Game day with Andy rolled around again, and we got another three quick games in. We actually could have managed another one or two games in all likelihood, but Andy was feeling poorly after a flu shot, so we were lucky to get to play at all. As I recently picked up some Warlord Kleggs, I rushed to get them done for the day, and I have to say, for Contrast Paints and a little overbrushing, they look pretty damn good.
Now, when Andy and I started playing the Mongoose Judge Dredd Miniatures Game, we said that we would stay away from Gangs that were built around characters, like The Angel Gang, or Chief Judge Kal's Retinue, which is where the Klegg rules lay. After looking these rules over though, there was the option to have a Klegg hero, so the list can be used as the basis for a Klegg gang. A little discussion with Andy and we decided to give them a try. With only 3 Kleggs in my collection and no Klegg Hounds as of yet, it's a pretty limited gang, but it is somewhere to start with yet another gang. I'll have to amend the Mercenary list in my next one of these.
We put together a fairly basic setup with Andy's buildings and some of my vehicles for cover. I do have some Dredd terrain in the works, but it'll be a while before it's really table-ready. Until then, this table works alright so long as both Andy and I play reasonably fair, as a heavy weapon in one of the buildings can quickly dominate the table, as we'll find out in the second game for the day.
For the first game, my Kleggs had to break through a blockade set up by Andy's Sky Surfers and escape. With such a stark difference between our gangs, Andy had a speed advantage but the Surfers are far more fragile, any hit from a Klegg would be lethal, selecting the right mission is paramount to having a fun game. Neither Andy nor I are super competitive when it comes to JDMG, though I do tend to win more games as I'm a tad more aggressive, but it is never really fun to start a game that one has no hope of winning.
As regular readers will know, one of the changes we've made to JDMG is shrinking the table down to 3x3', which has mostly been good, but we also haven't tried everything in the rulebook yet. Turns out the Power Boards used by Sky Surfers can move most of the length of the table and back in a single turn, which wasn't a problem for this mission, but could be pretty brutal for others. My Kleggs pushed up the centre of the table, taking what cover they could, but the simple fact was, the surfers could get a line on me no matter where I was thanks to their huge movement. The Kleggs had to rely on their general toughness and heavy armour to stay alive.
My return fire, basically machine guns on both models, was almost always deadly when it hit the unarmoured Surfers, so for me, it was a matter of time before I drove the surfers off. Admittedly, Andy wasn't rolling the best, but he still only managed to take half the Hits off my leader and the other Klegg was untouched. Part of the issue was the small amount of gear Sky Surfers can carry, meaning most high-damage options are eschewed. They're just not very killy, at the end of the day, which is a problem in a miniature wargame.
After a few turns, I drove the Surfers off and it was fun, we even got a close combat to see how brutal the Kleggs can be up-close. From this game we suspected that maybe the Sky Surfers needed some tweaks to the rules, but that would get solidified with another game later in the day, so I'll discuss it below.
Game two was a more straightforward punch-up between our two Street Gangs, with my Miameg Porpoises being outnumbered and outgunned by the Brian Ansell Blockers, but I was relying on my heavy Sports Armour to keep me safe as I picked off the enemy.
So an issue with our current terrain set (belonging mostly to Andy) is that the big buildings are great sniper spots and the roads are too open to cover the distance most of the time. In the first two turns of this game, the only important interactions where mine and Andy's heavy weapons blasting across the street between two buildings until I came out on top. Whilst, as you'll see below, it didn't win me the game, I would like to not have this be the case when we play. Hopefully, with some stuff that I'm working on, we'll have a better terrain density and reduce the lines of sight somewhat.
After the heavy weapon shoot-out, this was a really fun game, with both gangs pushing to occupy the centre of the table. I do try and build my gangs with an eventual campaign in mind, meaning some of the Porpoises are really under equipped and I have to get pretty close to do much damage. I have one Punk with just a hammer and he and my leader with chainsaw crept up through cover to get to Any's pistol toting Punks.
I got my bloody close combat against a Punk and things were looking up for me, but a lucky shot from Manimal's spit gun took out my Leader and my entire gang's morale collapsed within a turn after that. This is JDMG at its strongest and why I really hope to get a campaign running someday, as my team decided that seeing their leader shot down was enough and called it a day, turning Andy's probable defeat into a victory. That makes for a fun game and drives narrative for campaigns nicely.
Final game of the day saw Andy's Sky Surfers return against my Lone Vigilante, Bubba Feet. This turned out to be another great match-up as Bubba's jet pack gave him a decent amount of movement to keep up somewhat with the powerboards.
It was in this game that the Surfers really showed how they don't quite work with the rules as written. I'll expand on this in a future article, but the Surfers move like infantry that can just ignore terrain, which makes sense, but makes them play like Jump Pack infantry rather than guys on flying surfboards. Shooting and charging them is pretty normal, but they can't fight melee at all unless charged and have to take a whole action to shoot. Being able to turn 360 degrees at any time during movement also makes them not quite "feel" right when being played. As much as we don't enjoy re-writing the rules or adding complexity where it's not needed, we have been going back and forth on email over how to get the Powerboards closer to how we want them to run, so keep an eye out for that getting worked out here as we move forward.
In better news, this was Bubba's first win in a game, thanks again to the Surfers not being able to pack high damage or AP weapons. Also a first, the Concussion Grenades, wielded by the Surfers, came into the fore. When successful, the Concussion Grenades rob targets of Actions, which can really shut down more elite teams and models. We'll be experimenting with this as we build new gangs, and I can see the right combination being pretty nasty. Until the next game session rolls around though, I'm back to painting and should even have some terrain happening soon.
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