Cheaphammer!!!

The final tutorial scenario from Judge Dredd: I Am The Law pits the entire contents of the starter box against each other in a battle royale.

We swapped out the Rookie Judge model for the Judge Dredd I painted as she didn't exactly look like 'Veteran Judge Cassidy', I've also made a slight change to the scenario as Ramirez got blown away in the last one, and so Kinsey is back for this one.

The battle is just a straight fight. The Judges are trying to take down four gangers and the High Rollers are aiming to drop a single Judge...easy, right?

This was a real back and forth fight. Initially, the Gunfighter rule of the Judges (which we'd finally got the hang of) meant that it was really dangerous to fire at them, as it should be, and it seemed like the perps stood no chance.

However, the stump gun shot and chain attack suddenly put Kinsey on the back foot, but I just couldn't finish him off. When he got back into cover and healed, it felt like the gang has lost their opportunity, especially when Matt started blowing things up.

Ultimately, the return of the ganger with the combat rifle (probably still the Diceman), who'd been severely injured early on and had spent several turns healing, turned the tide and put enough damage onto Kinsey to end the game.

All in all I feel this is a really good game. The miniatures are good and the mechanics really allow for forces mismatched in numbers to feel balanced. The Big Meg and Armoury cards are really powerful, but a limited resource that need to be used wisely. The game also offers the closest representation of a movie-style shootout (the Gunfighter rule is key to this) that I've come across in any skirmish game.

If there's a down side, the rules are a bit scattered through the rulebook and sometimes it's hard to find the bit you need. I also think that it's a game that relies on interest in Judge Dredd to drive sales as this box really does contain everything you need for a good game.

Will I pick up more of the range? Possibly...if the price is right. I'm not a massive Judge Dredd fan, but I might grab a few of the more well known characters: Judge Death, Mean Machine Angel, the Fatties, etc. I suspect I'm more likely to raid my remaining Wargames Factor Survivors to add to the Block Gang, rather than buy expensive resin models, and I'm inclined to use generic city and post-apocalyptic terrain (like the movie did) rather than start building Mega City One.

However, I like this game, and that might have an impact when I'm next passing a Warlord Games stand at a show.

The second tutorial scenario for Judge Dredd: I Am The Law sees a Senior Street Judge and a Rookie Judge ambushed by a block gang in retaliation for what happened in scenario one.

Once again, Matt was the Justice Department and I was the villainous High Rollers.

This time we managed to get to turn two before it was all over and it was my turn to make efficient use of my Big Meg and Armoury cards to bum rush Rookie Judge Harris and leave Senior Judge Ramirez surrounded.

I don't think we'd properly got a handle on the gunfighter rule at this point, and I was definitely cheating with my stump gun (the ganger in pink), as she shouldn't have been able to move and shoot.

Ah well, that's what tutorials are for.

In a slight change of pace, Matt and I played through the three tutorial scenarios for Judge Dredd: I Am The Law from Warlord Games.

The first scenario, Sugar Rush, pits Judge Kinsey against three members of the High Rollers block gang and introduced all the basic mechanics in the game.

I took control of the nefarious perps, whilst Matt was the Law.

In the spirit of finishing things off, I turned my attention to the only Judge Dredd miniature I currently have that wasn't painted in the last batch. Joe Dredd himself on his Lawmaster patrol bike.

The model is resin and came in two halves (front and back) with separate handlebars. The pieces went together reasonably well with a little bit of trimming, but there were some air bubbles and miscast elements on base of the back half and, more annoyingly, on the rear of the front section, so that they are actually visible. These are not major issues, but the casting is far from perfect.

The rider came in pieces and also had more issues putting together than the judges on foot, for example one of the arms came separate and I had to work to deal with quite a big gap between the shoulder pad and the body.

Additionally, this version of Dredd is a bit more spindly than the model on foot, although does have the same weird jutting jaw which although in character, ends up looking like he doesn't have a mouth. All in all, I like the model, but I feel it could have been better.

When it came to the painting, I used exactly the same approach as with the judges on foot and comic book colours make things easier, although I did do more highlighting as the flat surfaces needed something to liver them up.

I also took the time to give the Lawmaster a computer screen. I don't know whether it's supposed to be there, but given the bikes have A.I. it seemed to make sense. It also amused me to give it a monochrome screen suitable to what might have been considered high-tech in the early 80's.

Despite the flaws in the model, I am happy with how it's turned out. It certainly looks the part. It also feels like it would be fairly easy to duplicate my painting to make any more Lawmasters I get look consistent.

Once again, even if I don't play the Judge Dredd: I Am The Law very much, have Dredd on a Lawmaster increases the likelihood of me using him in 7TV:Apocalypse games.

In other news, Pete has kindly given me six plastic US troops to make the missing models I need for the next Lurkers From The Deep scenario, so I'll be getting on with them soon.

No, I didn't see this coming either.

As I mentioned in my last post, it was my birthday recently and I was somewhat surprised to receive Warlord Games' Judge Dredd: I Am The Law as a gift. It's not that I didn't want it, more that it has never been very high up the priority list as another new game.

However, I am, as you've probably noticed, very partial to a starter set, and so once received, it's only polite to get it painted.