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Author Topic: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign  (Read 109564 times)

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Offline skoops6

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #120 on: February 26, 2012, 06:20:46 AM »
this thread is really cool, been reading avidly for a while. don't know why I haven't posted before now. stratgy wise, I propose this. if i remember correctly, it was the goliath player who betrayed the orlock, correct? you should therefore continue hammering the goliath. think of it this way, are you more likely to help out someone you feel guilty about betraying them, or someone who betrayed you. the goliath is more likely to help the orlock if you go after the orlock then the other way round

you should probably go for the vents first. even though it is a lower income territory, it  opens up a line to the goliath's gambling den, which incedentaly can't be attacked by orlocks. from there you can travel upwards, taking the settlement and spore cave, which will also isolate the slag, which will mean the goliath will be unable to defend it without splitting his force.

Again, great work, love reading about your hilarious mind games.

P.S will ther be annother update soon? just wondering cus its been 3 weeks snce the last.

P.P.S where is the store that you play at? i gathered you are in Aus and I know a store that fits your description. may come in some time and have a look is all.
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Offline Underhand

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #121 on: March 2, 2012, 11:36:32 PM »
I'm not gong to say which store this campaign is being run in.  As fun and cathartic as it is to denigrate the other players online, I'm not enough of an rather unsavoury chap, what-ho old bean? to let them be identified in real life.  That would just be a dick act.   

Anyway, since so many people have demanded it -  here's the current state of my gang.  Enjoy:

Abraham:  Leader:
M   WSBSS   T   A   I    LD Skills & Weapons
4663431 58
Old Battle Wound, Nerves of Steel, True Grit, Iron Will, Parry.

Bolt Pistol, Chainsword.

As hard as it is to complain about having BS6, I'm going to anyway.  I like my leader to be a real badass in close combat. So I would have preferred the opportunity to take an agility or combat upgrade.  Having said that, I could easily have rolled something utterly amphetamine parrote, like Catfall.  So I really shouldn't complain.    Parry however, is awesome, arguably the best Close Combat skill.  abraham now gets to parry twice, so with WS6, there are probably only 2 other characters in the campaign who he has to worry about - Shamora and Bloodaxe.  A plasma pistol would be nice.

Abraham now has 338 exp, so he can only get 3 more upgrades before he caps out.  I would like those 3 upgrades to be an extra Leadership, Attack and Sprint/Leap.
Jacob: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills Injuries & Weapons
43534 2248
Partially Deafened.  Fixer,  Medic,  Armourer

Heavy Stubber.  Needs a backup weapon. I'll probably give him Amon's Lasgun.

+1A.  Meh.  Good on anyone except a ranged Heavy.  The Armourer upgrade is good (as always), but to be honest, I probably already had enough.  My gang's bolt weapons are just as reliable as their lasguns now.
Isaac: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
444331 23 8
Medic, Armourer, Weaponsmith, Inventor, Fixer, Counter Attack.  Arm Wound . 

Flamer, Autopistol, Sword. 

+1BS is always a good upgrade for a Heavy, even a flamer heavy, like Isaac.  Even armed with a Flamer, Isaac still needs to shoot his pistol every now and then, and if I ever get the creds to buy a second Heavy Stubber, that extra BS will be very valuable.  The Leadership 8 is good too.  Isaac normally operates away from Abraham, so he needs to be able to stand his ground and not run when the guy next to him goes down.
 
Ram: Ganger:
 
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4443311 5 7
Armourer, Impetuous, Arm Wound.  Berserk Charge, Nerves of Steel, Catfall, Leap.
 
Lasgun.
 
Talk about upgrades which were all over the place.  Ram is a difficult guy for me to choose upgrades for, since he's part of my ranged team (always a problem for Cawdor shooters).  If I ever got the option to take shooting skills, I would have leapt at it, instead I got upgrades to WS, I, Catfall and Leap.  Catfall helps a ganger survive falling of ledges, which happens when they get shot next to a ledge.  That is ever a worry for Ram, since his primary job is to soak up bullets for Jacob, but with Initiative, 5, he was always unlikely to fall anyway.  The +1WS is pretty useless for him, given his current role as meatshield, but if suitable new recruits come in, he might move out of that role.  Leap is actually not a bad upgrade, since it's D6 extra movement that doesn't hinder the ability to shoot.  He might end up as my 3rd loot runner together with Asa and Josiah.  WS4 I5 and Leap would also make him a handy CC ganger.  we'll see what the future holds.
Boaz: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4 6 443 2 1 37
Specialist, Inventor, Crack Shot, Feint, Nerves of Steel.

Flamer, Autopistol, Sword.

Bad.  Ass.  The guy that the opposition point their Marksmen at.  Very solid at pistol range, horrifying at flamer range, and very nasty in melee.  The next time Bloodaxe closes to melee with him, it'll be a much tougher fight.
Abijah:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
443 43223 6Nerves of Steel, Impetuous, Fixer, Disarm, Combat Master, Dodge, Quickdraw.
Handflamer, Stubber. 
When I said that he needed an agility upgrade last time, I didn't mean Quickdraw. The Weaponskill upgrade, and Dodge are both nice though.
Asa: Ganger
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
44 5 4 42246
Impetuous, Step Aside, Leap, Feint, Disarm, Combat Master Nerves of Steel

Autopistol, Sword.
 
This guy wins me games.  His loot running has only become more effective with an extra Wound and Nerves of Steel.  The BS5 is obviously nice.  He didn't really need the Strength upgrade .
Amon:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   I    LD Skills, Injuries and Weapons
333322357
Gun Fighter, True Grit, Killer Rep,  Nerves of Steel, Fast Shot,  Hand Injury Leg Wound.

Autopistol , Autopistol. 

beslubber this guy.  No matter how hard I try, he just wont die.  All I've got to show for having him as Jacob's primary meat shield is a Hand Injury (which nulified his useless +1WS upgrade).  At least with an extra 2 wounds, and Nerves of steel, he is a credible meatshield.  His W3 and M3 combine to make me picture him as monstrously fat.  Useless and fat.   He just sits there, getting shot and driving up my gang rating, thereby depriving everybody else of Underdog experience point bonuses.

Fast shot allows him to shoot twice, so at least his upgrades haven't been completely wasted.  It also stacks with gunfighter, allowing him to shoot 3 times with pistols, so I've finally bitten the bullet and bought him a couple of auto-pistols.
Josiah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4 4 433325 8
Parry, Sprint, Counter Attack, Combat Master .

Stubber,  Sword x2.
 
With WS4, 3 parries and 5 Attacks on the charge, this guy is a combat monster. Positively Tasmanian Devilesque.  With Sprint and Combat master, he can charge multiple opponents at once and not have to worry about being outnumbered.  with Asa, his loot running skills have won me games.  His close combat ability will win me even more games now.
Zohar: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4423323 4 7
Partially Deafened,  True Grit, Leap, Disarm, Shell Shocked.

Hand flamer, Stubber, sword.
 
Another potential loot runner, and quite a handful in close combat.  I've been using him as a bullet taker for my loot runners, but he's capable of acting as a loot runner himself now. 

Jemuel: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
43 22321 4 6
Specialst, Armourer, Nerves of Steel.  Shell shocked, Arm wound Dodge, Feint Blinded in One Eye,  Chest Wound .

Hand flamer, Stubber.
   
Should probably get him a sword.  And a flamer. Shame about the chest wound.  Chest Wounds are my least favourite injury, apart from death.
Ephraim: Juve:
Dead by Shoot Out. I hate Shoot Outs.

So there you have it.   

In general, I'm pretty happy with the upgrades.  I would have liked something else instead of +1BS for Abraham, but a lot of Necromunda players would punch me for complaining about having a BS6 leader. 

Boaz is an all round badass, and if I ever get enough creds (or get lucky and capture an opponent's Heavy Stubber, then Isaac might give me another long ranged option. 

That's where I continue to be weak.  My ranged component.  It's been frustrating that apart from Jacob, all of my BS upgrades have gone to my best close combat/flamer guys.  If I give them lasguns, then I lose a huge amount of my close assault capability, which is where my gang is strongest.  Having said that, getting good at shooting is always something that Cawdor find difficult.

I'm also starting to think that I might have left it a bit late to go for Agility upgrades.  Agility is a vital skill for any close combat gang, and it's why Cawdor and Escher are better than gangs than Goliath.

Agility is vital, because there are two skills - Leap and Sprint which increase the movement rate of gangers and help them get the charge on their opponents.  Getting the charge is vital in Necromunda, and it's one of the ways you can spot a skilled player.  Skilled players get the charge, unskilled players get charged.  Joffrey often get's the charge, the Orlock player never does.

The reason charging is so good is because it grants a +1WS and +1A in that first turn. It turns a ganger with middling close combat ability into a badass.  In that sense, a single agility upgrade can be worth 2 close combat upgrades.

The problem with Agility is that  of the 6 random skills on offer, only 2 of them give that bonus, the rest aren't as great, and some are amphetamine parrot (Catfall and Quickdraw).  So rolling on the Agility table is always a risk.  You will end up with some bad, before the good.  It's for that reason, that my philosophy with Cawdor is to take ferocity upgrades first, until I work out if a ganger is suited to close combat (ie gets strength or WS upgrades), and then take Combat skills (which are all pretty strong), and then take Agility upgrades last.  I think it's a solid theory, but the game has been going for a while now, and the opposition shooting is getting better and better, and I don't have that many guys who I can launch into close combat without taking a lot of hits on the way in.

In that regard though, this is one of the most resilient gangs I've ever had.  My guys have a lot of ferocity upgrades and a amphetamine parrot tonne of wounds.  For a small gang (with only 11 guys, I have by far the fewest gang members of any gang in the campaign), my guys can absorb a lot of punishment.

My problem is still poverty.  The scavengers games have helped, since each loot counter is worth D6x5 creds, but I need more.  I've managed to buy a few autopistols and swords (I can't believe I've given the autopistols to Amon), but I need more cash. 

« Last Edit: March 31, 2012, 11:20:15 PM by Underhand »

Offline skoops6

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #122 on: March 3, 2012, 02:30:18 AM »
I'm not gong to say which store this campaign is being run in.  As fun and cathartic as it is to denigrate the other players online, I'm not enough of an rather unsavoury chap, what-ho old bean? to let them be identified in real life.  That would just be a dick act.   

very well, say no more :P .
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Offline Perigrine

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #123 on: March 3, 2012, 10:17:12 AM »
Seems to be you have a quality over quantity type of gang going on, which has both its up and downsides.

Looking forward to the next campaign update, your making us go through withdrawls here Underhand.

Offline Farceseer Syranaul

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #124 on: March 3, 2012, 10:41:04 AM »
Looking forward to the next campaign update, your making us go through withdrawls here Underhand.
Likewise, I scroll past the Non-40k Gaming board on my way to the projects board and I find myself hoping for a new post from you.

Also, thank you very much for giving us an update to your roster.  When I get more time I'll share my thoughts on what you have.
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Offline Tamuz

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #125 on: March 3, 2012, 02:24:08 PM »
An interesting campaign. thanks for sharing it.

I had nearly forgotten how enjoyable Necromunda was back in the day with Gangsters Paradice playing on the radio in the background. Perhaps it is time to start up a new campaign...

Offline Underhand

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #126 on: March 3, 2012, 08:28:45 PM »
Aftermath of Turn 8:
Here's the map:

Cawdor:  The Hand of Redemption - Underhand
Escher:  Gothika - Joffrey
Delaque:  Black Coats - Gannicus
Van Saar:  The Second Stringers - Jonah
Orlock:  The Mortlock Cartel - The Orlock Player
Goliath:  House Bloodaxe - Octavian



You will immediately notice the new Waterstill Territory at the top right corner.  Apart from tearing apart the Orlock Heavy Stubber, those Ratskin scouts who Jonah hired were also able to discover a new territory for him.  So in the course of a single turn, Jonah managed to increase his territorial holdings by 50%.  I am going to go out a limb here , and make a bold predicition - Turn 9 will be absolutely crawling with Ratskin Scouts hired by the Orlocks, Goliaths and Van Saar.

Even though the Orlock player lost a territory, Octavian probably got the worst of the turn.  Remember those 3 Juves which he used as his Loot Running team - Ironfist, Rockface and Leadhammer (with the flamer)? Well Ironfist got a legwound, Rockface received a headwound, and Leadhammer died.  A pretty good day's work for Abraham there.  Octavian was furious at losing the flamer.  He also lost another two guys courtesy of the flamer work of Boaz and Isaac (who both escaped without serious injury from their fight with Bloodaxe).  This was also the first time in a long time that he failed to recruit a Juve from any of his territories.

Jonah also managed to roll a couple of specialists, but luckily, doesn't have the cash just yet to buy them weapons.  He also picked up another Isotropic Fuel Rod from the Black Market, but kept it in his stash.  One of his guys also invented a Powersword. And he recruited a Juve from one of his settlements.  He had one hell of a postgame sequence.

Future plans:
The Goliath Spore cave is obviously tempting, since it is a 2d6x10 territory, but I don't want to antagonise Octavian.  I want him to attack the Orlock player, and the best way to do that is to give him no distractions.  With luck, the Orlock player will turn on him, and they will fight each other to the death.  I think the Goliath will win that fight due to the superior playing skill of Octavian.  Or rather the inferior palying skill of the Orlock player.

The Orlock Workshop and the Escher Guilder Contact are both tempting targets.  The Workshop means that you automatically pass your first failed ammo roll.  That is always handy, since the weapon most likely to crap out on you is the heavy stubber.  Nevertheless, I have 4 Armourers in my gang, and Jacob is a Weaponsmith so Ammo rolls aren't a big concern for me. 

The Escher Guilder Contact is much more interesting.  A guilder contact gives me +5 creds for any loot I take in a scavengers scenario.  Since I plan to plan to play as many scavengers scenarios as possible, this will be to my benefit. 

The obvious concern is that I'll be palying against Joffrey.  Joffrey knows how to play Necromunda, and even though he has one less territory than the Goliaths, I would still say that he is winning the campaign.  Getting into a protracted fight against him would be dangerous.

His territory is far greater in mine, both in terms of number of territories and income, although my two vents grant better tactical advantages.   His gang is stronger than mine in terms of numbers and equipment, although my individual gangers are more skilled than his (or anyone's) due to the massive underdog experience point bonuses I have been getting from playing against Octavian and the Orlock player.  Nevertheless, on paper, he has the stronger gang.  Especially if he hires Hired Guns.  Which he would.

In terms of skill between me and him, there isn't much separating us.  I think I'm better than him, but he probably thinks he's better than me.  In a campaign, the general consensus would be that Escher are a stronger gang than Cawdor in general, but there is a school of thought that says that even though Escher are arguably (with Van Saar) the strongest house gang in the game, they have a peculiar weakness against Cawdor. 

The weakness of Escher against Cawdor

I'm not sure I necessarily agree, but the theory goes this way:

Escher are dangerous because:
(1)  they have access to swords as standard equipment; and
(2)  Their core skills are Agility and Combat, which are an excellent combination (Combat makes them great in Combat, Agility helps them get there).
(3)  Their Secondary skill of Stealth, compliments both, because it blunts the effectiveness of enemy shooting, thus helping their close combat teams get into melee where they excel, and helping their (smaller) ranged teams stay on their feet, even if they aren't that deadly in and of themselves.

You can obviously see how that's a formidable combination.

Cawdor are kind of similar to Escher.  They are a close combat gang which is good at getting into close combat. 

They are weaker than Escher overall because they lack access to swords as standard equipment.  In fact, due to incompetent game development, they lack access to anything but knives as standard close combat weapons.  As a close combat gang, this makes things difficult for them.  They kind of make up for it with hand flamers, but most players (including us) nerf handflamers to hell/what they were in the original rules.  That would be the general consensus view.

The alternate view goes like this:

Although Escher are stronger than every other House Gang, they are weaker against Cawdor.  Cawdor are their kryptonite.  The reasoning is as follows:

(1)  Cawdor and Escher are both equally good at Combat (it is a core skill for both of them).
(2)  Escher are only slightly better at getting into combat than Cawdor.   Escher Juves have access to Agility, meaning that some of them will get an Agility upgrade before becoming a ganger, whereas, Cawdor have access to Ferocity instead.  It's not a big difference.  By the time they are junior gangers (normally 2 or three games), they both have access to Agility anyway.
(3)  Both Ferocity and Stealth blunt the effectiveness of enemy shooting, with Stealth probably being a little better.  For this reason Escher are more effective against Delaque, Orlock and Van Saar.
(4)  Ferocity, while not being quite as effective at blunting the effectiveness of enemy shooting, is more effective in close combat.  For this reason, Cawdor are more effective against Goliath, Escher and other Cawdor.
(5)  Both Escher and Cawdor are close combat oriented gangs.   Neither will inflict many casualties at range.   They will both be trying to enter close combat with the other.  Therefore, the superiority of Ferocity in close combat gives Cawdor the edge over the Escher.

I'm not sure whether I agree.  However I do understand the logic of the argument.  Personally, I would have thought that the access to swords would swing things towards the Escher by a great distance.  I think the theory relies upon players ignoring the House Equipment List rules (which are universally derided as woefully unbalanced and just plain unnecessary).  In any event, there would only be a few percentage points worth of difference in it.  The slight advantage that Cawdor might gain only comes into play after the ranged shooting exchanges have taken place, and after the initial charges are sorted out, and relies upon both sides having the same number of swords.

I would also say that any advantage that Ferocity might grant over Stealth would be easily outweighed by the relevant overall rating of each gang, the layout of terrain, and player skill.  Joffrey has the clear advantage with the first of those, and our tables are set up to be as neutral as possible (we choose advances based on what we know of the terrain), but the third isn't clear.

If I attack Joffrey and he decides to abandon his campaign against Gannicus, and instead turns on me, then it will probably end in disaster for me.  He's just too cashed up.  Whatever our relative skill levels might be, the imbalance between Joffrey's territories and mine  throw the advantage his way.  He can replace his losses, I can't.

Yet, if he attacks me, then Gannicus will have free reign against him.  He hates Gannicus, and I doubt, regardless of all the amphetamine parrot he's catching from everyone about  his sister that he will turn away from attacking him. 

I'll have a word with Gannicus.
« Last Edit: March 4, 2012, 05:00:53 AM by Underhand »

Offline Underhand

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #127 on: March 4, 2012, 04:52:40 AM »
Campaign Turn 9:

The map:

Cawdor:  The Hand of Redemption - Underhand
Escher:  Gothika - Joffrey
Delaque:  Black Coats - Gannicus
Van Saar:  The Second Stringers - Jonah
Orlock:  The Mortlock Cartel - The Orlock Player
Goliath:  House Bloodaxe - Octavian



I spoke to  Gannicus, and we agreed.  It was time to do something about Joffrey.

The Orlock Player went after the Settlement he lost to Jonah last turn.
Jonah countered by attacking the Orlock Old Ruins.
Joffrey attacked Gannicus's Vents.
Gannicus attacked Joffrey's Workshop.
I attacked Joffrey's Guilder Contact (the one just above my Vents).
Octavian attacked the Orlock Gambling Den.

I spoke to Gannicus and asked him what he was planning.

He told me he wanted to go after the Workshop because (if successful), it would keep his southern border advancing side by side with Jonah.  That was important for several reasons:  Firstly, it allowed him and Jonah to double team the Orlock Player in the event that the Orlock Player ever got his amphetamine parrot together and started to successfully fight back against Jonah.  Secondly, if Jonah continued to overrun the Orlock territories, then it would discourage him from swinging to the left and going after the Orlock Spore Cave, which Gannicus regarded as rightfully his. 

That would result in him being boxed in against Joffrey, and he could hardly be guaranteed to take a territory every turn against him, since he was flat out just holding his ground at the moment.  If he got bogged down against Joffrey, Jonah would continue to eat up plumb territories to the South and centre, and might conceivably be in a position to actually be a threat to Gannicus several turns from now.

While I understood his logic, it really didn't suit my plans.  If I was going to go after Joffrey, I needed to be assured that I had solid support at the other end.  The conversation took place in the carpark next to his ute while he was unloading his gear.  You know that smell of stale beer that low class bars and pubs have?  That's what Gannicus's ute smells like.

UH:  If I can get Jonah to agree to keep tracking South until the Orlock Player is wiped out, will you agree to keep attacking Joffrey until he's gone?
G:    Mate, I can assure you, that'll be a lot easier said than done.
UH:  Well if you want to win the campaign, then you're going to have to beat him eventually, and I'm not sure you can do that on your own.
G:    If you can get Jonah to agree to leave that Spore Cave and Workshop alone, then I'll keep attacking Joffrey with you.

So I went to have a chat with Jonah.  Jonah was across the way eating a pregame snack, which consisted of half a grilled chicken and a plate of chips.

UH:  Hi mate, can I have a word?
J:     I expected this. 
UH:  It's confidential.
J:     Say what you have come to say.
UH:  I'm going to take Joffrey out, but I can't do it on my own.
J:     No.  You can't.  But I'm afraid I can't help you my friend.  Although I will always be grateful for the help you have granted me,  I have revenge that I must take.
UH:  That's okay, I don't need you to attack Joffrey - Gannicus will help me with that, but he's got his eye on the Orlock Spore Cave and he doesn't want to miss the chance of going after it if you decide to go for it.
J:     [He put more chicken into his mouth, considering the proposition].
UH:  ...
J:     Very well.  Both you and Gannicus helped me when I was in trouble.  I will help you now.
UH:  Good man.  Would you mind if I have a chip?
J:    [eyes narrowing] I would mind very much.

So that's the plan.  Jonah goes after the Orlock.  Octavian and the Orlock fight each other like scorned lovers.  Gannicus and I take Joffrey from both ends.  But not in a gay way.

We'll see how it goes.
« Last Edit: March 4, 2012, 05:07:41 AM by Underhand »

Offline skoops6

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #128 on: March 4, 2012, 05:31:38 AM »
Laughed so hard reading these things

Campaign Turn 9:

That's what Gannicus's ute smells like.


Campaign Turn 9:

Jonah was across the way eating a pregame snack, which consisted of half a grilled chicken and a plate of chips.


This is what you call a snack?

Campaign Turn 9:

UH:  Good man.  Would you mind if I have a chip?
J:    [eyes narrowing] I would mind very much.

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Offline Underhand

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #129 on: March 12, 2012, 11:05:49 AM »
Campaign Turn 9:

The map:


Cawdor:  The Hand of Redemption - Underhand
Escher:  Gothika - Joffrey
Delaque:  Black Coats - Gannicus
Van Saar:  The Second Stringers - Jonah
Orlock:  The Mortlock Cartel - The Orlock Player
Goliath:  House Bloodaxe - Octavian



Jonah went after the Orlock Old Ruins.
Octavian went after the Orlock Gambling Den.
The Orlock Player went after Octavian's easternmost Settlement, which he had lost way back on turn 2.
Gannicus attacked Joffrey's Workshop
I attacked Joffrey's Guilder Contact just to the north of my Vents.
Joffrey attacked Gannicus's Vents.

Van Saar -v- Orlocks

The Orock Player picked up an expensive Mung Vase after the last game, and had some creds to throw around, which he spent on a couple of extra gangers (he never buys Juves, because he doesn't have the models, because he uses Catachan guardsmen as standin Orlocks).

Jonah, stuck, broadly speaking with the same tactics as for the previous game, but hired only the Ratskin with the Infiltrate ability which took out the Orlock Heavy in the previous game.  The big change was in the composition of his Vent team. 

His Vent Team, having kicked a lot of ass, are no longer Juves.  Peter, Tom & Larson (Jonah sucks at names), were the original team, but Peter is a gunfighter, Tom has Rapid Fire (and a bolter) and Larson has marksman (and has been given a hot-shot lasgun).  This means that on the turn after they deploy from the vents, Jonah gets 2 autopistol shots and 2 bolter shots at the closest targets, and then a hot-shot lasgun shot that he can shoot at any target he likes.  And due to the short range at which he deploys them, those Bolter and hot-shots are likely going to hit their targets.

There are ways to counter a Vent team like that (it's all about picking where you deploy), but the Orlock Player is a slow learner, and is still stuck on his castling tactics which served him well for so long.

They rolled a Gang Fight, and the Orlock Player got the first turn.  Jonah deployed mostly out of sight, and the first turn saw his Heavy Stubber, and his bullet catcher get taken down, with the Heavy stubber going out of action.  That was as good as it got for the Orlock though, he rolled  2 6's in taking out the Van Saar heavy, and failed the second roll, taking his free auto-pass from the workshop with him.   He wasted his best shooters on trying to shoot the Ratskin infiltrator who was in heavy cover, and only took him down. 

Jonah countered with a lot of counter fire which took down 2 Orlocks and pinned several others.  He also dropped his Vent team to the side of the main Orlock force, with a clear line of sight at their leader.

In the Orlock turn, there was only two guys who could shoot at Van Saar Vent team, and they only pinned Peter.

In the Van Saar turn, the first shot took out an Orlock lasgunner and triggered a mini rout which included the Orlock leader.  This sent 3 Orlocks into range of the Vent team, who opened up taking down 2 Orlocks and the Orlock leader, and triggering a second mini rout.

During the next Orlock turn, there were only 5 Orlocks wh could shoot, and they were inneffective.  The Orlock Heavy Stubber went out of ammo.

In the Van Saar turn, the Vent team dispatched 2 downed Orlocks,  and shot down another.

In his turn, the Orlock Player attempted to recastle and concentrate fire on the prone Ratskin, thus preventing the Van Saar from being able to shoot back at him.  It wasn't very effective though, and the Van Saar were able to reposition in their turn, and take another Orlock out of action with Larson,  the Hotshot Lasgun Marksman.  The other 2 members of the Vent team went into Overwatch.  The Ratskin also recovered to a flesh wound

In the Orlock turn, Peter and Tom managed to pin 3 Orlocks, crippling any return fire the Orlocks might have been able to put out.  Although they did manage to take down the Ratskin a again (that poor bastard must have got shot at least 8 times during the game). 
Peter dispatched a 3rd downed Orlock in CC before consolidating out of LOS of the other Olocks, and Larson and Tom took the Orlock leader out of action by pumping shots into his prone form.

The Orlocks failed their bottile roll and the Van Saar took the Old Ruins.


Goliaths -v- Orlocks

Octavian turned up to attack the Orlock Gambling Den and he was not there to beslubber around.

He hired 2 Scummers and a Bounty Hunter.  Octavian is a smart kid and his tactics are developing.  He divided his gang into two and attacked from both sides,  forcing the Orlocks to face to the left or right, and thereby dividing up the volume of shots they could direct at ether group.  A missed shot on the left could not be made up for with an extra shot from the right.  He also deployed his vent team close to the Orlocks, but kept them out of sight for a couple of turns.  He was there to take the Gambling Den, and he wasn't going to give up some early casualties to do that.

Octavian ran his gang forward, and took a lot of fire.  But the Goliath have Ferocity, and Ferocity is good for soaking up the fire.  True Grit let a couple of guys who got taken down recover to a flesh wound, so by the time he was in close pistol range, he had only had one guy out of action.

The Orlock Player has a lot of weaknesses, both in terms of his gang structure, his playstyle and his general character, but the one which stood out this time was his equipment selection for his guys.  There are people out there who go with the "Las or nothing" theory of gang armament.  They hold that lasguns and laspistols are the best weapons in their class because of their reliability with ammo rolls.  They are right about lasguns, but they are wrong about the laspistols. 

At 24" to 16", the Lasgun is king.  It can shoot, and shoot and shoot, and not run out of ammo.  It is equal to or better than the autogun in every way, and the excellent reliability with ammo rolls more than makes up for the lesser strength compared to the bolter.  It is the AK-47 of the Underhive.

At 16" to 12" the lasgun is only slightly better than the autopistol due to its reliability, and that advantage disappears as soon as there are 2 armourers in the gang.  The laspistol is actually the inferior weapon here because it suffers inaccuracy at this range, whereas the autopistol does not.  This is the range at which shotguns rule the roost, their cover nullifying scattershot giving them the edge.

At 12" to 8" the lasgun again has a definite advantage over the autopistol, as it gets a targeting bonus for being at short range, whereas the autopistol is still at long range.  That might seem important, but that 4 inches of advantage is the smallest 4 inches in the hobby.  It doesn't last long.

Under 8" and the lasgunner is in deep amphetamine parrot.  It's hard to miss at short pistol range with an autopistol.  There is no diference between a laspistol and a lasgun at that range, and since there is no bonus to having a laspistol for a model also armed with a basic weapon, I'm not actually sure why people even take them as backup weapons.  Stub guns with explosive ammo are probably superior.

Anyway, nearly all of the Orlock player's guys are armed with lasguns, with some having backup laspistols.  Octavian's Goliaths can't even take Lasguns as standard weapons (another big reason why Goliaths suck), so he only has a couple of lasgunners, a couple of autogunners, a couple of bolt pistols and a amphetamine parrotload of autopistols and stubbers.

The turn 1 opening fire from the Orlock was inneffective, Octavian mostly being able to stay out of sight.  I think a couple of Goliaths got pinned.

On the Second turn, the Orlock took down 3 Goliaths.

On the third turn, the Orlocks took down another 3 Goliaths, but two of the downed ones recovered and got back to their feet due to their True Grit.

On the fourth turn, the Goliaths were in pistol range, and the game evened up.  The goliaths took down 3 Orlocks and the Orlocks took down 3 Goliaths.  The Orlocks were 3 down (none out) and the Goliaths were 6 down and one out.

On the fifth turn, the Goliath vent team pitched a grenade and pinned one Orlock and took down another one.  The Bounty Hunter pinned the Orlock Heavy.  Orlock Overwatch fire took down 2 Juves, but Goliath counter autopistol fire took down 3 Orlocks.  Bloodaxe and 2 other Goliath close combat monsters made it into close combat, and the slaughter began.

Bloodaxe has Combat Master, Body Slam and Impetuous.  That means he has a +2 charge bonus, is effective against multiple opponents and can follow up 4" to get into cover after killing his opponents, or as was the case here, into another close combat with some more hapless victims.  4 Orlocks went out of action on the first turn of combat, and Bloodaxe followed up into another two.

In the next turn, the other two Goliath combat monkeys got taken out by Orlock counter fire, but soaked up 6 shots between them.  Mortlock, the Orlock leader fired into the close combat with Bloodaxe with his melta gun, but only succeeded in taking out one of his guys (should have waited until the combat was over, silly boy).   More Goliaths flooded into close combat, and Mortlocks was pinned by the marksman bounty hunter.  Bloodaxe dispatched the other one and charged a new target, killing them too.  In the Goliath close combat phase, one goliath went down , but wasn't taken out because he had friends in the melee.  Another 3 Orlocks went down.

The Orlocks had 10 guys out of action at this stage at this stage, and managed to take down another 2 Goliaths with their shooting, including a wound on Bloodaxe.  It wasn't even close to enough though, the Goliaths were simply  rampant.  They took down another  Orlock by shooting, and another 2 in close combat including Mortlock.

In the following turn, only the Orlock Heavy was still on his feet, and he bottled out.  Final score was 12 Orlocks out of action, 2 down and the Heavy running for his life.  The Goliaths had 3 Out of Action and 4 down.

Any player new to the game, wanting to get a feel for how Goliath should be played - that was it.  The plan and the execution were perfect, and what luck there might have been didn't make an ounce of difference to the outcome.  I would have been proud to have played the game that Octavian did, myself.

Octavian took the Gambling Den, and although he kept it from showing on his face, I bet he loved every second of it. 

And if I hadn't been quietly plotting his ultimate downfall the whole time while I watched, I probably would have been happy for him.

Orlocks -v- Goliaths

After the previous game, the Orlock player could not have been looking forward to the next one.  In his last 4 games, he'd lost 4 territories, and he still had another game to go against a player who came within a humming bird's dick of tabling him in the previous game.  But there was no getting out of it. 

He's a slow learner, and once again, he didn't change his tactics.  He set up his models in virtually the exact same positions as before.  Octavian subbed out the Bounty hunter for another Scummer (Bounty Hunters are expensive mercenaries).  He also changed his vent team to include 2 Scummers and his Heavy Stubber.

This game was going along similarly to the previous game, but I think Octavian just really wanted to grind the Orlock Player into the dirt.  The way he was going to do that was by having his vent team get involved earlier, and open up with 2 boltpistol shots, a plasma pistol shot and a burst from the heavy stubber.  That was brutally effective, and took 2 Orlocks out of action, took down another two and pinned a fifth.

The Orlock return fire took down both scummers and pinned the heavy stubber guy, but they had done their job, taking a large chunk out of the Orlock firepower, which would see the rest of the Goliaths have a very easy run into close combat, and setting up another decisive victory.

Or at least it would have, but the Orlocks took down 3 Goliaths in their next shooting phase, and despite having more casualties overall than the Goliaths, Bloodaxe failed his first bottle roll of the game, and House Bloodaxe bottled out when victory was well and truly within their grasp.

It happens in Necromunda.  The Orlock player was losing, but the Goliaths bottled first, and so he won.  I've been on both sides of that happening, and it sucks when you were the one who was winning, but that's Necromunda, and that's life.  Final score 2/3 Orlocks and 0/5 Goliaths.

Offline Lewis

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #130 on: March 23, 2012, 06:38:21 AM »
The anticipation is killing everyone .... hence our silence with baited breath ha. Anything soon UH?

Offline Underhand

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #131 on: March 25, 2012, 08:33:39 AM »
Apologies for the delay.

Turn 9 continued:

Black Coats -v- Gothika

Gannicus went after Joffrey's Workshop and picked the Ambush scenario.

Ambushes are tricky.   The Defender (Joffrey) divides his force up into different groups of 2 or more guys.  He places the first group wherever he likes on the table.  Then the Attacker sets up his entire force anywhere he likes as long as they are 12" away from the Defending group. 

Then the Defender rolls a dice for each of his remaining groups.  On a 1-5, they have to deploy within 4" of the first group, sort of representing the poor saps who the attackers got the drop on.  On a 6, they get to deploy wherever they like, sort of representing the members of the gang that the attackers failed to get in position to attack.  They can deploy within 1" of the Attackers.

Who goes first is determined as follows:  For each group that the Defender rolled a 6 on for deployment, he gets to roll a D6.  If one of those dice gets a 6, then he gets to go first.  As you can therefore probably imagine, Ambushes can go either way.

Disclosure time: I'm not very good at Ambush.  It's my bogey scenario.  I might complain about Shoot Out, but that's because it's poorly designed - I'm just as good at them as the next person (which would include someone who has never played the game before, because a Shoot Out is a total lottery), but Ambush is actually a pretty well designed and balanced scenario, with plenty of tactical thought required. 

I've just never completely got the hang of it.   I'm always second guessing myself, particularly as attacker, and I find myself going against my natural instincts a lot of the time.  I still win a reasonable number of them, but I never feel completely in command of the game the way I do when I'm playing a Gang Fight or Scavengers.  As a result, I'm not going to make too many value judgments on how either Gannicus or Joffrey played, because to be honest, I'm not in much of a position to do so.

Anyway, Joffrey divided his gang into 8 groups of 2.  Gannicus deployed his Delaques in two groups on either side of the first group of 2 Eschers.    Joffrey then deployed the rest of his girls and managed to deploy 2 groups outside of the main force.  He set them down behind the group of 6 Delaques which contained the Heavy Stubber.  This was very bad for Gannicus.

Who gets the first turn in an Ambush is decided by the defending player rolling a D6 for each of those groups which got to set up outside of the Ambush zone.  If the total is higher than 6, then the Ambush victim gets to go first.  Joffrey had 2 such groups and rolled a 7.

Joffrey started his first turn scattering his main group of ambush victims into heavy cover from the first Delaque group which had the leader  and flamer heavy in it.  Given the Escher access to Agility and Stealth skills, they did this pretty well.

His second group, he charged straight into close combat with the second Delaque group with the Heavy Stubber.  There was no shooting from the Eschers, but the close combat more than made up for it, with 5 Delaques going down, and the only survivor still stuck in close combat with 2 Escher.

Gannicus was pretty much screwed at this point, having lost nearly half his gang, and with the Eschers in charge range of the remainder of his Gang next turn.  He also didn't have much to shoot at because the Eschers had fled to cover.  He pulled back, putting his flamer heavy in position to protect the main Escher line of attack and took what long ranged shots he could, taking down one Escher Ganger.  The Delaque who survived the first round of close combat with the Eschers did not survive the second.

From there, all Joffrey had to do was wait it out.   He was sitting pretty with his gang either in heavy cover, or out of LOS of the Delaques, so he didn't have to worry about taking casualties.   With only one ganger down, he also didn't have to worry about bottling out, whereas Gannicus, with 6 guys out of action did.  All Joffrey had to do was sit still and wait for Gannicus to fail a bottle roll.

There was very little that Gannicus could do.  In order to avoid losing a territory, he had to take 3 Eschers out of action, which isn't easy for a shooting gang to do at the best of times (shooting gangs take lots of the enemy down, whereas close combat gangs take down fewer, but take many of those few out of action), and had to avoid taking any more casualties himself.  That task was made all the tougher considering that he only had 7 guys with whom to accomplish it against 16 Eschers.  It just wasn't going to happen.  Carrying on from that point would just result in further casualties for the Delaques.

The smart thing to do would have been to voluntarily bottle out, but Gannicus was never going to do that against Joffrey.  So he manoeuvred some of his guys around to try to flank the Escher and concentrate fire on one or two isolated models. 

Joffrey, amused by Gannicus's defiance, countered by putting some of his gang on overwatch, and others in hiding, in preparation for a counterstrike as soon as the delaque sharp shooters got too close.

Gannicus failed his third bottle roll of the game, and lost his Guilder Contact to Joffrey, which was not the start the Cawdor-Delaque bilateral offensive campaign against the Escher (the CAWDAQUE BOCATE - we're still working on the name) was looking for.

Gannicus was disgusted with himself for losing the Ambush to Joffrey.  Quite frankly, in my view, he deserved to be.  Although the Delaque are naturally good ambushers (there is a school of thought that shooting gangs generally make the best ambushers), Escher are probably the best at defending against them because their Stealth and Agility skills let them slip away, and their Combat skills allow them to counter attack with devastating effectiveness.  Ambushing a gang with a significant numerical advantage, as Joffrey had over Gannicus is also always fraught with danger.

UH:  6 nil?
G:    I know.
UH:  ...
G:    I'm sorry.
UH:  Just try not to beslubber up the next one.
G:    I won't.

The map:

 

Cawdor:  The Hand of Redemption
Escher:  Gothika
Delaque:  Black Coats
Van Saar:  The Second Stringers
Orlock:  The Mortlock Cartel
Goliath:  House Bloodaxe



« Last Edit: March 25, 2012, 09:13:37 AM by Underhand »

Offline Underhand

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #132 on: March 30, 2012, 07:52:55 PM »
The Hand of Redemption -v- Gothika

In accordance with the CAWDAQUE BOCATE masterplan, I attacked Joffrey's Guilder Contact.  Joffrey was still pumped up after his thrashing of Gannicus.  We rolled for the scenario:

UH:  Rolling for the scenario . . . 4. Okay, that's a gang fight.
J:     Actually, Shamora has a Ratskin Map. 

Shamora, the Escher leader picked up a Ratskin Map, at the trading post, which carries random benefits, one of which is to influence the scenario roll. So Joffrey got to pick the scenario, which is exactly what I didn't need. 

Once again, I started lining up my Hired Gun models in a bid to bluff Joffrey out of picking a Shoot Out.  Joffrey wasn't fooled for a second though, and the smug little prick went with the Shoot Out.

J:     I think that we'll have a Shoot Out. 
UH:  Are you sure about that?  Shoot Outs are a bit 'meh' . . .
J:     We're having a Shoot Out.

I accepted his choice with good grace.

UH:  beslubber you.

Even though my gang had improved since the last time I got plastered in a Shoot Out by Octavian, Shoot Outs are still a major weakness for me.  Only one of my guys (Abijah) had Quickdraw, and there was no guarantee that he would even be one of the ones who randomly turned up (because Shoot Outs are a amphetamine parrotilly designed scenario, as I think I might have previously mentioned).  My Gang was certainly still not a match for Joffrey's gang (which has several Quickdrawers), plus some Scummers, which he would certainly hire.

Anyway, we rolled to see who tuned up.  Joffrey got 2 gang members, and he hired 3 Scummers:

Shamora:  The Escher leader, with Initiative 5 and a plasma pistol and power sword.
Morgana:  a CC specialist with initiative 4, a bolt pistol and sword.
Magrav:  A scummer with a plasma pistol, autopistol and Quickdraw.
Gallow:  A scummer with twin boltpistols, Quickdraw and Gunfighter.
Coates:  A scummer with a plasma pistol and laspistol and Quickdraw and Gunfighter.

I rolled 3 guys (the minimum number of casualties necessary to lose a territory.  Yay!), who turned out to be:

Abraham:  My leader with a boltpistol, chainsword and initiative 5.
Zohar:  Loot Runner.  Initiative 4, and a handflamer (which is lucky considering his BS is 2).
Amon:  Gang Buttmonkey.

In all seriousness though, Amon wasn't actually a bad choice for a Shootout.  He had Fast Shot and Gunfighter, so he could shoot three times.  He also had I5, and was packing twin autopistols, so he had a decent chance of shooting early. 

I also had one other thing working in my favour - 9 wounds.  All three of my guys had 3 wounds each, so they couldn't actually all be taken down in the first volley of fire.   Not that it mattered much - I was well aware that all three of those scummers had Quickdraw, so more than likely, my guys would all be pinned before I got a chance to shoot anyway.  If that happened, they would be hard pressed to survive a second volley of bolt pistol and plasma pistol fire.  And if Joffrey got the chance to enter Close Combat, even Abraham (if he was still standing) would have a hard time beating off Shamora, if she got the charge.

We set up as follows:

Magrav (plasma pistol, auto pistol):      O       
Gallow (boltpistol x2):                           O       O     Zohar: (flame pistol, stubber)
Shamora (plasma pistol, p-sword):       O       O    Abraham:  (bolt pistol, chainsword)
Coates (plasma pistol, las pistol):         O       O    Amon:  (autopistols x2)
Morgana (boltpistol, sword):                 O

I was hoping that Zohar would stay on his feet long enough to lay a flame template down on Gallow and Shamora, wounding both, which would allow Abraham to wound Shamora with his boltpistol and take her out of action.  That would hopefully force the rest of the Escher Quickdrawers to focus on Abraham and Zohar, and leave Amon free to pump out 3 shots.  With luck, I might take out, or at least pin 3 of the Escher, leaving things even for the following turn. 

The build up to the Quickdraw went as follows:

1st turn:   Escher: 3    Cawdor: 5
2nd  turn:   Escher: 8  Cawdor: 9
3rd turn:   Escher: 11  Cawdor: 11
4th turn:   Escher: 12  Cawdor: 13
5th turn:   My guys lost their nerve and went for their guns. 

The Order of the Quickdraw went as follows:

Gallow:      13
Magrav:     12
Shamora:  10
Abraham:  10
Morgana:    9
Coates:      8  (Calls himself a quickdraw artist.  Pfft.)
Zohar:        8
Amon:        6  (the one time I think I can count on him to do something right - get a good score on the quickdraw, and he beslubbers it up!)

Gallow unloaded both boltpistols into Zohar, hitting and wounding with both shots. 

Zohar was still up though, so Magrav shot him with his plasma pistol, taking him out of action.  That sucked, since his hand flamer could have come in real handy.

Shamora and Abraham tied and shot at each other simultaneously.  With BS6 and being at shot range, Abraham was never going to miss, and he didn't, putting a wound on Shamora.  Shamora got off a shot with her plasma pistol simultaneously though, and wounded Abraham right back.

Morgana took her shot with her boltpistol at Amon (who was her closest target), and missed.

That left Coates, with 2 shots (plasma and las), and a difficult choice.  He could either fire both shots at Amon, and reduce him to a single wound, and pin him, or fire once at Amon and once at Abraham, maybe doing a wound to Abraham.  Joffrey elected to divide his fire between the two.

Coates fired his plasma pistol at Abraham and stung him with a second dose of plasma to the chest, dropping him to only a single wound.  So Abraham was still on his feet, and possibly in a position to charge next turn, in which case his target would be Shamora, who only had one wound left, and he had a decent chance of beating if he got the charge.  If he won against Shamora, then a follow up move into Magrav, might save him from a round of shooting, and Joffrey would be taking a bottle roll at leadership 7 (because Shamora would be out). 

It might just have worked.  But it all relied on 1 - getting the first turn (50/50 odds), 2 - recovering from being pinned (5/6), 3 - beating Shamora in CC (50/50 at best),  and 4 - Joffrey failing to roll 7 or lower on a bottle roll (42/100).  None of those were guaranteed, and if one of them screwed up, then it all fell apart.

Coates took his second shot at Amon with his laspistol.  And missed.  If he had hit, Amon would not have been pinned and unable to shoot.  And that cost Joffrey the game.

Amon was free to shoot, and with 2 autopistols at point blank range, even with BS3, he wasn't going to miss.  But it got better.

UH:  Alrighty then!  3 shots!  I think they'll go to Morgana, Coates and Shamora!
J:     Three? (he evidently thought Amon only had Gunfighter.  Always check your opponent's list.)
UH:  Yep - he's got Fast shot and 2 attacks, so with Gunfighter, he gets an extra shot.  They stack.
Gannicus:   You actually get 4 shots with Fast Shot and Gunfighter.
UH:  I don't think so.
G:    You do.  They stack.  Why do you think I've been telling you to give him boltpistols?
J:     Fast Shot only gives you an extra shot on your main hand.  Fast Shot doesn't stack on both weapons.
UH:  Yeah, that can't be right.  If Amon got another attack he would get 6 shots per turn. 
G:    That's exactly how it works.  I know I'm right.  It's in the FAQ. 
J:     Get the FAQ.

So we looked up the FAQ , which had actually also been published in White Dwarf back in the mid nineties. 

G:     See - By Jervis Johnson.   it says ". . . positively John Woo-esque."
J:      Holy amphetamine parrot . . .
UH:   Hahahahahahahahahah ahahahahaha!


So  Amon got to shoot 4 times.   And man, did he ever pick the moment to step up.

UH:  Okay rolling to hit! . . . (4 hits) Hahahahahah!
UH:  Rolling for wounds . . .Wound! . . . Wound ! . . . Wound! . . . Wound!  Hahahahaha!
UH:  Rolling for Injuries! . . . Down! . . . Down! . . . Out of Action! . . . Down!  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Morgana, Gallow and Coates were all down wounded, Shamora was out of action.  That left only Magrav on his feet. 

I got the first turn.  Abraham (no doubt pissed off at having another tabard ruined by a couple of plasma bolts) charged Magrav and chopped him to bits with his chainsword.  Amon stepped up to Morgana and put a bullet through her chest taking her out of action.  All of Joffrey's ganger members were either down or out of action. Game over. 

3 casualties to 1.  I took the Guilder Contact.  Having been on the rough end of many a Shoot Out, I expressed my sympathy to Joffrey:

UH:  Yeah, I probably got a bit lucky there . . . those Shoot Outs can be like that . . . they can really go either way . . . I can't really claim much credit for the win . . . even though it was a pretty big one . . .
J:     beslubber off.
UH:  Heh heh.

Gothika -v- The Black Coats

Gannicus has the lower gang rating and he got to pick the scenario, Joffrey's Ratskin Map not being good enough to influence the result that time.  Gannicus picked Scavengers, which was a good choice for him.

Normally, I would be cautious picking Scavengers against Escher, since their Agility and Stealth skills come in so handy for it, but it's a bit different for Gannicus.  His gang has 2 Infiltrators and some Vents, so he can set up 5 guys on Loot counters. He also hired Jonah's infiltrating Ratskin, giving him 6 forward movers.   Joffrey by comparison, has only one Infiltrator, and had already spent his extra cash on hiring Scum in the earlier games.

There were 3 pieces of Loot, and Joffrey was at least smart enough to set up one piece within easy grabbing range of his deployment zone, with a view to denying Gannicus a victory by nabbing all the Loot.

That was a wise move, and it worked.  But only to a point.

On turn 4 (or maybe 5 - I can't quite remember), Joffrey and Gannicus had been involved in a short to medium ranged firefight involving about 10 models on both sides.  The fight was in the balance, but eventually, an Escher fighter went down to Overwatch fire , and triggered the rout of 2 comrades (Gannicus had made the highly astute tactical decision to target the fighter just before she left cover, which made the shot more difficult, but put both of her comrades in range for the morale check when she went down.

That rout collapsed Joffrey's right flank, and left 3 downed Escher models completely vulnerable to being dispatched automatically in close combat by sprinting/leaping Delaques in the following turn.  Which is what happened.  The two who ran were also left in range of the Delaque Flamer Heavy (Flaming Moe), who can run and shoot (I would love for Isaac, Boaz or Jemuel to get that skill), and one of them got taken down the following turn as well.

At that point, both sides had 5 guys down, but 3 of Joffrey's were out of action.  On the next turn, another Escher Juve and Ganger were taken down by overwatch fire, and Joffrey only succeeded in pinning 2 Delaques.  Flaming Moe managed to avoid close combat by less than a centimetre due to a bad Leap roll from an Escher CC specialist.  On the next turn, Joffrey failed his bottle roll.  He hadn't even taken the piece of loot he had grabbed into his deployment zone.

Gannicus took the Holestead.

The Map at the end of Turn 9:

 

Cawdor:  The Hand of Redemption
Escher:  Gothika       
Delaque:  Black Coats
Van Saar:  The Second Stringers
Orlock:  The Mortlock Cartel
Goliath:  House Bloodaxe



Offline Perigrine

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #133 on: March 31, 2012, 09:55:47 AM »
Its good to see joffrey get his. Its pretty bad I don't know the guy yet have a strong dislike for him.

Well played though Underhand, just need the third member of your alloiance to start in on someone effectively now.

Offline Underhand

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #134 on: April 1, 2012, 03:52:08 AM »
Rest assured, you would feel the same way if you met him.  His alias was chosen with care.

 Aftermath of Campaign Turn 9:

The post game sequence for turn 9 was a doozy.  Centuries from now, when militay historians deliver lectures to their students about this Necromunda Campaign, they will say that it all turned during  the Turn 9 post game sequence.

I'll get the more mundane stuff out of the way first.

Golith - House Bloodaxe - Octavian

Octavian found a Isotropic Fuel Rod at the trading post, and converted his Old Ruins to a settlement.  He now has 5 settlements, giving him a 5/6 chance of recruiting a Juve each turn.  One of those settlements also threw up a Juve  He also rolled very well on his income, taking in more than 100 creds actual profit.


Van Saar - The Second Stringers - Jonah

Jonah, who now has a very solid collection of territories, recruited a Ganger and picked up a couple of gunsights, one of which was created by one of his inventors.  All of his upgrades went into shooting or techno skills.

Orlock - The Mortlock Cartel - the Orlock Player

The Orlock Player, suffered 4 deaths, which is a lot of guys to lose in one turn, particularly this far into a campaign - it will reduce his gang rating by well over 400 points (this is where medics earn their salt).  Although down on territory, still has a more than adequate income, and he recruited 2 gangers and bought them lasguns. 

Incidently - I've been watching Breaking Bad lately.  Awesome show.  The Orlock Player is Jesse Pinkman: Breaking Bad - The Stupid be-atch Version

Delaque - the Black Coats - Gannicus

Gannicus recruited a Juve and bought some frag grenades and swords.

Cawdor - The Hand of Redemption

Since I now have a decent income earning territory, I managed to come away with 30 creds in profit.  Since Amon is now well and truly a member of the midrange team, I need to recruit a replacement.  But that will have to wait.  I'm going to be running hard at Joffrey for the forseeable future, and there will be a lot of close up fighting.  I bought 3 swords and spread them around to those most worthy. 

Abraham learned how to Sprint, so he's now pretty much the complete package - excellent leader, very good shooter and excellent at close quarters.  He has room left  for 2 advances (I made a mistake on the earlier post), and I would like them to be an extra attack (which he really does need), and maybe an extra leadership advance, just to make it next to impossible for opponents to bottle my gang out.  Given that his BS, WS, T & W have maxed out, there are decent odds that I'll get at least one of those.

Amon received a +1S.  So close to getting +1A.  Everyone else was relieved when he missed out.  He still has time.

Zohar rolled badly for his experience, and received no upgrades.

Escher - Gothika - Joffrey

Joffrey.  Hoo-boy . . .   

Things. Did. Not. Go. Well. For. Him.

Having lost 2 d6x10 territories, his income per turn is no longer ridiculous, and on top of that, losing a Shoot Out means that his income gets halved for a turn (the residents of the Underhive think you're a tool and refuse to give you money). 

He also had to roll 8 times on the injury chart. He didn't do too badly except for the loss of a junior ganger.  But then he rolled for his leader Shamora, whom you will recall was taken out by Amon.  He rolled a 'Captured'.  Capturing Shamora would have been awesome, since my gang would kick the amphetamine parrot out any other gang  in the campaign that tried to pull a Rescue Mission on them (all the flamers and handflamers make it very difficult for the rescue team).  But it didn't matter, because Joffrey's Heavy is a Medic, and he got a reroll (you always save your Medic reroll for your leader).  I was hoping he would reroll a Dead, or maybe Multiple Injuries.  He rolled Partially Deafened.

Now, if I had to have one of my gangers suffer an injury which was actually debilitating (some injuries actually result in bonuses to a ganger), then it would be partially deafened, because it has no effect unless it happens twice, in which caseall that happens is that it drops leadership by -1.  That doesn't happen often, given that it is only a 1/36 chance of happening at all.

Joffrey:   6 and 3, 63 -Captured.  Medic reroll!
Octavian:  Go.
J:   Rerolling . . . 3 and 1.  Partially Deafened.  Pfft.
O:  Lucky.
Gannicus:  Isn't that the second one of those for her?
J:   ...

I was at the next table over, calculating my territorial income with Jonah while Joffrey was working out his injuries, but I still overheard that exchange.  Myrcella, who was waiting for Joffrey to finish up so she could drive him home, later told me that the way my head lifted up and swivelled around towards the other table upon hearing what Gannicus said, reminded her of how her dog reacts upon someone banging on his food bowl when it's time for dinner. 

Gannicus was right.  Shamora was already partially deafened by the Delaque leader  back in Round 3.  That meant minus 1 leadership for Shamora, dropping it to 7.

Joffrey just stared at his gang roster while the implications of that set in.  And the implications are massive. 

Losing a point of leadership isn't a big deal for an ordinary gang member, in fact, it's probably the least useful stat (maybe only strength is less important).  But a gang lives and ides (or fights or runs) according to the leadership of their leader. 

With leadership 7, Shamora has 42% chance of failing a bottle roll.  Joffrey has 14 gang members (having lost one that turn).  As soon as 4 of them go down, he has to start taking bottle checks, and his chances of passing 2 bottle checks in a row are only about 34%.  With those odds, his chances of winning a Gang Fight (easily the most common scenario) against either me or Gannicus have taken a massive hit.  His chances of actually ever taking a territory off either of us have fallen off a cliff.  At least for as long as Shamora remains the leader of his gang.

Unfortunately for him, Shamora can't just demote herself to the ranks, and let another ganger (he has 2 other gangers with leadership 8 - the one that died this turn had leadership 9) take over.  He's stuck with her until one of the other two mounts a successful leadership challenge, which involves beating Shamora in a fight, and good luck to either of them with that. 

Make no mistake - the whole campaign turned with that injury to Joffrey's leader.  Before now, Joffrey was odds on to win - he had a strong gang, good territory, and although Octavian's Goliaths look better on paper, with more territories, and a higher gang rating, the superiority of the Escher skills and equipment lists, and the greater playing skill and experience of Joffrey compared to Octavian would have seen Joffrey come out on top.  But with that injury to his leader, Joffrey's chances of winning this campaign have turned to amphetamine parrot.  It's now just a matter of how Gannicus and I decide to divide up his territories between us.

And it was Amon who did it.  A valued member of the gang. I always believed in him.

Future Plans:

Joffrey left the store without finishing his post game sequence, and without saying much.  He needs time to work out how to handle the crippling blow he's been dealt.  He has a lot of options, but none of them are fantastic.

Gannicus and I stayed back late at the store to discuss our next move.  We were the last ones there.  Gannicus went out and came back with beer, which we drank with the store manager.  And laughed, and laughed at Joffrey's misfortune.  Good times.

Our general plan is to wipe Joffrey off the map before doing anything else.  We've got our feet on his throat, it's now time to start delivering the kidney punches.  And we won't stop until he's dead.  We are not going to make the mistake of letting a helpless opponent get back on his feet.  Octavian and the Orlock Player (and to a lesser extent, Joffrey) had me on my knees for a while there, but they let me wiggle free, and they will regret it.

As you can see, Joffrey's empire has been divided in two.  I'm going to take the territories to the west (Old Ruins, Spore Cave and Guilder Contact), and Gannicus will take the territories to the east (Friendly Doc, Workshop and Guilder Contact), subject to the viscisitudes of fate.  There is a spare Old Ruins.  We'll toss for that one.

I assume that Jonah will go after the Orlock Workshop. 

I'm not sure what Octavian will do, since he has a variety of tempting, soft, Orlock targets.  The Spore Cave is the richest target (2d6x10), but it might lead to an earlier fight with Jonah, Joffrey or Gannicus than would be convenient for him.  He could also take the Western most Workshop to deny me, but if I go for it, then it might turn into a three way fight, which he could easily lose.  Going after the Eastern Workshop is just begging for a fight with Jonah, which he probably doesn't need right now.  The tunnels would be a smart choice, because they grant a great tactical advantage, but I think he is more focussed on high income territories.  The Mine Workings are the safe choice, and  think that's what he'll go for.

As for the Orlock Player . . . his days are numbered.  There is blood in the water, and we've all sniffed it.  His workshop is a very tempting target for me, because I'm very confident I could take it.  But going after that would give Joffrey breathing space, and I'm not going to give up the advantage I have against him.  I think the Orlock player will try to take back his Gambling Den from Octavian.  And I think that he will fail.

Offline Lonewolf

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #135 on: April 1, 2012, 05:12:13 AM »
Great report as usual. Seems that fortuna finally starts to smile on you again  :)


No problem, I'll give you a 100% increase in pay effective immediately and retroactive to 1999.

Offline Perigrine

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #136 on: April 1, 2012, 07:39:56 AM »
Good times. Glad to hear of joffreys misfortune. You should all bring him a slice of pie see if he gets the reference since he is wise to his nickname now.

But on a serious note definitely don't let up on him he's a snakey lil bastard so don't give him time to recover.

Offline Underhand

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #137 on: April 1, 2012, 08:42:45 AM »
Great report as usual. Seems that fortuna finally starts to smile on you again  :)
She can be such a fickle be-atch.

I have actually been listening to Orff a bit this week.


Offline crew4man

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #138 on: April 1, 2012, 09:36:35 AM »
After not reading for quite some time, I can safely say I'm still suitably impressed by the writing's humor, detail, and intrigue. This makes for a fantastic book. I even saw what you did there with Joff's sister's name.

It seems the war turns in your favor. About time. This same scenario actually kinda happened when I was playing A Song Of Ice and Fire (tis a custom game in SCII). Allies attack me. I am sad. I get ally. Ally helps me win. Happyness!

Can't wait for more, as always.
Victory- a delicious recipe of timing, confidence, audacity, intelligence... and having more warm bodies than the other guy.

Offline Toad_Raider

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Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
« Reply #139 on: April 3, 2012, 08:13:02 PM »
This thread always puts a massive grin on my face when I read your updates. Bravo, I say!

And it was Amon who did it.  A valued member of the gang. I always believed in him.

This is comedy gold.
...a spiffified whizz-bang unit of Much Destruction that'll get whored like crazy in WD and kill a million Monoliths in the release batrep
Lomendil's pick for the new DE dex. Not quite, but we have a 'dex now!

Well played, TW.  By well played, I of course mean god damn your traitorous ways.

Do love Diplomacy!

 


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