Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter - a Review

This world is not the only one. That was the painful lesson learned by the denizens of Mega City One when Judge Death descended upon the city from Deadworld. With him, they first encountered dimension jump. The Dark Judges came again and again, ravaging the people of this world in their judgement. 
The Sovs' dimension shield flung nukes into alternate worlds during the Apocalypse War. Judge Cal brought old enemies to Mega City One, colliding different realities to destroy Dredd once and for all. Each time, the very fabric of reality was stretched and the line between worlds blurred.
Now, whatever was holding the world and its neighbours apart has shattered. Buildings flicker in and out of existence. Horrifying creatures roam the streets. People long-dead and from the far future are appearing, joined by many who had never existed in this world at all. Death and destruction rule supreme.
It's Helter Skelter.
But there is hope for those with the willpower to brave the chaos. As the worlds bleed together, some fragments of reality remain pure, untouched by the cataclysm around them. By finding and connecting these fragments, they can restore the world they're from and its inhabitants can return.

This is the rationale behind the Judge Dredd: Helter Skelter boardgame. The game is designed for two to four players but I have been playing it solo with two factions. The game board is double-sided with the Dan Tanna and Enid Blyton blocks shown on one side (see photo above) and the Grand Hall of Justice on the other side. To win, a faction must collect five of their fragments of reality and/or kill five enemies or any combination adding up to five. The game uses no dice but is entirely card driven. Gameplay is very simple and easy to learn. The rulebook is only 12 pages long. There are four factions in the game, each comprising of five unique 28mm scale figures.

The Judges
The Judges are the Law in Mega City One, the last bastion of order in a world gone mad. The Judges are fierce fighters who excel when working closely together, but they are more than capable on their own.

Judge Giant is a steadfast soldier and a fierce warrior, wielding his shotgun to deadly effect.
Judge Anderson's psi abilities weaken her opponents, leaving her foes vulnerable.
Chief Judge Hershey is a savvy strategist, excellent at manoeuvring herself and her team to deadly effect.
Judge Dredd is a force of nature, firing high-explosive rounds to destroy his foes.
Mean Machine has been drafted to join the Judges in the chaos, and his extreme capacity for violence is a welcome addition to the team.

The Strontium Dogs
The Search/Destroy agents, better known as the Strontium Dogs, are space-travelling bounty hunters and mutants warped by the fallout from the Atomic War. The Strontium Dogs rely on their ranged capabilities, but they aren't afraid to get up-close and personal.

Middenface McNulty is a seasoned warrior, well-equipped and hard-headed.
Durham Red is a powerful mutant with vampiric abilities, and a lethal close-up combatant.
Johnny Alpha, their leader, combines the supernatural abilities of his eyes with excellent gunmanship.
Wulf Sternhammer is a brawler through and through, and goes toe-to-toe with the strongest of them.
The Gronk is a timid soul and not much for combat, but it's always on hand to heal its friends.

Nikolai Dante
Nikolai Dante and his allies are well versed in war and chaos, hardened in the battles between the Makarovs and the Romanovs. They rely on their speed to get close to their foes, quickly trading range for melee powers.

Viktor Romanov is a solitary warrior, with his power to transform into an eagle granting him great mobility and strength.
Tsarina Jena Makarov is a born leader, commanding her allies on the battlefield with natural ease.
Nikolai Dante is an expert with his sword and his rifle, the courageous leader of the team.
Elena Kurakin Nikolai's bodyguard, promises a swift and violent end to anybody who threatens him.
Lulu Romanov has the power to create swarms of demons to overpower her foes, extending her reach.

Slaine MacRoth
Slaine MacRoth leads a small group of his closest; his wife and son, and his chronicler Ukko. Outnumbered and Outgunned, they rely on brute force and cunning play to reach victory.

Ukko is a cunning and stealthy dwarf, who causes a lot of damage when he gets up close.
Slaine MacRoth wields his massive axe Brainbiter, demolishing his foes, and is capable of transforming into a berserking hulk.
Niamh is a vicious and strong-willed fury across the battlefield, unmatched for speed.
Kai is trained in the Druidic arts, and is able to wield his magic for rejuvenation or destruction.
Warp-Spasm Slaine does not start the game but must be transformed into by Slaine. Once transformed, he remains in this form for the rest of the game.

The figures have all been ink-washed, which really shows of their stunning detail. I mainly bought this game for the figures but instantly fell in love with the gameplay. Up till now, no-one has ever made Nikolai Dante figures, so they are a most welcome addition. I was asked to provide a size comparison photo and here it is.

From left to right are a Wargames Foundry Judge, a Mongoose Judge, a Warlord Games Judge and the Osprey Games Judge Dredd. He is a good match size-wise but is more realistically proportioned. I will, of course, be painting all of the Helter Skelter miniatures.The sculpting of them is excellent. They are made of hard plastic.
Each player sets up on the board in five of 40 zones randomly selected by an opponent. Players receive seven action cards at the start of the game and can play any amount of them to activate their characters providing the card has a symbol that matches the chosen character. It costs one card to move one zone or to make an attack or defence, two cards to climb to a higher level and three cards to pick up a fragment of reality token. Fragment of reality tokens are randomly assigned to five zones not occupied by a player. Each turn, players receive three new cards to restock their hands but can't go over seven cards. The key to winning is knowing what cards to play on what characters, making it a very tactical game and a lot of fun.
For any 2000 AD fan, this is a must have game as I can't recommend it too highly. It's fast, it's fun, it's easy to play but hard to master, so give it a try. I have played it quite a few times now using different factions against each other and all my games have been very closely fought with either side having a good chance of winning so it would seen all four factions are evenly matched. As I said in my last Monthly Musings, Amazon UK are selling it for £39.00 instead of £60.00 - a massive saving.

MC1 Citizens 08

In this post I'm showcasing three 28mm scale male Mega City One citizens, all of whom were sculpted by me. I've used them in other sci-fi games, as they are generic enough to be used in more than one sci-fi setting.

 The citizen at the far left serves a number of useful purposes. Is he just an ordinary shopper? Or is he something more sinister - a terrorist, perhaps? Is he carrying a bomb in his bags? Is that a real beard and moustache? Why the dark glasses and wide brimmed hat?
In the centre is the only named character out of this trio. He is Jon Kupishii, an office worker. He is carrying a briefcase and a folded up overcoat. Because he is keeping his head lowered, he might have a shady secret. Or maybe it's just a wise precaution because in a city with so many adults being unemployed, those with a job are often resented.

Finally is an anonymous shopper. This fashionable young man has been shopping for groceries at Mosgrove and Thrung, a well known department store (think Marks and Spencers), noted for their green bags with the distinctive white M&T logo.
I still have few more citizen types to show you but they'll keep for another time.

MC1 Citizens 07

Here are another four female citizens from Mega City One. These four 28mm scale figures were sculpted by me many years ago. Two of them are named NPCs whilst the other two are yet to be named.

At the far left is Mercedes Night. Mercedes is a private investigator who specialises in tracking down missing persons. She is carrying a torch in her right hand. Note that she is unarmed as she does not have a permit allowing her to carry restricted weapons. Although she can carry legally sanctioned weapons, she prefers not to.
Next up is Joanna Lubley, a blocker whose hobby is shopping for clothes, shoes, handbags and perfumes. When Games Workshop brought out the first Judge Dredd RPG in the 1980's they included a couple of sheets of cardboard NPCs for you to cut out and use in your games. One of those NPCs was Joanna and I based my sculpt on the picture of her.

Second from the right is another blocker, a citizen who spends her entire life in one city block. She is not based on any character that I'm aware of - she's just the product of my fertile imagination. In case you're wondering, those question marks on her jacket were drawn on her with a fine nibbed Rotring pen.
Finally, this brunette citizen was originally designed to be used in Cyberpunk games like Cyberpunk 2020 or Shadowrun, but of course she fits in just as well in Mega City One where I'll use her as a standard Citizen.

MC1 Citizens 06

In this post and the next one I'm going to take a look at some of my female sci-fi citizens to use as inhabitants of Mega City One. Rather unusually, all five have been given names by me.

At the far left is Maria Mercurial, the star of an old Shadowrun scenario. The figure was produced by Ral Partha and she has cybernetic arms and legs. The sculpting on her is exquisite and perfectly proportioned. In MC1 she would be a Star, a notable singer with a big following of fans.
Next in line is Tina Merrill, who is either a Blocker or a Citizen. She is a very old figure produced by Citadel Miniatures as part of their Spacefarers range which were created long before Warhammer 40,000 came into being.
In the centre of the group is Takazumi Tomokumi a 1/48th scale model who came with a plastic Manga hover vehicle. I forget who exactly produced her and the vehicle but it was a Japanese firm. Given that she is a driver I've decided to make her a professional Driver. She will undoubtedly be one of the racers in the Superslab Slam scenario that appears in the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD rulebook (see p.203 -207).

Fourth in line in Zoe Heriot whom fans of Doctor Who may recognise as one of the companions of the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton). Her figures is produced by Black Tree Designs. I'll be using her as an Employee - a Personal Assistant to a corporate manager.
Last up is Kisten Galdot, a Blocker or Citizen. She was produced by West End Games as a rebel operative for their Star Wars range.

MC1 Citizens 05

Here are another five male citizens of Mega City One. From left to right the first and fourth figure were produced by Grenadier Miniatures as part of their  Traveller range. The second figure is from Citadel Miniatures Spacefarers range. The fifth figure is from Moonraker Miniature's Spacelords range. I have no idea who produced the third figure. As with the others he is a very old figure bought in the 1980's.
At the far left is an ambassador according to Grenadier Miniatures. I will use him as one of the Social Elite in Mega City One.
Next to him is another member of Mega City One's Social Elite. He is the only figure out of this batch that I have name. He is called Cyrano Curtiz.
Third in line is yet another Social Elite citizen. He is obviously dressed as an ancient Roman Senator. His mirror-shades look out of place but places him in a much later time period. The reason I bought him was to use him in my old The Ace of Spades Campaign using the GURPS rules. Many citizens of the Mercantile League dress up in ancient Roman costumes. Also, much of their architecture is inspired by the ancient Roman Empire. Given the wacky and weird costumes worn by many MC1 citizens, I figured he'd fit in well in this sprawling metropolis.

Second from the right is some kind of scientist. The best career option for him is the Boffin, who are skilled scientists and some of the most sought after citizens in the city.
Finally is a doctor. Sadly there is no career option for a doctor in Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD, so I'll use the Medic career option from the N.E.W. rulebook for him. The beauty of the WOIN rulebooks is that they can all be used for cross overs.

MC1 Citizens 04

Continuing my look at my figures of Mega City One citizens here are six more males. These are a mixed bunch with the three to the left being the same figure from their 25mm scale Spacefarers sci-fi range (1980), the next two were produced by West End Games for their 25mm scale Star Wars range. Sadly I have no recollection of who made the figure at the far right. I do know that I bought him in the 1980's. Despite these all being 25mm scale figures they still fit in well with my 28mm to 32mm scale figures.

The figure at the far left was such a generic looking civilian that I bought three of them. Apart from their paint schemes, the first two are identical. The one at the far right is either a Blocker or a Citizen. Next to him is an Eldster as denoted by his pale grey hair. For the third one I added a can of a fizzy drink to his right hand.

Third from the left is the surly bartender, Cedo Partu from the Mos Eisley cantina on Tatooine from the film, Star Wars IV - A New Hope. He could be either a bartender or a barfly in Mega City One.
Next up is a rebel operative. I don't think he appeared in any of the films but he might have made a very brief appearance.
The unknown figure at the far right is just another generic sci-fi civilian.

MC1 Citizens 03

I still have lots more figures of Mega City One citizens to show you so without further ado, here is the next batch. These six figures were all produced by Citadel Miniatures in the 1980's. The three to the left were alternate Time Lords from their Doctor Who range. The next two are from their Judge Dredd range of figures and the final figure is a Rogue Trader psyker. Most of them have not been named.

First in line is a Social Elite civilian wearing the most extravagant clothing to show off his wealth and eccentricity.
Second from the left is an African-American Citizen. He walks with a limp hence his need to use a walking cane.
Next up is another eccentrically dressed Citizen. He is carrying a "boom box" in his right hand

Moving on is a Blocker. This figure was originally a perp holding a pistol but I clipped off his pistol to convert him into a Blocker. His T-Shirt features Belinda Plook, who was most notably arrested by Judge Dredd whilst performing at the Megavision Song Concert. Note that I have made figures of Belinda and her band which I'll show in a later post.
The only named character from this group is the second from the right. She is Melda Dreep, a Blocker, who lit the fuse to the Block Wars when someone from a rival block dropped an ice cream on her head. As a result, Block Mania spread throughout Mega City One resulting in a massive death toll. The Block Mania story was a prologue to the much longer The Apocalypse War story.
Finally is a Psyker citizen. Psykers are individuals with psionic powers but are not members of Justice Department. Justice Department tries to recruit as many psykers as possible into their Psi Division; however, many with appropriate talents are unable to be Judges. Some may be too old to enter the Academy of Law – although the age limit can be raised for those whose powers are revealed at a later date there is a limit to this. If powers are first spotted in a teenager or adult then they are considered far too old to become a Judge.

MC1 Citizens 02

Preparations are well in hand for the start of my new Judge Dredd campaign. In the past, I have shown a lot of my Judges, Perps and Robots but not many Citizens. In this post and the next few posts I'll be showcasing a lot more of my Citizen figures starting with these six, all produced by Moonraker Miniatures as part of their Spacelords range. Most of my Citizens have not been given names but some have.

At the far left is a male citizen from set 3706 - Civilians. Based on the career choices in the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD rulebook, I'd class him as a bog standard Citizen - one of the multitudes living in Mega City One who try to keep their heads down to stay out of trouble. Alternatively, he could be a Blocker.
Next in line is a Ship's Crewman from set 3720 - Ship's Crew. He could be a Pilot, Scientist or Engineer or even a Smuggler. He'll be in big trouble if the Judges spot him smoking that cigar!
Third from the left is another Citizen or Blocker who is also from set 3706 - Civilians. Blockers were born and raised in a city block and quite often spend their whole lives there, never venturing outdoors. After all, the block provides all they would ever want.

Third from the right is an armed civilian from set 3701 - Adventurers. He could be a small business owner or perhaps even a Survivalist. Note that ownership of a pistol is not necessarily a criminal offence - it all depends upon the type of pistol.
Second from the right is another Civilian from set 3706 - Civilians. He, too, is armed and is very similar to the previous Citizen in that he too, is armed with a Pistol.
Last up is the only female of this group and the only one I have named. She is Falujah Faliraki, the fourth figure from set 3706 - Civilians. In my mind, she has to be one of the Social Elite where she attends all the best social functions that happen in the best blocks in the sector.

MC1 Assorted Perps 01

I am currently working on preparations for the start of my new Judge Dredd campaign, using the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD RPG rules by EN Publishing. I already have most of the figures I need for the start of my campaign but I'm working on adding more. A lot of my time has been taken up in creating character record sheets for my Judges, citizens and perps. In a Judge Dredd campaign, if you're playing Judges (which I'll be doing) you'll need a constant supply of perps. So in this post I present four new perps. None of them are named yet but that'll change soon.

At the far left is a tough-looking female armed with a pair of Spit Pistols. Her left arm has been replaced with a cybernetic arm, no doubt because of a serious injury. I see her as a gang leader or high ranking perp. The figure was produced by Warlord Games as a limited edition figure, along with a Judge armed with a Lawrod who were only available if you bought the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game rulebook and its supplement, Blood on the Streets. I already had both books and did not want to fork out for extra copies just to get two rare figures. However, I later found both figures for sale without the rulebooks on eBay and luckily the seller had a "buy now" option. I think I paid about £10 for the pair, which I considered a bargain.

The next two figures are a pair of Juve twin sisters, both wearing respirators and armed with a Spit Pistol each. These cost me absolutely nothing! My brother printed them out for me on his 3D printer after he downloaded them for free from the Thingyverse website. They are not perfect by any means and whilst on the small side do remember you can scale 3D prints up or down. At this size, they fit in perfectly as Juves. The one at the left is the original sculpt, whilst the one on the right has had her right arm cut off and repositioned by me. I like them.
Finally is a mutant Punk or Wrecker armed with a big hammer. He is in fact an Orc Coach from Mantic Games Dreadball game, available here http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/mantic-points/dreadball/product/15-mantic-points-coach-orcy.html I decided to paint him as a human mutant, hence his flesh skin tones and make his pointed ears and large teeth his mutation.
You can never have too many Perps when playing Judge Dredd and these are all useful additions to my collection.

Vampifans Views 116 - Monthly Musings 86

February has been a very good month for me on the hobby front. I'll get round to that soon, but first I present another portrait of my favourite vampire, Vampirella, as painted by Manuel Sanjulian. It is a very beautiful portrait that I like a lot. Vampirella just oozes sex appeal here.

I have been painting and am continuing to paint a lot of 35mm scale Doctor Who miniatures from Warlord Games. I just recently finished painting the 9th and 11th Doctor and their companions sets. On my painting desk right now are the 4th Doctor and his companions, the five figure Master set and Kahler-Tek the Gunfighter (a free figure if you spend £75 or more, which was so easy to do). With quite a backlog of Doctor Who figures to paint I did not want it grow any bigger, which is why I have been doing my best to reduce it. They are a lot of fun to paint so it certainly isn't a chore.
I also still have loads of 32mm scale Black Scorpion Tombstone figures to paint, so I have also been making inroads into getting more of them finished. Black Scorpion is my favourite manufacturer of Wild West and Weird West figures, so painting them is a real pleasure. I am currently painting a group of skeletons and zombies which I hope to showcase soon.

On the gaming front, I finished playing the basic Resident Evil 2 campaign from the starter set. My heroes survived and completed it successfully. I look forward to trying out some of the expansion sets. I have almost completed the campaign provided with the Here's Negan board-game, which has been a lot of fun. No survivor deaths so far, so fingers crossed I can successfully finish the 12 scenarios that make up the campaign. Also, I completed the first scenario of my St. Trinian's campaign using the N.O.W. rulebook. You can read it on my WOIN blog. It was an incredible amount of fun.

Just last week, I bought a brand new game called Judge Dredd - The Cursed Earth, a card game by Osprey Games. The premise of the game is that a group of three Judges (Dredd, Giant and PSI Judge Anderson) are searching the Cursed Earth for Max Normal who has fled Mega City One. Also on his tail are a group of perps led by Mean Machine Angel. The Judges must find Max before the perps do. Gameplay is very simple and it does not take too long to play a game. You can play as a solo player (always a big plus for me) or as a team either co-operatively or competitively with Judges verses Perps. Playing as the Judges is the default mode. Also, there are three difficulty levels for the game - Cadet (beginners level), Judge (standard level) and Chief Judge (difficult level). Each investigation is split into two day parts beginning at Dawn and Dusk. In each part, six Encounter cards are laid out in a row and must be played in order from left to right. In the Dawn phase, the player chooses three cards from his hand of six to play and the top three cards from the deck to form a row of six cards which are arranged in numerical order from low to high. At Dusk, the player places his remaining three cards from his hand plus the top three cards from the deck but each card placed can be placed to the left or right of the row. Once they have all been resolved the player draws six more Encounter cards to add to his hand. A new day begins at Dawn.

The encounter cards show their numerical value at the bottom left corner. The boxes at the top of the cards are split into three codes - yellow boxes are compulsory and must be played; red boxes are choices (you choose one red box to play and ignore the other red boxes); blue boxes are optional - you can decide whether to play them or not. The symbols in the boxes must be resolved in order from left to right. They can be good, granting you resources or allowing you to progress through the Cursed Earth, or bad by removing your valuable resources, wounding you or allowing the Perps to advance. A symbol in a circle is bad, a symbol not in a circle is good.

Here is an example of the end of a game. The black meeple on the Max Normal card at the right of the row of location cards shows that the Judges have won. The grey meeple on the Great Dust Bowl card in the same row represents the Perps. My thoughts on this game are very favourable. The cards are large tarot card-sized with beautiful and evocative artwork. It is a very difficult game to win, which is not meant as a criticism. I played Cadet level first and won first time, by the skin of my teeth, admittedly. Afterwards, I played eight Judge level games and only won once, again by the skin of my teeth. I have not attempted to play Chief Judge level. My only criticisms are that the tokens are made of thin card; I'd have preferred they be made of much thicker card. Also, I do not like the two meeples used to represent the Judges and the Perps. In my opinion, they cheapen the look of the game. I use a 28mm scale figure of Judge Dredd and Mean Machine Angel to replace them.
If you are a fan of Judge Dredd I can highly recommend this game. It costs £24.99 from the Osprey Games webstore. However, I bought my copy from Amazon UK for just £21.23.

Strontium Dog - Wasters

The last set from Warlord Games' wave 3 of Strontium Dog figures are the Wasters set. This blister pack contains three human figures.

Wasters appear in the lists for the Outlaws and the Pirates/Slavers on pages 82 and 83 of the Strontium Dog rulebook and are all armed with Basic Hand Blasters. However, these figures are armed with a Club, a Basic Hand Blaster and a Basic Blaster Rifle respectively. I like the fact that they all have different weapons as it makes each one an individual.

Wasters are not the most reliable of Allies. They are cheap, however. I like them a lot. They are well sculpted and definitely fit in well with the rest of this range. They could easily fit in other sci-fi games as starport scum or street gangers. As I said, they come in a blister pack and don't have any stat cards or Armoury and Chicanery cards. This set costs £8.00, which is pretty good value for money.

Strontium Dog - Build a Mutie Set 01

The Great Atom War of 2150 decimated Britain's population and saw a massive increase in mutant births due to the fallout of the radioactive isotope, Strontium 90. Mutants are vilified, shunned and segregated into mutant ghettoes, away from decent normal folk.

Mutations can range from the mundane to the extreme and this set allows you to build your own mutant miniatures - either to use as S/D Agents or as downtrodden muties railing against the draconian laws passed by the Norms. A variety of arms, legs, torsos, heads and weapons allow you to build five mutant models in a myriad of different configurations.

This set contains, five sets of legs, five sets of torsos, ten heads and over ten right and left arms mostly with weapons. They are all fully interchangeable, giving you a near infinite variety of combinations. I have based my figures on those shown on the back of the boxed set and the Warlord Games webstore. In addition, you get three Armoury cards (Anti-grav Chute, Medipack and Frag Bomb) and two Chicanery cards (Angry Mob and Sneak Attack). This boxed set costs £20.00

Strontium Dog - Scum of the Universe

Where there are bounty hunters there must, by definition, be those who have bounty placed on their heads. Often these are violent outlaws, criminals or psychopaths.

A two-faced mutant gang leader from Paprika in the Spice System, Billy Joe forced Johnny Alpha into a duel with las-whips, the outcome a foregone conclusion as the gang leader was the system's champion for the last 16 years. Alpha faked his death, knowing he could not beat Billy Joe at that time. Billy Joe was enraged when he realised Johnny had tricked him, coming across a circus poster that read, "Johnny Alpha: Greatest Las-Whipper of All Time: 10,000 credits TO ANY MAN WHO CAN BEAT HIM!" It was a challenge he could not turn down  without losing his reputation and business. Billy Joe faced a far more dangerous opponent the second time, discovering to his detriment that Johnny had spent the months of his recuperation learning how to wield the las-whip.

One of Johnny's previous partners, Sniffer Martinez was gunned down by Kansyr on the planet Laz in Johnny's early days as an S/D Agent. Kansyr was caught by Alpha and handed to the authorities but was later freed with only a fine, on the grounds that killing a mutie S/D Agent warranted no greater punishment. The alien outlaw went on to commit hideous crimes across the galaxy for the next seven years, until Alpha and his partner, Wulf Sternhammer, took up the warrant for his termination.

Taking part in the ancient, annual death-rite known as The Killing, on the planet Zdwhkkrswrld (more commonly known as Zed!), Johnny and Wulf crossed paths with the android Steelkreeg. Holding the two S/D Agents off in a bell tower using his flamethrower, he eventually met his demise.

These are an eclectic mix of bad guys in this boxed set. The figures are all well sculpted but I would offer a word of warning when attaching Billy Joe's arms to his body. Try to fix them to two points, as I've done with mine (base and las-whip), otherwise they could well snap off at the hands. That seemed to me to be a weak point that could be a problem with constant handling. In addition to the three miniatures, the box also contains 3 Character cards, 2 Armoury cards (Electro-flare and Heat Beam) and 1 Chicanery card (Patient Hunter). This boxed set costs £15.00 from the Warlord Games webstore.

Strontium Dog - Bubo and his Bad Boys

Raiding convoys and towns on the planet Alzir, the vicious alien outlaws known as Bubo and the Bad Boys left a trail of devastation and terror in their wake. Riding their bipedal Mork steeds, Bubo and his Howler henchmen raided for valuables and meat - they cooked and devoured their prisoners! This reign of terror finally led to the mayor of the latest town to be hit by Bubo's gang to call on the Search/Destroy agency to send help. That help materialised in the form of Johnny Alpha and his partner, Wulf Sternhammer, who immediately set out on Bubo's trail...

Johnny and Wulf caught up with the Bad Boys as they attacked a train heading from Jobsville. After a violent showdown, Bubo tied the train's throttle and the train plunged off a bridge into a ravine below, trapping the unconscious Alpha. Wulf saved his partner, taking him to the nearest town for medical care before heading out to wreak bloody vengeance on Bubo and his Howler outlaws.

As with the previous set I showed (Johnny and Wulf on Morks) the figures are mostly two-piece castings with the right arms being a separate component. Note that the Bad Boy at the far right is a one-piece casting. They are extremely well sculpted and animated. This boxed set contains the three figures shown, two character cards (the Bad Boys share identical stats), 2 Armoury cards (Infrared Torch and Thermo-Bomb) and 1 Chicanery card (Lightning Charge). It costs £20.00 from the Warlord Games webstore.

Strontium Dog - Johnny & Wulf on Morks

I have been busy painting the wave 3 release figures for the Strontium Dog skirmish game by Warlord Games. These two figures show Johnny Alpha and his partner, Wulf Sternhammer, riding Morks.

Bounty hunters often need to track their quarry into the wildlands beyond towns and cities, and on many worlds the indigenous Morks are the mount of choice. These bipedal mammals combine speed and durability with a seemingly high tolerance of radiation making them ideal steeds for bounty hunter and outlaw alike. Mork farms are not an unusual sight in the homesteads on the fringes of society.

Johnny Alpha and his Viking partner, Wulf Sternhammer made good use of Morks on many of their bounty-hunting jobs - from tackling the vicious alien outlaws, Bubo and his gang of Howler Bad Boys to protecting alien farmsteaders from bullying neighbours intent on driving the Search/Destroy agents out. Allying speed and resilience, Morks can reliably get them to where they need to be - much to the chagrin of their quarry.
This set contains the two figures shown above, 2 character cards, 1 Armoury card (Medipack) and 2 Chicanery cards (Can I Borrow That? and Counter-Attack). It costs £15.00 from the Warlord Games store. I like these figures but I don't expect I'll get much use out of them. Incidentally, this is now my eighth figure of Johnny Alpha and my fifth figure of Wulf Sternhammer.

Vampifans Views 112 - Monthly Musings 82

Halloween greetings to you all. I start with yet another beautiful Vampirella painting by the talented Sanjulian, whom I've been featuring all of this year. It is unusual to see Vampi wearing robes but I do like her look.

So what have I been up to this past month? For the first time ever I entered the Zomtober challenge and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Initially, I decided to paint the 38 figures from the top layer of the Mantic Games Kickstarter wave 1 boxed set of The Walking Dead. Having completed that task in just three weeks I then decided to carry on and finish painting all of the figures from wave 1, which included 8 more zombie figures in the above boxed set, booster packs featuring, Rick on horseback, Morgan and his son Duane, more zombies and the 6 figures from the Prelude to Woodbury starter set, which consisted of Brian "The Governor" Blake and 5 more zombies. I know I should be calling the zombies, "walkers" when referring to The Walking Dead but I much prefer to call them zombies. So far, I have shown 34 of the 38 figures I've finished painting so far. The remaining four will be featured in my next post, followed by all the rest of the wave 1 figures. Zomtober morphs into Zomvember! I'm having so much fun painting these figures that I want to carry on. I have all of the wave 2, 3, 4 and 5 figures and I have pre-ordered the Here's Negan stand alone boxed game, which goes on sale on 19th of November. Just to prove that I have painted all of the figures from the top layer of the Kickstarter wave 1 boxed set, here's a photo of them all. Impressive, huh?

In other news, the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD Kickstarter came to a close a few days ago and was phenomenally successful. 2,004 backers pledged £148,802 of the £7,500 needed to fund it. Within a few hours of the project closing I had received PDF copies of the rulebook, The Robot Wars supplement, the Games Master's screen and the counter tokens to use in place of miniature figures. Physical copies of these products are due to be shipped in January 2019, which isn't too long to wait. I'll do a full review of them after I receive them. I must admit that after browsing through the PDFs I am extremely impressed by the high quality and production values of these items. I have read the character generation rules for creating Judges and I have just finished designing my own character record sheet to use for the many Judges, Perps and Citizens I'll be creating. This was based on my own designs for my N.E.W. and N.O.W. character record sheets with just a bit of tweaking. I am in the process of transferring the stats of the four pre-generated Judges found at the back of the rulebook to my CRS's. Then I'll start work on creating my own Judge characters to use in the campaign that I'll start playing early next year.
EN Publishing have announced plans for some of the next products that will be appearing from this range next year. These include two supplements for Judge Dredd - Luna-1 and The Cursed Earth. Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dogs will be the next two rulebooks but note that these will only cover the characters, careers, equipment and settings for these stories. For the basic gameplay rules you will need the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD rulebook. Morrus, the head honcho of EN Publishing, has announced that he already has a full manuscript for one more product and is half way through another, both of which should be released in 2019, so exciting times!
Comparing this version of the Judge Dredd role-playing game to others from the past I can definitely say that it beats all others hands down. It is just a brilliant product and I am mega excited about getting back to playing Judge Dredd again.

For my WOIN blog, I have been busy painting more sci-fi figures and I have increased my cast of St. Trinian's staff and schoolgirls. I am still working on creating Character Record Sheets for them all - there are about 40 in total, so it's a big cast and each one is unique. I have also been painting scenery items and furniture to use in my next The Ace of Spades Campaign scenario and my first St. Trinian's Campaign scenario, which will be my first game using the N.O.W. rules.

It's Halloween night tonight and I love Halloween. I'm stocked up on treats for the kids and I'm looking forward to seeing their costumes. Last year I had 15 trick or treaters and they all put a lot of effort into their costumes. I'm hoping this year will be just as good. Happy Halloween everyone.

The trick or treater I most want to meet tonight! It looks like she's trying to smuggle a couple of pumpkins out under her dress!

Vampifans Views 111 - Monthly Musings 81

September has once again been a very productive month for me hobby-wise, more of which later, but first here is a delightful portrait of Vampirella by the talented Spanish artist, Manuel Sanjulian. This would seem to be a perfect pose for a Vampirella statue but it hasn't happened so far. Speaking of Vampirella statues, my collection has now reached double figures and they take centre stage on my china cabinet in my living room.

The big news for me for September was the launch of the Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000AD Kickstarter by EN Publishing on the 25th. Amazingly enough, this project was fully funded within 9 minutes! I was never in any doubt that it would get funded but I wasn't expecting it be so speedily funded as that. I backed it for the Chief Judge's Pledge, which gets me the basic rulebook, the Robot Wars supplement, the Games Master's Screen, the card counter set plus free PDF copies of the books. Note that initially, a dice set was offered but they have been replaced by a set of cardstock counters of Judges, perps and civilians. This is because supply of the dice would have delayed the release of the other products and EN Publishing are committed to short delivery times, which is certainly to be applauded. To be honest, I have so many six-sided dice that missing out on these ones is no big deal.

The Kickstarter runs until Friday 26th of October 2018 and the estimated delivery time for the physical products is January 2019. PDFs will be sent out once the Kickstarter closes. Here's the link for it - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/enworld/judge-dredd-and-the-worlds-of-2000-ad-roleplaying?ref=email I was absolutely delighted to see that my review of the Kickstarter that I posted on my WOIN blog gets a mention. So too, does Blaxkleric's reviews that he did on the Dawn of Comics website. No doubt Simon will be just as chuffed as I am.

Speaking of WOIN, I am hoping to continue to my The Ace of Spades Campaign very soon. I have the scenario all written out and character record sheets created for the major participants. All that is missing are a few 3D scenery items that my brother has printed out for me. I should receive them later today when Mikie comes over to visit me.
A couple of weeks ago I ran a review of the N.O.W. rulebook on my WOIN blog (see here ) and in it I mentioned a few ideas for campaigns that I'd like to run with those rules. Andy suggested I go for a zombie apocalypse campaign with my PC of Vampifan taking centre stage once again. John, however, expressed a desire for a St. Trinian's campaign. They'll be pleased to know that I plan on running both campaigns later on. The St. Trinian's campaign will kick off first. I am busy creating character record sheets for the staff and students of this infamous girls' school and I have lots of ideas for scenarios. This will be a campaign using cinematic rules with an emphasis on fun and slapstick. Gritty and realistic it won't be! I'm still thinking about what I want to do with Vampifan - make him a loner or give him a family? Make him an ordinary human or perhaps a Chosen One? I am very excited about running both campaigns, plus continuing my N.E.W. campaign with Kimberley and crew. And next year I have big plans for running a brand new Judge Dredd campaign once I get the new rulebook. 2019 should see lots of WOIN gaming. These are exciting times.

Earlier this month I bought this boxed scenery set from Modiphius Games - the Red Rocket Scenery Set. What immediately attracted me to this set is that it is designed by Battle Systems Ltd., whose scenery sets I absolutely adore. Although this set is designed to be used with the Fallout Wasteland Warfare sci-fi skirmish game, I have no desire to start collecting figures for it or playing the game. I'm not a fan of computer games and I know so little about the game and its setting. What I do know is that this set would work perfectly well in any post apocalypse game like All Things Zombie, Judge Dredd or Strontium Dog. The garage itself is a superb model but what really makes this set worthwhile is the 3' square gaming mat that comes with it. Made of mouse-mat material, it is compatible with other Battle Systems Post-Apocalypse gaming mats. I can see me using this mat a lot in my Strontium Dog games. The boxed set costs £60.00 and here's a link to where you can purchase it - https://www.modiphius.net/collections/fallout-wasteland-warfare/products/copy-of-fallout-wasteland-warfare-product-template Expect a full review of this set real soon.

Painting has been going well, as always. Lots more sci-fi and Wild West figures painted this month, all of which will appear on this blog or my WOIN blog soon. A couple of days ago I received all of the Wave 5 figures for Mantic Games' The Walking Dead game and that got me thinking. I have had this game since it was first released ages ago but haven't got round to painting any of the figures for this game yet. It is about time that changed. I understand that October is known as Zomtober to some of you. So this will be my Zomtober challenge but I'm playing to my rules so I'm not an official entrant. I plan on painting all of the figures shown here in the top tray of the Kickstarter Wave 1 boxed set. My deadline is the end of October, and I'll post progress reports throughout the month when a batch of figures gets finished. I have every confidence in my ability to complete the challenge and I look forward to painting this lot. If I finish in good time, I'll move on to more figures from this range or maybe do the scenery pieces.

All the best from Vampifan.

Strontium Dog - Darkus's Howlers

Not all Strontium Dogs are mutants. The alien howlers that follow Darkus are a good example of individuals willing to kill a few humans for some credits. With a reputation for eating those they served termination warrants on, Darkus and his crew travelled from their home world of Kunghung to the planet Burrito when the amnesty on the 49th Territory was lifted and a veritable army of bounty hunters assembled to take down the many outlaws and ne'er-do-wells that had been hiding in the Badlands.

The bloodthirsty ways of Darkus and his howlers brought them into conflict with the other Strontium Dogs. After learning that Johnny Alpha and his companions, Wulf Sternhammer and Middenface McNulty, were after a massive six million credits reward for galactic criminal, Xen the Brainwraith, Darkus used a combination of torture, superior tracking skills and low cunning to go after the big bounty, leading to an inevitable shoot-out with the howler's fellow bounty hunters.

These figures of Darkus and two of his howlers are terrific sculpts, and are among my favourites from Warlord Games' Strontium Dog range. They are part of a boxed set that includes the three figures shown here as well as two character cards (one for Darkus an done for a howler), two Armoury cards (Dimension Warp and Psi-tector) and one Chicanery card (No Honour). The boxed set costs £15.00.

Strontium Dog - Rogue SD Agents

Not all S/D agents play by the rules - in fact not many worry about the law at all! Sometimes a Strontium Dog goes too far and ends up becoming the hunted rather than the hunter. Fly's-Eyes Wagner is such a case in point, going rogue after killing his partner. A termination warrant was placed on him and was taken up by Johnny Alpha. He returned to his home town of Sharpville to kill his father, whom he blamed for his mutation.

With Johnny on his heels, Fly's-Eyes used a dimension warp to escape, and Johnny, along with Wulf and the Gronk, jumped after him. They ended up in a hellish dimension where anything that died came back to life - fortunately for Fly's-Eyes, who was shot by Johnny, but resurrected. Together, Fly's-Eyes and his would-be captors forged across the bizarre dimension to find a way back to Earth, earning themselves a special ticket to do so. Alpha used his to send Fly's-Eyes back to the offices of the Galactic Crime Commission to get his bounty. His Fly's-Eyes mutation gives him a +1 bonus to his Evade stat but he is automatically Pinned if he ever gets Stunned or Injured.

Second from the left is Slabhead, an unremarkable Search/Destroy agent and an occasional ally of Armstrong Jones and Big Cynthia. His most notable asset was the two Dervish Dogs that accompanied him - Spiro and Giro. Utterly relentless, these wildly gyrating, slashing and slicing monsters could demolish a tank and smash through concrete walls, though were barely under the control of their handler or themselves. 

Although these are all minor characters they are all well sculpted and I particularly like Spiro and Giro, who follow the Pack rules, meaning they activate together as one. These four figures are available to buy in a boxed set priced at £15.00. The set also includes 3 character cards (Spiro and Giro share the same stats), 2 Armoury cards (Live Wire and Time Trap) and 1 Chicanery card (Last Gasp).

I noticed that Warlord Games have just shown the wave 3 figures that are available for pre-order. It is great to see this game getting such solid support and, of course, I'll be buying all of them.

Strontium Dog - Blubberlips, Kid Knee & Maeve

In my last post I showed you two of the five figures you can get in the S/D Agents boxed set by Warlord Games. In this post, I'll show you the other three figures from that set - Blubberlips, Kid Knee and Maeve the Many-Armed.

At the far left is Blubberlips. There have been two mutants with the Blubberlips moniker. One was gunned down by a Stix Brother - the other (shown here) aided Johnny Alpha, Middenface McNulty and other leaders of the Mutant Resistance Army as they fought against the mutant war criminal, William Blood Moon. I can't help but wonder if Blubberlips was based on Mick Jagger? He is a minor character and his big lips mutation is purely cosmetic although he can make a surprising range of vocalisations, which can Pin any enemy within 8" of him if they fail a Cool test. Doing so counts as a single action.
Next up is Kid Knee, a lesser known Strontium Dog who enjoyed a modicum of success with the Search/Destroy agency before falling on hard times in his later career. Turning to bottles of Mac-Mac to ease his woes, he lost his edge and his nerve. However, he never lost his eye for a potential job and travelled to the artificial station of Mab Garden City on the trail of a highly dangerous mutant known as the Mutator. There he ended up teaming up with Johnny Alpha, Wulf Sternhammer and the Gronk to track down the shape-changer as it masqueraded as Emperor Odgood the Okay. Kid Knee's head is located in his right knee, making him difficult to head shoot.

Hailing from Ireland, Maeve the Many-Armed is easy to spot - aside from her many arms, she dresses as the Queen of Connaught from Irish mythology. Maeve rides a chariot pulled by two mutant horses with disagreeable personalities. Her five arms allow her to wield multiple weapons - from pistols to the sword of Irish hero, CuChulainn. I have to admit to liking Maeve immensely. She is a beautifully sculpted figure and quite heavy compared to the other figures in this set.
In addition to the five figures I've shown in this post and the previous one, you also get stat cards for all five characters, four armoury cards (Beam Polariser, Bottle of Mac-Mac, Chameleon Cloak and Medipack) and one Chicanery card (Distraction). The boxed set of S/D Agents costs £20.00.