Topic: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign

[dapper]

This is fast becoming my favourite thread and tempting me to get back into the hobby, if only to find a campaign like this!

Question - why didn't you use the Community Edition of Necromunda for the campaign? Would you consider it for next time? It seems like a lot of the unbalanced/faulty rules that have caused you grief would be avoided by using this far more elegant ruleset.

[Killing Time]

Question - why didn't you use the Community Edition of Necromunda for the campaign? Would you consider it for next time? It seems like a lot of the unbalanced/faulty rules that have caused you grief would be avoided by using this far more elegant ruleset.

Having looked over the community edition in recent months I'd agree that it would be the rule set of choice should I start a campaign now.
That said, Autoguns still suck compared to lasguns.

[Underhand]

I agree the community edition rules are superior, and they are the rules I normally play with.

We went with the official rules for this campaign bcause 3 of the players are very new to the game, and I wanted them to have easy access to all the rules in one easy place.  I also wanted to get more people at the store interested in Necromunda, and figured that using unofficial rules printed off the internet would be less appealing.

If we were to start a new campaign, everyone would go for the community edition/Anthony Case rules now that they are familiar with the game.

Incidently, there has been a new change to the campaign rules:

Alliances:

If two gangs take part in a fight, in circumstances where the players controlling the gangs have arranged between them, the division of any territory following the fight, then only their opponent's gang rating is taken into account when determining any underdog bonus experience points.  Conversely, when fighting against one or more allied gangs, the total of both their gang ratings is used to determine the underdog bonus for their opponent.

This rule was added because Joffrey is afraid that Gannicus and I will start to double team him as happened to me with the Gorlocks.

Earning Income from territories:

All territories earn income automatically.  To earn extra income, a player may assign a ganger, heavy or leader to a particular territory.  In the case of a D6x10 or 2d6x10 territory, assigning a ganger allows a reroll.  In the case of a fixed income territory, assigning a ganger gives +10 creds.  Gangers with the Fixer skill do not have to be assigned to a territory to provide this benefit.

This rule was added because most people are playing two games per turn, and incomes, particularly for gangs with less territory, are insufficient to replace losses.

Atacking a territory:

An attacker must nominate which map tile his gang is attacking from.  All unassigned gang members, and any gang members who are assigned to adjacent tiles may take part in the attack.  Any gang member which is assigned to a map tile which is not adjacent to the attacking tile, may not take pat in the attack.

This rule was added to add a strategic element to the post turn sequence, and to prevent high income and high territory gangs from gaining too much of an advantage.

Defending a territory:

If an attacker attacks a territory which is has no ganger assigned to it, then the attack need only win with a 2:1 casualty count to take the territory.

Only the assigned defender, unassigned gang members, and gang members assigned to an adjacent territory may take part in the defence.

This rule was added to add a strategic element to the post game sequence.

Loss of a territory by an attacker:

If an attacker loses a fight by a 3:1 casualty count, then the terrtory which is lost will be the territory from which the attack was made.

This rule is added to add a strategic element to the post game sequence.


The last 4 rules have been added to make the campaign more interesting.  They are intended to allow players to earn more income from their territories - which is necessary given that most people are playing 2 games per turn (Joffrey and the Orlock player played 3 last turn). 

We originally had similar rules regarding assigning gangers to particular territories, but within a short time it became clear that we would have situations where only half a gang would be turning up to a fight, which nobody wanted.  This way, a player will be able to use their entire gang for every fight, unless they judge that it is more important to have a ganger earn a little extra income.  It think that most people will prefer to have their gang available for fighting, with a few rare exceptions.

The rules about defending are there to prevent the campaign becoming too static.  It's hard enough as it is to get a 3:1 casualty count in your favour.  Reducing it to 2:1 makes it easier for the attacker without by any means making it too hard for the Defender.  The Defender still has to suffer a real ass kicking to lose a territory.

I envisage that most people will keep their gangers unassigned, and that only one or two members of a gang will be absent from a fight, at most.

[Perigrine]

Convenient now about the double teaming rules that its Joffrey and not you getting gang banged on a turnly basis. But I guess a little be-atch will be a little be-atch.

Besides the timing on the first rule I think this will make it more interedting for you.

[Underhand]

Campaign Turn 10:

The Map:



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

I went first and I attacked Joffrey's Guilder Contact via my Guilder Contact
The Orlock Player attacked The Goliath Gambling Den via his Workshop
Jonah attacked the Orlock Workshop via his Old Ruins
Octavian attacked the Orlock Mine Workings via his Settlement (that used to be Old Ruins)
Gannicus attacked the Escher Workshop via his Vents
Joffrey attacked the Delaque Holestead which he had lost last turn via his Old Ruins.

The Hand of Redemption -v- Gothika

We rolled a Gang Fight.  We have fought each other 3 times so far.  The first time was a genuine three way with Gannicus in round 1 which I ended up winning after Joffrey got sandwiched between me and Gannicus early.  The Second was an extremely lopsided fight where Joffrey teamed up with the Orlocks and Goliaths to take my Vents.  The third time was the recent Shoot Out.  So this was the first time we had played each other one-on-one in a straight up fight.

Joffrey had taken the week to work out his plan for dealing with Shamora's crippled leadership.  I had done my best to undermine it, by coming in on Thursday night and suggesting to him that he should hire as many Juves and mercenaries as possible so as to increase his bottle threshold. The reasoning being that  if he increased his numbers to 17, he wouldn't have to start taking bottle checks until he lost 5 guys, which would give him a greater buffer before Shamora had to start taking bottle checks.

In my view, that is the best way to handle the problem, and that's what I would do in his circumstances.  The reason I suggested it to him was because he has an ego, and he would hate to  be seen to be taking advice from me, and would be naturally compelled to do something different.  So I made sure to make sure that as many people as possible, including Myrcella, heard me giving him the advice.

It worked like a charm.

He recruited an extra Juve, to replace the ganger he lost, and hired a took a scummer to bolster his shooting, but he only had 15 gangers when he faced me.  That gave him a bottle threshold of 4.

He got the first turn, and advanced rapidly towards my lines, his girls spreading out to deny my vent teams the best locations.  It was smart tactics, and it was obvious by the way that he moved and positioned the individual models that he has a amphetamine parrotload of experience with the game, and a good eye for Necromunda/2nd Ed measurements and a natural instinct for which parts of the table he needs to control.

It didn't matter that much though.  The early long ranged exchanges saw Ram get taken down by the Escher Stubber Heavy.  Jacob replied by taking out the Escher Heavy on the third turn.

The game was won by my vent teams.   My Vent teams now consist of Abraham, Asa and Amon as team one.  Josiah, Zohar and Isaac as team 2.  I positioned both teams to directly attack Joffrey's main force which consisted of Shamora and 5 other gangers who usually all huddle within Shamora's leadership bubble.

 Amon took down a Juve and a Ganger with his Autopistols, which triggered a rout of 2 gangers and Shamora, leaving only a single Ganger remaining in Joffrey's main attack force.  She got taken out by Abraham.  In the following turns, Abraham and Amon pinned or downed several other close by Escher, which allowed the other  members of the Vent team to chase down the other Escher.

Joffey lasted until the 7th turn, and failed his second bottle roll.  The final score was two Cawdor down, with none out of action, and 5 Escher down, with 4 out of action.  I took the Guilder Contact.

Two things came out of that fight.  Firstly, Amon is a very effective member of my Vent teams.  4 shots virtually guarantees at least one casualty a turn, and probably pins at least another opposition gang member.  He's a monster.

Secondly, the disadvantage of Shamora's loss of leadership isn't only in the bottle rolls, it's the reduced effect of her leadership bubble.  Close combat gangs rely on their Ld8/9 leadership bubbles to get sufficient numbers into CC.  Joffrey no longer has that.  Taking hits from enemy fire will now greatly reduce the potency of his attack.  Considering that close assault is what he is best at, that is quite a blow.  He will suffer even worse against Gannicus, than he did to me.

The Mortlock Cartel -v- House Bloodaxe

At the begining of turn 8, the Orlock Player held 9 of the best territories on the map, and had the second highest  gang rating, being a statistically insignificant few points behind Octavian.  By the end of turn 9, he's down to 5, and looking at losing another two this turn. 

To the North he has a resurgent Van Saar gang commanded by a South African expat PTSD sufferer, who is probably the only guy in the store who has discharged a firearm with the intention of hitting another human, and whom he has spent the entire campaign teasing about his obesity.  To the South he has his former ally, their brotherhood turned to bitter hatred, the commander of the largest gang and the largest territorial empire.  It's just a matter of who gets to experience the exquisite  joy of finishing him off.

Seeing his men die and his territories fall like dominoes to his enemies, it was obvious to even a moron like him that he had to do something to arrest the fall, so he went home and spent the week developing a strategy to turn his campaign around.

Did he do that by revisiting his gang roster, working out which areas he was weak in and skilling up and re-equipping his gangers to fill any holes in his tactical capability?   No he did not.

Did he flip through the rule book or browse the internet to develop new tactics to counter the ones that had been repeatedly used against him by the Van Saar and the Goliaths?  No, he didn't.

Did he try to reach out to any of the other players in an attempt to stitch together some sort of strategic agreement that might draw his enemies off him long enough to allow him to get his amphetamine parrot together and strike back?  Of course not.

Did he go and buy two boxes of Catachan heavy weapons squads and glue them together with lasguns so that he could replace the majority of his gang with models posed in a kneeling position to take advantage of Necromunda's True Line of Sight rules?  Yes.  Yes he did.

My god, what a douchebag.

Needless to say, this was treated with the absolute contempt it deserved, not only by the players in the campaign, but also by every single person in the store.  I have never seen so many lips curl in disgust at something on a wargaming table.

Unfortunately for the Orlock Player, the remodelling of his gang didn't help him much against the Goliaths, who are a close combat gang, and don't particularly rely on ranged combat to take down the enemy.  Also, due to the unavailability of lasguns for Goliaths, Octavian relies a fair bit on shotguns for his ranged component, which have special rules nullifying cover.

Once again, the Orlocks got stomped.  It took a while, because Octavian's gang is slow, but once they hit close combat, they made up for any casualties they took on the journey. 

The Orlock player is simply too passive in his play style.  He actually has a couple of guys with decent combat upgrades (which is basically unavoidable this far into a campaign), but he never takes the initiative to charge them into combat.  He would prefer to go on Overwatch and take a couple of shots (with negative modifiers) at a charging enemy rather than take the charge himself and get the significant bonuses that the charge grants.

In the end, the same number of guys were down for both side, but Octavian only had 3 out of action compared to 7 for the Orlock Player.  Octavian won, but not by enough to take the territory.  If it had lasted another turn, things might have been different though.

The Second Stringers -v- The Mortlock Cartel

This game went the exact same way as last few games between Jonah and The Orlock Player:

1.  They set up.
2.  Jonah deploys his vent team.
3.  The Orlock Player's "plan" turns to amphetamine parrot while he tries to redeploy against the exact same startagem which Jonah has employed against him for about 4 games in a row.
4.  Jonah's vent team take out about 3 Orlocks.
5.  Orlock Player completely fails to respond to the threat (seriously - a single flamer would solve every single one of his problems with the Van Saar Vent team).
6.  Jonah wins.

This one took a little bit longer than normal, simply because the Orlock Player kept passing his bottle checks.  Eventually though, he failed.  Part of the problem is that the most dynamic part of Jonah's gang - his vent team, have just kept getting better.  2 of them are BS4, and they can all shoot twice.  They can win a game in a single turn.

Jonah took the Workshop, which was good.  There's something deeply unsettling about a Van saar Gang that doesn't have a Workshop.

House Bloodaxe -v- the Mortlock Cartel

The Orlock player got to pick the scenario and he went with Scavengers, because Octavian hates Scavengers.  Going with Scavengers was a mistake.  His gang is not well equipped or skilled for a Scavengers Scenario. 

I think he thought he would do well because he had Tunnels, and saw the (immense) benefit they would be in the scenario, but Tunnels alone are not enough, particularly when your opponent has Vents.  To be really good at scavengers, a Gang needs speed, and the Mortlock Cartel has no Agility skills - not a single one.   

Octavian at least has a couple of guys with Leap, and he has enough cash to hire that Ratskin Infiltrator.

Anyway, there were two pieces of Loot.  The Orlock Player placed his in the middle of the board at ground level, no doubt intending for his Tunnelers to deploy right on top of it.  Joffrey deployed his piece of Loot to the middle-right of the table on a 2nd level tower.

Both sides set up and Octavian beslubbered the Orlock Plaayer's plans by deploying the Ratskin Infiltrator right on top of the ground level Loot Counter, thereby preventing him from deploying his models at the same place.

Instead, the Orlock Player (who got the first turn, set his Loot running team in position to intercept the Ratskin as he tried to run the loot back. This was utter madness, as all it did was sandwich his Loot running team between the bulk of the Goliath force and the Ratskin scout.

Octavian deployed 2 of his vent team  close to the 2nd objective, and deployed the third member (Bloodaxe) next to the Ratskin (who shot one of the Orlock Loot Runners and took him down).

In the next couple of turns, Bloodaxe took out the remaining two Orlock Loot Runners giving him the Goliaths a handy 3:0 casualty advantage.  With three of the Orlocks out of action and only one Goliath down, Octavian was able to take all the time he wanted to slowly have his gang encircle the main Orlock force.  The game took absolutely ages - definitely more than 20 turns because neither side had reached their bottle threshold.  Octavian took about 4 wounds getting his guys into position, but they were all on multiwound models, so noone went down. 

It all ended anticlimactically, with about half eight Goliaths ready to charge in and murder the tightly packed overwatching Orlocks, when Octavian finally managed to line up an Orlock with his Heavy Stubber and blasted him to bits causing the Orlock Player to make the only bottle check of the game, which he failed. 

Final Score was 4 Orlocks down (3 Out of action), one Goliath down.  Octavian took the Mine Workings.

Black Coats versus  Gothika

Another Gang Fight.

Not much to tell.  Joffrey didn't even get close.

Gannicus was in deep amphetamine parrot a few turns ago whn Joffrey had a Vent team, but now he has taken back tose Vents and he can use those Vents, plus his Infiltrators to catch Joffrey in a crossfire, and given his long range firepower, and general slipperiness that comes with a host of Stealth Skills, Joffrey had (and will continue to have) immense difficulty not losing a lot of his gang before he can close to close combat.  And with Shamora's amphetamine parrotty leadersip, he simply can't affor do take those casualties.

There is still a bit of art to it on Gannicus's part.  It's not eneough for him to simply take down the Escher, he also has to take out enough of them to take the territory.  Fortunately, Gannicus has been around the block enough times, and understands the importance of having a well balanced gang, so he had enough guys with Agility skills ready to rush in and bayonet the wounded to push him over the edge.

Final Score was 5 Escher down with 4 out of action and 1 Delaque out of action.  Gannicus took the Workshop.

Gothika -v- the Black Coats

Joffrey struck back at the Holestead he lost to Gannicus last turn.  Again, it was a Gang Fight, and with and Ld7 leader, Joffrey has his work cut out for him against anyone, let alone Gannicus.

Joffrey had the whip hand against Gannicus for a while there after he took Gannicus's Vents.  Vents are a great advantage to any gang, because in 5thEd 40k terms, they allow Infiltration at the end of the first turn anywhere above ground level (of which there is quite a bit in Necromunda). 

The advantages are obvious, but I'll state them anyway - it lets the player deploy 3 models after having seen the enemy deployment, so it removes a certain amount of guesswork.  It also lets the player deploy 3 models in prime shooting positions, which would otherwise take time and effort to acquire, or lets close combat gangers set up significantly closer to their quarry.

Tunnels are the same, but they only let you set up on the ground floor.

In my view (which is shared by people who are good at Necromunda), Vents are of more benefit to shooting gangs and Tunnels are of more benefit to shooting gangs.  I would prefer my Tunnels to be Vents because my gang is close combat oriented.

Anyway - when Joffrey took Gannicus's Vents back on Turn 2, it took away a major advantage for Gannicus and shifted it to Joffrey.  If Joffrey had failed to take that territory back then, the campaign might have gone differently for both of them.  However, it did go that way, and the campaign went the way it has gone.  But no Gannicus has his Vents back and he has a couple of Infiltrators and Joffrey's Leadership has Ld7.

Gannicus is now able to deploy 5 guys with multiple shooting attacks in a flanking position to Joffrey.  It is very difficult for Joffrey not to take 4 casualties before closing to close combat range with Gannicus.

Joffrey ended up losing on the 5th turn with 4 girls down, but only one out of action, so at least he didn't lose the territory.  1 Delaque was down.  Joffrey lost, and never looked like he was in the hunt, but he didn't lose a territory, and he will have learnt a lot of lessons from these three games.  He won't let what happened this week happen next week.  He'll go away and think about it, and when he comes back for round 11, he'll be ready.

But I was playing this game when he was in kindergarten, and I'll be ready for him too.

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

[Killing Time]

Wow.
What a difference a turn makes.

That map is looking an awful lot more healthy for you than it was a short while ago.
This could be a four way scrap in a very short time indeed.

[Farceseer Syranaul]

Excellent turn of events.  Every one loves a comeback.

[Scorn]

This thread continues to be a wonderfully entertaining read and like many others I find myself badly wanting to be involved in a Necromunda campaign of my own now.

[Underhand]

Aftermath of turn 10:

The Second Stringers

Jonah had one of his guys advance to BS6, so he bought him a Plasma Gun.  He also recruited a Juve, but nobody noticed because of the BS6 Plasma Gun guy.  Seriously -  a BS6 Plasma Gun guy.  beslubber that amphetamine parrot.

House Bloodaxe

I don't know what Octavian did.  He has a profit of about 80 creds per turn at the moment (plus a free Juve), so for all I know he bought everyone in his gang gold plated rocket cars.  Judging by previous turns though, it would appear that he prefers to spend his profits on Hired Guns to bulk up his shooting, which is to the grave detriment of the Orlock Player.

The Mortlock Cartel

The Orlock Player finally decidedto diversify his skill base and took a few combat skills.  He even bought some swords.  Too little too late.  Two of his guys died.  He'll be gone by the end of turn 12.

The Black Coats

According to the new rules we have in place regarding assignment of gangers to territories, Gannicus had a tricky choice to make.  He has 4 D6x10 income territories, but as you can see, they are all spread out.  If he assigned a ganger to each territory, and Joffrey attacked either his Southern Workshop or Holestead, he would be down 2 guys.  If Joffrey attacked the Northern Workshop, he would be down 3 guys.  If he didn't assign anyone, he would be able to defend anywhere at full strength, but Joffrey would only have to win by a 2:1 casualty count to take a territory.

As you have probably gathered, Gannicus is not prone to defensive thinking however, and he kept all of his guys in reserve, all the better to attack Joffrey next turn.  He bought some stuff from the trading post.

Gothika

It got interesting with Joffrey.  His last turn was disastrous for him.  As you can see by glancing at that map, the Escher Empire has been shattered.  It's tattered fragments lie fluttering in the wind.  every ganger that Joffrey assigns to a territory to earn more income is one less ganger available for the defence of his other territories.  and with an LD7 leader, he needs every extra pair of hands he can get.

While his leader has LD7, Joffrey is screwed.   Shamora could of course naturally roll a leadership increase in the normal corse of events, but Joffrey can't rely on that happening.  He needs to roll a 7 on 2d6 and then a 4-6 on 1d6 to get +1LD - a 1/12 chance, and at this stage in the campaign, Shamora isn't even getting an advance every turn.   Alternatively, if she gets taken out of action, there is a 1/36 chance that Shamora could get impressive scars, giving a +1LD, but she could also get even more deafeaned than she is now.  In either case, Joffrey can't afford to wait for a lucky advance - he could easily be out of the campaign in 3 turns time.  He had to act now.  He had to replace Shamora as his gang leader.

There are 2 ways for this to occur.  The first way is for Shamora to die.  Unfortunately, as I found when I was trying to kill toughen up Amon, it's not actually as easy as one might think to actually kill one of your gangers.  Even if they go out of action, there is still only a 1/6 chance they will die at the end of a game.  The quicker way is to stage a leadership coup. 

Leadership challenges

When an ordinary ganger develops a LD stat that exceeds that of the Gang Leader, the player can stage a Leadership Showdown.  That involves a straight up fight between the Gang Leader and the Aspirant.  The fight can take different forms, such as a hand to hand fight, or a shootout or whatever.  The fight is meant to be a true fight, so the Player only controls one of the fighters and another player takes the other one.  The rule that I have used in previous campaigns, and which we put in place here was that the Leader and the Challenger are equipped with the equipment they took to the last fight.  This prevents the controlling player from making a farce of the fight by stripping one of the fighters of their weapons prior to the leadership challenge.

Joffrey took control of the challenger (Maleficent), and I gave Shamora over to Gannicus.  It was a quick fight - Gannicus got the first turn, and he had Shamora shoot Maleficent with her plasma pistol, taking her down, and then strolled in to finish her off with her powersword.  Maleficent rolled a captured result on the injury table, which translates to no injury.  Shamora remained the Leader of the Gang, and Maleficent resumed her place in the ranks, not allowed to ever challenge for Leadership again.

The Second Leadership challenge came from Esmerelda,  a lasgunner with hip shooting.  I took control of Shamora.  I stuck to cover, and dropped a smoke grenade, but Joffrey still got to take a shot at Shamora, moving around the smoke cloud and managed to hit Shamora in heavy cover, dealing a wound, but that was the end of his luck because Esmerelda also ran out of ammo (with a lasgun!).  That left Esmerelda defenceless, except for a sword, which wouldn't be enough against Shamora, but I wasn't taking any chances and just stood back and blasted at her with Shamora's plasma pistol, taking her down in 3 turns when she finally broke cover to charge.  Esmerelda made a full recovery from her injuries.

Joffrey decided that he'd had enough of Leadership intrigue at that point, and dispensed with any further challenges for that turn.

The Hand of Redemption

My gang didn't advance much.  My gangers are all pretty well advanced, and upgrades are coming further apart.  Next turn it will be different though, as several of them are just on the cusp of an upgrade. 

I also didn't buy anything.  I ended up with 45 credits for the turn, and although it was tempting to buy a flamer for Jemuel, I want to save them to buy a lasgun ganger to bulk up my ranged team next turn.

The big thing that happened was with my Inventors.  Despite having made 13 separate rolls, neither of my Inventors (Isaac and Boaz) have ever managed to invent so much as an ammo reload (this is normal for my inventors).  But boy did they ever make up for it this turn.  I don't know which one it was, because I rolled for them both simultaneously, but whichever one of them it was paid for any future ransom that might be required by inventing a One-In-a-Million Heavy Weapon.

Oh yes they did.

One-In-A-Million Weapons

A one-in-a-million weapon is just like a normal weapon, except it never jams or runs out of ammo.  That's not a big deal with, say an autogun, and is downright useless with a las weapon, but it makes a big difference with something like a boltgun, or flamer or grenade launcher.  I only get to choose from the heavy weapons of course, but that is totally fine by me.  I also get to choose which Heavy Weapon I get.

The good thing about inventing something is that you get it for free.  That means, even if it is something that you don't really want - say Flak Armour, which is even more useless than it is in 5thed 40k, then you can just sell it for half its price.  A One-In-A-Million weapon costs double the cost for the non special version - a One-In-A-Million autogun would cost 40 creds compared to 20 creds for a regular autogun.

Now although it might appear tempting to take a One-In-A-Million Plasma Cannon, or Autocannon or something, there are obvious drawbacks to what they do to your gang rating (ie - they beslubber it), so they destroy any chance of getting an underdog bonus, and give it to your enemies.  It is therefore a common tactic for people in this situation to select the most expensive One-In-A-Million option and sell it, in order to spend the creds on better stuff. 

If I were to do that, then I could take a One-In-A-Million Lascannon (retail value 900 creds!) and sell it for 450 creds.   Think of what I could do with 450 creds.  I could arm my entire gang with chainswords and boltpistols.  I could hire and equip 10 juves.  I could hire 6 scum per turn for the next 5 games and wipe Joffrey off the map by myself.

That does feel very exploity though (the community edition rules, which we obviously aren't using address it).  Mind you, both Gannicus and Octavian have already sold stuff their inventors invented, so it's not like it would be without precedent.

The conventional, and probably strategically smartest decision would be to take the OIAM Lascannon, sell it and bulk out my gang.  But . . .

. . . I have this model with a heavy bolter, and I never get to use him . . .

I don't know.  I'll think about it.

Either way, I'm certainly targeting Joffrey's Spore Cave next turn.

[Underhand]

Now I have a One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter, ho, ho, ho . . .

I just couldn't bring myself use the exploit of the One-In-A-Million Lascannon.  An extra 8 or so guys would be nice, but beslubber it, I want to turn my enemies into red mist.

I went with a Heavy Bolter.

Heavy Stubbers versus Heavy Bolters

Normally Heavy Bolters are a bad choice.  In comparison to a Heavy Stubber,  they have the same rate of fire and they are just as accurate.  They are more likely to wound (S5 versus S4), and do more wounds (D3 compared to 1), so they are clearly superior in terms of their damage. 

Where they fall down is their reliability.  All weapons in Necromunda are prone to running out of ammo or jamming.  Whenever you roll to hit and roll a 6, you must make an ammo roll on a D6.  If you fail, then the gun can't shoot for the rest of the game (our campaign isn't using the weapon explodes rules).  Las weapons are ultra reliable, only going out of ammo on a roll of a 1.  Auto and stub weapons run out on a 4+.  Bolt Weapons run out on a 6+.  Grenades and Flamers automatically conk out.   

So if you shoot with a Heavy Bolter, and roll a 6 to hit, you are probably going to run out of ammo.  Given that you get to roll D3x2 shots per turn with a Heavy Bolter (average 4 shots per turn), odds are pretty good that you will only get a single volley of fire off before the gun craps out.  You would have been better taking a Heavy Stubber.  The unreliability of Heavy Bolters is what cripples their utility.

The only way to get around the ammo problem is to:
1)  have a workshop territory which negates the first failed ammo roll.  That is of limited use though, since the first failed ammo roll could be on some Juve's stub pistol.
2)  have the user roll the weaponsmith skill.  This allows the model to reroll a failed ammo roll.  It's very useful.  It's one of the reasons why the techno skill table is so good.
3)  have Armourers in your gang.  An Armourer gives a +1 to the entire gang for their ammo rolls.  And the abilities stack with multiple Armourers.  The Armourer skill is the main reason why techno skills are so good.  You can see why Van Saar Gangs are dangerous.  I am blessed to have 4 Armourers, so I only go out of ammo on 2's.

Of those above 3 options however, only the first one is available to a starting gang, so a Heavy Bolter will be doing very little for the first several games until the gang skills up, which can hardly be guaranteed.  Together with the extra expense (180 compared to 120 creds), you very rarely see them in starting gangs.  The difficulty in saving 180 creds once a campaign starts also stops most people from buying them later.

A One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter never has to take ammo rolls though, which completely eliminates the biggest problem in taking them.

All right then - so a OIAM Heavy Bolter is  just a more reliable, harder hitting Stubber . . . big deal?

No.  In Necromunda, a Heavy Bolter is a monster. 

You will recall a post I made a while back talking about how important a Heavy Stubber is.  Well, at the begining of a campaign, a Heavy Stubber is king - it's a long ranged, strong gun that shoots a lot of bullets.  However, as a campaign progresses, the S4 of the Stubber isn't as impressive - T4 is no longer uncommon, and there are plenty of gangers out there who have multiple wounds.  In my gang alone, I have several guys who could reasonably be expected to survive a burst from a Heavy Stubber (although my gang is peculiar for the large number of high wound models).

In the early turns a Heavy Stubber could take down 3 gangers in one burst, nowadays, that would be an unusual occurrence.  Players steered their gangs away from the firing corridors of the enemy Heavy Stubbers, and while they are certainly still treated with caution (you definitely don't want to stick an important team member in front of one of them), they definitely don't cast the same shadow across the tabletop as they once did.  But a One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter will.

I'm going to give the OIAM Heavy Bolter to Jacob.  Jacob has BS5.  He hits targets in the open on 2s and targets in heavy cover on 4s.  He will put out an average of 4 shots in one turn.  That's an average of 2 hits per turn on targets in heavy cover.  He will wound T3 targets on 2s and T4 targets on 3s.  Then it gets interesting.  Each wounding hit will do D3 wounds, and each extra wound beyond the first that drops the target to 0 wounds is an additional roll on the wound table to determine whether the target goes down, out of action, or suffers a flesh wound.  You can see how a Heavy Bolter is much more dangerous than it first seems.  From now on, when Jacob targets someone, they aren't just going down - they're going out.

I doubt that this will be immediately obvious to the other players (Heavy Bolters are like hens teeth in Necromunda, so they probably have little experience against them), but they'll come to realise it soon enough.  And god help them to come up with a plan to counter it.

Say hello to Jacob and his little friend:



[gmod]Edited for naughty, unfilterable words. Toasty!!! -Mr.Peanut[/gmod]

[Lonewolf]

I congratulate you on your choice. You earned a deadly weapon and Karma points, for not going for the ridiculous amount of money - whats not to like 

[Scorn]

How much does the OIAM Heavy Bolter affect your gang rating in comparison to the hypothetical Lascannon or other ridiculous weapon of mass destruction?

I know you mentioned the Community Edition rules that this issue is addressed is somewhat but I'm still curious as to how it plays out under the basic rules set.

[Lewis]

Nice move man - your bolter model looks nice! could we see a few pics of your gang if you get time?

[SnipingSnowman]

Would it be possible to get more pictures on the thread? Some shots mid-battle or something, I'd love to see your gang, and the terrain you game on.

[Underhand]

How much does the OIAM Heavy Bolter affect your gang rating in comparison to the hypothetical Lascannon or other ridiculous weapon of mass destruction?

I know you mentioned the Community Edition rules that this issue is addressed is somewhat but I'm still curious as to how it plays out under the basic rules set.

A One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter adds 360 to my Gang rating - roughly the equivalent of 4 starting gangers with decent equipment. 

A regular run-of-the-mill Lascannon would add 450 to my Gang rating,  and is universally considered to be ridiculously overpriced, given the lack of tanks in the Underhive.  A One-In-A-Million Lascannon would add 900 to my Gang rating, and I could have sold it for 450 creds - nearly half a starting gang. 

The Community Edition rules address the OIAM Lascannon exploit by making it necessary for a player who manages to have one of his gangers invent a OIAM weapon to pay half its cost in creds, thereby nullifying any profit he might make by selling it.  It also effectively eliminates OIAM Heavy Weapons from the game, since no one ever has that many creds to spend during a campaign.

I actually could have used the OIAM Lascannon exploit to buy a OIAM Lascannon, sell it and buy 2 regular Heavy Bolters, which would only run out of ammo on 1s due to the abundance of Armourers in my gang, but I think that might have got me banned from the store.

Nice move man - your bolter model looks nice! could we see a few pics of your gang if you get time?

Thank you.  I'll post some more shortly.

Would it be possible to get more pictures on the thread? Some shots mid-battle or something, I'd love to see your gang, and the terrain you game on.

Unfortunately, cameras are banned at the store, lest it become a hunting ground for child molesters.

Aggressive 15 year olds can snarl at each other all day about raping their opponents, but the minute that a 32 year old Solicitor of the Supreme Court so much as takes out a mobile phone to answer a text, the staff start getting jumpy.

This is in no way an exageration.  I've had bouncers at strip clubs be more laid back, and courteous about it.

[Razyus]

You go to strip clubs where they let you take pictures of children? No wonder the store is worried about you.

On a serious note, it's nice to see that you didn't go for the most exploitative use of the OIM heavy weapon, but what's your opinion on how the community rules address it? For my own personal experience, it seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater to have you pay half.

Best of luck for the rest of the campaign.

[Underhand]

It's more complex than it first seems. 

I don't think the community edition rules get it quite right. 

I think you are right that the CE rules throw the baby out with the bathwater.   The cheapest OIAM heavy weapon is a OIAM Heavy Stubber at 240 creds.  It would be very, very rare for anyone to have 120 creds to fund an inventor to create such a weapon (Though I could imagine seeing it happen if people sold other gear, including their regular heavy stubber).  Buying them just never happens - no one has 240 creds lying around to buy such a weapon.  The CE rules effectively eliminate OIAM heavy weapons from the game.

I think it would be better if a player who got lucky and had one of their inventors invent a OIAM heavy weapon (or any OIAM weapon), should pay half it's cost, but should be given the option of paying it off over more than one turn (reflecting the funding of research maybe). 

Doing it that way would:

1)  prevent the Lascannon exploit;
2)  balance out the fortune of a lucky dice roll by making the player still have to work for it a bit; and
3)  keep OIAM heavy weapons in the game.

[Underhand]

Some more pictures:

Now that Isaac has been bumped up to Heavy Stubber duty, Jemuel has been given his flamer



And Amon:



In case anyone was wondering - my colour scheme is Liche Purple and HLeviathan Purple washed with Hormagaunt Purple for the clothing and chaos black highlighted with Spacewolf Grey for the masks and weapons.  All metal is Boltgun Metal with a Badab Black wash.  The eyes are blood red.

[Saracenar]

Been following this thread with much interest. Great stuff, very amusing too.

Nice paintwork on the models. I've never played Necromunda but it is my kind of game (skirmish), so I wasn't expecting the models to look like the way they are, with the pointy heads and all, but they look good. I find it funny that now Amon is the "Most Badass Gangsta" after all the hate he got.

Good luck with you next turn and the rest of the campaign. Keep it up!

[Underhand]

I use a mix of Cawdor models with their masks and tabard, which look like Jacob with his heavy bolter above, and Redemptionists, which have (largely) the robed and pointy headed masks.

I would prefer to use all Cawdor models, but unfortunately, in the entire range, there were ever only ever 3 models which were armed with hand to hand models that weren't knives, and 2 of those are now out of production.  No Cawdor Models are armed with flamers either.  The models are also very difficult to convert because they are all one piecers which hold their weapons tight across their chests.  This is obviously a pain in the arse for a close combat gang, so I mix in Redemptionist models, which come with numerous pistols and hand to hand weapons (though, infuriatingly, no swords).

Pretty much everyone I've played agaist is cool with it because it fits with the fluff - they both follow the Cult of Redemption (which basically amounts to redeeming the Imperium by burning everything that is sinful.  Which is everything).

All my Juves are regualr Cawdors, as are my autogunners, lasgunners and shotgunnersand Heavies.