Johnny Alpha
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| Johnny Alpha in action by Carlos Ezquerra Copyright Rebellion 2000AD Ltd |
Stats
It goes without saying that, as is befitting the star of the show, Johnny Alpha has the best overall stats in the game. He is the fastest character (in terms of Move and Evade stats), is an expert gunfighter (great Shoot, has Gunfighter skill), is strong in close combat (Fight) and can soak up damage pretty well too (Resist). Perhaps most importantly, he can keep up the good fight far longer than most (with the game's highest Cool stat). From a stats point of view, this is as good as it gets - and rightly so!Skills & Special Abilities
Johnny Alpha has four fantastic abilities:
Gunfighter: This ability isn't unique to Johnny so it is one that is good to learn to remember to use as it will serve you well for a few other characters. Provided you aren't Pinned, a 2000AD result when making your Evade or Resist rolls will activate Gunfighter and enable you to return a snap shot at your opponent! Try not to forget about this!
In My Head!: This is an ability which Johnny doesn't perform very often in the strip, namely to implant a thought in an enemy model's head. The obvious use for this in the game is to have one enemy attack the other which is fine as a game ability, but doesn't seem like the kind of thing that the Johnny Alpha we know would do.
Johnny Weird Eyes: This reflects Johnny's ability to see through most objects, allowing him to target opponents who are trying to hide behind cover out of his usual his line of sight! This single ability is what I feel makes Johnny unique and incredibly powerful in the game. Shooting at enemies through walls is great fun - and be sure to use that variable blaster to reduce the effectiveness of the hard cover bonus the enemy has!
Well Equipped: You get an extra Armoury card when Johnny is in your team which is a powerful bonus. The Armoury cards represent most of the wide range of weaponry (no lifewire!) that Johnny employs on a regular basis, such as Number 3 and 4 cartridges, electronux, time traps and time bombs! Remember that because the Westinghouse is a variable cartridge blaster, you can use the cartridge Armoury cards! No other pre-generated characters can make use of those! 
Footnote on abilities: I found it odd that there wasn't a specific skill that would grant Johnny some advantage if he is fielded as a leader. Other than in the very early days of the mutant resistance, Johnny has always been a leader, whether that being inspiring mutants to rise up against the Norms, or taking the lead in the partnerships that he has made throughout his many adventures, notably with Wulf Sternhammer, Middenface McNulty and Durham Red. I would even argue that making Johnny leader in the game is undesirable; in certain scenarios the leader is having a face-off against the other leader which tends to leave him in a vulnerable position. Better that your most valuable character is not the most exposed one in such scenarios! Personally I would have preferred some kind of leadership bonus in place of the In My Head! skill but that comes from my love for the source material rather than with a game designer hat on! Tactics for playing Johnny
My feeling is that the best strategy is to put Johnny in a remote corner of the board, preferably hidden from view behind a building or the like. Stay out of harm's way and use the In My Head! ability to suggest to enemies to shoot their allies. When the enemy starts to close in you can use the Johnny Weird Eyes ability to shoot them! If things are getting too tight, Johnny can move incredibly quickly; get a Sprint on and you can get out of there, moving up to 20" in one go! In a game where there are often enemies who cannot Evade at all, Johnny has a reasonable chance of dodging incoming attacks but I wouldn't rely on making those 2000AD results too often.Do all of the above and you'll see the victories rack up. However, none of that feels true to the character. You may not care about that and happily play Johnny this way, making the most of his strengths. There is nothing wrong about doing this if that's what you enjoy.
However, as a huge fan of the series, I try to play Johnny the way I think John Wagner might write him... Johnny would hardly ever use In My Head! and wouldn't be using it to control enemies to shoot their allies in the back. More likely he would probably just put the idea in their head to walk away from danger. Once per game would be my personal limit - if it was used at all. The Johnny Weird Eyes ability is incredibly powerful but I try not to rely upon it too often either; typically Johnny seems to use it once per major action sequence in the comic. Neither though would I like to impose any limits to its use in the game. It becomes increasingly justified to use the ability the more Johnny is outnumbered in the battle or if he faces enemies who are trying to hide from him behind cover. He isn't a coward, but neither is he stupid, so some caution doesn't seem unthematic. That said, Johnny routinely engages in face to face gunfights in the strip, not to mention occasional close quarters combat so I try to play him as heroically as possible, taking on enemies head on where it seems feasible! While he is uninjured he is extremely powerful; keep using your Star Chips on him and keep Going For Broke! With Cool 5 you have a very decent chance of getting the 2000AD result to put that Star Chip back in the bag! That does run the risk of you Pinning yourself and effectively losing the use of his Gunfighter ability so there is a potential downside...but when it goes your way with the Star Chips, you can really cause a massive amount of damage with Johnny. I would always Go For Broke with Johnny and it's cool from a thematic point of view as you see Johnny getting the drop on enemies by living on his reflexes just as he does in the series! Once you receive two or more wounds, you may want to think carefully about whether you still want to Go For Broke. Remaining unpinned and able to use Gunfighter may be the better option. Keeping Wulf close will also greatly benefit you by increasing Johnny's longevity through the Look Out Johnny! ability - see the Wulf tactics guide for more on this.
There is an optional rule that game designer Andy Chambers offered on The Dog House - Unofficial Strontium Dog Miniatures Game Group on Facebook for Johnny Alpha. The optional rule is as follows:-
You can field Johnny for 19 Notoriety or 190,000 Bounty if you don't bring Johnny's second blaster - the Webley - to the battle.
The Webley doesn't offer much in the way of advantages as its only use is to increase Johnny's chances of hitting an enemy by wielding two guns. Given that Johnny has a high Shoot, you don't really need this additional weapon and therefore it isn't really desirable to dual-wield guns, particularly because doing so comes at the expense of providing the target with a bonus to their Resist. If you like the flavour of having the Webley blaster as I do, please check out my Hero Mode home-brew rules below which allow you to keep the spare blaster at the same reduced cost.
Overall
Johnny costs a lot of points to bring to the table but does have strong stats as well as some very powerful and unique abilities. Unfortunately those abilities can encourage unthematic play. Playing heroically can go spectacularly well if you are fortunate enough to keep sending your Star Chip back into the bag; Johnny really shines with multiple activations! The flip side of that coin though is that there is a fairly high chance that playing heroically will result in Johnny playing into your opponent's hands and, ultimately, that this can easily lead to failure. There is a very thin line between heroism and stupidity and it can be frustrating when fortune deserts you!Optional Homebrew Rules
Honourable: If a player agrees at the start of a scenario that they will only use In My Head! to make enemies move away from danger, they can reduce Johnny's cost by 1 Notoriety / 10,000 credits bounty.
Leadership: Johnny is a renowned and inspirational leader for the mutant cause. To reflect this, when playing a scenario where there are Mutant Allies fighting with him, or if the scenario involves Johnny fighting as part of the mutant rebellion, the following optional rule applies:-
In Set Up, when Armoury cards are dealt, the player fielding Johnny may opt to only take 3 Armoury cards rather than 4. In return for sacrificing one of his Armoury cards, he is immediately dealt the Leadership Chicanery card. Johnny can still choose which 3 cards of the 6 Armoury cards dealt he wishes to use in the game. Note that the player using Johnny must declare his intention to do this during the deal Armoury cards step in Set Up. He cannot opt to do so once Chicanery cards are dealt. To clarify, this would mean Johnny would start the game with 3 Armoury Cards and 4 Chicanery Cards, and one of those Chicanery Cards would be Leadership.
Hero Mode:
Players can field Johnny Alpha for 19 Notoriety / 190,000 credit bounty, subject to the following restrictions:
1) Use of the "Johnny Weird Eyes"* and "In My Head" abilities are restricted to only being used once each per scenario (in line with the strip).
2) You play Johnny in a heroic manner.**
*If an enemy is deliberately hiding from Johnny to force him into a trap, multiple uses of Johnny Weird Eyes is permitted. Johnny has foiled traps like this and neutralised the lurking enemy without hesitation several times int the strip.
**This is clearly a grey area but in practice Johnny should be heavily involved in the action and not indulging in camping strategies unless defending something in a scenario or if he is grossly outnumbered. If it looks as though he is behaving in a cowardly manner, he shouldn't be doing that if you are playing him in Hero Mode. On the flip side, that doesn't mean he is stupid and that you are obliged to play him as though he has a death wish. If he's under pressure, there is nothing wrong with him claiming hard cover behind crates and the like to exchange fire. Equally, if he's wounded, don't be shy in using Hunker Down and keeping him out of sight until he is ready to rejoin the fight!
The Strontium Dog Miniatures Game is available from Warlord Games here.
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| Johnny Alpha leads a mutant revolt by Carlos Ezquerra Copyright Rebellion 2000AD Ltd |
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