Tuesday, January 25, 2011

NecroWhatica? Starting a gang

by: farmpunk


I was a bit surprised when I walked into the GP North and found Lord Ober eager for a Necromunda game. I pulled out a fresh gang I had drawn up previously, and We sat down to some of those basic questions everyone has when they start:

What can I play? What's the difference between groups? Do you HAVE to be human?

The setting for Necromunda is the Human Hive cities, so for the most part, yes, you're going to be human. There are some variations though, like ratskins, there's also a mutant gang (scavvy gang). I don't recommend those for anyone but pretty experienced Necromunda players. They're tough gangs to field, and outlaw gangs need to be allowed in your campaign, as outlaws have different rules.



So what do I recommend playing for a first gang?
I say take a look at the basic gangs, and choose one that fits a style and look you think you'll like.

House Cawdor:
These guys are the religious fanatics of the hive. They like to close quarters weapons, and close quarters abilities. Their basic gangers get agility, combat, and ferocity type skills, with the juves only getting combat and ferocity. They're going to play close, and fanatical.


House Delaque:
These are the stealth and shooting guys. They bring an array of weapons to the table, with a preference for shooting. Their basic gangers get agility, shooting, and stealth skills, with juves getting Shooting and stealth. They're going to want to hide and shoot you.

House Escher:
This house has female warriors, and love hand to hand combat. The basic gangers get agility, combat and stealth, with the juves taking agility and combat. If you like wyches or banshees, this is your gang. They're nimble, and stabby.

House Goliath:
This is the house of the hulking brute. These guys want to get close and beat you up. Goliath gangers take combat, ferocity, and muscle, with juves starting with ferocity and muscle. They're strong willed, and hard-hitting.

House Orlock:
This house is all-around decent. Orlock is slightly more shooty than a lot of gangs. Their gangers come with combat, ferocity, and shooting, with their juves have ferocity and shooting. This will make them stick with a fight, and shoot pretty well.

House Van Saar:
The top in shooty gangs. Van Saar is all about shooting, and tech skills. Their gangers get combat, shooting, and tech. The juves get shooting and tech. This is the ONLY gang that the rank and file people get access to the tech skill tree. Is that good? yeah. it's unfair-like good. It's the reason I highly recommend using the Skills V2 tables.

The Skills V2 tables bring balance back to some of the Close combat gangs. Otherwise, it doesn't take long for the Van Saar gangs to all be toting plasma guns, and laughing at you trying to run through plasma death, and using their techno skills to have 2+ ammo checks on their plasma also.

That gives a basic overview to the basic houses. I highly recommend chosing one of them if you're starting out. Van Saar is probably the easiest gang to start with, because of the overlapping combat and shooting skills (they can do anything), but Orlock's a strong contender because of the ferocity and shooting combo.

When you've decided on a gang, you get 1000creds to start your group. You'll have to look at Pg 78-79 for starting weapon choices and prices for each house. I'm going to make mine using house Orlock prices and options.
Drunken Samurai's plastic orlocks


I recommend: 1 leader (120c), 2 heavies (120c), 4 gangers(200c), and 4 juves(100c). leaving 460cred to outfit our gang.

Since everyone starts with a knife, I can work from there. the leader and heavies I want to have decent guns. Orlocks get no plasma, which is something I typically will take with my Delaque gang, so I'll go with a Heavy Stubber (120c) for one heavy, and a Shotgun with manstopper rounds (25c) for the other heavy. After the first battle, we can buy him a better gun (plasma). Leaving us with 315 creds. For the Leader we could do a Meltagun, or we could wait until after the first battle and get a plasma gun for him.
For our gangers, we've got a few decent choices. Lasguns aren't bad, and Shotguns with manstopper rounds are good as well. I like the manstoppers a lot, as Str4 is great in Necromunda. so we'll bust for 2 shotguns, and 2 lasguns. 25c each, for 100c total.
For the juves, I get pistols for them and that's about it. if they hit, great! if not, oh well. I get Autopistols, since they don't get negatives to hit at long range, like laspistols do. that's 15c each, so 60c total. That gives the juves a knife/pistol combo to charge forward with.
Now back to the leader. A plasma gun is going to run 70c, if I buy it after my first battle. or I can buy a meltagun now for extreme takedown power. Your choices here are going to depend on what direction you want your leader to go in. Do you want him to shoot? or get into CC and beat face? I typically prefer shooting, with some CC backup. I'll go a cheap route, and give him a shotgun with manstoppers, and a club, for extra CC hitting power. That's 35c more.
We've got 120c in the bank.

I only need 70c after this fight, so I'll get a 5th juve (25c) with an autopistol (15c).

that reduces me to 80c, which I'll hold onto in case I get any good deals from the merchants after my first fight.

I hope that helps with some getting started, picking a gang, and starting a roster!

12 comments:

  1. Looks like I need to go with Van Saar for my Stormtrooper Kill-Team then. :)

    Die gangers!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks man, they play Necromunda at the local club so this helps make sense of the madness. Good thing they are cool about model restrictions.

    I think the Orlok look awesome, it gives me an excuse to make the Eldar Corsairs I've been planning for ages... and it's just one squad right? RIGHT???!! *shiver*

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have, thus far...

    A leader (currently armed with a special las weapon, may have to give him something with a little more punch), 4 Gangers with Lasguns, 1 Juve with a 'stubber' (counts as auto-pistol), and one heavy with a ... let's call it a heavy stubber, for starters at least.

    Trying to get a very kitbashy, mix of imperial/scrappy tech. I may end up wanting to swap some of the lasguns for shotguns, with all the good things I hear.

    I'm going Delaque, using the Empire militia and IG bitz (with a few extras for specialty guys).

    I also have a deserter Guardsman that I put together as a Merc, not sure if he'll ever get any use though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I recently got drawn into playing Mordheim again. I had forgotten how much fun these games are (especially if you have someone with some imagination 'GM'ing' the campaign.

    These games, and Necromunda in particular, are awesome and you can see why they won't die. I'm sure you will have a blast with it!

    ReplyDelete
  5. ok im just gonna have to put in, i just dont get the game. ive heard rave reviews and all the awesomeness it has, but for me it just doesnt mesh. something about the gangers and mythos, basically the fluff doesnt work for me.

    ReplyDelete
  6. not everyone 'gets' Necromunda. It's definately a niche product.
    Some guys have done a decent job at combining Necromunda and 40K.
    http://galaxyinflames.blogspot.com/
    Big Jim's done a good job with KillZone, an adaptation of 40K to Necromunda skirmish rules.

    Part of the appeal of Necromunda and Mordheim are the ongoing campaign aspects. What happens battle to battle matters to your gang. Your gang also gets better with experience, which is something a lot of wargames don't have... a leveling up aspect.

    ReplyDelete
  7. which makes it much more open to the role player. :) and why i think it works for that niche. i am however now interested in the 40k style skirmish rules....i shall endeavor to read up on that.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I've been thinking of bringing KillZone rules along for some playing after we get done with games.
    They've improved them with an update recently. Also, there's going to be a Killzone tourney at Adepticon this year.

    ReplyDelete
  9. that would be fun to go to. but i think you already know why im not going. lol. if your at the store tonight i'd love to take a look at those rules. im tryin to make a suitable 1.5k list for the new tourney, and if ya want i could play ya. i know 1.5k, i dont think i've ever done one so low.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Sapguatyrine's called me out for tonight at 2k.

    come on by and watch. I'm sure someone would fight you at 1.5k. or you could take your turn with BritKid, blow up the 'might of the Imperium' russes, and squish Yarrick's head.

    ReplyDelete
  11. ugghhh brit kid. i want to know how well my list performs, not have to remind him about the rules of a commisar, leman russ, storm troopers or making sure he knows that a baneblade cant be taken in a game of 2k. lol

    ReplyDelete

out dang bot!

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