Well, time to get down to business…monkey business! My friend Chris has had a spark of interest in Judge Dredd since Warlord has taken over distribution and handling of the game now. We had talked for a moment about it and the Call to Arms Star Trek game as some alternative games to try out. Chris has always been a fan of Dredd and also has really been impressed with Bolt Action by Warlord and feels that it is time to slowly say goodbye to GW and move on to other games out there.

After downloading the rules while we wait for the rules to be revised slightly and printed in a nice hardback. From what I understand mostly eye candy artwork and a few rules tweaks more than anything, nothing major in changes from my sweeps of the boards between Moongoose and Warlord.

Among the various gangs and my minis already in my collection, I have a few options for gangs including:

1)      Demonic Cabal – using various Strange Aeons cultists or 40k Chaos cultists.

2)      Street Gang – Using Necromunda Esher and Van Sarr

3)      Ape Gang – using the Ape gang a fellow blogger sent me

4)      Cursed Earth Desperados – Using Necromunda scavvies and some other figs

5)      Lone Vigilante – I have a ton of Super hero figs for Supersystem 3.

6)      Zombie Horde – super villain or Necromunda figure with various zombies I have.

In my readings it became apparent that some groups are more viable than others and thinking about the fact that Chris will have the Judges as his choice to play this could be a real challenge to find the right gang to be able to win games. Judges are loaded up with tons of weapons, most are heroes and some rules that could turn a game south quickly.

Demonic Cabal: Perhaps the worst of my choices. I am not impressed with this option. First, you only get one hero (the leader); no other members can ever rise to a hero spot from a minion, so no real access to skills or advancement options. The demons while good require you to summon and well, the summoning rules and chart does not inspire me. I am fine with a little random, but there is just a bit too much here.

Street Gang: Just two options Juves and Gangers, the big focus is being able to take a psyker and variety of weapons. The merc choices are also nice as with some clever skills you could slip something into your gang as a regular member of the gang instead of a temp member.

Ape Gang: Who doesn’t like monkeys? What strikes me is the mobility here, with some clever planning they could be melded with some skills and weapons into a dangerous gang.

Cursed Earth Desperados: another viable gang, mutants and desperados are your only two choices but you can take a psyker at least, plus there is a good amount of hero options and mutations you could add to bolster your stats.

Lone Vigilante: This could be a real challenge; one figure against x3 or x4 could lead to some epic games. Granted one mistake and POW Batman and you are out! I will save this for the future.

Zombie Horde: One character and a bunch of zombies. Not much flavor, just shamble forward and beat the hell out of the other player. Not much option here…we all love zombies but playing them? In the long run they would get tiring I think.

After some thought, the Ape gang was my choice and now it was time to develop it. After some number crunching I came to the understanding I would need more to round out some of the gang and conversions would not be very likely with how the gang was crafted. So, I went looking around and found Eureka miniatures has some Boiler Suit apes…with options I want! Plus I just found another ape from the Pulp City line with a minigun that was fairly cheap. Now, just to get one with a sword! There is one among the Pulp City line but wow, their stuff is EXPENSIVE for a single figure! Now, Reaper has some ape options, I do have Ape X but he is a bit huge for my needs, there is a cool Orangutan that is on a pole shooting I may grab also….

Here is what I got in the Ape Gang boxed set (I have the old one, not the new one):

Chimp with club

Chimp with Spit Pistol

Chimp with Laser Pistol (converted from a duplicate in the box above)

Chimp with Stump Gun

Orangutan with Sniper Rifle

Gorilla with club

Gorilla with double barrel Stump Gun (female in dress)

Gorilla with Spit Gun (wearing armor and grenades)

From Eureka I grabbed:

Boiler suit Gorilla with Flamethrower

Gibbon with RPG (chimp with rocket launcher)

Gorilla officer (has sidearm holster) (more than likely HTH and leader)

Ebay/Pulp City:

Chimp-Chi (Ninja Chimp with Katana and knife)

Gorilla with Minigun

painted example! not my work!

So that works to 3 Heavy Weapons (Rocket Launcher, Minigun and Flamethrower), a sniper rifle, a few hand to hand weapons and pistols with some Stump Guns and a Spit gun for ranges 10-20 for short range firefights. All in all a balanced list!

 Sadly Eurkea was out of stock of the Gibbon with the AK-47 and I would have had a cheaper minigun Gorilla as well. They do have a cool Gibbon set with mac submachine guns but I opted out to save a few bucks…maybe round 2. I glanced at the ape on the bike as well. If Chris wants to add vehicles then I will get one or two.

My friend just gave me his order for Warlord to get the boxed set of Judges to start with so in a few weeks we should have his judges in and we can get everything ready to a good ole brawl Judge Dredd style!