Sunday 19 March 2017

JDMG Scenario 05 - Robot Rebellion part 2








AFTERMATH
So, another victory for the Justice Department but that was a very closely fought fight and it could have gone very differently. Judge Huntsman got lucky when she scored a critical hit at just the right time and was able to stab Paddy with her boot knife. Likewise, for Judge Webb against Skabot. In that last melee round, they had both suffered 2 Hits out of 3. Both fights could have gone either way.
Judge Moore sustained an injury to the body and would have suffered a permanent -1 penalty to his Agility and Melee stats but Med Judge Nash prevented them, thanks to his Nurse Talent. Judge Stone took a crippling body wound, which would have resulted in him permanently losing 1 Hit. However, once again, Med Judge Nash came to the rescue and using his Medic Talent, prevented this loss. Judges Scott, Huntsman and Webb all recovered their lost Hits either back at the Sector House or in the case of Judge Scott, in the field, thanks to Med Judge Nash's prompt assistance using his First Aid Talent. All of which proved just how valuable it is to have a Med Judge in your team. Med Judge Nash and Judge Burnett were the only two Judges to survive this encounter unscathed.
I didn't bother rolling for what injuries the renegade robots sustained. As far as I was concerned they would all be imprisoned, reprogrammed or scrapped.

Judge Scott earned the following Experience Points:
+1 for surviving the battle.
+1 for slaying a Level:1 Hero.
This earned him 2 Experience Points, enough to raise him to Level:3 with a total of 5 Experience Points. He added +1 to his Hits, bringing them up to 4. He also acquired a new Talent, Accurate, which allows him to re-roll any shooting attack that misses for weapons that use 1 shooting dice and which do not have the Spray or Explosive special rules. Finally, his Credits score increased by +25 to 200.

Judge Burnett earned the following Experience Points:
+1 for surviving the battle.
+1 for slaying 1 Minion.
This earned him 2 Experience Points, enough to raise him to Level:3 with a total of 5 Experience Points. He added +1 to his Hits, bringing them up to 4. He also acquired a new Talent, Long Shot, which allows him to increase the range of his Lawrod Rifle from 24" to 36". See, he didn't need that Rifle Scope after all! Finally, his Credits score increased by +25 to 210.

Judge Huntsman earned the following Experience Points:
+1 for surviving the battle.
+2 for slaying 2 Minions.
This earned her 3 Experience Points, enough to raise her to Level:3 with a total of 6 Experience Points. She added +1 to her Hits, bringing them up to 4. She also acquired a new Talent, Accurate, which allows her to re-roll any shooting attack that misses for weapons that use 1 shooting dice and which do not have the Spray or Explosive special rules. Finally, her Credits score increased by +25 to 200.

Judge Moore earned the following Experience Points:
+1 for slaying a Level:1 Hero.
+1 for slaying a Minion.
This earned him 2 Experience Points, enough to raise him to Level:3 with a total of 5 Experience Points. He added +1 to his Hits, bringing them up to 4. He also acquired a new Talent, Luck of Grud, which allows him one free re-roll per battle. Finally, his Credits score increased by +25 to 200.

Judge Stone earned the following Experience Points:
+1 for slaying a Minion.
This earned him 1 Experience Point, enough to raise him to Level:3 with a total of 4 Experience Points. He added +1 to his Hits, bringing them up to 4. He also acquired a new Talent, Incendiary, which allows him to add the Explosive 1 special rule when he fires an Incendiary round from his Lawgiver Pistol. Finally, his Credits score increased by +25 to 200.

Judge Webb earned the following Experience Points:
+1 for surviving the battle.
+1 for slaying a Level:1 Hero.
This earned him 2 Experience Points, enough to raise him to Level:3 with a total of 4 Experience Points. He added +1 to his Hits, bringing them up to 4. He also acquired a new Talent, Accurate, which allows him to re-roll any shooting attack that misses for weapons that use 1 shooting dice and which do not have the Spray or Explosive special rules. This was proving to be a very popular Talent choice. Finally, his Credits score increased by +25 to 200.

Med Judge Nash earned the following Experience Points:
+1 for surviving the battle.
+1 for slaying a Level:1 Hero.
This earned him 2 Experience Points, enough to raise him to Level:3 with a total of 4 Experience Points. He added +1 to his Hits, bringing them up to 4. He also acquired a new Talent, Doctor, which allows him to negate three characteristic penalties that have resulted from injury (except those resulting from a body part being torn off). Finally, his Credits score increased by +25 to 200.

CONCLUSIONS
That was definitely the best game of the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game I have played so far. It was action packed, it was exciting, it was tense and it was so much fun to play. Although I felt the Judges held the upper hand throughout there were a number of moments where I was very fearful of the outcome - in particular, the melee fights with the two demolition droids and Skabot. It would appear that melee combat is my team of Judges' big weak point. Only Judge Huntsman is a melee combat specialist. I'll need to work on that in the future. I was particularly delighted to see that all seven Judges earned enough Experience Points to advance to Level:3 and that all of them survived. It was also great to be able to use all of my Hero Judges in one scenario. This won't happen often, so make the most of this encounter.
I'm happy with my team of Judges but after reading some helpful comments on the Lead Adventurer's Forum, I plan on adding an eighth member to the team - a female Psi Judge. I'll be introducing her in my next scenario. Look out for it soon.

36 comments:

  1. Stonkingly good stuff, Bryan, and a genuinely thrilling conclusion... even if my fave Mega-City Lawman wasn't quite there at the end. Great team effort too, and I was especially impressed by Judge Webb lulling his opponents into a false sense of security by appearing incompetent and then going in for the kill with his boot knife - Skabot never stood a chance!! ;-)

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    1. Many thanks, Simon. Don't feel too downhearted about Judge Moore getting KO'd. He slew two robots and thanks to Med Judge Nash, was soon back on the streets. It was a great team effort. Judge Webb certainly redeemed himself with his performance.

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    2. Nice change for me to get the first comment of the day in too - anyone would have thought I was watching out for this particular posting ;-)

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    3. That thought did cross my mind, Simon! :-)

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  2. Great conclusion Bryan, and there was my ouch ! Thank crud for Med Judges. Got to let Simon have first comment every now and then! LOL

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    1. I'm glad you enjoyed it, Dave. As I said before, this was very much a team effort. Your Judge performed well and you should be proud of his performance.

      I'm sure you don't begrudge Simon posting first - I think it made his day! :-)

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    2. Indeed, it proved that the whole team working together gets the job done.
      don't begrudge Simon first post, was checking the blog since 8 this morning as couldn't wait for the next instalment, was half way through reading when I had to stop for work, when I came back Simon had got the first post in, so thumbs up for his diligence

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    3. What a lovely comment. Thanks so much, Dave.

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  3. Great Batrep as always Bryan, I've been working my way through your last few posts and that's why I'm late to the party,(those Robots look fantastic by the way), nice see Judge Webb perform better, but even better to see Judge Moore get put down (poetic Justice, if you'll pardon the pun!).

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Much appreciated, Roger, and it's great to hear from you again. I just knew you'd get a kick out of seeing Judge Moore go down. I must get your two Judges to team up some time and watch the sparks fly. Or most likely, it's probably wisest to keep them apart! ;-)

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    2. I don't know... Judge Webb pops out of the Academy of Law for a moment, gets a lucky blow in on a rusty robot, which was clearly about to shake itself apart anyway through old age, and suddenly he thinks he's Joseph Dredd ;-)

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    3. Lol! Harsh, Simon, very harsh!

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  4. Thanks Bryan, this is the first real chance I've had to catch up with my followed Blogs, as WSD has been keeping me busy. Teaming Judge Webb up with Judge Moore would be like the old series "BJ and the Bear" with Judge Moore as Bear! ;-)

    I was just going to Email you by the way about something on the TMP, but I see you saw it first.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Moore and Webb as "BJ and the Bear" - now there's am image I can't get out of my head!

      If you're talking about that beautiful Vampirella figure then, yes, I most certainly did see it. Anyway, thanks for thinking of me. Much appreciated. :-)

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    2. No no no Bryan! Webb & Moore as BJ and the Bear!

      Billing is all important here! ;-)

      And yes it was Vampi, Cheers Roger.

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    3. I stand corrected, Roger.

      I've left a reply for you on the TMP, just to thank you once again.

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  5. Loving these Battle reports Bryan just had a glorious hour catching up on them all.

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    1. Cheers, Simon. They are a lot of fun, both to play and to write up. I'm really loving the comic format of them.

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  6. Aww man, I was really gunning for the robots too!
    Still, a really fun read Bryan. I still think the judges seem to have an upper hand in these rules going by your battle reports!

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    1. Thanks, Dai. To be fair, the robots were very tough opposition and the game could have gone horribly wrong for the Judges if not for some fortuitous dice rolls. The Judges have so many advantages going for them that they are hard to beat. Mind you, Malexica managed just fine against them!

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  7. Med Judge Nash, kicking ass and patching them up!! I think the nurse skill should be renamed Paramedic...

    Great batrep, just spot on. - loads of action, pinch points where the game could have swung either way and thrilling conclusion.

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    1. Andy, I think you could argue that Med Judge Nash was the man of the match. Without him the Judges would have fared very badly, particularly in the aftermath. I'll happily rename the Nurse talent to Paramedic just for you. :-)

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  8. I am sure you are not bored yet of people saying how much they are enjoying this. It really is good! I seriously mean that.

    I may feel inspired to copy you in some ways. Not my blog. But perhaps a show/participation game. I will think more this. I think it could be a whole lot of fun!

    I am sure I have said it but the comic book style is tremendous as well it al adds to the blog post very nicely!

    Bravo sir.

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    1. That is very much appreciated, Clint. The comic format has been a resounding success and is here to stay.

      The game certainly has the potential to be an outstanding demo or participation game at a convention. You just need the right combination of figures, scenery and terrain to make it shine. If you do go ahead, I wish you the very best of luck. Oh, and take lots of photos!

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    2. I am now pondering scenery for a show game.

      Blocks Need to be HUGE. Plaza's can be expansive as well. But there needs to be a sense of just how big a mega city bloc is. maybe a painted 2 d "Block" Painted on Board at the side of the table might work. With it you could go quite tall.....

      Curse it thinking again!

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    3. When it comes to representing Mega City One on a gaming board you have many options and choices you can make, so it's not as hard to do as you may first think. Building tall is certainly one option. But you could represent just one floor, or better still, part of one floor of a city block. Keep all the action on one level.

      MC1 has suffered a massive amount of destruction in the past thirty years and much of it lies in ruins. So a bombed out cityscape would work just as well.

      I would also look at scenery designed for other games. If you still have the scenery that Games Workshop made for "Necromunda" that is ideal for MC1. I'm thinking of incorporating some of it in future scenarios. Look around and be creative.

      Oh, and a painted backdrop would definitely sell it, Clint.

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    4. Cheers mate I was just thinking out loud. Let me stew on it some more!

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  9. Hmm, if your shooting is good enough then you shouldn't *need* melee skills, I think :-) .

    Med Judge Nash seems to have been a bit short-changed when it comes to experience points, since he pretty much saved the crew all on his own.

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    1. I'm looking to get a lot more Judges with the Close Combat Shooter Talent, so that they can use their Lawgivers in melee combat. That should work.

      I kind of agree with you about Med Judge Nash but the rules concentrate on experience for foes slain or arrested rather than on saving lives. Unfair? You could certainly argue that it is.

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  10. Great battle report Bryan. I'm liking the fact that I feel like I'm getting to know some of the judges and that makes the combat more tense because I want them to win but care about the possibility of losing some of them along the way. Great stuff.

    Glad to see there were no robodogs hurt in this action.

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    1. This is precisely what any good story should be about - having its readers care about the characters. I feel the same way about your own "Keep on the Borderlands" campaign, Tim.

      Robodogs can sleep safely tonight!

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  11. Oh man I was on the edge of my seat reading that!!!! I was really afraid the Judges were going to be overwhelmed. That must have been some exciting dice rolling! Awesome stuff as always Bryan! ;)

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    1. Let me tell you, Tom, I was on the edge of my seat when I was playing this. Those melee fights could have gone either way. Even so, it was an incredibly fun game to play. More to come soon.

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  12. Hey Bryan,

    I jsut wanted to let you know that there are some official Frazetta miniatures up on Kickstarter and they include a "Vampire Queen" which is obviously based on Vampira. Maybe it's of interest to you.

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/killboxgames/frazetta-miniatures

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    1. Hi there, Cherno. Many thanks for the heads up, and yes, I most certainly am backing this Kickstarter.

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