JDMG Scenario 07 - Citi-Def Suspects

When my good friend, Dave Stone, came to visit me recently, he asked if we could play a game of the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game? I was only too happy to oblige. I had been thinking of running a follow up scenario to the last one, Devereux's Debut, so this gave me the perfect opportunity to implement it. Previously, Judge Scott and Psi Judge Devereux had foiled a gun smuggling plot. They arrested the buyers but the seller, Mr. Johnson, managed to escape. However, the most important concern was that they captured all of the stolen guns - a crate load of Spit Gun Rifles. Tek Division went over the evidence and discovered that the guns came from the Citi-Defence armoury of the James Caan Block in Sector 13. Judge Stone was assigned to bring in the James Caan Citi-Def leader, Byron Hazlett, for questioning. He may have been unaware of the missing guns or he might have been either directly or indirectly involved in the crime. Either way, he had to be questioned. As a precautionary measure, Judge Stone requested back-up from Judge Moore and Med-Judge Nash. It proved to be a wise decision!
THE FORCES - MEGA CITY ONE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
Street Judge Stone - Level:3 Infantry Hero with 4 Experience Points and worth 200 Credits.
Stats - Move 5", Agility +2, Shoot +2, Melee +1, Melee Dice 2D, Will +2, Armour +5, Hits 4.
Equipment - Boot Knife, Daystick, Lawgiver Mk II Pistol, Stumm Gas Grenades and Standard Issue Armour.
Talents - Armour Buster, Incendiary, Pour it on and Warning Shot

Street Judge Moore - Level:3 Infantry Hero with 5 Experience Points and worth 200 Credits.
Stats - Move 5", Agility +2, Shoot +3, Melee +1, Melee Dice 2D, Will +1, Armour +5, Hits 3.
Equipment - Boot Knife, Daystick, Lawgiver Mk II Pistol, Stumm Gas Grenades and Standard Issue Armour.
Talents - Accurate, Close Combat Shooter, Crackshot and Luck of Grud.

Med Judge Nash - Level:3 Infantry Hero with 4 Experience Points and worth 200 Credits.
Stats - Move 5", Agility +2, Shoot +2, Melee +1, Melee Dice 2D, Will +2, Armour +5, Hits 3.
Equipment - Boot Knife, Medi-Kit, Lawgiver Mk II Pistol and Standard Issue Armour.
Talents - Doctor, First Aid, Medic and Paramedic. 

THE FORCES - JAMES CAAN BLOCK CITI-DEF SOLDIERS
Byron Hazlett - Level:3 Citi-Def Officer Infantry Hero with 4 Experience Points and worth 165 Credits.
Stats - Move 5", Agility +1, Shoot +1, Melee +0, Melee Dice 2D, Will +2, Armour +5, Hits 4.
Equipment - Spit Gun Rifle and Shell Jacket.
Talents - Agile and Quick Dodge.
Special Rules - Rallying Cry and True Leader.

Joe Markowitz - Level:2 Citi-Def Soldier Infantry Hero with 2 Experience Points and worth 205 Credits.
Stats - Move 5", Agility +1, Shoot +2, Melee +1, Melee Dice 2D, Will +1, Armour +5, Hits 3.
Equipment - Spit Gun Rifle, Hand Bombs and Shell Jacket.
Talents - Aim, Frag out and Suppressing Fire.
Special Rule - Trigger Happy.

Nick Lewis - Level:1 Citi-Def Soldier Infantry Hero with 1 Experience Point and worth 150 Credits.
Stats - Move 5", Agility +1, Shoot +2, Melee +1, Melee Dice 2D, Will +0, Armour +5, Hits 2.
Equipment - Spit Gun Rifle and Shell Jacket.
Talents - Aim and Suppressing Fire.
Special Rule - Trigger Happy.

Russ Kokin - Level:1 Citi-Def Soldier Infantry Hero with 1 Experience Point and worth 150 Credits.
Stats - Move 5", Agility +1, Shoot +2, Melee +1, Melee Dice 2D, Will +0, Armour +5, Hits 2.
Equipment - Spit Gun Rifle and Shell Jacket.
Talents - Aim and Suppressing Fire.
Special Rule - Trigger Happy.

Semel Javan - Level:1 Citi-Def Medtech Infantry Hero with 1 Experience Point and worth 105 Credits.
Stats - Move 5", Agility +2, Shoot +0, Melee +0, Melee Dice 2D, Will +2, Armour +4, Hits 2.
Equipment - Spit Gun Rifle, Hand Bombs and Shell Jacket.
Talents - First Aid and Medic.
Special Rule - Lifesaver.

For this scenario, the Justice Department forces totalled 600 Credits and the Citi-Def soldiers totalled 775 Credits. In theory, it should have been a close match, but that did not take into account the number of critical hits that were rolled!
SET UP
I played this scenario on a single 2' by 2' sci-fi battle mat by Battle Systems to represent part of the interior of the James Caan Block. Dave and I quickly put together some interior walls and added various furniture items to many of the rooms.

The three Judges started in the lower south-west corner.
SPECIAL RULES
The five Citi-Def soldiers on this floor are represented by dice, with each number representing one particular character. I knew which numbers corresponded to which characters but Dave, who was controlling the Judges, didn't. This added a degree of uncertainty to the proceedings. Until he drew Line of Sight to a die, he wouldn't know who he was facing. Just out of interest, the numbers were

1. Nick Lewis - Level:1 Soldier
2. Joe Markowitz - Level:2 Soldier
3. Byron Hazlett - Level:3 Officer
4. Semel Javan - Level:1 Medtech
5. Russ Kokin - Level:1 Soldier

VICTORY CONDITIONS
The Judges must remove Byron Hazlett from the table, preferably alive. The Citi-Defence soldiers win if they prevent this from happening.

AFTERMATH
This was a fun game that was played in good spirits and much amusement. Dave had never played JDMG before, but the rules are very simple and he quickly picked them up without any difficulty. He also quickly learned the value of being in hard cover for his Judges! It looked like an easy victory for the Judges and it certainly was. That was almost certainly down to Dave's amazing dice rolls. He scored an incredible ten 10s on the night! A roll of 10 is an automatic critical hit, which, if it penetrates, will do double damage. Neither of us could believe Dave's good fortune!
When it came to working out the wounds the Citi-Def lot received, things took a turn for the worse. Both Byron Hazlett and Joe Markowitz, the leader and second in command respectively, were killed outright. Oops! Nick Lewis suffered an injured left leg wound (-1 to his Movement stat), Russ Kokin suffered a crippling left arm wound (-1 to his Agility and Melee Dice stats) and Semel Javan took an injury to his left arm (-1 to his Agility stat). All three served time in the iso-cubes.

Judge Stone earned the following experience points -
+1 for surviving the battle.
+1 for slaying a Level:1 Hero.
This earned him 2 experience points, which took him up to 6. Sadly, this was one short of what he needed to reach Level:4. Bad luck, Dave! However, do read the conclusions below!

Judge Moore did exceedingly well. He earned -
+1 for surviving the battle.
+3 for slaying a Level:3 Hero.
+2 for slaying two Level:1 Heroes.
This earned him 6 experience points, enough to raise him to Level:5. However, a character can only advance one level at a time, so he rose to Level:4 with 10 experience points, just one point short of Level:5. He added +1 to his Will score, bringing it up to +2 and +1 to his Hits, bringing them up to 5. He also acquired a new Talent from the Punk Breaker list - Voice of Justice, which allows him to re-roll a failed arrest attempt. He has obviously been taking lessons from Judge Scott.  His credits score increased by +25 to 225.

Med-Judge Nash earned the following experience points -
+1 for surviving the battle.
+2 for slaying a Level:2 Hero.
This earned him 3 experience points, bringing him up to 7, which was just enough to make it to Level:4. He added +1 to his Movement score, bringing it up to 6", so that he can reach wounded colleagues quicker, and +1 to his Hits, bringing them up to 5. He also acquired a new Talent from the Gunslinger list - Accurate, which allows him to re-roll a failed 1D Shoot attempt. His credits score increased by +25 to 225.

CONCLUSIONS
So, was Byron Hazlett innocent or guilty? After an extensive search into his past history, it was determined that he was innocent of any wrongdoing and if had surrendered to the Judges instead of shooting at them, he would have been released without charge. However, when the Judges turned their investigation over to Joe Markowitz they discovered an entirely different story. It was he who "misappropriated" the crate of Spit Guns and it was he who sold them on to a certain "Mr. Johnson". It seemed that Markowitz was in the pocket of the Mob and a search of his financial records uncovered a number of other illegal dealings he was directly involved in. He got his comeuppance in the end but purely because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The other point I want to cover is why all three Judges didn't level up in this scenario. It certainly could have happened. When Russ Kokin shot and wounded Judge Moore that ended Turn 3. At the start of Turn 4 Dave could have chosen any of his three Judges to act first. If Judge Stone acted first he would have almost certainly shot and KO'd Kokin, thus getting the extra experience point he needed to level up. But Dave acted very selflessly and said it just made sense that Judge Moore would lash out at the perp who had just shot him and act first. So, it was Judge Moore who got the last available experience point, even though he didn't need it. It was wasted on him because he was already at the maximum experience points he could attain at Level:4. I have to applaud Dave for such a sporting gesture. Simon, you owe him one!
The campaign is starting to gel really well, and I like how the scenarios are starting to link together. We haven't seen the last of the mysterious "Mr. Johnson" or indeed, Malexica the Necromancer. Hopefully in my next scenario I'll get to feature Judges Burnett, Huntsman and Webb and see if I can get them advanced to Level:4.