My gaming group have been talking about doing a Necromunda campaign for a while now but have never got round to it. Now, with the death of 8th, a New Year and James' (@Gas_Monkey82) frenetic terrain-building over the summer break here, it looks like 2016 could be our year.
So John (@parttimer_jw) and I decided to get in a game with our work in progress gangs to get the hang of the rules. This was John's first game and my second, so we entered with little knowledge except that which I had gained from my first game against James' Van Saar - cover is everything if you want your guys to stay alive!
Escher - my trial list
I've had an Escher gang box set since the mid-90s so opened it and painted it quickly in some bright colours at the end of last year. I haven't tried to make the models WYSIWYG at this stage because who knows if we actually stick to it and what I might want to use for the campaign.
The list below is the one I used against John and, as you can see, it contains at least one major error (gangers can't have flamers).
- Leader - chains word, plasma pistol, flamer
- Heavy - heavy stubber, lasgun
- Heavy - lasgun
- Ganger - sword, lasgun
- Ganger - sword, shotgun, man-stopper
- Ganger - sword, shotgun
- Ganger - sword, autopistol
- Ganger - sword, flamer, autopistol
- Juve - autopistol
If anyone has some constructive criticism, I'd be more than welcome to hear it.
Cawdor - the opposition
John brought a very flame happy and appropriate Cawdor gang to the table for his first game. I'm fairly sure that every model that could be armed with a hand flamer received one :)
Setting up the table
One of the key attractions for me of Necromunda is the terrain. A well-constructed, multi-levelled and detailed board is a dream to play on and I always find myself browsing pictures of great boards online (see nickeninja's blog for one great example). This is what we came up with on the night with what we had to hand - some Mantic Deadzone terrain, some Sarissa Precision terrain and my collection of scatter terrain scavenged from old computers and household objects, including some Cadbury Favourites tin towers from Christmas. There is a lot of work to go into the board from here but it is good enough for our practice games.
Given that we were testing out the rules, John and I rolled up the territories for our gangs. I got a holestead, tunnels, archeotech, mineral outcrop and slag (generally poor apart from the tunnels which could allow me to deploy 3 of my gang in close range of John's gang). John managed to get a much better selection in general, including Friendly Doc which would prove particularly handy later on.
Scenario and Deployment
We rolled up the Gang Fight scenario, John deployed first and I got first turn.
John deployed first in two groups, his fire base and his assault party, but making the fatal error of leaving his heavy and gangers without cover and standing on top of a tower.
With all of John's hand flamers, using the tunnels was not particularly attractive as my gangers would meet flames on arrival.
John deployed first in two groups, his fire base and his assault party, but making the fatal error of leaving his heavy and gangers without cover and standing on top of a tower.
With all of John's hand flamers, using the tunnels was not particularly attractive as my gangers would meet flames on arrival.
I split my gang in three:
- two heavies in cover with line of sight to his heavy;
- an assault party of my leader, two shotgun gangers and a Juve to cross the walkway across to his fire base; and
- a secondary team to draw out and deal with his guys on the ground (the illegal flamer ganger, and two other gangers with a lasgun, pistol and sword).
The gangs deployed.
John splits his forces.
John's heavy takes out my lasgun heavy out of action first turn.
Enraged by the loss of her friend, my heavy returns fire with her heavy stubber to great effect. My heavy would spend the rest of the game chipping away at the Cawdor fire base.
Largely free from the threat of John's fire base my assault party goes for a dash across the gangway.
The second half of John's gang advances behind cover while my gangers wait for him to try and close with the hand flamers.
By this point, my gang had taken 5 of John's gang down or out of action, however he passed his bottle test with ease.
I then lost two of my gang (to go with the heavy out of action in the first turn), and failed my first bottle test. My gang obviously has no stomach for a fight.
The aftermatch
While I had lost the fight, John's gang came off far worse once injuries were taken into account. His heavy and his ganger died and were harvested for organs by his Friendly Doc. Another rather unfortunate ganger, lost an arm, went deaf, got an old battle wound and got captured and sold to slavers (given his injuries, I'm surprised I got 20 credits for him :p ). You've got to love the character of this game.
Thankfully my heavy made a full recovery, my juve recovered from being down, and I only had a ganger with shell shock.
All in all it was a fun introduction to a classic GW game and we'll definitely be trying for a campaign this year.
Thankfully my heavy made a full recovery, my juve recovered from being down, and I only had a ganger with shell shock.
All in all it was a fun introduction to a classic GW game and we'll definitely be trying for a campaign this year.