War Games

War Games

[[|right|250px]] The War Games was a three day, city-side gang war that erupted following the sudden murders of various criminal leaders and mob bosses. Filling the power vacuume were various headstrong lieutenants bent on vengeance and in fighting that resulted in the criminal gangs fighting one another throughout the city.
While attempting to subdue the fighting, the Batclan and GCPD act independently of each other due to mistrust between their respective leaders while villains such as the Penguin and the resurfaced Black Mask take advantage of the chaos to further their own schemes.
It is later revealed that the entire incident was partially anticipated in one of Batman's theoretical "War Game" protocols, intended to gain control of the Gotham gangs. Unfortunately, not knowing the exact nature of the protocol, Stephanie Brown implemented the protocol in an attempt to prove to Batman that she was good enough to be his sidekick.

Day 1[]

Stephanie Brown gathers the 21 leaders of Gotham's crime families in order to unite them under one leader in an attempt to impress Batman.
Bruce Wayne attends the unvailing of a new particle accelerator.
Kobra terrorists attempt to steal the accelerator, however, Batman prevents them.
While Spoiler waits for Matches Malone to show, tension between the crime leaders peaks and they kill each other.
During the fire fight, Orpheus escapes and contacts Batman.
Arturo Rodriguez covers the mass homicide and catches Batman entering the crime scene.

Batman and Oracle attempt to anticipate power grabs between gangs.
Nightwing is called in from Atlantic City.
Batgirl disrupts the Lucky Hand Triad gang
Batman attempts to disrupt the Escabedo cartel, however, the Odessa mob attack the cartel thinking they were responsible for the mass homicide.
Orpheus interrogates the Penguin, thinking he was responsible for the mass homicide.
The Hill gang is attacked by the Latin Unifieds, who think the former was responsible for the mass homicide, Batgirl is sent to disrupt them.
As Batgirl leaves, the Yakuza make a grab for Triad territory. Batman moves to disrupt them and starts devising a plan to take the gangs out group by group by having Orpheus take leadership of them.
Rodriguez covers the destructive scene following the Odessa/Escabedo battle.
Nightwing arrives in Gotham and meets with Batman.
Tarantula takes over the Latino Unified gang.
Nightwing visits the East End clinic to learn from Onyx what happened at the mass homicide.
Batman deduces that Tarantula is in Gotham and allows Nightwing to let her babysit the remains of the Latino Unified.
Batgirl attempts to apprehend Alexandra Kosov; new leader of the Odessa mob, only to be ambushed and relocated to the West Side by Oracle.
The Hill is attacked again and Batman explains his plan to Orpheus; instructing him to take leadership of the Yakuza first, before being pulled away to prevent the Escabedo Cartel from looting Gotham's banks.

Batman poses as Matches Malone to convince the Yakuza to meet with Orpheus.
The Yakuza betray the meet and attempt to kill Orpheus.
Navy transport ship 181 is captured by the Penguin.
Black Mask attempts to recruit Hush in preparation for taking over the city.
Penguin starts selling arms and mercenaries to the various warring factions in Gotham.
Oracle and Nightwing start bickering over the comms over what to do with the Penguin.
The Odessa mob unites with Scarface's gang.
Batman sends Batgirl to order Tarantula to merge her gang with the Hill gang. Tarantula refuses.
Penguin attempts to recruit Hush.
Alexandra Kosov plans to abduct the daughter of Henry Aquista.

Day 2[]

Batgirl prevents a Odessa hit on a mafiosi child.
Batgirl becomes concerned on where Spoiler is, however, Oracle ignores her request.
various hit squads converge on Louis E. Grieve Memorial High School.
Batgirl pays a visit to Spoiler's house only to not find her. Eventually managing to find her only to lose her again when Oracle calls her to meet Batman at the school.
Catwoman encounters and takes down Mister Freeze; encountering Spoiler soon after.
Oracle starts bickering with Batman as he attempts to instruct her to co-ordinate the team.
Rodriguez arrives to cover the school stand off as the Bat Family mass.
Timothy Drake starts grouping the school children together.

The Bat Family infiltrate the school and start securing the school and freeing hostages.
Batman is caught on national news cameras.
Darla Aquista dies.
Firefly sets the Bowery ablaze.
Henry Aquista sanctions his mob to kill any Odessa mob members.
Civilian protestors starting marching on city hall.
Oracle expresses her frustration over being "Batman's glorified telephone operator".
Black Mask forms a partnership with Alexandra Kosov.

Batman requests that Akins gives him control of the GCPD for the next 8 hours. Akins refuses.
Timothy Drake returns as Robin.
Spoiler is told by Catwoman that Batman and Matches Malone are the same person and realises that she was entirely responsible for the gang war. Catwoman keeps her at her apartment; looked after by Karen and Holy.
James Gordon lends his support to Michael Akins.
Catwoman tells Leslie Thompkins of Spoiler's responsibility for the gang war.
Batman attempts to get Gordon to convince Akins to hand control of the GCPD to him. Gordon refuses.
The GCPD enforces a 9pm curfew.
Nightwing is still haunted by the deaths that occured during his last few days in Bludhaven.
Oracle objects to including Tarantula in on the Bat Family comm channels. Batman overrides her.
Spoiler ditches Karen and Holy and leaves Catwoman's apartment to find Orpheus.
Black Mask takes over Scarface's gang.
Penguin shuts down power to the city in a bid to control the city.
Batman sends Tarantula to shut the Penguin down.
Stephanie attempts to contact Orpheus to scavange what remains of her plan to unite the gangs.
Batman realises that events of the gang war were going exactly as one of his War Game plans had envisioned and discovers that Stephanie Brown was the last person to access it.
Spoiler manages to meet with Orpheus just as Black Mask kills him.
While fighting Black Mask, Spoiler underestimates him and is beaten down and captured.
Robin informs his father that he is Robin again.

Black Mask tortures Spoiler and learns of Batman's plan to unite the gangs under Orpheus.
Robin recruits his father and stepmother to help the wounded in Leslie Thompkins' clinic.
While still looking for Stephanie, Batgirl manages to intervene on an attempted takeover of the East End Clinic by the Ghost Dragon gang. Lynx is killed in the battle.
Hush meets with Black Mask and tells him that the Clock Tower is the Batcave.
Batman takes control of Oracle's computer systems to broadcast to all GCPD units, instructing them to push the gangs towards Robinson Park.
Catwoman fights the Ravens only to be distracted saving innocents.
Black Mask poses as Orpheus as Batman meets to discuss the war game plan.
Henry Aquista sends Zeiss to kill all of the crime bosses in Gotham as revenge for his daughter's death. Starting with Orpheus.
Black Mask/Orpheus sends Onyx to secure a machine at Robinson Park.
Batman arrives just in time to save Black Mask/Orpheus from Zeiss and informs Black Mask/Orpheus of the war game plan.
Power is returned to the city.

Every gang in Gotham masses at the Robinson Park Greco-roman amphitheater to be united under Orpheus's leadership while the GCPD and Bat Family form a perimeter around the amphitheater.
Black Mask destroys Batman's unification plan and attempts to kill the gangs with a gas weapon made by Doctor Death.

Day 3[]

Scarecrow saves the Black Mask from capture as the gangs breach the GCPD perimeter and run roit in Gotham.
Akins orders a "shoot to kill" policy on all gang members and costumed criminals/vigilante.
Batgirl informs Batman of her suspicions that Spoiler was responsible for the gang war. Batman promises that he would start a personal search for Spoiler.
Nightwing takes down Firefly in an attempt to redeem himself for Blockbuster's murder but is shot and put out of commission by the GCPD in the process.
Discovering that Spoiler had left her apartment, Catwoman embarks on a search for her.
Robin takes down the Ravens.
Robin takes down the Trickster.

Spoiler momentarily frees herself and fights Black Mask only to be defeated. Tiring of her, he then lets her go anyway.
Robin takes down Mr Fun.
Robin is order by Oracle to take a break with his father.
Batman finds Spoiler as she wanders the rooftops and sends her to Leslie Thompkin's clinic to rest.
Rodriguez reports on the new free-for-all gang-related destruction in Gotham and becomes abducted by Black Mask as his personal reporter/cameraman.

Cornering the Las Aranas gang in a warehouse, Akins sends three SWAT squads for their capture, dead or alive, to prove that the GCPD is not impotent.
Batman attempts to get Akins to call off the attack on the Las Aranas. Akins refuses and Batman interferes personally.
Catwoman attempts to find Spoiler and encounters Zeiss.
Black Mask directs the remaining gangs to converge on the Clock Tower as he infiltrates it.
Batman enters the Clock Tower as the remaining Bat Family wait at the perimeter, away from the GCPD.
Black Mask betrays Scarecrow, forcing him to turn into the Scarebeast and attack the GCPD.
The Bat Family subdue the Scarebeast while Batman confronts the Black Mask.

Oracle destroys the Clock Tower to force Batman to break away from fighting Black Mask.
Stephanie succumbs to her injuries and dies in her sleep as Batman watches over her.

Day 5[]

Black Mask becomes the new leader of Gotham City's crime families.

Trivia[]

GothamMassacreGame — Gotham Massacre videogame

The exact war game file that Stephanie had been basing her plan off of was titled; WG-376, file "J".
Following the incident, a videogame seems to have been made based off of events surrounding the gang war. It is title "Gotham Massacre".
Following the Infinite Crisis, Stephanie Brown was revealed to have survived her injuries and was taken in secret by Leslie Thompkins to live in South Africa, away from Gotham.
At the 2011 Auckland Writers and Readers Festival, former Batgirl writer Dylan Horrocks said that the writers were told by editorial that the War Games crossover would “involve some kind of Gang War in Gotham” and involve Stephanie Brown's death. Due to the disagreeable nature of deliberatly planning drawn out torture scenes and high school massacres, both Horrocks and Nightwing writer Devin Grayson opposed the storyline during planning, to the extent that Horrocks deliberately kept the scripts of Batgirl out of several key events in the story.

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