JDMG MC1 Perps - Ape Gang Gorillas and Orang-utans

In my last post I reviewed the chimps from a Mega City One ape gang. In this post I'll be showcasing the other two sentient simian types - gorillas and orang-utans. Physically the most powerful form of ape, gorillas take on a variety of roles, from leaders and lieutenants to grunt muscle. Either way, they form the backbone of an ape gang. Both agile and intelligent, orang-utans are sometimes leaders of ape gangs, but usually give way to larger and more powerful gorillas. More commonly, they take the role of specialists, such as stealthy burglars or snipers.

The three gorillas to the left were originally produced by Mongoose Publishing as part of an ape gang for the Gangs of Mega City One skirmish game. Later, Warlord Games sold them as part of their Judge Dredd Miniatures Game and added an orang-utan leader to the set (see below). At the far left is Cilla the Gorilla. She is armed with a Double-Barrelled Stump Gun Rifle. She has a bandoleer of Stump Gun shells strung across her back and chest. It is nice to see the sculptor adding a female to the range.
Standing next to her is Gus Grunt, who is aptly named. He rarely speaks and mostly grunts instead. Appropriately enough, he works as a lowly grunt enforcer. He is armed with a tyre iron, which is classed as a Club.

Second from the right is Brutus. He is every bit as brutal as his name suggests and is a gang leader of the Brutes ape gang. He is armed with a Spit Gun Machine Pistol and he wears Leather Armour. As with all of my apes, I have yet to work out his stats for use in my JDMG campaign.
At the far right is John Grillinger, who is a Gorilla Gangster and a Level:2 Infantry Hero. He is armed with a Spit Gun Rifle that has been designed to look like the old-style Thompson Sub-Machine Gun aka the "Tommy Gun" or "Chicago Piano." Having worked his way up through the ranks of an ape gang, the Gorilla Gangster has gone freelance and now hires his considerable skills and muscle to the highest bidder. Gorilla Gangsters are mercenaries who automatically have the following three Talents - Agile (may re-roll any non-combat Agility check), Light Foot (during a Move action, he can make an Agility check to jump over any obstacle up to 1" high without any Move penalty) and Dirty Fighting (if he hits an enemy in melee combat he does no damage. Instead, the target must make a Will check or else be Stunned). He was produced by Warlord Games. I can't help help thinking that he'd have made a great addition to Don Uggie Apelino's gang.

At the far left of my trio of orang-utans is Crazy Clyde. He pretends to be non-intelligent, which is why he isn't wearing any clothes, but he's actually a very sneaky burglar. His figure is an old Ral Partha fantasy were-ape. I decided I could just as easily use him in my JDMG campaign.
I should mention that all apes in JDMG (that's chimps, gorillas and orang-utans) have a special ability called Swinging Apes. This allows them to scale sheer surfaces or swing across wide gaps with ease. Any ape can treat any sheer surface as clear terrain, as long as it begins and ends its phase on a flat surface, and can move across any open gap up to its Move value without making an Agility check.

In the centre is the orang-utan leader that Warlord Games added to the ape gang boxed set of figures. I have named him Doctor Zechariah. He is armed with a Handgun Pistol. He is protecting a very young female chimp, which just begs the question, what's the story there? I have seen some folk commenting on how much he looks like Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor Who. Well, not with the face but certainly with the long red coat and huge multi-coloured scarf. That was one of the reasons I decided to make him a doctor.
Finally, is Li'l Louie, an orang-utan sniper. He was another figure originally produced by Mongoose Publishing as part of their GOMC1 boxed set of ape gang figures and then later sold by Warlord Games. He is armed with a Long Rifle with Scope Sight. Note the banana sticking out of the front pouch of his dungarees.
This is not the end of my reviews of my ape gangs. I still have to show you my ape gang bikers, none of which have been made or painted but I hope to rectify that soon. I am also seriously thinking of getting a load of Eureka apes, as they produce a large range of simian types and they'd be quite at home in Mega City One.

Seeing as this will be my last post before Christmas day, I'd just like to take this opportunity to wish all of my followers, their families and friends all the best on what I hope will be a joyous occasion for you all. Merry Christmas!

JDMG MC1 Perps - Ape Gang Chimps

Not all of the gangs who infest the streets of Mega City One are human. Experiments in the past vastly increased the intelligence of apes, with the intentions of using them as advanced slave labour. However, while such science has been outlawed for many years, its legacy remains, in the form of sentient apes. Often corralled into the less desirable parts of the city, it is not unusual for apes to form their own criminal gangs. Most sentient apes are either chimpanzees, gorillas or orang-utans. I'm looking at my chimps in this post. The gorillas and orang-utans will appear in my next post. Chimps form good all-rounders within in an ape gang, able to take on most tasks with success. I haven't yet created any stats for my apes to use in my JDMG campaign but I have given all of my apes names. Most of them will use the stats provided on p.56 of the JDMG rulebook.

The three chimps at the left of the two photos directly above and below were produced by Mongoose Publishing for their Gangs of Mega City One game and sold as part of an ape gang boxed set. At the far left is Chalo, who is armed with a Stump Gun Rifle. Next to him is Milo, who is armed with a Club. Pee-Gee completes this trio and he is armed with a Spit Pistol. These are all really well sculpted and quite small in stature. I love the expressions on their faces.

The female chimp is called Kim Kong. She is a really old figure, and I can't remember who made her but she was sold as a mutant civilian. I should point out that she does not have red eyes. She is wearing a pair of John Lennon style rose-tinted glasses. Oh, and that's a wig she's wearing as well. Most likely she is the girlfriend of one of the other apes. She could be a gang member or she could be an innocent civilian.
At the far right is Jocko, who is armed with a Spit Gun Rifle. This is another really old figure. He was made by Citadel Miniatures for the sci-fi role-playing game of Rogue Trader, which was first published in October 1987. The game was sub-titled Warhammer 40,000 to distinguish it from 2000AD's Rogue Trooper series. The gameplay of Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader differed from its main modern-day descendant, Warhammer 40,000, in that it was heavily role-play-oriented, with great detail placed on weaponry and vehicles and the inclusion of a third player (the Games Master) in battles, a role not too different from the Dungeon Master of Dungeons and Dragons. Jocko was sold as a Rogue Trader mutant ganger but his ape-like features make him a perfect addition to my small collection of chimps.

Arguably the most famous ape gang in the Judge Dredd series was the one led by Don Uggie Apelino. Don Uggie encountered Judge Dredd several times - first during a gang war, and later after a foiled attempt to have Dredd assassinated. After the Apocalypse War, radiation regressed his intelligence to that of a normal ape, whereupon he led a group of insane and brutal apes in the Cursed Earth.  Dredd followed a regressed Fast Eeek, and executed the gang - including Apelino - as a danger to Mega City One residents. Don Uggie saw himself as a modern day Al Capone and he styled himself and his followers on 1920's style gangsters. These three figures, with Don Uggie at the far left, were produced by Citadel Miniatures for the old Games Workshop Judge Dredd Role Playing Game. Don Uggie is armed with a Handgun Pistol.

Don Uggie was often accompanied by his two most trusted lieutenants, Joe Bananas (in the centre) and Fast Eeek (at far right). They are armed with the equivalent of Spit Gun Rifles. These are three of my favourite figures from this range but I do have one criticism to make of them - they are way over-scale. Scale was a common problem with the Citadel Judge Dredd range of figures. Some were too small and some were too big. Given that these are just chimps, they are as tall as my ape gang gorillas. It is a shame because other than being too big their sculpts are perfect.

JDMG MC1 Perps - Rainbow Raiders Street Gang

This is my fourth and final street gang that I created for my JDMG campaign using figures that were originally designed for use with the old Games Workshop sci-fi skirmish game, Confrontation. These 28mm scale Citadel figures came with metal bodies and separate plastic arms and weapons. Of all of the gangs in my collection these are far and away the most colourful. I present to you, the Rainbow Raiders.

The flamboyant and charismatic leader of the Rainbow Raiders is "Rubber Johnny" Rainbow, shown at the far left of the two photos directly above and below. He is the son of a very rich businessman who went off the rails in his late teens and turned to a life of carousing and crime. If left unchecked he could grow into a major crime-lord. Currently, he is a Level:4 Punk Infantry Hero. He has five Talents and they are Luck of Grud (he gains 1 free re-roll per game), Voice of Command (allies within 12" of him gain +1 to all Will rolls), Dual Shooter (he adds +1 to damage when firing both guns, but no critical hits are allowed and he only rolls for 1 gun), Fixer (he may add one Mercenary worth up to 400 Credits to his gang at the start of a game whether his gang is outmatched or not) and Wealthy (he can double the amount he can spend on starting armour, equipment and/or weapons). He wears Pad Armour and is armed with a Handgun Pistol and a Spit Pistol. The message on his T-shirt reads "Cum and Get It" and his codpiece proclaims "Pure Sex." Yes, he is a dickhead but he is also a very dangerous opponent.
Second from the left is Bryk Redd, the gang's second-in-command. He is a Level:2 Punk Infantry Hero with three Talents - Brave (he may re-roll any failed Will to Fight test), Skilled and Deadly (He may re-roll 1 Melee Die in every round of close combat) and This is my Club (he gains +1 Melee Die when using his Club in close combat). He is armed with a Laser Pistol and a Club. He, and indeed all of the Rainbow Raiders, wears Pad Armour.  All of the arms that came with the Confrontation figures were bare-skinned, so I either replaced them with plastic arms from a Warhammer 40,000 Imperial Guard set (as in this case) or made them out of Milliput. His Laser Pistol came from the Confrontation sprue of weapons, whilst his Club came from a boxed set of plastic Gangs of Mega City One street punks. I'll show the figures from that set in a later post.

The two gang members in the centre of this group have identical stats. They are Spuggy Spectrum and Limey Green, and are Level:1 Punk Infantry Heroes. They are armed with a Laser Pistol each and they both have the following two Talents - Brave (they may re-roll any failed Will to Fight test) and Accurate (may re-roll any Shooting attack that uses 1D).
Second from the right is Tru Blue, who is a Level:0 Punk Infantry Minion. He is armed with a Knife and a Laser Pistol.
At the far left is Terry Cotta. He is a Level:0 Juve Infantry Minion. He is armed with a Club and a Zip Gun Pistol. This figure was originally a Juve Scrawler produced by Citadel Miniatures for the old Games Workshop Judge Dredd Role-Playing Game. He got enlisted into the Rainbow Raiders as their newest recruit.

The four figures to the left of these two photos above and below have identical stats. They are from left to right, Forrest Green, Mellow Yellow, Pinky Pinkerton and Jaffer Orange. All are Level:0 Punk Infantry Minions. Each one is armed with a Handgun Pistol and a Long Rifle. I made the rifles out of Milliput and paper-clips as I wanted a futuristic looking Long Rifle and I had nothing appropriate in my bits box. I'm very pleased with how they came out.

The remaining two Rainbow Raiders at the far right are Royle Purple and Turk Turquoise. Both are Level:0 Juve Infantry Minions and they are also armed with a Handgun Pistol and a Long Rifle. I should note that Jaffer, Royle and Turk were part of a different Confrontation gang. They were originally bald-headed. I decided to make them part of the Rainbow Raiders and so I sculpted their huge hairstyles so they fit in with the others.
The Rainbow Raiders will be tough opposition for my Judges. They have a Credits score of 1,020 and can add a single Mercenary with a value up to 400 credits to their gang. It looks like I'll need my full team of Judges to take them out. However, the gang does lack any heavy weaponry and that could prove telling in a fight against the Judges.

JDMG MC1 Perps - Scabies Street Gang

I have another Mega City One street gang to show you that is mainly based on 28mm scale Citadel figures from the old Games Workshop sci-fi skirmish game, Confrontation, the forerunner for Necromunda. The Scabies street gang hide in the shadows and hang out in the slums and the Undercity. Essentially, they are scavengers, preying on the weak and unwary.

At the far left of the photos directly above and below is the leader of the Scabies gang, Scab Scabie. He was originally produced by Grenadier Miniatures but is now being sold by EM4 as part of their Future Skirmish Scavengers range. He and all of the Scabies wear Respirators. He is also equipped with Leather Armour, a Double-Barrelled Stump Gun Rifle and a Sword. The Scabies gang favour Stump Guns but Scab excels in close combat and is deadly with his sword, which is slung across his back. He is a Level:2 Punk Infantry Hero with three Talents - Luck of Grud (gives him one free re-roll per game), Voice of Command (all allies within 12" of him gain +1 to all Will rolls) and Skilled and Deadly (he can re-roll one of his Melee Dice in close combat). His straw hat makes him instantly identifiable.
The gang's heavy weapons specialist, Squama, is next in line. Squama also wears Leather Armour. He is armed with a Grenade Launcher. JDMG does not have stats for a Grenade Launcher so I used the stats for a Hand Bomb but doubled the range to 20" and doubled the price to 60 credits. He is a Level:1 Punk Infantry Hero with two Talents taken from the Blood on the Streets supplement - On Their Knees (every Infantry model hit by his Grenade Launcher must pass a Will test or suffer Knockdown) and Maximum Firepower (Add 1" to the Explosive distance, i.e. Grenades now have Explosive:3). His Grenade Launcher came from the Wargames Foundry Street Violence range. For him and the following five gang members, I sculpted their arms out of Milliput.

Moving on, are Scurf and Scatty. Each one is armed with two Sawed-Off Stump Guns and both are unarmoured. I made them both Level:1 Punk Infantry Heroes with identical Talents, namely, Brave (allows them to re-roll any failed Will to Fight test) and appropriately enough, Dual Shooter (they add +1 to damage when firing both guns, but no critical hits are allowed and they only roll for 1 gun). Their Sawed-Off Stump Guns came from the weapon sprues you got with the Confrontation figures.
The last three Scabies are from left to right, Flaky, Crusty and Branny. All three are armed with Stump Gun Rifles and are unarmoured. They are all Level:0 Punk Infantry Minions. They are nothing more than cannon fodder but they help bolster the gang's numbers. Their Stump Guns were made by Hero Miniatures who went out of business many years ago.
The Scabies gang has a Credits rating of 700, making them quite a powerful gang. In my JDMG campaign I'll be pitting Street Judges Crowe, Moore and Webb along with Med Judge Nash against them for their debut adventure. They have a combined Credits rating of 600. Look out for this batrep in early 2017.

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.