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 BloodaxeI 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- GothikaWe 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 BloodaxeAt 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 CartelThis 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 GothikaAnother 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 CoatsJoffrey 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