The Judgment of the Capital Wastelands

[Zor]

In this scenario, early in the year 2277 in the capital wasteland a building is deposited in the Capital Wastelands. This facility bears an Eagle Logo and above its gates is the following inscription...

MEGA CITY ONE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE STATION-466

Said building contains 250 fully trained and capable Street Judges, 250 Lawmaster motorbikes, living quarters as well as enough staff and a set of automated factories and hydroponic farms able to produce sufficient foodstuffs, medicine and drinkable water for themselves as well as spare parts an ammunition. It also has attached to it about a thousand Isocubes. It is armored against assault. Among the Judges stationed is one Joseph Dredd.

What happens?

Zor

[Ahriman238]

I assume this is Fallout?

Nothing much changes for anyone. People rarely venture outside the Megacity, and anyone trying to sneak or force their way in would have an interesting day and a lot of explaining to do. Life goes on for everyone much as before.

Oh wait, this is a station, not the whole city. I guess they round up some people and maybe the sentient ghouls and build their idea of a perfect world, which is naturally a new Megacity "done right" and absolutely horrifying to you or I.

[Zixinus]

I am not familiar with the Judge Dredd universe, but I doubt that they'd last very long, at least not in their original form. After all, how will the Judges feed themselves?

Though, it would be nice to have some idiots try and clean up the night-crawler infestation to the north.

[weemadando]

Zix, buildings in Megacities are designed to generate surpluses of energy and be at a minimum, self sufficient in terms of food, water & waste etc. Don't think too hard about how these efficiencies are achieved, it's not appealing.

And honestly, 250 Street Judges with Lawmasters (which Mk by the way as it's the difference between "motorbike with guns" and "very capable air superiority motorbike") is a hell of a force to be reckoned with. I'll have to check some old 2000AD materials out, but a station means we should see some specialist judges as part of the force there.

Anyone within the Capital Wasteland is looking at a hell of a lot of justice being dealt out and the Enclave is going to get wiped out in all likelihood with the President being retasked to social programs by the Tech Squad Judges. A lot of groups may be absorbed into militias (each block in 2000AD has a trained and equipped militia for inter-city conflicts) and that will only help the Judges. After all, how many groups in the Wasteland would welcome some form of civilisation and order returning, however harsh the circumstances?

[Irbis]

Enclave wiped out?

I didn't read a lot of Dredd stories, but I can only see Judges joining enclave as the only possible winning solution for them, otherwise they don't stand much a chance against advanced power armours with gauss/plasma weaponry... Have I missed something?

[weemadando]

Their pistols are capable of taking down cyborgs and penetrating military body armour and light vehicles. They carry rifles on their bikes for when that's not enough. That's to say nothing of the bike's armament (twin HMGs or later, laser cannons plus missiles).

Also stations will have heavier vehicles (tanks, APCs and more) for use in riots and other serious disturbances/war. I can't imagine them not rolling these out given the situation they find themselves in.

As for them fighting the Enclave, they've done some bad shit - to say nothing of actually starting the war - and the judges are either going to crack down hard on it or join up. I'm leaning towards the former given their attitudes.

[fgalkin]

The Enclave is not the Law. Dredd is the Law.

Raven Rock goes the way of East-Meg One and the Judges bring order to the Capital Wasteland.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Eulogy]

The Lone Wanderer is out of a job and quite possibly is hunted down and killed depending on what said Wanderer did. Nuked Megaton? The Judges won't be happy.

Very Good Karma Wanderers just may well be left alone, however.

[Highlord Laan]

Their interactions with the CW Brotherhood could get interesting too, mainly because of what that chapter of the BoS does in the Wasteland. That being, fighting valiantly (and slowly being overwhelmed) trying protect the few bastions of civilization from the super mutants and slavers, raiders and other scum. Elder Lyons is canny enough to see how badly his people would be outmatched, too.

Seeing what happens when the Outcasts try to take the Judges on would be outright hilarity.

[Eulogy]

Seeing what happens when the Outcasts try to take the Judges on would be outright hilarity.

The Outcasts aren't stupid. Once they see the Judges in action most of them will think twice before picking a fight. After all, the Judges have the much better tech.

Paradise Falls, on the other hand, will be repainted with the viscera of the slavers that live there and the slaves will be freed, assuming they don't die in the firefight.

[Highlord Laan]

Seeing what happens when the Outcasts try to take the Judges on would be outright hilarity.

The Outcasts aren't stupid. Once they see the Judges in action most of them will think twice before picking a fight. After all, the Judges have the much better tech.

Paradise Falls, on the other hand, will be repainted with the viscera of the slavers that live there and the slaves will be freed, assuming they don't die in the firefight.

Assuming the Lone Wanderer didn't wipe the place out already. The various towns in and around DC will probably flourish with the Judges putting their boots on the necks of slavers and such, though I expect the super mutants would still pose a bit of a problem, if only though numbers.

Its been a while since I last read the 2000AD books. What would the Judges do in a situations where total lawlessness has broken out and only a few are working to keep some control? Would they work with guys like Lucas Simms and Harkness? Or, for that matter, a good-karma Lone Wanderer?

[Irbis]

Their pistols are capable of taking down cyborgs and penetrating military body armour and light vehicles. They carry rifles on their bikes for when that's not enough. That's to say nothing of the bike's armament (twin HMGs or later, laser cannons plus missiles).

Ah. Well, didn't played F3 much, but it was my impression from Fallout 2 that machine guns and .50 sniper rifles were bad against Enclave's armour, you needed advanced plasma or electroplasma weaponry to even reliably think about it, but okay. Still, if there's a faction in Fallout world capable of accepting the Judges, it's Enclave, I think. Similar methods, Enclave being technically legal government...

Ok, Dredd might try to take over, but I still don't see them winning in open war. Judges seem to be badly armoured (especially jaw and neck), Enclave has air support (vertibirds), plus a lot more manpower than just 250 men.

[Srelex]

The Hall should come with Riot Judges (who are fully armored), H-Wagon gunships, and Mechanismo robo-judges who are let out in emergencies (and per the strip, can go toe-to-toe with bona fide xenomorphs). Manta hover tanks will also be handy in equalizing things.

The Grand Hall itself is also supposedly proof against nuclear attacks; while the Judges may not be able to extend themselves beyond the Capital Wasteland, they should have the technological advantage to seize it.

[Ted C]

In my F3 experience, the energy weapons carried by Enclave troops aren't significantly better than firearms. I've dropped quite a few Enclave soldiers with a standard assault rifle.

[Skywalker_T-65]

I've killed Enclave guys with swords. So yeah, they aren't too awfully powerful...more powerful than the average Wastelander/Brotherhood guy certainly, but I doubt they would give the Judges much problem.

[Highlord Laan]

Their pistols are capable of taking down cyborgs and penetrating military body armour and light vehicles. They carry rifles on their bikes for when that's not enough. That's to say nothing of the bike's armament (twin HMGs or later, laser cannons plus missiles).

Ah. Well, didn't played F3 much, but it was my impression from Fallout 2 that machine guns and .50 sniper rifles were bad against Enclave's armour, you needed advanced plasma or electroplasma weaponry to even reliably think about it, but okay. Still, if there's a faction in Fallout world capable of accepting the Judges, it's Enclave, I think. Similar methods, Enclave being technically legal government...

Ok, Dredd might try to take over, but I still don't see them winning in open war. Judges seem to be badly armoured (especially jaw and neck), Enclave has air support (vertibirds), plus a lot more manpower than just 250 men.

The Enclave is simply screwed. The Judges can meet them man to man and have a pretty good shot at winning, add to that the BoS being in the area, and we end up with the Enclave getting a foot stuffed into whichever orifice they present first.

[Irbis]

Wasn't your examples of people beating the Enclave coming from main character who simply can't die from them and has to be able to beat them because people would have returned the game? It's sorta like evaluating common rebel in SW by pointing at Luke Skywalker.

I wouldn't object that much, but IIRC, in more "realistic" F2 Enclave Soldiers were very hard to kill and very dangerous, too, especially if you didn't used magically healing stimpacks (another bit advantage Enclave has on Judges - from almost dead to healthy in a few seconds).

Also, one Dredd story I read had Mega City One overrun and Dredd running to beg Brit City Judges for help - and from what I remember, people who beat all MCO Judges while being substantially worse armed and organized than Enclave (including killing Judges with Pistols) - but I read that 2 years ago, so might have gotten details wrong.

Anyway, my point is, if we want to compare Wastelands to Judges, capabilities of both protagonists, PC and Dredd should be discarded, or at least not projected at a setting as a whole to the exclusion of how people in it really look.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Okay then...look at other things that kill Enclave guys.

Deathclaws
I've seen Mirelurks do it
Brotherhood guys (Outcast and mainline)
Occasional lucky Merc

Really, it is possible to kill them (even without being the PC) with less advanced weapons. Just have to look around a bit in the cases aside from the BoS.

[Crazedwraith]

Not knowing much about Dredd aside from seeing the movies. I am amusing myself by imagining them all taking one look and saying 'nope. the law says this out of my jurisdiction' and kicking back and doing nothing.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Really though, it is darn near impossible to rationally say how they would compare to the Enclave, since it is entirely game mechanics on how strong the Enclave is.

[Panzersharkcat]

Especially since their power armor is supposed to be super-mega-awesome in-universe but in-game is only marginally better than shitty T-45d. They also lack a lot of the weapons they had in Fallout 2, like Gauss and pulse rifles. Those were absolutely devastating end-game small guns and energy weapons. Friggin' Cassidy died so many times in the Oil Rig. Hell, unless I stocked up on stimpaks and optimized a build with high luck and Sniper, I'd die a lot in there, too. The only reason I ever have a hard time fighting the Enclave in FO3 is because I modded them to be much harder with much higher hit points and better armor stats.

[The Yosemite Bear]

just exactly did 250 judges do to deserve a long walk?

[weemadando]

Fuck man, if they decide to treat it like a long walk then everyone is double plus fucked.

Because then the gloves are fucking OFF.

[The Yosemite Bear]

It is essentally what it is.

[Enigma]

Care to explain?