Judge Dredd Miniatures Game rulebook

Okay, I know what you're thinking. Why on earth is Bryan reviewing the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game (JDMG) on a blog dedicated to the undead? Well, for a number of reasons, not least of which is that I am a huge fan of the Judge Dredd comic strip. I have been collecting the 2000AD comic ever since the first issue, which came out in the mid-1970's. On a more spurious note, JDMG does include rules for zombies, super zombies and a zombie master/mistress to lead them. There are even a couple of scenarios listed that heavily feature zombies, one of which is called "Zombie Apocalypse" and the other "Dekker's Last Stand" pits Judge Dekker and a small force of Judges against Sabbat's horde of zombies. Will she fare better with you in control? In the comic strip she was torn apart by the zombie horde.
The JDMG by Mongoose Games is developed from the old Gangs of Mega City One (GOMC1) rules with a lot more options. The biggest change is that players are no longer limited to controlling one of the many gangs of Mega City One. If you want to take charge of a force of Mega City One Judges (and who wouldn't?) the choice is there. Alternatively, you can play Judges from around the globe, with the Brit City Judges and the East Meg Judges receiving the most attention. Or you can decide you want to control one of the many criminal gangs, be it juves and punks, apes, robots, mobsters or others. There are a lot of options for players to choose from.
Once you have chosen your gang you can arm and equip them with a large variety of gear, limited only by the amount of credits you have at your disposal. You can make your heroes even tougher by allocating Talents to them. These are basically special skills that give the figure an advantage in either scenario play or campaign play. Talents are divided into four categories - skill, weapon, judge and psi. Only Judges may take judge talents and only psykers may take psi talents.
The rules are very simple using the igo-ugo system. One side has the option of movement. melee, shooting or special action, with each figure in their force being able to do two actions per turn. When all of their figures have activated, play moves over to the second player. Anyone familiar with the GOMC1 rules will pick up the new JDMG rules very quickly. Plus, the rules are simple enough that newcomers to the game should have no trouble in learning the game mechanics. The rulebook includes numerous scenarios which may be linked to form a campaign. In addition, they include some memorable encounters from the past that appeared in the comic, like "Dekker's Last Stand" mentioned above.
The rulebook is very professionally produced with full colour throughout its 240 pages. But for me, what makes this game so appealing are the figures and vehicles. I already had all of the figures that Mongoose produced for the GOMC1 game, and they are still available for this new version. The good news is that the range has vastly increased with more individual figures, boxed sets of forces and lots of vehicles. Manta Prowl Tank anyone? Yours for a mere £99.99. No, I don't have one, but believe me, I want one!
The JDMG rulebook costs £30.00. It is hard-backed and when I ordered mine, I received a free figure of Judge Dredd himself. I can highly recommend it, more so if you are a fan of Judge Dredd.