After my posts about Free Fantasy Skirmish rules and my recently acquired Batman miniatures it makes sense to mention the ruleset for the Batman Miniatures Game, which are free. Having said that, with the latest version of the rules available in print any day now, who knows how long the free rules will be available online… so don't dally.
Download Free Batman Miniatures Game rules here…27Mb PDF
Anyone who has read my posts about wargame rulebook design will know how I feel about legibility and ease of navigation when it comes to reading such things. Alas, this free incarnation of the rules makes it quite difficult to get through due to image overload – all that Batman art is awesome, just not as a background behind the text. The earlier incarnation of the English rules in 2012/13 were so bad and in such poorly translated English that it put me off the game completely.
In fact it wasn't until last year (thanks to the continued quality miniature releases) that I decided to take another look. I'm glad I did as things had improved greatly, not least there was a solid community forming online. Finally there are other resources to scour when you have questions.
As for the rules themselves, there are several key elements that have really piqued my interest…Tokens go into a bag at the beginning of the game and each turn someone draws one out. The player whose token is revealed gets to go first that turn and 'draws a plan'. This involves distributing tokens, equal to individual's Willpower, on each of their miniatures' cards – e.g. 3 move tokens and two attack tokens for miniature one, four attack tokens and a special for miniature two, etc. – thus mapping out what they plan to do with his miniatures that turn. Player two then does the same (now knowing vaguely what player one intends to do).
I also liked the idea of rolling an additional (different coloured) collateral damage dice when rolling to wound. If its score matches the dice roll of any of the attacking dice you have inflicted a knockdown in addition to any damage.
For a more visual explanation of how the game plays out, check out the Flashback Generations video…
If/when I purchase the print version of the latest rules I will do a bit of a review for sure. In the meantime it's certainly worth downloading these free rules whilst they are still available and having a flick through, regardless of whether you intend to play or not.