Judge Dredd: I Am The Law Starter Set Review

For me, the most eagerly awaited game of the year arrived a few days ago, just after my birthday, so it was an ideal present. It is of course, the Judge Dredd:I Am The Law sci-fi skirmish game by Warlord Games. Above is a photo of all of the contents of the starter boxed set, which I want to review here. A full review of the figures will appear in my next post. The box is the same size as the starter box for the companion Strontium Dog game by Warlord Games and indeed the Judge Dredd game shares much in common with it - rules, dice, counters, etc.
Inside the box is the rulebook, which at 160 pages is a fairly hefty tome. It expands on the rules of the Strontium Dog game with additional rules for vehicles and robots plus campaign play both as a Judge or a perp. You have the option of playing either Judges or perps. There are numerous scenarios to play along with stats for a host of Judges, perps, robots, vehicles and weapons. The rulebook is in full colour and is beautifully produced.

A limited edition hardback version of the rulebook was made available to early bird backers. I got one and mine was number 60 of 200. The hardback was signed by the games three authors Andy Chambers, Gav Thorpe and Roger Gerrish. To my surprise, they also signed the softback rulebook - see above.
Also in the boxed set are a quick play set of three scenarios, a large double sided map measuring 3 feet by 3 feet, a sheet of 2D scenery items made of thick card, a sheet of water slide graffiti transfers, 3 sprues of assorted counters (gold for the Judges and dark blue for the perps), six combat dice, two standard six-sided dice, stat cards for Judges and basic perps, a deck of armoury cards with which to arm your Judges or perps, a deck of Big Meg special events cards and finally two 35mm scale resin cast Judges plus eight 35mm scale resin cast perps. A special Judge Dredd vs Judge Death pewter diorama set is available if you order the starter set direct from Warlord Games. All in all, great value for money for £50.00.
I ordered the Mega deal package from Warlord Games, which netted me all of the above plus all of the figure sets made available for wave 1 of this range. Incidentally, the wave 2 range of figures which should be released in January 2020 are Citi-Def squad, Citi-Def reinforcements, Cursed Earth Raiders, Mutie Sky Surfers, Psi Judge Anderson, a grav pod and a hover van.
The game does not rely on the IGOUGO system but is much more unpredictable but in common with a lot of games produced by Warlord Games, especially Strontium Dog. Every figure in the game is assigned an activation chip and these are placed in a bag to be drawn out one at a time until they have all been drawn, thus completing that turn. Rinse and repeat. You can never be sure who gets drawn first, which makes gameplay more of a challenge. I like this mechanic. Games are designed to be played with just a few figures per side. Figures are permitted two actions per turn, either two simple actions such as move or snap-fire, or one double action such as sprint or aimed fire. Play continues until one side defeats the other. It is simple, fast and fun and works very well.
I do intend to run games of I Am The Law alongside my Judge Dredd WOIN campaign using the same Judges in both games and setting both games in and around Sector 13. With a fairly large cast of named Judges this will give everyone a chance to shine in the spotlight and hopefully, not fail too badly, if at all.