"Warlord Games" Open Day - Part One: "Judge Dredd Miniatures Game" Preview

"For Dredd there is only one thing in his life - the law."

This past Saturday 20th July 2019 saw what is fast becoming a regular pilgrimage up to the "Warlord Games" Head Office site at the Lenton Business Centre, Nottingham, for the company's annual Open Day event. Advertised as a rare opportunity to "come and play-test our new games Black Seas, Judge Dredd and a few top secret projects presented by our Studio Team", the highlight for me was undoubtedly the chance to both have a look at the new range of miniatures coming to the streets of Mega-City One, and their fast-developing battlefield based upon the futuristic metropolis itself.

Particularly impressive are the Judges themselves, which have been sculpted in a variety of poses, carrying an assortment of weapons, such as the Lawgiver, Daystick and what potentially looks like either an Arbitrator pump-action shotgun or a Widowmaker 2000. In addition, there will clearly be the opportunity for some of the Judges to ride some fantastic-looking Lawmasters, one of which was on display flaunting a mouth-wateringly impressive paint-job by Kirsten Williams.

"Only dead men walk of doors, lawbreaker - smart ones use the window!"

Of course, my eyes were also very quickly drawn to some of Joseph Dredd's most iconic adversaries, especially when the models were placed alongside figures of Cassandra Anderson and Old Stony Face himself. The sculpt of Judge Death was absolutely jaw-dropping, but I was a little disconcerted by the undead law enforcer from the alternate dimension of Deadworld being so intrinsically fashioned around Dredd's body.

Death's spectral form flows all around his nemesis' legs and has his right hand hovering over the Judge's Lawgiver, so it was almost as if the pair were a small vignette rather than a wargaming figure. I suppose quite possibly the piece could be a special limited edition miniature, similar to the bareheaded Johnny Alpha with Electronux which accompanies just the "Strontium Dog" rule book...? Mean Machine Angel and Oola Blint however are clearly designed to operate as standalone characters, and both looked suitably menacing.

"Mega-City One... 800 million people and every one of them a potential criminal."

Enjoyably, a few of the residents of Mega-City One were also on show, in the significantly rotund shape of a Fattie and extremely-elegant Bat-glider. In addition, I was allowed to have a sneak peek at the ongoing paint-job upon Judge Grice in his chief judge's uniform, and at the massive MDF tabletop which "Warlord Games" are currently assembling in order to showcase the "Judge Dredd Miniatures Game" upon its release in November 2019.

Interestingly, the wooden walkways and habitation modules look set to be adorned by a number of pieces taken from "Mantic Games" Terrain Crate range of Starship Scenery and Starship Doors, as a few presumably empty boxes were lying amidst the partially-assembled buildings and plastic pieces dotted throughout the streets. The terrain boards would also appear to be utilising the multi-use interlocking tile system recently announced by "Sarissa Precision Limited", an intriguing series of different-sized edged MDF tiles which can be repeatedly reconfigured and looked rather useful for rule-sets such as "Zombicide" by "Guillotine Games".