Unboxing Judge Dredd: I Am The Law
December 23, 2019 by avernos
Gerry is the law. His law is absolute. It states that kittens are amazing and 2000AD is also very good.
Warlord Games have released a new Judge Dredd Miniatures Game and this starter set has all you need to jump in to the chaotic world of Megacity One screaming "I AM THE LAW". Gerry takes us through what's included in the starter box between tokens, maps and miniatures.
Imagine you're a character in the 2000AD comic series, how much ennui do you experience living in a metropolis such as Megacity One?
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Rogue Trooper should be next hopefully
Should be. And if they return to metals of the standard of the SD minis then I’m in. If they stick with this spun resin nonsense though they can do one!
Slaine will be next or Nikolai Dante i guess, as i picked up the Wildlands game and the minis inside are the same minis from warlords SD and JD range along with new Slaine minis and Nikolai Dante set
Not read any Dredd in decades, so my only exposure has been two average movies, but the game looks interesting and obviously asymmetric as there are a lot more more punks than judges.
The minis on Warlord website all have round bases by look of them. Are they included in the box?
Yes, the minies come with bases. The usual Warlord low-profile plastic ones.
Gerry touched on this, but I turned away from this one due to the minis. The detail and proportions a great, but the poses are AWEFUL (kinda like the old Airfix 20mm plastics where they were very 2D), in fact there’s only 3 minis out of the entire set that I like the poses of. Not sure if this is due to the mechanics of this new spun resin, and difficulties getting them out of the mold and trying to do one piece castings. The ganger with the pistol a knife is such an artificial pose (and a classic airfix pose). It’s such a shame, I think the Strontium Dog minis are actually a lot better in both sculpts and pose (not sure if Warlord got lazy or were just time constrained trying to put out Judge Dredd along side all the new releases for Blood Red Skies, Cruel Seas, and the new Nappy Naval game). But I KNOW Warlord can do better than this, so I’ve a real gut feeling they went with one piece casts and 2D poses to be able to manufacture and pack this game as quickly as possible. It’s such a shame on this one 🙁
I am really disappointed with this one. It looks like a good game, and SD is, so I believe this will be also. Rulebook looks lovely too, and it has an index, for bonus marks.
However, the first thing that puts me off is the terrain. Mega City One is the real star of the stories, so I would need to build a lot of Mega-City-One-specific terrain for this, and I just don’t have time, budget or inclination for acquiring a lot of terrain that would only suit one game. Maybe Sarissa will produce some nice stuff, but even so, right now I’m not seeing it, and the idea of having to fork out a good few quid on terrain before I even want to star to play is offputting.
The second, much bigger of a thing that puts me off is that those minies look gash. Spun resin of all types is the devil’s arse-biscuits, and Warlord’s version is no better than most. I have acquired a few spun resin SPQR minis recently, and the clean-up is horrible, with mould mis-alignments everywhere, and all needing cleaning up with a sharp hobby knife, so you risk damaging the model in the process. Ugh. Buzzkill right there. Give me metal or proper resin every time. But the material is not all that’s wrong with them. Those poses are so static and much too 2D for today’s expectations. I am disappointed that someone at Warlord felt they were fit for release, as they really give me cause for concern. It may be a deliberate choice, but if so, it was a terrible one, because they are obviously distorted in the production process – they look kind of squashed, or deflated. For the price being asked (presumably “just because”, as they are more expensive than the metal SD models that are covered under the same licence?) the value just isn’t there as I just don’t want to acquire them. I appreciate that they are detailed and crisp, but the 2D-ness and the material makes them look a bit bargain-basement, and very uninspiring. I really can’t imagine wanting to paint them.
Shame, as JD is a great IP and the mechanics are probably sound. I’ll stick with SD though for my 2000AD gaming fix. Maybe if they improve the quality of the models I’ll go for it, but that is not this day.
Question:
I have not looked too extensively, but is the spun resin across the whole range or just the starter? If its the starter I’m not too bothered and will get this. I’m gonna look myself but I can’t quite tell from just pix. Anyone seen the rest of the range?
Its the whole range, sadly.
The book looks fantastic and the game sounds good.
One of the funniest things about the dredd story’s was the names of the city blocks each week.
Who had a space hopper as a kid!?!
Got a box of this sitting under the xmas tree.
As others mentioned earlier, the figures could have been posed better. Some of them look quite stiff and unnatural.
Exciting Stuff! Looking forward to getting my Land Raider on the table (the original one from the Cursed Earth story – not the 40k copy).
The old Matchbox one? Not sure if that came out first and then 2000AD got payed to place the tank in the comic strip (a bit of product placement).
https://2warpstoneptune.com/2014/03/18/matchboxs-adventure-2000-raider-command-1977/
I am really stoked by this game. Hope to pick it up soon and get some og my frineds to play.
I’ve seen a playthrough elsewhere and really like the system. They’ve taken some of the mechanics for Bolt Action and thrown in a ton of flavour. I’ll be picking up some when Christmas is over and done with.
I have this game (and the Strontium Dog one). I am a big 2000AD fan and got this whole opening selection for my Christmas. I have painted up the starter set so far. I have to say that i hated the spun resin figs when i got them out of the box. They just felt too bendy and cheap. Now though, having painted them up and played a few games i can tell you that they have great detail and paint up just like any other figure. Once you have them undercoated they are just like any other mini.
I think they are just different to what you are used too. I’m as grumpy as the next war gamer, but they just need getting used to. I can agree on the 2 dimensional poses though, they could have done better with that.
Overall, I fully recommend the set. Great fun.
Finally, If you want to paint them quickly, the contrast paints bring them up nice and lurid, just like the comics.
Weirdly for those that are saying the spun resin may be responsible for the sculpts and they would rather have metal, the first of warlords resins were recast versions of their HC metals. So I don’t think it’s that. Also we’ve seen some good looking sculpts in the cabinet for future shocks
..I mean releases. So it may just be the sculptors choice or the concept artwork they worked off
Perhaps it is just me, but I think the quality of the new resins are better than Warlord’s metals – definitely less to clean up and easier to clean up.
I just completed building and cleaning all the first wave releases. I got some of them in metal, along with a letter explaining that they didn’t have the capacity to cast everything in resin. Absolutely no issues with either metal and resin castings, nice crisp details and minimal clean-up to do. Resins are quite flexible and I did reinforce some thinner bits, weapons and arms, with superglue.