Nana Nana Nana Nana Nana Nana Nana Nana Batman!!

Planning is part of a success, but it is also fun to be spontaneous! So, while the kids were doing their chores, we get a text from an unexpected source. The unexpected source was going to give us a surprise visit. So that usually means a great time will follow, and it did! It was decided that we didn't want to play Warhammer Underworlds or something common like Poker. We decided on Batman: Gotham City Chronicles.

If you are a Batman fan or unfamiliar with this game, I'll give you a brief summary. The game is a board game with highly detailed miniatures usually involving a mission with the good guys against the bad guys. The game mechanics involve dice and resource management, both of which you have to consider carefully for each turn. And it is fun to play, especially with a group (We have had both teenage boys/girls and grown women/men enjoy the game)! Whatever happens, don't let the bad/good guys win!!

This game was created by Monolith (a company I fell in love with on their first collaborated Kickstarter Mythic Battles: Pantheon with Mythic). I have a special love of Greek myths and heroes. You can see what I mean below:

So in the game I played Batman, along with my husband playing Robin, and my son playing the Detective Bullock. We had to play a mission against our daughter, where we needed to keep Joker, Harley Quinn, and their thugs from dropping a victim into a large vat of simmering green radioactive material!!

In order to stop them, we needed to confiscate 3 of 4 computers. THEN, we had to keep the bad guys away from information consoles to keep them from resuming their dastardly deed!! And it all needed to be done before the end of the 7th round. It was a tall order, but we tried our best!

The dice rolling was not on our side though...

Lots of blanks lead to a rough start for both sides.

Despite our bad rolls as the good guys, we did manage to get rid of two computers. Batman below (my character) sacrificed himself for the 2nd computer and then got trapped by Harley and the gang. She says, "Heeeey Baaaatsy.....I know you're in there Batman. I can wait all day!"

There is a special rule called Menace that applies to us from the bad guys. It means, a menacing, scary, tough looking dude makes it hard to do things by 1. So where we only needed a 6 to take the 3rd computer offline, we instead needed a 7. Needless to say...we were unsuccessful.

Alas, the bad guys won... But we managed to at least knock quite a few of them out of the game! As a note, 2 more guys were knocked out, but due to a special play the bad guys can use called "Reinforcements", they were able to put those 2 guys back into the game.

To see how the scenario plays out, I have included the scenario pages. The game is really a lot of fun to play and easier, than it looks. It also comes in multiple languages, with the common denominator being that the symbols are universal. Basically, to understand the special rules, you need to learn to understand the symbols. When you remember the symbols, the rest falls easily into place.



I have also included some shots of the game consoles that we each used to determine our good guy/bad guy abilities.

The bad guy board carries all the characters that they need for the game, so it looks a little different then the good guy boards. However it houses the same information, just in a more efficient way.

Bad Guy Board.

So do you think the family had a good time?

(Hint: I think so, judging from the smiles)

What are some of your favorite family games to play? Have you played Batman Gotham City Chronicles? What did you think of the game?