First Game of Judge Dredd

Greg Smith

Mongoose
We played our first game of JD tonight.

Two street judges and a Psi Judge vs a gang of Cursed Earth desperados.

First game one of the cursed Earth heroes was lurking in a building and left his mates to the mercy of the judges. The Judges cleaned up pretty quickly.

In the second, with the gang keeping much closer together it was a much more balanced game. Two Judges were shot down before the gang were beaten.

Our thoughts:

500 points seems to give a small game.
There don't seem to be any rules for climbing, changing levels etc.
Judges seem really nasty.
Ganging up seems really difficult to pull off.

I have some pictures, I'll post them tomorrow.
 
Well, it sound pretty interesting...
I'm actually new to the traveller system, but would love to hear more about your game...

Judge McNiel
 
im pretty sure he was using the miniatures rules no the traveller rules.

As for your comment on the justice department. They are high point for a reason. They are nasty.
 
Judges are indeed nasty - but can go down to one well-placed shot from a chimp with a Handgun if caught off guard.

500 points is indeed a small game. The idea here is that if a campaign is being played at a club, you can go through several rounds in one evening, and really see your heroes go up in level (or get plastered by bullets!).

The Golden Rule for everyone though - Use Cover! We are going to make cover a bit more attractive in the coming revision (just a tad), but charging down the street with guns blazing is not a good idea, even for a Riot Judge (a Holocaust Judge or Dredd himself might make it :)).

Anyone tried the Ape Gang yet? The Swinging Apes rule, I think, works really well (designer's note: actually comes from a rule we used for Aliens in an AvP playtest).
 
Pictures:

Note: non of these are Mongoose models, they are old GW JD figures and Necromunda Scavvies.

Cursed Earth mutant lurks in a building.
Dredd 001.jpg

Desperadoes take cover:
Dredd 002.jpg

Judge Shooter finds a vantage point:
Dredd 003.jpg
 
The mutants known as Spike in hand to hand combat with Judge Thumper.
Dredd 004.jpg

Desperadoes prepare to fight off the Judges invading their turf.
Dredd 005.jpg

Judge Shooter takes cover:
Dredd 007.jpg
 
Good fun - if very very quick games

I played the Judges first time round and Judge Thumper was awesome taking aout more than half the gang himself with little trouble (He had Melee bonues, +1 hit and a trusty day stick - parry is awesome - just like in Necromunda). He just charged in and got stuck in trusting to armour and hits to get him there - which it did.

The PSI judge was a bit useless at this starting level - her guns were always going to be more effective than her powers -which still needed LOS - had less chance of doing anything and less range. I guess the point is to keep her alive and boost her pwoers with experience ? But for one off games no real point in taking her I don't think? However need to read the psychic rules to see if that is accurate.

Judge Shooter with a lawrod was very very nasty - 24" range weapon with aim etc is going to make a mess of most peoples days.

Then we swapped and tried it the opposite way round - this time Gregs dual pistol packing mutie got into the fight and blasted the PSI Judge before getting blown away by Shooter. Thumper got shot down and never got into combat as he tried to sneak about. But Spike went down to shooter. Judges win (again)

First impressions - good fun - alot like Necormunda in a good way - although overwatch (Alert) is probably better handled.

Agree with Greggs points - could not find any rules for climbing etc or if you are in difficult terrain and half move how you get up a level that is more than 2.5" high - most 40k style terrain has about 3-4" between levels.

All in all glad I went for Council of Judges in the Kickstarter :)
 
Greg Smith said:
We played our first game of JD tonight.

Two street judges and a Psi Judge vs a gang of Cursed Earth desperados.

First game one of the cursed Earth heroes was lurking in a building and left his mates to the mercy of the judges. The Judges cleaned up pretty quickly.

In the second, with the gang keeping much closer together it was a much more balanced game. Two Judges were shot down before the gang were beaten.

Our thoughts:

500 points seems to give a small game.
There don't seem to be any rules for climbing, changing levels etc.
Judges seem really nasty.
Ganging up seems really difficult to pull off.

I have some pictures, I'll post them tomorrow.

as for jumping and climing

why not roll a skill check, on a 6+ on a d10 using your agil mod to make it easyer or harder to pull off
 
Yes thats doable - but why is it not in the rules to start with given that terrain is important and there are rules for Swinging Apes....
 
Nice one Gregg, thanks for the report, well presented in the photos.

Da Boss said:
All in all glad I went for Council of Judges in the Kickstarter :)


Ah well Charles........You know it makes sense,

and so much for my holding out my additional spend until next week :lol: .
 
Judge Shooter with a lawrod was very very nasty - 24" range weapon with aim etc is going to make a mess of most peoples days.

Always wondered if a Lawrod was going to do much good - given the whole 'arrest' rules of engagement thing, giving the judges much of a reach beyond a standard lawgiver doesn't seem to offer much advantage. How's shooter done for you?
 
To get around that problem we house ruled:

If a model has already exectued a combat action (melee, shoot, etc) or has already denied arrest,then future arrest checks are optional.

Arrests are still preferable with some models that look to be tough.

There have been times my duaghter shot at something just to have it bounce off then, she gives the model a chance to give up.... and it does. Go figure.
 
That's not a house rule, those are the standard rules.

A judge may not make a melee or shooting attack against any model unless it has successfully resisted arrest by passing the Will check or has already made a melee or shooting attack itself.

Mind you, the models you may want to arrest to get out of having to fight them are most likely to be heroes and they automatically resist arrest.
 
cfirpi said:
To get around that problem we house ruled:

If a model has already exectued a combat action (melee, shoot, etc) or has already denied arrest,then future arrest checks are optional.

Arrests are still preferable with some models that look to be tough.

There have been times my duaghter shot at something just to have it bounce off then, she gives the model a chance to give up.... and it does. Go figure.

I AM THE LAW... please?
 
locarno24 said:
Judge Shooter with a lawrod was very very nasty - 24" range weapon with aim etc is going to make a mess of most peoples days.

Always wondered if a Lawrod was going to do much good - given the whole 'arrest' rules of engagement thing, giving the judges much of a reach beyond a standard lawgiver doesn't seem to offer much advantage. How's shooter done for you?

The rules are unclear if you can shoot at a Hero character from the get go as they auto resist arest or if you still have to make the attempt. There are some vague allusions to enemies that don't require arrests to be made - Sov forces etc - but no actual listing - it would be a simple matter to have a symbol on the entry for each such unit "Public Enemy" or similar that means you shoot at them straight away.

Law rod is very good
 
Da Boss said:
locarno24 said:
Judge Shooter with a lawrod was very very nasty - 24" range weapon with aim etc is going to make a mess of most peoples days.

Always wondered if a Lawrod was going to do much good - given the whole 'arrest' rules of engagement thing, giving the judges much of a reach beyond a standard lawgiver doesn't seem to offer much advantage. How's shooter done for you?

The rules are unclear if you can shoot at a Hero character from the get go as they auto resist arest or if you still have to make the attempt. There are some vague allusions to enemies that don't require arrests to be made - Sov forces etc - but no actual listing - it would be a simple matter to have a symbol on the entry for each such unit "Public Enemy" or similar that means you shoot at them straight away.

Law rod is very good

Given how BA judges are, I think that putting this little speed bump in the way of attacking a character until he acts upon you or you act upon him can create some interesting strategies for both opponents and help other characters from getting mowed down on sight by basic judges. For instance forcing a judge to spend an action attempting an arrest or risk being caught in the open, or trying to sneak a hero to a location in under relative safety by presenting juicier targets until it become too late. I just believe it can add another dimension when fighting judges.
 
Glad to hear it. It's the one thing that can really change the way the game is played.

At the moment, of course, we're largely ignoring the arrest rules - people just want to do 'gloves off' games of dredd-and-another judge versus a stupid number of badly equipped thugs. Almost as if they've been inspired by something.
 
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