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.