Mongoose Publishing announces Judge Dredd on Kickstarter for Sept 13th

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**kenshin620**

When will the KS craze end?

The morning of Thursday 13th September sees the launch of an exciting new Kickstarter project, bringing you Block War, the first supplement for the Judge Dredd miniatures game!

The Judge Dredd miniatures game features a completely free to download rulebook and has been running with the support of its fans for two years now. It is a 28mm skirmish-level science fiction miniatures game based on the iconic 2000AD comic strip where players take a force or faction from Mega-City One and prepare to do battle on the streets! Full campaign rules are integrated into the game, and feature a system whereby weaker forces are never at a disadvantage – even a lowly gang of street punks can take on Judge Dredd and his cohorts if you have enough reinforcements!

You can see how the Judge Dredd miniatures game works in play and what it looks like for free, simply by downloading the rulebook from here.

We have now started work on the first supplement, Block War, which introduces more scenarios, weapons, challenges and, of course, rules for a new range of models. The Block War supplement, like the main rulebook, will be completely free to download, and always will be.

So, why do we need your help?

Well, we have a huge list of models requested by fans of the game, including everything from a Sov Invasion Force to the Dark Judges! They will all be playable in the game with rules provided in Block War but Mongoose Publishing is a small company and we can only bring out a few models at a time. However, with your kind help, we will be able to bring out models on a more regular basis and be more ambitious with them, keeping the Judge Dredd miniatures game fresh and interesting, as you will always have new enemies to fight on the tabletop!

To this end, we have a variety of pledge levels that we hope will either get you into the Judge Dredd miniatures game for the first time, or encourage you to expand your forces, along with the odd unique collector’s item. These are some of the highlights.

Law-Abiding Citizen $5: Get yourself a miniature of the toughest judge on the streets, Judge Dredd. Post-free, to anywhere in the world.

Cadet $20: Get yourself the ultimate in Justice machinery, the Lawmaster bike, with judge. Post-free, to anywhere in the world.

Rookie Judge $30: Get yourself immersed in the world of Mega-City One with a box set containing a complete force for the Judge Dredd miniatures game. Post-free, to anywhere in the world. You may select one already available or any unlocked by our stretch goals.

Street Judge $60: Get yourself and a friend immersed in the world of Mega-City One with two box sets containing two complete forces for the Judge Dredd miniatures game, so you and a friend can dive right in. Post-free, to anywhere in the world. You may select two sets already available or any that are unlocked by our stretch goals.

Academy of Law Tutor $90: Grab a piece of history with the last Limited edition, Metal-bound, D20-version of the Judge Dredd RPG. Post-free, to anywhere in the world. there will only be one of these!

Senior Judge $100: Take the Law to the streets in a major way with the massive Manta Prowl Tank. Cast in resin, this is truly the ultimate way to stop a Block War in its tracks. Post-free, to anywhere in the world.

Council of Judges $300: Bring blood to the streets of Mega-City One by grabbing all ten currently available box sets, giving you ten different forces to start playing with! Post-free, to anywhere in the world. Additional box sets may be added by our stretch goals.

Chief Judge $950: Get everything from the Law-Abiding Citizen, Cadet, Brit-Cit, Senior and Council of Judges levels, plus one each of all new models released in the Judge Dredd line in 2012 and 2013. Post-free, to anywhere in the world. You may select one already available or any that is unlocked by our stretch goals.

Mayor of Mega-City One $1,000: See a new Mega-City One character named after you and sculpted in your likeness, complete with back story and rules, along with a studio-quality painted model of the final design sent to you, post-free, anywhere in the world.

We also have an easy-to-reach stretch goal that will start the process of bringing the new models to you a great deal quicker than might otherwise be possible, including Walter the Wobot!

Remember, this all starts on the morning of Thursday 13th September, so get ready and may your Lawgiver always fire true!

http://blog.mongoosepublishing.co.uk/?p=352

**warboss**

I'd be lying if I said I was impressed by the minis... I can see that they're relatively faithful to the exaggerated proportions of the old comics but they just remind me detailwise of old rogue trader 40k figs. The only fig I liked was the one they took from the now defunct Starship Troopers game and converted over.

**Empchild**

They've had these minis for a while now and I would hope they would've updated a lot but I guess not. Sadldy not my thing if they can't take the time to upgrade their lines.

**Myrthe**

Empchild wrote:
They've had these minis for a while now and I would hope they would've updated a lot but I guess not. Sadldy not my thing if they can't take the time to upgrade their lines.

I completely agree !! Mongoose seems to make the least amount of effort on so many of their projects / products ... like resurecting 20-year-old outdated models.

And Mongoose doesn't have the best track record for supporting, or even following-thorough, on their games. Anyone remember Starship Troopers? Or the promised Starship Trooper pre-paints? Or Battlefield Evolution ? Or Babylon 5?

Remember folks, Kickstarter gives no guarantees about delivery of a final product. Consider your pledge a gamble that MIGHT pay off and pledge to companies you trust with money you can lose.

**Pacific**

Hmm I am perhaps more excited about this than I should be!

I'm a massive Dredd fan, although yes the temptation has to be measured against Mongoose not doing particularly well in the past. Always thought Starship Troopers could have been massive if handled well.

Hopefully they will re-release the fatties with belly-wheels in any case, always found those things hilarious.

**Lt.Soundwave**

With the movie trailer and whatnot I would not be surprised if this turned out to be fairly popular.

**Breotan**

Gonna have to pass on this one. Sculpts are not exactly inspiring and there really isn't anything on the kickstarter page that leads me to believe the world will be worse off if this doesn't get funded.

**CT GAMER**

I'm not seeing an issue with the miniatures. They very much look like what I would expect considering the source material.

**Azazelx**

Going to have to watch this one...

**Mr Gutsy**

Sounds interesting so far, i've been wanting to purchase the Robots, the apes and the angel gang for a while now. It seem odd to me that they don't have any pledge levels in between the $100-$300 deals though.

I do agree about the quality of some of the models, a few of the judges in particular are very badly sculpted. Im just grateful that mongoose had enough sense to leave that truly awful plastic punks and juves boxset they produced in the trash where it belongs...

Empchild wrote:
They've had these minis for a while now and I would hope they would've updated a lot but I guess not. Sadldy not my thing if they can't take the time to upgrade their lines.

They had an awesome new sculptor (Shane Hoyle i think.) who did a few of the new judges and the Angel gang, but from what i remember reading on Frothers he went AWOL last year and some people weren't receiving models they had commissioned him to sculpt.

Shame really, as he did some great work for this range.

**ironicsilence**

The kickstarter craze is going to end when they stop being successful. As long as there is money (and it some cases silly amounts of money) to be made then companies will continue.

I likely wont go crazy on this one but love me some judge dread so I'll likely through a little cash at it. Will need to see better pics of the minis though

**BobtheInquisitor**

Lt.Soundwave wrote:
With the movie trailer and whatnot I would not be surprised if this turned out to be fairly popular.

But the trailer looks awful. Really, really awful.

It made me nostalgic for Stallone Dredd. Luaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwww!

After Mongoose's handling of Babylon 5, I have no faith in them to support, market, or even, apparently, like their own products.

**lord_blackfang**

Yeah, given Mongoose's history, they might drop the game (again) before they deliver the kickstarter.

**Cyporiean**

Mongoose has a relationship with the owners of Judge Dread, so unlike Starship Troopers and Babylon 5 they don't have the HUGE licensing costs with the line.

Matthew Sprange (Current Head of Mongoose) posted abit about it on TMP today.

**Grot 6**

Viele übersetzte Beispielsätze mit

**Sidstyler**

Grot 6 wrote:
Viele übersetzte Beispielsätze mit

How dare you say that to me.

This KS reminded me that I have a couple of old-ass Judge Dredd models sitting on my desk. I bought them from the bits bin at the local store and haven't really done anything with them. It's something I'm interested in but as others have pointed out, Mongoose kinda has a reputation.

**Pacific**

BobtheInquisitor wrote:

It made me nostalgic for Stallone Dredd. Luaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwww!

I have to be honest, that's the first time I've seen 'nostalgic' and 'Stallone's Dredd' in the same sentence!

Usually it would be 'drokk', 'grud', or perhaps 'stomm' to use the 2000AD vernacular..

**Grot 6**

Here is the trailer for both of the films and between the two- it is night and day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PifvRiHVSCY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43-BefmjMFg

From what I have seen of the new one, its pretty good. It is out there if you are one of us freaky/kool kids.

I'm fifty fifty on the film. I like it, but it has such extra bags attached to it that gives the movie some issue.

When you see this trailer, then see the Expendables 2 right after it, it brings up memories of a film best left in the "Cheap $5.00" VHS piles that should be best left there.

With that being said- MONGOOSE has negative history that they will not recover from based on thier past actions on thier game systems.

Not opinion, its fact.

Caveat Emptor

**Azazelx**

Are the Mongoose figures anything to do with the Wargames Foundry ones?

**Grot 6**

No, They are different sculpts but the same characters.

**Polonius**

Myrthe wrote:
Empchild wrote:
They've had these minis for a while now and I would hope they would've updated a lot but I guess not. Sadldy not my thing if they can't take the time to upgrade their lines.

I completely agree !! Mongoose seems to make the least amount of effort on so many of their projects / products ... like resurecting 20-year-old outdated models.

And Mongoose doesn't have the best track record for supporting, or even following-thorough, on their games. Anyone remember Starship Troopers? Or the promised Starship Trooper pre-paints? Or Battlefield Evolution ? Or Babylon 5?

Remember folks, Kickstarter gives no guarantees about delivery of a final product. Consider your pledge a gamble that MIGHT pay off and pledge to companies you trust with money you can lose.

Not to pile on, but there aren't many companies I would trust less with a Kickstarter pledge than Mongoose, whose unofficial slogan seems to be "over promise and underdeliver."

I"m sure they're well meaning guys and all, but they have a long list of half done projects.

**Zweischneid**

Polonius wrote:

Not to pile on, but there aren't many companies I would trust less with a Kickstarter pledge than Mongoose, whose unofficial slogan seems to be "over promise and underdeliver."

I"m sure they're well meaning guys and all, but they have a long list of half done projects.

Do they? I don't think I ever consciously bought from them. Do you have an example?

**Polonius**

Well, Starship Troopers was supposed to have a huge, rolling release, and pretty much dried up in a year. They announced a switch to pre-paints, and well, you know.

They also have released a lot of minis games (mighty armies, Babylon 5, Battlefield evolution) but at some point decided not to do minis anymore.

I'm not saying they ripped anybody off or anything, it just became a bit of a running joke to not get attached to any systemt they bring out.

**ironicsilence**

Polonius wrote:
Well, Starship Troopers was supposed to have a huge, rolling release, and pretty much dried up in a year. They announced a switch to pre-paints, and well, you know.

They also have released a lot of minis games (mighty armies, Babylon 5, Battlefield evolution) but at some point decided not to do minis anymore.

I'm not saying they ripped anybody off or anything, it just became a bit of a running joke to not get attached to any systemt they bring out.

thanks for the insight, it actually makes me feel a bit better, I've got zero interest in playing a judge dredd game so wouldnt be too worried if the system dried up, I'm only interested in getting a handful of models so hopefully they should be able to deliver that

**Polonius**

ironicsilence wrote:
Polonius wrote:
Well, Starship Troopers was supposed to have a huge, rolling release, and pretty much dried up in a year. They announced a switch to pre-paints, and well, you know.

They also have released a lot of minis games (mighty armies, Babylon 5, Battlefield evolution) but at some point decided not to do minis anymore.

I'm not saying they ripped anybody off or anything, it just became a bit of a running joke to not get attached to any systemt they bring out.

thanks for the insight, it actually makes me feel a bit better, I've got zero interest in playing a judge dredd game so wouldnt be too worried if the system dried up, I'm only interested in getting a handful of models so hopefully they should be able to deliver that

I have no reason to think they'll flake out on this. As far as I know, they've never reneged on pre-ordered product.

Edit: also, I've gotten the impression that Mongoose has always been undercapitalized. Meaning that a kickstarter would be good for them, as it raises some capital.

**lord_blackfang**

You know, I think I still have a gang from the first time they did a Judge Dredd game and then dropped it.

**notprop**

Yeah me too.

I quite liked their plastic gang box, the metal sculpts not so much. Put them along side the GW ones from 20 years before and they look particularly poor. The Sky surfer is a prime example and the Ape gang

Joe Bannas would be spinning in his resyk bay.

I saw the current boxes a Salute and despite have cash in the hip and a great love of all things Dredd, I gave this line a miss.

**BrookM**

Call me a pessimist, but I'm with the others here: How long until Mongoose drops this one as well?

**notprop**

To be fair they've been chugging along with this line of miniatures for what 6-7 years? I don't see them dropping one that appears to be at least nominally successful.

**Pacific**

Polonius wrote:

Edit: also, I've gotten the impression that Mongoose has always been undercapitalized. Meaning that a kickstarter would be good for them, as it raises some capital.

That could be good point actually - I've always thought Mongoose have had some really great ideas. Remember the hubbub about the pre-painted minis, and Battlefield Evolution etc. but in the end the games just weren't as well as supported as they could have been. And this is despite some great little rulesets for the games (Starship Troopers was what 4th edition 40k could have been, but it was too much of a change from previous editions for GW's liking so Andy Chambers took the ruleset to Mongoose). I heard that Battlefield Evolutions used a similar system although I never played it - again though, great idea but not as well supported as it could have been.

notprop wrote:The Sky surfer is a prime example and the Ape gang Joe Bannas would be spinning in his resyk bay.

Hahaha...