Apologies for the lack of an update last weekend, but Photobucket has been dicking me around, so I can't upload the Map.
Anyway, here is something I prepared earlier that gives an idea of the relative value of the territories:
For the benefit of people who aren't familiar with the relative tactical and strategic value of the various necromunda territories, here is a map that sets it out. The darker the tile, the more valuable it is:
The lightest tiles are Old Ruins, and my Slag. Old Ruins generate 10 creds per turn of income and Slags produce 15. That is very, very little income.
The slightly darker tiles are Vents and Tunnels. This map has a larger than usual number of Vents and a smaller than usual number of Tunnels. Tunnels and Vents only generate 10 creds income per turn, but they are more valuable than Slags or Old Ruins because they each allow 3 gang members a form of infiltration in some scenarios. I have coloured the Tunnels darker, because Tunnels allow infiltration at ground level, which in my view is preferable than infiltration at an aboveground level.
The next darkest territories consist of Holesteads, Water stills and Drinking Holes. These generate d6x10 income per turn and are otherwise unremarkable.
The next level up consists of Guilder Contacts, Friendly Docs, Workshops and Mine Workings. These generate d6x10 income per turn and provide an extra minor bonus such as extra income from dead gangers, loot or captives, or free passes on an ammo roll. The bonuses are minor, and usually don't actually result in a bonus to any actual profit per turn. If I had to rate them in order of desirability, I would probably go - Friendly Doc/Guilder Contact, Mine Workings, Workshop.
Settlements are another slight cut above the previous tier. They only generate 30 income per turn, but the 1d6 chance of picking up a free Juve (worth 25creds) makes up for the difference, since the Juves aren't taxed to the Gang's profits. There is a school of thought that says settlements aren't that great and that Isotropic Fuel Rods (which can create settlements, as Jonah and Octavian have both done) are a waste of creds. The students of that school travel there on the short bus.
The darkest tiles are the 2d6x10 income tiles. On this map, they consist of Spore Caves and Gambling Dens. Archaeotech Hoards also exist. They have certain conditions attached which can reduce the amount of income generated (or result in lost income in the case of the Gambling Dens), but with the custom rules we have employed in this campaign with assigning gangers to territories which effect income, the chance of a bad result occurring are greatly reduced.
From looking at the map, you can see that Octavian not only has the most territories, but he also has the most profitable territories. You can also see how poor my starting territories were and can no doubt understand why I sought in the early stages, to strike out towards the centre of the map to take some of the most profitable territories early. Joffrey probably started with the most profitable home territories, which when coupled with his skill, and use of a strong Gang in the Escher, made him a daunting opponent. Gannicus and the Orlock Player had decent starting territories and Jonah was okay, but probably a little on the weak side to begin with. A combination of good luck at the trading post and some industrious inventors have changed that though. He now has a very profitable swathe of territories.
A further update as to the progress of the actual campaign will follow as soon as photobucket stops having conniptions.
Post Merge: September 15, 2012, 09:49:43 PM
In the future, please use the modify button. Double posting is against the forum rules, and for that reason, the system merged your posts.
Aftermath: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 - OctavianGannicus: Gannicus lost a guy but brought in a new recruit and has 14 guys in his gang. He is in the process of retooling his gang to prepare for the late campaign stages. He is gradually replacing his lasguns with shotguns, and now only has 2 lasguns in his gang. He now has 6 shotgunners, and all of them are armed with manstopper rounds.
Some people might question such a tactic since lasguns are often held out as the best basic weapon in the game. While it is true that lasguns are a solid choice due to their modest price tag and excellent reliability, both those qualities cease to be as relevant the further a campaign progresses.
In the later stages of a campaign, most gangs will probably have picked up at least a few Techno skills. If a gang has 2 Armourers, which isn't exactly unlikely after playing 20+ games, Autoguns and Shotguns become just as reliable as lasguns. The other problem lasguns face in the late game is that they are just too weak to deal with all the T4 opponents they face. Gannicus seeks to overcome that problem by replacing his lasguns with a mixture of shotguns and bolters. He has a couple of guys with Rapid Fire for lasguns, but will attempt to give them hotshot power packs if possible.
Octavian:The result of Jacob's brutal heavy boltering of House Bloodaxe was a Leg Wound an Old Battle Wound, an Eye Wound, a Shell Shock, a Bitter Enmity towards Jacob and 2 guys dead.
In response, Octavian bought himself a second Heavy, armed him with a lasgun and picked up another free Juve. He still has plenty of cash left in his stash though, so I think he'll buy a second Heavy Stubber next turn.
Jonah:Bought another Plasma Gun and invented a Blindsnake Pouch. He gave the Plasma gun to a guy with BS5 and gave the Blindsnake Pouch to his leader.
A Blindsnake Pouch gives the wearer a 4+ on a D6 chance to avoid incoming Overwatch fire. It took about 5 seconds after Jonah left his roster sheet unattended for someone whom I won't name (Gannicus), to cross out "Blindsnake Pouch" and write "Diplomatic Immunity" next to it.
Jonah now has 2 guys with Plasma Guns, and with all the armourers in his gang, they won't be running out of ammo very often either. Given the high ballistic skills of those two plasma gunners, I would say that Jonah probably has the greatest ranged firepower in the campaign. Hardly unusual for a Van Saar gang.
Orlock Player:He was very lucky not to be attacked by someone last turn, because they probably would have wiped him off the map. He also nearly beat Gannicus and Joffrey, which would have been an amazing win for an 8 man gang without a Heavy Weapon. And all he had to do was sacrifice his dignity and any last shred of respect anyone in the store had for him. He won't get that lucky again though.
Although he only has a single territory, he was able to commit all 8 guys to working it, so he ended up with 75 creds profit (same as me) which he spent on a telescopic sight and some swords.
Ramirez avoided injury and Kowalski lost a couple of fingers.
Joffrey:Ouch. Joffrey suffered no injuries against me, but man did his girls cop it on the chin from the fight against Gannicus and the Orlock Player.
A Chest Wound, an Arm Wound, A Bitter Enmity against Smiling Sam, and a Death. Shamora also got an Eye Wound.
The loss of that Holestead has sealed his fate. Joffrey is now down to 11 gangers and 2 territories, both of which are Old Ruins. He simply doesn't have the income to replace his losses, and although I also got reduced to only 2 territories a few turns ago, I was fighting against a couple of relative novices. Gannicus and I are much more formidable opposition than Octavian and the Orlock Player.
The Hand of Redemption: I need to do several things:
1. Upgrade my ranged weapons to S4. S3 at range, and in close combat doesn't really cut it anymore, especially against Octavian. Whereas my gang has a lot of multi wound models, his has a lot of T4. This means replacing Ram's lasgun and pretty much everybody's autopistols and stubbers. Swapping out some swords for chainswords would help a bit too.
2. Recruit some more guys. I have 11 guys. I need 13 to start taking bottle checks at 4 casualties instead of 3. I also just need an extra couple of meat shields to take an extra hit or two so that the rest of my guys can get in and do their stuff. Ideally, I would like an extra shield for my ranged team, and an extra couple for my main attack force.
3. Save up 105 creds. I have a devious and cunning plan to destroy Octavian, and it requires me to have cash on hand.
Upgrading my guns to S4 would cost about 100 creds. I have 135 in my stash. So that is doable.
Recruitment is a trickier issue. The question is whether to hire Juves or Gangers.
Normally, I prefer to hire Juves. They are cheaper to hire and keep your gang rating low, and they advance pretty quickly. There isn't that much difference between a Juve and a starting Ganger. A starting ganger with a lasgun is worth 75, a Juve with an autopistol is worth 40. In the early stages of a campaign, a shootout between a Juve and a junior Ganger could go either way. Who got to shoot first would probably more determinative of victory than their relative Ballistic Skills. Similarly, the low WS2 of a Juve can be papered over by the addition of a pistol and sword, and would be cancelled out in any event if the Juve got the charge on the Ganger. Juves are probably better value in the earlier stages of a campaign.
But this is no longer the early stages of the campaign. The members of my Gang who started out as Juves are now all worth more than 250 creds. Amon, Asa, Josiah and Abijah regard enemy Juves as free experience points. Those guys got to where they are because when they were young, they were dropping out of Vents with handflamers and were able to run through BS2-3 S3 enemy overwatch fire to rack up lots of experience with autohit S4 templates.
New Juves won't have the luxury of low BS enemies. They will be facing BS4-6 Overwatch fire, a lot of which will be S4. Actually charging into close combat against Escher or Goliath enemies will be suicide. Simply put - at this stage of a campaign, a Juve is just a meatshield.
What that means is that whereas once upon a time Juves were useful members of a gang (they formed the bulk of my close assault teams in the first couple of turns), and they could be expected to advance quickly to full ganger status, that is no longer the case. Any Juve I hire will be going down, and possibly out of action in the first turn or two. They will not have the opportunity to rack up bonus experience points for wounding the enemy like my original Juves did. That means that by the time they get to full Ganger status, they will probably be carrying injuries that more than offset the bonus advance they get over a basic Ganger.
New Gangers of course aren't that much better, and their ability to take hits is no better than Juves. But they have an extra 3 advances (WS, BS and LD) over starting Juves, and those are all decent stats. They can also take Basic weapons, which means they can slot into my ranged team, and I need an extra meat shield up there. If they get an extra BS advance and they are basically as dangerous to the enemy as Ram. If they get an extra wound, they will be better at taking bullets.
Such were the thoughts that swirled through my mind during the Attorney General's address during the opening ceremony of the new Supreme Court building.
I hired a Ganger (Joshua) and bought him a shotgun with bolt rounds. He will share the meatshield duties with Ram.
I hired a Juve (Esau), and gave him an autopistol. I'm going to try not to get too attached to him.
The S3/S4 issue can wait a while. So can Octavian. I'll deal with him after I've taken care of Joffrey.
