Steppin' out into the Underhive

With Warhammer World closed for its annual deep clean Gav and Graham descended on my house with beers, squats and Space Crusade. After opening the beers and critiquing Graham's Squats, which look awesome in their new colour scheme, we set up a game of Space Crusade.

Space Crusade is a sci-fi dungeon-crawl board game which was originally released all the way back in 1990. While it feels wrong to classify it as Space Hulk-light, that does sum it up succinctly. It does seem less involved, less dependent on tactics and the random element has a stronger influence on the outcome of the game. However it is fast, easy to get to grips with and a lot of fun. It's an old game but well worth digging out of the closet if you happen to have an old copy lying around.

After we had played a couple of missions, leafed through my copy of the 1st Edition 40k Rule Book and the 'Ere We Go Ork supplement and refreshed our drinks I asked if  the guys could talk me through rolling up a Necromunda Gang. It had come up a couple of times in conversation over the past few months and I remember back when the game was first released that I'd been interested in getting into the game. I'd been quite into RPGs as a spotty youth and the campaign/gang development mechanic really appealed to me, as well as the skirmish nature of the encounters.

Anyway. with Gav and Graham's help it took me next to no time to roll up the following Gang o' Goliaths called the Mad Dogs:

Muru (Leader): Las Pistol, Chainsword, 63xp
Hakkar (Heavy): Heavy Bolter, Las Pistol, 62xp
Garr (Heavy): Heavy Stubber, 62xp
Kez (Ganger): Lasgun, 26xp
Leith (Ganger): Lasgun, 25xp
Emile (Ganger): Autogun, 22xp
Rav (Ganger): Shotgun, 22xp
Twink (Juve): Las Pistol, Auto Pistol
Lev (Juve): Shotgun

Territories: Archeotech, Spore Cave, Tunnels, Vents, Slag

I'm pretty happy with the composition of the gang, I think the guys have managed to temper what I thought would be good into something practical. I think I should have spent some of the 25 creds I have left in the bank for alternative ammo choices for the shotguns but there'll be time for that further down the road. Fortunately, with my rather lucky rolls on the Territories table I should not be too short on cash, providing I can keep my gangers alive long enough to put them to work!

I think I'll be converting my gang from the Catachan IG box set so keep it here for updates on the gang as they get built and put to work in the Underhive.

Welcome – and Welcome to Necromunda!

Hello, and welcome to my very first blog! My name is Graham, and I’m a regular gaming companion of Gav and Andy (who have bullied and coerced me into actually writing this missive). I’ve been wargaming, on and off, since I was about nine years old –let’s say that was the late eighties, and leave it at that, shall we? Ahem. My favourite games then were Space Hulk, Space Marine (aka Epic), 40K and Necromunda. I also GM’d an online Star Wars role-playing game for a couple of years in my early twenties, which was great fun.

Last year, after a break of about fifteen years (the usual temptations of beer, music & women having distracted me) I moved up to Notts, where I quickly rediscovered the hobby (mainly cos that’s where GW is based). Nowadays I play 40K almost exclusively, though I have tried the ‘new’ Space Hulk too (still great). In 40K my preferred armies are Chaos Marines, Tyranids, Squats and Pre-Heresy World Eaters. More about each of those to follow!

We (Andy, Gav and I) have also decided to run an ongoing Necromunda game. The great thing for me about that game is that it has a narrative that propels it along, and the outcome of each confrontation has a direct effect on subsequent battles. To cut a long story short, we have each picked and rolled up a new gang. Gav will be playing Delaque – sinister, shotgun wielding, trench-coat adorned Colombine-esque freaks. Andy has chosen Goliaths – muscle-bound brutes. I have chosen to resurrect my mid-nineties Cawdor gang, religious redemptionists whose aim is to cleanse the godless underhives with religious flame. Or something. Anyway, I rolled up my gang a few weeks ago, and here follows the results:

Cawdor Gang:

Leader

Knife, chainsword, autopistol

Experience: 62

Total: 160pts

Heavy

Heavy bolter, knife

Experience: 62

Total: 240

Heavy

Flamer, knife

Experience: 61

Total: 100

Ganger

Lasgun, Knife

Experience: 21

Total: 75

Ganger

Sotgun, Solid, Scatter, Manstopper, Knife

Experience: 24

Total: 75

Ganger

Lasgun, Knife

Experience: 22

Total: 75

Ganger

Lasgun, Knife

Experience: 26

Total: 75

Juve

Knife, Knife

Experience: 0

Total: 30

Juve

Autopistol, Knife

Experience: 0

Total: 40

Juve

Laspistol, Knife

Experience: 0

Total: 40

Juve

Laspistol, Knife

Experience: 0

Total: 40

Creds stashed under the mattress: 50

Territories:

Guilder Contact (D6 x 10), Holestead (D6 x 10), Old Ruins (10), Chem-Pit (2D6), Slag (15)

My thoughts behind the selection was basically to get as may models on the table as possible! Gangers and heavies are the core of any gang –especially one as close-assault oriented as the Cawdor – but I also wanted to take as many Juves as possible. Juves advance very quickly, and you can usually guide their development to suit a particular purpose – for example heavy support or close assault. They’re also very cheap, which is nice. We aim to play our first game in the next few days, so watch this space for the beginning of what should hopefully be a long-running saga!

Before I sign off, just a few words about what is still to come. I intend to publish my very own Codex: Squat Stronghold on the blog in the near future. It has already seen the light of day on the 1^st Company Vets site, and has had a few initial playtests, but I will use this blog to delve deeper into the construction of the list, my thoughts on the Squats as a viable 40K race and how I see my particular army developing in the future.

My other ongoing project is to build a pre-heresy World Eaters army – formerly known as the War Hounds, previous to Angron’s rediscovery of the legion, fluff-fans. This is still very much in it’s infancy, so I’m hoping to share it’s gradual development with you ‘all’ over the next few months.

Righteo, that’s all for now folks. Catch y’all soon!

G.

(edited by Claws and Fists to sort out formatting and remove individual points costs and hence prevent being sued)

Lucky Alf's 'ard Uns

Spike turned to him, "it's time" he said. "What do you mean?" Spike smiled. "You knew this day would come. It's time for you to start your own gang." "But why? I'm happy here." "No you're not. Some men want something bigger. You've always been one of those men. A lot of my boys wouldn't be able to start their own gangs but you're different, you'll be a great leader. Almost as good as me." Spike allowed himself a little laugh, "just stay off my patch."


Lucky Alf
Gang Leader
Bolter, Stub Gun, Dum Dum Bullets
Experience: 65


Statto
Heavy
Heavy Stubber, Shotgun
Experience: 62


Ian
Heavy
Flamer, Lasgun
Experience: 62

John
Ganger
Autogun
Experience: 22

Graham
Ganger
Shotgun, Man-Stopper Shells
Experience: 24

Eric
Ganger
Lasgun
Experience: 22

Mike
Ganger
Lasgun
Experience: 23

Clive
Ganger
Shotgun
Experience: 21

Terry J
Juve
Stub Gun
Experience: 0

Terry G
Juve
Autopistol
Laspistol
Experience: 0

Derek
Juve
Autopistol
Experience: 0

Stash: 10

Territories:
Settlement
Old Ruins
Guilder Contact
Drinking Hole
Friendly Doc

A note on the names: The original gang was Alf, Statto, John, Graham, Eric, Mike, Terry J and Terry G who were named after a character in The Fast Show, the guy on Fantasy Football and Monty Python's Flying Circus. The new members were named after Ian Broudie of the Lightning Seeds (since he's friend with Baddiel and Skinner too) and Pete and Dud's alter egos Derek and Clive. So, yeah, not exactly futuristic gang names but I felt I couldn't really change any of the old ones so I just picked the new ones to match.

The gang's all here

So, following up from this post it's time to finish up my Necromunda gang. I admit I did have a moment of weakness and considered getting a Cawdor gang just because they have more models available from GW but I fought the temptation and I'm sticking with my Delaque. Now, after some thinking and some research I've decided I need another Ganger to maximise income and another Heavy since now is as good a time as any to get one. Then we'll see how many credits we have left and decide whether to get another Juve or some Underhive Scum. Let's take a Heavy with a Flamer and a Lasgun (since the Flamer has to take a 4+ ammo roll each time you use it so we need a back-up weapon). I'm going to give the Ganger a Shotgun because it's my favourite standard gun. That's 195 of our remaining 255 spent. So, that leaves three options:

1) Leave the gang as it is and put the remaining Credits in the Stash

2) Hire Underhive Scum

3) Get another Juve

and I could make a good argument for all three options. However since more guys is more better, let's take another Juve. An Autopistol is the perfect weapon for it's +2 to hit at close range and that's our gang done.

Territory

So, we get 5 rolls on a D66 table. Now, the territory I really want is Settlement. It only generates average income but you get a 1 in 6 chance of a free Juve after every game. Let's see what we get:

Settlement

Excellent! First up!

Old Ruins

Ah well, win some, lose some. This is possibly the worst territory as it only generates 10 Credits and doesn't have any special rules.

Guilder Contact

Not bad, not bad.

Drinking Hole

Again, another solid territory

Friendly Doc

Good income and you can sell any of your gang that die as organ donors.

Solid in the end rather than spectacular. I would have preferred Tunnels to Old Ruins but you can't have everything I guess.

At the weekend, I'll finish naming my gang and I'll roll for their experience.

Back to the Underhive

After reading the articles by GWvsJohn, here and here and also playing quite a bit of Kill Team recently, I've decided to get my old Necromunda gang back together. The game is a bit more in-depth than Kill Team but still only takes about an hour to play. Obviously at some point I'll need to find someone to play against and it's a bit of a pain that most of the models are OOP but we'll ignore that for now. Now, I've got the old Delaque box so that's an 8 strong gang right there. So, let's see what we've got and see how many credits it will cost:

Gang Leader, Bolt Gun, Stub Gun

Heavy, Heavy Stubber, Shotgun

Ganger, Lasgun

Ganger, Lasgun

Ganger, Autogun

Ganger, Shotgun

Juve, Stub Gun

Juve, Auto Pistol, Laspistol

Hmm, 745. That leaves 255 to pad out the gang a bit. I always used to take some Hive Scum as for 15 Credits a fight they have some pretty good stats and are excellent bullet catchers (in Necromunda you have to shoot at the nearest visible model) which can protect your "proper" gang. I probably need another Ganger though and maybe more Juves since they're cheap but get better really quickly. Next week, I'll put a proper gang together and then start searching for some games. Hopefully people won't mind playing against Grey Hunter 'counts as' Gangers while I search for some models.