The impact a map can have on a game is often overlooked. A good strategy incorporates a tactically-sound map choice. But when it comes to locale, sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees. We're here to help you make smart decisions when it comes to HeroClix real estate.

Official Title: Gotham Museum
Environment: Indoor
Map on Reverse: Gotham Waterfront
Dimensions: 24" x 36" (16x24 squares)
Set: Batman: The Animated Series
Status: Modern

(+5 points) HEIST
BONUS: At the beginning of the game, generate a special light object with Indestructible name "Cat's Eye Diamonds" in the orange square. It can't be used in object attacks. While it's held, the holder has "FREE: If this character occupies a starting area, KO this object and modify either speed or attack +1 this game. If the character given this action is named Catwoman, modify the chosen value by +2 instead."

When it's KO'd in this way, generate this object again in the orange square.

CONSOLATION: Friendly characters that can use Stealth can use Super Senses when occupying hindering terrain, but only succeed on a 6.

So, we have another Batman the Animated Series map. This time around, we're going to be looking at the maps from the OP Kit, specifically Gotham Museum.

Additionally, this won't be the typical reviews, because Batman: TAS ALSO added a new mechanic through maps specifically called Locations. Location is the ability to pay extra points during Force Construction for special abilities granted on a specific map. If your game winds up on that map you can have the Location bonuses for, then you get those bonuses. If you get the chance to pick a map, and you don't choose the map you have Location bonuses for, you don't get the bonuses at all. If your opponent chooses the map, and doesn't choose the map you get the bonuses for, you get something called a Consolation Bonus, which is a debatably smaller bonus you get instead. I'll go in to more detail about Location bonuses in it's own special section on these articles, but the rest of the review is going to be talking about the map as if it was a plain vanilla map with no additional costs, because you have the option to play the map either way, and while I definitively want to talk about the map as an added part of your build total, I want to also address it in a traditional role.

Making Yourself At Home:



Gotham Museum is an Indoor map with a lot of Blocking, most of it in the form of walls. This makes it a great equalizer for Flying teams, because there's a lot less terrain for them to ignore. In fact, the only terrain that they can ignore on the map is the Hindering, which is plentiful, but generally pushed to corners and against walls with clear paths throughout to make it about as easy for Grounded teams to get around. Another thing to note is that they also gave us another instance of Obscuring Terrain, one of the new terrain types introduced in the rulebook an entire year ago! I've been complaining this whole time that they haven't really used the new terrain types since putting them in the rulebook, and then they go and do a bunch of stuff at once. Obscuring terrain is basically the inverse of Water terrain. It counts as Hindering terrain for lines of fire, but not for Movement. This is important too, because it again means that Grounded characters don't have any problem getting through it, though ranged teams might have trouble firing through it. Again, this leads back to an equalizer between Flying teams and Grounded ones. However, between the Obscuring terrain and the large amount of walls, this also makes ranged teams at a distinct disadvantage over closer range teams. Now, that's not to say there's no good places to make ranged attacks, just that with all the twists and turns it can be difficult to set up lines of fire more than a few squares away.


This will often place range teams well within Charge range, meaning that mobile close combat characters do very well here. Sidestep also works well, and characters who have both will have a lot of versatility. Hypersonic Speed can work really well here too with all of the rooms and antechambers for characters to hit and run too. And while Improved Movement: Hindering might not be required, Improved Movement: Blocking can grant a much larger edge to make sure you get that first hit in. Combine that with other Close Combat powers like Super Strength, Blades/Claws/Fangs, or even a well placed Quake, and you can inflict a lot of hurt on your opponents while barreling around corners. Another option, assuming your opponent can't shoot through Hindering, is obviously, Stealth, because it's very easy to find a hiding place on this map, both in the Hindering and the new, easier to navigate, Obscuring terrain.


Additionally, because a lot of this map tends to be closed in, this isn't a really great map for large teams, because it's very easy for those teams to kind of clutter up the narrow corridors of the map, and that means that tie-ups can do really well here to pin down enemies, and force them to engage you on your terms, especially around corners. I mentioned Sidestep before, but Plasticity can really work wonders to annoy opponents while the rest of your team sets up. Additionally, keep the tight spaces in mind if you are planning to use ranged based characters, and consider ranged characters who are either very good at flanking or can Ignore Characters for Targeting.


Because of all of the obstacles and little hiding rooms, this is actually a fairly good map at turtling, so if you have pog generators or characters that get more powerful over time, consider hiding in the back, setting up a few ambushes, and letting the terrain force your opponent come to you. In most character's cases, they'll likely set up on one side of the large central room assuming that you'll do the same, and when they realize you aren't coming, they'll have to either clear and then inch closer or move across the map and then clear later on. The former is preferable to them and more likely, but either way it's a good way to draw the game out while you charge up for a larger attack.

Stuck in a Lease

When choosing starting zones, there's a few things to consider. The Northern starting zone has a long room directly in front of it, which means that it's more difficult to place large teams there without sacrificing Movement getting around it. It also makes it more difficult to siege if you're planning on playing defensively, or if you just want to deny your opponent a little more defense when you suspect they'll try the same. The difference might seem subtle, but it can be more impactful than you might think. On a small aside, if your opponent paid the points to add the Cat's Eye Diamond to the map, it's about 2 squares more accessible for the Northern starting zone than the Southern one. Even if you're not planning on stealing the jewel for yourself, if they paid 5 points for it, they probably intend to steal it, and making that slightly harder is in your interest.


Just generally speaking the terrain makes this a poor map for long ranged teams, large teams, and also mutes a lot of the benefits from Flying teams. If you're relying on those kinds of things, you'll need to be extra careful about where you go and keep an eye out for ambushes. There's a few places where range teams will have a better chance, and there's even more places where you can shoot out walls to try and open up some room. This is less useful if your opponent is using a Stealth team unless you have a way to bypass that.

Vacation Spots

When it comes to casual play, this is a good map for slow games of cat and bat. All of the walls mean that larger groups will likely have to split up, and divide in to multiple areas, which creates a lot of smaller fights and an overall slower game. Even better is that since the map comes with a +5 bonus you can do some fun play with that, including even just having a fun Capture the Cat's Eye Diamond game. I'm sure there's a lot of other scenarios you can easily do, and the map is great for the options it provides.

It's Getting Kinda Crowded

When it comes to placing more than 2 players, even though two of the corners are literally Blocked off, it's still a good location with so many walls. One approach is to simply place the characters in or near the corners, allowing them to choose their opponents as they like. The other option is to place each player in their own individual rooms. This is a little more random, and the players near the Southern rooms might find themselves easily swarmed, but it's at least an interesting way to do things.

Location, Location, Location

Ok, so with the new Batman set, we've been introduced to maps that can be purchased for additional points as part of your build. This is important in the way we look at the maps because if you want a little extra "umph" from your map, you can incorporate a new ability in to your team design. It's not just a bonus if you play on the map too, because you get a "Consolation" if your opponent gets map choice and doesn't let you have this map. So, in this section, I'll be highlighting two things: How to make a team that takes the most advantage of the map bonus for this map, and how to make a team that intentionally gets the most advantage from your opponent denying you this map. A note about the latter, if your team looks like it's designed to take advantage of the Consolation your opponent might let you choose map just to avoid giving it to you, in which case you can choose to throw away the 5 points and just pick ANY map, so it's a good way to leverage your opponent in to letting you go first.


So, for this map, the +5 map bonus allows you to place a light object in the center, and then, if you can get that object back to your starting zone, you can choose to give the holder a +1 to either speed or attack (+2 if the holder is Catwoman) permanently. Then the object resets back to center, and you can do the whole thing over again. Now, you'll notice that there's no direct way for characters to get in to the center. There's Indoor Blocking terrain around the Cat's Eye Diamond that's you're going to have to walk around if you don't have Phasing/Teleport or something similar. Alternatively, you can shoot through the wall and take a quicker way in, but you'll want some Sidestep and/or the ability to Ignore Hindering for Movement. Out of all of the Batman: The Animated Series maps, this one is the most convoluted to get the bonus out of, but the payoff can be huge if your opponent makes the mistake of letting you steal the diamond a few times. That's not going to happen in a lot of cases, but for the sake of argument, let's talk about a few ways to craft the perfect heist.


First off, just to get her out of the way, watx Spiral is great here. She can open a Gateway directly to the Diamond from her starting zone, and then another character can teleport there directly, grab the diamond, and teleport back a turn later. This is the most straightforward way to get the diamond, and it's easy to repeat once you have it going, though there's a few problems. First is that once she opens the portal, it's another turn before your characters can go through it. The other issue is that characters can only use the free action to travel through the portal once per turn, so they're either going there or coming back over successive turns. Still, you can teleport over there and then walk back, or you can do this whole thing over a few turns with nothing but Free Actions after the setup, which means it doesn't hog the rest of your Actions as much.


Another idea is to use someone who can both Teleport AND hopefully get free move actions. I asked fellow writer, jaysol, and he suggested Astral Doctor Strange, who can move when a regular Strange does, and I really like aou031 Vision. If you Perplex his Movement up by 1, he can Teleport in to the room with the Diamond, grab it, and Teleport out again when a friendly Ultron moves the same turn, making it back to the starting zone and allowing himself or someone else to make the Free action to increase their stats. This is easy fodder for a Robot team to make sure you get the map choice. There's several other characters who can do something similar, so keep an eye out.


Lastly, jaysol tossed out a suggestion about wf Lex Luthor and Joker and ffjltw002 Owlman alongside the GCPD Additional Team Ability. GCPD is a useful ability that allows Gotham's Finest to move up to 4 squares as a free action. Owlman's Trait allows any GCPD to join him in a Gotham City Underworld theme, and Lex and Joker allow the Gotham City Underworld to all Carry each other via the Underworld TA. All this together with, say, hq013 GCPD Officers mean that they can each move 6 squares as free actions, AND Carry each other. Your first officer grabs a neighbor and moves with the TA 3 squares (-1 for the Passenger), then moves another 5 squares (-1 again) as a standard action, and 2 more squares for Sidestep, meaning that even taking the Southern starting zone, they've placed their partner close enough to nab the Cat's Eye Diamond and move back during Sidestep, and then use the GCPD ability to keep moving backwards where they can "daisy chain" the Diamond back to your starting zone with a bunch of free actions just as easy as robbing the Museum in Payday 2 (assuming no one tripped the alarm, which one teammate will inevitably do). Then you can hand the Diamond back to Lex and Joker or Catwoman as you please for bonuses in the very first turn. Even better is that in subsequent turns, your GCPD officers have an ability to call GCPD Officers across the map for even better positioning, and it might be possible to get even 2 Cat's Eye Diamonds in a single turn. For reference, try this:

FFBTAS105 Catwoman 50
WF059R Lex Luthor and Joker @ 75
FFJLTW002E Owlman @ 100
HQ013 GCPD Officer 30
HQ013 GCPD Officer 30
HQ013 GCPD Officer 30
HQ013 GCPD Officer 30
HQ013 GCPD Officer 30
GCPD ATA x 5 10
+5 Gotham Museum Map Bonus

390

This build has the option of powering up Catwoman very quickly towards getting a +3 to Movement AND Attack for an 11 Reach 14 Attack Catwoman with 3 Penetrating Damage, or a Lex and Joker with a 14 Attack and two attacks per action. The only real issue with this build is that they're all fragile, though Lex and Joker have the advantage of having Mastermind with a lot of keyworded Cops hanging around. While it probably won't win any ROCs, it's got some serious potential in local games, and might be a fun casual team to try out on a hapless opponent.

So what about the Consolation? Well, when used as an actual consolation prize, it's not especially great. Spiral doesn't have Stealth, and Vision doesn't either, though there's a few Robots who can use it. The last team I made has a few characters who have Stealth but don't have Super Senses already, such as Catwoman and Owlman, so there's some potential there, and that's really what you're looking for. If you want to pay +5 points specifically for the Consolation bonus, what you're looking for is a non-theme team where the characters have Stealth but NOT Super Senses. You get a half-strength Super Senses here, so there's no point to having it from another source. This still works really well with certain characters who might be combining Stealth and Combat Reflexes since the Super Senses will make an already annoying character even harder to hit. Moreover, there's some....meaner options. Keep in mind that not everyone with Stealth is a scrappy dodge character. Remember that Vision I mentioned? Pair him with Age of Ultron Ultron, and that Consolation means he now has Mastermind, Stealth, Invincible, AND Super Senses on top of his very gross combat values. Also check out:




Not only is he a difficult to pin down Hypersonic Speedster, but he has a 19 Invincible, Stealth, AND even if you pin him down once he's in Hindering terrain, you have to hope he doesn't roll a 6 after you've gotten through all of the other stuff. On a similar note, tw Batman hands Stealth off to any leaguer adjacent, and to Wonder Woman and Superman from wherever. It can just make gross combos grosser.


So, it's not as if this map is the easiest to use for it's bonuses, nor are the bonuses even the best, but there's plenty of options to try out, especially if you're willing to dip back in to Golden or Silver Age. When it comes to using the map specifically for Catwoman, I'd point out there aren't a lot of great versions of Catwoman in the game. There's 21 in Silver and that number drops to only 4 in Modern, and out of all of those not a single one even hits 100 points, so she's never going to be the primary threat on your team (or if she is, you're likely having problems). Most Catwoman's have a hard time getting above 5 or 6 clicks of health, so that's a problem. There IS a Catwoman with 8 clicks of health, but she's from the Unleashed set, so even though she has longevity, she's not going to be super useful. Honestly, the best bang for your buck Catwoman to me is that new one I mentioned a moment ago, from the Fast Forces pack



At only 5 clicks of health, she's not going to stay alive long, especially if she gets powered up and becomes a threat, but she does have a lot of potential with that Diamond. Since bonuses are "replace then modify" Charge with a +3 Speed means she halves her Speed from 8 to 4, and then adds the +3 for 7 Movement. Plus Sidestep, Plus Giant Reach, for a total Reach of 11. Adding to her attack means getting it up to a 14 with Exploit Weakness. It can get pretty aggressive really quick, though you might get sad to see your chosen kitty immediately get run over in a lot less time than it took to make her in to a threat.


Still, there's a lot of good options for team building here. Feel free to post any teams you prefer in the comments, because I clearly enjoy hearing about your own perfect heists.

I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here:

I mentioned Catwoman before, but she takes advantage of the bonus here, and even without it, it's not a bad map for her with so many walls and Hindering terrain. Even if you only steal the Diamond once, just remember that Catwoman suddenly winds up with a 13 attack with Charge, Giant Reach, and Exploit, and at that point she is all but guaranteed to hit anyone with a 16 or less defense on anything but a Crit Fail and she has even money to hit 21 defense. Really nice for a 50 point secondary attacker. Going a little further, this is a good map for just about anyone from the Batman Family, with so many good hiding places, but wf003 Batman has a lot of places to teleport around to before he strikes. Similarly, if you want to go full beatstick, wf060 World's Finest can do a lot of damage here, and they can do it from Stealth while busting opponent's Stealth. xxs039 Sprite can't hide in Stealth, but she can ignore the walls while she's Charging to use her attack special and Exploit. And if you want to be keep your valuable artifacts from getting stolen, tmt041a Destroyer can crush through walls and catch anyone off guard.

This Side Up:

Theme: 3/5

It's got a fun layout for a museum, but honestly it feels like it was modeled less off of Gotham Museum, especially one from the Animated Series. The Museum only showed up in the episode "Avatar," and it had more Egyptian stuff. That might have been a seasonal thing, but I assume they also wouldn't have some generic sword out of a Bud K catalog. Maybe though, but they ALSO neglected to note that it wasn't the "Cat's Eye Diamonds" but "Cat's Eye Emerald." It still looks like A Museum, just nothing that specifically calls it out as the Gotham Museum or even the Batman: TAS Gotham Museum.

Tactical Impact: 4/5

A solid map that pulls the rug out of Flying and Long Range teams. Great also for characters that like to hide and spring out of corners, and the Obscuring terrain means that it works well for Stealth based teams that might have trouble moving through Hindering.

Balance: 3/5

Not a bad map to get stuck on, because there's a few spots for most types of teams to try and set themselves up around. The bad thing is that there's a lot of possible avoidance so if your opponent wants to draw you out, it's very possible for a prepared team to move around without a lot of trouble.

Terrain Diversity: 3/5

We have a lot of Blocking, a healthy amount of Hindering, and more than a little of our resident new terrain, Obscuring. I'm tempted to count the Walls and Blocking terrain separately, but honestly the Hindering and Obscuring are also very similar because the Hindering doesn't really get in the way of movement here, so the difference between Hindering and Obscuring is very slight.

Overall: 4/5

A fun map that's a little more open than other Indoor/Blocking maps, but still has a lot in the way of cover. The Location bonus is a little convoluted, and while it's fun to try to do, it's also not something I'd want to rely on to win a fight or even really a Consolation.

In the Neighborhood

Ranx
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=559935

Underground Caverns
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=585874

Bank Heist
http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=570243


Shoutout to eMouse's Heroclix Atlas which is where I get the very easy to read map layouts.

Hi, this is a great article showing how well a map can be utilized to get an advantage!! So good, in-fact, it has me worried...

Just a hypothetical, in a 300 pt constructed, anyone have thoughts on how to beat the below team?:

XXS 053 Wolverine x4 = 200 pts
Lila Cheney x2 = 50 pts
Broo x2 = 50 pts

Utilizing the team bonus, this team would add +8 to it's roll.

Securing this map would allow Cheney to carry the Wolvies to a spot where they can be in your face by turn 2 no matter where you go.... thoughts?

1) Pulsewave

2) Incredibly hard to hit OMA

3) ... ... So it just popped into my head. Can we build a team that is just Barrier focused to stop the Wolvies? Well...

Force Build 9076986 0
Set	#	Name	Team	Pts	Value
WKM	M17-005	Polaris		50	SELL
XXS	014	Rusty		40	SELL
BTAS	011	Commissioner Gordon		35	SELL
BTAS	069E	Green Lantern		30	SELL
HQ	057	Nightshade		50	SELL
Force Total:				205	$0.00

Some combination of the above (like say 2x Gordon and 3x Green Lantern; or 4x Green Lantern and a 5pt ID or Map).

Now, to tie into the article, you're saying "But Lila has Phasing/Teleport." Ah, yes. So lets look at a specific build for this map:

Force Build 9076986 1
Set	#	Name	Team	Pts	Value
HQ	057	Nightshade		50	SELL
HQ	057	Nightshade		50	SELL
BTAS	011	Commissioner Gordon		35	SELL
BTAS	069E	Green Lantern		30	SELL
BTAS	069E	Green Lantern		30	SELL
BTAS	064E	Robin		20	SELL
BTAS	064E	Robin		20	SELL
WKD	D17-B002	Ape The Flash		15	SELL
WKD	D17-B002	Ape The Flash		15	SELL
Force Total:				265	$0.00

I left some room for personal variety, but the 265 core is key.

Perplex up Flash's damage, TK Flash, deal 4 to a Lila, do it again thanks to Leadership giving you 4 actions. If it works, then you have 50pts and probably are losing 30. Lila will have gotten them as far as half map, so it's possible you won't have to use TK, but you probably will to get around the edges.

Here is where Nightshade x2 gets ridiculous. If played right the Wolveri are going to have a hard time getting points after the pogs are dealt with. Starting on the next turn you are now on a map where well placed Barriers are going to wreck havoc on movement. The 4 actions mean you can slowly kill off the Broo too, then barrier shut the Wolveri's counter move.

Against other teams that do not have HSS or Phasing+attack you're going to draw some sideways glances once you're comfortable running this. This map is a dream for Nightshade as she can freely move around like OotS Batman in a graveyard! Also the 2x Nightshade can free place a Green Lantern and a Flash... this allows for a mighty swing to take out an opponent's Colossal Retaliator (if more than 15 points) and leave Flash way away from his team if the opponent had multiple Retaliators.

Speaking of Colossal Retaliation... we do have 35 points left... lets look at possibilities:

wkMP17-001p Giant-Man - 15 points - If the Lilas had moved everyone into the center room this can be a great backup to missing one of the Lilas. Wing Sweep (i.e. Super Quake) is going to KO both Broos and should take out remaining Lila (Knockback) as well as put all the Wolveri on their STOP... meaning any of them that fail Regen are easy pickings. Downside, as always, is the abundant Perplex for defenses, but you also have 2x Robin to boost Giant Man to a 12att and the Nightshades may be able to both get to a LoF position for free.

wkMP18-G001p Tri-Sentinel - 30 points - So I can't remember, but does Pulsewave ignore Stop clicks? Either way clix are going to get KO'd, but if it does ignore, then you've just KO'd their entire team. [edit: I should explain there is a lot going on here w/ the CR + Prime Directive allowing a lot of the Wolveri to be on their last click and picked off because the walls are now down. This strategy would take a lot of playtesting I have not done yet]

tmtG001p Surtur - 25 points - So this is for points guarantee because if Surtur does enough to one Wolverine (3, minus toughness, is 2 which is the STOP click anyway), then does the penetrating click and now you've got 50 points. Their are rare scenarios where the Robin's giving him a 20 defense (instead of a 14att) might allow him to stick around long enough to avoid an attack and come back next turn to KO another Wolverine.

tmtG002p Ymir - 25 points - Now this guy is used to stop the opponent's team and give your team enough time to KO a Wolverine. Not positive the team has enough quickly mobile offense to do so (unless the Flash hit a lot of SS rolls), but its an option. I'd have to get out the map and test this, but I do believe you can even use Nightshade to get Ymir out of the center room before the Wolveri clear.

tmtG004p Carnage - 10 Points - A lesser guarantee version of Surtur as the generated Symbiote needs to hit a follow up attack on a Wolverine. However it leaves the team w/ 25pts for one of the above 2 or another Perplex (lots at 25pts if 3x Robin isn't your thing)

tmtG006p Mangog - 30 Points - you'll have to use the Giant Man tactics, but are far more likely to drop 2+ Wolverine with this guy. He also has Impervious, so that's a chance to dodge the remaining Wolveri and maybe even retaliate again to end the game.

wkDP17-001p Sinestro - 25 points - If you're going this route you may want to just replace one of the Robin pieces and also run Mangog or Tri-Sentinel with what is now 30 points left over. The Bolt To the Brain could really ruin any synergy left over after sending in Mangog the turn before and also end the game quickly.

Great map and great review, as always! I definitely plan to add this ‘Location’ to a Catwoman team (Birds of Prey, perhaps?) sometime soon. And I definitely like those sneaky ways to carry/teleport in and steal the diamonds multiple times!

I even made myself a custom light object for the diamonds. However, this guy’s custom pogs are far superior, if anyone’s interested…. see this thread (post #5)…. http://www.hcrealms.com/forum/showth...errerid=335665

I also wanted to make one comment on something stated in the review:
By “throw away the 5 points” you simply mean you are choosing to waste those points that you’ve already spent, right? Your team build still includes those 5 points. Once the map-choice phase of the game comes into play, it’s too late to change your team build, correct?

Correct, if you pay the 5 points for a Location Bonus, you can't get the Consolation if your opponent chooses you to pick the map and you don't pick this one. The breakdown is like this:

1.) Did you pay for a Location Bonus?

Yes - Move to Question 2

No - Nothing Happens

2.) Did you Win the Roll for First Player?

Yes - Move to Question 3

No - Move to Question 4

3.) Did you Pick the Map you Chose the Bonus For?

Yes - You get the Location Bonus

No - You get Nothing

4.) Did Your Opponent Choose to Make You First Player?

Yes - Go Back to Question 3

No - Go to Question 5

5.) Did Your Opponent Choose the Map You Paid a Location Bonus For?

Yes - You Get the Location Bonus!

No - You Get the Consolation Bonus!





In summary, you only get the Consolation if your opponent picks map, and doesn't pick the map you paid for. If, for any reason, you DO wind up on the map you paid for, you get the Location Bonus. If you got to choose the map, and didn't choose the Location you paid for, you get nothing.

There's a little nuance here, because your opponent can win the map roll and let you choose the map anyway to deny you the Consolation bonus (at the likely risk of you getting the Location bonus instead), but perhaps the Location bonus doesn't actually interest you, and this was all a ruse to coerce them to let you pick the map so you could wind up somewhere you like more.

The best example of this I can think of is Poison Ivy's Greenhouse. The Location bonus is to be able to make sort-of Incap attacks against people in Hindering, which is cool but maybe not game changing. The Consolation, however, is that you get to place a bunch of permanent Hindering terrain on any other map your opponent chose. If you had, say a Stealth team, this means you could set up cover at all the best spots on their map. Or maybe they had a Grounded team, and you placing Hindering really mucks up their movement options. Either way, your opponent might (and let me be clear that the chances are slim)decide that the Consolation bonus is worse for them than just letting you play at Poison Ivy's Greenhouse, in which case, they just give you map choice and first player and if the Location bonus isn't what you really wanted, you can still choose somewhere even better suited for your team. In which case, you basically paid 5 points to coerce them in to giving you map choice.

There's some other examples, like how the Ha-Ha Hacienda either gives you an ability to one guy to make random mediocre attacks from the map, or gives all of your Joker's a +1 to attack, or how Gotham City Downtown either gives out Improved Movement or Targeting to Robins and Batmans, or just gives them bonuses to their stats. For some team builds, the Consolation might be something you intentionally want, and for other team builds, it's possible that it can look like something you want while actually being something you coerce your opponent with to get you on Underground Caverns or Flashpoint Waterfront.

Thanks! I like the flowchart style of that explanation.

I'll be playing a Batman Family theme team, with Phasing/Teleport + Carry goodness. In fact, why not Carry everyone!

40 BTAS013 Catwoman
50 EW034 Green Oracle
125 BTAS040 Batman
40 HQ030 Robin
30 JW007 Commissioner Gordon
10 TMTS001 Bloodaxe
295