My pre-ordered rulebook landed with me early last week and so did one of the coolest minis I’ve yet seen from Knight Models, the Joker Red Hood inspired by one of the most famous Batman comics; The Killing Joke…

The model is fantastic, like everything I’ve had from Knight Models so far. Fantastic detailing and the perfect pose for the character. Really happy I pre-ordered to get him. The model comes with his own card, which is a replication of the standard Arkham City Joker just with the picture changed. I would have liked him to have had his own rules or even just a few minor differences to make him unique, but what can you do.

Whilst i can’t comment on the rules content of the rulebook yet, I can say this is one of the nicest rulebooks I have had the pleasure of reading. It feels content rich without being overloaded and makes amazing use of the plethora of Batman artwork already out there. It’s split into a few different sections, which I’ll show some examples of…

The rules are the first thing in there, it is a rulebook after all. I’ve had a brief read through to start to get familiar with them and it’s all looking great so far. They are laid out in a good way, and I found it easy to follow and grasp a basic understanding of how things play. The rules are split into two; the basics and the advanced rules. It’s something done in a lt of rulebooks and it’s very welcome. It’s a much easier way of getting to grips with any game.

Her’s a couple of good examples of the artwork within the book…

Following on from the rules is the scenarios…

There’s six in the book in total, each giving a good variety of objectives and set ups which should keep the game fresh for a while. Also like any other game there is a good scope for expansion with official and fan made missions, especially with the wealth of stories behind something like Batman for some more thematic games.

Following on from this is a gallery. This shows all of the miniatures currently available for the range (other than the most recent releases). It all looks very slick and I especially like the group shots with a themed background.

A large chunk of the back of the book is given up to explore the background of Batman, his allies and his rogues gallery. Whilst a lot will be very familiar to Batman fans like myself, it’s good to have for an interesting read and for those less familiar with the full scope of the 75 years of Batman lore.

Last but not least is a couple of pages of reference. This is a must for games in my opinion and if a book doesn’t have it I’d be very disappointed.

So, as you can see, it looks great and reads great. This is a definite win for Knight Models and the Batman Miniature game in general