I’m not a big solo gamer. Despite the fact I do look for that option when I buy a game. When it comes to playing a game solo though there seems to be a barrier that puts me off. I think it’s all the setup and tear down. It seems a lot of hassle. Especially if there is an app version of the game.

So my actions this morning were totally out of character for me. I actually played Judge Dredd Helter Skelter with the Dark Judges expansion solo.

I think the main reason was that I was curious how the game would play.

Instead of going with the classic matchup for this solo play of Team Dredd vs the Dark Judges, I went with Team Strontium Dog vs the Dark Judges.

For the record you can not play Judge Dredd Helter Skelter solo, you need the Dark Judges expansion to do so. Playing solo means you chose one of the base games four factions (and I can see no reason why you couldn’t use one of the Wildlands factions as well). This is the team you will be playing. You will always be going up against the Dark Judges. It is not an option to play them in the solo variant.

The actions of the Dark Judges during play are determined by a small deck of cards. On the Dark Judges turn you turn over the top card of the deck and it shows the actions each of them will do that turn. When you have to decide who a Dark Judge targets or direction of travel the deciding logic is always the nearest opposing character. It’s a simple rule but effective.

Naturally there is a bit of randomness involved in the setup with the positioning of the fragments you need to collect, the Dark Judges and your team. I had three characters next to the Dark Judges during setup. But that was countered by having a character near to two fragments and not even close to a Dark Judge.

The Dark Judges are a pain to take down. You basically have to do a double attack. The first taking out the Dark Judges shield, and the second to do the actual damage. The shield resets at the end of a players turn. Luckily Psi attacks get through this. The reward for taking out a Dark Judge is high, which justifies the high risk. You double the number of fragments you have captured. By the time I took out Judge Fear I had three fragments already. So his demise was enough to give me the win.

I actually liked the solo mode. It worked surprisingly well. There was very little overhead and flowed really well. I can see myself playing the game solo again.