Judge Dredd: Block War Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• The Goal
• Components
• Winning
• Setup
  • Determine the First Player
  • Twist Shuffling
  • Dealing Out the Street
  • Deal Each Player 5 Cards
  • Open 2 Security Gates
• Overview of a Turn
  • Renew Your Action Points
  • Spend Your Action Points
• Card Notes
  • Justice Department Card
  • Perp Card
• Resolve Combat
  • The Rules of Combat
  • Combat Examples
• Card Spotlights
  • Perps
  • Riot Foam
  • Block Sniper
  • Hi-Explosive
• Replenish the Street
• End of the Game

The Goal

In Block War, each player uses their hand of cards representing "Perps" to protect the Security Gates in their Block from their opponent that is trying to destroy them. Using the same cards, both players are defending themselves from the Justice Department. The action is non-stop until one player has all of their gates destroyed.

The first player to destroy their opponent's five Security Gates is the winner.

Components

• 30 Justice Department (JD) Cards
• 46 Perp Deck Cards
• 2 Quick Reference Cards
• 10 Security Gate & 10 Destroyed Gate Cards

Winning

When one player has rendered useless the other player's Security Gates, the game ends and that player is declared the winner.

A Security Gate is considered useless if it is:

• Destroyed
• Occupied by enemy combatants
• The player is unable to open / close a Gate.

In the rare case that the Justice Department is responsible for the destruction of both players, add up the victory points on collected Security Gates and collected unique cards. The person with the most victory points wins.

Victory Point value for collected cards:

• Security Gate = 2 VP (see page 12)
• Named Card = VP as indicated on the card (see page 11)

Setup

First, each player receives a Reference Card, 5 Security Gates and 5 Destroyed Gates.

Lay out the 5 Destroyed Gates in front of you with the closed side of the Security Gate on top of it.

Be sure to leave enough space in between each player's cards for the Justice Department. This is called the Street.

[The Street]

Determine the First Player

The person who most recently saw Dredd (2012) goes first.

Or

The person who most recently saw Judge Dredd (1997) goes last.

Place the Justice Department deck to the left of the first player just outside the Street.

Place the Perp deck to the right of the first player just outside the Street.

Twist Shuffling

Proper shuffling of the Justice Department deck is key to a fair game. When shuffling you are randomizing the orientation (top and bottom) of the cards, as well as the cards themselves. To achieve this, break the deck into two piles, rotate one of the piles 180°, combine the piles and shuffle as usual.

1. JD deck
2. Break into two packs, rotating one of the packs 180 degrees
3. Shuffle as usual

The Perp deck does not need to be twist shuffled; it is shuffled as normal.

Dealing Out the Street

Once you have sufficiently shuffled the Justice Department deck, place the deck to the left of the first player. Always deal the Street from the slot closest to the Justice Department deck.

If during play the Justice Department deck should ever run out, twist shuffle the JD discard pile into a new deck.

When dealing out the Street, be sure to keep the cards the same orientation that they are in the deck. The orientation determines which direction the unit will be focused on.

NOTE: The easiest way to deal the JD deck is to grab the card by the short edge closest to you and flip the card on the long edge.

Deal out cards into the 5 slots that make up the Street. If on the initial deal there are more than 3 cards facing one player, that player must rotate any excess of 3 to their opponent.

Any Justice Department Action Cards dealt at this time should be put in the JD discard pile and the slot is redrawn.

Action cards are marked with this symbol.

Deal Each Player 5 Cards

Shuffle the Perp deck as you would normally shuffle a deck of cards. Deal 5 cards, face down, to each player. This is your starting hand. Place the Perp deck on the opposite end of the Street from the Justice Department deck.

Open 2 Security Gates

Your Security Gates act as protection from attack.

• A unit may only attack if it is behind an open gate.
• A unit cannot attack from behind a Closed Gate.
• A unit, Justice Department or otherwise, will not attack a closed gate (unless the card states otherwise).

Each player MUST open two (2) Security Gates by flipping the card so that its OPEN side is facing up. With the Justice Department in the Street and your starting hand ready, take note of the direction the different Justice Department cards are facing, as an unprotected open Gate is automatically destroyed by any attack during combat.

Usually you want to open 2 gates where the Justice Department is not facing you.

Overview of a Turn

A turn consists of a player:

1. Renewing their Action Points to five (5).
2. Spending their Action Points.
3. Resolving any combat (unless it is the first player's first turn).
4. Replenishing the Street from the Justice Department deck (if there are any open slots).

Renew Your Action Points

At the beginning of your turn, you have 5 Action Points to spend. You can keep track of the points you spend by using a coin or other small object on the tracker built into the left side of your Quick Reference card. Alternatively, you may use a die or just count. Whatever method you use, at the beginning of your turn, you have 5 Action Points to spend.

Unused AP do not carry over to the next turn.

Spend Your Action Points

Action Points (AP) are marked on the bottom right corner of the Perp cards. You may perform as many of the following actions as you wish, in any order, until your Action Points are exhausted.

These actions each use 1 AP to perform:

• 1 AP – Buy a card from the Perp deck to your hand. There is no hand size limit, so you can buy as many cards as you like.
• 1 AP – Open or close one (1) of your own Security Gates.
• 1 AP – Move 1 of your placed units (and any attached upgrades) to an empty adjacent Gate. You may move through other units and destroyed gates, but you may not stop there.

Example: Moving 2 spaces to an empty space through a destroyed gate would be 2 AP.

The AP cost is shown on the card for these actions:

• [card AP cost] AP – Play an Action Card from your hand and resolve its effects (if any). Once it has been played, discard the card unless otherwise noted. Discarded cards will be shuffled back in when the Perp deck runs out.
• [card AP cost] AP – Play a Unit to one of your Security Gates, or add a Backup or a Reinforce card to an existing unit. Units may not be placed on a destroyed / riot-foamed gate.

NOTE: Effects of Action Cards from the Perp deck happen immediately unless the card states otherwise. Riot Foam stays in play until removed by the affected player.

Editor's note: the printed manual shows the card-cost figure as an icon that does not survive text extraction; "[card AP cost]" stands in for it. The cost is the AP value printed on the card.

Card Notes

Justice Department Card

The numbers at the bottom (front) of the JD cards represent the unit's Attack / Defense. These numbers line up with the defense / attack numbers on the Perp cards. A unit only needs to MEET a unit's Defense to destroy it. Mutual destruction is a normal occurrence.

The top (back) of the card also has an attack / defense value, but it is rare that a unit will have an attack value on both sides.

NOTE: A 0 value is no value. A zero in the attack value means it will not attack. Same goes for defense: a zero value means it has no defense.

Targeting: The crosshairs above the numbers represent targeting and show where the unit will be attacking.

• A crosshair in the center means the unit will attack straight ahead.
• A crosshair in the Left or Right spot means that unit will target an enemy in the Left or Right slots in front of the unit, based on the card text.
• A crosshair in multiple spots means the card text will choose an appropriate target. See Block Sniper spotlight, page 15.

Drop / Slide: The DROP or SLIDE marked on the sides of the cards help you when refreshing the Street after combat. See Replenish the Street on page 18.

Card text: The text at the bottom of the cards are rules that may supersede any rules written in this book. Follow them as marked.

Faction icon: In the upper right corner is the faction icon. This will come into play in later expansions.

Victory points: Above the faction icon is the card's VP value. For the purposes of this version of the game, the only cards you will be collecting for points are named cards (Judge Dredd and Judge Giant) and your opponent's Security Gates.

Perp Card

The numbers at the top of the Perp cards represent their Defense and Attack. These numbers line up with the Attack / Defense numbers on the Justice Department cards. An Attack value only needs to MEET another unit's Defense to destroy it. Mutual destruction is a normal occurrence.

Targeting follows the same rules as the Justice Department EXCEPT: a target in multiple locations means the player may choose their target (left, front, right).

Card text: Some cards apply extra rules that modify gameplay.

Action Points: In the bottom right corner of a Perp card is its Action Point value. This is the cost to play that card on your turn.

Faction icon: Above the Action Point cost is the faction icon. We're saving this for later expansions.

Resolve Combat

Block War is a programmed combat system. This means that the cards you play from your hand are setting up a short program of how combat will resolve.

The Rules of Combat

• Combat happens at the end of every player's turn, EXCEPT the first turn of the first player.
• Combat is resolved one Gate at a time, starting with the Gate closest to the Justice Department deck and moving outward down the Street.
• Combat is initiated by the Justice Department based on the direction they are facing. If the Justice Department unit is facing your opponent, then combat begins with the Justice Department and your opponent for that column. Once that combat is resolved, combat moves onto the surviving Perp (if any) and you. (See page 14.)
• All units that can attack MUST ATTACK.
• Your units can only attack through an open gate. A riot-foamed gate counts as closed / destroyed.
• You only need to meet a defender's defense to destroy them. A 1 attack will destroy a 1 defense.
• An undefended OPEN Gate is destroyed by any attack.
• Gates destroyed by the Justice Department are collected by the opponent. Each one is worth 2 Victory Points.
• Justice Department cards that have been destroyed go into a discard pile (unless it is a named card like Judge Dredd or Judge Giant). If the Justice Department deck should run out, shuffle the JD discard pile to form a new deck.
• If at the end of any combat no Justice Department units are destroyed, remove the last JD card from the Street slot furthest from the JD deck, applying the drop / slide rules (see page 18).

Combat Examples

Example #1: Since the Rookie Judge is facing Player 2, combat will start with Player 2. The Rookie Judge and the Punks will fight because the Rookie Judge is facing Player 2's open gate. The Rookie Judge has a 1 attack and a 1 defense, while the Punks have a 1 attack and a 0 defense. Since you only need to meet a unit's defense to destroy it, they destroy each other and are placed in their respective discard piles. Since Player 1's gate is closed, combat is finished for this column.

Example #2: Let's build on the previous example by opening Player 1's gate and giving them a Citi-def unit. Since the Rookie Judge is facing Player 2, combat will start with Player 2. The Rookie Judge and the Punks will fight because the Rookie Judge is facing Player 2's open gate. The Rookie Judge has a 1 attack and a 1 defense, while the Punks have a 1 attack and a 0 defense. Since you only need to meet a unit's defense to destroy it, they destroy each other. Player 1's gate is open, and since the other 2 units have been destroyed, the Citi-def is free to destroy Player 2's Security Gate.

Example #3: Combat begins with the Justice Department's Lawmaster and Player 1's Citi-def. The Lawmaster has an attack of 3 and a defense of 2. The Citi-def has a defense of 2 and an attack of 2, so they destroy each other. With the Lawmaster and Citi-def destroyed and removed from the column, this gives Player 2's Punks an open shot at Player 1's exposed gate and destroys it.

Example #4: Player 1 has played Riot Foam on Player 2's open gate. Combat begins with the Justice Department. With the Lawmaster facing a foamed gate, it does nothing. The Punks cannot attack either, as they are behind a foamed gate. Player 1's Citi-def has 2 defense and 2 attack; it attacks and destroys the Lawmaster, which only has 2 defense.

Example #5: Combat begins with the Justice Department. The Rookie Judge is facing Player 1's Citi-def, so combat begins with Player 1. The Rookie Judge has 1 attack and 1 defense against the Citi-def's 2 attack and 2 defense. The Citi-def destroys the Rookie Judge. Combat continues with Player 2. With the Rookie Judge destroyed, the Citi-def will attack the Punks. The Citi-def has 2 defense and 2 attack, while the Punks have 1 attack and 0 defense, so Player 1's Citi-def destroys the Punks.

Card Spotlights

Perps

These are your main attack force. They defend your gates and attack your enemies. We'll call them "Base units."

• Only 1 Base unit may be played on a gate; you may not stack them. You may not play a Base unit on another Base unit.
• The only cards to be stacked on the Base units are Backup or Reinforce, which have a + next to their stats. You may place as many as you wish on top of a single Base unit.

Riot Foam

Riot Foam is an Action card that is played directly on an opponent's open gate. While the card is in play, the affected gate is considered closed and cannot be opened until the affected player discards 3 AP worth of cards from their hand on their turn.

While the card is active, the gate counts as useless. (See "Winning" above.)

Block Sniper

The Block Sniper plays the same as the other Perp cards, with the exception that when in combat it does not have to attack directly ahead.

It may attack Gates or Street targets in front, left, or right. It cannot be reinforced.

The sniper can attack a target directly ahead (as normal) or the column to the left or right of itself. Other units target the Block Sniper according to their own target icons. All spots marked with an X are viable targets for the Block Sniper.

Cost: 3 AP.

Hi-Explosive

The Lawgiver carries many types of ammo. Hi-Ex is one of them.

Play this card on a Justice Department unit facing a closed gate. When combat happens, the Justice Department unit destroys the gate (and any units behind the gate).

Card text: Play this on a Justice Department Unit. During combat this unit fires explosive rounds destroying closed gates. Discard this card immediately after combat.

Cost: 3 AP. Discard after use.

Replenish the Street

Justice Department units are marked with a DROP or SLIDE on the sides of the cards.

Let's assume this is what the Street looks like after combat. The current player draws a card from the Justice Department deck to reveal a Rookie Judge, which has a SLIDE. A SLIDE would cause the Lawmaster to slide down to column 2 of the Street and be replaced by the Rookie Judge.

Drawing another card, the player reveals a Bike Cannon, which is marked with a DROP. DROPs are "dropped" into the first open column on the Street, closest to the JD deck, so it goes into column 3.

Drawing another card, the player reveals Judge Giant, which is marked with a SLIDE. The player "slides" all the cards down the Street by one space so Judge Giant can go into column 1.

End of the Game

At the end of combat, if one player has all of their Security Gates rendered useless, their opponent is declared the winner.

If both players have all of their gates destroyed, count up the victory points from the gates and any named cards (Judge Dredd and Judge Giant). The player with the most VP is the winner.