Thoughts: Tournaments & the Batman Miniatures Game

This is something a little different for my blog as rather than discussing or showcasing my painting I’ll be giving my impressions on tournament miniature gaming in a general. A warning upfront that I’m going to be somewhat critical here, as I admit to being rather disappointed by the Batman tournament I had spent so much time and energy preparing for over summer.

First off, I should clarify that I felt the tournament was exceptionally well run. Animosity Wargaming did a superb job of setting things up. The tables looked fantastic and were extremely thematic!

Above is a “Gotham Zoo” table that I had my first game on.

Here is me posing with a magnificent “Ace Chemicals” table that I had my last game on.

On top of this Animosity managed to have the tournament hosted in the house used for the exterior of Bruce Wayne manor in the Christopher Nolan films!

Ball so hard.

The prize support was excellent, as was the general attitude and tone of the judges and everyone involved in the tournament organizations. All of the participants I dealt with were very nice people and my games felt relaxed throughout. I managed to come out firmly in the middle of about two dozen participants, which I’m quite pleased with considering how new I am to the game.

However I did come to the realization that I am just not someone who is hardwired to enjoy large group play like this regardless of the system or setting. This particular tournament was three games of two hours over the course of a nine-hour day, and I admit to feeling exhausted and ready to leave after my first game.

Regardless of how brilliantly a tournament is run or how great the system is, it seems like I always end up too hungry, tired, and uncomfortable to enjoy my time playing after a few hours. When I was at the tournament I recall comparing it to outdoor music festivals. While a great band I love might be playing, when I’m actually there in the moment all I can think about is the excessive crowds and how tired I am.

Osheaga 2013, which I attended.

This is obviously a matter of personal preference, but from now on I’m planning to focus on gaming only in comfortable casual settings. I think this also reflects my concern with narrative gaming, as I get a lot of enjoyment from situating my army and games within larger structures of meaning and fluff. While everyone I played at the tournament was really pleasant and relaxed, in a ranked setting there is always that competitive incentive that looms over everything. This applies to me as well, I get concerned about bringing competitive lists and a competitive attitudes to a tournament, neither of which are a natural focus for me.

So as it stands I see myself taking an extended break from single-day miniatures tournaments. However it has made me realize that ongoing campaigns might be a great fit for me, and I recall enjoying an infinity one that I was part of in 2014 a lot, so I’ll be looking for more of those!

Another point to make about this tournament specifically is that I felt the BMG ruleset did hold things back rather significantly. It is not a particularly intuitive game to play, with both play and setup being rather unwieldy and slow. The phrasing of rules is also very unclear. One big example that stands out to me is that in my first game I realized I’d been playing the rules for the “running” movement incorrectly for the past two months despite reading the rulebook twice that summer. The movement potential of each unit was nowhere near as fast as I’d thought, which was a huge adjustment to make very quickly.

This was due to a lack of clarity within page 28 of the rulebook which states:

• “Roll a die for each movement counter you spend in this way, and then add up the results: this total number (in centimeters) should be added to the character’s basic movement distance for the turn.”
• The rules for running then state: “A character may double their basic movement distance by spending 1 movement counter and 1 special counter”.

Thus I assumed the additional movement was also doubled as its part of the basic movement. But apparently this is not the case and the game designer has confirmed running only doubles your unmodified “basic movement”.

Bane was still pretty fast, but not the absolute hot-rod I thought he was.

This level of vagueness should not be happening with such a basic rules interaction. Things like this came up constantly, and I did not have a single game in which both players did not learn something new about the core ruleset despite the game being out for nearly two years.

I often voice my dislike for the culture of negativity that exists within miniature wargaming, and the entitled nature of some players. We’re all ultimately doing this in order to enjoy ourselves and I hate seeing people get so worked up about something that is ultimately designed to be a casual, fun, and enjoyable hobby. However I cannot help but feel that the BMG ruleset impeded my enjoyment of the tournament. While I absolutely want the game to succeed, and will still recommend it to people, it is a less-than-ideal system.

While BMG has the potential for extremely cinematic in-game moments, the majority of gameplay just feels too clunky to really make things run smoothly. A skirmish game should not be so mechanically bulky. It reminds me of what I’d heard about Malifaux before their updated ruleset, that there were just too many little things to remember that get in the way and slow down the game exponentially.

Accordingly I still feel Infinity is the gold standard for skirmish rulesets, being extremely quick, cinematic, and realistic while still allowing for a lot of nuance as you introduce more equipment and tech. The fact that my friend and I have had zero desire to play any BMG since the tournament last September is pretty compelling evidence that there are better systems out there.

Rant over! Thanks for reading and letting me get that off my chest.

-Tom