What's the Verdict on Judge?

[Ivellis]

I haven't gotten the rulebook yet, but I'm definitely looking at getting the Lady Justice starter. However I wanted to know what the verdict on Judge? How does he play, what role is he for? I really like his model and the fluff on him and Justice in the e-zine, so I'm hoping he's worth playing.

(Also, would someone address one of my concerns? Does Guild really have a heavy leaning towards facing certain enemies? Like would I be handicapped against anyone but resurrectionists?)

[gregdorf]

The judge is not a bad character, he has a number of spells that allows him to make attacks with both of his weapons at the same time in addition to his anti-undead stuff.

The way the game is structured, players will start with a master and build their crew from there. There are only 3 masters per faction and there is very few limitation on what minions a master can take as long as they are all part of the same faction. Now there are certain synergy builds where some troop tend to work better under certain masters, this is usually not as big a deal with guild, and there is nothing stopping you from taking a witchling stalker, with Papa Loco and the Judge. In the guild the troops that are specially design for fighting against a different faction enemy tend to have additional triggers built into their profiles that allow them to function just fine against models from different factions. The death marshals have a trigger effect that can take away corpse counters (which is important for undead and a few others), but they can also use trigger effects that gives them a boost to damage.

[Grammaton Cleric]

So far, the judge is meh for me. For one more soul stone I can take Samael who positively brings the pain. Hard to wound and slow to die are nice, but not enough to make me give up on Sammy.

[Scorpio]

And for the same soulstone cost, you can have the Executioner.

So, what makes the Judge a good choice? He can shoot decently, but he is better in melee. And I am a big fan of Hard to Wound/Slow to Die.

[blkdymnd]

I am a big fan of those as well as his dual attack spells. He is lethal in the right situation and as most of the Lady J box, you really don't get rewarded for killing him

[Grammaton Cleric]

Against Resurrectionists, he's a no-brainer. Never me + his bonuses make that choice for you. As part of a well-rounded list, I'm not so sure. Others can do what he does better for the same cost-ish.

He's painted though, so until Samael gets done, he's in my list whether I like it or not.

[Sushicaddy]

With a Wp of 6 and a Df if 5 he has a good chance to defend against anyone, combined with Hard to wound and slow to die make him particularily difficult to take out.

THe executioner is more attack oriented, he certainly does more damage, but with a Wp of 5 and a Df of 3, and no hard to wound, he is much more likely to be taken out before he can get into melee, especially against a crew with decent to excellent shooting. A convict gunslinger using rapid fire has a pretty good chance of 1 turning an executioner, but the judge is much more likely to survive the round, and cut down the gunslinger.

Bullets and blades and blades and bullets are awesome spells too, easy to get off, and increase the damage potential of the judge by a long shot.

[gregdorf]

Bullets and blades and blades and bullets are awesome spells too, easy to get off, and increase the damage potential of the judge by a long shot.

IMO the real beauty of those two spells, and to a lesser degree Arrest, is they give the judge player a decent chance of forcing their target to burn through their fate hand. I think this alone can cause more damage then a more direct model like the executioner.

[Scorpio]

THe executioner is more attack oriented, he certainly does more damage, but with a Wp of 5 and a Df of 3, and no hard to wound, he is much more likely to be taken out before he can get into melee, especially against a crew with decent to excellent shooting.

That's possible, but if the Executioner can kill a model, he can heal all that damage right back up.

Bullets and blades and blades and bullets are awesome spells too, easy to get off, and increase the damage potential of the judge by a long shot.

Again, there's potential there, but it eats up a lot of your hand as well to do it. And the -2 Cb from Bullets and Blades makes it less likely to work, again reinforcing the Judge's focus on melee instead of range.

[Kindred]

Personally, I like the Judge...

I have two variation of my crew at the moment. Both of them take the Judge... one of them trades 2 death marshals for Samael so I get the best of both worlds with that one.

So far I have actually never been placed against the resurectionists, and the judge has been just fine.

[Isoulle]

The Judge mostly pays for being much harder to kill (As said above, hard to wound 1 and 2 more df help a lot.) and for being faster. Moving one inch faster is nothing to balk at. I actually prefer running the Judge over the executioner in a tournament environment because the moment a shooting list hits the table you will wish you had the judge instead. The executioner dies really quickly to shooting...

[Kagelong]

I find the Judge a good option for a body-guard model, to protect the crew's master from getting assassinated. Put him in the way of the charge and thanks to his Hard to Wound and decent Df, he's likely not to be dead at the end of combat. Then he can pour the hurt back on just about anything next turn.

[Rockabizzle]

Just picked up Lady Justice's box and the judge rocks, played a game with Nicodem and the judge just slaughtered his zombies!!

[paradox]

Last night I was pondering the usefulness of Arrest and Judged. Arrest seems like a nice way to slow certain models down, but will need a decent card in yout control hand to ensure. At the very least it can push some cards out of your opponents hand that turn.

I havent played vs resurrectionist yet (ironically) but it seems like Judged will be handy for clearing out deadies at range.

[Selds]

I hav been using the Judge as my front line or "tank". The number of wounds combined with hard to wound is the key for me. I send him out front knowing hes probably not going to get one shotted, unlike death marshals. Combine this with his speed and I really like the role he fulfills. Hes not an UBER OMFG damage machine but we have others that fill that role.