And I don't think the +2I is as bad as you make it out, especially when combined with the +1BS. Give him a lasgun or autogun, and put him on the tallest thing you can find - with I 5 you have little worry of him falling to his death, and chances are the extra height will help you get lines of sight that you might otherwise not be able to cover. Plus, with all those vents, its easy to get him there.
Maybe. It's useful for pinning too, I guess - not a bad combination with True Grit. I'd still prefer just about anythig else except leadership.
And wow, I've never seen a leader get 3 upgrades in 2 fights before...
My leader has 122xp - he started off with 62, got 24 from the first fight (10 for winning, inflicted two wounds on the enemy and rolled a 4 for xp), the second, he inflicted 3 wounds, got 10 for winning, 9 for the Underdog bonus and rolled a 6). So he's on his way. The Underdog bonus from the three way fight is what makes the difference. It's also the benefit of using small unit tactics - the other gangers pick off the nasty targets, and he runs in and dispatches the softer ones in Hand to Hand. I really would have preferred if he'd got a CC increase instead of those others - Leaders are best when they are close to the rest of your gang so that they can provide the leadership bonuses, and since most of my guys will be running forward to the enemy, any extra CC ability would help nicely.
Anyway - onto round 2:
Campaign Movement:
Here is the map at the end of turn 1:
Cawdor
Escher
Delaque
Van Saar
Orlock
GoliathI elected to go East towards the Gambling Den. I told the Goliath player ahead of time as a courtesy so that he would have the option of spending his attacking move to go after a softer target (like the Orlock) rather than waste it in a fight against me. He thanks me for the heads up and tells me that he was planning to go after the Orlock anyway. A good kid. The Orlock player is a few years older, and is tough enough to eat his vegetables.
Escher:The Escher player went first and attacked the Vents of the Delaque palyer. The fight was an absolute slugfest. It ended well after both sides should have voluntarily bottled out. The Delaque finally bottled out with only their heavy and a ganger still standing. The Escher had their Leader and four gangers (all wounded) on their feet. Both sides would have generated about 70pts worth of experience each just from wounding each other.
Delaque:The second fight was between the Delaque and the Escher, with the Delaque going after he Escher Spore Cave. That fight wasn't so close. The Escher player hired a Scummer and a Ratskin Scout and simply rolled the Delaque. The Ratskin scout infiltrated and took out the Delaque heavy (the guy I ransomed) in the second turn and it was pretty much over from there. Delaque are better in the mid to late part of the campaign, once their stealth and shooting skills kick in. The Escher, with their swords can make mince meat of most gangs early on if they can get in close, which they were able to do this time after the Stubber Heavy was taken out. The Escher took the Delaque vents.
The rule is that if you attack someone and lose 3 times as many caualties as you take, then you get to pick which territory you lose - unless your opponent attempted to attack you in the same turn, in which case they get the option of choosing between the territory chosen by the defeated attacker or any other territory bordering the attacker.
Van Saar:
The Van Saar player went after the Delaque workshop (the previously neutral one) and got slapped down. It was a scavengers scenario though, so he still came out alright in the end.
Orlock:
The Orlock player went after the Van Saar Settlement to his North and the players elected for a Gang Fight. The Orlock player got the better of the first couple of turns due to both good dice rolling and having just about every single advance he's rolled so far either being a +1BS or a shooting skill, whereas, the Van Saar player has been pretty spread out (and hasn't yet discovered the value of Techno skills - which is to everyone else's benefit). The Van Saar player voluntarily bottled out with 4 of his guys down, leaving the Settlement to the Orlock.
Goliath:
The Goliath player surprised me by going for the Orlock Settlement. He told me later that he did this because:
1. The Orlock player is a softer target than me, and he backs himself against him;
2. He wants to build up territories which aren't bordering mine;
3. Settlements -Woohoo, free Juves!
4. Why get into trench warfare in the middle of the board when there are easy pickings on the outside?
5. The Orlock player isn't even close to being a serious contender for this campaign and deserves to be put out of his misery at the earliest possible opportunity so he can stop wasting everybody's time.
Huh. Okay.
Anyway, the Goliath player dusted up the Orlock player. I gave advice to the Goliath player, and the Delaque player gave advice to the Orlock player.
Goliath vs Orlock games always take me back to my earliest games of Necromunda (they were what came in the box). Simpler times. A good game. Anyway - the Goliath won for the exact same reason that I beat the Orlock - numbers. The Goliath palyer is a good study, and he's really enjoying the game. He says he already understands the weaknesses of the Goliath (Muscle -ugh), and that he intends to buy either an Escher or Van Saar Gang after this campaign. The Goliath have 13 models in their gang, the Orlock have 8 - it was only ever going to go one way .
The Orlock leader (meltagun guy, lol) was the first to go, and it was all downhill from there. The only Goliath gang member to go down was a lasgunner (the kid learnt to buy lasguns after the first fight). 3 Orlock down, 1 Goliath, and the Orlocks bottled out.
I went last, and I went straight for the Gambling Den. Both the Orlocks and the Orlocks elected to defend it. I had thought the Goliath would let it go, but no matter.
Third Fight:Gang Fight scenario. The Delaque player advised the Orlock player and the Escher player advised the Goliath player (but encouraged them both to double team me).
Easily the toughest game so far. The Orlock, at this stage, are a weak gang overall, but are good at shooting. They would be easy to outflank and overwhelm with my gang due to their lack of numbers. With the Goliath present (and not attacking them), they can castle up a bit more and let their Heavy and their lasgun marksmen pick me off, while their less useful gangers soak up the bullets due to the old 2nd edition rules which require you to shoot at the nearest target.
The Goliath on the other hand, due to their lack of mobility are the easiest gang to pick off as they try to get close. There is also little to lose by getting into a shooting match with them because they shoot only slightly better than Orks. Nevertheless, once they actually get into close combat, they are pretty tough (better than me at this stage - the kid has gone for combat skills), and they don't run.
Altogether, I was up against an enemy which had a pretty good ranged component and a solid, if ponderous close attack component. But I had 2 flamers and 4 hand flamers.
My ranged group (Heavy Stubber and 2 lasgunners) took out one Orlock and Goliath throughout the course of the game and spent most of their time pinned or down. That was due to the superior Orlock ranged firepower.
My close combat teams did a lot better - they tore the throat out of the Goliath. In turn 3, the first team took down 3 Goliath, in turn 4 the second team took down 2 and my leader took down another one. In turn 5, I lost two of my guys and took out their leader, a ganger and a juve, causing them to bottle.
At that point, it was my gang of 6 (Leader, flamer heavy, flamer specialist, and three gangers against 6 Orlock (Leader, Heavy Stubber, Lasgun Marksman, Lasgun Rapid Fire, Lasgun Rapid fire, Lasgun BS4 and Autogun BS4), with a half a table to get across - and Necromunda only has M4 too. And I was out of ammo for my hand flamers.
This is where the weakness of handflamers becomes apparent. In a two gang fight, Handflamers (even with our house rules which greatly reduce their range), are an okay investment - if you get into range (which is easy enough with vents, agility skills and a bit of finesse) then you have a single shot at a better than 50% chance of smoking an enemy ganger - so it's an even trade for 25creds. However - when you are up against two opponents, suddenly that one shot factor comes into play.
I had burned all 4 of my handflamers on the Goliath player (and handed him his own arse in doing so), and had taken out 3 of his guys - a modest to average result, and was left with only stubguns to deal with the superior shooting of the Orlock.
A bit of a bloodbath. I lost my leader and both gangers before I managed to sandwich half his gang between both flamers and send Josiah into close combat with his Heavy, causing them to bottle out.
In the end, I got the territory, and a amphetamine parrot load of exp for my gang . . . but I don't like how it looks from here. Before this game, I had everyone except the Delaque palyer running scared of me - it was only due to the urging of the Escher player that either the Orlock player or the Goliath layer decided to stand against me, and even then, only as an alliance.
During the game though - even when I ws concentrating on fighting against the Goliath, there were some tight moments where it could have tipped either way (such is the dramatic nature of Necromunda). In this game, both of the newbies drew some blood - and its obvious that they have made friends with the Escher player (no doubt their mutual interest in pokemon, Justin Beiber, or whatever the hell it is that the kids are into today has allowed them to find some common ground despite the Escher player being a complete prick).
After the Goliath had bottled out, the Goliath player was over the other side of the table advising the Orlock player how to beat me (the kid can work out probability in his head like a snake on a plane). They walked away from that fight feeling like they had won (which the Escher player was telling them they had). Any animosity that there might have been between the Orlock towards the Goliath for taking his settlement is gone. Those two are stuck together like glue now. It's good to see positive emotions being generated from one end of the campaign map to balance out the pure hatred and ill will at the other end between the Escher and Delaque, but it doesn't necessarily bode well for me.
I forsee the exact same fight happening in the next round - Cawdor versus Goliath and Orlock. Both of them will attack the Gambling Den. I won't bother with income from the slag and Old Ruins - I'll stick extra guys to the west of my area, and beslubber it if the Escher want to try to take my Old Ruins.
Thoughts:It's all down to that Escher player - he is pissed about losing that 3 way in the first round (people who know nothing about Necromunda are giving him amphetamine parrot about it) - he's stuck between me and the Delaque player, and if we ever cobine against him, he's beslubbered. His only option is to organise some sort of resistance against us from the other players, and he's managed to get some traction with the Orlock and Goliath. With both of them slamming into me, each turn, he can concentrate on the Delaque - and now that he has their Vents, that will get a lot easier.
In case anyone needs an image to put in their head - the Escher player bears a striking resemblance to the actor who played Joffrey in the Game of Thrones series by HBO. He shares certain personality characteristics as well.
I'm actually worried about what the Escher can achieve with Vents. He's talking about stocking up on handflamers because 'they're so OP' (which isn't true with the house rule reducing their range), but I don't think he will - seeing him advise the Orlock player, and seeing him play against the Delaque, I think he will use them as a combination of sniper/melee/melee and plonk all three of them down together. The little rather unsavoury chap, what-ho old bean? knows how to deploy properly in Necromunda, and I've never seen him make too many mistakes in 40k (used to play Chaos Marines, now plays Space Wolves). Against the Delaque, he put that Ratskin scout in the exact best location to take out the Delaque Heavy. My 3 vents gave me a massive advantage over everyone else (it's the vents which accentuated the value of the hand flamers - on their own the hand flamers aren't that fantastic), that advantage will be sharply reduced against the Escher next time we fight.
I'm definitely winning this campaign at the moment, but I get the feeling that while I might have gained a valuable territory in this round, I think I might have galvanised my neighbours against me. Time will tell.
This is the map at the bottom of turn 2 (with lighter shades of colour for the newly gained territories):
CawdorEscherDelaqueVan SaarOrlockGoliath