Finally got a couple more games of Judge Dredd in, despite getting over an infection and being exhausted by the extra commute I have currently. Even better, I finally got to play my new builds for the Lone Vigilante and Renegade Robots, both of which worked a little more smoothly, a good indication that I'm figuring out the game.
I still have a couple of Robots to paint, as I somehow kept finding more, but the gang is getting to a decent size, giving me plenty of potions for a full campaign, should we ever get there. Putting the gang together has been a really fun project, with a wide range of miniatures and parts to get a real rag-tag look going. My major change to the starting gang list is introducing two "Junkers", cheaper robots who can break down and miss a game, but can also shrug off injuries because they're really beaten up already.
My Lone Vigilante "Bubba Feet" got a re-working as well, dropping some grenades for a melee weapon just in case he gets caught short by apes again. For this game, Bubba had been ambushed by Andy's Brian Ansell Blockers, now with some more paint on them, and has to drive off seven Punks by himself to win out.
From the right, I painted the old Cawdor Heavy and the Yardi, the Scrawler is Andy's work, and the others were another painter he knows. Andy hasn't painted in years, due to time and having issues with his hands, but some new Speed Paints have him giving it a go again, which I think is great.
The idea of wanting to play the Lone Vigilante is to challenge myself as a player and to get better both at Judge Dredd and skirmish-style games in general. At the risk of sounding too full of myself, I'm very good at this particular style of miniature game, since playing Judge Dredd again, I've won at least 80% of my games because it's pretty easy to figure out what's a better build and to work around gang limitations. I'm yet to win with the Vigilante, but each game is very satisfying, with a lot of dodging to cover, taking snapshots and having to watch Line of Sight very closely.
In this game, Bubba made use of the tall buildings and his jetpack to keep the number of Punks that could get a shot on him as low as possible, as Andy had seven times the activation priority I did. Bubba has a Laser Rifle with Scope and talents around weapons that roll a single die to hit, all of which translates to him being able to snipe away targets with decent regularity, but it takes his entire turn. So my basic strategy is alternating turns of movement and shooting.
My big play that was fun was jumping down from the roof of a building to the interior and blowing away a Punk with my Spit Pistol. His friend came up the stairs and blasted Bubba with a Stump Gun, but a set of Sports Armour turned away the shot, so I figured I was safe for a turn. However, the Punk Hero with Heavy Spit Gun had a great shot through the open door at Bubba's dynamic silhouette. One round of fire and the game was over, but I'm pretty happy with how I'm getting a handle on the character.
Game two saw my Robots ("Blood in the Machine") up against Sam's Gorilla Gangsters, which would be a tough match, but even worse, one of my gangers had to be fleeing from his at the start of the game. The Apes are one of the fastest gangs, and my Robots are pretty average on movement, so my best bet was to put my leader, Haro-2 Goodbye, in the role of the pursued, as he had the best armour, the most Hits and Sam wouldn't want to fight him in melee.
Somehow, I pulled out a win on this one, despite Haro-2 being reduced to one Hit by the end of the first turn. Sam's gang was entirely made of Gorillas with Spit Guns (to match the models), which have an impressive 3 Shooting Dice and -2 AP, but with only four members, even my Robots outnumbered them. By taking risks and pushing up through the board, I could take off any monkey head that popped out of cover. With few Apes left, Sam couldn't keep up the pressure and Haro-2 escaped on the fourth turn with his one Hit intact.
So what's next for the game? Well, I have a painting deadline for another event, so I'll be finishing off my Robots and then shelving the other Gangs for a moment. Sadly, those who have wanted to play haven't shown much interest in a campaign, so I may have to come up with a little two-player thing for me and Andy or similar once I have a little more time in my days again.
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