Thursday 8 December 2016

JDMG MC1 Perps - Bad Bones and Barko Brothers Street Gangs

Over the next few posts I'll be looking at some of the perps who'll be appearing in my Judge Dredd Miniatures Game campaign. Some are individuals and some are street gangs. Perps come in all forms, shapes and sizes. They can be alien, ape, human, robot, supernatural or whatever you want them to be. For a campaign of the length I'm envisaging, I'll need lots of perps and lots of variety. Fortunately, I have these in abundance. Remember, I've been collecting figures since the late 1970's and I always preferred science fiction gaming to fantasy gaming so I really am spoiled for choice. The two official producers of figures for JDMG, Mongoose Publishing and Warlord Games, made a small selection of perp figures and perp gangs. I have them all but I also have many other miniatures that fit in just as perfectly.
Games Workshop's Necromunda skirmish game is a great source for Mega City One perps. Any of their under-hive gangs would make good choices as perp gangs and I plan on using most of them in my campaign. What many of you may not know is that Necromunda was spun off from a previous attempt of Games Workshop to popularize a set of rules for low-key skirmish battles in a hive world setting. White Dwarf magazine published such a rule-set between autumn and winter 1990–91 dubbing it Confrontation. It was set on the hive world of Necromunda but made no reference to houses and such, instead concentrating itself on the various types of gangs: clan warriors from the spires, brat 'poseurs' from the upper levels who went 'down' to experience the thrills of lowlife, under-city mutants, diseased scavengers from the toxic wastes and the Adeptus Arbites ever-ready to deal swift and summary "Judge Dredd"-like justice. It all sounds very much like Mega City One, doesn't it? Here are two of my current MC1 street gangs based on 28mm scale figures from the Confrontation game - the Bad Bones gang and the Barko Brothers gang.
The figures for the gangs in Confrontation usually consisted of a leader, who was a one-piece metal casting, and three metal gangers who came with a sprue of separate plastic arms and weapons. At the far left is the leader of the Bad Bones gang - Cranford Cranium. He is a Level:2 Punk Infantry Hero, equipped with Pad Armour and a Double-Barrelled Stump Gun. A Stump Gun is what we know as a Shotgun. I gave him three Talents - Brave, which allows him to re-roll all Will to Fight rolls, and Drokk the Law, which is used to inspire his gang. Any allies within 15" of him may re-roll any failed Will roll to resist arrest. Finally, I gave him Medic, which allows him to heal one Injury characteristic after a fight. 
Next in line is the gang's sniper, Phil Fibula. He is a Level:1 Punk Infantry Hero and is equipped with Leather Armour and a Long Rifle with Scope-sight. His rifle came from the Wargames Foundry Street Violence range. His two talents are Accurate, which allows him to re-roll any Shoot attack that uses 1 Dice and Crackshot which gives him a -1 bonus to any firearm's AP score.
Completing the gang are Tim Tibia, Stewart Sternum and Roddy Radius. Tim and Roddy are the same figure but with different arms and weapons. All three are Level:0 Punk Infantry Minions. Tim is equipped with Leather Armour and a Stump Gun. I sculpted his Stump Gun and it resembles a Franchi SPAS12 Shotgun. Roddy and Stewart also wear Leather Armour and carry a Hand Gun Pistol each. With a combined Credits rating of 330 a couple of level:1 Judges should be able to take them out. Oddly enough, I have never used them in a game, so I'm looking forward to using them in my JDMG campaign.
The Barko Brothers gang appears in the JDMG rulebook as the gang to be used for your first try out of the rules (see pages 18 and 19). I'll be replacing Judge Mackey with my own Judge Scott for my very first JDMG batrep. Look out for it in early January 2017. The rulebook suggest using four gang members for the Barko Brothers but I'll be using all five of my figures in my game. Seeing as they have a Credits rating of 215 and Judge Scott at Level:1 has a Credits rating of 150 the odds do favour the perps. The Credits rating is a device used to create equal forces in a game but it is not something I'll be sticking rigidly to. I don't go along with the philosophy that both sides in a fight should be equally matched. When does that ever happen in real life?
At the far left is the leader and eldest brother of the gang - Rex Barko. He is a Level:1 Punk Infantry Hero and is armed with two Sawed Off Stump Guns. He and his brothers are unarmoured. He has the same two Talents as Cranford Cranium, Brave and Drokk the Law. Moving right, is Butch Barko. He and his younger brothers are all Level:0 Punk Infantry Minions. Butch is armed with a Stump Gun and a Knife. In the centre of the group is Bob Barko. His figure is identical to Butch but with different arms and weapons. He is armed with a Handgun Pistol. Second from the right is Bailey Barko and he is also armed with a Handgun Pistol. Finally, at far right is the youngest brother, Benji Barko. He is armed with an Antique Pistol and a Knife. In actual fact the figure is holding a Crossbow Pistol, but I upgraded it to an Antique Pistol for this scenario. The Barko Brothers are members of the Howlin' Wolves street gang from Chester Burnett Block. The fact that the figures have been sculpted with wolf-skin head dresses made them perfect candidates for use as Howlin' Wolves gang members.

21 comments:

  1. Love your posts, with the history of where thy came from very informative. Great looking gangs, your campaign will have so much diversity I'm looking forward to seeing the posts of it

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    1. Thanks, Dave. I figured that not many people will have heard of "Confrontation" or the few figures that were made for it. Most gamers know about "Necromunda" but it was spawned from "Confrontation."

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    2. Still have that white dwarf, but then that's starting to show my age

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    3. Ha, ha, yes, so do I and I am old!

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  2. Not seen the Bones gang before But I do erhm.... "like" them.
    But I have a Ratskin Necromunda gang so I guess my sympathies go to them. Bah. Sympathy is one of the signs you may be ready for the long walk... Sentancing myself to a 10 day iso cube stay for un Judge like feeling!

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    1. And quite right, too! You can't have sympathies for anyone who breaks the Law.

      The Barko Brothers would make good allies for the Necromunda Ratskins.

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  3. Confrontation was a really nice beginning for that GW spin off. I actually wrote a couple of the short stories for that hive world, back when I was writing for GW. I loved Necromunda and it was the inspiration for many of my successive rpg games. WotC even tried a spin off of their own, when they invented their Eberron setting.

    love your figures in this post, they really inspire me with my own project. Really nicely painted dude.

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    1. You never cease to amaze me with your past exploits, Steve. I was a huge fan of Necromunda. My first thought when I saw it was, this is Mega City One, not Necromunda! Thanks for the kind words.

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  4. Blimey Bryan, what a throwback to the great days of "White Dwarf"!! At the time I was far more interested in "Space Marine" (later known as "Epic") but then later found the "Confrontation" rules for weapons in WD #142 to be priceless for making up my own version of "Space Hulk" using Orks and Space Marines.

    Your two MC-1 gangs really look great too, and you've clearly given their backstory some series thought. They're going to be great in your "Judge Dredd" campaign :-)

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed these blasts from the past, Simon. I have even more to show in my next post - two larger gangs based on the "Confrontation" figures. Back in the good old days, White Dwarf was a great gaming mag and Games Workshop produced some amazing figures. Yes, I am highly critical of them now, but that certainly wasn't always the case.

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  5. God that takes me back, confrontation always looked interesting as did some of the rogue trader stuff they did back then too, never took the plunge though (wish I had now0 I was too busy buying spacemarines back then. Did dally with Necromunder though when it came out, but sold all my figures on at a later date, cant' remember the name of the gang I had now (it was the baldie chaps in long coats). I'm toying with having another purge of my painted figures in the new year, I'll probably regret it later buti never learn.

    Nice background and painting as always Bryan.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks, Roger. Funny you should mention Rogue Trader, as some of the figures that Citadel made way back then for it will be making an appearance in my JDMG campaign.

      The Necromunda gang you're thinking of with the bald heads and the long coats were the Delaques. They are perfect for a JDMG street gang.

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  6. I remember Confrontation well, but played Necromunda more. Damon and I got into it way back when and I still have a sizeable collection of gangers and the like, sadly I lost most of the terrain for it, it was a fantastic game!

    They will definite prove to be really useful in your campaign and look fab, love those bones.

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    1. Thanks, Andy. It is good that so many of my followers remember "Confrontation." The Necromunda terrain will work brilliantly in a Judge Dredd game. I still have all of mine but they need re-basing. A task for the future.

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  7. Now that takes me back. Have to admit i was always a fan of House Cawdor - the nooses and executioner style hoods were cool. Love the paint job on the Bad Bones gang - reminds me of the Eldar heavy weapons chaps...Reapers or something?

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    1. Thanks, Jez. Not being a big fan of the Eldar I can neither confirm nor deny your Reapers suggestion. Sorry.

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  8. Dark reapers in eldar and Death Jesters in Harlequins were both ornamented with bones and skulls in the early variations

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    1. Cheers, Dave, and thanks for letting me know.

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    2. No problem Bryan, always liked the darker elements to these probably why I liked the dark judges, yet I very rarely do skulls on the bits I make ! Weird

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  9. Hmm, I didn't know about Confrontation. Interesting; thanks for that!

    A nice selection of gangers, for sure. Presumably those are fake wolf pelts (some elastane/polymer mix, no doubt). I imagine that real wolves aren't very numerous near Chester Burnett Block - and if they were then these low level punks wouldn't be able to catch ands skin them!

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    1. They probably are fake wolf-skins, Hugh. The Nuclear War wiped out most of the wildlife on the planet and certainly in the USA.

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