Ok, so I have one model left to finish to complete my Emperor’s Children collection (Eidolon, I’m about 1/2 way through) and my attention has drifted towards the next project; my Necromunda gang.
I’ll write separately about how I’ll be modelling and painting my gang, this post is purely about the list; the resources I’m using to write it and my thoughts as I go through. Big disclaimers here; I’ve never played the game, probably won’t play the game very much and, whilst it’s a game and some one has to win (and it’s nice when that some one is me) I’m comfortable enough with my life achievements and choices that my Necromunda win / loss record won’t occupy my thoughts too much; no WAAC-faggotry here.
Alright, so where am I at with Necromunda? I have the following:
- An Underhive boxed set
- An additional box of Escher* miniatures
- Additional Escher weapons sets 2 and 3
- The Gang War supplements 1-3
*Why Escher? I’ve never painted a female GW miniature before, they were in the boxed set and they’re very different to the power armoured gun pigs I’ve been painting for the last two years. No deep and meaningful reasons I’m afraid.
My plan for writing this list is as follows:
- Memorise the rules and Gang War supplements
- Do some man maths on the most effective weapons
- Work out what kind of playstyle works with the weapons and Escher
- Assuming I have all the weapons I need, write them onto models and complete the list (I’m not buying anything else).
The rules.
The Basic Rules.
Ok so the Basic Rules are pretty, umh, basic (this is from someone that is terrible with rules) and remind me a bit of the Batman miniatures game (not a bad thing at all). If you’re familiar with tabletop wargames (esp. 40K) these will make a lot of sense with a couple of significant differences:
- Alternate activation. For very small skirmish games I think alternate activation is a good thing – it ‘feels,’ more, ‘realistic,’ (to me) and doesn’t put so much emphasis on who wins the priority roll (I’m sure we’ve all heard of first turn scoops as soon as the roll off has been lost in other systems)
- No pre measuring. This is something I like very much. Again, makes the game feel more like informal gang fights than large scale ranged / ordnance combat and adds a bit of jeopardy to target priority and movement.
The advanced rules.
Hmm, here’s the thing. As I mentioned earlier I’m not very good with rules so without playing not many of these have stuck (I bet you’re really glad you’re reading this now!) but nothing feels overly complex. Three things did really jump out at me though and I want to make them a big part of my list:
- Activating groups. Notwithstanding what I wrote earlier about IGYG vs AA, this feels important. A quick fast forward shows that Escher gangs have access to a rule which allows them to activate an additional fighter in group activations (Commanding Presence). This will occupy a lot of how I write my lists (maximizing characters etc)
- Running out of ammo. A classic tabletop game risk and reward mechanic. My play style has always been relatively conservative around this sort of thing. I’ll risk less chance of a one shot reward in exchange for greater consistency in damage output. I will be trying to focus on weapons that don’t or have less chance of running out of ammo
- Assisting and Interfering. +/- 1 to hit (for each model assisting or running interference) feels huge. This will make a big difference for a relatively weak and squishy Escher gang.
Gang Wars.
These are good books with loads of cool content but I’m not going to break them down in any detail. Needless to say, get them (or get access to them) – they’re useful for everyone as they cover (among other things) terrain and all weapons available to gangs.
Writing the list.
So, how’s this going to work? Looking at all the content it’s clear that the rulebook is the place to build a TaC list from, while the Gang War books do two things:
- Introduce universal rules for new gangs
- Include campaign upgrades for Escher and Goliath gangs (those included in the original box).
So, whilst Gang Wars has loads of really decent content it really is a campaign supplement (think ‘Tamurkhan,’ for WHFB) and whilst I’ll be using the terrain rules from the first Gang War book, I’ll stick to the Underhive rulebook for building my TaC list (including equipment costs and traits – these vary wildly between books but I think sticking with the core rulebook is easiest where possible).
So, what does that mean?
- A gang is 1,500 credits (other than this I won’t quote direct credits costs (I think it’s IP infringement))
- Escher lists must include 1 Leader, 0-2 champions (I’ll be taking 2 because of Commanding Presence) and 3 or more Gangers
Ok, so bare bones the minimum gang cost (no weapons or wargear 1 Leader, 2 champions and 3 Gangers) is just under 1/3 of the total gang cost. So 70% left to spend on stuff (and additional fighters and their stuff). Having looked through the rules, I want to try and exploit both Commanding Presence and the Assistance / Interference rules. Basically this means boys girls before toys. I have 20 Escher models so that (1 Leader, 2 champions and 17 Gangers comes to just over 2/3 of the total gang cost.
Fighters can be armed with up to three weapons. To really take advantage of the Assistance / Interference rules, I’ll be arming every member of my gang with at least one CC weapon. Stiletto knives look cool from the rules and fit the fluff nicely. They are also one of the weapons for which the rules and credit costs vary between books but arming each girl with one (from the core rulebook) is doable. I’m now getting close to the 1,500 total.
Ok, so now I have 20 girls (ie. lots) armed with CC weapons to take maximum advantage of i) their special rules (Commanding Presence) and ii) some of the game mechanics. I can already see this gang is too big as I’ll run out of points to equip them with ranged weapons at this rate.
As I said before, I’m not up for running out of ammo. I’m happier tooled up for CC and having relatively weak, consistent ranged options than having girls standing around holding their dicks clits with no ammo. Lasguns fit this perfectly but take me just over the credits limit (so I’m going to have to start removing fighters at the end to keep the list legal).
Given the amount I’m investing in Leadership skills I’d really like to keep my characters alive but the core rule book just gives the option for flak armour (at no cost) for every Escher fighter. That’s annoying but as I have opted for a ‘horde,’ solution (if ~20 models is ever a horde) then I guess I can make sure I make use of the best shields (ie. meat shields) and the rules around targeting the nearest model to my advantage.
To maximise the three weapons limit I prefer the additional attack for dual CC weapons (plays well to the assistance / interference rules). Laspistols are cheap and definitely feel like they’ll be worth it. 20 of those please.
A quick Excel goal seek shows me that the number Gangers I can have with this load out at 1,500 is 14 (actually 14.8 which means some credits as change – hurrah).
So where am I at? 17 ladies each with naff armour, a solid cc weapon, a cheap pistol and a ranged weapon.
This plays well to the Commanding Presence rule (All three characters will take this (I don’t think Leadership skills are unique??)) as there should be enough fighters to keep some within range for this effect. This also works with the assisting / interference rules; lots of bodies means they can double up on charges (again, Commanding Presence will be useful here to stop alternate activation shenanigans).
But…It looks a bit boring – every fighter armed largely the same will mean my characters will be the only real targets in the army and will probably get shot off the board pretty quick. I have 0.8 of a tooled up Ganger to play with for upgrades (I told you that would be important).
For a few credits each I can take Chem Synths on all my characters (keeps them a bit safer, something I’m worried about with the lack of decent armour). With the few pennies left I can upgrade the CC weapons on three Gangers from Stiletto Knives to Power Swords (Gangers not characters because I don’t want my characters in CC and this helps with target saturation)
So I think that’s it:
1 Leader with ranged weapon, a CC weapon with a wargear upgrade and a pistol
2 Champions with the same
3 Gangers with a ranged weapon, a really decent CC weapon and a pistol
11 Gangers with a ranged weapon, CC weapons specific to their fluff and a pistol each.
Ok, now that’s a list I can get on board with. Obviously it needs game time (not to optimise the list but to learn to play with it in this form and make some tweaks after a few games). Specifically my worries are: Squishy characters and lack of ‘one shot,’ carnage but we’ll see. I could add chem synths to the Gangers with Stiletto Knives and drop a couple of gangers but that’s something I’ll work out through play testing.
Just Eidolon to finish for my ECs and its onto building these ladies. Let me know what you think!