team-specific strategies, and ten new scenarios. The extra scenarios alone will expand your games substantially.
