40K Online

Community => Non-40k Gaming => Topic started by: Underhand on July 3, 2011, 06:20:55 AM

Title: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 3, 2011, 06:20:55 AM
My local group is starting a Necromunda Campaign .

This follows several months of suggestion, reasoned argument, impassioned pleas, begging, emotional blackmail, bribery, regular blackmail, threats and finally more begging on my part.

In two decades of involvement in the GW hobby, Necromunda and Mordheim are the games that I have found to be the most satisfying.  I think it's the campaign system that lets you see your guys advance between games, leaving you with more of an investment in the gang. 

A fight between your best melee specialist (who was first recruied as a juve) and the opposing gang leader (who is personally reponsible for killing three of your gangers and injuring several others in earlier games) contains more drama than there is between Imperial Guard Commander X versus Ork Warboss Y.  What happens in this fight now in Necromunda, will impact upon what happens in the next fight and those that follow it.  Each game of fantasy or 40k is much more disposable.

But I digress.

We've set up some alternate campaign rules to add an extra strategic element to the campaign.  It's expected that alliances between gangs will develop over the course of the campaign. 

The campaign rules are basically stock standard with the following changes:

1)  Gang territories are dealt with in a less abstract way. 
2)  The territories are represented on a hexagonal map. 
3)  Each hex represents a territory of the gang.
4)  Each gang has 5 territories, and there are six neutral, high value, territories in the middle of the map waiting to be claimed.
         -  Each gang has five hexes, they border two hexes of a rival gang, two hexes of a second rival gang and two hexes of the neutral territories.  One hex has no borders, and is protected from attack.

5)  In order to gain income, a ganger must be assigned to a territory.
6)  Gang leaders and Heavies are allowed to work territory.

7)  A gang member cannot take part in an attack or a defence of a territory if they are assigned to a territory that does not border the territory in question.
8)  If a territory is attacked, and does not have a gang member assigned to it, then:
          a)  the attacker gets to choose the scenario;
          b)  set up their entire gang second; and
          c)  infiltrate 3 guys before the start of their first turn.
9)  If a territory is attacked, and does not have a gang member assigned to it, and does not have any gang members assigned to its adjacent territories, then it is automatically lost to the attacking gang.

10)  Any spare gangers who are not assigned to a territory are available to take part in any battle.
11)  All scenarios include the gang fight special rule relating to capturing a rival gang's territory. 

12)  If a gang moves into a neutral territory unopposed, then any other gang may elect to challenge them.

13)  Vents and tunnels allow the gang controling them to attack a territory up to two hexes away.

14)  Each campaign has a turn, and each player elects where to move by dropping their move into a hat.  The games get fought according to the order they are drawn out of the hat.  After each fight, each player can reassign their gang members to territories.  Injuries and experience are resolved between battles.  Income is resolved at the end of the campaign turn.

15)  Gangs can increase past 20 members.  A gang is allowed an extra member for each territory past 20 it controls
       (there are 36 territories total on the map, so whoever holds more than 20 territories is well and truly on their way to winning the campaign.)

16)  The campaign ends when either only one gang is left, either through killing, desertion or surrender.

17)  If a defender voluntarily bottles out, then they automatically lose the territory they are defending.

The effect of this will be (I think), that in the early stages, gangs will attack with all but two of their members and defend with all but one.  A slight advantage to the Defender.

I would appreciate peoples thoughts - particularly if anyone has tried anything similar.

I should probably mention that all the gangs we are using are the standard house gangs.  I think ratskins/scavies/arbites/spyrers/redemptionists could fit into the mix relatively easily by simply turning any territory they capture into neutral territory.

[gmod]Click "Attachments and other options," check the box next to, "Don't use smileys." Now, your 8th point won't look like (https://www.40konline.com/Smileys/default/cool.gif)! -Mr.Peanut[/gmod]
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 6, 2011, 06:14:52 AM
We have six gangs.  Territories are as follows:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecromunda%2FNecro1002.jpg&hash=a3c7bb1bb8d5c7aeb88b2a06e8a54ca830b35863)
Cawdor
Escher
Delaque
Van Saar
Orlock  
Goliath


Cawdor (Me):

I border Escher to the North with an Old ruins and some Vents.  The Escher Territories are Old Ruins and a Guilder Contact - the Guilder contact is closer to the middle of the map.

To the East, I have a slag) and another lot of vents.  They border the Goliaths territory consisting of a gambling den and a settlement.
I have an isolated Vents to my South West.

I have the neutral territories of a Workshop and a Spore Cave to the North East.

I am dirt poor - income of 25 creds per turn.

Escher:

In my view, Escher are arguably the best gang (Van Saar being the other contender).  They have access to swords from the beginning, which makes them deadly in combat from the start, and their access to Agility, Combat and Stealth skills all complement each other to deadly effect.  They can get into combat fast, without getting shot and kick a lot of ass once they get there.  They are a gang to watch out for in any campaign. 

Additionally - the player who is playing them is competitive in personality and  (apparently) an experienced Necromunda player, even though he never played a single game of 2nd edition 40k.  Games against these girls will be tough.

Another problem - their territories:  Old Ruins, Guilder Contact, Guilder Contact, Spore Cave and a Holestead.  They will be rolling in cash. 

A good gang, a good player, and an excellent selection of territories - that is a dangerous combination, and I really wish I didn't share a border with him.
They border me (Cawdor) to the south, Neutral territories (Workshop and Friendly Doc) to the East and Delaque (Old Ruins and Vents to the North East)

Delaque:

The Northernmost gang on the map.  Delaque are the gang I have played least against.  They are a shooting gang which, I get the impression, are most effective against other shooting gangs.  An Agile Combat Gang like Escher or Cawdor will destroy them in melee from the midpoint of a campaign.  Delaque gangs don't concern me - but on the other hand, I don't think I've ever played against a good Delaque player.

The guy playing them is an experienced Necromunda player, but hasn't played a game in more than ten years.  He played a amphetamine parrotload of 2nd edition 40k though so (like me) a lot of the rules, statistics and calculations are second nature to him, which should sit him in good stead.  He's never played Delaque though, and actually bought the models just for this campaign (used to play Van Saar).  Not a lot to be worried about here.

His territories consist of:  Old ruins and Vents to the South West (bordering Escher), a Friendly Doc, which is isolated, and a Guilder Contact and a Workshop to the South East which border Van Saar territory.  The Vents and Guilder Contact border a Friendly Doc and a Workshop.

A good player, but playing with an unfamiliar gang.  A good selection of territories.  Hemmed in by Escher and Van Saar.  He'll have his hands full.  I doubt I'll have to deal with him.  He'll want to strike some big blows early before the uperior skill sets of the Eschers and Van Saars outclass him.

Van Saar:

I think most people would say that the Van Saar are the strongest gang.  Escher are definitely stronger earlier, but over the course of a long campaign (which this probably will be), the Techno skills of the Van Saar will mean that their gangers will have access to lots of high quality weapons (including special weapons) which won't be jamming or overheating.

The player is inexperienced though.  He's played a fair bit of Mordheim, but I doubt he understands the value of those techno skills - a lot of new players get tempted by shooting skills over techno.  Van Saar normally worry me, and I try to target them early if I can (which isn't an option here, because he is diametrically opposite me on the map), but in this case I think I can let the Delaque player take care of him.  If I ever come across him, it won't be until the late stages.

He has a reasonable selection of territories:  Vents ( which are isolated), Old Ruins and A Drinking Hole bordering the Delaque to the North, and a Slag and a Settlement bordering the Orlocks to the South.  He borders a neutral workshop and Spore Cave to the South East.

A very good gang, but an inexperienced player (who isn't much good at 40k either).  Okay territories, but nothing special.  His lack of experience will hurt the development of his gang, which will knoble the effectiveness of the Van Saar.

Orlock:

The one advantage that the Van Saar player has is that he has another inexperienced player next to him - the Orlock player.  Orlocks.  What can I say - okay in combat if they get there.  Okay at shooting, and they don't run.  They are a static army that shoots well, and defends well.  Resilient, but not a very dynamic gang.  A good choice for a new player.  Hard to really beslubber up with them.  Orlocks don't scare me.

They have a pretty good selection of territories:  Old Ruins and a Workshop bordering the Van Saar to the North, Isolated Tunnels (the only Tunnels on the map), and Mine Workings and a Settlement to the South, bordering the Goliaths.  Tunnels are a valuable tactical asset.

The player is a new player, using converted Catachan guardsmen for his gangers.  He is inexperienced, but an okay 40k player.  His biggest advantage is that his territory borders the newbie Van Saar player to the North and the completely inexperienced Goliath player to the South.

Goliath:

Goliaths.  The close combat gang which isn't actually any good at getting into close combat.  Very easy to deal with.  Hands down the weakest gang.
My god, is Muscle a amphetamine parrotty skillset.  It's a close combat based skill that isn't as good as Combat, which the Goliaths get anyway.  Some of the Muscle skills actually make the ganger less effective in combat.  I have never seen a Goliath gang be a realistic challenger for winning a campaign.

He has an interesting territory selection.  He has a settlement and Old Ruins to the North East on the border with the Orlocks.  He has an isolated Settlement.  To his west, on the border with my Cawdor, he has another settlement and a Gambling Den.

Three settlements.  He's not going to have to spend much on recruitment.

The player is the youngest and least experienced in the group (15, I think).  He's also the least experienced in 40k, having only been introduced to the hobby about a year ago.  I've seen him play 40k, and he isn't much chop.  He is not the type of player whose skill will overcome the inherent weakness of his gang.  The worst player with the worst gang.  I'm not worried by having him as a neighbour, and I think that I'll actually have to go easy on him to not wipe him out early.

Thoughts:

Cawdor:  A mid tier gang together with Orlock and Delaque.  Where they rank within the mid tier depends on the terrain set up.  The more terrain/cover, the better for the close combat gangs. 

They have a decent skill selection - Combat is good, with most of the selections being very helpful.  Combat is even better when coupled with several of the Agility skills such as Leap and Sprint.  Ferocity is the most underrated skill set in the game.  It's a flexible skill set which grants a lot of reliability to a gang. 

Cawdor's biggest disadvantage is their lack of access to close combat weapons.  The only CC weapon available to them without sacrificing rare trades are knives.  Why that is the case for a close combat oriented gang is utterly beyond me.

That wouldn't normally be too much of a problem since I can just buy a bunch of swords following the first campaign turn, but since I have such crappy income, that might not be possible - all the more important that I grab a nice territory on turn one.

Cawdor's biggest advantage however partially makes up for their lack of close combat weapons.  That advantage is their access to hand flamers.  It's an automatic strength 4 hit, potentially hitting more than one target.  Coupled with the 3 vents territories I control, it's a game winner.  Maybe a campaign winner.  With a handflamer, even a juve  is a pretty scary prospect.

My god do I have a amphetamine parrotty territory selection.  3 vents, a slag and an old ruins.  that's 25 creds per turn, which will drop down to zero if I have 10 models in my gang.  I can't believe that a beslubbering slag is my best money earner.   I am going to have to move fast early to pick up some new territories which I can actually make money off.
On the plus side, 3 vents will definitely give me a lot of flexibility during set up.  For a close combat gang, anything which lets me get closer to the enemy without getting shot will help.  I would have liked at least one of them to be tunnels, but vents will do.


Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Angrygreek on July 7, 2011, 03:36:04 PM
This could actually work nicely with those plastic hex campain map thingies that GW put out a number of years ago. Necromunda is by far my favourite of the specialty games, and the map idea seems like a good one. A gang's turf becomes less abstract. I like it even more if each territory has a set map for it (set the terrain up the same time you fight in that zone), that way gangs can become familiar with the terrain and how to use it to their advantage.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 9, 2011, 10:51:14 AM
That will probably happen to an extent by default since we will be playing on the same four 4x4 tables each week, with the same terrain pieces (I think my local GW is one of the largest in world - it has about 12 6x4 tables and several more 4x4 tables, plus a few other painting/modeling tables). 

It should be pretty easy to set up the terrain the same way each time.  I'll probably leave it up to the individual players though, since some of them are new to Necromunda and setting up terrain will help them think about the game a bit more.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine on July 9, 2011, 01:12:50 PM
Sounds like a pretty cool campaign you have set up there. You'll definitely have to keep us updated on how it goes on.

I've always been interested in necromunda, however I'm not really a huge fan of the models, also kinda hard to change your gangers when they upgrade gear and what not as most necro mini's are single piece pewter are they not?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 9, 2011, 08:09:03 PM
The original lines were all single piece (except for some of the heavy weapons guys, who required assembly).   

Several of the gangs now come in boxed sets with the hands empty so you can custom fit your gang.  Converting them after they upgrade over the course of a campaign is still a pain in the ass though. 

Luckily, I've never played with a WYSIWYG fanatic, so that's never been too much of an issue for me.  As a courtesy, if the model doesn't actually have the weapons it's fitted out with (Cawdor models are sorely lacking in melee weapons), I stick a loose weapon from my bitz-box to its base, so no one gets caught by surprise.  I think its unreasonable to expect people to cut up their models after every couple of games.

I'm lucky in that I bought all of my Cawdor gangers back in the 90's and have every single Cawdor miniature except for one of the leaders, so I have a pretty decent range of models.  The people I play with are also willing to let me run Redemptionists as counts as Cawdor gangers (I just assume that the higher ranking the ganger gets, the more he starts dressing like a priest of the Redemptionist faith).  They actually work well together if they all have the same paint scheme. 

Orlock gangs are actually pretty indistinguishable from Catachan Guardsmen.  A Catachan Infantry squad and a Command Squad would set you up with a decently sized and well equipped gang. That's what the Orlock player in our group is doing.

Chaos Marauders can also be used to make Goliaths (probably with Catachan heads).  I suspect that the Goliath player in our campaign will end up doing that as soon as he realises that he needs some lasguns.

Heresy miniatures have a really well designed line called Trenchcoat gangers, which are obviously designed to be used as Delaque gangers.

Van Saar are probably the house which gets the toughest run for conversions.  A lot of people use converted Eldar guardians, but I don't know if that works too well.  They look similar, but still not quite right.  I've seen good conversions done with some of the Assassin models.  There are also tons of sci-fi miniatures wearing a suit similar to the Van Saar bodysuits made by other companies.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 10, 2011, 04:00:17 AM
I would appreciate people's thoughts:

My Cawdor:

Leader:  Chainsword, Bolt Pistol                      165 creds

Heavy:  Heavy Stubber                                    180 creds
Heavy:  Flamer, Autopistol                               115 creds

Ganger:  lasgun                                               75 creds
Ganger:  lasgun                                               75 creds
Ganger:  Shotgun (manstopper shells)            75 creds
Ganger:  Shotgun (manstopper shells)            75 creds

Juve :   Hand flamer, stub gun                         60 creds
Juve :   Hand flamer, stub gun                         60 creds
Juve :   Hand flamer, stub gun                         60 creds
Juve :   Hand flamer, stub gun                         60 creds

Gang Tactics

The plan is for them to operate as 3 separate teams:

1)  Heavy Stubber, lasgun ganger and lasgun ganger
2)  Shotgun ganger and 2 Juves
3)  Shotgun ganger and 2 Juves.

The leader and the Flamer Heavy set up where needed, but probably more often than not, each going with one of the mobile teams.

The mobile teams deploy from vents close to the enemy, in cover, then run out and flame them.  I have aways used older rules where handflamers are much hader to come by, so I'll be interested to see how this goes.  Depending on how effective that tactic is, I think it might be necessary to house rule down the range of hand flamers to use the old (little) handflamer templates - a full flamer template seems like it might be a bit much when everyone in the gang can have them.

I expect that 2 or three flamer templates for each mobile team should be enough to start forcing bottle rolls very quickly.  My 3 vents should allow me to get close to the enemy early.  I expect that I will be able to get into template range without losing too many gangers, and once I'm in there, the opposition is cactus.
 
I'm low on gangers, but since I won't be earning enough creds to actually make any money in the first turn or two, I don't see that as much of a disadvantage.  With the handflamers, I expect the Juves will advance to Ganger status pretty quickly.  I actually value Juves more highly than Gangers, this campaign is going to last a long time, and the time they spend not being able to earn income won't seem like a long time a couple of months from now.

If I roll skill advances for my Juves, I'll give them Ferocity upgrades until it becomes clear that they are headed towards melee or shooting.  I always take the opportunity to grab a Techno skill if the opportunity arises - theonly exception being with my Leader, for whom I like to try to get Iron Will, if possible.

Campaign Strategy

As far as campaign strategy goes - I need to win my first game and take a 2d6 income territory.  If I don't, I'm beslubbered for the campaign.  I have an Escher gang next to me that has a much better selection of territories, and their player is pretty good.  If I'm broke after the first turn, he will try to snuff me out early.

I have a massive range of territories I can attack due to my vents, which allow me to attack 2 map squares away -  however, I'd prefer to keep my borders tight at this stage and only go after the stuff that's close to me, since the campaign rules make it difficult to defend terrain that doesn't border your own.  That leaves me with a neutral Spore Cave (which the Goliath player can also target), and a Gambling Den controlled by the Goliath player. 

While it is tempting to go after the Goliath Gambling Den in order to not only grab a nice territory, but also take one off an opponent, I'm going to exercise some restraint in that regard.  The player is brand new, and young.  I don't want to go picking on the new kid in the first turn.

That leaves me with the Spore Cave, which might well result in a fight with the Goliath player, but at least he won't be losing a territory when I spank him.

After the first turn, I will spend any extra creds I get to buy swords and some backup pistols.  I'll work my way North after that and target the Escher.  It's a lot easier to deal with Escher early than it is later on after they have skilled up.  Goliath just fall further and further behind as the campaign wears on, so I'll mop them up later.

The Escher should have their hands full fighting the Delaque to be able to pay much attention to me early on (the players actively dislike one another  - I shouldn't have set them up next to each other, but I didn't want the Escher player to have easy access to the newbie players, because he wouldn't hesitate to destroy them).  If I get a solid income base early on, I should be able to slam the Escher, take their very nice territory, let the Delaque deal with the Van Saar, and sweep south East to take out the Goliaths and Orlocks.

Simple.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Numinak on July 10, 2011, 04:17:40 AM
Damn, wish I lived near you. I can't get a Necromunda campain started up for nothing. But your rules seem pretty good, and might make it so I can actualy get people to play. I can even use the map hexes they sell for 40k as the 'underhive' to represent the gang map.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 11, 2011, 09:01:51 AM
First Round:

The First Round of the campaign was interesting.  Every single game was a Gang Fight scenario, to help everyone reacquaint themselves with the rules 

I went to the North East and attacked the neutral Spore Cave.  So did the Goliath.

I'll save the suspense - it was a comfortable victory to me.  He set up with all of his guys spread out in what he later said was an attempt to be able to shoot at anything on the table.   His guys were isolated and had trouble picking themselves back up after I pinned them.  They were also easy targets for both my mobile squads who were able to pick them off piecemeal.  He lost 5 guys and bottled out.  I had both my Lasgun Gangers down at the end of the fight.  An easy win, and the exact type that you expect to get against an opponent playing for the first time.

Man of the match was my leader who took out the Goliath Leader in hand to hand, and dispatched another ganger.  3 Juves inflicted wounds (hand flamers - probably a bit too effective), as did my Flamer Heavy  and a Shotgun Ganger.

The advantage of having such a close ranged gang is that it's really easy to convert Downed Gangers into Out of Action casualties, since they are so close to assault range.

The player did okay considering it was his first game.  I gave him some pointers.  He now understands the importance of having gang members close to each other, both in terms of being able to recover from pinning and providing target priority.  He's also going to grab some Lasguns.

He got banged up pretty bad, but 3 of the were Juves and his leader now hates Cawdor, so he didn't come off too badly.

I didn't have to worry about injuries since only one of my downed gangers went out of action and he rolled a full recovery.

My Stubber Heavy was my disappointment -  out of ammo on the first turn and failed to wound with his single hit.  I alaso went out of ammo on one of the Lasgunners on the second turn, which was pretty bad luck.

Anyway,  got my Spore Cave, so I'm set.

Second Game:

The Delaque player surprised everyone and used his vents to go after the Neutral Workshop which borders my territory to the North East.  This was a strange choice because it leaves that territory isolated and difficult to defend (since Gangers assigned to a territory which doesn't border that territory can't be used to defend it). 
Anyway, the Escher player and I got first dibs at defending it since we border it, and we both accepted.

A three way fight.  I'll tell ya - being able to set up 9 guys at the end of your first turn is a huge advantage in a three way fight.  The Delaque player also had vents, so the Escher player kind of got screwed from the start.

The Delaque player went straight for the Escher player, and the Escher player wanted to at least kill more Delaque than got killed by the Delaque, which allowed me to sweep in and take out 3 Escher Gangers, causing the player to voluntarily bottle out like a Tremultuous O (a smart Tremultuous O, but still) leaving to me and the Delaque player.

He was good.  By the time I got to him, I had already used 2 hand flamers and was down to using Juves with stub guns.  He used terrain really well to make me have to take awkward choices between shooting at Juves or more valuable targets.  I had 2 Juves and both Shotgun Gangers go out of action before my Stubber Heavy managed to redeploy and line up both the Delaque Stubber Heavy and the Delaque Gang leader in the one shot and take them both out.

A close game.  The Escher Ganger was unlucky that he kind of got sandwiched, but man was he ever a mindless fleshy pawn of the Illuminati about it.  He whined about every single line of sight call, and we ended up having to get a staff member to adjudicate on the game.  He also whined about the power of handflamers even though they only caused one wound the entire game (I can still see his point though - they really take the finesse out of the gang when Juves can use them - we're gonna have to nerf them).

Anyway, I won, so  I got the Workshop, which was an unexpected bonus.  We also agreed that when fighting a 3 way game, the value of both opposing gangs, divided by 2 is the calculation for underdog score.

The end of the game was interesting.  I captured the Delaque Heavy.  He had a Heavy Stubber and a stub gun - 190 creds.  19% of the value of his gang in one shot.  At this stage in a campaign, that's close to being a gang killer.

Now this was a strategy decision.  The Delaque palyer showed that he had skill, even with a new gang.  He might even be better than me - and not to be a complete teen-pop sensation here or anything, but while I consider myself to be no better than in the top 20% of 40k players, I reckon that I'd be in the top 5% of Necromunda players (so yeah - maybe 7th best in the world overall) - so the guy has some skill, and is therefore a future threat.  But he conducts himself  as a gentleman, is a worthy opponent, doesn't deserve to be crippled by an unlucky postgame roll.
 
And holy amphetamine parrot do he and the Escher Ganger ever hate each other's guts like snake on a planes.  While the Delaque are there, I'm not going to have to worry about the Escher coming after me.  He can also keep the Van Saar occupied (more about them in a bit). With the Delaque in fighting shape,  I can wait another couple of turns, fight some soft games against the newbies to teach them a bit about the gang and then turn around and go after that whiny little Escher amphetamine parrot.

I agreed to give him back his Heavy, with all equipment for free, on the basis that he owed me a huge favour. 

He actually shook my hand.

Otherwise:

The Van Saar attacked the Neutral Workshop which bordered the Delaque.  The Delaque won and added a Workshop to their territories.
The Orlocks went after the Neutral Spore Cave which shared a border with the Van Saar and won.

The Escher went after the Neutral Friendly Doc which they shared a border with the Delaque, which the Delaque player elected to step in and contest.  It was a short game with the Delaque player unluckily failing his first bottle roll on the second turn after accidently shooting one of his own Juves.

I don't think I've ever heard as much smack talk before, during or after a game.  The Escher player did not take his previous loss (or  the mountain of amphetamine parrot the Delaque player gave him about it) well at all.  He enjoyed every second of his victory.  And every second of the rest of the afternoon that he kept bragging about it to everyone in the store.  About a game that 95% of them don't even realise exists.

Good times.

Here's the map at the end of the first campaign turn:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecromunda%2FNecrocamaign2003.jpg&hash=0c9febd29aa8f9b2ffe33968753fb07f02cf5aad)
Cawdor
Escher
Delaque
Van Saar
Orlock  
Goliath

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Toad_Raider on July 12, 2011, 11:17:20 PM
Just quietly, I'm very much enjoying reading about your Necromunda campaign. I always wanted to try it myself, but ended up playing a lot of Mordheim (the Fantasy equivalent).  I hope you keep giving entertaining reports!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Dr_Ruminahui on July 13, 2011, 12:32:37 AM
Yeah, this is really cool... I love hearing about it as I'm a big Necromunda fan (though I've never given as much thought into strategy as you obviously have - for example, I love playing Goliath [though I do admit their skills suck] if only to give MST Space Mutiny inspired names such as "Big McLargehuge", "Brute Hardnose" and "Beef Manhandle").

Any chance you could get a copy of the map and post it up?  I'm having a hard time envisioning the loayout of territories.

Incidentally, something I did that's a lot of fun when fighting over tunnels/vents territories is to lay the various pieces flat on the game table, with only some raised sections.  Basically, only that terrain is passable - everything else is walls (and thus blocks LOS).  Does make for some very interesting, clausterphobic games - be sure to put some long corridors (but make them flankable) as otherwise shooting gangs are hosed.  You may need to come up with some alternate rules for tunnels/vents when fighting IN tunnels/vents, as the ones in the rule book don't make much sense (and may be too powerful/weak if essentially 90% of the map is at ground level).

Anyway, look forward to hearing further how it goes.


Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 13, 2011, 05:51:40 AM
Quote
Any chance you could get a copy of the map and post it up?  I'm having a hard time envisioning the loayout of territories.

 
Done.  Wish I'd done it from the start, it would have saved me a lot of writing in that second post.

It's good to hear that people are enjoying it.

Quote
Incidentally, something I did that's a lot of fun when fighting over tunnels/vents territories is to lay the various pieces flat on the game table, with only some raised sections.  Basically, only that terrain is passable - everything else is walls (and thus blocks LOS).  Does make for some very interesting, clausterphobic games - be sure to put some long corridors (but make them flankable) as otherwise shooting gangs are hosed.  You may need to come up with some alternate rules for tunnels/vents when fighting IN tunnels/vents, as the ones in the rule book don't make much sense (and may be too powerful/weak if essentially 90% of the map is at ground level).

I was thinking of using Space Hulk terrain for vents or tunnels games, but what you suggested is a good idea and might wrk really well with some of the terrain pieces we have.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Dr_Ruminahui on July 14, 2011, 02:58:19 PM
Space hulk terrain would work great (I didn't/don't have any), especially if combined with the regular stuff for changes of elevation in the tunnel/vent.

Thanks for the maps - they help a lot.  The only thing I would change is to put thick black borders around the outsides of the starting territories of each gang (so, not there they border their own territories, but where they border enemies/neutrals).  That will really help tell who is gaining/loosing, and which gangs are simply migrating.

Anyway, look forward to reading your next installment - incidentally, this is the first thread I've ever asked for thread notification on in my 5 or so years here. 8)

Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 16, 2011, 08:58:03 PM
Here's where my gang is at after a single campaign turn.  And it is glorious:

Abraham: Leader:
M   WSBSS   T   W   A   I    LD Skills
4453411 48Nerves of Steel     -  Both good upgrades.  Toughness is always useful and BS will always get used.  I would have preferred +1Ws, but BS is fine.
Jacob: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4343411 37+1BS is the exact upgrade you want on a Heavy.  I never roll BS upgrades on my Heavies.  This makes me very happy. +1T is also always good.
Isaac: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4433311 37Medic   - +1WS is a decent upgrade fo a flamer heavy since he'll be getting close to the enemy.  Medic is always handy.
Hezron: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4333311 38 -       -  +1 Ld.  Meh.  He'll stick with a Lasgun and stay out of fights.
Ram: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4333311 37Armourer  - Always good to have an armourer in the Gang.  He'll stay up the back too.
Boaz: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4333311 37Specialist, Old Battle Wound  - Hell Yeah! That's 2 flamers in the gang now.  That will allow me to upgrade Isaac to a ranged heavy weapon down the track, if I feel like it.
Uriah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills/Injuries
4333311 37Killer Reputation, Arm Wound  -  Meh.  Might come in handy later depending on what other upgrades he gets.  He'll stick with the shotgun for now.
Abijah:  Juve:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
43333123 6Impetuous, Nerves of Steel  - A Juve no longer.  All good upgrades.  He'll stay with one of the close assault teams.
Asa: Juve:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4333421 46Impetuous  - 2 games in and this little bastard has turned into quite the little combat monster.
Amon: Juve:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4233311 56True Grit  - I like True Grit, but +2I is pretty sucky. +1BS is always handy. 
Josiah: Juve:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4223331 37Parry - I rolled the +2A first, so I decided to go with a Combat skill after that, and got Parry, which is nice.  Even with WS2, this guy will be a handfull in close combat.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the upgrades.  The most beneficial are the +1BS to my Stubber Heavy (if the Flamer heavy had got it instead, I would have swapped their weapons), and the Specialist upgrade to Boaz.  The Specialist upgrade is really helpful to any Gang, but will be of particular benefit to my Gang now that we have huseruled handflamers down to using the old small sized 4" template.  That will let me use my 90's edition Redemptionist Flamer Deacon model. Sweet.  Like I said before - if you get the chance to roll on the Techno skill table, particulalry if you aren't Van Saar, then you should take it.  Because of that, I now have a Specialist, an armourer and a medic - all of which are good upgrades.

Thanks to that 3 way game we had (underdog bonus of +9xp), all of my Juves are now Gangers, so I was able to get income from all of my territories (185 altogether, which translates down to 65).  I purchased a flamer and two swords leaving me with 5 creds in the stash.  The swords go to my flamer heavy (who will get targeted by enemy close combat troops and Josiah, the Juve with the 3 Attacks and the Parry skill (man, I hope he gets a WS upgrade at some point).

Overall, I like where I'm sitting.  I would have liked to have a couple more gangers get upgrades that would see them on the way to becoming close comat specialists, but I an't complain about my Heavy getting BS4 and getting a specialist.  My plan to take a lot of Juves and have them advance quickly worked out just great, and they are all (except Amon) on their way to surpassing my starting gangers.

Strategy for next turn:
That Gambling Den to the East is too nice to pass up.  The only players that share a border with it are the Goliath and the Orlocks, who are both the least experienced players.  The rules we have are that the fist dibs on defending a neutral territory are that the players who border it get to defend it, and only after they have passed up the chance, does someone else get to have a go at it (which would be a courageos decision due to the rule preventing gangers who are assigned to a territory more than a single tile away being able to take part in the defence of a territory, making it difficult to defend (maybe 5 gang members would be available).  Anyone who drops their name into the hat to attack it, will also take part in the fight.

I reckon, that if I broadcast my intention to go for the Gambling Den, the Goliath player won't attempt to attack it (he''ll go after the Orlock Mine Workings), and probably won't even put his hand up to defend it. 

I'll crush the Orlock player easily.  In fact, I'll probably have to hold back to not embarrass him (arrogance makes me feel awesome).  Due to that 3 way game between me, the Delaque and the Escher, I have a way higher gang rating than the Orlock - He only has 8 gangers after one of them died last game, and he's loaded them up with grenades and meltaguns and all sorts of stupid overpriced stuff.  It would actually be a bad choice for him to even try to defend against my attack.

I should stress - it's not like I'm victimising the new kid or anything - it's a neutral territory that is up for grabs - it's not like I'm stealing his lunch money or anything.

The only drawback to that plan is that it will stretch me out pretty thin.  If the Escher player goes after my Old Ruins to the West, then I won't have many guys to defend against it.  But, I don't think that's likely - he'll go straight for the Delaque like he's on Jihad.  It's not like the Old Ruins are a tempting target or anything either.  even if I were to lose them - so what?  10 creds per turn - not much of a loss - once I have the Gambling Den, I'd prefer to have that extra ganger searching the trading post anyway.

After next turn, regardless of anything else, I need to bring in some new recruits - numbers count in Necromunda, and 11 guys isn't many.  Normally, I would recruit one Juve per turn, but this time I had to seize the chance to get the flamer as quickly as possibe, and swords are simply a mandatory item for a close combat gang.

I'm looking good.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Dr_Ruminahui on July 17, 2011, 02:24:51 AM
Those are the awesome upgrades.

And I don't think the +2I is as bad as you make it out, especially when combined with the +1BS.  Give him a lasgun or autogun, and put him on the tallest thing you can find - with I 5 you have little worry of him falling to his death, and chances are the extra height will help you get lines of sight that you might otherwise not be able to cover.  Such a tactic also combines nicely with true grit. Plus, with all those vents, its easy to get him there.   

And wow, I've never seen a leader get 3 upgrades in 2 fights before...


Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 17, 2011, 03:50:38 AM
Quote
And I don't think the +2I is as bad as you make it out, especially when combined with the +1BS.  Give him a lasgun or autogun, and put him on the tallest thing you can find - with I 5 you have little worry of him falling to his death, and chances are the extra height will help you get lines of sight that you might otherwise not be able to cover.  Plus, with all those vents, its easy to get him there.

Maybe.  It's useful for pinning too, I guess - not a bad combination with True Grit.  I'd still prefer just about anythig else except leadership.

Quote
And wow, I've never seen a leader get 3 upgrades in 2 fights before...
My leader has 122xp - he started off with 62, got 24 from the first fight (10 for winning, inflicted two wounds on the enemy and rolled a 4 for xp), the second, he inflicted 3 wounds, got 10 for winning, 9 for the Underdog bonus and rolled a 6).  So he's on his way.  The Underdog bonus from the three way fight is what makes the difference.  It's also the benefit of using small unit tactics - the other gangers pick off the nasty targets, and he runs in and dispatches the softer ones in Hand to Hand.  I really would have preferred if he'd got a CC increase instead of those others - Leaders are best when they are close to the rest of your gang so that they can provide the leadership bonuses, and since most of my guys will be running forward to the enemy, any extra CC ability would help nicely.

Anyway - onto round 2:

Campaign Movement:

Here is the map at the end of turn 1:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecromunda%2FNecrocamaign2003.jpg&hash=0c9febd29aa8f9b2ffe33968753fb07f02cf5aad)


Cawdor
Escher
Delaque
Van Saar
Orlock
Goliath


I elected to go East towards the Gambling Den.  I told the Goliath player ahead of time as a courtesy so that he would have the option of spending his attacking move to go after a softer target (like the Orlock) rather than waste it in a fight against me.  He thanks me for the heads up and tells me that he was planning to go after the Orlock anyway.  A good kid.  The Orlock player is a few years older, and is tough enough to eat his vegetables.

Escher:
The Escher player went first and attacked the Vents of the Delaque palyer.  The fight was an absolute slugfest.  It ended well after both sides should have voluntarily bottled out.  The Delaque finally bottled out with only their heavy and a ganger still standing.  The Escher had their Leader and four gangers (all wounded) on their feet.  Both sides would have generated about 70pts worth of experience each just from wounding each other.

Delaque:

The second fight was between the Delaque and the Escher, with the Delaque going after he Escher Spore Cave.  That fight wasn't so close.  The Escher player hired a Scummer and a Ratskin Scout and simply rolled the Delaque.  The Ratskin scout infiltrated and took out the Delaque heavy (the guy I ransomed) in the second turn and it was pretty much over from there.  Delaque are better in the mid to late part of the campaign, once their stealth and shooting skills kick in.  The Escher, with their swords can make mince meat of most gangs early on if they can get in close, which they were able to do this time after the Stubber Heavy was taken out.  The Escher took the Delaque vents.

The rule is that if you attack someone and lose 3 times as many caualties as you take, then you get to pick which territory you lose - unless your opponent attempted to attack you in the same turn, in which case they get the option of choosing between the territory chosen by the defeated attacker or any other territory bordering the attacker.

Van Saar:
The Van Saar player went after the Delaque workshop (the previously neutral one) and got slapped down.  It was a scavengers scenario though, so he still came out alright in the end.

Orlock:
The Orlock player went after the Van Saar Settlement to his North and the players elected for a Gang Fight.  The Orlock player got the better of the first couple of turns due to both good dice rolling and having just about every single advance he's rolled so far either being a +1BS or a shooting skill, whereas, the Van Saar player has been pretty spread out (and hasn't yet discovered the value of Techno skills - which is to everyone else's benefit).  The Van Saar player voluntarily bottled out with 4 of his guys down, leaving the Settlement to the Orlock.

Goliath:
The Goliath player surprised me by going for the Orlock Settlement.  He told me later that he did this because:
 1.  The Orlock player is a softer target than me, and he backs himself against him;
2.  He wants to build up territories which aren't bordering mine;
3.  Settlements -Woohoo, free Juves!
4.  Why get into trench warfare in the middle of the board when there are easy pickings on the outside?
5.  The Orlock player isn't even close to being a serious contender for this campaign and deserves to be put out of his misery at the earliest possible opportunity so he can stop wasting everybody's time.

Huh.  Okay.

Anyway, the Goliath player dusted up the Orlock player.  I gave advice to the Goliath player, and the Delaque player gave advice to the Orlock player.

Goliath vs Orlock games always take me back to my earliest games of Necromunda (they were what came in the box).  Simpler times.  A good game.  Anyway - the Goliath won for the exact same reason that I beat the Orlock - numbers.  The Goliath palyer is a good study, and he's really enjoying the game.  He says he already understands the weaknesses of the Goliath (Muscle -ugh), and that he intends to buy either an Escher or Van Saar Gang after this campaign.  The Goliath have 13 models in their gang, the Orlock have 8 - it was only ever going to go one way .

The Orlock leader (meltagun guy, lol) was the first to go, and it was all downhill from there.  The only Goliath gang member to go down was a lasgunner (the kid learnt to buy lasguns after the first fight).  3 Orlock down, 1 Goliath, and the Orlocks bottled out.

I went last, and I went straight for the Gambling Den.  Both the Orlocks and the Orlocks elected to defend it.  I had thought the Goliath would let it go, but no matter.

Third Fight:

Gang Fight scenario.  The Delaque player advised the Orlock player and the Escher player advised the Goliath player (but encouraged them both to double team me).

Easily the toughest game so far.  The Orlock, at this stage, are a weak gang overall, but are good at shooting.  They would be easy to outflank and overwhelm with my gang due to their lack of numbers.  With the Goliath present (and not attacking them), they can castle up a bit more and let their Heavy and their lasgun marksmen pick me off, while their less useful gangers soak up the bullets due to the old 2nd edition rules which require you to shoot at the nearest target.

The Goliath on the other hand, due to their lack of mobility are the easiest gang to pick off as they try to get close.  There is also little to lose by getting into a shooting match with them because they shoot only slightly better than Orks.  Nevertheless, once they actually get into close combat, they are pretty tough (better than me at this stage - the kid has gone for combat skills), and they don't run.

Altogether, I was up against an enemy which had a pretty good ranged component and a solid, if ponderous close attack component.  But I had 2 flamers and 4 hand flamers.

My ranged group (Heavy Stubber and 2 lasgunners) took out one Orlock and Goliath throughout the course of the game and spent most of their time pinned or down.  That was due to the superior Orlock ranged firepower.

My close combat teams did a lot better - they tore the throat out of the Goliath.  In turn 3, the first team took down 3 Goliath, in turn 4 the second team took down 2 and my leader took down another one.  In turn 5, I lost two of my guys and took out their leader, a ganger and a juve, causing them to bottle.

At that point, it was my gang of 6 (Leader, flamer heavy, flamer specialist, and three gangers against 6 Orlock (Leader, Heavy Stubber, Lasgun Marksman, Lasgun Rapid Fire, Lasgun Rapid fire, Lasgun BS4 and Autogun BS4), with a half a table to get across - and Necromunda only has M4 too.  And I was out of ammo for my hand flamers.

This is where the weakness of handflamers becomes apparent.  In a two gang fight, Handflamers (even with our house rules which greatly reduce their range), are an okay investment - if you get into range (which is easy enough with vents, agility skills and a bit of finesse) then you have a single shot at a better than 50% chance of smoking an enemy ganger - so it's an even trade for 25creds.  However - when you are up against two opponents, suddenly that one shot factor comes into play. 

I had burned all 4 of my handflamers on the Goliath player (and handed him his own arse in doing so), and had taken out 3 of his guys - a modest to average result, and was left with only stubguns to deal with the superior shooting of the Orlock.

A bit of a bloodbath.  I lost my leader and both gangers before I managed to sandwich half his gang between both flamers and send Josiah into close combat with his Heavy, causing them to bottle out.

In the end, I got the territory, and a amphetamine parrot load of exp for my gang . . . but I don't like how it looks from here.  Before this game, I had everyone except the Delaque palyer running scared of me  - it was only due to the urging of the Escher player that either the Orlock player or the Goliath layer decided to stand against me, and even then, only as an alliance. 

During the game though - even when I ws concentrating on fighting against the Goliath, there were some tight moments where it could have tipped either way (such is the dramatic nature of Necromunda).  In this game, both of the newbies drew some blood - and its obvious that they have made friends with the Escher player (no doubt their mutual interest in pokemon, Justin Beiber, or whatever the hell it is that the kids are into today has allowed them to find some common ground despite the Escher player being a complete prick). 

After the Goliath had bottled out, the Goliath player was over the other side of the table advising the Orlock player how to beat me (the kid can work out probability in his head like a snake on a plane). They  walked away from that fight feeling like they had won (which the Escher player was telling them they had).  Any animosity that there might have been between the Orlock towards the Goliath for taking his settlement is gone.  Those two are stuck together like glue now.  It's good to see positive emotions being generated from one end of the campaign map to balance out the pure hatred and ill will at the other end between the Escher and Delaque, but it doesn't necessarily bode well for me.

I forsee the exact same fight happening in the next round - Cawdor versus Goliath and Orlock.  Both of them will attack the Gambling Den.  I won't bother with income from the slag and Old Ruins - I'll stick extra guys to the west of my area, and beslubber it if the Escher want to try to take my Old Ruins.

Thoughts:

It's all down to that Escher player - he is pissed about losing that 3 way in the first round (people who know nothing about Necromunda are giving him amphetamine parrot about it) - he's stuck between me and the Delaque player, and if we ever cobine against him, he's beslubbered.  His only option is to organise some sort of resistance against us from the other players, and he's managed to get some traction with the Orlock and Goliath.  With both of them slamming into me, each turn, he can concentrate on the Delaque - and now that he has their Vents, that will get a lot easier.

In case anyone needs an image to put in their head - the Escher player bears a striking resemblance to the actor who played Joffrey in the Game of Thrones series by HBO.  He shares certain personality characteristics as well.

I'm actually worried about what the Escher can achieve with Vents.  He's talking about stocking up on handflamers because 'they're so OP' (which isn't true with the house rule reducing their range), but I don't think he will - seeing him advise the Orlock player, and seeing him play against the Delaque, I think he will use them as a combination of sniper/melee/melee and plonk all three of them down together.  The little rather unsavoury chap, what-ho old bean? knows how to deploy properly in Necromunda, and I've never seen him make too many mistakes in 40k (used to play Chaos Marines, now plays Space Wolves).   Against the Delaque, he put that Ratskin scout in the exact best location to take out the Delaque Heavy.  My 3 vents gave me a massive advantage over everyone else (it's the vents which accentuated  the value of the hand flamers - on their own the hand flamers aren't that fantastic), that advantage will be sharply reduced against the Escher next time we fight.

I'm definitely winning this campaign at the moment, but I get the feeling that while I might have gained a valuable territory in this round,  I think I might have galvanised my neighbours against me.   Time will tell.

This is the map at the bottom of turn 2 (with lighter shades of colour for the newly gained territories):

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecro1002.jpg&hash=de48ae75e063891dd4a8d531c57aebfe8b388dc6)

Cawdor
Escher
Delaque
Van Saar
Orlock
Goliath

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on July 18, 2011, 10:50:10 PM
You may be in danger of having expanded too fast too early. Maybe you can get the Van Saar on your side?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 25, 2011, 06:06:56 AM
Quote
You may be in danger of having expanded too fast too early.
I think you are right, in that I'm definitely a bit overstretched at the moment, but I also think that I didn't have much other choice.  I had to go after some high earnining territories early to compensate for my worthless ones.  If I'd hung back, I would have just ended up with less money and less experience for my gang.  Even if I lose that Gambling Den next turn, at least I'll have gained a turn's income from it, and denied it to someone else for a while.

The main disadvantage of expanding so fast is that I've painted a target on my back.  The Goliath and the Orlock are definitely going to double team me, and there is always the possibility that the Escher might turn on me at any second. 

I would have been better off last turn if I'd gone for the Goliath Settlement instead of the Neutral Gambling Den.  That would have left me with much more defendable borders and would have made it harder for the Orlock to commit numbers against me next turn.

Hindsight.

Quote
Maybe you can get the Van Saar on your side?
Good suggestion - that's what I was going to do. 

Unfortunately, the Van Saar player has been banned, possibly permanently from the store.  He's a South African expat, and get's riled up easily and the store managed to finally decipher his accent and worked out what he was talking about when he started ranting about the "Facking Blecks".  So he's been told to beslubber off for a while, and we had to delay turn 3 of the campaign while we work out what to do about him.

We might just declare his territory off limits for a turn, or have someone sub in for him.  Either way, I'm kind of beslubbered since if he isn't there, then there won't be anyone to attack the Orlock from behind, since the Delaque player is pretty sprawled out at the moment, and if we do replace him, it will probably be with one of the mates of the Goliath, Orlock or Joffrey, who won't be any help to me at all.

So basically, it looks like I have to decide between asking the store management to let in apartheid appologist back into the store or having my arse kicked for a couple of turns by some little upstarts who were barely even born when the game came out.

. . .

You know - the Van Saar guy was really just voicing a personal opinion about the internal politics of his homeland - it wasn't like he was necessarily expressing a view on race relations in general.  I mean - unless you've actually been there, it's kind of hard to judge someone when they're having a bad moment . . .

Principles, schminciples.  I want to win this thing.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: laucian_meliamne on July 26, 2011, 12:43:11 AM
Very nice campaign rules.  I've been toying with the idea of trying to run a Necromunda campaign at my local GW for a few years, but I just haven't had the time.  I might look at using a modified version of these rules if/when I get around to starting that campaign.

Something that might be cool would be to have the neutral territories controlled by the Enforcers.  A 7th player (or the campaign organizer, if they're not participating in the campaign) could control the Enforcers to fight off "gang incursions" into neutral ground.  This way you wouldn't have random other gangs fighting them.

To encourage players to attack each other instead of going after the neutral territories early on the Enforcers could also be allowed to field a full squad of 10 men, regardless of the value of the opposing gang.  Or give them access to a Chimera-like "SWAT Van" for extra support.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 26, 2011, 05:37:03 AM
I actually thought about doing something like that but eventually decided against it.

The advantage of having the middle empty is that it encourages everyone to dive in and butt heads.  If the middle was already occupied (particularly if occupied by a strong force), then it would greatly cut down on the chances of a player ever fighting anyone but a next door neighbour, which might get a bit repetitive for a while.

There would also be the problem of whoever was playing the Enforcers having to play five or six games per week while everyone else only plays once.

I'm toying around with introducing some other gangs now, since there are other people in the store taking an interest.

It might be interesting to just drop an enforcer gang onto one of the map tiles and have them move about randomly (with modifiers based on stuff like who controls the adjacent territories and how much they are worth).  Regular outlaw gangs could just be bolted onto the edge of the map somewhere, and spyrers could go anywhere.  I haven't come to a concluded view yet.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Dr_Ruminahui on July 26, 2011, 03:15:41 PM
Depending on how many newcomers you get, I would pile a new map ontop of the old one.  Have a hive quake rip open the cealing, exposing a bunch of new territories, with the new gangs in them.  Have the middle 6 territories (or however many is appropriate for the new map size) of the new map border on the same number of territories in the middle of the old map.

That way you get the same benefit for the new players (and map) as you had for the old - a middle area where the players can engage a varitey of different opponents.... if you just plunk them on the edge, they will have at most 2 enemies to fight.


Inquisitor Psychologis Ruminahui
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 28, 2011, 09:05:31 AM
This is how my gang ended up after the last fight against the Orlock and Goliath.  I got dinged up pretty bad.

Abraham: Leader:
M   WSBSS   T   W   A   I    LD Skills
44534 21 48Nerves of Steel  -  An extra wound is always useful for the guy who will be targeted by the opposition.  T4 and W2 - he's a tough bastard.
Jacob: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   I    LD Skills
43434 11 47
Partially Deafened
+1Initiative.   Woopdeedoo.  On the other hand - the guy will be standing up high most of the time, anything which stops him falling of a ledge after he gets shot is for the greater good.
Isaac: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4433311 37Medic, Armourer   - A Medic and an Armourer - a very useful man to have in between games.   I am going to keep very quiet about this guys skills.  Sort of a shame that he has a flamer and will be in harms way a lot.
Hezron: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4333311 38 -       Dead
Ram: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4333311 37Armourer Impetuous, Arm Wound  - Meh.
Boaz: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4 4 43311 37Specialist, Old Battle Wound - Can't complain.  +1WS is always good for a flamer guy, and +1 BS is always good on anyone.  A prime candidate for the gang's second boltpistol.
Uriah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills/Injuries
4333311 37Killer Reputation, Arm Wound -  Dead 
Abijah:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
43333123 6Nerves of Steel, Impetuous Fixer  - Always good to have a fixer in the gang.
Asa: Ganger
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4333421 46Impetuous Leap, Step Aside  - beslubber yeah - Some pretty nasty upgrades with this guy.
Amon:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4333311 56True Grit - My least useful ganger.  I Would have preferred  an extra BS instead of WS, seeing as how Ijust lost a couple of my ranged team, but ahh well . . . 
Josiah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4223331 37Parry Sprint, Counter Attack - A WS2 combat monster.  I'm going to give him 2 swords.  This little bastard will kill Gang Leaders.

Two dead - and if it wasn't for Isaac and his Medic skill, my Leader (Abraham) would have ended up with Multiple Injuries.

With my income, I bought an extra 2 Juves, 2 swords and a Lasgun to replace the one lost with Hezron.

The next game will be a tough one.  The last game I played was a three-way, so everyone got a lot of experience.  The problem is that the other side effectively got twice as much experience as Idid, since they are a defacto single enemy. 

I know that the Orlock and Goliath will double team me again next round, so I'm going to stack my guys so that I can bring as many to defend the Gambling Den as possible (I'm sure the Escher won't go after my Old Ruins).

I'm not optimistic about my chances next round.  The enemy gangs (combined) earned more advances and income than me, and I'm pretty sure the players learned more about how to defeat my Gang than I learned about how to defeat theirs.  I had to pull out a lot of tricks to beat them, and I doubt that they'll fall for them twice. 

It's not gonna be an easy third round.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on July 29, 2011, 05:13:34 AM
Attack the Goliath settlement, if you're going to have a fight anyway you might as well give them something to lose. And ideally beat on one gang more than the other, then encourage the orlock to turn on him and side with you... the goliath does have a lot of tasty land.

If the Van Sarr territories get up for grabs, he can't pass up on that can he? Thats a nice looking drinking hole for a start.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on July 29, 2011, 06:10:02 AM
Agreed.
You went easy on the Goliath for a couple of rounds, as is fair against a newb.
But if you don't smack him around soon and play for his territories then you risk losing the campaign out of misplaced decency.
You're a gang leader not a social worker!

(Great thread by the way. Been reading it with great interest, and it's made me want to finish painting up my Delaques)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 29, 2011, 07:19:33 PM
I spoke to the store manager about letting the Van Saar player back (The Van Saar player looks like Jonah Hill with a blond crew cut, in case you were wondering). 

Underhand:  What's the story with Jonah - is he going to be allowed back anytime soon, or what?
Store Manager:  We haven't decided.
UH:  It's not like he was abusing anyone who was actually in the store - he was just letting off some steam about the politics in South Africa.
SM:  Yeah, maybe - but we can't have people coming in here and going on some sort of tirade, swearing about black people.  No one wants to hear that - and if some kid's parents hear about it, then that will be a complaint and I'll be the one that gets beslubbered.
UH:  I understand - but on the other hand, there are a lot of people who want to give him amphetamine parrot about what happened to the Springboks the other night, and if you ban him for too long, the moment will pass.
SM: . . .  [I could see this was a pursuasive argument - Jonah has been going on for ages about the (kind of undeniable) amphetamine parrottiness of the Wallabies scrum.].
UH:  And they're probably going to go down even harder to the All Blacks on the weekend.
SM:  Heh. Probably right.
UH:  He'll be devastated.
SM:  OK - it'll just be a one week ban.  He can come back on Sunday.
UH:  Can he come back tonight?  We had to call off the round last weekend because he got banned - everyone is coming in tonight to make up for it.
SM:  Sorry, No.  Play the round without him.  That's his punishment.  It's his fault he got banned, let him pay the price.
UH:  Come on mate.  If he doesn't come back tonight, then [Orlock player] will get a free run at me, with [Goliath player] and I'm screwed -
SM:  I'm not lifting a ban just because you can't beat a couple of kids at Necromunda.
UH:  - then Joffrey's going to pile amphetamine parrot on me about losing a round because he's a little -
SM:  Mate.  I think you might be making a bit too much out of this.  It's just a game of Necromunda.
UH:  No it's not.

So we played a round without the Van saar.  No one was allowed to attack the Van saar territory.  It was decided that everyone could readjust where they stationed their gangers, since the Delaque and Orlock didn't have the opportunity to go after the Van Saar (which I doubt either of them would have done anyway, since the Delaque wants his vents back, and the Orlock player is going to go for me). 

[The Tri Nations rugby tournament is currently happening (South Africa, Australia and New Zealand).  The Springboks are the South African Rugby team, and they got dusted up pretty badly by the Wallabies (Australia) last weekend.  The Springboks play the All Blacks (New Zealand) next, and should suffer an even worse defeat against them, because the All Blacks are probably the best team in the world.]
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Darsenko on July 29, 2011, 07:31:05 PM
This Necromunda campaign sounds like really good fun. I think I'll write a game that gives a similar feel since you have inspired me to want to get in on Necromunda but I can't afford it.

Also, I laugh at you and your Springboks (not to offend you or anything, but being a Kiwi...)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 30, 2011, 04:10:20 AM
Dude, it's wallabies all the way for me.

Anyway - Round 3:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecro1002.jpg&hash=de48ae75e063891dd4a8d531c57aebfe8b388dc6)

Cawdor
Escher
Delaque
Van Saar
Orlock
Goliath

The Delaque targeted the Vents which it lost to the Escher last turn.
The Escher went for the Delaque Workshop.
The Van Saar obviously did nothing.
The Orlock and the Goliath, as expected, went straight for my Gambling Den.
I elected to attack the Goliath Settlement.

Other Gangs:

The Delaque managed to beat the Escher (Raid Scenario), but not by enough to take the Vents.  The game was actually over really quickly with the Escher player getting unlucky and failing his first bottle roll.  Then pissing and moaning about his bad luck.

The Escher attack on the Delaque Workshop was a much closer contest.

Joffrey's decision to go after the Delaque workshop was an interesting one.  On one hand, he risks spreading himself out in such a way as to not be able to use all of his gangers in a defence, if he gets attacked at either end of his territories.  On the other hand, he knows that I have my hands full with the Orlock and Goliath, and won't be able to commit to a heavy attack on his south eastern territories.  Also, taking the Workshop off the Delaque will really hurt the Delaque.  It also denies the Delaque the opportunity to attack the Orlock, and gives him access to the Van Saar, who is a weak player with a weak gang.  I think that the Orlock are unlikely to attack him.  It could go either way for him.

Anyway, the Joffrey won.  His gang is bigger than the Delaque Gang and he's so cashed up that they are all really nicely equipped.  He had the bodies to absorb the first couple of rounds of shooting from the Delaque, and with the Vents he was able to outflank them and get into melee combat early.  Once his gangers got into close combat, it was all over - most of them have swords, a few have two, and his short ranged firepower is pretty powerful  because he can afford a lot of autopistols.

The Delaque player should have voluntarily bottled out a turn earlier than the game ended.  But voluntarily bottling out between the Escher and Delaque is never going to be an option.  Neither of them would let the other live it down.  The last turn was an extremely one sided round of close combat where the Escher took out 4 Delaque gangers, including the Heavy.  The Delaque did manage to take out the Escher leader though, and partially deafened her. The Delaque only had one guy standing at the end of the fight, and the Escher took the Workshop.

Round 3 - Cawdor vs Orlock & Goliath:

I had some strategic decisions to make coming into this fight.  I obviously had two opponents who were definitely going to come at me together as a tight alliance.  I was outnumbered by a long way, out gunned at long ranged and outmuscled in melee - after the last game, the Orlock player took shooting upgrades and the Goliath player took Combat upgrades.  The only area of obvious advantage that I have is in close range firepower, due to my flamers and hand flamers, but they have a horrible habit of running out early, even with 2 armourers in the Gang

One to one, I could easily beat the Orlock player (as soon as close combat happens it's over - Tau  would be-atchslap his gang), and the Goliath would get burnt to cinders on the turn before getting into close combat with me, which would make them easy pickings for my melee specialists.  Together though . . . gah. 

The Orlock can sit back and shoot - they have lasguns with Rapidfire and Marksmen abilities (though thankfully none with both at the same time).   They have the best long ranged attack out of everyone in the Campaign.   And they don't have to worry about my superior melee, or short ranged firepower until after I've dealt with the Goliath.  By the time I get to them, I'm pretty much going to be out of flamery goodness, and I will have lost half my gang to Orlock shooting or Goliath melee.

The Goliath on the other hand, have specialised in close combat weapons and skills, knowing as they do that the Orlock have their back in the ranged department.  As a result, while I would normally have been able to cut down their numbers just before they get to me, and be in a position to overwhelm them in CC, I knew that wouldn't happen this time - there are just too many of them.  Even after I burnt through half of them, the numbers will still be even, and then they would probably still have the slight edge, man for man, in melee, as I'd initially taken a lot of Ferocity upgrades, and they went mainly for Combat.  Their Leader is now a complete beast in melee too.

My tactic last time was to try to take them one at a time - going for the Goliath first, bottling them out, and then concentrating on the Orlock.  I knew they wouldn't let that happen again though.  I guessed that they would set up a lot closer together, near a tower (we would be using the same board as last time) which would give the Orlock player some nice lines of sight.  The Goliath player would set up nearby and move closer to the Orlock in the first turn, to either intercept me if I decided to go for the Orlock, or which would draw my guys into the shooting lanes of the Orlock if I went for the Goliath.  A long ranged shooting match was simply out of the question as a tactic.

Now you might be thinking - Underhand - dude just wait until you lose two guys, then bottle out voluntarilly, lose the game but keep the territory.  And I would applaud you for your devious strategic thinking.  However, if we allowed people to bottle out as soon as the battle started going against them in order to lose a territory, the map would never change.  Accordingly, we added a campaign rule [also added to the first post in the thread], that if a Defender voluntarily bottles out, they automatically lose the territory.  It's also not referred to as voluntarily bottling out - it's called be-atching out. 

So doing that wouldn't have helped me anyway.  But even so , it could be argued that it would still be better to give up early to avoid having the gang get smashed up too badly - at least try to take down a few of the enemy, get the extra exp, and then be-atch out before taking too many casualties.  And I can see the argument.  Unfortunately, it wouldn't have solved my problem. 

My problem is that those two little brats to the east think that all they've got the upper hand even though I've pasted them every time they've been stupid enough to get in my way.  This is all due to the encouragement they've been getting from Joffrey.

Unfortunately, they might be right.

If I show a single moment's weakness, those two slavering little jackals will think that they've found a soft target and they'll keep coming after me every turn until they finally discover girls.  And while my Gangers have earned more advances than theirs, a turn or two from now, we'll be even, and if I lose another 2d6 income territory, I won't be able to replace my losses.  5 or 6 turns from now, Joffrey might have finished off the Delaque, and then I'll have him on my arse too.  And then I'm truly beslubbered.

So I took the view that I had to smash these guys this turn and let them know that coming after me is the dumbest move that they can make.  If I could kill or do enough injuries to gimp their gangers, and maybe follow up with ripping a territory or two off them, I could probably scare the Orlock player into going after the Van Saar and either cow the Goliath player or make him turn on the Orlock, since there isn't anyone else he can go after.

Having said that, I was still pretty sure that I would lose this round, but I know (because they had told everyone) that if ("when") they beat me, the Goliath player would let the Orlock have the territory as a kiss and make up for taking that Settlement off him last turn.  And therein lies the flaw in their plan.  They can team up every turn, but there will only be one territory for one of them to take. 

They might be buddies now, but how will the Goliath player feel when his heavy and a couple of Gangers  die and his leader ends up with a Chest Wound and a Leg wound and the Orlock remain unscathed and also get the territory?  How is that fair?  How is the Goliath going to feel when I counterattack on my turn and take his settlement? - the Orluck player can't come to his aid and suddenly he's spent an entire turn having the crap beaten out of him by me, and it's the Orlock player who has profited.  He wouldn't like it.

On the other hand, what would happen if the Orlock bottled out, but the Goliath ended up winning the fight and taking the territory? - the Goliath would have to keep the territory - where would that leave their alliance?  These were the thoughts that raced through my head as I sat at my coffee table in my boxer shorts the evening before the game painting up the last of my Redemptionist counts as Cawdor Gangers.

Either way - I have to give them enough of a fight so that next round it will have to seem like any territory on the map will look prettier to them than the purple ones.

So anyway, the actual game: 

The Fight:We rolled another Gang Fight.

The Orlock player set up in the exact same general spot as before, just with a bit more firepower directed at one of the avenues of attack for my Vent attackers.  The Goliath player set up closer to the Olock player than last time, with an obvious mind to keep clear of my Vent attackers.

I did something that I don't usually do, and kept Jacob, my Heavy Stubber off the table to start with.  My plan was to deploythe majority of my gang from Vents, around to the right flank which would make it harder for the Goliath to take cover, and would make the Orlock have to spend a turn redeploying.  Hopefully, that extra turn would be enough for me to tear some big chunks out of the Goliath before suffering the counter attack.  Taking the Orlock out first wasn't really an option.

It was obvious after the first turn that the Goliath were happy to castle up under the overwatch of the Orlock Guns.  Luckily, I was able to set my stubber heavy up in a spot which gave him a clear line of fire and he succeeded in downing 3 Goliath on the second turn. 

After that, the Orlock player concentrated his fire on my ranged guys, and succeeded in taking one of them down and pinning the rest. 

Both my new Juves did their duty and soaked up a couple of bullets each.  Isaac, my flamer heavy got shot by the Goliath before being able to have any impact at all.  Boaz, though managed to take 2 Goliath out of action before his flamer conked out.

I managed to get Asa and Josiah into melee before the second wave of Goliath could turn up to reinforce their guys, and they both took out their targets with Asa successfully following up into a second melee.

The Second wave of Goliaths was much scarier than the first, and the Goliath Gang leader charged in and took out Boaz.  I also lost Abijah.  Abraham, my Leader counter charged and took out a Goliath, which triggered a mini rout of another couple of Goliaths who fled.  The Goliath leader then charged my leader and managed to wound him once(thank god for 2 wounds).   Josiah (the guy with all the attacks and parrys) came to Abraham's aid and charged the Goliath Leader, but got slapped down, but allowed my leader to get a lucky hit in, taking out the Goliath Leader.

Except, not that lucky - as soon as Abraham took down the Goliath leader, the Orlock leader, who had been sitting on Overwatch, shot him with a melta gun, taking him down, before he could get to cover.

The Goliath bottled out on their turn, and on my turn, all of my guys except Asa were pinned.  As a final act of defiance, I charged Asa into close combat with the Orlock Leader, but he got shot by Overwatch fire and my Gang bottled out, leaving me with my first loss, and the Orlock with the Gambling Den.

Ouch.  By the end of that game, every single one of my Gangers was either out of action, down, or pinned.  I only just managed to defeat the Goliath, and didn't inflict a single wound on the Orlocks.  I made a point of mentioning constantly during the game how easy the Orlocks were getting it.  I also slippd in a couple of times how good it would be to have Tunnels instead of all these vents, since being a close combat oriented gang, it can be really useful to be able to set up on ground level rather than up high (the Orlock player doesn't even really use his at all) - hopefully that will draw the Goliath's attention to them at some stage.

Anyway - here is how the map looked after the fight:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecro3001.jpg&hash=cf39d4aad1c61c41f2d691a13e82ea1fe4a779b4)
Cawdor
Escher
Delaque
Van Saar
Orlock  
Goliath




Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on August 7, 2011, 04:28:07 AM
Turn 3, Game 2:

Isaac got captured by the Goliath.
This was a dream come true for the Goliath player (picture the kid who played Octavian in the first series of HBO's Rome).  Up until now, the ettiquette surrounding captured gangers has been very civilised - if both sides have captives, they get exchanged in order of the preference of the player who wants them back, otherwise they get ransomed for a negotiated fee based on their rating and equipment.  Since we normally fight 2 fights per turn, we let people wait until the end of the turn to pay their ransoms.

Octavian was having none of that though.

From a tactical point of view, I can't blame him.  Isaac (my flamer heavy) and Boaz (my flamer Specialist), are a big part of what makes my gang dangerous.  They are all the more dangerous against close combat gangs like the Goliath, since they can easily cook a bunch of close combat gangers in the turn before they get the charge.  Isaac is also both a Medic and an Armourer.  I need both of those skills in my gang, and I cannot afford to replace a Heavy.  I simply didn't have the cash.

O:    150 creds.
UH:  Obviously I don't have that much.
O:    Then just give me your Spore Cave territory.
UH:  No.  No beslubbering way.
O:    Then give me all your hand-flamers and I'll keep his flamer and you can have him back.
UH:  Why don't you just give him back to me for free, and I promise not to kick your arse quite as hard next time I play you.
O:    How are you going to kick my arse without your precious little little flamer guy?  You know what?  beslubber it, I think I'll just kill him.
UH:  Right then.  Rescue Mission.  Let's go.
O:    Huh?

He didn't know about Rescue missions.  Poor, ignorant little bastard.

Even missing one of my best guys, my gang simply out classes his.  I've played more games, and several have been 3 ways, giving me huge experience bonuses.  Apart from that, the way that my gang is equipped (with handflamers) is like its purpose built to destroy a slow moving close combat oriented gang like his Goliath. 
The flamers just simply let my guys get the first round of hits in on his guys before they can get a charge.  I then have a couple of Gangers with very effective Agility skills which grant me some great range on my counter charge.

The only advantage that the Goliath have is in numbers (4 settlements have helped with recruitment), but that is nullified by my template weapons. The inferiority of the Goliath skill set is already starting to tell.

I took down 10 of his guys and lost 4 in return and failed my second bottle roll.  So while I lost, the only reason that happened was because in Rescue missions, the Defender isn't allowed to bottle out, and doesn't have to take bottle rolls.

Nevertheless, Octavian played it smart.  He placed Isaac up on the third level of a tower which only had one walkway leading too it on the first level, so I wasn't really able to use my Vents to great effect, and it took ages to get to Isaac, and then get him out of there.  If he'd got a bit luckier with his shooting once I got Isaac freed, I could easily have lost. 

So, a comfortable victory (with only one roll on the serious injuries chart, which Isaac managed to take down to a full recovery due to his medic skill - paid for himself already), but I still lost his flamer and autopistol.

Incidentally - for those of you wondering how to successfully defend against a Rescue attempt - the way to do it is to simply  have a ganger with a flamer (grenades work too) hiding and in overwatch close to the captive.  As soon as a rival ganger gets into base to base contact with him, you just flame them both.  While it might lack a certain something in terms of honour and the spirit of friendly competition, it certainly makes up for that in effectiveness.  But that's life in the Underhive.

So - that was the end of campaign turn 3.  We ruled that my Rescue mission took the place of my attack on the Goliath Settlement.  We probably wouldn't have done that, but we were playing on a Friday night, instead of on the weekend in an attempt to not have the campaign held up too much by the Van Saar player's ban. 

If I hadn't rolled badly on my bottle roll, I probably would have won by enough to take the Goliath settlement.  But I did roll badly, so Isaac ended up 5 inches away from the table edge and I didn't get the extra turn to engage in close combat with a couple of pinned, out of ammo Goliaths, one of whom was down to WS1 due to flesh wounds, so I lost.  That's life, and these things even out over the course of a campaign.

A shame.  Taking that Settlement would have really helped slow the Glaith/Orlock advance.  I don't think I did enough to scare them off.  At least I'm pretty sure that from now on, I'll get pretty generous terms in any hostage negotiations.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on August 27, 2011, 08:29:09 PM
A while between updates.  I'll be making several catch up posts shortly.

In the meantime, here's how my Gang ended up at the end of Turn 3:

Abraham:  Leader:
M   WSBSS   T   W   A   I    LD Skills
44534 3   1 5   8Nerves of Steel Old Battle Wound
-  Three wounds, T4 and Nerves of Steel makes Abraham probably the most resilient character in the entire campaign.  I would have preferred something other than a bonus to initiative from my last advance roll, and that Old Battle Wound will cause me to lose battles that I otherwise should win, but that's life.
Jacob: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
43434 11 4 8   
Fixer
+1Initiative.  Partially Deafened.  Fixer will come in handy.  I also don't mind the extra bonus to leadership, because my gang is a bit short on that at the moment, which isn't a problem I usually have to deal with.
Isaac: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4433311 37Medic, Armourer, Weaponsmith, Inventor  Arm Wound - Medic , Armourer , Weaponsmith and Inventor- The nerd of my gang.  Arguably the second most important member of my Gang.   Weaponsmith is an excellent upgrade for a Heavy, particularly one with a flamer, and Inventor will come in very handy too since I have been so short of crdits so far that I haven't even been able to take a single rll on the rare trade chart.

Ram: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4333311 37Armourer, Impetuous, Arm Wound,  Berserk Charge, Nerves of Steel  - Nerves of Steel is always nice for the guy who acts as the bullet catcher for my Heavy Stubber guy.  Bersek charge is fairly useless for someone who will just be sitting back and shooting though.
Boaz: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
444 4   311 37Specialist - +1S isn't exactly the most useful upgrade, but he's my second flamer guy, and he has found himself in CC a couple of times, so it might come in handy.
Abijah:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
433 4   3123 6Nerves of Steel, Impetuous, Fixer, Disarm  - Not bad.  I need to get him an agility upgrade next.
Asa: Ganger
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4 4   33421 46Impetuous, Step Aside, Leap, Feint, Disarm, Horrific Scars  - One of my most dangerous fighters.
Amon:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
43333 2   1 5 7True Grit
Killer Rep, Leg Wound
- Still my least useful ganger.  God knows how he got that Killer Rep - it sure as hell isn't based on anything he's done on the table.  The most disappointing of my original Juve recruits. He'll be my new bodyguard for my Heavy Stubber guy.
Josiah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
42 3   333 2    4   7Parry, Sprint, Counter Attack
- The anti Amon.  As soon as he gets a WS bonus, he'll be a real nightmare for opponents.
Zohar: Juve:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
4 3   2333 2   36
True Grit
- One of the new recruits.  Not bad.
Jemuel: Juve:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills
42 1   332136
Specialist, Blinded in One Eye
- Another new guy.  With BS1, he's definitely getting a flamer to go with that specialist skill.  As soon as I can afford one, anyway.


My gang as a whole was noticeably weakened after that round.  Both the new Juves have come on reasonably well, but I lost my second flamer and didn't have the money to replace it. 

Having my leader acquire an Old Battle Wound is also a blow.  He's my most important fighter because I rely on his leadership bubble to keep my low leadership close assault guys in the fight, and if he doesn't manage to turn up to an important fight then it will go badly for me - a lot of the starch will go out of my close assault.

My close assault has also been dealt a particularly nasty blow with the loss of Boaz's flamer.  That flamer was normally good for getting a couple of hits on the enemy in the turn before an assault.  It will take a turn at least to replace it, and that could prove problematic if I have to replace any more fighters.

Those aren't the same problems that my immediate opponents have.  Due to having 4 settlements, the Goliath player has no trouble with recruitment (and he just gained a flamer - although I'm not sure if he has anyone who can use it yet), and the Orlock have both a wealthy selection of territories, and haven't taken too much in the way of casualties lately, so they are gearing up pretty nicely.  The Escher also have a lot of income and it's good that they are concentrating their attention on the Delaque, otherwise I would be in real trouble. 

I think their next target will be my Spore Cave, which the Goliath will take.  I have to come up with some new tactics, maybe target the Orlocks first before the Goliaths.  Not sure. 

A big problem I have at the moment is not having the cash to re-equip my gang.  One of the differences between this campaign and others I have played in is the difficulty with income.  Because there are normally two games per turn, there is effectively only half the income generated.  Replacing gang members who die is proving problematic.   It's even more of a problem in games where there is a high body count, like in the last round. 

Strategy wise, the plan is the same - undermine the confidence that the Goliath and the Orlock have in each other , and continue to target the Goliath.  It's a shame that in the last round my Rescue mission was counted as my attacking turn.  If it had been otherwise, I might have been able to snatch the Settlement as suggested by Killing Time and Hymirl.  As it was, I didn't, and the Goliath player hasn't had to spend a turn stewing over the lopsided nature of his alliance with the Orlocks.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on August 28, 2011, 05:17:32 AM
Underhand Tactics:  Part 1:

Take out the enemy Heavy Stubber.

Seriously.  Do it.  The Heavy Stubber is a big gun which can shoot a lot of times with a reasonably high strength (by Underhive standards).  There will usually only be one of them in the other Gang, and a great deal of your opponents tactical planning will probably be based around the firelanes that are open to his Heavy Stubber.

 A well placed Heavy Stubber can shut down a huge area of the board for an opposing gang.  Against a single target, a Heavy Stubber has a good chance of killing even the toughest of gangers.  If given the opportunity to open up on a bunched up group of gangers, a Heavy Stubber can win a fight on its own in a single turn.

More than any other Ganger in the opposing gang, the Heavy Stubber is the guy that is likely to do the most damage to you.  Make him your first priority.  If you get lucky and actually kill an opponent's Heavy Stubber, then you are well on the way to wiping them out of the campaign.  Even the richest gangs will have a tough time coming up with 180 creds to recruit a new Heavy with a Heavy Stubber.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on September 4, 2011, 06:07:48 PM
Definitely one of the most interesting threads I've read. You had me on the edge of my seat a few time, I have no idea why, but this stuff is interesting.

The dialog sections, especially. "Its not just a game"

"Rescue Mission, lets go"
"Wait, what, oh s-"

Highly Amusing.

A great part of me wishes he could offer some sort of advice, but I've been blunddering though this, enjoying it without really understanding alot of whats going on. Maybe you could set up terrain to deny a long-ranged opponent some LOS? Not sure.

Keep up these updates though.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Chie Satonaka on September 5, 2011, 04:52:06 PM
Kinda in the same boat as the above poster. Never played Necromunda before, although I've read the rules on the GW site. So I wish I could help you out, but I can't.  In any case, it's a very interesting thread that I've enjoyed following more than any other in a long time. Good luck and keep it up!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on September 15, 2011, 07:33:01 AM
Thank you gentlemen.

Quote
Maybe you could set up terrain to deny a long-ranged opponent some LOS? Not sure.
 
Actually, I can't complain about the terrain - there's plenty of cover on the tables.  It's actually not very common to be able to get a shot at an enemy ganger without a cover save, unless you are up close.  That's impotant in Necromunda -  Necromunda uses 2nd edition 40k rules for ranged weapons (where pistols can shoot 16") and Movement (where standard movement is only 4"), so getting into CC against a shooty enemy can be trickier than in 5th ed 40k.  It gets even tougher with the Overwatch rule (if a model doesn't fire in its shooting phase, it can go into Overwatch and shoot at any later point - including halfway through an opponent's movement phase). 

But I digress - it's not the terrain on the tables which is killing me, it's that the Orlock and Goliath have got into a groove on the tables we are using (we are largely keeping the terrain the same on the tables to better simulate Gangs fighting over the same territory each turn).  They know where they can sit and pick me off, and where they can run at me without getting counter attacked.  I need to do something to shake things up a bit and knock them out of that groove.

Anyway - game time:
 
Campaign Turn 4:  Game 1:

I elected to go after the Goliath Settlement again.
 
Since our last game, Octavian had managed to get a couple of Agility increases on some of his close combat guys, and this time, was able to get them into CC before I could flame them down.  My heavy took out 1 of his Juves on the third turn from Overwatch, my leader took out another Juve with his bolt pistol (I swear, Abraham manages at least 1 wound every game with his bolt pistol), and Isaac took down a third  Juve with his flamer.  The Goliath Leader ('Akilar Bloodaxe' - Goliaths always have the best names) took out Zohar and gave Jemuel a flesh wound. 

On the next turn, Abraham entered the fight between Jemuel and Bloodaxe, and hit, but failed to wound Bloodaxe (I really need some combat upgrades for Abraham).  The Goliath leader then took out Jemuel and on the following turn, wailed on Abraham for 4 hits, but only succeeding in wounding once. Since it looked like aAbraham was probably about to get beslubbered by Bloodaxe in the next combat phase, Isaac (my flamer heavy) then fired into the close combat between Abraham and Bloodaxe, wounding both, but sending Bloodaxe out of action, while Abraham stuck it out due to his third wound.

 All the other shooting was ineffective (we are the two least shooty gangs in the campaign) The Goliath then failed their bottle roll, giving me the win, which was a shame, because I think I was well placed to do some damage on the next turn (I still had 3 hand flamers and a special flamer in action - it could have been 7 casualties), which would have resulted in enough Goliath casualties to win me the territory.

Long story short - I won, but not by enough to take the territory.  I took out 4 of his guys, he took out 2 of mine.  If I had lost one fewer man, I would have done enough to win, but alas not. 

Deep, important thoughts:

The fight between Bloodaxe and Abraham was unusual for me.  Normally (freak injuries aside), my gang leaders are combat monsters - I always give them combat upgrades, and use them in my second wave, keeping them close to the rest of my close assault teams to make maximum use of their leadership bubble.  They also tend to be pretty solid leadership wise too - I go out of my way to get Iron Will, if possible. 

Things haven't panned out that way this time though.  I got that BS upgrade early, which is definitely nice, and has helped out a bit, but every other upgrade has been a resilience upgrade - something that helps Abraham shrug off the effects of damage.   I'm not sure how to look at that.

On one hand, it's obviously a bit of a pain that I'm missing out on a fair chunk of offensive capability, and it's a big problem that I haven't gotten either Iron Will, or at least a bonus to Leadership yet.  There is a lot to be said for having a gang that just will not bottle out regardless of how badly they are getting mauled (ask any Imperial Guard player who uses combined squads) - all the more so considering the current situation I'm facing of having to deal with being double teamed for at least the immediate future.  But, I'm just not getting the body count out of him that I'm used to.  Normally my Leader is a total combat monster that other players go out of their way to avoid - like an Avatar or a Mephiston.  It's not like that this time.  Abraham isn't dangerous.

On the other hand, that resilience is quite handy.  Abraham  is T4 W3.  That can be a daunting prospect for an opponent who only has one or two guns to bring to bear on him on a given turn.  A lot of opponents would be tempted to just shoot another ganger which they have a chance of taking out of the fight with one hit.  He would be odds on to survive a concentrated blast from a heavy stubber.He'd be great in a shooting gang. 

The extra wounds also definitely helped in the fight against Bloodaxe.  Abraham was getting slapped around in that fight .  It was the extra wound (and the high toughness) which made me risk shooting into the close combat with a flamer in order to get a guaranteed hit on Bloodaxe.  Thankfully it paid off.

Octavian was more than a little pissed at the outcome of that fight.  That's the third close combat fight Bloodaxe has lost to Abraham, and he really thought that he had it in the bag that time.   He actually stooped to complaining about the mechanics of Necromunda Close Combat. 

And I don't give a single beslubber.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on September 15, 2011, 11:57:32 AM
AY-BRA-HAM! AY-BRA-HAM! AY-BRA-HAM!

Tis a pity you've not been able to snot joffrey yet, though hammering Goliaths in combat must be on hell of a moral boost.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on September 15, 2011, 03:05:24 PM
Yes, yes, excellent.

Well, if Your Leader could, odds on, take on Rounds from the Heavy Stubber, could you like hide him behind a juve, who takes the first shot, then go straight for the Stubber? I know gang members cost money, but getting that heavy stubber might be worth the risk.

I think this win vs. Golaith was important, as you seem like you're in a bit better spirits.

Personally, I feel the flamer gambit was pretty BA. A good risk.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on September 18, 2011, 04:10:14 AM
Within the playing group, opinion is very much divided on the virtues of that move.  The opinions vary between the (correct) view of the Delaque player and myself that it was a display of such tactical mastery that even Napoleon himself would applaud it, and that of Octavian who likened the entire series of events to being force fed an entire wheel of parmesan that I had just shat out of my ass onto his face.

Like I said - he was more than a little pissed.

Here's a reminder of how things were placed at the start of Turn 4:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecro3001.jpg&hash=cf39d4aad1c61c41f2d691a13e82ea1fe4a779b4)
Cawdor:  The Hand of Redemption
Escher:  Gothika
Delaque:  Black Coats
Van Saar:  The Second Stringers
Orlock:  The Mortlock Cartel  
Goliath:  House Bloodaxe


Campaign Turn 4

Following my attack on the Goliath Settlement, everyone else had their turns.

Joffrey went after the Delaque Old Ruins.  He knows he has a slight edge over the Delaque due to his ar superior territories, and he doesn't want to repeat the mistake I made of spreading himself to wide.  By attacking the Old Ruins, he gets to use more of his gangers, and prevents the Delaque from using one of theirs.  If he takes the Old Ruins, it also means that he will protect his Spore Cave and Holestead from attack.  As it turned out, he was unsuccessful, but it was a close game, and he only lost as a result of an unlucky bottle roll.

THe Delaque counter attacked by targeting Joffrey's Vents and got cleaned up pretty badly.  The Delaque had 6 guys down to the Escher's 3 when they failed their bottle roll, and they were lucky they bottled out when they did - another turn and they would have been looking at probably losing another 3 guys and losing the territory. 

Joffrey has a very well structured gang.  He has 4 long ranged Gangers, a couple of which have shooting skills, a few midranged shotgunners, and the rest are all close combat specialists.  His leader (Shamora)  is particularly nasty - fast, and deadly in CC and armed with a powersword.   And what few injuries she's picked up don't hinder her close combat ability in any way.  The Delaque might have held out this turn, but they picked up more injuries.  Their fate is inevitable.

The Van Saar came back from their one week suspension and attempted to take back the settleent they lost to the Orlocks.  The game was a somewhat dreary affair, which can happen when two shooting oriented gangs fight each other.  They both set up in heavy cover and plugged away at each other for what must have been 30 turns, each taking out about 4 of the enemy each before one of them finally bottled.  Who won was unimportant, since neither did enough damage to the other to take the territory, and neither player showed any sense of tactical flair what soever in any aspect of their play.  It was like if the Springboks played the Springboks.

The main amusement coming from the game was the all the amphetamine parrot that Jonah got given about the Springboks losing even worse to the All Blacks than they had to the Wallabies.  Even people who don't follow Rugby were lining up to taunt him.  His gang is now known as 'the Second Stringers'.

Turn Four, Game 2:  Orlock & Goliath versus Cawdor

The Orlock and Goliath came straight at my Spore Cave.  I had a plan this time.  The Orlock always set up the same way, behind the same pieces of terrain.  I know where their models will go.  Accordingly, it's easy to build a plan around them.  This time, I would keep the Goliath pinned with my Heavy and other long ranged guys for the first couple of turns, and let the rest of my guys smash the Orlock in CC and with Issac's flamer (acquired from Boaz).  I would probably lose a few guys, but by the time the Goliath could readjust, the Orlock would probably be gone, and I could turn my hand flamers onto the Goliath.  I was ready for them.

Unfortunately they were ready for me too.  I set up two of my close combat squads within close range of the Orlocks, in heavy cover ready to charge/incinerate on the next turn.  Three Orlocks moved forwards a few inches, stepping out of cover, slung their lasguns, and tossed their frag grenades (which I didn't realise they had).

Two of the grenades landed dead on target, and 6 of my guys were hit, causing 5 wounds (Frag grenade pie plates in Necromunda are 4" in diametre).  My gang bottled and ran.  Game over.  I didn't even get to fire a single shot.  Neither did the Goliath.  From the time that the first miniature was put on the table to until my guys bottled out, the game lasted maybe 10 minutes.

Their laughter followed me out of the store.

Here's the map after that debacle:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroCampaign3001-1.jpg&hash=0838ad943c8e239d2569dac5abf59349331838d2)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Toad_Raider on September 18, 2011, 06:30:02 AM
Two of the grenades landed dead on target, and 6 of my guys were hit, causing 5 wounds (Frag grenade pie plates in Necromunda are 4" in diametre).  My gang bottled and ran.  Game over.  I didn't even get to fire a single shot.  Neither did the Goliath.  From the time that the first miniature was put on the table to until my guys bottled out, the game lasted maybe 10 minutes.

Their laughter followed me out of the store.

Oh no! I remember being on the end of a few well-thrown grenades back in second edition 40K, it's fun for nobody.

I am continuing to enjoy reading of your tales of valour (and sadly, woe). Excellent work. I hope that next time you have some more luck! Surely their nefarious partnership will fall over soon... I hope!?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on September 24, 2011, 01:50:52 AM
Girl Friend:  Oh, hi! You're back early - did your game get cancelled?
Underhand:  No.
GF:  Is something wrong?
UH:  I don't want to talk about it.
GF:  What happened?
UH:  I said - I don't want  to talk about it.
GF:  Did you lose or something?
UH:  I. Don't. Want. To. Talk. About. It.
GF:  Was it to that guy who looks like the kid from Game of Thrones?
UH: I said don't want to beslubbering talk about it!
GF:  You don't have to raise your voice.  I don't know why you even play those games if it makes you get like this.
UH:  Because it's fun.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on September 24, 2011, 12:01:11 PM
Obviously, I was less than pleased by the outcome of the last game.  Totally my fault, of course.  The Orlock player had swapped around the grenades he'd bought to some different fighters.  He'd recorded it on his gang roster prior to the game.  He didn't cheat.  I just failed to check his roster before we started.  Rookie error.

The loss of that spore cave was a big blow.  Spore caves are highly profitable.  While it might look like I'm still in a comfortable position with 6 territories, that really isn't the case - the Delaque are doing a lot better than me, and they only have 4 territories.  My home territories - Vents x3, Slag and Old Ruins, make only 55 creds income between them each turn, which translates down to a measly 15 creds for an 11 man gang each turn when upkeep is taken into account - enough to buy a single auto pistol per turn.  A Spore Cave makes an average of 70 per turn on its own.

I knew if I lost that workshop, my gang would slip into a death spiral that I wouldn't be able to recover from.  Once I slip to 15 creds income per turn, I won't be able to replace my losses - I would have to save up for 2 turns just to purchase a single juve, and I wouldn't even be able to buy him a gun. 

After  turn 4, I knew that I might only have one turn left with a decent income, so I knew I had to spend it wisely.  I bought an extra Juve and an autopistol, which left me with a spare 5 creds.

Now, you might be asking why I spent money on the juve and the autopistol, when I could have bought a flamers instead for Jemuel (it turns out, that Boaz didn't lose his weapons after getting captured - the Delaque player found an official FAQ which says that if a ganger gets rescued, then he gets to keep his weapons, so that's a huge bonus for me), given how awesome flamers are, and that is a reasonable question.  The reason is because, in Necromuda, extra numbers give more than just the obvious tactical advantage of having more guns to shoot at the other side - they also determine how many guys you have to lose before you have to start taking leadership checks to see if your gang runs off.  The rule is that as soon as 25% of your guys are down, you have to start taking bottle checks at the end of every turn.  I have 11 guys at the moment, so I have to start taking bottle checks after I lose 3 of them.  If I can get my numbers up to 13, then I have to lose 4 guys before I start having to take bottle rolls. 

At the moment, I have to take out 4 of Octavian's goliaths before he has to worry about bottling.  In another two turns, he will probably have 17 guys in his gang, and will only have to start bottle checking after he has lost 5 guys.  Taking down 5 enemy gangers isn't something that can always be done quickly, and it's likely that I will have to start taking bottle rolls a turn or two before he has to, which will lose me a game sooner or later.  If I can hold onto the workshop for another turn, then I can probably recruit an extra Juve and bring my total numbers up to 13, which is the cutoff point for bottle checking at 4 casualties instead of 3.

Anyway - here's where my gang is at for turn 5.

Abraham:  Leader:
M   WSBSS   T   W   A   I    LD Skills & Weapons
455343158
Old Battle Wound, Nerves of Steel, True Grit, Iron Will.
Bolt Pistol, Chainsword.
beslubber Yes. That extra WS is obviously useful, but Iron Will is the truly great advance.  Iron Will lets me reroll a failed bottle roll.  In 40k terms, Abraham gives my gang the Stubborn special rule.  I have been holding out for Iron Will for a while now - every other skill from now on will be a combat upgrade.
Jacob: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills Injuries & Weapons
43434 1 248
Partially Deafened.  Fixer. 
Heavy Stubber. 
An extra wound is always handy.
Isaac: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
443331237
Medic, Armourer, Weaponsmith, Inventor.  Arm Wound . 
Flamer, Autopistol, Sword. 
Again - an extra wound is always nice.
Ram: Ganger:
 
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
43 4   3311 37
Armourer, Impetuous, Arm Wound.  Berserk Charge, Nerves o Steel. 
Lasgun. 
+1BS is just what the doctor ordered.
Boaz: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4 5   44311 37
Specialist. 
Flamer, Autopistol.
WS5 and S4 - It's good to have a flamer guy who can hold his own in close combat.  I need to get him a sword.
Abijah:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
433 43123 6Nerves of Steel, Impetuous, Fixer, DisarmCombat Master.
Handflamer, Stubber. 
Eh, can't complain - it will come in handy against the superior numbers of the Goliath.
Asa: Ganger
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4443421 46
Impetuous, Step Aside, Leap,Feint, Disarm. 
Autopistol, Stubber.
 I really would have prefered that to have been a +1WS instead of a +1BS, but extra balistic skill is always handy.  Needs a sword and an autopistol.
Amon:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries and Weapons
4333221 5 7
Gun Fighter, True Grit, Killer Rep.  Leg Wound.
Lasgun. 
Christ, this guy amphetamine parrots me to tears.  His upgrades have caused him to occupy this middle ground of not being good at either close combat or shooting, so what I did for the last few games was made him hang back next to Jacob to soak up some bullets.  Then he actually managed to get +1A, which is actually a decent combat upgrade, but since I needed to bulk up my long ranged firebase, when I got the option of rolling on any skill table, I decided to roll on the shooting table - if I rolled rapid fire, or fast shot, then he would get to shoot his lasgun twice per turn, and Marksman and Crack Shot are always good skills to have.  That left only Hip Shooting and Gunfighter as the duds.  So naturally, I roll Gun Fighter, which is the amphetamine parrottiest skill to have on the guy tasked with sitting back at long range as the meat shield for my guy with the Heavy Stubber.  I hate this guy, and wish that he would stop taking up space on my roster.  On top of all that, if I want to give him an extra pistol to take advantage of Gun fighter (gets to shoot two pistols a turn), then I have to paint up one of my spare redemptionist models.  It's just more work.  I hope he beslubbering dies or gets captured.  And if he gets captured, I hope he gets tortured.  And if he gets tortured, I hope he gets castrated so that he will not pollute the genepool of the Underhive with his inferior seed.  I don't really care for him, is what I'm trying to say.
Josiah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4233332 5   7
Parry, Sprint, Counter Attack].
Stubber,  Sword x2. 
Still waiting for that +1WS bonus.

Zohar: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4323312 4   6
Hand flamer, Stubber. 
Meh.

Jemuel: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
42 2    432136
Specialst, Blinded in One Eye.
Hand flamer, Stubber.   
I would have preferred the BS upgrade to be a WS upgrade, given that he's blinded in one eye,but oh well.
Ephraim: Juve:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
422331136
Hand Flamer, Stubber.
He's the new kid.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on September 27, 2011, 03:20:06 PM
As much as painting is tedious, you better paint that dual pistol guy, because right now you need all the fighting power and damage you can wring out of your guys. You don't have the luxery to hate any of them...

...or you could use him as some type of human shield?


Those grenades were bad, and you're losing room to maneuver.  Is it feasible to retake the spore cave, or attack his gambling den? And can Orlock  gangers travel through Golaith turf to attack you? Because, then you could attack the territories without the threat of a double teaming.

Throwing more random things from the top of my head.

>Shoot to kill
Go after his guys with a vengence. Don't go after specific people, just try to kill as many of his guys as humanely possiable. Shoot them when they're down, just end up murdering as many as you can.

>Don't die!
Isn't the VanSaar Guys your allies? If so, if you can survive long enough, he can do some serious colon-punching to that allience.

Hang in there man-I like stories.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on September 30, 2011, 11:35:04 PM
...or you could use him as some type of human shield?
That's what is frustrating.  I have been using him as a human shield for Jacob (my Heavy Stubber guy), and he's actually not completely useless in that role - he has True Ghrit, high initiative and decent leadership, so he doesn't fall off the side of buildings when he gets shot, and he tends to get back up pretty quickly when he gets knocked down.  The problem is, that playing that role means that he needs to be effective at range, which means that Gunslinger and his extra attack are useless (pistols are much, much more effective at close range).  I can't really use him as a close combat fighter either, because his legwound slows him down too much to make effective charges, or dart between cover.  He's a lemon.

Quote
Those grenades were bad, and you're losing room to maneuver.  Is it feasible to retake the spore cave, or attack his gambling den? And can Orlock  gangers travel through Golaith turf to attack you? Because, then you could attack the territories without the threat of a double teaming.
You are correct - the Orlocks can't move through Goliath territory - my plans are to keep attacking Octavian's more southern territories to prevent the double teaming, which rules out the Spore Cave.  I'm targeting the Settlement first to avoid spreading myself out like I did previously.

Quote
>Don't die!
Isn't the VanSaar Guys your allies? If so, if you can survive long enough, he can do some serious colon-punching to that allience.
The Van Saar guy isn't my ally (in fact I talk to him probably less than anyone else in the group), but he's attacking the Orlock player everyturn at the moment anyway to try to take back the settlement he lost (albeit ineffectively).    He wouldn't be a very strong ally anyway - his gang is small, and he just isn't aggressive enough to be a genuine threat.  Hopefully he might kill or injure a few Orlocks over the next few turns and make it easier for me to fight them off.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Mr Joe Moose on October 12, 2011, 03:28:59 PM
This is the best campaign thread I have read in a very long time.  You've kept me entertained through a slow day at work today, and for that I thank you.  Please keep us updated, I can't wait to hear more.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul on October 13, 2011, 12:14:29 AM
Great campaign.  You should ask the other players to keep a record of what they are thinking throughout the campaign , and post it here.

I'd keep using Amon "The Lemon" where you have him, and wait until another suitable replacement partner matures for Jacob.  At this point it seems that he would be a good partner for Isaac (the Heavy with a flamer).  Then have this guy see some ground work.  Actually, this guy would be a fair partner for any of your flamer specialists, or as a mentor to the newer members of the gang.

Do hand flamers count as pistols?  What does Killer Rep and True Grit do specifically?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on October 14, 2011, 03:39:47 PM
I've been anxious for the next edition. You tantalize underhand, you tantalize.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on October 16, 2011, 03:49:24 AM
Thank you gentlemen, apologies for the slowness in updating, but turn 5 was a big one, and I'm going to have to break it up a bit.
I'd keep using Amon "The Lemon" where you have him, and wait until another suitable replacement partner matures for Jacob.  At this point it seems that he would be a good partner for Isaac (the Heavy with a flamer).  Then have this guy see some ground work.  Actually, this guy would be a fair partner for any of your flamer specialists, or as a mentor to the newer members of the gang.
I agree - a multishot pistol guy would be good as mid range support - which is something I've lost a bit of, now that I'm not using shotguns.  It's just a shame his stupid fat ass is taking up space in the backfield at the moment.

Quote
Do hand flamers count as pistols?  What does Killer Rep and True Grit do specifically?
They do - so they are usable in hand to hand combat to provide a bonus attack, but they automatically run out of ammo after a single ranged blast.

Killer Rep makes the user cause fear when he charges the enemy - making them likely to run away if he charges them (which isn't necessarily a good thing if the guy with killer rep would be likely to beat them in CC).  It's probably the lousiest Ferocity skill, but it can be used to great effect in certain circumstances - if the targeted enemy is already in close combat with another model, then it's a free hit.  And Necromunda isn't like 40k - most models only have leadership 7, and a lot will have leadership 6.

True Grit makes a ganger more likely to get back up after they are shot.  In Necromunda, when a model gets wounded, it either takes a flesh wound (certain stat penalties, but can keep fighting), goes down (can't do much, but crawl away), or goes out of action (removed from play).  Any model who remains down at the end of the turn, tests at the end of the turn to see if they remain down, recover to a flesh wound, or go out of action.  A model with True Grit is much more likely to recover to a flesh wound.



Here's the map at the end of Campaign Turn 4:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroCampaign3001-1.jpg&hash=0838ad943c8e239d2569dac5abf59349331838d2)
Cawdor:  The Hand of Redemption
Escher:  Gothika
Delaque:  Black Coats
Van Saar:  The Second Stringers
Orlock:  The Mortlock Cartel  
Goliath:  House Bloodaxe


Campaign Turn 5:

Campaign turn 5 started with Joffrey going after the Delaque player's Old Ruins again.  The loss of the Vents has really counted against the Delaque player, who  has been relying on them to place his shooters in advantageous positions.  Joffrey has also managed to get several Agility upgrades which are helping him get into close combat much more easily than on previous turns. 

Joffrey also spent the money to hire a Bounty Hunter to help him out.  That definitely swung things the way of the Escher, and the Delaque lost their Old Ruins, 9 guys to 3.

The Bounty Hunter (Tex Keel) captured one of the Delaque sharpshooters (a Marksman with a bolter), and so there was some negotiation about the ransom.  Joffrey was a real tool about it.  While negotiating the terms of release, he actually picked up the Delaque model and was turning it over in his fingers as if the off-table abstract notion of having captured an enemy gang member somehow entitled him to possession of the actual model.  What a mindless fleshy pawn of the Illuminati.

Anyway, the Delaque didn't have the money to pay, so they went for a rescue mission, which was exactly what Joffrey wanted, since the Delaque aren't normally all that well suited to them, as they usually require getting up nice and close to the enemy (Ambush is not as good a skill as one might think).  Unfortunately for Joffrey, the Delaque flamer specialist managed to pick up the Hip Shooting ability just recently, and so he's now able to run and shoot, and was able to make  (nicely cooked) mince meat of the Escher guards.  The Delaque leader killed the Bounty Hunter too.

Joffrey was unfazed by the loss.  He knows he's going to eventually grind the Delaque player down, and he's not shy of telling everyone in the store.  I'm pretty sure that the Delaque player is very close to punching him. 

A fight between those two would only go one way.  Joffrey looks like Joffrey, whereas the Delaque player bares a certain resemblance to the guy who played Gannicus in the second Series of Spartacus.  Here's hoping.

The Van Saar went after the Orlock settlement again, and got beaten back pretty comfortably. 

Also - When the Van Saar player came back from lunch, he found that some funny beslubberer had gone and painted the hands and face of his leader brown.  I didn't know it had happened, because I had been outside meeting Joffrey's mum (more of that later), but we both reentered the store at the same time, and there was this weird vibe, like everyone was waiting for something to happen.  It took about 5 minutes for him to notice the new paint job - he saw me notice it.  He gave away absolutely no reaction.  He kept the stiffest poker face I've ever seen.

I don't know who did it, but I'm guessing it was the store manager, since the paint job was pretty good, and he's the only person in there that I've seen with non caucasian painted models.  Funny stuff.





Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lonewolf on October 16, 2011, 05:47:14 AM
Maybe its time to stop that campaign before someone gets hurt  :P
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Heretek on October 16, 2011, 05:49:47 AM
A proper Necromunda campaign isn't over until someone's teeth are on the floor.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on October 16, 2011, 07:20:21 AM
Turn 5, Game 1:  The Hand of Redemption versus The Mortlock Cartel and House Bloodaxe:

The Orlock and the Goliath both attacked my Workshop.  No surprises there.

My plan was to put an end to their alliance this game.  All I had to do was rout the Orlock and then either win or lose to the Goliath - either way, the Orlock would miss out on the territory.  In fact - it would probably be better if the Goliath took the territory, because then the Orlock would be cut off from me and I could devote the next 3 turns to stripping Octavian of his territories unaided by the Orlock.

Even though we were playing on a different table than last time, my plan was basically the same - the only change being that I would deploy my vent teams either out of sight or slightly out of range of the Orlock Grenadiers.

Either they have been talking to Joffrey, or they have at least learned from his example.  They both bought some Hired Guns.  Octavian brought 2 Scummers and the Orlock player hired a Bounty Hunter and a Scummer. 

Using Hired Guns is a tactic that can go either way.  Early in a campaign, they are powerful,  well equipped with decent (mainly shooting) skills.  Bounty Hunters are of similar power to Gang Leaders, whereas Scum are of a similar level to decently advanced gangers.  They can add a lot of punch for a one off game, but once you stop paying them, you lose them, and the money you spent on them is gone - so for them to be worth it, you really want to win a territory.  Obviously Octavian and the Orlock player feel that if they pay some serious cash for a few turns, they will be able to snuff me out quickly and then turn their attention onto the rest of the map.

By the way - after the last game, both of their heavies rolled the Bulging Biceps skill (move and fire with a heavy weapon) for their heavies.  Quite a coincidence.  I think from now on, either  the Delaque player or me will be present when they roll their advances.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I'm short on numbers.   I only have 12 guys.  The Orlock has 12 as well and the Goliath has 16 (4 damn Settlements).  With their Hired guns that brings the numbers up to 12 versus 33.  The advantage that I had earlier with having a much more skilled gang has diminished greatly as the three of us have continued to play each other, and everyone has gained bonuses for fighting against superior numbers of opposition gangs (they both get the bonus even though they fight together).


Anyway, the game:

The Orlock player got to select the scenario, and he picked Gang Fight. 

My plan was to target the Orlock and rout them early with my superior close range firepower and melee skills.  I would then turn and face the Goliaths, counter their initial charge with overwatch Heavy Stubber and flamer fire and then counter assault.  I would still probably lose to the overwhelming Goliath numbers . . . but maybe not.

Provided Abraham could stay on his feet, his Iron Will might keep my guys in the fight long enough for the Goliath to fail a single Bottle roll.  Keeping Abraham up would be easier said than done though, since my gang relies on Abraham being up front with the close combat guys to grant the benefit of his leadership bubble, and after the last game, the Goliath leader, Akilar Bloodaxe, developed a Bitter Enmity against Abraham which means that he is affected by the rules for Hatred as regards Abraham.  So despite losing, Akilar actually got better after that last fight.

Anyway, the set up went well, and I succeeded in drawing the Goliath away from the Orlock by setting up Jacob, Ram and (ungh) Amon, off to my right in a position which would allow them to redeploy towards the centre on the second turn.  At the end of my first turn I set up my vent teams in a triangle around the Goliath to the front, front left and left (my view), leaving the right open for the Goliath.   Issac, Boaz and Ephraim in the centre- middle of the table ready to turn both flamers and hand flamer on the Goliath advance once it arrived.  Abraham, Abijah and Jemuel set up to their left to allow Abraham to extend his leadership bubble as far as possible.  My fast moving CC specialists, Josiah and Asa set up with Zohar, ready to slam into the flank of the Orlock as soon as their overwatch fire was finished. 

Every one of my  vent teams was deployed either out of sight or in heavy cover to avoid the 3 Orlock grenade throwers, and each team had a lucky individual sitting there, ready to be the first out of cover, ready to take that grenade (Ephraim, Jemuel and Zohar were the lucky 3).

The Orlock shat themselves, but had no one to shoot at and went into overwatch.

The Goliath all sprinted towards the main fight.  I knew I had 3 turns before the Goliath arrived, because the table we were playing on has a slight lip around its edge, and years ago, someone made markings every 4"along the inside of that lip.  They've been painted over, but are still faintly visible.  I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one who has noticed them.  The closest Goliath model was 22" away from the closest Orlock model.

Ephraim, being the newest, most useless, and second least respected gang member after Amon, went first and got shot at twice.  The first shot pinned him, the second took him down, but it also resulted in the Orlock losing their free ammo pass which they get from their workshop. 

Jemuel went next, and the Orlock took up 3 shots taking him down.  3 lasguns fired for 2 misses and a take down.  Zohar went third and he soaked up another 4 lasgun shots.  A miss, a pin and 2 wounds .  My 3 most junior gang members were down (but not out), the Orlocks had used up about half their firepower, the Goliath were a couple of turns away and I still had 9 guys yet to act in this turn.   That is how you play Necromunda.

The Orlocks weren't out of ammo yet though - they still had a bounty hunter, a scummer (with a bolt pistol and plasma pistol), a heavy stubber, a meltagun (the leader - Mortlock) and 3 grenades.   Abijah was the next cab off the rank, and he got a face full of bolt rounds and plasma from the Scummer (Cutty) which only pinned him (he has 2 wounds) and saw Cutty's bolt pistol jam. 

I decided to take a risk at that point.  Abraham went out next, and I stood him next to the prone form of Jemuel, hoping to draw out those grenades with a tempting 2 man target.   The Orlock player had been waiting for Abraham though, and had his leader, Mortlock, fire his meltagun at him.  This was a shrewd choice, since a meltagun is one of the few weapons which can put Abraham's lights out with a single shot (it does D6 wounds).  Luckily it missed.  Heh.

 He then opened up with his heavy stubber, for 4 shots, 3 hits, 1 wound, and pinning him.  He then threw two grenades, which took Jemuel out of action and did a second wound to Abraham.  His third grenade blew up in the hand of its owner taking him out and pinning the Bounty Hunter, who was standing next to him.  You want to kill Abraham?  Well, you better have more than a meltagun, a heavy stubber and a couple of frag grenades, because that ain't enough.

That was it for the Orlock shooting, and I still had 2 hand to hand specialists, 2 flamers and a Heavy Stubber yet to act.

I charged Asa and Josiah into close combat with a single Orlock shooter, and moved Issac and Boaz into flamer range of 3 Orlocks.  Jacob opened up with five shots from his heavy stubber, pinning an Orlock lasgunner and their Heavy, but getting no wounds.  Isaac and Boaz both opened up with their flamers, pinning a lasgunner, downing  a second and taking a third out of action.  In the close combat phase, Asa and Josiah dealt with their single opponent and followed up into CC with an extra opponent each.

At the end of my second turn, I had lost 1 Juve, had another 2 guys down.  The Orlock, by comparison, had lost 3 guys, had another one down and another 4 pinned  (including the bounty hunter and heavy stubber), with another 2 locked in close combat with my close combat specialists.  Only his leader, the Scummer and a couple of lasgunners were still on their feet and free to act in the next turn.  And the Goliath were still more than a turn away.  I was winning.

 In the Orlock turn, two lasgunners and the Bounty Hunter got back to their feet, but the heavy stubber stayed pinned.   Movement was a tricky choice for the Orlock player.  Necromunda has a rule whereby a model can only target the closest model in its front 90 degree fire arc.  As a result, when you surround an opponent, like I had (close combat guys to the left, Abraham and Abijah to the front and flamer guys to the right), there are some difficult decisions to make - you have to precommit to which direction you are going to shoot at during your movement phase. 

This was a tough one for him.  He had a melta gun, a grenade, a bolter, 3 lasguns and a plasma pistol which could shoot.  7 shots and 6 targets.  He had no choice but to try to kill my flamer guys - they would destroy him if he didn't, but he also wanted to take out Abraham.  Both wise tactical moves.  Unfortunately, he also really, really wanted to be able to use that single remaining grenade to full effect, and the only targets I had which could be hit by a grenade at the same time were Asa and Josiah, who were locked in close combat.

Since there was no way that his guys were going to beat Asa and Josiah, he decided to try to break his guys from combat.   He broke from Asa first, giving Asa a free hit, which he used to hit the guy and take him out of action.  This caused the other one to flee from close combat with Josiah, who also hit him and took him down and out.

Realising how much deep amphetamine parrot he could be in if that grenade didn't land on target, he repositioned his Scummer to take a shot at Josiah.  The Bounty Hunter and Mortlock lined up at Abijah and Abraham, and the three lasguns spread out and lined up Isaac and Boaz.

The grenade landed on target, but failed to wound, and only pinned Asa and Josiah.  The scummer hit Josiah with his plasma pistol, but again, only taking one wound off him.  The bounty hunter fired at Abraham (marksman skill) with his bolter but missed, and his leader shot Abijah with his meltagun, taking him out (rookie targeting priority error there).  The three lasguns opened up on Issac and Boaz, taking only a single wound off Issac, and leaving Boaz unscathed.

The Goliath kept running to the left.  They would arrive next turn.

In my turn, Isaac, Abijah, Asa and Abraham all got back up.  Asa charged the scummer Boaz moved into position to flame down 3 Orlocks, and Abraham charged into the Bounty Hunter.

Jacob only got two shots off with his heavy stubber, but he made them count, taking down a lasgunner and taking the Orlock Heavy out of action.  Unfortunately he also ran out of ammo. Ram went into overwatch in preparation for the oncoming Goliath,  as did Amon who managed to somehow do so without beslubbering up and embarrassing himself.   

Boaz and Issac  managed to lay their flamer template down on 3 Orlocks, wounding them all, taking one out of action and wounding the others.

In the close combat phase, Asa dealt with Cutty extremely convincingly,  getting  7 hits, which were more than enough to put him out of the fight.  Scummers shoot well, but aren't usually too great in melee.

Abraham hit the Bounty Hunter like a ton of bricks, getting 4 hits with his chainsword and three wounds but two of them were flesh wounds ( a 1/36 chance), which allowed the Bounty Hunter to stay in the fight (albeit only at WS2 for next turn).  Octavian laughed his ass off at that.

And that was what saved the Orlock.  If Abraham had taken the bounty hunter down on that turn, then he would have been able to follow up into Mortlock, and that would have been an easy fight for him - Mortlock is impeded in melee combat by his meltagun, and only has WS3 as a result of a hand injury sustained against the Van Saar (the only measurable effect the Van Saar have had on the campaign so far).  Without their leader, the Orlocs would have been reduced to rolling 7 or under on 2d6 to pass their bottle rolls, which probably would have seen them off after a turn or two.  as it was, Mortlock survived another turn, which gave the Goliath time to arrive.

Zohar went out of action, and Josiah got back to his feet in my recovery phase.  At the end of my turn, I had 3 guys out of action and the the Orlock had 10 down or out of action.  The Orlock only had Mortlock, the Bounty Hunter and a lasgunner still in the fight, and the Bounty Hunter would almost certainly not see out the close combat phase of the next turn.

The Orlock got ready for the inevitable during their turn,  moving the lasgunner as far out of CC and frange as was practicable.  Mortlock stood still and went overwatch, waiting for the moment that Abraham dispatched the Bounty Hunter to unleash the fury of his meltagun on him. 

That was against the urging of Octavian, of course who wanted him to drop a grenade on both Abraham and the Bounty Hunter at the same time to teach me the error of my ways, or failing that, let Abraham live so that Bloodaxe could have his way with him.  The grenade definitely would have been the softest option.

In the Orlock shooting phase, Asa got pinned again by the lasgunner. 

In the melee phase, Abraham chopped the Bounty Hunter into little pieces and was immediately shot by Mortlock from overwatch with his meltagun (the second time that has happened), for 5 wounds, which took him out of action.

In the Goliath turn, Ram at least managed to pin the first Goliath that went for the charge (a CC guy with sprint, who would have attacked Boaz), but the rest of the Goliath were still within shooting range of everyone except Jacob, Ram and Amon. 

Most of Goliath stood back and shot, opening up with about a dozen shots, which were enough to take out Boaz, take down Issac, and pin Josiah and Asa.   

I passed my Bottle roll and Asa recovered from being pinned, and I charged him into CC with the Lasgunner, who wasn't quite out of range of Asa's Sprint ability.  None of my ranged guys (Jacob, Ram and Amon) had a shot on Mortlock, so they went into overwatch.  Asa cut down the lasgunner with little trouble.

Only Mortlock was left on the table for the Orlock.  And he ran.  He sprinted as far away from Josiah and Asa as he could get without breaking cover to let my ranged squad have a chance to take him out.

The Goliath stuck to cover and elected to shoot again, rather than expose themselves to Jacob's heavy stubber.  I still shot at them, but they were in heavy cover, and I only managed a single wound to one of the scummers.  The Goliath shooting succeeded in taking Asa down and pinning Josiah.  All of their long ranged weapons would be in range of my long ranged crew next turn.

I failed my bottle roll at the start of my turn and lost the game.   I also lost  the Workshop, which was picked up by the Orlock, reducing me back to my starting territories.

Aftermath:

That was a frustrating outcome.  I think I executed my plan pretty much perfectly against the Orlock.  They were dead on their feet, and only just managed to squeak out without getting completely tabled, but they just kept passing their bottle rolls, and eventually I failed one.

In hindsight, the only thing I might have done differently would have been to be a little bit more conservative with Abraham.  If he had still been up at the end, I probably wouldn't have failed that last bottle roll.  But on the other hand, moving him out when I did, definitely drew a huge amount of firepower off the rest of my gang, and set things up for the next turn where I inflicted serious casualties which would normally have been enough to win the fight. 

It was that fight against the Bounty Hunter which saved the Orlock.  Much like Abraham's fight against Bloodaxe, despite dealing several wounds, Abraham didn't quite take him down.  If he had, then Abraham would have been able to use his follow up move to take out Mortlock, and wouldn't have been taken out of action himself.  If this, if that.

In any event, I doubt that would have been enough to save me.  The Goliath were unscathed at that point.   Combined together, and with their mercenaries, the Orlock and Goliath simply had too much of a numbers advantage.   I don't think I could really have done any better in that game than I did.  Together, the Orlock and Goliath have simply attained the strategic (in terms of territory and income) and tactical (in terms of numbers) ascendancy.


Here's the map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroCampaign3002.jpg&hash=19620ae78579cce62923d7d7cd6f37681f5d88f2)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on October 18, 2011, 05:53:53 PM
Could be a good thing in the long run, though it looks like you really need a second wind.

On the note of the Bulging Biceps that they've both got, could that call all of the Goliath's new recruits into account? Not that it's worth bringing up, but maybe keeping an eye on.

Maybe you could have a word with the Orlock and Van Saar, and trying to hit the same target (hard i know, you're all separated). How're you using vents in the campaign? Can you hit anywhere on the map or what?

I mean, if the three of you were to make a joint effort on one of them, and give a strong impression that you three are now working together (as in, you'll attack each others positions when others attack them). That'd mean you can double team opposing gangs.

If you can successfully hold off the Orlocks, then surely you and one of the others could blitzkrieg the others.

That does depend on how the rules are working though.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on October 21, 2011, 07:38:27 PM
On the note of the Bulging Biceps that they've both got, could that call all of the Goliath's new recruits into account? Not that it's worth bringing up, but maybe keeping an eye on.
Nah, the number of Juves isn't really suspicious - he has 4 settlements, and he's actually paid creds to hire some of them, so I don't suspect any wrong doing there.

Quote
Maybe you could have a word with the Orlock and Van Saar, and trying to hit the same target (hard i know, you're all separated). How're you using vents in the campaign? Can you hit anywhere on the map or what?

I mean, if the three of you were to make a joint effort on one of them, and give a strong impression that you three are now working together (as in, you'll attack each others positions when others attack them). That'd mean you can double team opposing gangs.

If you can successfully hold off the Orlocks, then surely you and one of the others could blitzkrieg the others.

That does depend on how the rules are working though.
Unfortunately I can't.  The vents let us hit anywhere within a range of 2 squares, but to do so requires leaving a chunk of your gang at home, so it's really only much use in attacking a really poorly defended territory (although we've changed the campaign rule relating to assigning territory to gang members, which I'll explain later). 

As a result, I still wouldn't be able to assist the Delaque or Van Saar in an attack on anyone.  I've been pushed back too far, and Joffrey and the Orlock have claimed the middle ground of the campaign map.

You are right though - we do have to organise something.  And we should have done so before now.

Change to campaign rules:

A few turns back, we changed the rule relating to having to assign gang members (and leaders and heavies) to a territory in order to gain income from it and assist in battles close to it.  It was simply to restrictive, and had the potential for some ridiculously lopsided games.  Nevertheless, we still wanted to keep a strategic element to the post game phase. 

The new rule is that you automatically collect income from a territory regardless of whether anyone is assigned to it.  If you do assign someone to it though, then you get to re-roll the income dice.  Assigning a ganger ties them to that territory, allowing them to only attack or defend that territory, or a neighboring one.

The new rule allows people to use their entire gang to attack or defend and still generate decent income.  If they want to earn a bit more, then they can commit a ganger to a territory, but take the risk that he might not be usable in the next fight.  Most people have not been assigning gangers to territories, prefering to keep them for the fighting.  The exceptions have been with territories which are close to the enemy lines, and aren't likely to result in a ganger being left out of the fight.  Joffrey also normally keeps a ganger back at his Spore Cave too.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on October 22, 2011, 06:34:19 AM
Turn 5 Game 2: The Hand of Redemption versus House Bloodaxe

I went for Octavian's Gambling Den.  I needed to win this game, and I needed to take the Gambling Den.  If I didn't take it, I would only generate an income of 15 creds next turn, which wouldn't be enough to replace any of my losses and would see my gang tip into a death spiral with my gang gradually getting weaker every turn while my opponents would get stronger.  Recovery would be difficult, if not impossible.

Octavian took forever to set up.  But he set up smart.  You know those movies where the humans have been conducting experiments on animals, and then one day, one of the animals does something a lot smarter than the humans thought they were capable of, and it's a scary moment?

Well Octavian did that in this game.  He set up his gangers in two man teams and spread them out in a tiered defence that would prevent me from being able to crunch them all at once, but would put my attackers in easy counter fire/charge range of his guys.  Out the front, he had 4  Juves stationed out on their own ready to take the hits. 

The placement of the Juves in particular was smart.  Games that I am involved in are normally over pretty quickly.  I have a very short ranged gang due to all the flamer templates, but due to having 3 vents, I'm able to deploy pretty close to the enemy.  By turn 3 or 4, the casualties are normally pretty severe for at least one side.  With other gangs, the first four or five  turns are usually spent maneuvering with only the occasional shots fired at long range at ganger's in heavy cover.  By placing his Juves where he did, Octavian set them up to draw out my flamers by taking out his 4 least valuable gang members, and allowing him to counter assault or shoot  the following turn. 

Normally, that wouldn't bother me - being given 4 enemy casualties on turn 2 is like being given victory on a platter.  Unfortunately, Octavian hired another scummer to his horde, taking his total numbers to 17, and pushing his bottle threshold to 5.

The second clever thing he did was put most of his gang into hiding following his first turn, which denied my ranged team the opportunity to pick off any more of his guys and force an early bottle roll.

The first exchanges ended with me taking down his 4 juves, and him taking down 3 of mine even though he did more wounds.  My gang has a lot of multi wound models, which makes it tricky to stop with ranged fire.

The following turn saw me take all 4 of his juves out of action by sticking knives into their prone forms and losing another ganger to overwatch fire.  After that, the game became a bit of a stalemate.   Abijah went down and caused Asa and Josiah to flee into cover, which totally disrupted the structure of my close combat assault plan.  The result was a lot of short ranged fire fight from overwatch, with a lot of my guys getting pinned behind cover, and a lot of the Goliaths running out of ammo.  The insults traded over the table between Octavian and me were more damaging than the gunfire between our gangs.

Octavian wouldn't charge me because Isaac and Boaz had his main lines of attack covered with their flamers.    By the same token, I wouldn't charge him, because he had set up a layered defence which would likely see me trade lose one of my guys for every one of his I took down, which would only end in a win for the Goliath.

With both sides bogged down taking pot shots at each other from heavy cover, it was really just a matter of waiting until one side failed their bottle roll.  That was only ever going to go one way, with Abraham's Iron Will keeping my guys in the fight until House Bloodaxe failed their bottle roll on turn 9, giving the Hand of Redemption a 6 - 4 victory.

Aftermath:

It was a win, but I needed more than a simple win.  I needed to win by a 3 to 1 casualty ratio to take the Gambling Den.  Octavian new that, and played accordingly, being content to lose, so long as he didn't lose by too much.

One might think that I should have gone harder after the Goliath after the initial exchanges.  I would often agree with such a sentiment but it simply wasn't on the cards this time around.  Once 3 of my guys went down,  just wasn't in a position to take out 9 of his guys without losing any more of mine.  Even if I'd committed to a full assault, got really  lucky and tabled him, I still would have lost a minimum of another 3 guys (and that's best case non fanciful scenario), and that still would have resulted in a win which wouldn't have been enough to take the territory.  Every casualty I would have taken would be another 3 of his I had to take down to win the territory.

Outwardly, I pretended I was happy with the win and maintained a confident "this is another purely routine, by-the-numbers Hand of Redemption roll up of House Bloodaxe", since showing disappointment or any sense of defeat would just encourage Octavian and the Orlock player.  Inwardly though, this not-enough-of-a-win, was just as frustrating as the earlier loss.  It was a game I really needed to win, and depending on how my post game sequence turned out, it could very well have been the tipping point.

Octavian treated the loss like it was a win, and received pats on the back from Joffrey and the Orlock player, who was still smarting a bit from the spanking I gave him in the earlier game.  The Orlock player and Octavian have developed a post game victory high-five sequence, too by the way.  It looks as stupid as it sounds.

Octavian took the time after the game while we were packing up to explain the Bloodaxe/Mortlock masterplan for Underhive domination:

Octavian:      Next turn you will go after my Gambling Den again, since you don't want to take a territory that will expose you to attack from both of us at once.
Underhand:   Maybe.  Maybe not.
O:       Then we'll attack your Vents.  The Orlock will take them.  Then your Slag, which I'll get. Then your Old Ruins -
UH:     Kid, you still have plenty to learn.  If you think that's going to happen -
O:       That is what's happening.

And I didn't have much I could say back.


Here's the map at the end of turn 5, again:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroCampaign3002.jpg&hash=19620ae78579cce62923d7d7cd6f37681f5d88f2)
Cawdor:  The Hand of Redemption
Escher:  Gothika
Delaque:  Black Coats
Van Saar:  The Second Stringers
Orlock:  The Mortlock Cartel  
Goliath:  House Bloodaxe




Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on October 30, 2011, 04:01:34 AM
Joffrey's Mum:

We don't always play on the same day each week.  We aim for Saturdays, but I'm often hungover on Saturdays, as is the Delaque player on Sundays (actually, most days, but Sundays in particular), and the Van Saar plays sport (rugby and cricket), which can be vairable.  As a result we have found ourselves sometimes having to get in some quick games on Thursday nights after work. 

Last round, after I dropped off my miniature case, I was walking out of the store, and saw Joffrey getting out of the passenger seat of what was pretty obviously his mother's mercedes, mid way through a pretty intense argument.  From what I could tell, the argument was about what time Joffrey would be finished so that she could drive him home.  Despite being 19, Joffrey hasn't learnt how to drive, or at least doesn't own a car even though he is from an affluent enough background to be able to afford one, and lives in a city where a car is pretty much required due to our amphetamine parrotty public transport system, probably because he spends too much of his parent's disposable income on miniature wargaming.  My point is Joffrey is a spoilt brat.

He finished off by saying " . . . When I'm beslubbering finished!" and slamming the car door.  When he turned around, he noticed me walking past, looked embarrassed and stomped past me.  I gave him a nod and a half way and kept on walking past the socially awkward moment.

I was due to play both the Orlock and Goliath player shortly, and I had to be on top of my game, which for me means loading up on caffeine.  Across the way from the GW is one f those bookstores that does coffee, so that was where I headed.  It's a good spot to take a break from the GW, since it mainly caters to middle aged women, and the staff tend to give dirty looks to the less hygienic members of the gaming crowd, who instead go to the internet cafe next door.  Due to my age, and the fact that I know how to dress, I pass without notice.  While I was waiting for my order, Joffrey's mum entered the store behind me.

Joffrey's Mum:  Excuse me?  Good evening?
Underhand:  Oh hi.  It is a good evening.
JM:  [polite, friendly laugh] It is!  I saw you outside.  Are you a friend of Joffrey's?
UH:  . . . I know him, yes.  I take it you must be Joffrey's . . .
JM:  Stepmother [laughs again]. How could you tell?

I could tell because, while Joffrey is whiter than rice, his stepmother is of subcontinental descent.

UH:  You simply look far too young to have a son of Joffrey's age. [She laughs again] Take a seat, if you like.
JM: Thank you.  Do you own the store? [She was asking because I was somewhat overdressed for a night of hobby wargaming, having just come from work in a three piece suit].
UH:  No.  I just came from work.  I'm a lawyer.
JM: Ahh! [It's often a relief for the parents of the younger members of the hobby to find out that not everyone that hangs out at the store is a neck bearded, greasy haired, black wearing weirdo.]

We chatted for a while.  She's nothing like Joffrey.  She married his dad 9 years ago and has a daughter of her own, who is studying law.  I think she was trying to confirm that I wasn't a psychopath, and whether there was any possibility that I could give Joffrey a lift home at the end of the night instead of her. She asked a lot of questions about career avenues in law.  We were eventually interrupted by the Delaque player.

Gannicus:  Hey mate - [He momentarily paused to look Joffreys mum up and down.  He grinned.] - Hello.
UH:  Gannicus, this is Cersei, Cersei, this is Gannicus.  [They shake hands]
G:    Very nice to meet you. [turning to me] Mate, Joffrey, Chucklebeslubber (the Orlock player) and that other little dipamphetamine parrot (Octavian) are saying that you automatically forfeit if you don't get back in there.
JM:  . . .
UH:  Gan, Cersei is (Joffrey's real name)'s mum. [Gannicus had called Joffrey 'Joffrey' rather than by his real name. A lot of people at the store have started to call Joffrey, Joffrey behind his back].
G:    Huh? Oh.  Ohhh.
JM:  [Just nods - obviously used to such a reaction].
UH:  Well, I guess I have to get going.  Lovely to meet you.
JM:  Likewise.

Gannicus and I left the book shop and headed back towards the Games Workshop.

G:    That's Joffrey's stepmother?  Really?
UH:  Apparently.
G:    Is she seeing anyone?
UH:  Joffrey's dad?
G:   Oh right.  Duh.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on October 30, 2011, 04:52:05 AM
Here's how things ended up after round 5:

Abraham:  Leader:
M   WSBSS   T   W   A   I    LD Skills & Weapons
46   53431 58
Old Battle Wound, Nerves of Steel, True Grit, Iron Will.
Bolt Pistol, Chainsword.
WS6 now makes Abraham a badass in close combat.  As he should be.  An extra attack would seal things up nicely.
Jacob: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills Injuries & Weapons
43534 1248
Partially Deafened.  Fixer,  Medic
Heavy Stubber. 
Both excellent upgrades.  I have be-atched before about too many balistic skill upgrades instead of weaponskill upgrades.  I am not doing that now.  A Balistic Skill 5 Heavy is a game winner, hitting enemies in heavy cover on a 4+.  And I need to start winning some games.  That Medic skill is also really handy - with my inability to replace my losses, the ability to reroll serious injury results after the battle is a God send..
Isaac: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
443331 237
Medic, Armourer, Weaponsmith, Inventor, Fixer, Counter attack.  Arm Wound . 
Flamer, Autopistol, Sword. 
Both good upgrades.  Fixer is pretty useless for me at the moment, but once I start taking back territories, it will come into its own.
 
Ram: Ganger:
 
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4243311 4 7
Armourer, Impetuous, Arm Wound.  Berserk Charge, Nerves of Steel.  Hand wound.
Lasgun. 
Meh.  +1 Initiative (especially with Nerves of Steel) will help him get out of pinning, which happens to him a lot, since together with Amon, he's the bullet taker for Jacob.  The hand wound (lost 2 fingers - dropping him to WS2) isn't such a disadvantage for a ranged specialist.  I'll be hoping to give him shooting skills from now on.
Boaz: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4544311 37
Specialist, Inventor, Crack Shot.
Flamer, autopistol, sword.
Gets a sword for added protection in CC.  Inventor can come in handy, particularly when I don't have enough cash to actually buy stuff on the rare trade chart.  Crack shot is always a nice skill to have (reroll wound effects) - I was hoping for Hip Shooting (run and shoot - deadly with a flamer), but Crack Shot will do.
Abijah:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
433 43 2 23 6Nerves of Steel, Impetuous, Fixer, Disarm, Combat Master.
Handflamer, Stubber. 
A very solid member of the gang.  Abraham's bodyguard. Needs an agility upgrade.
Asa: Ganger
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4443421 46
Impetuous, Step Aside, Leap, Feint, Disarm, Combat Master  . 
Autopistol, Sword.
 One of my best.
Amon:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries and Weapons
3333221 57
Gun Fighter, True Grit, Killer Rep.  Leg Wound.
Lasgun. 
Two games, and not a single upgrade.  The biggest disappointment I have with . . .  ahh beslubber it.
Josiah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4 3 3333257
Parry, Sprint, Counter Attack.
Stubber,  Sword x2. 
Finally got that +1WS bonus.  That WS2 was really holding Josiah back.  Even with 3 base attacks and 3 parries, his low weapon skill was holding him back against high weapon skill opponents.  I found myself having to be very selective as to who to send him up against.  Even on the charge, he would have a tough time beating a WS5 enemy.  That is no longer the case.

Zohar: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4323312 4 7
Partially Defeaned
Hand flamer, Stubber. 
I don't mind the Leadership upgrade - it's an area where my gang is a bit light on at the moment.
Meh.

Jemuel: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
42 24321 2 6
Specialst, Armourer, Nerves of Steel Blinded in One Eye,   Shell Shocked .
Hand flamer, Stubber.   
Can't complain.  Man, I have a lot of armourers in this gang.  I wish I had the creds to spend on bolt weapons.  At least my flamers won't be running out of ammo too often.
Ephraim: Juve:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
42 3 331136
Nerves of Steel, Berserk Charge.  Old Battle Wound.
Hand Flamer, Stubber.
Not bad upgrades.  He might end up joining my ranged team - Amon's days are numbered.  Pity about the Old Battle Wound.
 

Overall, I'm happy about those upgrades.  Josiah getting WS3 is an overdue bonus.  Abraham is legitimately scary in close combat now.  Boaz got a couple of nice upgrades, and the junior guys are progressing nicely. 

The big bonus though, is Jacob and his BS5.  BS5 is a big deal in Necromunda.  The most effective Cawdor gang I ever ran had 2 BS5 shotgun guys.  They ruled the midfield, hitting opposition gangers in heavy cover on 3+ with scatter shot.  I wish I had room  for a couple of shotguns in this gang.  Damn my poverty.

A heavy stubber guy with BS5 is on another level though.  The heavy stubber guy is always on a par with the Gang Leader in terms of his tactical importance to a gang.  The placement of the heavy stubber defines the rest of the gang's set up, and the setup and movement of the other gang.  A BS3 heavy stubber is dangerous because there is the realistic possibility that he could take out maybe 3 of your guys in one turn if he rolls lucky, however that is very unlikely to happen  if you stick to cover - you can take your chances with a BS3 heavy.

You can't do that with a BS 5 heavy.  A BS5 heavy, hits people out in the open on 2+ and those in heavy cover on a 4+.  He will always get a minimum of 2 shots (maximum 6), so odds are that he will at least hit a single target that he shoots at, and more than likely wound.  Against 3 targets in heavy cover, he could very well put them all down. 

You can take your chances and run a ganger from one piece of cover to another against a BS3 heavy on overwatch, and there is a decent chance you'll make it.  That's suicide against a BS5 heavy.  A BS5 heavy stubber guy focussing fire on a single target doesn't just take them down, he takes them out.

I can't wait to use him against Octavian and the Orlock player.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine on October 31, 2011, 07:04:07 AM
Excellent updates as usual. I'd love to see the look on joffreys face if he ever found out you had coffee with his step mom.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on November 1, 2011, 02:08:14 PM
Excellent updates as usual. I'd love to see the look on joffreys face if he ever found out you had coffee with his step mom.

Seconded. I love that, "is she seeing anyone?" line.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on November 5, 2011, 05:56:15 AM
Excellent updates as usual. I'd love to see the look on joffreys face if he ever found out you had coffee with his step mom.

Oh he found out.  His stepmother told him on the way home.  She must have also asked who 'Joffrey' was because he's found out abut that too.   And he's pissed.

Campaign Turn 6:

Here's the map at the beginning of turn 6:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroturn6001.jpg&hash=def01b2bb6431a67ae0e5613a394cf46022aec09)

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


You will note that Van Saar Old Ruins have been converted into a Settlement as a result of Jonah rolling an Isotropic Fuel Rod at the trading post.

The Delaque went after Joffrey's Workshop.
Joffrey went targeted the Delaque Friendly Doc
The Van Saar went after the Orlock Settlement
The Orlock and Goliath went after my Vents
I went after Octavian's Gambling Den.

Joffrey repeated his strategy of using hired guns which were successful on the previous turn against the Delaque. He hired 2 bounty hunters (which is a lot of creds to spend) and took the Delaque to pieces by taking out Gannicus's best ranged guys on turn 3, and then smacking into melee on the 5th turn.  Both of Gannicus's heavies were taken captive (that heavy stubber heavy now has BS5 and crack shot - he's one of the most dangerous characters in the whole campaign).  Gannicus also took a captive however, so Joffrey had to swap him back for free.  The flamer heavy (Flaming Moe) was a different story. 

Joffrey, as is his way, took the opportunity to be a bit of a dick.  He could do so this time because he knew he had the advantage for 2 reasons:

1.  Flaming Moe was the captive, and therefore couldn't be used as part of the rescue team;
2.  He managed to nab some screamers at the trading post during the last campaign turn.

Joffrey was acting a bit more assholish than usual for two reasons:

1.  He found out about his nickname.
2.  Gannicus had spent the previous hour giving him amphetamine parrot about me having coffee with his step mother.

So Joffrey took the opportunity to explain in great detail how much fun he was going to have selling Flaming Moe for the bounty, taking his flamer and using it against Gannicus to take his last 3 territories away from him and dump him out of the campaign.

Which prompted Gannicus to call Joffrey a douchebag and stage another Rescue Mission.  They set up the table:

Gannicus:  I'm going to paste paste that racoon faced be-atch all over the table. (he was talking about Shamora, Joffrey's leader).
Joffrey:      I'm going to beat you again, and take your Friendly Doc.
G:  ...
J:  And you're going to cry.
G:  I'm going to beslubber you in every room of the house.
Store Manager:  Pack up your amphetamine parrot and get out.  Seven days.

Gannicus getting banned meant that Joffrey would have missed out on his turn to attack, so he got to target a new territory.  Who do you think he went after?

Turn 6, Game 1: The Hand of Redemption -v- Gothika, The Mortlock Cartel and House Bloodaxe

Joffrey didn't want to target my Old Ruins.  Although he has more Gangers than me, and they are generally better equipped, he still has bad memories of the three way between us and Gannicus back in the first round.  My hand flamers destroyed him n that game, and he's been sulking about it ever since, even though we have reduced the size of their templates to the old sizes.  My Gang is also a lot more experienced than his due to all the 3 way games I've had against the Orlocks and Goliaths.  By taking me one on one, he could definitely lose, and he didn't want to risk that, certainly not over some amphetamine parrotty Old Ruins.   He wanted to kick my ass, and the bes way of making sure of that was to do it with a couple of mates.

We played the game using the store's spacehulk terrain.  Each of us set up in a different corner.  Suffice it to say that I lost.  I went third, and Joffrey managed to set deploy 3 of his guys from his vents to stop me being able to deploy my vent teams to any suitable locations.  As a result, I wasn't able to spread out across the table to different parts of the table and shut down different corridors with my flamers.  That meant that my guys were bunched up and extremely vulnerable to the Orlock grenade throwers.  I managed to pretty much avoid the grenades, but it meant that the Escher and Goliaths were able to charge into close combat with me on turn 6. 

For a while, I was able to hold the Escher and Goliaths back due to the narrowness of the corridors.  One of my guys was sufficient to pin two of theirs in Close Combat, and my flamers were able to wait in overwatch to burn down anyone who got past them.  Eventually that stopped working though, and Boaz and Jacob got pinned, allowing the Escher and Goliath to close with me. 

I was outnumbered by 2-1 in close combat by the best 2 close combat gangs in the campaign.  It's times like that, that Abraham's Iron Will is actually a disadvantage - it was just keeping me in the fight, racking up more injuries.  If I had hung around, All of my fighters would not only be down, but actually out of action, and rolling on the serious injuries chart at the end of the turn (in addition to any other injuries I might pick up in my second game against Octavian).  On average, that would result in 3 guys dead or captured, to say nothing of the other little niggling injuries that can gradually bring a gang undone.  I voluntarily bottled with 9 of my guys down.

Final score:
Hand of Redemption:  9/12 down
House Bloodaxe:  5/18 down
Gothika:  4/15 down
The Mortlock Cartel:  1/14 down

I think I stuck around 2 turns too long.  I was hoping that either the Escher or Goliath would fail a bottle roll, but it was not to be.  Man, did I ever get given amphetamine parrot for bottling (be-atching) out.  But hanging around would have been stupid.   It just wasn't a game I was ever going to win. 

Here's the map after the fight:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroturn6002.jpg&hash=3a6e3c53cf0452f66be5ec09dee2f88b07d71e48)

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

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on November 9, 2011, 01:03:53 AM
Turn 6, Game 2:

I went after Octavian's Gambling Den.

Abraham didn't turn up.  His Old Battle Wound flared up and took him out of action for the game.   That was not good.

To a certain extent, all Necromunda gangs rely on their Leaders in order to win.  The Leader usually has a decently high leadership characteristic of 8 or 9.  It is his leadership score that the gang rolls against once they lose more than 25% of their guys to determine whether they bottle out.  The leader also has a leadership bubble of 6" which allows other gang members to use his leadership when testing for morale, such as when a nearby fighter goes down.  In a game where leadership of 7 is common, and 6 isn't uncommon, that high level leadership bubble is important.

Abraham is even more important to my Gang than most leaders for two main reasons:

 Firstly, my gang's leadership is otherwise pretty crappy.  Apart from Abraham, only Jacob has a leadership of higher than 7.  When I deploy my vent teams, I make sure Abraham is in the middle to bolster the leadership of the rest of my forward team.  Without Abraham, a lot of my guys would flee as soon as one of them went down.

Secondly, Abraham has Iron Will.  It allows him to re roll a failed bottle roll.  No one else in the campaign has Iron Will.  If casualties are even, my gang can sit in cover and wait for the other side to fail its bottle roll.  Without Abraham, I don't have that.

Abraham is also a powerful fighter in his own right, being one of my best CC guys, and one of my deadliest shots.  Very hard to take down too.

So without Abraham, my gang was a lot flakier. 

Without Abraham's leadership bubble, I was more inclined to spread my vent teams out a bit more than usual, in order to prevent a single casualty setting off a domino effect of further routing.      It meant that I was a bit more spread out than I normally like, and wasn't able to concentrate my short ranged firepower as much as I normally do.  Abraham not being there also meant that I was missing one of my most effective fighters.

I lost.  Once my guys started dropping, a couple more broke and ran, allowing those that remained to get overwhelmed.  I survived my first two bottle rolls, but went left on the third.  final score was 4-1.  Octavian took my Vents.

Turn 6 was a bad one for me.  I lost 2 territories, and they were both important.  As Joffrey was kind enough to point out, no one has lost 2 territories in a single turn in this campaign until now.  My 3 Vent territories are (were) one of the best things I had going for me.  The ability to deploy 9 of my gangers at the end of my first turn represented probably my greatest advantage over everyone else.  I've lost 2 of them now, and the Orlock and the Goliath have picked them up.

Here's the map at the end of Turn 6:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F001.jpg&hash=05863d40a92a6b5b676273802a7f6eae058d1c8d)


Not good.  Not good at all.

I did get to meet Joffrey's step sister though.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Toad_Raider on November 9, 2011, 02:42:43 AM
It really, *really* looks like you're doomed at this point. Early leader syndrome has struck you bad, my friend.  What happens when you (or anyone else) is out of the campaign? That's it for them, until the whole thing is over? That'd be a real shame, I'm very much enjoying the antics of you and your "friends".
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on November 9, 2011, 04:49:05 AM
I'm not done yet.

Take a look at the map.  Put yourself in the position of Octavian and the Orlock player.  We'll assume that I don't take back any territory (just for argument's sake).  The next territory they have to take from me is that Slag.  Octavian will take that, because it's his turn.  After that, unless the Orlock player is willing to play another two turns and give all of my territory to Octavian (which he won't), Octavian will end up getting sealed in underneath the Orlock.  The only option for Octavian from that point will be to attack the Orlock.

The only way for the Orlock player to avoid that is to let Octavian take the last three territories so that Octavian will have an avenue to attack Joffrey.

But once I'm gone (not that that's going to happen), Octavian will either have the choice of attacking Joffrey, who is a skilled player and has a fat bankroll, or going after the Orlock player, who, although well funded, is nowhere near as formidable, and has already been beaten by Octavian back during the early stages of the campaign.

The other factor for Octavian to consider is that he will have to start any allied campaign against Joffrey by attacking  Joffrey's Old Ruins (arguably the amphetamine parrottiest territory in the game), whereas there are a host of good territories on offer if he goes after the Orlock. 

Sooner or later, the Orlock player is going to have to realise what a vulnerable position he's in.  All that has to happen is for Octavian and Joffrey to strike up an alliance, and he's screwed.  It could be better for him to abandon the alliance with Octavian now, and turn to attack the Van Saar.  Jonah (the Van Saar player) is the only player the Orlock player would be confident of beating one on one, and he still has a few nice territories worth attacking.  If the Orlock player abandons Octavian now, he can spend the next few turns mopping up Jonah, which will give him time to stock up in preparation for a much tougher fight against the Goliaths while Octavian is occupied with wiping me out (theoretically), and only gaining my worthless territories as a reward.

These are the seeds of doubt I have to sow in their minds.  And I have to play it just right for it to work.  I wasn't able to split them up before when the rewards for their alliance were some really nice income producing territories (and even a couple of my Vents, which grant a tactical advantage), but now that all they have left to gain by combining against me is an Old Ruins, a Slag and a Vents,  there isn't anywhere near the same incentive to work together as there was before.  Their loyalty will be tested.

There are at least another three games left for my gang in this campaign, and a lot can happen in that time.  I'm not going anywhere.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Toad_Raider on November 10, 2011, 03:16:03 AM
Excellent, glad to hear it! Thanks for the breakdown - I look forward to your continued efforts!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: silverspindle on November 14, 2011, 08:23:13 AM
Underhand, I want to thank you for this thread. Entertaining, informative and inspiring.

The comprehensive introduction and numerous insights into the way the Necromunda rules work are priceless for someone like me who has fond childhood memories of both Necromunda and 2nd edition but was too young to properly participate in the hobby at the time.

The campaign you have detailed here has galvanised me to start hassling my friends to play this forgotten gem and it's proving the perfect panacea for the blandness, lack of balance and unsightly competitiveness that has crept into our games of 5th edition 40k.

Your current situation is looking grim but I must say you are taking it like a boss. With my interpretation of your house-rules it seems it has allowed your foes not only to team up against you at the same time but both these cowards get just as much bonus experience as you do for having to fight outnumbered 3-1.

It's a real shame you haven't had a little bit more luck at cruicial times, your plans to cause friction within the gorlock alliance were sound but a couple of narrow game results denied you the chance to pull it off effectively. It is a different matter now of course as both players start to plan for the end game and realise that conflict between them is inevitable. You may get left alone more in the coming turns due to the misleading picture your remaining territories paint.

Regularly fighting while substantially outnumbered has seen you picking up more injuries lately but your gang is still highly skilled and by the sounds of it so are you at playing the game so here's hoping for some fortune next game.

Thanks again for taking the time to write all this, I hope to do something similar once I have more than three people motivated to play a campaign.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on November 28, 2011, 05:37:43 PM
I apologize for not reading this for some time, but when I stopped painting my IG I've ignored this bookmark.

Interactions are as hilarious as ever.

I understand the campaign could realistically be over by this point, but nonetheless I wish you the best. From your theory crafting, you do have something of a chance to win-I've seen some strange, strange things happen when the chips are down.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 4, 2011, 07:16:09 AM
Thank you gentleman, and no apologies necessary.  Rest assured, the campaign is still underway.  It takes a lot more than an unfair exploitation of a hastily drawn together set of campaign rules by a few unscrupulous gen Y punks to get rid of me.

Anyway:

Joffrey's Sister:

After losing the first game of round 6, I went to get a coffee, I returned to the store and was confronted by Jonah:

Jonah:  Under, there's a black girl inside looking for you. [The only non caucasian I have ever met at my local GWS is Joffrey's mum, but although she isn't old, someone as blunt as Jonah would never describe her as a girl].
Underhand:   A girl or a woman? How old?
J:  My age? Probably younger. [Jonah is in his early 20's]
UH:  Huh.

So I went inside, and around the back towards the game tables.   There was indeed a girl of dark skinned appearance standing at one of the Necromunda tables chatting with the Orlock player and being scowled at by Joffrey. 

UH:   Gentlemen.
Joffrey:   [Just glares at me.]
Orlock:  Hi.
UH:  And you must be Joffey's sister?
J:  Stepsister.
Myrcella:  Stepsister.  And you must be Underhand!
UH:  Good guess!
M:  It was easy, my mother said you looked like Alan Shore.
J:  No he doesn't!
O:  He looks like [some character, from some obscure tv show or movie (probably anime) that I (and probably no one else) have ever heard of.  For all I know it might have been a supremely cutting insult that I should be very upset about.].
UH:  Haha! Did she?

I could tell this conversation was going to go well.  Whenever a junior practitioner in the industry wants to get on my good side, they always say I remind them of Alan Shore (a character from Boston Legal played by James Spader who was highly skilled, was a loose cannon who played by his own rules. And got to sleep with Rhona Mitra).  As opposed to my boss, who most recently compared me to Gil from the Simpsons.  Anyway, I was pretty sure I knew where this was heading.

UH:   So what do you do?
M:  I'm actually studying law.
UH:
  Really?  How far through are you?
M:   Fourth year.
UH:  What are your research skills like?
M:  Pretty damn good, actually!
UH:  I'm getting a coffee - do you want one?
M:  I love coffee.

It was pretty obvious what was going on here.   There are always a lot more law gradates with good grades than there are good jobs with good law firms.  The way to get a good job after uni is to have experience and references.  The only way to get references and experience is to get part time work experience with a firm, or government department etc by way of a summer clerkship or part time research or clerking work.  The only way to get that is to have contacts in the industry, and those aren't easy to make for someone who doesn't already have them to begin with.  Without contacts, you are starting a looong way behind in your career.  Obviously, Cersei told her one of Joffrey's 'friends' was a lawyer, and to get out to the LGS and start impressing.

I have sympathy for students in her position, because it was the same for me when I was a student, so I was than happy to help her out, if she had any talent.  Also our team was looking for a research clerk anyway.  Also, it would drive Joffrey absolutely bat-amphetamine parrot insane with rage.  Also, she's pretty.

Anyway, she seems pretty smart and congenial, so I'm going to see about lining up a research clerk or summer clerk position for her.  Joffrey will beslubbering hate it.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on December 5, 2011, 04:22:49 PM
You're crafty, brilliant, and don't take crap from a guy named Joffery.\

And slightly evil.

I love these posts.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 27, 2011, 10:16:07 AM
Campaign Turn  7

I went after Octavian to take my vents back.
Gannicus led a rescue mission to rescue flaming Moe.
Joffrey went after Gannicus's Friendly Doc.
Jonah went after the Orlock Settlement.
Octavian and the Orlock player attacked my Slag.

GAme 1, Turn 7

I went first.

As you know, I have been talking about having a few extra tricks that I've been wanting to pull out of my sleeve for a few turns now, but I haven't really had the chance.  Those tricks are the alternate scenarios.   So far, Octavian and the Orlock player have only played the Gang Fight  scenario, which is basically a straight up fight with no special rules.  So although they have their tactics pretty down pat for a straight up fight, they haven't had to deal with any of the other scenarios, like Scavengers, where you have to capture and carry off objectives from the table, or Ambush, with its special deployment rules etc.

I've been hoping to get to choose the scenario for a while now, so that I could take advantage of my their lack of experience with the special rules for the other scenarios, but it just hasn't panned out like that.  This time we rolled, and Octavian got to pick the scenario.  I assumed that he would go for a Gang Fight, but he surprised me and went with Shoot Out

I hate the Shoot Out scenario.  It's just badly designed.  It minimises the part that skill and tactics play, can grant large advantages randomly to one side or the other. 

It works like this:  D3 x 2 fighters from each gang turn up and walk slowly towards each other.  Both players roll a dice each turn, the first side to total up to 15 loses their nerve and the shooting starts.  All gangers react at the same time, and the actual order of shooting is determined on an individual model by model basis with a roll of Initiative + D6 determining the order.  Pistols get a +1, Heavy weapons get a -1.  Which gang members turn up is randomly determined.

Although the scenario has a really nice tense, cinematic feel to it, it just relies too much on dice rolls.  What happens on the table is really out of the players hands, and in my opinion, that lessens the fun, since the tactical aspect of the game is what I like the most about the hobby.   You can't even pick which of your fighters will turn up.

I could tell, that this wasn't the result of Octavian just randomly picking the scenario.  He's not the type to do something on a whim, and the body language of Joffrey and the Orlock player suggested that it was something they had planned.

And it was a good plan.   A very good plan.

For starters, on a one to one basis, it's still a pretty even fight between me and Octavian.  With Abraham's Iron Will, my gang is hard to beat, and not easy at all to deal a 3/1 casualty ratio which is necessary to take a territory - it's still totally realistic that I could take a territory off him.  But that all changes with a Shoot Out.  For starters, Abraham probably won't turn up, so his Iron Will is probably not going to be a factor.  Secondly, and this is the big factor - Octavian has enough cash to hire Scum.

Hiring Scum means two things - firstly, it gives a much larger numbers advantage than usual.  The average number of gangers who turn up to a Shootout from either side is 3.  By hiring 2 Scum, Octavian can greatly swing the numbers in his advantage.  Secondly, Scum are ideally suited to Shoot outs.  They are pistol shooting specialists, it's not uncommon for them to have Gunfighter, which allows them to shoot twice, which is a big deal when numbers are short.  Pistols are very accurate at short range too - autopistols, laspistols and boltpistols all hit on 2s at targets in the open at short range.  It's also not uncommon for them to have the Quick Draw skill.

beslubbering Quick Draw.  The most useless skill in the game.  Everyone prays that they never roll it when they take a shooting upgrade.   It gives the user double Initiative, but is only useable in the first round of a Shoot Out scenario.  It is therefore absolutely useless in 95% of games.  And in the Shoot Out scenario, you randomly determine which fighters turn up, so you don't even get to pick which gang members turn up, so even if you roll a Shoot Out, and you have a model with Quick Draw, 75% of the time, he won't even turn up to be able to use it.  Talk about bad play testing.

But in a  Shoot Out, the ganger with Quick Draw is king.  None of my guys have Quick Draw, and none of Octavian's guys have Quick Draw, but out of the 6 Scummers which have been used in this campaign, 3 of them have Quick Draw, and  1 of them (Gallow)  has Gunfighter as well.  Octavian hired two of them (Gallow & Magrav). Hiring those two would mean that Octavian would probably get three shots (which would probably be hitting on 2's) at my guys before I got a chance to shoot back.  Given that I would only get to take 2-4 guys, those 3 shots represented an immense tactical advantage.

We rolled to see how many guys turned up, and we both got 3 each.  My guys who turned up were Ram, Boaz and Ephraim.  Not a bad selection.  Ram has good initiative and balistic skill, Ephraim has BS3 and is armed with pistols and Boaz has a flamer.  That gave me a reason to be optimistic.

Flamers can be murderous in a shootout.  Although they give an initiative penalty for the quickdraw, they can usually take down about 2 enemies with their one hit, which is a lot of casualties in a shootout scenario.  So if I rolled lucky with Boaz, then I might be in with a chance.  Ephraim also had a hand flamer, so that could potentially come in handy.

Octavian rolled for his guys and ended up with Bloodaxe, a couple of Gangers called Rockfist and Thuggar armed with a lasgun and an autopistol & flail respectively.  He also had Magrav with an autopistol and plasmapistol and Gallow with twin boltpistols.

Anyway, we set up across the table from each other, and our gangs inched towards each other.  The nerve roll went as follows:

1st turn:   Goliath: 3    Cawdor: 3
2nd  turn: Goliath: 8    Cawdor: 4
3rd turn:   Goliath: 12  Cawdor: 6
4th turn:   Goliath: 13  Cawdor: 10
5th turn:   Goliath: 13  Cawdor: 11
6th turn:   Goliath: 14  Cawdor: 13
7th turn:   Both teams lost their nerve and went for their guns. 

The Quick Draw roll went as follows:

Magrav:     11
Gallow:      10
Ram:          9
Bloodaxe:  9
Thuggar:    7
Ephraim:    7
Rockfist:     6
Boaz:         5

Magrav went first and gave Ram a face full of plasma, taking him down.  Gallow had two shots and spread them between Ephraim and Boaz, taking down Ephraim and pinning Boaz.  Octavian rolled all the rest of his shooting at Boaz in one go, just because he could.  Rockfist and Thuggar both missed, but it didn't matter because Bloodaxe took him down with his boltpistol.

I didn't get to shoot because all of my guys were down.   This is why I hate Shoot Outs.

We then rolled to see who got the first turn.  I was hoping it was me so that I could bottle out voluntarily.  Unfortunately, Octavian won.  I was sure there is a rule that if all of your gang is down, out of action or broken, then you automatically lose, but I couldn't find it anywhere.  Anyway, that would have come in handy, because Octavian wouldn't accept my concession (which would have automatically ceded my Slag to him), instead insisting on playing through the next turn  because it would allow him to move into base to base contact with my guys, to take them out of action and force them to all roll on the Serious Injury chart at the end of the game.  And because he's a merciless little prick.

So, basically I lost without getting a shot off. 

Aftermath:

There was a possibility that we wouldn't be able to get in a second round of games this week due to the store scheduling a tournament on the weekend, so we rolled for advancements and injuries after each game.  I rolled on the serious injury chart.  Ram got away unscathed.  Ram and Ephraim died.  Luckily, I have two Medics in my gang and I get 2 injury rerolls per turn.  Isaac managed to heal up Boaz without a scratch (thank god), but Jacob couldn't do anything for Ephraim, who stayed dead.

Analysis:

There really wasn't anything I could have done to avoid losing this one.  I was reduced to being a passive observer throughout the entire fight.  I didn't get the chance to employ any tactics at all.  Everything that happened was a result of dice rolling.  The only tactical decisions which were made, were which scenario to play, and whether or not to hire Scum, both of which were out of my hands (since I can't afford hired guns at this stage).

The worrying thing is, that there really isn't much I can do to stop this from happening again.  I simply don't have the income to hire extra muscle at the moment, so there is nothing to stop my neighbours from electing for a Shootout every time they get a chance, and then hiring scum to gain an advantage.  In  a normal campaign, that wouldn't matter much, since the standard rules don't allow territory to be lost following a Shootout.  Obviously, the rules of this mapped campaign do.

Regardless, Octavian has found the template for beating me, and the Orlock player and Joffrey will follow his example.  They can't pick a Shoot Out every turn, but if they do get the choice of scenario, then they will pick a Shoot Out, and they will hire Scummers with Quick Draw, and every game will go like the this one.

I'm down to two territories, only 11 gang members, zero net income and my enemies are rampant. 

The loss of that Workshop in Turn 5 was the tipping point.  Losing that territory killed my income. I needed to hold that territory, or at least win it, or another high income territory back.  But I didn't, and I've slid too far now.  I've been pushed back so far, that the only territories that are adjacent to mine are low income territories.  Even if I should win a territory back, any losses I suffer won't be replaced for several games.


The Map:


(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F005.jpg&hash=d3df8711e633df3bd24afd83b8048c9ca2e102da)

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


My next game is against both the Orlock and Goliath together, again, and I'm another man down.  The fat lady is singing.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on December 27, 2011, 12:35:29 PM
To be honest that just sucks.
I know you all agreed on the rules of the campaign before the start, but this should be a lesson to you.
The rules need to be changed for the next campaign.
I don't see how anyone can agree that this is fair or fun.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 27, 2011, 08:55:07 PM
Yeah, there are a few changes that I would make to the rules for the next campaign regarding alliances and voluntarily bottling out.  I'm not sure about how to fix the Shoot Out scenario (it's just fundamentally flawed at its core)- maybe make Hired Guns only turn up on a dice roll or something.  Not sure.  Anyway, I can't change the rules now without looking like (or in fact being) a massive crybaby, so the current rules are going to stick for the duration of the campaign.

I must admit, I did not take that last loss particularly well.  It wasn't so much that I lost, or even how I lost, it's the fact that it's going to happen again, and there just isn't any way for me to stop it.

Also, I'm even being given amphetamine parrot about it from people who aren't part of the campaign:

Store Manager:  Campaign not going that well?
Underhand:  Not especially well.  No.
SM:   It's actually generated a bit of interest. If you'd like to step back from running things, I can get one of the guys to take over as the campaign manager, and maybe mix things up a bit. 
UH:  What do you mean?
SM:  Maybe add a few players - drop in some Outlaw gangs here and there.  It might help get the Goliaths and Orlocks off your back for a while.
UH:  That won't be necessary.
SM:  Maybe wedge an extra couple of House Gangs in between you and them?
UH:  Thanks, that's okay.
SM:  Give you some breathing space?
UH:  No thanks.
SM:  Maybe if the new guys are bad enough, you might actually win a game or two?
[This is where it became clear that he was just giving me amphetamine parrot.]
UH:  beslubber off.
SM:  Seriously mate - how the beslubber is it that you are getting your ass kicked so hard by these idiots.  They've only played like 10 games or something -
UH:  They're double teaming - look just get the beslubber out of my face.
SM:  Maybe a zombie uprising or something?
UH:  Go beslubber yourself.


So I went home.  My mood didn't improve over the next couple of days.

Girlfriend:  Is something  wrong.
Underhand:  No.
GF:  I can tell something is wrong.  You've been listening to Viva la Vida for two days straight.
UH:  People are Boy Snide's Outrageously Shiny Leather and PVC clad Soul Trains.
GF:  Who are?  The people you play those games with? did you lose again?
UH:  It's this little amphetamine parrot kid, and his stupid mate . . . where is your Adele CD?
GF:  Kid?  How old is he?  Why do you want my Adele CD?
UH:  16 I think.  Maybe 17.  Because I'm about to lose the campaign, and she's fat.
GF:  16? That's half your age!  Have you been drinking?
UH:  Yes.
GF:  Are you going to be like this at my parents' place tonight?
UH:  Oh amphetamine parrot. [I had forgotten we were having dinner with her parents.  I don't get on with her mother.  She has this delusional hippy socialist view of the world that completely conflicts with any mainstream take on reality.  She hates capitalism.  She loathes Americans.  And she definitely can't stand the fact that her daughter is dating a lawyer who works in the corporate-commercial sphere (not that she has any understanding of what my practice actually involves).]
GF:  Are you going to be ready by 7pm?
UH:  I don't think I'll go.
GF:  Are you serious?  Is this because you are upset over a game with the plastic models?
UH:  These ones are metal.   Partly.  I also just don't feel like putting up with your mother's amphetamine parrot again tonight.
GF:  Fine.
UH:  Good.
GF:  When I get back, we're going to talk about this.
UH:  Yay.

I'll spare you the details of that second conversation.  But the upshot is that she'll be moving back to her place until the campaign is over, which will give me time to work out a comeback strategy with one less distraction.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on December 27, 2011, 09:01:13 PM
I'd suggest using a hammer to help with most stress. Lets see Joffrey roll his dice with a broken hand eh?

Although the Manager's offer might be an idea actually, get a few other gangs in the middle of it all.

The shoot out could be changed so that hired guns just count as gangers, and you have to roll for them as you said.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on December 27, 2011, 10:42:38 PM
Underhand, I feel for you. Idiots are annoying. People giving you crap is annoying. An aside- How can you deal with her mother? And Viva la Vida is the king of songs for this kind of situation. Seriously, look.

"I used to roll the dice, see the fear in the people's eyes..."

That's poetry. (Its a good song for other, non 40k situations as well).


But your conversations are so hilarious...

I second the hammer idea, but I suggest that perhaps having his sister slip something into his drink at dinner or something like that might be a tad more effective. Just something that makes him think all his models are trying to kill him or something. A hallucinogen, I think, it what the doctor ordered!   ;)

My suggestion is to mention, casually and often, how incredibly  juicy that spore cave is to Orlock. Or that Orlock spore cave to Esther.

It looks bad, but finish strong Underhand. Go out fighting and take as many of the bastards with you as you can.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 28, 2011, 08:12:58 AM
...
Although the Manager's offer might be an idea actually, get a few other gangs in the middle of it all.
...
Totally out of the question.  There is no way I'm accepting that kind of help.


The rest of the games went as follows: 

Gannicus, back from his one week ban, took his Gang on a rescue mission and succeeded in getting Flaming Moe back.  Joffrey then counterattacked and went after Gannicus's Friendly Doc.  That backfired totally, and it was only due to Gannicus's stubber heavy getting unlucky and dealing a couple of flesh wounds on the last turn, that Joffrey didn't end up losing a territory.

Gannicus also comfortably won with the sledging as well, taking a coffee order for everyone, and then pretending to call Joffrey's mum on his mobile phone to come and deliver it.

Jonah went after the Orlock settlement again, and went down in a heap.  Jonah's inability to beat the Orlock is of concern.  Unless he learns how to play with some skill, sooner or later the Orlock player will turn his sights on him, and his four relatively decent territories will fall to the Orlock and Gannicus will be surrounded and the campaign will end up being won by either Joffrey, the Orlock player or Octavian. 

I'm not sure what would be worse to be honest.  Joffrey's a amphetamine parrot, but at least I can respect his skill as a player - he's a worthy opponent, if not a human being.   

Octavian bugs me too, but probably mainly because he is he's 16/17 and that's just what these little punks are like these days.  I probably wasn't that much better when I was his age.  I just don't like losing to a kid.  It makes me feel like my best days are behind me, that my skills are deteriorating and I'm being surpassed by a new generation.  The Bieber-Twilight generation.  And I don't want that to happen.

The Orlock player might be the most obnoxious though.  He's managed to convince himself that he's some sort of incredibly skilled general just because he's currently got the most territories.  The only reason that has happened is because his starting position was against 2 newbie players, his alliance with Octavian and a amphetamine parrotload of advice from Joffrey.  If he had been playing games one on one against me, Joffrey or Gannicus, he'd be lucky to still be in the game.  In fact, if Jonah had had someone holding his hand like Joffrey has been doing for the Orlock player, it would have been a completely different story.  He also seems to have a bit of an rather unsavoury chap, what-ho old bean? streak in him too, which started to come through in the last couple of turns, and was particularly evident in his game against Jonah.  If you have seen the episodes of Entourage where Seth Green plays himself as a total rather unsavoury chap, what-ho old bean?, then he's kind of like that.

Jonah has the smallest, weakest gang in the campaign.   That's mainly due to him having only played about 6 games (compared to more than a dozen for most other people).  The reason that he's played so few games is because no one is really attacking him - Gannicus goes after Joffrey every turn, and the Orlock player has been attacking me.  As a result, the only games he's been getting are when he attacks the Orlock, who has come to significantly outmatch him, and keeps pulling further ahead each turn due to the massive experience bonuses and territorial acquisitions he has made by double teaming me with Octavian.  Also, as his gang has gained in power, he's become more of a dick towards Jonah, in terms of his table talk.  The rest of us engage in abusing each other as standard, but Jonah doesn't.  Jonah is an easy target in that regard, because he is South African and has no sense of humour with which to be able to defend himself or attack back with. 

Educating Jonah:

I didn't like watching that, and I've kind of felt sorry for Jonah ever since the Store Manager (or whoever) repainted his Gang Leader to have dark skin.  Since then he's sort of been made to be the store butt monkey, and what with his lack of success in the campaign so far, I don't think he's been having much fun, and there's a chance he might leave the campaign.  So I decided to do something about it.  When everyone broke for lunch, I approached Jonah:

Underhand:  Mate, stick around, I want to have a word.
Jonah:   What is it?
UH:  I want to show you a couple of things that will stop you making a fool out of yourself each week.
J:     I think I can handle things myself.  But thank you for offering.
UH:  No you can't.  Give me your gang roster.
J:   ...
UH:  Give it to me.
J:   ...
UH:  Give it to me.
Gannicus:  Just give it to him, fatass.

So Jonah gave me his gang roster.  It was a clusterbeslubber of newbie errors.  All shooting and a few combat skills.  No techno skills.  No swords.  Only 9 gang members.  The wrong weapons given to the wrong gang members. And most inexplicably of all:

UH:  Why the hell do you have 277 unspent credits in your stash?
J:     I'm saving up for a Needler Sniper Rifle.  If I roll one on the rare trade chart, I want to be able to buy it, and they cost a lot of creds.  I've got a model converted up and ready to go and everything!
[That figured - Jonah is obsessed with sniper rifles like you would not believe.  In fact the whole reason he got into the campaign was because I told him you could have snipers.  Unfortunately, Needle Sniper Rifles are very difficult to find, and ridiculously over priced, so they are rarely seen.]
UH:  How did you even get that many creds?
J:     I got one of those Mung vases a few weeks back, and I ransomed one of the Orlock player's gang members to him.
G:    That's right, he did.
UH:  Dude - getting your gang up to speed is going to be a amphetamine parrotload easier than I thought.

And it was.  277 creds is a lot of cash in the Underhive.  I got him to recruit 4 juves and buy them all autopistols.  Then I got him to buy 4 swords from the trading post.  Then I had him shift around some of his weapons to different models, to give the best ranged weapons to the best shooters and the best CC weapons to the best CC fighters.  He now has a guy with a bolter with BS5 and marksman.

I then imparted some advice to him about the value of techno skills, and how they make the Van Saar arguably the most dangerous gang in the game.  He was sceptical, but at my insistence he took an techno skill upgrade for every cGanger that rolled a skill upgrade.  At the end of it, he ended up with 2 armourers, a specialist, a medic and a weaponsmith.  The specialist was given a flamer and the weaponsmith was given a hotshot lasgun.  Jonah had previously left his bolters and hot shot lasguns in his stash because they kept on running out of ammo on him, but that's no longer the case with 2 armourers.  Now he has 2 S4 shooters with extended range, who aren't restricted by the target priority rules.

I also got him to sell off a few laspistols, since the 2 armourers made autopistols and stubguns just as reliable.  I reckon his gang is about 100% more effective now.  His ranged firepower is a lot more reliable, and powerful, he has an extra four bodies, who are decent at close range shooting.  He also only has to start bottle checking after losing 4 guys now.

Gannicus and I also ran him through Necromunda tactics 101.  He now understands the value of keeping his guys together in small groups, how to use his leader's leadership bubble to shore up his forward teams, and how to position his guys to protect his more valuable fighters from being targeted by the enemy.

He absorbed the lessons.  He understands what he has to do now.  The Orlock player is in for a nasty surprise the next time they play each other.  If he can snatch a territory, then that will probably divert the Orlock away from me, and allow me to concentrate on Octavian.  Even if that doesn't happen, if he can at least kill a couple of Orlock gangers, that will at least diminish the threat a bit.  If the Orlock player is weakened, then Octavian might be tempted to go after the richer Orlock territories rather than to continue to pursue my cheaper ones.  Time will tell.  But I still had a game to play before the turn was over.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: silverspindle on December 28, 2011, 11:37:31 AM
I'm glad to hear that the news isn't all bad, in that you've at least managed to organise an informal alliance to drive back the dicky waac players in your group.
Unfortunately your team has only 8 territories to the 27 under goliath-orlock-escher control
The good part is that none of you are totally out for the count yet
Gannicus proved himself still able to see off the Escher despite being far outnumbered in income
Jonas has been schooled and will start to see the benefits of Van Saar with those new juves
You may indeed be in an income death spiral but your temerity and knowledge of the game will make you very hard to stamp out without double-teaming
Since the imbalanced alliance rules will be in effect for the rest of the current campaign I suggest that Gannicus and Jonas next team up to beat on the Escher/Orlock for a couple of rounds. Since they're both in danger of extinction right now why not take any advantage they can get?
This could be enough to avert the Orlock players attention from you. The Goliaths have been a tough fight every time since the first but one on one you may be able to luck out and steal your vents back in order to start carving territories back from the bottom where you can't be ganged up upon.

Also your mind games and smack talk are going to have to be impecable :p

Eagerly looking forward to the next installment!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on December 28, 2011, 01:27:11 PM
I'm not going to lie- I think you helping out Jonah was probably one of the most interesting moves you made- and one that potentially could pay some real dividends.

Please don't call us the Bieber-Twilight generation. That hurts me, right here *pounds chest.*  We're the New Silent Generation. (http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/qt/generations.htm (http://geography.about.com/od/populationgeography/qt/generations.htm))


I like this informal alliance stuff. Its so...underhanded. Can't wait for more.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 28, 2011, 09:17:40 PM
Thank you gentlemen.

Turn 7 Game 2:   The Hand of Redemption versus The Mortlock Cartel & House Bloodaxe

Octavian and the Orlock player had originally targeted my Slag.  Since I had lost the Slag following the Shootout with Octavian, they were allowed to move their target to my Old Ruins, as was only fair.

This was a lose/lose scenario for the Orlock player.  They had arranged between them that Octavian would get the territory, so if I lost, he wouldn't get the territory.  But even if Octavian bottled out, and he was forced to take the territory, that would effectively seal Octavian off from the rest of the board, forcing them into a conflict with each other in the next turn or two.  He could be spending that time going after Jonah, who he normally beats - the only reason he doesn't keep taking territory off Jonah every turn is because he doesn't normally send the creds to hire Scum, which he does when he fights me.  So it's like a wasted turn for him.

We rolled for the scenario.  Losing Ephraim in the last game actually worked to my benefit, because it lowered my Gang rating to be lower than either the Orlock or Goliath.  That meant my chances of being able to pick the scenario were much greater than they have previously been.  So we rolled and I finally got to pick the scenario.  I picked Scavengers.

Scavengers scenario:

The Scavengers scenario is the opposite of Shoot Out - it's a really well designed, evenly balanced scenario where tactical thinking rules supreme.  It's my favourite scenario in the game.

The rules work like this:

The table is set up as normal.  Then you set up the table and place d6 Loot counters.  Those counters are objectives which a ganger can pick up and move by getting into base to base contact with them.  The counters are set up 8" away from the table edge and 4" away from each other.  Then you roll to see which side of the table you set up on and who goes first.  Obviously, since you don't know which side of the table you get to set up on, it usually makes sense to place the counters somewhat in the middle of the table.  You win by either driving the other side off the table as usual, or by capturing all of the Loot and running off the table with it.

We rolled 2 pieces of Loot, and that suited me just fine.   My plan was to win the game by capturing all the Loot.  There were a couple of places where I definitely didn't want the Loot placed, so I placed my Loot counter, near one of those.  Octavian and the Orlock player, having been confronted with a new tactical aspect of the game, just when they were becoming comfortable with straight up Gang Fights held a quick discussion to decide where Octavian should place the Second Loot counter. 

Not having played the scenario before, they decided to approach it the same way most people approach a 5th ed 40k objective game.   They would place the objectives, then set up their Gangs  to swarm across one and then the other, picking up the Loot along the way.  Those tactics make sense in 5th ed 40k, but they don't work in Necromunda.  This would be a lesson for them. 

Eventually, Octavian placed the objective marker nine inches across from the other one at ground level, and in the open.   And that was fine with me.  Joffrey might have told them to place it somewhere else if he'd been there, but he wasn't, and they weren't willing to wait - at least not after Gannicus and I started questioning their ability to execute the simplest of actions without Joffrey telling them how to do it (Gannicus used an analogy that involved holding certain body parts whilst performing certain bodily functions).

So we set up, and I got the first turn.  My Gang moved forwards to the objectives, except for Jacob and Ram who went into overwatch.   I then deployed Asa and Josiah separately,  in cover, close to the Loot, ready to dart out and seize it in the next movement phase.  Zohar set up with Josiah to act as a meat shield. 

My setting up my vent team close to the Loot put an 8" bubble around the Loot counters which prevented the Orlock player and Octavian doing the same (not that the Orlock player ever uses his Tunnels or (now) Vents - he prefers to have everyone available to shoot on the first turn).   Octavian and the Orlock player moved their Gangs forward, the Orlock player not being able to resist taking a shot with his heavy stubber at Jacob and Ram, who were both in heavy cover, and missing. 

That heavy stubber was the one thing I'd been worried about .  The game was mine from that point onwards.  Asa and Josiah are my runners.  Asa has Leap which allows him to move an extra d6 inches per turn and bypass man high obstacles without penalty, Josiah has Sprint which allows him to run or charge 12" (in Necromunda, base movement is only 4"). 

Asa's Loot counter was the one I had placed, and was on the 2nd level.  I ran him out , snatched the Loot and onto cover, 19" away from my table edge.  I next ran Zohar out to the second loot counter to soak up any overwatch fire to allow Asa a clear run to pick it up and dash back into cover.  As it was, it proved unnecessary, with all of the Overwatch missing, so Zohar simply ran the loot back to cover with Asa and transfered it during the shooting phase.

Jacob fired back at the Orlock heavy, taking him and a Lasgun Marksman down.  The rest of my gang moved further up the table, ready to offer covering fire to Josiah and Asa as they ran back towards my lines.

It was at this stage that they realised they were going to lose.  I'm not sure if they came to that conclusion themselves, or if it was Gannicus laughing at them, and then explaining in detail to Jonah and a few other people exactly how I was going to win inside the next 2 turns that tipped them off, but they had definitely worked it out.

Anyway, They both desperately ran their guys forward to try to open up a line of fire for overwatch in the next couple of turns, and that was even stupider of them, because it meant that they had to leave some of their guys in the open.

In the next turn,  I ran Josiah and Asa back towards my lines, and left Zohar in a spot which would obscure Asa from the Goliath heavy stubber in the next turn.  Jacob and Ram opened up on a couple of Goliath chasers, taking one out of action and pinning another one.

On their turn, the Orlocks were simply out of the fight.  Asa and Zohar were out of range for them, and Josiah had a free run to the table edge outside of their line of sight.  The Orlocks had a couple of small chances on their side, but they didn't amount to much.  The Goliath Stubber managed to line up Zohar, but he wasn't able to track fire onto Asa, because I had placed them too far apart. 

In my next turn, Asa and Josiah broke through my lines, the rest of my gang closing ranks behind them to shield them from any enemy fire.  My gangers which didn't have to move went into overwatch, and those who were in overwatch, went into hiding.

On the last Orlock/Goliath turn, Octavian realised that he couldn't avoid losing the game, and that moving any of his guys into range to shoot at my guys with their pistols would (a) not be very effective, because my guys were in cover, and (b) would just expose him to some nasty overwatch fire.  So he basically had no choice but to do nothing but move his guys into cover and let Asa and Josiah run off the table in the next turn.

Since the game was due to end in my movement phase, I took the opportunity to destroy the Gorlock  alliance.  I did this by explaining in excruciating detail every single error Octavian had made starting from Gang selection, through to set up, and during the game itself.  I then expanded on all of those points to set out how every single one of those errors had cost them victory.  I laid the reasons for the defeat squarely at Octavian's feet, the Orlock player being blameless, his victory denied only by the incompetence of his ally (which obviously wasn't true, but I made it sound convincing).  I also reminded the Orlock player that he had also wasted 30 creds on hiring Scum for no benefit, and that was due to Octavian's lack of skill.  This all took nearly 30 minutes, so I'm pretty sure everyone got the point.

I then moved Asa and Josiah off the board.

The Orlock player wouldn't even talk to Octavian as he left the store.

Aftermath:

we will see how things go next turn, but I'm pretty sure that's the end of the Gorlock alliance.  The Orlock will go after Jonah, and Octavian will come after me.  If he does, then I'll pick another Scavengers scenario if I get the chance.

The other good thing about Scavengers is that every Loot counter is worth 1d6x5 creds, so I actually managed to make some money out of this turn too.  If I can play a few more Scavengers games, I might be able to start building my gang back up.

The alternative is to save the creds to hire Scum in the event that my opponent wins a scenario roll and picks Shoot Out.  Decisions, decisions . . .


Here's the map:


(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F005.jpg&hash=d3df8711e633df3bd24afd83b8048c9ca2e102da)

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


A lot can happen in a short time.  There's no change to the map as a result of that game, and I'm still vulnerable to a Shoot Out, but with Gannicus thumping Joffrey twice in a row and Jonah hopefully out of his rut, there is just the slightest chance that the momentum might have shifted slightly in my favour.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on December 28, 2011, 10:21:46 PM
Quote
It was at this stage that they realised they were going to lose.  I'm not sure if they came to that conclusion themselves, or if it was Gannicus laughing at them, and then explaining in detail to Jonah and a few other people exactly how I was going to win inside the next 2 turns that tipped them off, but they had definitely worked it out.

I find that hilarious for some reason, and it was vital that you included it.

Moreover, I think this highlights an important point very well- you're smarter than your enemies tactically. And with the end of the alliance, you'll start fighting one on one. I expect a fair amount of heads to roll, which you can then use to buff up the throne of skulls you lounge on, and use your enemies as footstools ala Justianian II. All the pieces are falling into their places perfectly... Grats on the win, too.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: silverspindle on December 28, 2011, 10:43:34 PM
Nice work! Very glad to see you get a deserved win. Your description of the scavengers mission was spot on. I tried to play it like objectives 40k myself on my first couple of games and got shut out by long ranged fire as I tried to advance.
Have you done post-game yet? An annoying injury would have been just the thing to drive the wedge between them even further. Also, the more you play the faster your gang gets as it accrues agility, this will be of much benefit against Octavian as imo agility is far more useful than muscle.

I don't know what to tell you regarding the 15 creds or so you may have managed to wash through the income table this week. Don't know if getting a scummer for a shootout is going to help much because they're usually going to be able to afford more hired guns than yourself. Maybe a Ratskin to try an stop them being able to choose shootout in the first place? Other than that I guess you keep saving towards an autopistol juve to help with numbers.

Your attempt to directly sever the Gorlock alliance appears to have been quite fruitful. I hope you compounded it by informing the Orlock about the rejuvinated Van Saar gang. He does sound like a bit of a sheep, doing what Octavius and Joffery tell him. In one on one fights he will probably make more errors and the way the territories are laid out the alliance still has to end unless he does another team fight where he lets Octavian take your territory. And as you proved this week, doing a team fight against you does not necessarily guarantee them a territory or even winners xp (are both their gang leaders taking the +10 for winning in these team fights? Even more bulltwang if so).
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine on January 2, 2012, 10:21:22 AM
love the updates as always. seems to be your luck might actually be turning for the better now that its not you vs 3 all the time.

Also love the non game related stuff, one of you should start dating Joffrey's step sister to really piss him off. would be absolutely great.

"hey Joffrey guess what?"

"what"

" i just boffed your step sister"

now that would be funny.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on January 3, 2012, 10:24:52 AM
WHOOP WHOOP! GO U-H, USE YO SKILLZ YO! Seriously, i'm so happy right now.

Good win, i love how it was "so after his stubber missed in the first turn, i won the game". And Joff is getting stoved too, also love it. You might be back on your feet, it's ridiculous how gl
ad this is making me.


Yeah, my minds made up, i'm starting a campaign. Looks good on my Sandhurst Application, and i get to play a fun game. I'll be grabbing a 2 boxes of Orlocks on Friday (or maybe cashing out for the $60 Delaque gang thans non-GW...)

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on January 3, 2012, 07:04:24 PM
This, this is fabulous! I must take a look at Necromunda, although I don't think I know anyone else who's ever played it. I love how you haven't just given up and are determined to keep fighting. I keep imagining a gang in some hideout with no money (possibly no food) and surrounded by enemies who are closing in fast, but still holding fast and will kill as many of the beslubberers as they can before they go down! Most dramatic!  ;D

Also love the non game related stuff, one of you should start dating Joffrey's step sister to really piss him off. would be absolutely great.

"hey Joffrey guess what?"

"what"

" i just boffed your step sister"

now that would be funny.

I think Underhand is facing enough woman trouble as it is, considering his beur already moved out. Just hire the sister for the research you mentioned, I think that would do the trick well enough!  8)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine on January 5, 2012, 05:14:26 AM
Lol I want suggesting UH himself do it from the sounds of it Grannicus would be more then willing.

But agaon anxiously awaitning more updates. This thread is be far and away the most interesting topic on these boards anymore.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 5, 2012, 12:06:20 PM
Thank you all for the kind words.

love the updates as always. seems to be your luck might actually be turning for the better now that its not you vs 3 all the time.

Also love the non game related stuff, one of you should start dating Joffrey's step sister to really piss him off. would be absolutely great.

"hey Joffrey guess what?"

"what"

" i just boffed your step sister"

now that would be funny.
Nah, wouldn't be cool.  While I'm happy to trade as many insults with Joffrey as necessary to gain some sort of psychological advantage, that would just be disrespecting Myrcella, whom I quite like.

It's also just not on the cards for several reasons:

For starters, it wouldn't necessarily be my call to make.

Secondly, she'll be starting at my firm in a few weeks, and I wouldn't want the partnership to get the impression that I had got got them to hire a research clerk in order to increase my chances of getting into her pants.  They would not be impressed.

She's also way too young.  There's about a ten year age gap.

And as SnipingSnowman pointed out - I also have a girlfriend.  I think.

In any event, it's not something I have to worry about - none of the above points matter to Gannicus in the slightest, and he  is already pursuing the suggested line of attack with great enthusiasm, except he also makes reference to Joffrey's stepmother too. 

Have you done post-game yet? An annoying injury would have been just the thing to drive the wedge between them even further.
...
(are both their gang leaders taking the +10 for winning in these team fights? Even more bulltwang if so).

The Orlock Heavy received a Chest Wound, which drops his toughness down to 2, but then rolled a +1T on his advance, so he effectively lost the benefit of 20xp.  I hate it when my gangers receive chest wounds.  It makes them fall down in a stiff breeze.

They have both been getting the +10 for winning, except when one of them bottles out.

Campaign Turn 8:

During the post game sequence, the Van Saar picked up an Isotropic Fuel Rod at the trading post and used it to turn his Slag into a Settlement.  That was good news for me because it made it a much more tempting target for the Orlock player than did my Old Ruins.

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroturn8004-1.jpg&hash=01b713165b5a38f0ee6fb5457dfdf868890ff76f)

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


Gannicus was in charge of drawing the campaign moves out of the hat this week.

Joffrey went after the Delaque Friendly Doc.

Gannicus went after the Escher Vents.

Jonah attacked the Orlock Settlement.

Which just left Octavian, the Orlock player and me.

Now, I wasn't there, but one of the Battlefleet Gothic nerds, who play on one of the tables next to ours, told me that earlier that morning, Octavian asked the Orlock player to confirm that he would be helping him attack my Old Ruins.  The Orlock player apparently told Octavian that he was getting tired of playing against me and that he thought Octavian could handle me on his own from here on out. 

Octavian countered that by pointing out that as a result of his help, the Orlock player had gained a Gambling Den, a Workshop  and some Vents, which are all good territories compared to Octavian only picking up a Spore Cave and a Slag (he earned the Vents on his own).  In his view, it only seemed fair that the Orlock player should stick around to let him pick up my last two (crappy) territories and see me out of the campaign.  The Orlock player said he would think about it.

And then he went after Jonah's Settlement. 

Gorlock Alliance: beslubbering broken.

Octavian has a pretty good poker face, but I could tell he was (understandably) furious.  I feigned indifference, but inside it was like I was punching the air in victory with the fourth movement of Beethoven's 9th Symphony playing in the background.  Joffrey raised his eyebrows a bit.   Jonah maintained his stoic Boerish reserve.  Gannicus though went all out.

Over the course of the previous week, Gannicus and I had spoken a couple of times to each other about the need to coordinate our efforts so that we can both get back into the campaign, or at least take down as many of these other little pricks as possible.  We discussed a number of possible courses of action, but the most important one was to break the Gorlock alliance before it killed me.  Gannicus had played his part to perfection by undermining the alliance by keeping up a running commentary of the game to everyone watching just how badly they were getting their asses kicked.  Coupled with my speech at the end sheeting home all of the blame for their loss to Octavian, it seems that it worked pretty well.  But there was more to do yet:

Gannicus:  Whoa.  One defeat and he cuts and runs . . .
Orlock Player:   Shut up Gannicus!
G:    All the way from there [points to my Old Ruins] to all the way over here! [points at Jonah's Settlement]
OP:  You're an idiot.
G:    Meanwhile, here's Octavian, staying the course like a champion, taking it up to Underhand, man to man, guarding your back -
OP:  You don't know what you're talking about.
G:    Well, I guess you got that Workshop, that Gambling Den and those Vents out of it before you bailed!  Hey Octavian - hope that Slag was worth it! 

Octavian said nothing, but he obviously felt betrayed by the Orlock player, and he wouldn't be human if he didn't enjoy hearing Gannicus question the Orlock player's honour in front of the whole store.

So that left Octavian going after my Old Ruins on his own.

Which just left me.  Gannicus reached into the hat:

Gannicus:  Well, then, Octavian and Underhand, round 20.  What's it going to be Under?  Are you going to take that Slag back?
Underhand:  No.  I'm going after the Vents.
G:  Fair enough.  Looks like you and Octavian are going to have to break out the Space Hulk terrain again.
Orlock Player:  [still trying to maintain some sort of friendly relationship with Octavian, despite having just stabbed him in the back only minutes before]  Don't worry mate, you can take him.  It'll be a piece of piss.
U:  Not those Vents.  Those Vents [I pointed to the Vents I lost to the Orlock player in turn 6].
This came as a bit of a surprise to everyone, except Gannicus, whom I'd discussed it with beforehand, but he acted like it was the most shocking and audacious military manouver since the bombing of Pearl Harbour.
G:  The Orlock Vents?
U:  My Vents.
G:  [taking out my slip of paper from the hat] Whoa!  A shift in strategy!  Hey Orlock Boy!  Underhand's coming after ya! Hahahah!
Octavian:  Don't worry mate, you can take him.  It'll be a piece of piss.

"Don't worry mate, you can take him.  It'll be a piece of piss." might have been the actual words Octavian used, but by the way he said it, it was clear that what he was really saying was "beslubber you, Boy Snide's Outrageously Shiny Leather and PVC clad Soul Train.  You betrayed me, and now you are going to get what you deserve."
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul on January 5, 2012, 02:27:43 PM
Excellent news, Underhand.  It seems that you have your chance at redemption.

I do have one request.  Would you put the aliases of your opponents next to their gang names.  My old mind has trouble remembering who is who at times.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on January 5, 2012, 05:00:03 PM
I can't quite remember the last time a post had me laughing out loud. Between you and Ganni I'm cracking up over here. That alliance has been killed in more ways that Harry. S. Plinkett's wives. Oh man, well played.


Now, take back your vents.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on January 5, 2012, 05:16:40 PM
Boy Snide's Outrageously Shiny Leather and PVC clad Soul Train.

Am I missing something here? Or is that just the censor/swearing-replacer thingy putting in new words, like beslubber?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Chie Satonaka on January 5, 2012, 07:15:30 PM
It's definitely the forum censor, seeing as I don't have it enabled and I just see the usual swearing.

Anyway I'm glad the tide is beginning to turn, due to some Underhanded tactics. Though I do second the Farceseer's plea for the alias names for your opponents to be put next to their gang names underneath the campaign map.

Let the slaughter ensue.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 5, 2012, 07:18:24 PM
Excellent news, Underhand.  It seems that you have your chance at redemption.

I do have one request.  Would you put the aliases of your opponents next to their gang names.  My old mind has trouble remembering who is who at times.
Done.

Boy Snide's Outrageously Shiny Leather and PVC clad Soul Train.

Am I missing something here? Or is that just the censor/swearing-replacer thingy putting in new words, like beslubber?
If that's from the second last sentence of the post, then it's definitely the profanity filter.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on January 5, 2012, 07:20:38 PM
Oh, that's who Joffery plays as. I went through the first page and was able to guess, but now I know. Thanks!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul on January 5, 2012, 08:09:57 PM
Thank you Underhand.  Things are a bit more clear now.

A possible change for the next campaign would be to split the bonus experience from winning between the "winners".  That would make double teaming less profitable.  Perhaps remove it all together.  *Shrug*  They are effectively twice, or more, models/points against one.  I'd push for none, then "compromise" when the reward is divided between the victors.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lewis on January 16, 2012, 09:14:30 AM
When is the next update!? ... ive been checking this daily for more news
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on January 16, 2012, 11:11:44 AM
When is the next update!? ... ive been checking this daily for more news

How long has it been? Eh, I think we have another few weeks to go.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 22, 2012, 04:45:01 AM
Turn 8 Continued:

You might be wondering why I went after the Orlock Vents rather than after one of the Goliath territories.  There are several reasons:

1)  The Orlock player is a less skilled player than Octavian.
2)  I think, that the Orlock player has set his sights on the Van Saar territories as his next target for expansion.  So if I take the Vents from him, he won't waste his time trying to take them back.  By contrast, if I went after the Goliath vents, Octavian would fight to take them back.
3)  By not attacking Octavian and taking territory from him, I will avoid antagonising him, which will  make him more likely to turn on the Orlock player.
4)  If Gannicus manages to take the Escher Vents of Joffrey, then it means that if we see the need to, we can both simultaneously double team:
     a)  The Escher:  Guilder Contact (x2), the Holestead and the Friendly Doc.
     b)  The Orlock: Workshop and Spore Cave.
5)  If Gannicus and I can capture territories so that we can meet up in the middle of the map - say at the border of where the Orlock Workshop meets the Escher Friendly Doc, then we will have divided the board, and will be able to dismantle Joffrey or the Orlock player a tile at a time.

That's the plan anyway.  I doubt we will resort to double teaming, but it's a very good to have it as a threat.  I just want to see things go badly for the Orlock player.  He's going through a phase where he has to work the word 'be-atch' into every sentence.  He's got to be close to getting a temporary ban from the store.

Escher versus Delaque:

The first game was Joffrey versus Gannicus, with Joffrey going after Gannicus's friendly Doc. 

Joffrey had a bad week last week, losing twice in a row to Gannicus.  He came back with a vengeance this week though.  Probably as a result of Gannicus goading him about his step sister.  His gang has a nasty little close combat team, who all have agility and/or stealth skills, which allow them to slip from his vents, and straight into close combat early in the game.  2 of them also have Impetuous, which allows them to perform a follow up move of 4".  One of them even has smoke grenades.  Very difficult to counter. 

Gannicus got smashed.  By turn 5, he had 10 guys down (7 out of action), compared to only 4 for Joffrey (with none out of action).   Joffrey took the Friendly Doc.  That was not good.  The last thing we need is Joffrey kicking it up a notch, just as the Gorlock alliance is disintegrating.

Delaque versus Escher:

An ordinary human would have been somewhat disheartened after receiving such a comprehensive thrashing.  But Gannicus is no ordinary human.   For you and me, suffering a  defeat like that might cause us to take some time to reflect, consider our actions, work out solutions, maybe take some time to deal with the emotional impact of the failure.  But for Gannicus, all it means is that he'll have to make space in his schedule for the exacting of swift (and probably disproportionate) revenge before cracking open his next beer.

Accordingly, Game 2 did not go anything like Game 1.  Gannicus attacked the Escher Vents, adapted his game plan, and had the Escher close combat team pinned in place by regular and overwatch fire upon their entry onto the board, which allowed Flaming Moe to burn down two of them, including the smoke grenadier.  Moe, subsequently got counter charged and taken out of action by the remaining CC specialist, but she didn't make it through the next turn. 

The game ended on turn 6 with the scoreline at 5 to 2 in favour of Gannicus, but Gannicus only had 1 guy go out of action, whereas, he managed to remove 4 of the Escher from play.  Gannicus took the Vents back.

So Joffrey took the Friendly Doc and Gannicus took the Vents.  Normally, I'd say that was about an even trade (the income bonus for the friendly Doc canceling out the tactical advantage of Vent infltration), but in this particular case, I'd maybe give the advantage to Gannicus.  Vents are a big advantage for a shooting gang like the Delaque.  Being able to place 3 guys  on the table, above ground level, at the end of the first turn is a big advantage for a shooting gang - you get to put some shooters up nice and high where they can get a clear shot at enemy gangers who would otherwise be in cover (like the Heavy Stubber). 

Additionally, in this case, taking those Vents dents Joffrey's ability to get his Uber CC team across the board.  On the other hand, Gannicus is definitely going to miss the extra creds from that Friendly Doc.  Time will tell.

The map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F001-1-1.jpg&hash=f7bd1f2be6609704d6ebaeff9883bc525eeec46a)

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

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on January 22, 2012, 09:08:57 AM
Yes, another episode of "Necromundia with Underhand!"

Good stuff, and yes, I think double teaming would make me quite sad.

Perhaps with the vents Gannicus can retake his doc?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on January 22, 2012, 09:48:25 AM
Looks like the tide is finally turning.

I look forward to seeing how the rest of the turn pans out.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 23, 2012, 07:20:53 AM
Turn 8 continued:

Orlock versus Van Saar

The most interesting fights of the turn were Jonah versus the Orlock player. 

Jonah has been getting his ass kicked every week by the Orlock player, and he's lucky he hasn't lost more than one territory before now.  But since the last game, his gang has been given a makeover, and Gannicus and I gave him some tips on how to take his gameplay up a level or two.   

The first game was a gang fight, with the Orlock player going after the new Van Saar Settlement. 

The Orlock player is a lazy player, and usually doesn't check his opponents gang roster before the fight, which is something you really have to do in Necromunda (as demonstrated a few turns back when I go grenaded to death in the first turn without firing a shot).  As a result, he was taken aback to find out that Jonah's gang had grown dramatically in size since the last game.  He was further shocked when, at the end of the first Van Saar turn, 3 Van Saar juves dropped out of Vents behind his Heavy (who had been pinned in the shooting phase).   

The Orlock player found himself pinned between 3 autopistol wielding Juves to his rear, and the main Van Saar force to his front.  Being surrounded in Necromunda is dangerous, because everyone only has a 90 degree fire arc to the front.  So in this case, the Orlock player had a difficult decision to make because he had to commit individual models to shooting at the Juves behind him or shooting at the main Van Saar force in front of him.  If he turned 3 guys around to shoot at the Juves, but if one or more of them missed, then at least one of the Juves would be free to move and shoot the next turn (and he would probably hit because autopistols are dangerous up close).  On the other hand, if he tuned, say 5 guys around to face the Juves, then he might be wasting firepower if the first 3 shots hit, since the last couple of guys could not then turn around and shoot at the rest of the Van Saar. 

The Orlock player turned 3 guys around to fire on the Juves, but couldn't do much due to how they were placed, and only succeeded in pinning one of them.  In my view he should have committed a lot more firepower to taking the Juves out right then, but he didn't, and in not doing so, beslubbered himself good and proper.

On Jonah's second turn, the Juves moved into close pistol range (Orlock could also have just put guys on overwatch and waited for the Juves to approach) and blew the Orlock Heavy and his bodyguard to bits.  Meanwhile, Jonah's marksmen picked off a Goliath lasgun marksman, and the rest of his gang moved further into position.

The Orlock player managed to take out 2 of the Juves in the following round, but the remaining one succeeded in taking out Mortlock, the Orlock leader (with help from a wound dealt by a hot shot lasgun sniper which Jonah managed to thread through about four pieces of scenery).  By turn 6, the Van Saar flamer got into burning range, and the Orlock bottled out. 

Final score 6 to 3 in favour of the Van Saar.  If Jonah had been a little more ruthless and had moved those Juves into base to base contact with the prone Heavy and his bodyguard, he would have taken enough guys out to take a territory off the Orlocks.

Aftermath:

After the Van Saar/Orlock game, Jonah stood, legs planted firmly apart, arms folded across his chest, gazing intently at the campaign map.  The Orlock player approached and stood next to him.  The following exchange took place:   

Orlock Player:  Hey man, good game.
Jonah:  [did not respond in any way, just kept staring at the campaign map].
OP:   I said good game, be-atch!
J:   [briefly glancing at him with contempt] I'm glad you enjoyed it. [Turns back to the map].
OP:  You got lucky there be-atch!  Don't you be thinking  that'll happen again!  I got my eyes on that Settlement of yours! Hahahaha!
J:   [flinty grey eyes, like slits, still fixed on the map, then slowly, almost in a whisper]  Laugh while you can boy.   The days of me being your punching bag are over.  I have learned many things about  this game in these last several days, and you have taken your last territory from me.  Of that you can rest assured.  You no longer threaten me, -
OP:   How's that?  Did you get [mimicking a South African accent] diplomatic immunity? Hahahaha!
J:   - [ignoring him] I have grown weary of your antics, and the time has come for me to take back what is mine.  The hunter has become the hunted.   I am going to retake my Settlement this turn.  Then I am going to take your Workshop.  Then your Ruins.  Then your Tunnels.  Then your Mine Workings.  And then you will be out of the campaign, because while that is happening, Gannicus will have dealt with your little girl gang friend [Joffrey] and will have taken the rest of your territories . . . 
OP:  Woohoo!  Big talk from the fat boy!  Bring. It.  On.  be-atch!
J:   - [finally turning to fix the Orlock player with the same dead eyes that witnessed the slaying of his family dogs by a gang of criminals during an invasion of his family's farm back in South Africa during the 90s] . . . and all the while, Underhand will be beslubbering your sister too.
OP:  . . .

Chilling stuff.  As I've said before, the Van Saar are a powerful gang (probably a little more dangerous than Escher, due to their ease of use),  They have easy access to Techno skills, so they seldom run out of ammo due to their Armourers, they make extra income from their Fixers (and Inventors), they get extra access to special weapons due to their Specialists, and they don't have people die due to their Medics.  Jonah also has 2 settlements at the moment, so he'll be picking up extra Juves for free every few games. 

Within four or five turns, he'll have 3 or 4 extra Specialists running around with flamers and plasma guns, that won't run out of ammo.  And his gang can shoot too.  Make no mistake, the Van Saar are always a threat in any campaign, and that's part of why I delayed so long before stepping in and giving Jonah a hand.  In the long run, that could prove to be a mistake.  These are the thoughts that keep me awake at night.

The sleeping giant that is the Van Saar has awoken from its slumber, and I'm glad that I'm on the opposite side of the map.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on January 23, 2012, 08:22:57 AM
I'm curious, at what point does the campaign end? Is it when one gang has taken control of the entire map or is it a turn limit or something?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lonewolf on January 23, 2012, 11:00:29 AM
I'm curious, at what point does the campaign end? Is it when one gang has taken control of the entire map or is it a turn limit or something?

Its over, when the players finally killed each other (literally)  :P

Looks like this campaign has just started  :)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on January 24, 2012, 06:43:42 AM
Reading Jonah's statement in a South African accent makes it all the more terrifying.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul on January 24, 2012, 11:22:36 AM
Excellent turn of events, Underhand.

I would like to ask if the original post has all the current campaign rules with the alterations made as things have gone by?

If it is current.  I would like to bring something up:
13)  Vents and tunnels allow the gang controling them to attack a territory up to two hexes away.

With vents or tunnels, could you attack or defend a territory that you don't boarder?  It may seem an odd question, but you could use it to get some double teaming action yourself.  If only for the experience, or to help Jonah.  Or any other reason you can come up with.

My other question is if the Goliath player is adhearing to rule number 15?  With all those settlements.  He could quickly get his max gang and "forget" about needing 20+ territories to get more.

15)  Gangs can increase past 20 members.  A gang is allowed an extra member for each territory past 20 it controls
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 26, 2012, 03:28:01 AM
With vents or tunnels, could you attack or defend a territory that you don't boarder?  It may seem an odd question, but you could use it to get some double teaming action yourself.  If only for the experience, or to help Jonah.  Or any other reason you can come up with.

Yes.  Vents and Tunnels allow us to attack or defend (although defending is less important these days) any territory within two tiles.  There is no restriction on taking a territory adjacent to a territory I already hold.  If I retake those vents from the Orlocks, then there are a lot of territories that Gannicus and I could double team up on. 

Quote
My other question is if the Goliath player is adhering to rule number 15?  With all those settlements.  He could quickly get his max gang and "forget" about needing 20+ territories to get more.

15)  Gangs can increase past 20 members.  A gang is allowed an extra member for each territory past 20 it controls
He's not breaking that rule, and even if he forgot it, no one else would. It should be noted though, that the restriction doesn't apply to hired guns.  If he had (for example) 19 gang members, then he could hire (say) 5 gangers and field a total number of 24 guys, and that would be okay.

Reading Jonah's statement in a South African accent makes it all the more terrifying.
Even Gannicus was speechless. 

@Lewis: Thanks for the kind words on that other (very good) forum. 

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lewis on January 26, 2012, 05:31:27 AM
No worries man, its a great thread! What days do you guys play exactly/expect to be posting? so that we can all look forward to something! Also our gaming group has kicked off a similar campaign to yours, bit more stripped down but if your interested the link is here:

http://www.enfieldgamers.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=364&start=30 (http://www.enfieldgamers.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=364&start=30) (I had to rejig the map a few times for players but got there in the end).

I believe the total amount of people dead in the first round was 6 or so... ha!





Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 26, 2012, 06:39:18 AM
Van Saar versus Orlock, Game 2:

So Jonah went after the Orlock Settlement.  And he stepped it up another notch.  In the previous game, the Orlock player had been surprised by Jonah bringing an extra 4 Juves, and having 3 of them drop out of Vents at the end of the first turn.  He wasn't going to get caught unawares by that twice. 

What he did get caught unawares by was Jonah hiring 3 ratskin scouts, one of which had Infiltration.  Ratskins are hired guns with a bias towards stealth and hand to hand skills.  If I'm hiring hired guns (which I very rarely do), I tend to prefer scum because shooting is easier in Necromunda, but Ratskin Scouts aren't a bad choice for a gang like the Second Stringers, who are really light on hand to hand combat ability, and they have absolutely no stealth skills.

The Orlock player continues to disappoint in terms of his tactical nous.  He refuses to use his Tunnels or  Vents.  Vents, as I have said before are a valuable asset for a shooting gang like the Orlock, and Tunnels are good for anyone.  He never uses them, because he prefers to be able to shoot every model on the first turn.  Since it is rare that every model will ever be able to find a target on the first turn of a game of Necromunda, I have to say I don't think much of that as a tactic.

His other problem is that he continues to castle up in deployment.  Castling up (ie deploying all of your models close together, normally to one side of the table) is a pretty decent tactic in 40k.  It can backfire in Necromunda though.  In 40k, most models can shoot in all directions regardless of which way they are facing.  In Necromunda, a model can only fire towards its front 90 arc.  That makes castling a dangerous tactic, since it makes it easy for your enemy to outflank you, and thus have to divide your fire.  I touched on this a couple of posts ago. 

The Orlock player has been slow to grasp this because it worked well for him when he was double teaming me with Octavian, and the extra 15 or so Goliaths made it more difficult for me to close in around him (although back in turn 6, I did manage 4 turns against him solo and nearly tabled him).  It also worked against the Van Saar for a while, back when Jonah was content to sit back and take long ranged shots from across the table and lose every time.  But Jonah has adapted his game now, and the Orlocks are in trouble.

Anyway, he deployed his guys so that Jonah wouldn't be able to repeat the same tactic of dropping 3 Juves out of Vents and blowing away his Heavy Stubber.  Which was smart.  It didn't help him though.

After Deployment Jonah set up the Infiltrating  Ratskin Scout 5 inches away from the Heavy, and launched him into close combat on the first turn, taking him out, and following up into close combat with an Orlock marksman.  Then he deployed his Vent Juves to the left flank of the Orlocks. 

In the following turn, the  Ratskin Scout got taken out in the close combat phase by the Orlock Leader, but the Van Saar Juves took him down in their shooting phase, and the Orlock ended up bottling out on turn 3 with 4 guys down (3 out of action) and 2 Van Saar down, with only the Ratskin Infiltrator out of action. 

Jonah took the Settlement.

Orlock Player:  [finishes setting up] Done!  Let's see you pull that ninja bullamphetamine parrot with your little Juves this time be-atch!
Jonah:  All in good time. [moves around to the Orlock side of the table to place the Ratskin Infiltrator].
OP:  What the beslubber are you doing?  [looks at me and Joffrey] What's he doing!?!
Jonah:   Deploying my infiltrating Ratskin so that he can charge into close combat with your heavy stubber on the first turn.
Joffrey:  He's setting up his Ratskin Scout so he can charge into close combat with your heavy stubber on the first turn.
Underhand:  I agree.  That is exactly what he is doing.

Here's the Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroturn8001.jpg&hash=5970fa754033eeed398b997711417cd14b1c853a)

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

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul on January 26, 2012, 10:13:15 AM
Earlier you said you were in contact with Gannicus.  How have the negotiations gone with him?  Have you two formed an alliance, and come up with a plan to help each other out.  Perhaps you two and Jonah should coordinate together.  Jonah is in a better location to help Gannicus out.  Right now all three of you have a vent.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 26, 2012, 05:13:19 PM
No worries man, its a great thread! What days do you guys play exactly/expect to be posting? so that we can all look forward to something!
We normally try to play on Saturday mornings, but that can get delayed because Gannicus and I drink on Fridays.  Jonnah also plays cricket, so he's not always available.  If we can't get through the games on Saturday, then we either play on Sunday or (usually) Thursday nights. 

Some weeks it just isn't possible to get everyone together, even at different times, to play a proper round - in a campaign like this, you can't eally let people play too many more games than other people or their gang just gets too experienced.  We've also had to miss a few weeks here and there because of the holiday and exam period - Joffrey, Jonah and the Orlock player all go to uni and Octavian goes to school.    My job can get extremely busy for weeks at a time (hence the long periods when I don't update), and I'm not completely sure how Gannicus earns a living, but he can be completely uncontactable for lengthy periods.

I write an update when I get a chance, and I'm actually a bit behind schedule at the moment.  The updates which take the longest are the ones showing the experience upgrades for my gang due to the fiddly coding and formating, hence my not bothering for the last couple of turns.

Quote
Also our gaming group has kicked off a similar campaign to yours, bit more stripped down but if your interested the link is here:

http://www.enfieldgamers.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=364&start=30 (http://www.enfieldgamers.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=364&start=30) (I had to rejig the map a few times for players but got there in the end).

I believe the total amount of people dead in the first round was 6 or so... ha!
Looks like a good set up.  Did you end up going with the double flamer gang?  If so, those Tunnels will be a big advantage for you.  I wish my Vents had all been Tunnels.

If I were you, I would target the Van Saar early and exterminate them utterly.   Never let a Van saar gang survive until the late end of a campaign.  By turn 12, every single one of the beslubberers will be running around with either a flamer or a plasma gun which never run out of ammo.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on January 26, 2012, 07:52:12 PM
Never Disappointing, and Jonah's turn around and subsequent breaking of the Octavian Lines is...awesome.



You're a good tutor.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lewis on January 27, 2012, 04:58:29 AM
Thanks for letting us know the situation UH, Do you think you guys will go to the bitter end? Also concerning your map, does Gannicus own the Vents/Guilder Contact/Workshop?

I did decide to go with the two flamers - its so much easier getting up on people and make them skirt around you than trying to position a stubber (for me anyway). Last week when we played all of us had miss read the rules for vents/tunnels so we set them up straight away rather than after the first round.  I flamed the guys leader, heavy and a ganger with one team and his other heavy and ganger with another team. He bottled second turn. I did feel kinda bad tbh - But we did both do it... I also gave him back his grenade launcher guy for free.

Will be interesting to see how we all fair when using the correct rules...

Sorry for the small thread hijack!





Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 29, 2012, 04:53:36 AM
Earlier you said you were in contact with Gannicus.  How have the negotiations gone with him?  Have you two formed an alliance, and come up with a plan to help each other out.  Perhaps you two and Jonah should coordinate together.  Jonah is in a better location to help Gannicus out.  Right now all three of you have a vent.
Not quite sorted yet.  We'll tie it down after the next round.  With the destruction of the the Gorlock alliance and the emergence of the Van Saar, the campaign is actually in a bit of a state of flux at the moment.

Thanks for letting us know the situation UH, Do you think you guys will go to the bitter end? Also concerning your map, does Gannicus own the Vents/Guilder Contact/Workshop?

Yes.

Campaign Turn 8:

The Hand Of Redemption -v- House Bloodaxe

Octavian attacked my Vents.  He was geared up for a shoot out again, having hired 2 Scum, pushing his total numbers up to 19 (compared to my 11).  He probably would have hired more, but he one of his Juves rolled the Specialist Techno skill, and he went and bought a flamer, which is a pain in the ass now that he's got some Vents.

Unfotunately for him, I ended up getting to choose the scenario again:

Underhand:  Hmmm . . . difficult choice . . . what's it gonna be, what's it gonna be -
Octavian:  Just -
U:  Scavengers!

Scavengers suits me at this point, since even though I'm pretty confident of beating Octavian in a Gang Fight, I still get D6x5 creds for each of the Loot Counters I collect, and with only a Vents and an Old Ruins for territory, I need all the extra income I can get.  The difference between having only a Vents & an Old Ruins as your only Territories, and having no Territory at all is very small.   We rolled 3 Loot Counters, and they were placed more or less evenly across the middle of the table.

Octavian has 19 guys to my 11,  so he only has to start making bottle rolls once he loses 5 guys (which is a lot in Necromunda), whereas I have to start rolling at only 3.  If he gets one more guy, he will only be rolling to run away once he loses 6 guys.  That's tough to stop, especially when you only have 11 guys.  My aim with this game was to beat him comfortably so that he would be encouraged to go after sme of the juicy Orlock Territory rather than waste his time going repeatedly attacking my comparatively amphetamine parrotty territories.  Hopefully that would give me breathing space to rebuild and come back at him later.

Anyway, my best chance at winning was to take all 3 Loot counters.  Since I received what I thought was the slightly more favourable table side, I was pretty confident of being able to grab the first 2 Loot counters without much difficulty at all, since there was plenty of cover, and I could cover them with guns until I got into position to grab them.  The third one though, would require some craft, since Octavian doesn't make the same mistake twice (especially after the amphetamine parrotbagging I gave him in front of the whole store after the last game), and would know to keep some guys back to deploy from Vents to counter mine.  He also had a 50% chance of taking the first turn, which would allow him to deploy his Vent team first.  If he did that, then my own vent teams would have to deploy 8" away from them, which would make Asa and Josiah (my Loot Runners) pretty much useless.  Luckily, I had a plan.  And a back-up plan.  Because I'm very, very smart.

Deployment:

I set up first.  I set up most of my Gang to the left of the map.  They would advance on objective 1, capture it, and allow the Loot Runner (Asa - who has Leap) to run it back to my deployment zone.

I set up Jacob, Ram and Josiah (with Sprint) in the middle with a view down the long corridor leading to the 2nd loot counter in the middle.  Isaac and Ram would cover Josiah with their Heavy Stubber and Lasgun respectively, while he bolted up the corridor and ran back with the Loot.

That was it for my initial deployment.

Octavian set up 10 of his guys on the right (my right).  He set up another team of 3 in the middle and another team of three on the left. 

From the initial deployment it appeared that my gang would swarm the 1st (left) piece of loot and overwhelm Octavian's 3 man team.  In the middle, I was confident that Isaac and Ram could hold the centre to allow Asa to get to the Loot unmolested (apart from a suit of terminator armour, there is little better protection from enemy fire than a BS5 heavy on overwatch).  The real issue, as expected, would be with the third loot counter. 

Normally, when I have Vents or Tunnels, I like to drop my Loot Runners right next to the Loot so that they can nab it and run back to my lines as quickly as possible.  This time I was going to try something a bit different. 

Since I only had 2 Loot Runners, I decided to set my 3 man vent team up as an interception team, and I was going to make sure that what they intercepted, stayed beslubbering intercepted.  My Vent team was Abraham, Isaac and Boaz, my leader/best fighter and my flamer guys, and they would be dropping out of Vents close to the 3rd Loot Counter over to the right. 

If I got the first turn, they would drop out onto the 3rd Loot Counter, but in cover.  On the next turn, Isaac and Boaz would hunker down in cover and go into overwatch with both of their flamers pointed towards the doorways, while Abraham snatched the Loot and ran for it.  If the Goliaths managed to get past Isaac and Boaz (which would cost them dearly), then I was confident that Abraham was tough enough to soak up at least 2 turns worth of shooting while he ran back to my deployment area.

If I didn't get the first turn, and Octavian got the first turn, then I expected that Octavian would drop at least one of his vent team onto the third Loot Counter.  That would mean I would have to set up 8"away.  No problem.  There was a small room between the Loot Counter and the Goliath Deployment zone.  My interception team would deploy there and intercept (ie burn to a crisp, and then hack the apart the smouldering corpse with a chainsword the corpse of) the Loot Runner who dropped from the ceiling.

Excellent plan, I'm sure you'll agree.  After all, as a very astute contributor to this thread, rightly noted - I'm tactically smarter than my opponents*.  Unfortunately, it all turned to amphetamine parrot.
 
Because of Joffrey.


* And humble.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul on January 29, 2012, 09:04:08 AM
New rule, let the players play their own damn games.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on January 29, 2012, 04:28:43 PM
I feel concerned at the ominous ending and the tone of the piece. Its that kind of "happy-insane" tone you use when something bad happens and you're being sarcastic about it. You know what I mean, I'm sure.

<_<

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on January 29, 2012, 06:42:36 PM
Cliffhanger ending on a 40kOnline thread? What is this witchcraft?!

Either that or UnderHand has been arrested for Joffrey's murder, which, by the ending of that post, quite probably happened.

 ::)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on January 29, 2012, 08:02:36 PM

Either that or UnderHand has been arrested for Joffrey's murder, which, by the ending of that post, quite probably happened.

 ::)

Oh, then thats ok. He's a lawyer, hopefully with money/lawyer buddies/intuitive understanding of how to get away with cold blooded murder.

Besides, he's probably smart enough to bury the body under the floorboards...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 30, 2012, 03:18:02 PM
Joffrey hates 4 things:
1)  Gannicus;
2)  The fact that everyone at the store now calls him Joffrey;
3)  His step-sister;
4)  Gannicus teasing him about his step-sister's sexual ethics (which are, just to be clear,  in reality, totally beyond criticism).

Unfortunately, since he wasn't too successful this week in making Gannicus suffer for his insolence, he had to vent his frustration somewhere, and so decided to help Octavian out against me.

Octavian got the first turn.  That definitely didn't help, but it certainly wasn't even close to fatal.

I was hoping that Octavian would either drop a single Loot Runner on each Loot Counter, or at least on or near to Objectives 2 & 3.  That's what most newish players would do - drop the loot runners on the contested objectives and let the horde swarm the 3rd objective.  But Joffrey saw what I had planned at a glance and beslubbered it all up.

Joffrey:  Where are your Vent guys going?
Octavian:  Ironfist on one, Rockface on 2 and Leadhammer on 3.
J:  No.  Don't do that.
O:  They drop, he has to deploy 8"away from them.  Then they run back in the next turn.
J:  Newbie mistake, mate.  That guy has Sprint[pointing at Josiah]  , and that guy [pointing at Asa] has Leap.  If you drop them there, then his Heavy will kill Rockface as soon as he touches the Loot, and that guy [Josiah] will be able to run out and can probably get close enough to shoot Ironfist.
O:  Then what do you think?
J:  He can only win by taking down 5 of your guys and making you fail a bottle roll, or by taking all 3 pieces of loot.  You only have to take down 3 of his guys. 
O:  Okay . . .
J:  don't worry about 1 & 2.  Leave them.  Just secure 3.  That cuts out one way of him winning.
O:  Okay . . .
J:  He's still got a Vent team, which he probably wants to drop on objective 3.  Drop Ironfist, Rockface and the other guy on objective 3 and sit tight. That'll totally beslubber up his plan.   Won't it Underhand?
Underhand:   . . .
J:  Yeah, thought so.
O:  Hahahaha!
J:  After that, it's a straight fight, and you should win that.  You have the numbers.  Just take him room by room.

I could have punched that little prick.  Nevertheless, that's why I had plan B.

Octavian moved his gang and then deployed his Vent team:

O:  That's Ironfist, that's Rockface and that's Leadhammer with the flamer.
U:  Flamer or Flame Pistol?  There's a difference.
O:  Flamer.  Lead hammer is a specialist.  I picked it up last turn.  Gannicus was -
U:  Yeah.  Fine.  Just checking.

Well, that beslubbered me.  Obviously my plan A was screwed, but I'd planned for that.  Plan B wasn't in much better shape though, since I hadn't counted on my interception team being sandwiched between 7 Goliath gangers, 2 Scummers and the Goliath leader who wanted nothing more than to sodomise Abraham with his chainsword at one end and a flamer team at the other.  But a slight chance still remained.

When Octavian initially deployed his 3 Vent guys, he hadn't put much thought into exactly where he should place them in the little room the Loot counter was located in.  He was content to just make sure they were out of sight.  Rookie error. 

With normal Necromunda terrain, you can be a bit hit or miss with how you deploy your models.  With modular Space Hulk Terrain though, millimetres count.  Concentration counts for a hell of a lot.  Octavian had deployed without thought and Ironfist was blocking the line of sight of both Rockface and Leadhammer to the door that Abraham would enter through.  He would have to spend a turn moving his Vent team to be able to set them up in Overwatch.   I figured that Octavian had lost himself a turn there.  And that was more than Abraham would need.

On my turn, On the left,  I sent my main group ahead toward the first loot counter.  In the middle, Jacob and Ram went into Overwatch, while Asa darted ahead, towards the 2nd Loot counter, sticking to cover as he went.

I then deployed my Vent team.  Octavian let out a hiss when he saw both the flamers and Abraham appear.  Obviously, he hates Abraham with a passion, but if anything, he hates Isaac and Boaz more.  Those two between them, must have killed about 3 of his guys over the course of the campaign, and given serious injuries to a dozen more.  He wants to kill them.  He managed to capture Isaac once, but suffered badly as a result of the Rescue Mission.  My placement of those two, relatively close to his main force was provocative.

Octavian:  They're dead.
Joffrey:  Stick with the plan.

At that point, Myrcella walked in. 

Myrcella:  Dad wants you to call him. [she refers to their parents as Mum and Dad, Joffrey refers to them as Dad and "your Mother"]
Joffrey: [Takes his phone out of his pocket, looks at it, swears, and leaves the store].
Myrcella:  Who's winning?
Underhand:  It's just getting interesting.

I placed Abraham close to the door, and Jacob and Boaz further back inside.  That way, if Octavian ran his flamer guy towards the room and fired, he would only be able to hit Abraham, who can take a hit from a flamer pretty easily.

On his turn, Octavian moved his left and middle groups towards the first and second loot counters respectively.  On the right, Ironfist picked up the Loot and moved away from the door to clear line of sight for Rockface and Leadhammer.  Leadhammer moved out of the loot room and flamed down the corridor, hitting Abraham.    Rockface pivoted to face the door with his stub gun and went into overwatch. 

On my turn, to the left, Amon, dropped into cover like a fat sack of useless amphetamine parrot, ready to provide ineffective lemonish overwatch fire in later turns, the rest of the group continued to trot forward providing a shield of bodies for Josiah. 

In the middle, Asa made it to the Loot counter,  Ram and Jacob, staying in Overwatch went into hiding, ready to shoot at any pursuing Goliaths that might appear in the following turn.

On the right, Abraham picked himself up and charged down the corridor to attempt to get into into close combat with Leadhammer.  Rockface was on overwatch inside the loot  room, protecting Ironfist who held the loot.  Due to how his models were positioned relative to the door, Octavian was unable to get Rockface or Ironfist to take  a shot at Abraham as he charged Leadhammer. 

Suffice to say, the fight between Leadhammer and Abraham was very one sided, Abraham getting 6 hits and dealing 4 wounds to the poor little flamer Juve.  Abraham consolidated into light cover in the corridor.

Isaac and Boaz moved into position at the doorway of the room they deployed in, ready to go into Overwatch on the following turn, flamers pointed down the corridor ready for any pursuing Goliaths stupid enough to approach that way.

Octavian dithered a bit during his third turn.  He was outnumbered  on the left, so he just settled into cover and fired off a couple of shots (one of which actually got a wound on Abijah).  It was obvious he had lost that loot counter.

In the middle, he darted one of his guys from cover to another piece of cover close to the loot counter.  Although, Asa would still be able to nab the loot the next turn, that Goliath would be in close range of him the following shooting phase, and would probably be able to hit him.  I wasn't going to put up with that, so I had Jacob unload his heavy stubber at him, taking him out of action.  That left Jacob exposed, and he ended up taking a wound from lasgun fire, but he has 2 so he was okay.

Over on the right, things were interesting.  Octavian bunched his main horde up at both sides of the T-intersection at the end of the corridor, readying for a charge on the following turn.  He took an autogun shot at Abraham, who was still crouched in the corridor, but missed.

Inside the loot room, he kept Rockface and Ironfist on overwatch, ready for Abraham.

On my turn, to the left my gang closed around the 1st loot counter, Josiah picking it up.  In the middle, Asa darted out, grabbed the 2nd loot counter, and scooted back into heavy cover.  Both Goliaths fired at him, but neither hit. Ram fired back at them, but failed to wound.

Over on the right, Isaac took a cheeky shot at the Goliaths with his Autopistol, pinning the autogun guy (unfortunately also running out of ammo in the process).  Boaz remained in Overwatch.

Further down the corridor, Abraham charged into the loot room, in which Ironfist and Rockface were cowering.  Their overwatch fire missed, and Abraham tore into Rockface with his chainsword, killing him and stepping over his corpse in two quick strides to close with Ironfist.

You might think that it was a ballsy move running my leader straight at a couple of guys on Overwatch.  Nah.  They were both Juves - Rockface had BS3 and Ironfist had BS2, there are modifiers for shooting at a target moving from cover and shooting at a target which is charging you.  As a result, Rockface was only hitting on a 6, and Ironfist was hitting on a 7 due to the coversave provided by Rockface.  Rockface died quickly, and Abraham used his follow up move to consolidate into Ironfist.

On his turn, Octavian took a few more shots at my main force on the left.  In the middle, he put his 2 remaining guys into overwatch, ready to take a shot at Asa as soon as he broke cover.

On the right, he realised he was in trouble.  Abraham would get the loot this combat phase, and would be able to run next turn.  To be able to stop him, he had to start making up some distance now.  The only problem was that he had to get past a couple of flamers to do it.  He didn't want to charge forward in a mass, so he sent out a Juve.  That Juve ran down the corridor, all on his own.  I let him do that without shooting at him. 

I wasn't going to waste a flamer shot on a single Juve - much better to wait more guys pile up behind him.  Octavian realised this, and realised he had a bit of a problem.  Either, he piled more guys up behind, the Juve, and let me blast him, or he could let the Juve stay there for a turn and engage in close combat on the next turn, thereby taking my flamer overwatch out of the equation.  The second choice, even given that he was now cramped for time was the smarter option, so that's what he did, because Octavian is smart. 

The rest of his main force went into Overwatch to take some shots at Abraham as he ran out of the loot room.

Inside the Loot Room, Abraham cut down Ironfist and took the loot, consolidating closer to the doorway.

On my turn, I also had a quandry.  What to do about that Juve?  I wasn't actually too worried about wha would happen if he got into close combat with either Isaac or Boaz - both of them have swords and Isaac has WS4 and Boaz has WS5 - they are actually both pretty badass in CC.  But I did want to draw things out for another turn.  Abraham would need another 3 turns to get clear with the loot and I wanted to last that long.

So I repositioned Boaz and Isaac.  I kept Boaz near the door on overwatch.  If the Juve went for him, he would blast him with fire, or finish him in close combat.  The next wave of Goliaths would be taken care of by Isaac, who was crouched out of line of sight, inside the door.  He would step around to the front of the door as soon as they got close, and flame them all.  If they only came one or two at a time, it wouldn't matter, because I would have won by then.

Boaz flamed the Juve and took him down.

Abraham darted out of the loot room and sprinted down the corridor towards my deployment zone.  None of Octavian's covering fire hit him.

Over to the left and the middle, Asa and Josiah hared it back to my deployment area with their loot.  Both of them were home free.

It looked like Octavian was happy to just sit it out until the end of the game at this point, not wanting to face the might of Boaz and Isacc's twin flamers.  I was more than happy with that outcome, but then this idiot who was watching had to stick his stupid nose in:

Idiot:  Dude - you're about to lose a territory.
Octavian:  What? 

[This idiot, by the way, last year claimed to have played in the 40k Ard Boyz 2008 semi finals.  That lie lasted precisely as long as it took someone to Google 40k Ard Boyz semi finals.  I can't belive he can still show his face at the store.]

Octavian had been distracted by the ass kicking Jonah was handing to the Orlock player at the next table, and had lost count of how many of his guys were out of action (we had also forgotten to remove Rockface and Ironfist from the table after their fight with Abraham, and had just left them lying there).  As it was, the score was 4 Goliaths out of action, to 0 Cawdor out of action, which would result in me taking my Vents back.

Octavian hit the panic button.  He fired everything he had, pulling up guys which he had stuck in hiding and shooting with them, figuring that even if they got shot, as long as he could get the kill ratio back under 1/3 it would be worth it.

On the left, he  finally managed to roll some decent dice with his heavy stubber and took out  Jemuel.  In the middle, he took Ram down. He then charged everything he had in his main horde down the corridor at Abraham, putting them in pistol range next turn.

In my turn, I ran Abraham around the corner of the corridor.  He was home free.  To the Left and the middle, Asa and Josiah crossed into my deployment area.  I would win the game next turn.  I just had to keep the kill ratio to 3/1 in my favour. 

Fortunately that would be easy,  all I had to do was step Boaz and Isaac out of cover and send out a gout of redeeming flame down the corridor to cleanse it of all the Goliath filth.  So that's what I did.  They stood shoulder to shoulder and bathed the whole corridor in flame, taking down 2 scum and 2 Goliath gangers, pinning another 2 and taking 3 out of action.  That brought the kill ratio to 8:2, which would quickly change to 12:2 as soon as Boaz and Isaac strolled down the corridor administering the coups de gráce to the wounded.  All they had to do was deal with the 2 remaining, pinned Goliaths, one of who broke and ran, leaving only one last Goliath.

Unfortunately, that last Goliath was a slightly crispy and extremely pissed off Akilar Bloodaxe, the Goliath leader.

Bloodaxe had taken 2 hits, but only one of them wounded him.  He did the obvious thing and charged both Boaz and Isaac at once.

Out of all the characters in the game, the three scariest close combat fighters are Abraham, due to his toughness, Shamora (the Escher Leader) due to her speed across the ground, and Bloodaxe, due to his high weaponskill and close combat skills.  Abraham and Shamora are much better at actually getting into close combat (arguably making them deadlier in general), but once combat is joined, Bloodaxe is as dangerous as a rabid gorilla on crack. 

Isaac got taken down  straight away, but didn't automatically get taken out because Boaz was still in the fight.  Boaz ended up taking 3 hits, saving one, reducing one to a flesh wound, but succumbing to the third.

In my turn,  Abraham crossed the line and the game ended.  Final score 8:4.  If Boaz had just managed to hold out that last turn, I would have taken the Vents. 

A shame not to capture the territory, but still a comfortable victory, and there will be a lot of pain for Octavian in the post game sequence.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul on January 30, 2012, 03:54:11 PM
Not as bad as advertised.  I certainly hope a few die to the sustained wounds.

Seriously, the other gamers should let the players play their game.  Outside help should be fined for giving advice before the game is over.

I know it would be a lot of work, but could you post your gang after the post game rolls have been done.  Its been a while since we've seen what has changed
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on January 30, 2012, 07:51:50 PM
I second a plea for the data roster. No, outside help is not fun at all....yet...I feel that a comment about it might be...ah....slightly hypocritical. Was what Joffery did so different from what Underhand did with Jonah? Even so, during a game is a bit different (and worse, perhaps).


That idiot though, deserves to be punched in the face. That was not very excusable at all.  Nice pulling it out of the fire though Underhand-I expected a bad report, but this one was pretty good. Edge of my seat! :D
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul on January 30, 2012, 11:14:02 PM
I'm fine with talk before and after a game.  A game like this talk and advice is expected, but during is another matter.  Once the game starts.  Chatter should be kept light, and outside advice should be held until it is too late.  Better yet, it should be held until after the game.  I guess that I'm just a prude.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine on January 31, 2012, 09:50:43 PM
Great update.

I agree no during game advice from others. As then your not playing your opponet you were playing joffrey. Actually it would be easy to enforce as you could fine players gangs credits for offences.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on February 5, 2012, 02:16:51 AM
Campaign Turn 8; Game 2; The Hand of Redemption -v- The Mortlock Cartel

I've been on the back foot in this campaign for a long time.  The last time I picked up a territory was in Turn 2.  Since then it's been pretty much all down hill.  But with the death of the Gorlock Alliance, I've finally been able to regain my footing.  It was my hope that Octavian will find the rich Orlock territories and the sweet taste of revenge for the Orlocj Player's betrayal too tempting next turn, and he will attack them.  The Orlock territories should definitely seem tastier than the thin pickings of my Old Ruins or Vents.  So now I just had to convince the Orlock player to start attacking either the Van Saar or Goliath territories.  Fortunately, I had a plan which I figured would achieve that aim:

Kicking the living amphetamine parrot out of him.

Unsubtle, maybe, but I was sure it would be effective.  And very, very satisfying.

Scenario & Set Up:

Nevertheless, I was still vulnerable to a Shootout scenario. If the Orlock player got the choice of scenario, he could choose a Shoot Out, hire extra goons, and take me to the cleaners in exactly the same way that Octavian had done.  But I had a plan to deal with that too. 

When we were getting ready to set up the table, I made a big show of  lining up a whole bunch of my Hired Gun miniatures - Scum, Bounty Hunters, Ratskins, and even some specially made custom models bashed together from my spare Imperial Guard bitz.  The clear implication (and I was in no way being subtle about it), was that I would be loading up with Hired Guns, and the Orlock player would not be getting a free run if he went for a Shoot Out.

That was all bullamphetamine parrot, of course.  I was as broke as ever, and could not have scraped together enough credits for even a single mercenary, but the Orlock Player is too lazy to check my Gang Roster to confirm that, so I figured there was nothing to lose in bluffing.

Anyway, we rolled, and he got to choose.  He wavered, but once I started fingering my twin pistol wielding Scum models, he lost his nerve and went for a Scavengers scenario.  Which once again was fine with me.  Scavengers is my favourite scenario.

We set up the Space Hulk terrain for the scavengers Scenario.  All of our other tables are pretty much set in terms of their terrain set up, but the Vent and Tunnels tables are different every time.  This one had one long corridor set up down the middle of the table from deployment zone to deployment zone, with a few rooms and corridors branching out.  There were other side corridors, but none of them were longer than maybe 16" at a stretch, so there was no doubt as to where I would be placing my Heavy Stubber.

We rolled 4 Loot Counters, and by the way they were set up (one in each quarter of the table), it would be difficult for me to win by taking all 4 counters.  The game would be decided in the conventional way by causing the opposition to bottle out.

I set my long ranged firebase (Jacob, Ram and Amon) at the entrance to the long corridor in the middle, and split the rest of my guys into 2 assault teams with a flamer each and a loot running vent team.  Asa, Josiah and Zohar were the Vent team.   

As is his way, the Orlock Player deployed all of his guys in one big mass in a single room on the left.  This was a particuarly poor tactic on this table, because the short narrow corridors (with the one exception noted above) and relatively short fire lanes would make it difficult to take bring a lot of fire to bear in one direction without his own guys giving my guys cover saves.  Nevertheless, he had one loot piece completely sealed up.

The Game:

I got the first turn.  I moved my assault teams forwards with a view to flanking the Orlocks and hitting them on about turn 5 or 6 with both flamers from either side, simultaneously.  The Orlock player had kept his models out of line of sight of my ranged team, so Jacob, Amon and Ram went into overwatch.  I deployed Asa and Zohar on the Second Loot Counter to the Right on the Orlock side of the table and dropped Josiah on the Third Loot counter to the right on my side of the table.   Both Asa and Josiah would run the Loot back towards to my side of the table, with Josiah dumping his loot with my ranged team before coming back and collecting the 2nd piece of Loot from Asa, who would then go back to Zohar.  Ponderous, but at least it would allow those two to get back into the fight, which should take longer than usual.

The first turn started disastrously for the Orlock player.  He moved two of his lasgun marksmen out of cover and into position to shoot at my ranged team.  I could have had Jacob pick either of them off as they appeared, but I decided to take a risk and let them all get into place before opening up.  In any case, my ranged team were in heavy cover, and the Orlock player simply didn't have enough shots to shoot both Amon, then Ram and then Jacob.  As it was, he missed with both of them anyway. 

His Heavy then used his Bulging Biceps ability to waddle into position and shoot at my ranged team.  Or he would have, but Jacob picked that moment to open fire.  And boy did he open fire.  He got 6 shots off, and 4 of them hit, all of them causing  wounds, taking the Heavy out of action and both of the lasgun Marksmen down.  Even worse, it triggered a rout amongst the tightly packed Orlocks, starting with their leader, Mortlock.  By the end of the turn, the Orlocks had lost their Heavy Stubber, had 2 lasgunners down, and 5 guys including their leader, broken.  They were a rabble.

That gave my assault squads a turn to run closer to the Orlocks.  Any further fire fights during the game would take place within pistol range, which gave me the advantage.  I also moved Ram and Amon up the main corridor to make sure they would be within lasgun range in future turns.

You know those games where everything goes to plan?  Well this was one of those.  The momentum was with me from the first Orlock turn, and nothing the Orlock Player tried could halt it.  His tactics, if indeed he had any, were to wait with his guys crammed into one room, stay on overwatch, and shoot anyone who came close. 

His problem is that he uses catachan guardsmen as stand in Orlocks, so nearly everyone in his gang is armed with a lasgun, his leader, heavy (gone) and Hied Guns being the main exceptions.  His gang is too specialised for fighting at long range.  On most tables, he can dominate the first couple of turns, but he has trouble dealing with a Gang that gets close, and that would be easier than usual on this table, especially after I took control of the long corridor.

Both the wounded Orlock Marksmen went out of action, helped on their way by Amon and Ram shooting their prone forms before they could crawl away.  Another Orlock lasgunner was taken out of action by another overwatch burst from Jacob. 

By that stage, the casualty count was 4 nil to me, with all of the Orlock casualties out of action.  By turn 5, I had captured 3 pieces of Loot and was one turn away from being able to unleash Isaac's flamer.  While there would have been some satisfaction in taking down another few Orlocks, it would have resulted in some casualties, and I didn't particularly feel like having to make any more serious injury rolls in the post game sequence than necessary.  So I just hung back around the corner from the 2 corridors leading to the big room with all the Orlocks and put my guys into overwatch, content to wait until the Orlocks finally bottled out.

Underhand:  Alright . . . Overwatch, overwatch, overwatch, overwatch . . . and Amon, Ram and Jacob go into hiding.  That's it.  Your turn.
Orlock Player:  [moves a couple of guys to cover the corridors].  Everyone else is on overwatch.
UH:  Okay.  Is that it?
OP:  Yeah be-atch.
UH:  Go ahead and roll your bottle check then.
OP:  Passed!
UH:  Okay, well, all of my guys stay on overwatch, and everyone that is already on overwatch goes into hiding .  Your turn.
OP:   Is that it?
UH:  Yep.
OP:  Well my guys are sitting tight too!
UH:  Okay.  Bottle check then.
OP:  Passed be-atch!
UH:  My guys stay in overwatch, and stay in hiding.
OP:  Are you just gonna stay and hide for the rest of the game?
UH:  Yeah, pretty much.  Until you bottle out.
OP:  [realisation dawning] . . .
UH:  . . .
OP:  Hey guys - Underhand's just going to says he's just going to sit in cover and hide like a be-atch for the rest of the game!
UH:  . . .
OP:  Come and take me be-atch!
UH:  Just roll your bottle check.
OP:  Passed!   Your turn!  Stop hiding like a be-atch and try using those hand flamers!  You know you'll get shot down!  Be a big man!  Bring it!
UH:  Everyone stays in hiding.  Everyone stays in overwatch.  Your turn.
OP:  Stop playing like a Tremultuous O!
UH:  Mate . . . a couple of things.  Firstly, stop using the word be-atch in every sentence.  It makes you sound beslubbering retarded.  Secondly - I know how to play this game without any help from you, so don't tell me how to play. 
OP:  You're playing like a Tremultuous O.
UH:  I don't tell you how to suck Joffrey's cock, don't you tell me how to play Necromunda. 

The only option he had at that point was to either keep bottle checking until the game ended and he lost the territory, or launch some kind of counter offensive and attempt to take out enough of my guys to get the kill ratio above 3:1, but at close quarters, and with a whole bunch of overwatching flamers and handflamers covering his lines of approach, that wouldn't go well for him.  He conceded the game, and I took the Vents.

Analysis:

It's harder than usual for me to point to all the really awesome things I did to achieve victory in this game, because to be honest, there weren't really any.  This victory was earned through the incompetence of my opponent.   He just didn't have a plan.  All I did was drop my vent team on some of the objectives, have my Heavy Stubber cover the longest fire lane, and gradually move the remainder of my force towards the main body of the opposition troops which remained static throughout.

I don't see things going well for the Orlock player in the next few rounds.  He's been relying on a castle defence for so long that he doesn't know how to do anything else.  He's specialised his gang into a long ranged shooting gang, and has no real experience with close combat.  He has to adapt his tactics quickly, but I don't think he's got it in him, and he's wasted all his creds on hiring scum, so re-equipping them will be difficult.  He also just lost 2 games to Jonah who would have been considered the softest opposition in the campaign.  He's in trouble.

In hindsight, I actually wonder what might have been achieved had I actually gone after him harder towards the end.    Maybe  could have completely tabled him without losing a single guy?  We'll never know.  It seems like a wasted opportunity to find out just how bad a player the Orlock player truly is.

Nevertheless, it's good to finally win a territory again.  The last time I won a territory was in turn 2, and since then it's been all down hill.  One extra Vent territory isn't much, but I won 6 loot counters this turn, so I'll have a bit of cash to throw about.  I still only have 3 territories, but it's all about momentum, and with luck, no one will be coming after me for a while yet. 

More importantly, I've taken those Vents back.  That's a huge difference both tactically and strategically.  Tactically, on a game to game basis, it means I now have 2 Vent teams again - a big bonus for a flamer heavy gang like mine. 

Strategically, on a turn to turn basis, the difference is potentially even more significant.   There are now 6 Orlock/Escher territories which Gannicus and I can attack simultaneously.  I'll talk to Gannicus about what we'll do.  I doubt we'll resort to double teaming to conquer territory, but the idea of using double teaming as a response to the loss of any of those 6 territories that we might capture individually would have to be a stern deterrent to any attacks against either of us.

I'm not out of the woods yet, and I still don't have sufficient regular income to properly fund my Gang's campaign, but I've got an Escher Guilder Contact, an Orlock Workshop and a Goliath Spore Cave bordering the territory I just captured.  It's just a matter of picking the target.

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroturn8003-1-1.jpg&hash=3cd20c99a66f6dc3b61799e0f6a0d51735c82d41)

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


Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on February 5, 2012, 08:30:05 AM
Congratulations on a solid victory.
Looks like you might well have stopped the rot with this, and you should be able to push on now to re-consolidate your position.

As for which territory to take next, my suggestion is the Workshop.

While the Spore Cave is tempting for sheer raw earning potential, while the Guilder Contact would pay dividends with your preferred scavenger scenario, I think the Workshop is the soundest for the following reasons;
Ignoring ammo rolls is always a useful skill to have, especially in a gang without a huge number of weapons smiths and armourers and a lot of flamers.
Secondly, hammering the Orlock now will only cement the disintegration of the Orlock/Golianth alliance whereas attacking the Goliath again might just about convince them to hook up again.
Thirdly, going for the Escher might convince him to pay you more attention, which at this stage is probably suicide.

Either way, the next territory will help your finances a great deal indeed.

I'm interested to see how your gang has advanced recently. You've had a few games since the last update and I suspect they must look pretty badass by now...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on February 20, 2012, 02:27:54 PM
Quick question. Why do you call Joffery Joffery?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on February 20, 2012, 03:07:35 PM
Because he bears a close resemblance to the character from Game of Thrones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwtsVX3DjC0
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on February 20, 2012, 03:38:59 PM
*does a fist pump

I knew it. I was typing out "Joffery" for a some reason, and I realized-

This guy is a 40k guy.

*feels extremely smug

Thanks for the quick reply!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul on February 20, 2012, 03:48:37 PM
It is probably too late, but I would suggest hitting the spore cave first.  Then work your way south for the settlement.  The next steps would be the gambling den.  This would cut off the other vents, and the slag from the rest of the Goliath's territories.

Alternatively, Van Saar could go after the spore cave next to their land, with you backing him up.  Next turn you could go after the spore cave next to your territory, with Van Saar aid.  However, I'm not sure how comfortable you would be with revealing your alliance.

If you keep pressuring the Orlock gang.  You could possibly rekindle the Orlock/Goliath alliance.  I doubt it would happen within the next few turns.  The Orlcok player still seems cocky enough to hold onto his pride to prevent the shame of asking the Goliath for help.  However, it is something to consider in your plans.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand 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. 

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 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 .
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine 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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul 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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Tamuz 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...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on March 3, 2012, 08:28:45 PM
Aftermath of Turn 8:
Here's the map:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroturn8002-1.jpg&hash=f1b76aa1a5fd9f3920cb3286bb722c3a55f93b86)
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on March 4, 2012, 04:52:40 AM
Campaign Turn 9:

The map:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroturn8002-1.jpg&hash=f1b76aa1a5fd9f3920cb3286bb722c3a55f93b86)
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 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.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on March 12, 2012, 11:05:49 AM
Campaign Turn 9:

The map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2FNecroturn8002-1.jpg&hash=f1b76aa1a5fd9f3920cb3286bb722c3a55f93b86)
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lewis on March 23, 2012, 06:38:21 AM
The anticipation is killing everyone .... hence our silence with baited breath ha. Anything soon UH?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand 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:

 (https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F007.jpg&hash=855635002a6897519c331cd54212ffc43d3c6383)

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



Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand 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:

 (https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F005-2.jpg&hash=314e2d584b9a60eecb76daf333fef1221b441dc1)

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


Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine 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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand 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 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMR-VBN7NyM#ws)

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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lonewolf on April 1, 2012, 05:12:13 AM
Great report as usual. Seems that fortuna finally starts to smile on you again  :)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine 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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand 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.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man 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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Toad_Raider 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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: dapper on April 5, 2012, 06:43:24 AM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on April 5, 2012, 06:47:37 AM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 5, 2012, 06:01:27 PM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine on April 7, 2012, 05:34:42 AM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 7, 2012, 10:53:33 AM
Campaign Turn 10:

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F005-2.jpg&hash=314e2d584b9a60eecb76daf333fef1221b441dc1)

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:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F031.jpg&hash=dd1860ed210f3c652b8dd51c24c6e894374ca143)

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

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on April 7, 2012, 02:03:21 PM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Farceseer Syranaul on April 7, 2012, 04:04:10 PM
Excellent turn of events.  Every one loves a comeback. :)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Scorn on April 11, 2012, 02:18:18 AM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 14, 2012, 10:31:07 AM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 15, 2012, 05:05:01 AM
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:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FpVYaO.png&hash=da37e57c2b7311a6fc3f5881609733189309d94e)

[gmod]Edited for naughty, unfilterable words. Toasty!!! -Mr.Peanut[/gmod]
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lonewolf on April 15, 2012, 05:21:38 AM
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  :)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Scorn on April 16, 2012, 12:26:14 PM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lewis on April 16, 2012, 12:34:56 PM
Nice move man - your bolter model looks nice! could we see a few pics of your gang if you get time?

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on April 16, 2012, 02:05:27 PM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 16, 2012, 05:39:19 PM
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.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Razyus on April 17, 2012, 04:11:23 AM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 17, 2012, 09:43:27 AM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 22, 2012, 05:43:50 AM
Some more pictures:

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

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F006-1-2.jpg&hash=e3224a024a3e6328d066684d1ffce6e25c518cb1)

And Amon:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F003-1-1.jpg&hash=1305ebada883a45c1aedf8ebfad4602a97631d61)

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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Saracenar on April 22, 2012, 11:29:03 PM
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!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 23, 2012, 08:08:04 AM
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.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Mushkilla on April 23, 2012, 11:35:44 AM
Amazing stuff keep it up!  :D
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 29, 2012, 02:50:20 AM
Campaign Turn 11

The Map:
(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F031.jpg&hash=dd1860ed210f3c652b8dd51c24c6e894374ca143)

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


Octavian went after the Orlock Workshop.
The Orlock Player attacked the Goliath Gambling Den
Gannicus went after Joffrey's Guilder Contact
Jonah attacked the Orlock Tunnels
I attacked the Escher Spore Cave
Joffrey elected not to attack anything

The most notable move was Joffrey electing to forgo his chance to attack an enemy territory.  The reason he did that was (I think) because while Shamora's LD is stuck at 7, he figures that attacking either me or Gannicus is just giving us a third chance to take a territory.  His plan is to minimise the loss of territories until either Shamora advances her Leadership, or someone mounts a successful leadership challenge.  Opinion was divided as to the merits of such a move.  The Store Manager described it as a very clever strategic decision.  I consider it cowardice.  Gannicus called it 'fagotry'. 

Goliaths  -v- Orlocks

Octavian attacked the Orlock Workshop.  He could have gone after the Spore Cave, but with the new rules regarding the assignment of gangers to different territories, there is some benefit to keeping as narrow a front as possible, and it doesn't require a crystal ball to see that in a few turns time, he'll be getting attacked from more than one side.

The Goliaths walked right over the Orlocks.  After last turn, Octavian bought Frag Grenades for a couple of his gangers and assigned them to his Vent team.  In Necromunda, Frag Grenades have poor range, but he gave them to a couple of S4 guys, both of whom have BS4.  He deployed them out of sight of the Orlocks and, with the benefit of some decent cover fire from his ranged team, managed to get them to land on target on turn 3.

Frag grenades are particularly problematic for the Orlock player because his castling tactics cause him to bunch his guys up, making them vulnerable to template/blast weapons.   The first 2 frag grenades both hit their targets, and although they only dealt a single wound, and failed to take anyone down, they pinned 4 Orlocks, which greatly reduced the counterfire from the Orlocks.

The immediate threat of the frag grenadiers also drew fire away from the Goliath ranged team (3 lasguns, and Autogun and the Heavy Stubber).   The Goliath ranged team is hands down the least effective ranged team in the campaign (none of them even have BS4), but given the opportunity to shoot unmolested for several turns, they actually managed to rack up some wounds.

The initial frag grenade barrage and more effective than usual cover fire also allowed the Close Combat component of the Goliaths to surge forward with little resistance.  The Orlocks bottled on the 7th turn with 5 casualties to 1, and that scoreline flattered them.  If the game had gone for another turn they could have lost double that number of casualties.

Orlocks -v- Goliaths

An exceptionally brief game.  Octavian went for the same tactics as in the previous game, but got very unlucky with one of his frag grenadiers beslubbering up and dropping a grenade, taking out his Vent team.  Some effective shooting from the Orlocks in the following shooting phase saw another few Goliaths go down and Octavian was unlucky to fail his first bottle roll on turn 3.

The casualty count was 1 nil to the Orlock Player, with 5 Goliaths down and none of the Orlocks suffering so much as a scratch.  A very comfortable victory for the Orlock Player.  Not enough to win him a territory, but more than enough for him to heap amphetamine parrot on Octavian for the rest of the day.

Delaque -v- Escher

Gannicus attacked Joffrey's Guilder Contact.  Attacking the Guilder Contact was a wise choice because it would give him a solid cluster of 5 territories, two of which would be invulnerable to counter attack by Joffrey, which would mean that he wouldn't have to worry about assigning defenders to those territories. 

Joffrey is in deep trouble.  His Empire, once powerfu,l is fragmented shadow of its former glory. Only his Spore Cave and Old Ruins territories share a border with each other.  That left him with a choice between earning extra income from his territories by assigning a ganger to any particular territory, or keeping them back in reserve and fogoing the extra income, but having every gang member available for the defence of any territory that was attacked. 

That was a tough choice, since if he was playing 3 games per turn, he was almost certain to take casualties and would need extra income to replace them, but earning that extra income would make him more likely to lose the territories, since if a territory doesn't have a ganger assigned to it, it only requires the attacker to score a 2:1 casualty count to take the territory instead of the 3:1.  A very tough choice, and I don't know which way I would have gone if I was in his position, which thankfully I'm not.  In any event, he decided to not assign any defenders to any territories, and to have them alll available in defence of whichever territories Gannicus and I attacked.  That meant that all of his Gangers were available, but that Gannicus only had to take twice as many Escher out of action as his Delaque lost to take a territory.

They played a Gang Fight.

As noted previously, apart from the increased chance of bottling out, Shamora's low Leadership hamstrings Joffrey by robbing him of her leadership bubble.  A normal leader will have an 8 or 9 Leadership bubble of 12" in diameter.  That's a pretty big area on a 4'x4' table, which is what Necromunda is played on.  It is through that 12" bubble that the close assault element (or at least a large part of it) advances across the table.  Without that bubble, gangers (especially Juves) have a tendency to run away when their nearby friends get shot.  A nice solid LD8/9 bubble, keeps the main force advancing in tight formation under enemy fire.  Without that LD8/9 bubble, attacks can be stalled much more easily, and the attackers also need to spread out a little bit to avoid causing each other to rout when they get shot, thereby blunting the potency of their eventual assault.

Joffrey has particular trouble against Gannicus because the Black Coats are particularly adept at stopping a close combat gang like Gothika from getting into contact. That basically kills Joffrey's chances of winning a game against Gannicus, since in any ranged shooting match, his girls are simply outclassed by the Delaque . 

Nevertheless, there is a big difference for Gannicus between winning and taking a territory.  It isn't enough for Gannicus to take down twice as many Escher as he loses, he also has to take them out of action.  Taking an enemy model out of action isn't easy.  A fighter who loses their last wound will suffer a flesh wound (-1 WS & BS) on a roll of a 1 on a D6, will go down (only able to crawl 2") on a 2-5, and will only go out of action on a 6.  However, any fighters who are down, but in base to base contact with an enemy will automatically go out of action.  In this way you can see how Shooting gangs (like Van Saar, Delaque and Orlock) tend to take down a lot of enemies, but don't necessarily take them out of action, whereas close combat gangs (like Cawdor, Escher and Goliath) tend to take down fewer enemies, but those that they do take out often tend to go out of action - we take down fewer enemies, but we take them down harder. 

The saving grace for Joffrey then, is that although the Delaque might take down a lot of his girls before he bottles out, Gannicus might not have enough time to get into close combat and finish them off before Shamora's crappy LD7 causes the game to end.  A wise tactic for Joffrey then, would be to sit back and trade a few shots with Gannicus, have a few of his girls get taken down by long ranged fire, but not go out of action, and bottle out before Gannicus has taken out enough Escher to be able to claim the territory.

Unfortunately for Joffrey, but to his credit, he has too much pride to just roll over and accept defeat against Gannicus, so he played for a win despite the nobbling of his Leader.

Gannicus successfully split Joffrey's assault force off from his ranged team, with two well placed overwatching lasgunners and managed to take out the ranged team with ranged fire from his Infiltrating shotgunners (I have to get a couple of Shotguns into my gang) before sweeping in with his Vent team to curbstomp the wounded.  Joffrey bottled with 2 gangers down and 3 out of action compared to 3 Delaques down and one out of action. 

That scoreline flattered Joffrey, and he knew it.  He is very frustrated by Shamora's deafening, and unlike usual, after his game with Gannicus he didn't hang around in the store to wait for me to finish overseeing the game between Jonah and the Orlock Player, and only came back after lunch.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lord of Winter and War on April 29, 2012, 09:44:18 AM
I've been keeping an eye on this thread for a while. Digging the narrative of the campaign through it's progress and watching this has been making me itch to play some Necromunda or Mordheim myself.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Kardikus on May 5, 2012, 04:31:32 PM
Just got pointed to this thread from a dedicated necromunda site and loving it so far and i think your problem to start with was you were a little too cocky about it (well thats how it came across). You seem to be a really good player and play a good game but that was your downfall (trust me I've done it a couple of times with 40k and necro) you expected easy wins and played that way but it looks like that it has payed off in the long run when you managed to get the choice of scenario so you can let your tactical know how and knowledge of the game dominate those pesky little kids.

and i hope you win as they do come across as the usual pesky little spoiled brats you come across in the shops and i hate playing them id rather play and get smashed by a guy of your caliber than smash some little brat who thinks hes the best and starts be-atchin about his loss. Because then i get a sensible conversation afterwards on the good things i did do and where i went wrong and pick out the faults of both our setups ect. But it does seem your little alliance with the delaque is paying off aswell just need to keep the pressure on joffery and eventually he will break witch will leave you to take out the van saar and then the orlocks or goliath and then id say call it quits as a campaign with just 2 players tho can be fun just isnt as good as when theres more players. Anyway thats my 2 pence worth i hope you do well and kick those escher to bits (Im an olock player and always seemed to struggle against them pesky girls)   

[gmod][/gmod]
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 6, 2012, 04:51:53 AM
Thank you for the kind words everyone, I'm glad people enjoy reading it.

...
 But it does seem your little alliance with the delaque is paying off aswell just need to keep the pressure on joffery and eventually he will break witch will leave you to take out the van saar and then the orlocks or goliath and then id say call it quits as a campaign with just 2 players tho can be fun just isnt as good as when theres more players.

Don't worry.  Assuming there is no clearly dominant leader when the 4th player is knocked out, I've worked out a suitably epic scenario to determine the final winner between the last two players.

Turn 11 Continued:

Van Saar -v- Orlocks

Jonah attacked the Orlock Tunnels.  The game was played on Space Hulk Terrain.  Since the game was being played in a Tunnels territory, we ruled that Vents could not be used, so Jonah's Vent team started the game with the rest of his gang.  Once again, Jonah took a Ratskin Infiltrator.

For once, the Orlock player actually decided to use his Tunnels.  During the post game sequence last turn, he bought some of his guys some Combat Skills, and he wanted to use them.  He put those guys in his Vent Team.  Their names were Parker, Kowalski and Ramirez (apparently his Orlocks are multi-ethnic).  They had swords, lasguns and laspistols.

I don't know if he read the rules, but if he did, he definitely ddn't pick up on how basic weapons (such as lasguns) prevent the use of an extra hand to hand weapon in close combat, and therefor prevent the fighter from claiming the bonus attack they would otherwise get with 2 close combat weapons.  That is why Abraham only carries a bolt pistol and not a bolter.

He also placed his Tunnel team rather poorly, where they weren't really able to get support from the rest of his gang, and had a long corridor to run down before being able to enter CC with the nearest Van Saar.  Any speedy escape was also cut off by the Ratskin, who had a shotgun. 

Anyway, there were basically 2 separate fights in the game.  The first was between the main Body of Orlocks and the main body of Van Saar, and was basically just a long ranged shootout down a long corridor.  Jonah got the first turn, and after taking a casualty to the Bulging Biceps Orlock Heavy Stubber, managed to set his bolter and lasgun marksmen, plasmagun guy and Heavy Stubber up in an Overwatch position which had the Orlock Player pinned at the end of the corridor.

The Orlock Marksmen and Heavy Bolter went down first, and from that point on, Jonah had the ranged advantage.  Jonah had 2 guys go down, but none out of action.  The Orlock Player had 3 go down, but all of them were his extra-long ranged specialists.  To get out of trouble, the Orlock Player had to break out down the long corridor, but had 2 guys get cut up by Overwatch Fire.  Jonah spent the next 5 turns shooting at the wounded Orlocks with his plasma gunner at full charge, which ended up sending one out of action.

In the middle of the table, the Orlock Player learned how valuable Agility skills are to close combat characters.   In order to attack the Van Saar, he had to make it down a 10" corridor.  His guys weren't fast enough to do that.  One of them got shot (Kowalski), and a second one (Ramirez) got countercharged by 2 Juves and the Van Saar Leader (who has a powersword).  Embarrasingly for Jonah, Ramirez managed to not die, and even took down one of the Juves.

In the next combat phase, Parker charged into the combat to assist Ramirez, but was only able to get into base to base contact with the Van Saar Leader, who chopped him down, and then killed Ramirez with the assistance of the surviving Juve.

With his main force pinned in by the Van Saar long ranged experts, the Orlock Player had little choice but to attempt a tedious flanking manouver to reposition his gang.  Unfortunately, he simply didn't have time before the dice caught up with him, and he bottled out in turn 9.

His gang has been pushed back to their last remaining territory.  They are living in a fungus cave.  He'll be gone next turn.


Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Kardikus on May 6, 2012, 05:35:45 AM
Also i forgot to say about that the shootouts im pretty sure any hired guns have to be included in the 2-4 random guys that you have in the game so that will help out when joffrey trys to get you in another one (though i doubt it after u gave his ass a good kicking in the last one)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on May 6, 2012, 05:58:04 AM
these guys are playing with the original GW rulebook though kardikus. this is corrected in the community edition but is still a viable expliot in the GW version
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Kardikus on May 6, 2012, 08:38:16 AM
I use the original rules aswell and im sure it came up in a Qand A in white dwarf or a forum somewhere but thats how i see it anyway but you are right some unsavory charactures out there that will take advantage of any little loophole in the rules just to gain an unfair advantage and it really pisses me off when they do that and i just want to hit them repeatedly with the rulebook with a brick attached
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 6, 2012, 09:02:58 AM
Turn 11 Continued:

Cawdor -v- Escher

I attacked Joffrey's Spore Cave.  Taking the Spore Cave would nearly double my income per turn, and put me in a position where I could finally start generating a decent profit every turn.  It would also destroy Joffrey's ecconomy.  Depending on casualties, he would go from a profit of approximately 55 creds per turn (which was already significantly less than what he was earning a couple of turns ago), to about 20 creds per turn which isn't enough to replenish losses.  I know, because I was there 4 turns ago, and it was only due to the corrupt and venal nature that is intrinsic to the Bieber generation (sorry, Crew4man), that I escaped.  And I won't let Joffrey escape like Octavian and the Orlock Player let me escape.  It's not in my nature.  I practice law as a commercial litigator, specialising in insolvency.  My enemies don't come back.

Set up:

We rolled a gang Fight. I split my gang into 4 teams.  A bit thinner than I normally like, but I meant to surround Joffrey, pin him, pounce and annihilate him.  I wasn't going to be happy with a win, or even taking a territory, I wanted to have at least 8 of his gang members out of action before he bottled.

I set up Jacob and Ram on the third story of a tower in heavy cover with a commanding view of the battlefield.  With BS5, a One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter and a clear line of sight to 66% of the table, Jacob wasn't just setting the foundation for my attack, he was commanding the battle.  If a Heavy with a Heavy Stubber can be likened to the drummer in the band, in that he sets the beat that everyone else must follow, then Jacob is like the conductor of a symphony orchestra.  Any Escher who unlucky enough to fall under his gaze would die.

Underneath Ram and Jacob, Abraham would lead the frontal attack, with Amon and Abijah.  Abijah would soak up any bullets, Amon would counterfire with his twin Autopistols, and Abraham would counter Assault with his Sprint and WS6.

My first Vent team attacking from the left would be Boaz, with his flamer, Asa as the counter assaulter and Zohar as the bullet taker.  My second Vent team would be Jemuel with his flamer, Josiah as the counter assaulter and Isaac with a Heavy Stubber.  Isaac would be deployed if possible behind the main Escher force to catch them in a crossfire with Jacob's Heavy Bolter.

Normally, I wouldn't split my gang into such small groups against a close combat gang comanded by a player like Joffrey, but I figured that Shamora's low Leadership would grant me abit more flexibility than usual.

Joffrey set up with his ranged team in the centre of the board on the second level, and the rest of his force in two groups of 5 and 6 on each side.  No mercenaries.

Turn 1:

Joffrey got the first go and moved forwards and into cover, doing his best to negate the best spots for my Vent teams.  He ran his girls under cover in the centre of the board, staying clear of Jacob and his Heavy Bolter.  In the shooting phase, he threw two smoke grenades ahead of his main force to protect the approach towards the next cluster of cover.  Both Grenades missed their mark though and scattered to the right.  His ranged team pinned but didn't wound Ram.  The grenades landed in fronto of Abraham, Amon and Abijah preventing the Escher from shooting at them.

In my turn, I ran Abraham and Abijah into the protection of the smoke clouds, Amon trailing them slightly with his bad leg.   

Two of the Escher ranged team were in sight during the shooting phase, and Ram (who had recovered from being pinned) took one down, causing her to fall  behind cover, and making the other flee out of sight, thus denying Jacob a shot with his Heavy Bolter.  Jacob shifted to cover the main Escher line of advance, and went into Overwatch.

Boaz, Zohar and Asa crawled out of some Vents on the left, Boaz deployed out of sight, and Asa and Zohar deployed in heavy cover, with Zohar closer to the Escher to attract the first shots.  On the right, Jemuel, Josiah and Isaac all deployed in sight of the Escher, but in as much cover as possible.  Normally, I prefer to deploy my Vent teams out of sight, but I wanted to start shooting with Isaac as soon as possible the next turn, so that meant setting him up in sight of the Escher, and required Jemuel and Josiah to be deployed along with him.

Turn 2:

On turn 2, the Escher fanned out left and right in reaction to the pincer attacks from my Vent teams.  On the left, Zohar received 2 wounds from the Escher Heavy Stubber, and another from a shotgun, going down.  Asa took a wound too, but still had plenty left.  between them, they exhausted about half of the Escher firepower for the turn.
On the right, Josiah took a wound and was pinned, but Jemuel and Isaac remained unscathed.

In the centre, the Escher tossed another cuple of smoke grenades to cover their advance past Jacob's Heavy Bolter on the next turn.

On my turn, Jacob and Ram had nothing  to shoot at, so I kept them both on Overwatch.

In the centre, I Abijah darted out of the smoke clouds and was met by a hale of autopistol and boltpistol fire.  He took 2 hits and a wound, but a boltpistol went out of ammo.  Abraham followed, sprinting into cover, ready to charge into combat on the next turn.  Amon came last, twin autoguns spitting death, wounding a ganger and pinning Shamora.

On the left, Asa's Nerves of Steel recovered him from pinning, and he charged into close combat.  Boaz walked up next to Zohar's body, positioning himself for a future flamer blast or possible charge, and  took down an Escher with a blast from his shotgun.  Asa downed his opponent in close combat and consolidated into cover.  Zohar's True Grit allowed him to recover from being downed despite his wounds. 

On the right, Josiah got to his feet and he charged an Escher Juve, but embarrassingly managed to actually lose the combat, but luckily avoided taking a wound.  Jemuel went into overwatch next to Isaac to cover him in the event of an Eascher countercharge.  Isaac also went into overwatch to cover Josiah in the event of an Escher countercharge (which was a sure thing).

Turn 3:

On his turn, Joffrey made sure to stay out of Jacob's way and charged a Juve into close combat with Abijah.  Shamora remained pinned, which was fortunate, because she had to roll a 1 on a d6 to fail to pass the pinning test, and if she got the charge, she could probably defeat even Abraham, and if Abraham went down, then Joffrey would probably be winning.  As it was, she failed, and Joffrey's position remained weak.

His Heavy Stubber hit Zohar again, sending him down once more, but also ran out of ammo. 

On the left, shooting at Asa and Boaz was innefective.  Joffrey could have charged Asa with a Juve and a ganger, but I think he was hesitant to risk two low level gang members against a veteran like Asa.  I think he wanted to try to pin him for a turn, and get Maleficent into position for a charge on the following turn.  I think that was a mistake, since Asa would be hard pressed to take both of them out without a charge bonus.  But mistakes are what you make when you are under pressure.  As it was, Asa didn't even get pinned, and was ready to charge on the following turn.

On the right, Glinda - Joffrey's best close combat specialist apart from Shamora countercharged Josiah, or would have if Jacob hadn't lined her up with his Heavy Stubber, shot at her 6 times, hit her 4 times, wounded twice, dealing her a fleshwound and taking her down.  The Juve in close combat with Josiah didn't get lucky twice, and received 4 wounds, comfortably taking her out of the game.  Joffrey would have to test to bottle on his next turn.

In the middle, Abijah disarmed the Juve attacking him (Ursula) of her sword (we play Disarm as only lasting until the end of the game rather than destroying the weapon permanently, because having a Juve 'disarm' a gang leader of something like a plasma gun on a single unmodifiable roll of 4+ and have it lost forever is bullamphetamine parrot), and then ignited her at pointblank range with his handflamer, sending her out of action.

At the end of Joffrey's 3rd turn, he had one ganger down, and 4 out of action.  I had one man out of action (Zohar), and a lot more bleeding, but 10 of my guys were still in the fight, and Josiah, Asa, Abijah and Abraham were all in charge range.

On my turn, I had the option of playing conservatively, hunkering down into cover out of sight of his ranged team (which I could probably cover with Isaac, Ram and Jacob), and otherwise either using pistols to pin the rest of his gang and go into overwatch where necessary to prevent any countercharge from some of the demons like Shamora or Morgana. 

beslubber conservative.  I don't play Cawdor to sit back in cover and shoot like some sort of limp wristed Van Saar nancy boy.  I play to burn people and chop up their corpses.  I charged.  Asa landed on a Juve.  Josiah slammed into Bellatrix.  Abijah hit Tabitha from one side, and Abraham from the other. 

I could have charged Abraham into Shamora, but that would have meant fighting across a barrier, and a fight between Shamora and Abraham would be tight enough without giving her that bonus, and I wasn't about to do Joffrey any favours in that regard, no matter how many times he called me a chickenamphetamine parrot.

Leaving Shamora unmolested was a calculated risk, since it would allow her to attack next turn, and she would surely target Abraham for an assault, which would be very dangerous for him.  Luckily, Amon was there backing up his boss, and he went on to Overwatch, both autopistols trained on Shamora, fingers ready to burn two entire clips the instant she tried to break cover to charge.  I had outmanouvered Joffrey, and he din't like it at all.  And he definitely didn't appreciate me putting the game on hold for ten minutes to carefully explain the subtle nuances of the relevant Necromunda tactics and mechanics to several interested onlookers.

On the left, Boaz wasn't quite in flamer range, so I had him take a shot with his shotgun at Morgana, but he missed.   I should have put him in Overwatch.  Ah well.

On the right, I pivoted Isaac to face the direction of the ranged team (who were hiding out of sight), and put him on Overwatch.  I ran Jemuel around behind Josiah with a view to executing a flamer attack a bit later, if necessary, and acting as a meat shield, should Isaac not be able to keep the Escher ranged team pinned.  In hindsight, that was not a wise move, since from Overwatch,  Isaac could really only have pinned one of them (there were 3 at that point), and would not have been able to unpin himself if they managed to fire back at him (which was a definite possibility).

Asa dispatched his opponent as expected, and followed up into Morgana.   That would be a close fight next turn.

Josiah absolutely pasted Bellatrix (combat score 11 to 5), but still only managed to do only 2 wounds (she had the Step Aside skill), one of which was a fleshwound, so she stayed on her feet.  I need to give him Jemuel's handflamer to give him S4 in close combat.

Tabitha managed to land a single hit on Abijah, taking him down, but because Abraham was there, he didn't go out of action.  Abraham avenged the slight, easily taking her out of action. 

At the end of Turn 3, I had one guy out of action (Zohar), and another down (Abijah).  Joffrey had 8 down.  His Leader was pinned behind cover, and was facing a charge from an unwounded Abraham. 
On the right, Bellatrix was locked in close combat with Josiah and losing. On the left, Morgana was locked in close combat with Asa, with Boaz and his flamer ready to intervene with his flamer, shotgun or sword as necessary.  To the rear, he had 3 unwounded lasgunners, but they were covered by Isaac with his heavy stubber, and to a lesser extent by Jacob and Ram, should they reposition.

Even if he passed his bottle check, he was looking at losing at least another ganger this turn, and likely another 2 during my turn.  His realistic best case scenario was that he would take down one of my guys (Asa), but if he did that, then he was almost certain to lose Morgana to Boaz's flamer in return.  Still not anywhere near enough to save the Spore Cave, and even then, with only his ranged team left, it would just be a matter of time before he lost in a bottle roll off against Abraham's Iron Will.

The smart option was to voluntarily bottle out.

He took the smart option.  And the mockery and humiliation which necessarily follows such an abject surrender.

Thoughts:

A very comfortable victory, but not a perfect one.  I made some mistakes, and in a lot of games, they would have cost me.  As it was, things worked out.  Luck went both ways.  I was lucky that Zohar managed to get back to his feet to take a second blast of Heavy Stubber fire.  If he had stayed down, my left flank could have crumbled.  Shamora staying pinned on turn 3 was lucky too. 

I definitely got unlucky with Jacob not being able to take a single shot the entire game, though that tends to happen with the heavier weapons.  Opponents avoid them like the plague.  Still, his presence essentially took the Escher ranged team (who are normally pretty effective) out of just about the entire game because they were afraid to stick their heads out of cover.

I was probably a little unlucky with some of the close combat results, and I think I would normally have won a couple more of the fights, or at least ended them earlier.  On the other hand, I got a bit lucky with Joffrey's shooting being a bit more innacurate than I would normally expect, so it could be argued that I was lucky to even get into the fights in the first place.  Having said that, I think Joffrey had an off game with some of his judgment calls, especially with close combat.  The models he managed to charge into close combat were relatively weak, and he let my best guys get the charge a number of times (although it has to be said, most of my CC guys except Abijah have the appropriate agility skills to be able to charge from a long distance).

I think next time I will swap Josiah and Asa from my Vent teams.  As it was, my left Vent team had 7 wounds, and my right Vent team had only 5.  If Josiah had taken an extra wound from counterfire, my right flank could have crumbled.

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F004-1.jpg&hash=ea336d42978ad2698a613c84ae2704493e45f049)

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

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Kardikus on May 6, 2012, 12:50:53 PM
Looks good for you now that u have that territory will be big boost to your income and maybe will get some cool stuff in the rare trade chart and recruit some new guys and also given joffery a big kick in the teeth as he only has one decent territory now and im sure either you or Gannicus will take that in the next turn might be a little bit of a argument at who gets it tho im sure you have made some sort of arrengements with him.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Cuthbo on May 9, 2012, 01:45:37 PM
Cheers for these posts - they have inspired me to steal your hexagon campaign map idea (and also your rather pretty adaptation, Lewis) and start playing this great game again. I feel like I know this Joffrey guy. Maybe there is a little bit of Joffrey inside everyone. Ugh.

Look forward to seeing more.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 19, 2012, 04:49:59 AM
Turn 11 Aftermath:

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F004-1.jpg&hash=ea336d42978ad2698a613c84ae2704493e45f049)

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


The Hand of Redemption

I had my best post game sequence of the campaign.  Most of my gang narrowly missed out on upgrades last time, so everyone except Isaac, Boaz and Jemuel advanced - and they were all good advances too.  I'll post the current gang roster shortly.

My income was excellent as well.  I made more creds in profit than I did even when I  had the Workshop, Spore Cave and Gambling Den back on turn 2.  as a result, I went to the trading post for the first time.  I had 3 items to choose from - Medipack, Plasma Grenades and a Red Dot laser sight.

All of those are good items, but I was torn.  I only have 11 guys in my gang, and that isn't many at this stage in the campaign.  I had been toying with the idea of buying  a couple of Gangers (going against my usual philosophy of taking Juves), and giving them either lasguns, or shotguns with bolter rounds to boost the ranged component of my gang.  Doing that would boost my total numbers to 13, which would mean I would have to lose 4 guys before having to bottle check.

On the other hand - those were some really nice items.  A Medi-pack is a great item to have in a gang, and I would normally recommend taking one whenever you get the chance (applying it to a downed ganger lets him recover to a flesh wound on a roll of 1-4).  That can be a game winner.  One of the hardest opponents I ever faced was a Van-Saar gang with 2 of them.  They would sit back, and shoot, and shoot and shoot, and everytime one of them went down, the medics would pounce and they'd be back up on their feet again.  A very tough nut to crack.  The Medi-Pack was very expensive, but also very hard to pass up, and I couldn't, so I took it.

The Plasma grenades were also very tempting.  I can't remember if they still exist in 5th ed 40k, but they were a nifty little piece of wargear to give to characters back in 2nd ed.  Basically, they are a S5 small blast template, that either disapears after a turn, stays in place, or drifts d6 inches in a random direction frying anything it passes over.  As you can imagine, it can be extremely disruptive for the enemy.  It also blocks line of sight, so it can be used as a mini smoke grenade of sorts. 

I won't go into my future plans in detail at this point, but I forsee Plasma grenades being very valuable towards the end of this campaign, particularly against my final opponent.  They aren't cheap, but given that the chance to buy them doesn't come up very often, I felt compelled to seize the opportunity while it was there.  I took the plasma grenades.

Red Dot laser sights are very good for low BS shooters (it would look great on Amon), but I simply need to save my cash for another couple of gang members.  I kept the remainder of the cash in my stash.

I'm going to attack Joffrey's Old Ruins which I've surrounded next.  As tempting as the Friendly Doc is, taking it would hem Gannicus in and prevent him from attacking Octavian in future turns.  It could also force him into a conflict with Jonah, which I don't want to see happen because I want him on our side against Octavian.

Gannicus

Gannicus is reveling in Joffrey's demise like a pig wallowing in its own amphetamine parrot.  His gang is expanding and gearing up, while Joffrey's is shrinking.  Every insult or minor slight inflicted upon him, whether real or imagined, is being paid back double on Joffrey.  And all Joffrey can do is stand there and take it. 

Unfortunately, that's made him complacent.

G:    Which territory were you thinking  of attacking?
UH:  The Old Ruins.  I want my territories to be in a solid block.
G:    That's cool.  I was just checking to see if you were going after the Friendly Doc.
UH:  Nah, I think it's probably better if you take that one.  Once we've got rid of Joffrey, you can come in against Octavian from the North with Jonah, and I'll swing up from the South West.
G:    I was actually going to go after the Orlock Spore Cave this turn.
[I actually thought I'd misheard him]
UH:  What?
G:    If that's okay with you?  I'll take the Friendly Doc next turn.
UH:  Are you serious?
G:    If I don't take it, Jonah will get amphetamine parrotty.  He's been holding off on it so that I could take it.
UH:  Let him beslubbering wait.  Joffrey has to go first.
G:    Pfft.  Joffrey's beslubbered.  We can come back and take him out when ever we feel like it.

[I could not believe the stupidity of what I was hearing.  This was totally against the dicta of the  CAWDAQUE BOCATE]

UH:  No beslubbering way!  He only needs a single Leadership upgrade on his leader and he's right back in it, and it will take ages to squash him out.  Everything else comes second.
G:    What if you take the Friendly Doc instead then?  I'm cool with you having it.
UH:  Are you beslubbering kidding me?  Are you?  That is exactly the sort of stupid amphetamine parrot that saved my arse against those other two little pricks!  When you've got your opponent lying in the gutter, you do not let him crawl away!  You make him bite the curb, and then you stomp his head until his brains are spread all over the road!

[I accompanied this with various gestures to get the point across.  I also might have raised my voice a bit louder than usual.]

[The store had gone silent.]


G:    [pausing to wipe where a fleck of my spittle had caught him].  Alright.  Okay.  I'll go for the Friendly Doc.  But Jonah won't be happy.
UH:  Good.  Sorry.  Okay. I'll take care of Jonah.

Gannicus recruited a Juve and added him to his 'Sweeper Squad'.  Those are Juves, or low level gangers with low balistic skill and Stealth and/or Agility skills who run ahead and stick to cover, wait for Escher gangers to start falling to ranged fire, and then sweep in to bayonet the wounded.  It's a necessary component for Gannicus's gang, because as a shooting gang, Delaque might find it easy to take the enemy down, but they can often have difficulty taking sufficient enemies out of action to be able to claim a territory.  Gannicus is using them well.
 
Joffrey

Joffrey attempted another couple of Leadership challenges, but Shamora won them both.  His problem is that Shamora is not only his best Ganger statistically, but she also has the best weapons (a plasma pistol, grenades, and a powersword), so she outshoots and outfights his 4 other leadership contenders easily.  She also now has 3 wounds, so she is even tougher to take down than before.  Joffrey can't disarm her and have her fight weaponless because we've ruled that Leadership Challengers have to take place with the weapons that the gangmembers used in the last fight.  So he's kind of beslubbered.

Joffrey didn't get too lucky after the previous gang, he lost a Ganger and took a few injuries.  He no longer really has enough cash per turn to hire mercenaries, so his Gang Rating is actually in decline.  Next turn, I will probably have the higher gang rating for once.  That will help him get the choice of scenarios, and that could be problematic.

Also, one of his challengers got killed by Shamora.  Heh.

He still has 3 territories though, and he only needs to get a single Leadership advance on Shamora, and he'll be back in business, so I'm not going to be complacent about things. 

I think he'll attack my Spore Cave.  He needs to play games to get another leadership advance for Shamora, so he can't really sit them out like he tried last turn.

The Orlock Player

No friends and no hope.

He lost another guy, and his Heavy stubber guy died, so that's it - he's gone.  A shooting gang without a Heavy Stubber is in a lot of trouble.  The opposition can sit back, outside of 24"and just pick them off with a Heavy Stubber.  He's also starting to become short on numbers and his gang rating is starting to suffer. 

He could use that to his advantage by selecting scenarios that cut down the numbers advantage - shoot outs, raids etc, but he hasn't taken the opportunity to experiment with them, and his gang's skill base isn't diverse enought to be able to properly take advantage of them anyway. Octavian will roll right over him next turn.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 19, 2012, 05:37:38 AM
Continued:

Jonah

Another good post battle sequence for Jonah.

His inventors invented a grav-shute, which can sometimes come in handy, and he picked up a mono-sight, and a hotshot lasgun power pack.  All of his ranged team now have S4 or better weapons.  He also bought a flamer.  He also has another 2 specialists waiting in the wings.  The nightmare scenario of the Van Saar special weapon gang that never runs out of ammo is becoming a reality.

Those new Tunnels give him the option of using an extra close assault team.  If it were me (and I wish it was - Tunnels are awesome), I would assign a flamer specialist, and a couple of CC specialists to it.  Jonah doesn't really have much in the way of CC specialists at the moment, but that could change.   If he's smart, he will start loading up on Combat skills, because he'll be in a war against Octavian soon, and as good as the Second Stringers are at shooting, there will be close combat, and he had better be ready for it.

Jonah:  Underhand!  What is happening with that Spore Cave? Gannicus said he's going after the Friendly Doctor!
Underhand:   Yes, he is.  I asked him to.
J:      I waited because you told me Gannicus wanted it!
UH:   I know you did, and I appreciate -
J:      Now you're telling me that he's going to go after another territory, again this turn!  When is he going to take that Spore Cave!
UH:   Soon.  [This was awkward, because I was going to be pressing Gannicus to take Joffrey's Old Ruins to the north next turn as well, which would further delay things and I didn't want to lie to Jonah].
J:      I could ave been earning income from that territory for weeks now, but instead I waited to let Gannicus have it!  Now Octavian is going to take it!
UH:  Calm down.  We'll all be fighting Octavian in a turn or so anyway, and you can talk to Gannicus about maybe taking that Gambling Den.
J:     We will see. 
UH:  Good.
J:     I just want to see that little amphetamine parrot gone.
UH:  Pfft.  Octavian will roll him.  It's not an issue.
J:     It had better not be.

[This entire conversation took place with the Orlock Player sitting 3 feet away, updating his gang roster].

Anyway,he wasn't completely happy, but  he  told me that he would attack Octavian's Mine Workings.  I'm not sure how that will go.  Jonah's gang is very well equipped, and he is starting to get his gameplay in order, but Octavian has his Goliaths running like a well oiled machine.  Jonah will have to learn new tactics against the Close Combat oriented Goliaths, whereas Octavian has been playing against a shooting gang for a while now. 
It might actually be a turn or two too early for Jonah to attack Octavian.  I'd obviously prefer Jonah to win, but I have to say that Octavian is more likely to come out on top.  Hopefully if he loses, Jonah won't lose any territory.

Octavian

Octavian managed to recruit another Juve, pushing his total gang numbers to 18, which is a very big gang in Necromunda.  In normal circumstances, it isn't really sustainable, since the costs of upkeeping so many Gangers kill profits, but Octavian has 12 territories, and many of them are high income generators, so he still makes about 90 creds profit per turn (I have to roll very well to make that kind of profit with only 11 Gang members).

Octavian managed to come by some Smoke Grenades at the trading post.  That is a worry, because the principal weakness of Goliaths is that they are a close combat gang (their shooting is the worst of all the House Gangs due to their difficulty in obtaining lasguns), but have difficulty picking up Agility skills which help them get into close combat.  Smoke Grenades will help with that, a lot.   Especially against shooting gangs like Orlocks and  Van Saar, which could make things difficult for Jonah.   The Smoke Grenades won't really help them get into close combat faster, but they will get there in greater numbers, and numbers help a lot.

I congratulated Octavian after his game against the Orlock Player:

Underhand:  Well done there. 
Octavian:     You liked that did you?
UH:  It was impressive.  You've really picked this game up.
O:    Well I'm glad you liked, because you're next.

What aggressive little punks these youngsters can be these days.

He'll wipe the Orlock Player off the map next turn.

Thoughts:

I'm very happy where things are placed at the moment.  The Orlock Player will be gone next turn, and Joffrey should follow soon after.  Once they are both gone, it will be Cawdor, Delaque and Van Saar against the Goliaths, and despite his manpower and territorial advantage, Octavian simply won't be able to replace the losses he will suffer from having to play 4 games per turn.

Jonah will attack him this turn, I'll start in on him next turn, and Gannicus will come in on turn 13 after he's taken Joffrey's last Old Ruins.  All I have to do is keep the VANCAWDAQUE alliance (really more of a non aggression pact)together for another few turns.  Once the campaign against Octavian starts, it will take care of itself, there's plenty of ripe territories for everyone.  After that, we'll be into the end game.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on May 19, 2012, 08:11:00 AM
I'm curious, if your alliance pulls through, and the three of you are the only ones left, will it be a shared victory? Or is it going to turn into a very nasty fight to the death?

If it is gonna turn to a fight to the death, be careful which territories you let the other two take, otherwise they'll have the advantage over you later - an advantage which you effectively gave them. Don't shoot yourself in the foot, you've come so far!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 19, 2012, 08:53:38 AM
I'm curious, if your alliance pulls through, and the three of you are the only ones left, will it be a shared victory?
Never in a million years.

Quote
Or is it going to turn into a very nasty fight to the death?
Not necessarily.

I will invite my final opponent to offer me their honourable surrender.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Kardikus on May 19, 2012, 11:28:48 AM
Sounds like the 2 most annoying people of the campaign will be leaving soon  ;D I have to agree with your reasoning in taking out joffery rather than leave him as if you leave him he could make a comeback and be right pain in the arse about it so just put an end to his misery and take him out
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 19, 2012, 11:27:17 PM
Some more of the Gang:

My go to guys for loot running, Asa and Josiah:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F006-2-1.jpg&hash=01243032fd5928f264a74cb98328f0c9ceedaf71)

Formerly armed with a flamer, Isaac has stepped up to take over Heavy Stubber duties:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F004-2-1.jpg&hash=545cf92cd23353a618c53612b8cfeb2c5732c5fc)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Kardikus on May 20, 2012, 06:31:48 AM
Very nice now we can put faces to names on your posts lol
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 26, 2012, 11:08:59 PM
Abraham:  Leader:
M   WSBSS   T   W   A   I    LD Skills & Weapons
46634358
Old Battle Wound, Nerves of Steel, True Grit, Iron Will, Parry, Sprint  .
Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Plasma Grenades.

Abraham has capped out.  if a gang member rolls an upgrade that he has already capped out in, then you get to choose another. Since Abraham has capped out his WS/BS and T/W, there was always a pretty good chance that I would get to choose my next upgrade.  You will recall that a few turns back I said that I would have liked him to get a movement bonus like Sprint or Leap, or a bonus to Attacks or Leadership.  I lucked out a while back by rolling Sprint, but this turn I got my chance to choose between Leadership and Attacks.

Having Leadership 9 would be awesome.  Combined with Iron Will, that would reduce the chance of failing a bottle roll to something like 4%, and would therefor boost my chances of winning the campaign as a whole, since none of the other leaders have Iron Will, and I don't think any of the players have the stomach to risk wasting advances on soaking up a few relatively poorer Ferocity skills in an effort of picking it up at this late stage in the campaign.  It would also give my gang a truly formidable leadership bubble - Lord Commissaresque - that would make my gang very difficult to stop advancing up the middle of the table.

On the other hand, with only a single Attack, even with WS6, Abraham is vulnerable to a a bad roll in close combat.  If he gets charged by Shamora or Bloodaxe, then he's in serious trouble. 

In any case, the way things are playing out at the moment, with 2 Vent teams, Abraham's leadership bubble really only usually effects a couple of guys anyway.  I will also be facing Shamora and Bloodaxe on a regular basis for the forseeable future, and I need to have someone in my Gang who can counter them in close combat.  I took the extra Attack.
Jacob: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills Injuries & Weapons
43534 2348
Partially Deafened.  Fixer,  Medic,  Armourer.
One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter, Lasgun.

+1W is always good, and particularly good for the guy who will be drawing the most enemy fire now that he has that One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter.
Isaac: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
444331 238
Medic, Armourer, Weaponsmith, Inventor, Fixer, Counter Attack.  Arm Wound . 
Heavy Stubber, Stub Gun, Sword. 

A BS4 Heavy Stubber is always nice.  I used him in  one of my Vent teams last time, to reasonable effect, but I think I will usually have him up the back with Jacob and Ram.  That will be an average of 9 shots per turn coming from 3 guys, with 3 abalative wounds for Jacob.  I should try to get him a lasgun or some other kind of basic weapon, even with 4 Armourers in the gang, Heavy Stubbers still run out of ammo.
 
Ram: Ganger:
 
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
444232 1 57
Armourer, Impetuous, Arm Wound.  Berserk Charge, Nerves of Steel, Catfall, Leap. 
Lasgun. 

For a guy who has spent his entire career in the ranged team, Ram has actually turned into a retty sturdy close combat fighter. Except for the Arm Wound.  although, that's nothing that a chainsword or some dum-dum bullets can't fix.  I'm still keeping him in the ranged team for now.  an extra T or W would help.  As would a shooting skill or two.

I think this is the only campaign I can recall when I've only ever had a single lasgunner in my gang.
Boaz: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4644321 37
Specialist, Inventor, Crack Shot, Feint, Nerves of Steel.
Flamer, Shotgun + Manstopper rounds, Sword.

One of my best.  Good at everything.  Giving him a Shotgun makes him dangerous at range now too.
Abijah:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
444 43223 6Nerves of Steel, Impetuous, Fixer, Disarm, Combat Master, Dodge, Quickdraw.
Handflamer, Autopistol, Sword. 

Solid all round. I use him as Abraham's bodyguard.  He could use a Toughness to help him soak up some more bullets, or perhaps an Agility upgrade to help him keep up with Abraham.
Asa: Ganger
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
445 5442246
Impetuous, Step Aside, Leap, Feint, Disarm, Combat Master, Nerves of Steel . 
Autopistol, Sword.

This guy will feature prominently in the end game.  Could do with a Leadership bonus.
Amon:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries and Weapons
334323 357
Gun Fighter, True Grit, Killer Rep, Nerves of Steel, Fast Shot.  Hand Injury, Leg Wound.
Autopistol , Autopistol, Sword. 

You know that a ganger is feared by the other players when everybody makes a point of being present to witness his advance rolls.  There was relief after tun 10 when he got a bonus to Strength (one of the weakest upgrades), but there were groans after turn 11.  Or so I was told, I didn't notice at the time because I was too busy  punching the air and cackling in maniacal glee.

Amon now gets to shoot 6 times with his Autopistols per turn every turn.  That's a greater average output than a Heavy Stubber.  If I give him boltpistols, he will actually be more dangerous than a Heavy Stubber inside 16".  Inside 8" he will be straight up murderous.  And he can move and shoot.  I'd rank him just behind Abraham and Jacob as the most influential member of my Gang.  I think I'll run him with Abraham and Abijah up the centre of the table.  His Killer Rep is well deserved.
Josiah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
44 4333258
Parry, Sprint, Counter Attack, Combat Master, Step Aside  .
Autopistol,  Sword x2. 

My other main Loot Runner.  Step Aside is a nifty little ability, granting an unmodifiable 4+ save in close combat.  5 Attacks on the charge, decent Weapon Skill, 3 parries.  Just very solid in close combat.

Zohar: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4423323 47
Partially Deafened,  True Grit, Leap, Disarm, Step Aside, Head Wound Shell Shocked.
Hand flamer, Stubber, Dum-Dum bullets, sword, flail. 

Last game Zohar got lined up twice by the Escher Heavy Stubber, went down, recovered to a flesh wound, got lined up again and went out of action.  That's really taking it in the arse.  He ended up coming away with a Head Wound, meaning that he's subject to either Stupidity or Frenzy each game for now on.  The effects of his head wound can be overcome by a Leadership roll, which I will most definitely be taking early if he is subject to Stupidity - and Abraham will be nerby to make sure he passes.  Stupidity makes him move around in random directions, and makes him generally innefective at shooting or close combat.

If he is subject to Frenzy, it means he gets double the number of Attacks, but can't parry.  Accordingly, I have given him a Flail, which can't be parried, adds plus one Strength but doubles the effect of fumbles.  Hopefully that will even things out a bit.

It also gives me the opportunity to use my Headwound model.  I'll post pics shortly.

Jemuel: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
43 232214 6
Specialst, Armourer, Nerves of Steel.  Shell shocked, Arm wound, Dodge, Feint, Blinded in One Eye, Chest Wound.
Flamer, Hand Flamer, Stubber.   

Inherrited Isaac's flamer after he took up Heavy Stubber duties.  Managed to balance out the Arm Wound with a Strength increase. 

So that's where it sits.  All good upgrades, and some absolute blinders.

I still need more boots on the ground, but I'm saving up for something special, which I will reveal later.  I think it's going to be a game changer, but it needs cash in the bank.

I still need to decide who gets the Medikit.  Ideally, a medic is someone who can hang back and dart around to important people who go down and get them back on my feet.  The problem for me is that the obvious candidates for that job - Ram, Abijah, Ephraim and Zohar, are also my main bullet catchers, and are probably the guys most likely to go down first. 

Zohar is out due to his potential Stupidity.  Ram is probably favoured due to his proximity to Jacob and Isaac.  Abijah is tempting because he will be close to Abraham and Amon, but the fact that he will be absorbing most of the bullets counts against him.  Ephraim is flimsy (as is Ram).  Boaz might be an option too.  I'll think about it.

Overall, apart from the numbers issue (which is actually a big issue), I'm happy with where my Gang is at and how the campaign is going.  With Jacob and Isaac at the back laying down a huge amount of firepower, Abraham and Abijah can advance up the centre with Amon covering them with a hail of lead.   My two Vent teams are quick and deadly, with fast close combat fighters and dangerous flamers.  All I need now is a few more meatshields and I'm ready for the end game.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 27, 2012, 01:56:04 AM
Zohar:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F009-1.jpg&hash=751d2b0cc5ca44d37320b4f1385d1548fdbb9ee4)

This is a very old Bloodbowl miniature.  I think it might be the first miniature I ever bought back in about 1990.  It came in a blister pack, together with a dwarf chainsaw wielder, a Cybork and (I think) a goblin pogostick rider.  He's a Chaos Chainsaw-Wielding-Loony.

4 metal models in a single blister pack . . . Madness.

He went completely unused for years until I started playing Necromunda, and despaired to discover just how few Cawdor models were equipped for melee.  With the hood and the tabard, he just slips within what I consider Cawdor/Redemptionist fashion parameters.  The armour and the chainsaw make him a good fit for a frenzied psycopath suffering from a head wound.  I got a nostalgic feeling when I was repainting him.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on May 27, 2012, 04:37:06 PM
He has...... a chainsaw  :o . they just dont make them like they used to do they ;D ?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Kardikus on May 28, 2012, 03:40:47 AM
yeah i remember those days when you used to get 4 metal miniatures to a blister pack and they would be about 5 pounds in the UK just the same amount of cash i got for pocket money incidentally. Oh my wasted childhood this has really brought back some good memories and also reminded me of not long ago i was desperately hunting for the orlock with autogun and stubber model on ebay and kept losing then when i was home on leave my mum said there was a box in the garage full of my old stuff and asked if it was to be kept or thrown away so i went and checked it out and lo and behold there was the modal i was searching for with hardly any paint on. My old gang was amongst it as well but my paintin in those days wasn't the best so haven't used them there was a ratskin and scum unpainted which i have used to great effect.

looking good on the gang front your leader is turning into a combat monster if you can get a couple more combat skills, if you get combat master then he will be awesome against the Goliaths who have the numbers advantage. I think allot of people will be saying noooo why did he go for attacks on his leader well i for one agree with your decision as now you can go toe to toe with the other combat beasts of the Goliath and Escher leaders and as they the gangs that u will be playing most of the time i think u did good and you can always get leadership next time then you will be unstoppable.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 28, 2012, 04:18:42 PM
That's as good as Abraham is going to get - he's hit the 400 experience point cap, so there will be no further advances.   I know 'that I'm going to regret not taking that extra leadership point at some stage.

In case anyone was wondering, with equipment, he's worth 605 creds.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Kardikus on May 28, 2012, 05:20:32 PM
Oooooh that is a little bit of a kick in the nuts well i think it wud be hard to choose but i suppose Ld 8 with reroll is pretty good and its not like it will be easy to take ur leader down so you will get that pretty much all the time so maybe the extra attack will be a good choice well hopefully will see in your next installment of the campaign.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 31, 2012, 12:35:18 PM
I'd just like to send out a thank you to everyone who has been following this campaign and everyone who has posted on this thread.

When I started the campaign, I didn't think it would run as long as it has, and I definitely didn't think I would end up writing more than 60,000 words about it on the internet.

Anyway, I'm off to the US for a few weeks, so there probably aren't going to be any updates until late June.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on May 31, 2012, 02:45:25 PM
I'd just like to send out a thank you to everyone who has been following this campaign and everyone who has posted on this thread.

You're welcome, this is probably the most entertaining thread on 40ko that I've ever come across!

Anyway, I'm off to the US for a few weeks, so there probably aren't going to be any updates until late June.

Have fun, you will be sorely missed!!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on May 31, 2012, 05:53:20 PM
I'd just like to send out a thank you to everyone who has been following this campaign and everyone who has posted on this thread.

You're welcome, this is probably the most entertaining thread on 40ko that I've ever come across!

Anyway, I'm off to the US for a few weeks, so there probably aren't going to be any updates until late June.

Have fun, you will be sorely missed!!
Seconded. even threads specificly designed to be amusing don't even come close to this. I applaude you sir, you have done a great job so far. have fun in america!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Toad_Raider on May 31, 2012, 10:18:10 PM
I'd just like to send out a thank you to everyone who has been following this campaign and everyone who has posted on this thread.

You're welcome, this is probably the most entertaining thread on 40ko that I've ever come across!

Anyway, I'm off to the US for a few weeks, so there probably aren't going to be any updates until late June.

Have fun, you will be sorely missed!!
Seconded. even threads specificly designed to be amusing don't even come close to this. I applaude you sir, you have done a great job so far. have fun in america!

Thirded! Very amusing thread, I've derived great amounts of pleasure out of your updates, and your tales of woe and success from battle to battle. Enjoy your trip!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine on June 2, 2012, 07:34:26 AM
Must agree this thread is by far the biggest reason I check up on these forums. Enjoy your trip and waiting to hear more of the downfall of joffrey when you return.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on June 5, 2012, 07:27:08 AM
I have no paticence whatsoever, so I'm gonna read the thread again. yes, all 10 pages :P
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: timdp on June 16, 2012, 03:56:46 PM
Absolutely epic thread. Thanks much for all of the 60K plus words!

Just getting back into 40K after long layoff and played a Necromunda game at a local con which led to pulling out all of my old Necromunda stuff and starting to build a new Escher gang...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Mushkilla on June 18, 2012, 02:45:32 PM
Most entertaining 40k/Gameworkshop related thread of all time in my books! Over 60 000 words?!? You just keep giving! Are you sure you are a lawyer?  ;)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on June 30, 2012, 08:39:10 AM
And I'm back.  Thank you everyone for the kind words.   America was nice.  The scorpions were not.

Campaign Turn 12

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F004-1.jpg&hash=ea336d42978ad2698a613c84ae2704493e45f049)

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



As the map stands at turn 12, I'm pretty happy with my position.  I have decent territories, my gang is getting tougher every turn, I have a useful ally in Gannicus, cordial relations with Jonah, and my enemies are in disarray - the Orlocks are about to be wiped out, the Escher should follow soon thereafter, and the Goliaths are currently distracted.  I judge the campaign to be at it's mid point and the way things are going, I should be well placed by the time the end game starts in a few turns time.

The way I see things happening is that the Orlock Player will get squashed this turn, Gannicus and I will crush Joffrey over the next two or three turns, and then Jonah, Gannicus and I will all take Octavian down piece by piece.  Even though Octavian has an impressive empire and a large Gang, he won't be able to withstand fighting against 3opponents each turn.  Even without ganging up, Octavian will be suffering 3 or 4 games worth of casualties each turn and will only have a single turn's worth of income with which to replace them.  Even with the extra experience his gang will get from playing so many games, he simply won't be able to make up the losses he will suffer.  Fresh Goliath Juves with Access to Combat and Muscle skills are no replacement for dead gangers with 200 exp and extra Agility skills and multiple wounds.  His fall will happen faster than most would expect.

It should be straight forward.  All that has to happen is for Gannicus, Jonah and I to stick together, and it will be easy.  The only potential problem is that stupid Spore Cave that the Orlock Player is clinging onto.

This is the problem - Jonah despises the Orlock Player and wants to rub him out of the campaign.  The quickest way to do that is to attack the Spore Cave and crush the Orlock Player once and for all.

The difficulty (for me) is that if Jonah takes the Spore Cave, then  Gannicus has a much narrower line of attack through to the Goliath territories - one that would probably end up cramping my own line of approach against the Goliaths in a few turns time.

So - Gannicus has to take the Spore Cave.  Which is fine by him, because he wants to take the Spore Cave, which is a valuable territory.  Unfortunately attacking the Spore Cave this turn will give Joffrey an extra turn of breathing space, during which Shamora could increase her Leadership back up to 8, and if that happens then Joffrey is right back in business.  Wiping Joffrey off the map is therefore a much higher priority than taking that Spore Cave, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Getting Gannicus to understand the importance of destroying Joffrey is hard enough on its own (he has an amazing ability to forget how Joffrey was kicking his arse only a few turns ago), but every turn that the Orlock Player stays in the game is an extra turn that Jonah gets more and more pissed off at having to see his face and put up with getting called a fat be-atch by the little prick.

There is also the added pressure that Octavian will probably target the Spore Cave this turn, and if he does that, then he will probably take it, and then I'll have to somehow have to provide some sort of an explanation to Jonah that allowing Octavian his next opponent to take a Spore Cave right out from under our noses is somehow the best outcome for him.  I get paid to make the bad look good, but that will be a very hard sell.

My predictions for turn 12 were as follows:

1.  I would take out Joffrey's Old Ruins to the East;
2.  Gannicus would take out Joffrey's Friendly Doc;
3.  Joffrey would attack Gannicus's Holestead.  He can't sit out another turn - if he loses a territory to both me and Gannicus, then he's only got an Old Ruins left, and he'd need a miracle to come back from that;
4.  Joffrey could even be wiped off the map.  My Gang has his measure, and if he attacked the Delaque, then Gannicus would get two cracks at him and could potentially take both territories, bundling Joffrey out of the campaign.  Unlikely of course - Joffrey wouldn't have been sitting idle during his recent problems - he will have a plan;
5.  Jonah would target one of Octavian's Eastern territories, probably the Mine Workings;
6.  The Orlock Player would attack Joffrey's Gambling Den.  With dwindling numbers and no Heavy Stubber, he simply can't rely on his castling tactics.  His only chance is to pick special scenario's like Shoot Out or Raid which cut down on the numbers advantage that the Goliaths have.  He could also attack Jonah, but I think he's had enough of that for a while, and the Goliath Gambling Den is a much more tempting target than the Van Saar Workshop or Settlement.  Either way he is still very unlikely to win.  Ever since he broke his Alliance with Joffrey and turned to attack the Van Saar, his gang has become weaker and weaker each turn while the Van Saar and Goliaths have both grown from strength to strength.
7.  Octavian would target the Orlock Spore Cave and wipe the Orlocks off the map;

I was wrong.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Daboarder on July 1, 2012, 04:00:13 AM
OH DAMN YOU TEASE!

welcome back
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: cardassian on July 4, 2012, 05:37:27 PM
Awesome thread!
Found it last night and have read it all now.
Please update it soon.
Has been great to learn some of the ins and outs of necromunda and your writing style is great.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Toad_Raider on July 4, 2012, 06:58:44 PM
I was wrong.

Cliffhanger ending argh! Update again man, the suspense is bad for my health  :P
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 5, 2012, 10:09:52 AM
I drew the attacks out of the hat:

I attacked Joffrey's Old Ruins to the west.

Joffrey attacked Gannicus's Holestead.  No surprises there.

Gannicus attacked Joffrey's Friendly Doc.

Gannicus:   My guys are going to be playing doctors and nurses with your friendly Doc after this round.
Joffrey:   So, what are you saying?  Your guys are going to dress up like nurses?
Gannicus: . . . No . . .there are male nurses . . .beslubber you!
Joffrey:  You'll wish you had a Friendly Doc after this round.

Then it got weird.

I thought Octavian would attack the Orlock Player's Spore Cave.  I thought that because:

1.  a Spore Cave is one of the most profitable territories in the game, and arguably the best overall;
2.  Octavian has been bashing the hell out of the Orlock Player for the last few rounds, and wants him out of the campaign, so it would just be a continuation of what he has been doing so far;
3.  It would deny the territory to either Jonah or Gannicus, both of wom it is pretty obvious that he is going to be fighting against soon.

I was wrong.  Octavian attacked my Vents (the ones closer to the middle of the map) via my old Slag.  That surprised the hell out of me.  Why would he take his foot off the Orlock Player's throat?  Why ould he give up the opportunity to capture a Spore Cave and go after some Vents instead?  Vents are a decent territory due to the tactical advantage they give (infiltrate 3 guys above ground level at the end of your first turn), but they don't compare to the advantage given by the income from a Spore Cave.  Maybe he was trying to help Joffrey?  But if so, why wouldn't Joffrey help him double team me?  Strange.

Gannicus:   Why the beslubber did you do that?
Octavian:   I got bored fighting Orlocks, and I've got plenty of income and I thought that Jonah could take him out anyway, so I thought I'd let him have it. [This was much more statesmanlike than is normal for Octavian, whose ruthless, grasping ambition is his defining personality trait].
Jonah:  Very generous of you. [addressed to Joffrey, but said while staring at me].
Octavian:  Think nothing of it.  Good luck. 
Underhand:  Your funeral.
Octavian:   We'll see.

In accordance with my pursuasion, Jonah attacked Octavian's Mine Workings via his Tunnels.

Underhand:   Jonah is attacking Octavian's Mine Workings via his Tunnels.
Octavian:    Really?
Jonah:  Yes. [looking at me again].  I didn't know that the Spore Cave would be left unmolested this turn.
Octavian:  That's okay man, we're all here to win.  Do what you have to do.
Jonah:  Oh, I will. [regarding me with cold eyes, the knuckles of his clenched fists turning white].

That just left the Orlock Player.  Given that he is involved in a two simultaneous blood feuds with both Jonah and Octavian, I assumed that he would attack either one of them.  Attacking Octavian's Gambling Den, would probably be the smartest (and I figured most likely) move, since even in his weakened state, holding 2  2D6x10 territories would give him a very decent income base to start rebuilding. 

Alternatively, given that in a few turns, Gannicus would be looking for a new enemy, it might make sense to get out of his way and hope that he got into a war with Octavian.  If that was the his decision, then striking out to the east against Jonah might let him live longer if he could manage some sort of general eastward migration. 

Attacking Gannicus to the north would obviously be stupid, since Gannicus's Gang is quite tough these days, and Gannicus is a far superior player.  But on the other hand, he had suffered amphetamine parrot kicking after amphetamine parrotkicking at the hands of both Octavian and Jonah in recent times, so maybe he felt like having his arse handed to him by someone new.  I still didn't think it likely.

I figured he would attcak the Goliath Gambling Den to the South.  It's what I would have done.  But the Orlock Player is not me.

He attacked Joffrey's Friendly Doc.

Gannicus:   HAHAHAHAHA!
Underhand:   HAHAHAHAHA!
Joffrey:  Seriously?
[I showed him the slip of paper.  He read it and let it drop from his fingers in disgust]
Orlock Player:  [standing there like he's Michael Corleone, and he's just ruthlessly and cold heartedly ordered a hit on a trusted ally] Sorry dude, but I gotta do what I gotta do. Law of the Jungle.
Joffrey:  You're a beslubbering idiot.

A beslubbering idiot is right.  And in so many ways.   

With his empire crumbling around him, his sworn enemies, the Van Saar and the Goliaths closing in on him and the Delaques eyeing his Spore Cave hungrily, where does he decide to counterattack?  Right at the one person left in the campaign who can tolerate his presence and who has offered him support and even physical backup in the past.

Apparently he'd been listening to me and Gannicus gloating over Joffrey's problems with his leader's leadership and figured that if we were having such an easy time of walking over him, then there was no reason why he shouldn't too.  Sound logic, except in two respects: 

1.  Gannicus and I are of similar skill to Joffrey, so while Shamora's low leadership is a gamebreaker against us, it's not an insurmountable hurdle against a less experienced player, particularly an uninventive, passive one like the Orlock Player;
2.  Gannicus and I now have pretty tough Gangs.  Our Gang ratings have continued to climb in recent times, while Joffrey's has started to slip as casualties have mounted up.  The Orlock Player also has a pretty crappy gang these days.  He even lost his Heavy Stubber last turn.  beslubber knows what that will do to his game plan.

So instead of perhaps doing something sensible like reaching out to Joffrey and maybe trying to double team Gannicus, which Joffrey probably would have accepted in a heartbeat, he went and attacked him, thereby severing the closest thing to a positive relationship he had left with another faction in the campaign.

What a douchebag.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: cardassian on July 6, 2012, 06:02:07 PM
Guy sounds like a real Douche.
Hope he gets smashed (even by Joffrey).
Although it sounds like he is a terrible tactician.

On a different note I am about to start my first necromunda campaign soon (have 4-5 players) and are really interested in the idea of using a map as you have here. I was wondering if to make this work do we need to do the double round as you are here (with everyone getting to have an attack each round) and if there is anything in the way you have run this campaign that you would not recommend doing in mine. 2 of the players will be experienced 40k players and nobody is experienced in necromunda.

Sorry about this reply being all over the place but it's saturday and I'm quite hungover.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 7, 2012, 12:57:58 AM
The one change I would definitely make to the campaign if I were starting again would be to play with the Community Edition Rules.  They are superior in every sense, and I honestly don't understand why GW don't just adopt them.  I originally went with the standard rules, because Gannicus, Joffrey and I all owned a copy, and together with the store copy we were able to lend them to the newer players to let them get up to speed more quickly.  I also have an innate bias for doing things the official way.

Given that (I think) the hardcover rulebook is no longer available for purchase, I would recommend just printing off the Community Edition Rules and using those.  They are very much the same rules, with some slight but sensible tweaks to ammend some of the weaker rules and balance out the gangs.

As regards the 'double round': 

It's not really a 'double round' as such.  Although usually everyone will fight twice per round (once as attacker and once as Defender), it doesn't always end up that way.  This turn for instance I am fighting twice (attacking Joffrey and Defending against Octavian), Gannicus is fighting twice (attacking Joffrey and defending against Joffrey), Octavian is fighting twice (attacking me and Defending against Jonah), The Orlock Player is fighting once (attacking Joffrey), Jonah is fighting once (attacking Octavian) and Joffrey is fighting 3 times (attacking Gannicus, defending against Gannicus and the Orlock Player in a 3-way, and defending against me alone). 

Currently in the campaign, I have played the most games, with (I think) Octavian second, though Joffrey will soon eclipse him.  Jonah has played the fewest number of games because for a long time no one was attacking him.

As we currently have it, everyone gets a round of income every campaign turn regardless of how many times they fight.  This can be very hard on a gang that has to fight multiple times per campaign turn, as they will be taking more casualties per round of income than the standard rules are designed for.   I would say that one of the things that has characterised this campaign is the relatively meagre equipment compared to the base skills and statistics of the gangers.  Abraham for example is maxed out stats wise, but until last round still only had a bolt pistol and a chainsword.  Normally a Gang Leader of Abraham's stature would be armed with a powersword, a plasma pistol, some grenades, some kind of armour and at least one or two other cool little gadgets from the trading post.  The other Gang Leaders are all much better equipped than Abraham, but not by much.

The lower than usual level of income per turn has sucked at times, but if we used the normal rules that give a turn of income to a gang after every fight, then some gangs would shoot ahead of others both in terms of experience and equipment - being attacked on multiple fronts would be bonus rather than a burden.  I prefer it the way that we are doing it, where a gang that is attacked by multiple opponents will feel the extra strain.  It adds a strategic element that I enjoy.  This campaign isn't just being played on the tabletop, it's being played in between games in private conversation between the players, via sms and through email.

Having said all that - given that players will on average be playing 2 games per turn, it could be a good idea to give each gang double their profits of their income each turn.  That would be of particular benefit for new players and would allow them to compensate for any mistakes they might make.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Kardikus on July 8, 2012, 06:09:05 AM
Yeah i think for simplicity's sake that just doubling the income will be more beneficial but only if they play more than one game per turn as you will get players only playing the one game and earning more than they should in a turn. Otherwise great to see you back and although your plans have been upset just remember this People are stupid and do stupid things so when you plan make sure u plan for peoples stupidity as-well. This has helped me more times than i remember as i played 40k and Necromunda for a number of years. Just need to try and find a gaming group near me now willing to play necromunda anyone near Kinloss in Scotland give me a bell lol.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 15, 2012, 08:57:31 AM
Turn 12:

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F004-1.jpg&hash=ea336d42978ad2698a613c84ae2704493e45f049)

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




The Second Stringers -v- House Bloodaxe

Jonah had reluctantly gone along with my plan to leave the Orlock Spore cave alone and attack Octavian instead.  Part of what allowed me to pursuade him to forgo the opportunity to take the Spore Cave was that I thought that Octavian would attack the Spore Cave and wipe out the Orlock Player, giving Jonah what he wanted.  As things had worked out, that didn't happen. Octavian attacked my Vents instead and the Orlock Player avoided being attacked by anyone. So baring a miracle (ie - Joffrey beating both Gannicus and the Orlock Player in a 3-way and getting a 3-1 casualty count on the Orlock Player), the Orlock Player would survive another turn.  Jonah was feeling a little hard done by.

It was therefore important that he win this fight and not be left feeling like he had wasted another turn.  They rolled a Gang Fight. 

It was a total disaster for the Van Saar.

Jonah set up in a pretty similar way to how he had done recently.  He has 12 guys in his gang, and he brought along a couple of Ratskins.  He set up 6 of his guys, including his leader and Heavy Stubber on high ground in the middle of his side of the table.  He kept a further 6 in reserve to be deployed via his Vents and Tunnels.

Octavian has 18 gang members and he also hired 2 Scummers, because if he doesn't spend his creds in any way he can, his gang will end up drowning in money.  He left a couple of guys out on the sides apparently as some sort of flanking/scouting force.

Octavian had played on the same table against the Orlock Player several times, so he knew where the best lines of attack against a shooting opponent were.  The fact that he had played so much against a shooting opponent like the Mortlock Cartel in recent games was also to his advantage, since he was experienced against the type of opponent he was facing Jonah by comparison has never faced a close combat oriented opponent like Octavian's Goliaths, having only really ever played against the Orlock Player.

Jonah employed the same 2nd turn alpha strike tactics he had used against the Orlock Player for several turns:  Vent team and Tunnel Team pop out (together with the infiltrating ratskins) and hose down the closest enemies with withering hail of close range fire.  Unfortunately, what works against one gang doesn't necessarilly work against another.  In this case, it not only failed to work, it also played directly into the hands of Octavian.

As you know, the fundamental weakness of the Goliaths is that they are a slow moving close combat gang.  By deploying his Vent and Tunnel teams within close range of the Goliaths, Jonah was really just serving them up on a platter to Octavian.  He didn't deploy all of his guys within the standard 8" charge range, but they were all within 12", and Octavian does have some guys who have agility skills.

The Ratskins got a couple of shots off before the Goliaths closed, but they only succeeded in pinning a Juve, and by the end of the second turn, the Goliaths had downed 2 of the Van Saar Tunnelers and a Ratskin, and were locked in close combat with a 3rd Van Saar and the other Ratskin.  The Vent team didn't get charged, but one of them got shot and fell down a couple of levels, getting taken out of action, one of them failed a morale check and the other one was pinned.  No Goliaths were down.

With half his gang either out of action, down, pinned or locked in a losing melee or Jonah didn't have much he could counterfire with in his turn, so he put most of his gang on overwatch and snapped off a couple of shots where he could, which took down one Goliath.  In the close combat phase, both the Ratskin and the remaining tunneler were taken out. 

In the Goliath turn, the Goliath Vent team took down one of the remaining Van Saar Vent team and lost one of their own (a Scummer) to overwatch fire.
By the end of the 3rd turn Jonah had 6 guys out of action compared to only a single Goliath out of action. 

Being in a winning position from that point, Octavian didn't really have to do anything more except wait for Joah to bottle out.  He retreated those members of his gang who weren't already out of the Van Saar LOS into cover and sat out the remaining turns in hiding. 

Jonah managed to take another few shots at long range at a few goliaths in heavy cover, but only caused 2 wounds, which wasn't enough to take down the targets, and he failed his 3rd bottle roll.

The Goliaths took the Van Saar Tunnels.

I acted as the referee for the game, so I couldn't really give Jonah as much advice as I would normally have liked to.  Throughout the game Octavian was the most gracious and generous I have ever seen him be in Necromunda or even 40k.  There were multiple times where he conceded 50/50 calls on cover and LOS to Jonah.  He even praised Jonah's gameplay despite the fact that Jonah really didn't really play well.

I can see exactly what angle he's working at.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 15, 2012, 09:42:43 AM
Gothika -v- The Black Coats

Joffrey attacked Gannicus's Holestead via his Old Ruins.  This was decent strategy, since even though my Spore Cave was a high value viable target, taking the Holestead would link up his territories again, which would give him a bit more flexibility in assigning gangers to earn income.  It would have potentially allowed him to get back into the campaign by carving out an empire towards the middle of the map.  Going after the Spore Cave would leave him vulnerable to being smothered by me and Gannicus as is currently happening.  So he did what I would have done in his circumstances.

That didn't stop me from repeatedly telling him that he had made a mistake, and that it would have been a lot smarter for him to have gone after the Spore Cave.  Joffrey is losing at the moment, so by questioning/disparaging every decision he makes, I hope to make him doubt his own judgment and fall into making mistakes.  Every nut cracks eventually.

As Gannicus's gang has risen, casualties and the lack of funds to hire mercenaries has seen Joffrey's gang decline along with his territory.  The Black Coats have a significantly higher gang rating than Gothika, and so Joffrey now has a much greater chance of picking the scenario, which he did on this occasion and picked Hit & Run. 

Hit & Run

Hit & Runs (Hits & Runs?) can get pretty tense.  At first the advantage is with the attacker (4-6 attackers chosen by the attacking player versus 1-3  random defenders).  The defenders are normally outnumbered and outclassed at the beginning, but the momentum soon shifts away from the attackers as defender reinforcements arrive.  The attackers have to pick off the defenders as they arrive and prevent them from massing against them.  That is easier said than done because the defenders arrive from random table edges, so it's not like an attacker can sit in one spot and just shoot the defenders as soon as they step onto the board through the same doorway.  The attacker has to be active and go hunting for the defenders. 

The more skilled the attacker, the longer he keeps the advantage, and conversely, the more skilled the defender, the quicker he takes the advantage.  Both Gannicus and Joffrey are very skilled players.

There are several types of Hit & Run scenarios, each with a different objective - blow up a waterstill, beat up an opposition gang member in hand to hand combat, take out the opposition leader, steal the opposition's loot etc.  Normally you roll to determine which scenario gets played.  Joffrey got lucky though and got to choose.  He picked Shoot Up.

In  a Shoot Up, the attacker only gets to use between 4-6 of his guys.  They set up within 4" of one side of the board and have to make it across to the other side of the board to win.  Basically, the attackers are trying to show how badass they are by running right through the middle of the defenders' territory, shooting guns in the air and scaring the cattle and so forth.   Through such deeds are the legends of the Underhive forged.

The Defender starts up with 1-3 guys, anywhere on the board, but at least 8" away from a table edge.  1-3 reinforcements also come on each turn from a random table edge.

In my view, Shoot Up is the easiest of the Hit & Run scenarios to win, particularly for Escher due to their access to Agility skills.  The attacker also has the advantage, because he gets to choose which of his gangers turn up, whereas the defenders are randomly selected, so theoretically the defender could start the game with only a single utter moron wandering around scratching his arse, completely at the mercy of the Attacker's 6 best fighters, desperately hoping for some competent gang members to arrive in numbers.  The attackers don't have to worry about bottling out until they have lost half their numbers.  Escher are good at Hit & Run scenarios generally, and it made good sense for Joffrey to pick a Hit & Run given his current circumstances.

Joffrey had 5 of his girls turn up and all 5 he picked had Sprint or Leap, which increase their movement.

Gannicus started with 3 guys -  a Juve, a Ganger (Lasgun Lex) and his Stubber Heavy (Stubber Stan).  There were 5 ways for Joffrey to cross the table.  Gannicus set his Stubber Heavy to be able to cover two lines of approach down the left side of the table, and set his other two guys up in the middle, ready to move to wherever the Escher decided to run. 

Joffrey set up on the right, effectively taking Gannicus's heavy out of the game.  With their agility skills, his girls would be able to cross the board in 4 turns if left completely unmolested, but would more likely take 5 unless they got lucky.  If they took 6 turns, they would be pushing their luck, and I couldn't see them winning if they took longer than 6 turns.

Turn 1

Joffrey started by darting  all of his girls as far forward as possible. No shots fired.

Gannicus responded by rotating his Heavy and putting him on Overwatch.  It was unlikely he would get to shoot at anything for several turns if at all, but he had effectively shut down 1/3 of the board, so I guess it was reasonable for him to turn up.   The other two Delaques ran to take up a position mid table to intercept the Escher. A Delaque lasgunner turned up on the left side of the table.  He had a clear shot at Shamora, and took it, but failed to wound.

Turn 2

Joffrey charged Shamora at the Delaque newcomer and cut him to pieces with her powersword.  He ran another couple of his girls (Tabitha and Glinda) forward into cover and dropped another two into Overwatch, one of whom could also go into hiding due to her Ambush skill.

Gannicus slid his Juve into cover in line to intercept the Escher and attempted the same with the ganger, but he got pinned to Overwatch fire.  Another 2 Delaques arrived from behind the Escher, but had no shots at them, they ran to a shooting position.

Turn 3

Shamora ran down the right side of the board.  One of the overwatches turned to cover any approach by the three new Delaque reinforcements.  The Tabitha and Glinda continued their advance.  They would exit the table and win the game on the following turn.

Gannicus was in trouble.  Tabitha and Glinda would likely cross the table turn after next.  Gannicus's pinned ganger was close enough to his Juve to recover from pinning and  Gannicus ran him forward to intercept the Escher runners.  The Juve popped up and took a shot with an autopistol at them, but missed even though he was shooting at close range.  Another 3 Delaques, a bolter marksman (Bolter Bill), a lasgunner and Gannicus's leader, Smiling Sam, turned up on the left and all opened fire at Shamora from close range with 5 shots for 2 wounds, which would have taken her down, but Joffrey got lucky and rolled a fleshwound.  The two Delaques who arrived on the previous turn took a shot at one of the Overwatching Escher, wounding her once and pinning her.

Turn 4

On Joffrey's turn, it turned out that Gannicus had placed Lex with great precision, preventing both of the Escher runners from running off the board.  Instead they both charged him.  The pinned Overwatcher recovered her nerve and fired back with her teammate at the Delaques behind them, but failed to hit anything. 

In the close combat phase, Shamora charged into Smiling Sam and the lasgunner.  The lasguner went down, and Smiling Sam was lucky to suffer only a single wound from 4 hits with a powersword and plasma pistol.  Flaming Moe went down to Tabitha and Glinda in close combat, who both consolidated into cover.  They would cross and win the game next turn.

Gannicus probably should have let Tabitha and Glinda walk past Lex and win the game.  As it was, by giving Joffrey that extra turn, he had lost Lex, to Tabitha and Glinda and lost the other lasgunner to Shamora.  Together with the earlier casualty that Shamora had destroyed, in close combat earlier, that left him with 2 guys out of action, and one down (who had only avoided going out of action because Shamora was still locked in close combat with Gannicus's leader.  Given that Shamora would get another close combat phase to work Smiling Sam over before getting his own turn, Gannicus had to work fast to rack up a couple of casualties to prevent the loss of a territory.

Two Delaque shotgunners came on on the left side of the table, but they didn't have ashot.  Gannicus sprinted them toward the middle of the table in the hope that things might get drawn out for another turn.

A lot of players would have freaked out and beslubbered up at this point, but Gannicus is on top of his game and played it smart.  He knew that Shamora would probably take down his leader this turn, and that if she did that then both his leader and thedowned lasgunner would be put out of action automatically.  However, he also knew that Shamora had a fleshwound and didn't have the charge bonus this turn, so she would be less deadly than last turn, and with a little bit of help, Smiling Sam might just be able to sneak the advantage. 

Luckily, help was at hand.  Gannicus still had Bolter Bill close by.  I think most players would have had the bolter guy rapid fire into the close combat and hope to take down Shamora that way, since the likely result of him entering into a melee with Shamora, even with the aid of his boss was that he would go down.  Gannicus didn't do that however.  He charged him in.

In the shooting phase, the Delaque kid managed to finally wound one of the Escher overwatchers, which together with another wound from one of the lasgunners at the back, took her out of action.

The result of Bolter Bill's attempt at cutting in on Smiling Sam's dance with Shamora went as expected, with Bill going down in several pieces on the floor, but the bonus he granted to Sam for having an extra man in the combat meant that Shamora only managed a single wound, which left him on his feet and able to defend the prone forms of Bill and the lasgunner for another turn.

That intervention by Bolter Bill into that fight saved the Holestead for the Delaques.

Turn 5

At the start of his 5th turn, Joffrey had the option of either:

1)  running Tabitha and/or Glinda off the board and taking the win without a territory (2-1 casualty count); or
2)  playing out another turn, and probably having Shamora beat down Gannicus's leader, and thereby automatically take the lasgunner and bolter guy out of action as well, raising the casualty count to 5-1 which was more than enough to take the Holestead.

Taking option 2 must have been tempting for him, since it has been a while since he had won a game, and there is nothing he likes better than kicking Gannicus's arse, and he could really really have done with gaining retaking the territory, but waiting an extra turn would have meant losing the game too.

For starters, Shamora actually had to beat Smiling Sam, and although she was definitely odds on to do that, with her flesh wound, it was totally conceivable that she might not be able to get that last wound on him.  Sam could even hit her, in which case it was totally possible that she could even lose.

Apart from Shamora though, he would still have to get Tabitha or Glinda off the edge of the table, and waiting an extra turn would give Gannicus time to intercept them.  The two newly arrived shotgunners might not have been able to get a shot at Tabitha or Glinda on turn 4, but because they had spent turn 4 running intop position, they were in position to be able to go into overwatch this turn and shoot at the Escher runners as soon as they burst from cover on turn 6.  It would require good shooting, but they were good shots, and Gannicus would only need to pin them to hold up Joffrey for another turn, during which more Delaque reinforcements would arrive.

Joffrey played it safe and took the win.  But he didn't take the Holestead.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: bsucbe on July 20, 2012, 07:54:27 PM
Love this thread, your antics and in depth reports of on and off the table activity have made me laugh more than any posts i have read in a while so thankyou and best of luck, so glad Joffrey and Ocatvian are getting their just deserts and best of luck with dealing with the incoming confusion of a collapsing alliance :P

p.s. once this is done please please take up another campaign, very rare to see such high quality coverage
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 22, 2012, 03:08:29 AM
Thank you Bscube.

Turn 12 continued (appologies for the length):

House Bloodaxe -v- The Hand of Redemption

Joffrey's defence strategy wasn't limited to a switch to guerrilla tactics with his choice of scenarios, he had also rallied Octavian to his side and persuaded him to attack my Old Ruins to the South.  If Octavian took the Old Ruins off me, it would isolate my Vents, making them easier to capture in future turns, and would open up the prospect of Octavian and Joffrey double teaming me.  At the very least it would tempt me into attacking Octavian instead of Joffrey, perhaps buying him time to address Shamora's leadership issues.

Joffrey:  Kick his arse, mate.
Octavian:   Don't worry mate, I've got your back.
Underhand:  Pfft.  Like you could take a territory off me, kid.
Octavian:  I have before, and I will again, old man.

Ahh, the confidence of youth.

Octavian and I haven't fought for a while now.  His memories of fighting my gang are of delivering merciless thrashing after merciless thrashing, painting one map tile after another red as his Goliaths chased my Cawdor to the very corners of the map.  My only victories were the result of exploiting his inexperience in scenarios for which my gang was optimised.  But that was a long time ago, and he has learned a lot and his gang has grown, and my sneaky tactics won't work again.  I know this, because that is what he has been telling everyone.

He is of course, to a certain extent right.  He was kicking my arse.  But that was mainly the result of being double (or triple) teamed by the Gorlock alliance and Joffrey.  He also knows how to play scavenger scenarios now, and now has several runners which significantly increase the effectiveness of his gang overall as well as in a scavengers scenario.  But my gang has improved across the board as well.  And this time, I have a one-in-a-million Heavy Bolter.

We rolled a Gang Fight which suited me just fine.

I set up first and placed Ram, Isaac and Jacob on the second floor  in the middle of my side.  They had light or heavy cover depending on the angle of the incoming fire.  Below them, I set up Jemuel and Abijah.  Everyone else would emerge from Vents.

Octavian set up and plonked his Heavy Stubber and 3 lasgunners directly across from my ranged team, but all out of line of sight, which is a luxury afforded to a Heavy with Bulging Biceps.  12 of his guys were spread from the middle to the right of the table, probably to prevent my Vent teams from  being able to catch him in a crossfire.  He kept 2 guys and a scummer off the table as part of his vent team.

Turn 1

Octavian got the first turn and moved his ranged team out of cover to line up my ranged team.  The rest of his gang moved forwards, taking up the middle of the table and sticking to cover.  Only his Heavy Stubber was in range of my guys, and took a shot at my ranged team, but he is a amphetamine parrotty shot and failed to hit anyone.  The Goliath Vent team popped out on top of a tower to the left of my ranged team, but out of sight.

On my turn, I had some decisions to make.  Octavian had deployed his Vent team (shotgun, boltpistol and scummer) very well.  It was impossible for me to rotate my ranged team to be able to shoot at both his main ranged team with the Heavy Stubber, and the Vent team to my left, once they came into view next turn.  That could have proved problematic in future turns.  It was tempting to blast away at the ranged team while I had the chance, but that would leave the Vent team free to shoot at Jacob, and given the relative lack of cover from that angle, I didn't want that to happen.

Putting my  guys on Overwatch was an option, but it could easily just result in Octavian keeping the Vent team out of LOS and perhaps hiding or repositioning his ranged team, leading me to miss out on shooting for a turn, and thereby neutralising some of the most powerful elements of my gang.

I attempted to have my cake and eat it too.  I repositioned Ram so that he was closest to the Vent team, put Jacob on Overwatch facing the Vent team and let rip with Isaac at the Goliath Ranged team.  Octavian had placed his Lasgunners in front t of his Heavy Stubber, and far enough away, so that Isaac could only  walk fire between two of the lasgunners, which he did, scoring 2 hits and a single wound.

My first Vent team, Amon, Asa, and Josiah dropped out of Vents dead in front of the Goliath advance  on the right.  The second Vent team, Abraham, Zohar (frenzied) and Boaz dropped out slightly closer towards the middle of the table.   

Turn 2

Octavian wasn't in charge range of my Vent teams, and didn't have much of a shot at them, so he moved his force forward hoping to tempt me into a charge which he could then counter and destroy me.

He had a tricky decision to make with his Vent team.  The problem with an Overwatching Heavy is that you can find yourself missing out on a number of shots.  The value of a Heavy Stubber or Heavy Bolter is that you can shoot multiple targets provided they are within 4" of each other.  They're great when shooting in your own turn, because all of the targets will be lined up nicely for you, but with Overwatch, where the models are moved one at a time, you can miss out.  There might be three guys hiding behind a piece of cover all waiting to dart 6" across to the next piece of cover, but seeing as how you have to interrupt your opponents move to shoot at them, you will only get to shoot at one of them, unless your opponent happens to pick them all up at once and move them together, which would be stupid.

So, I was a little bit apprehensive that Octavian would only move one of his Vent Team members out this turn, and attempt to have him take down Ram, or if he used the gun slinging Scummer, take down Ram and pin Jacob.  If he did that, Jacob would only be able to shoot at one guy, which would be a waste of a big gun.

Fortunately Octavian was a bit greedy.  Between him, his guys had 4 shots, and he needed all of them to take out both Ram and Jacob, who had 4 wounds between them.  If they failed, he would be relying on walking fire with his Heavy Stubber between Isaac and Jacob.  So he moved out all three of them to line up Ram and Jacob.  Or would have if Jacob hadn't let rip with his Heavy Bolter, firing 5 shots, hitting with 4, and causing a combined total of 8 wounds which took down the shotgunner and took the scummer and boltpistol guy out of action.

That was the first time the OIAM Heavy Bolter had fired a shot in anger in the campaign, and it did not disappoint.

With his Vent team down, Octavian realised that he had to do something to counteract the OIAM Heavy Bolter.  His only gun in range of it was the Heavy Stubber, so he opened up again, walking fire from Isaac, to Ram and to Jacob He fired 4 shots, directing the last 2 at Jacob, only one of which hit and failed to wound.  That was it for Octavian turn.

In my turn, to Octavian's dismay, Jacob picked himself up and stood ready to unleash more hell on the Goliaths.

I ran Abijah and Jemuel up to support Abraham, Zohar and Boaz, but they wouldn't reach them for another coupe of turns. 

Octavian's tactic of moving his gang forward a little bit last turn paid off.  Because Zohar's head wound had caused him to frenzy, and because I hadn't attempted to get him under control, he was forced to charge any enemy within range.  Due to his D6 Leap, that meant anyone within 14", which included 3 Goliaths.  I wouldn't have minded that, but in order to make it into close combat, and not be left stranded short of his target, Zohar would have to roll a 5 or a 6 for his Leap.  Even if he did make it, he wouldn't get support from Abraham, because Abraham's 12" sprint would leave him 2 inches short of the closest Goliath.  So Octavian had outmanoeuvred me there.  Zohar rolled for his Leap, and only rolled a 1, leaving him well short of his target and likely to either get counter charged next turn, or more likely shot to bits, since charging a frenzied flail wielder (impossible to parry) could easily backfire.

My ranged team could see Zohar clearly, but they couldn't see  any of the Goliaths who were all under  the first floor roof of a large structure, so they couldn't offer support this turn.  I could have put them on Overwatch, but that would just mean wasting a heavy weapon on one target, and Octavian could avoid being shot at simply by sitting in cover at shooting at Zohar with about 5 guys.

I had one trick I could pull to save Zohar.  I advanced Abraham out from his hiding spot, sticking to as much cover as possible and threw a plasma grenade at the closest Goliath.  In addition to packing a nasty punch, the blast of Plasma Grenades can hang around for several turns.  The blast template stays on the table, and you roll each turn to see what it does - it can stay in place, drift in a random direction, frying everything in its path or just fizzle out.  It also obscures line of sight.  My aim was to nail the nearest Goliath and present a barrier which would prevent the other Goliaths from charging him and cut down on the ones who could shoot at him.  Unfortunately, even with his BS6, Abraham missed and the plasma grenade scattered, to the right.  Although it did obscure LOS for a couple of Goliaths.

Up the back,  Isaac fired again at the Goliath ranged team taking down the lasgunner he had previously wounded. Ram shot the prone shotgunner, hoping to force him out of action, but failed to wound him.  Jacob could only see one of the remaining lasgunners, so he opened up on him, taking him out of action.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 22, 2012, 03:11:27 AM
continued:

Turn 3

Octavian passed his bottle roll.

Octavian charged 4 guys at Zohar, and I understood his plan.  3 of the 4 guys had Impetuous, which allows a 4"follow up move.  That 4" follow up move would allow them to follow up into cover outside the Line of Sight of may ranged team.  the 4th guy would also be able to make it because the way Octavian positioned him meant that 2" would be enough.  If I'd only put my ranged team on Overwatch, I would have been able to wait until Zohar went down, then unload with Jacob and Isaac's heavy weapons at 4 unobstructed targets.  It would have been murder.  As it was, I had blown Isaac and Jacob on picking off a couple of lasgunners that weren't really a threat to any of my guys.

Joffrey again opened up with his Heavy stubber at my ranged team, getting lucky in pinning all three of them and wounding Isaac and Jacob.

Downstairs, main Goliath force fired 3 shots at Abraham but only pinned him.

In the close combat phase, Zohar was obviously in deep amphetamine parrot.  He was attacked by 3 gangers and a Juve, so the last of his attackers would get +4 to hit and +4 attack dice.  Luckily, Zohar was frenzied, giving him a total of five attacks, was armed with a flail and hand flamer, making his attacks S4 and impossible to parry, and was otherwise not without a certain amount skill in close combat. 

First of all, he disarmed the most formidable of the Goliath gangers of his chainsword, reducing his attacks and strength.  Then took the Juve down.  He lost the second combat narrowly but escaped unwounded, he managed to win the third combat and wounded his opponent (the one he had disarmed), although not enough to take him out, and lost the last combat convincingly, getting hit 5 times.  That would be enough to take out most fighters (even Abraham would be close to going down), but Zohar has Step Aside, which gives a 4+ save in close combat, so he only ended up taking 2 wounds, leaving him just barely in the fight, but extremely pissed off. 

In my turn Isaac stayed pinned, but Jacob and Ram and Abraham got back to their feet. 

Abijah and Jemuel kept running to back up Abraham, Boaz and Zohar.  Abijah got hit by Goliath lasgun fire and was pinned, but Jemuel kept running and ran past him into cover.

I finally stepped my first vent team out of hiding, with a view to introducing Octavian to Amon's new found badassery, but they were met with a hail of very accurate shotgun and autopistol overwatch fire which dealt a wound to each of them and left them pinned in heavy cover.  If it hadn't been for the plasma cloud, then they could have been in trouble.

Charging Abraham into the close combat to help Zohar would normally have been my preferred course of action, but Octavian still had a few guys on Overwatch, and it would only take a single hit, which was likely, to stop Abraham dead in his tracks, so I decided to shoot instead.

As an aside, one of the things that is definitely better about later editions of 40k than 2nd edition/necromunda is the movement/shooting/assault sequence.  I prefer being able to sort out the shooting phase before committing to the charge.  As it is, in necromunda, charging an enemy model serves to protect them from that turn's round of shooting.  It discourages people from entering close combat, which is untactical and bad. While I have no problem with having to choose between having an individual model shoot or charge (ie sacrifice its shooting to effect close combat), and think that 40k would be better if it had such a rule, that sacrifice should only apply to the model in question, not the rest of the army.  But I digress.

 Abraham was out of range to toss another plasma grenade (the rules are silent as to whether they can be used like smoke grenades to target the floor, so we're playing it as if they can't), and so used his bolt pistol instead, hitting Akilar Bloodaxe, but failing to wound and running out of ammo.  The loss of his bolt pistol reduced Abraham's attacks in close combat by 1, so I'm really going to have to buy him a backup pistol in the post game sequence. 

Abraham took some counter overwatch fire, but again, it failed to wound.  The plasma could stayed where it was.

Ram took another shot at the fallen Vent team shotgunner and wounded him, but didn't take him out of action.  Jacob shifted to face the fight between Zohar and the 3 Goliaths and went into Overwatch.

In the close combat sequence, Zohar disarmed a bolt pistol from one of the Goliaths and won the first round of combat causing a wound, but failing to take down the opponent.  He tied the second round, but lost on initiative and took a wound, going down, and automatically out of action by the 3 Goliaths who were still on their feet.  Which was bad news indeed for them, because Zohar falling was all that Jacob was waiting for.

Jacob unleashed hell at the three Goliaths who were standing and the downed Juve.  5 shots, 5 hits, 5 wounding hits, 9 wounds overall resulting in a ganger and the juve going down and 2 gangers going out of action.

Turn 4

At the start of turn 4, Octavian had 6 guys out of action and another 3 down.  Of my guys, none were down, and only Zohar was out of action.  Octavian had none of his guys in charge range of any of my guys, and he was in a losing situation from a ranged perspective.  In order to avoid losing a territory, he needed to take another 2 of my guys out of action.  Given that close combat was at least another turn or two or way, that would be difficult, but he could get lucky.

He passed his bottle check.

He moved his lasgunner in his ranged team to present as a target to Jacob instead of his Heavy.  HE moved the rest of his gang as close as possible without getting in sight of Jacob, in preparation for an assault.

In the shooting phase, he unloaded on my first vent team again, taking down Josiah and pinning Amon and Asa again.  Asa's nerve broke, seeing Asa run, and he ran back into cover, leaving Amon on his own.   Abraham took a wound from the boltpistol of Bloodaxe, but was still on his feet.

His Heavy Stubber unleashed on Ram, Isaac and Jacob again, wounding Ram, and taking him down, and pinning Isaac and missing Jacob. His lasgunner took another shot at Abijah, hitting but failing to wound.  That was it.

Time to finish things.  I ran Abraham out of sight of the Goliaths, to stand behind Boaz, who had been hiding in Overwatch with his flamer and shotgun for some time now.  Jemuel ran up to reinforce them with his flamer.

Amon's Nerves of Steel allowed him to escape pinning and he unloaded 6 shots at the Goliaths in cover opposite him, taking one down, and causing another to flee.

Ram stayed down, but Isaac got back up and unloaded on the Goliath lasgunner who was shielding the Heavy Stubber.  The lasgunner went down, opening the Heavy Stubber up to a full blast from Jacobs OIAM Heavy Bolter.  The sustained fire roll was disappointing, giving only 2 shots, and Jacob only managed a single hit, but that was sufficient to take 2 wounds off the Stubber Heavy and bring him down.

Turn 5

The score at the start of Turn 5 was 6 Goliaths out of action and another 6 down.  that left 7 on their feet, one of which was fleeing.  1 Cawdor (Zohar) was out of action, 2 were down (Ram and Josiah) and Asa was broken.  7 were on their feet.

That might seem like an even fight, but of those Goliaths, 3 were Juves, 3 were decent Gangers and only Bloodaxe was a genuine threat.  Of the remaining Cawdor, there was Abraham, who even without a pistol was still nasty, Amon, who can fire 6 times a turn, a stubber heavy, a OIAM heavy bolter guy, two flamers and another close combat badass.  And Asa, as soon as he regained his nerve, which he would do automatically this turn, was definitely nothing to beslubber with either.  It wasn't an even fight.

Octavian:   beslubber it.  It's just a slag.  take it.
Underhand :  Thank you.  I will.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: cardassian on July 26, 2012, 02:01:04 AM
Congrats on taking the slag  :D
Love this thread, my favourite on the internet.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on July 26, 2012, 10:59:31 AM
That heavy Bolter is absolutely brutal, the damage is causes on groups isnt at all funny... I'm glad you took it instead of selling the lascannon for profit.

Are you not attempting to acquire more goons sometime? Other peoples juves are going to be non-pathetic soon...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on July 27, 2012, 07:12:57 AM
Thanks Cardassian.

That heavy Bolter is absolutely brutal, the damage is causes on groups isnt at all funny... I'm glad you took it instead of selling the lascannon for profit.
It is an absolute monster.  It reminds me of the last fight scene in Rambo 4 with the .50 calibre machine gun:

Rambo 50. Cal - Last Fight Scene - HD (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgozRTq8M_U#ws)

Quote
Are you not attempting to acquire more goons sometime? Other peoples juves are going to be non-pathetic soon...

You are right.  I do have to start bulking up my numbers.  I'll be fighting Octavian a lot from now on, and the sheer volume of fire that his 18+ guys can put out will leave my gang vulnerable to getting pin locked out of the game, if not simply overwhelmed in close combat.  He won't walk his guys out in front of Jacob again.  I need at least another 2 guys for my assault teams and another 2 for my ranged team to provide cover for Jacob. 

I've been putting off recruitment for a couple of reasons:

1.  It's only been in the last coupleof turns that I've actually had the territorial income for recruitment to be an option, and gearing up my existing gangers has been the priority;
2.  I've been attacking Joffrey during that time, and with his leadership problems, numbers don't make that much of a difference.
3.  I have 11 guys at the moment.  Once I hit 13, I get into a new income bracket, and my profits will drop considerably.  I can buy one ganger, and I'm fine, but any more than that, and I start making less money per turn.  So I've been putting it off for a while to keep making creds.  That's risky, but it's paid off so far.
4.  I've been saving up my creds for something special.  I won't say exactly what that is just yet, but it's going to cost more than 100 creds.

I might (probabl should) buy one more guy this turn.  If I do, then I have to decide between buying a Juve or a Ganger.  I normally go with Juves, but at this stage of the campaign, with so many high level gangers running about, the suckiness of Juves is really glaring.  At the early, and mid stages of a campaign, a Juve with an autopistol and sword is a formidable opponent for most gangers, but these days a Juve WS2 and BS2 with no skills to back it up is just meat for the beast.  Also, given that I will be trying to bulk out my ranged team, I really do need to take guys who can actually use lasguns, so Juves aren't an option there.  I'll make the decision once I see how many creds I earn.

Decisions, Decisions.


Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on August 4, 2012, 10:38:45 PM
Gothika  -v- The Mortlock Cartell -v- The Black Coats

Everybody hates a traitor.

The Orlock Player is catching amphetamine parrot from everyone in the store for his betrayal of Joffrey.  He is shunned.  Even the staff are referring to him (half jokingly) as 'the turncoat', which looks like it will stick because it sounds very similar to his real name.  He clearly regrets his decision, but whether it's because of the contempt  in which he is now held, or because he actually realises it was a dick act, I don't know.  Though I doubt he has enough personal insight for it to be the latter.

He turned up early and hung around outside the store in order to intercept Gannicus as he arrived and try to arrange for some sort of agreement whereby they would ally against Joffrey. 

Underhand:  What did you say?
Gannicus:  I told him that we should just wait to see how the battle turns out, and that if we were both standing at the end of it, then we work it out from there.
Underhand:  I thought you were against double teaming?
Gannicus:  I am, but if I told him to beslubber off, then he might side with Joffrey, and that could actually make things difficult.
Underhand:  So you'll just dust him up after you've dealt with Joffrey?
Gannicus:  Yeah.  But first I need to get a 3 to1 kill ratio to take the territory off Joffrey, so if beslubber-knuckle can take down one or two of Joffrey's gang, then that won't hurt.  I'll also need to borrow some of your Ratskins.
Underhand:  They're all yours.

So Gannicus's plan was to attack Joffrey, drive him off, then do the same to the Orlock Player.  The difficulty he had would be taking 3 times as many Escher out of action as he lost to them, and doing it before they fled.  The one advantage of Shamora's low leadership is that there is always the danger that her gang will bolt before they have taken sufficient casualties to lose the territory.

To avoid that happening, Gannicus hired 4 Ratskin Scouts.  Ratskins are a stealthy, hand to hand oriented mercenary.  They have access to Infiltrate, though not all of them get it.  Of all the Ratskins used in the campaign so far, there have been 2 with Infiltrate, and Gannicus hired both of them.  He also took an extra 2 with agility skills just to bulk out his numbers. 

Gannicus's tactics were straight forward.  Use his main force to take down the Escher, then send in some fast runners from his Vent team to take them out of action by auto removing them by charging their prone forms.  The Infiltrating and fast moving Ratskins would assist the Vent team in doing that.  If the Orlock Player took down a couple of Escher in the meantime, then all the better.

From there, taking out the Orlocks would be straight forward, as Gannicus has the stronger gang and is the better player.

 I don't know what the Orlock Player, or Joffrey's tactics were because they don't confide in me, but it was obvious that Joffrey had been hoping to be able to use his lowered gang rating to get the choice of scenarios and pull another Hit & Run on Gannicus.  Being attacked by the Orlock Player at the same time prevented that though, since the Orlock Player has the lowest gang rating in the campaign at the moment, and in any case, most of the Hit & Run scenarios don't work with 3 players, and would require us to develop new rules to keep them balanced, which we haven't done.  So Joffrey was furious with the Orlock Player for that.

I dare say that the Orlock Player was just hoping to let Gannicus and Joffrey beat the crap out of each other and then step in and dispatch the victor.  It's what I would have done in his circumstances.  He is down to only 8 guys which consist of his leader, 2 (poor) close combat guys and 5 lasgunners.  His Heavy, who was by far the most dangerous and valuable member of his gang is dead, and he now faces the prospect of having a gang which relies on long ranged shooting being pulverised by enemy heavy weapons.  All that he has going for him are a BS5 and a BS4 Marksmen, which means that they can shoot their lasguns 36" at any target they like, rather than at the closest or easiest target.

His behaviour before the match suggested that he wanted to try to team up with Gannicus and come to some sort of agreement about who would get the Friendly Doc (presumably him).  How he thought that would work out in the long term is utterly beyond me.  By accepting that proposal, Gannicus would be cutting off any line of attack against Octavian, and (if he were to maintain a non-aggressive stance towards the Orlock Player, would have to turn against either me, which simply wouldn't happen, or Jonah, which was also unlikely.

After being rejected by Gannicus, and being teased by everyone in the store about his treachery, by the time the game started, he was attempting to maintain a neutral stance, as though he was just an innocent bystander trying to keep out of the vicious knife fight going on between the other two larger rival gangs.  Utter nonsense.  Just complete drivel.

Anyway, the Orlock Player got to pick the scenario, and he picked Scavengers, no doubt with a view to trying to snag some loot and increase his profits ahead of what was shaping as his last turn in the campaign.

There were five loot counters rolled and Joffrey and the Orlock Player got to place 2 each and Gannicus 1.  As is the case when there are a large number of loot counters, they were evenly spread across the table.  One was in the dead centre of the table, the second was next to it but on the third level  of a building, one was on what turned out to be Joffrey's side of the table, and the other was just outside Gannicus's deployment zone.

Joffrey was on one side of the table, the Orlock on the other and Gannicus on the side to the right of Joffrey and to the Left of the Orlocks.  Gannicus set up in the middle of  his table side, as did the Orlock Player, while Joffrey set up over to his right side, thus getting as close to Gannicus as possible.

Turn 1

The Orlock Player went first and did nothing special except move his close combat guys forwards toward the objectives in the centre of the table.  Everyone else in the Mortlock Cartel went onto Overwatch.

Gannicus got to go second and positioned  his main ranged team (lasguns and bolters) on the second and third levels of a tower to face the Escher, except for one which he positioned behind his Heavy Stubber to draw fire from any potential Orlock attack away from his Heavy.  His main force, mainly armed with shotguns , with his leader, Smiling Sam, was on the ground level below them, and he put some of them on Overwatch and used the stealth skills of others to get them into hiding.  An infiltrating Delaque with a potent combination of boltpistol, sword and frag grenades moved forward to draw and intercept any potential Escher charge.  An infiltrating Ratskin set up with him.  His Vent team  (pistols) dropped out onto the first storey of a tower towards the centre of the table, just above where a couple of  Ratskin infiltrators were lurking.  There were a couple of shots fired by the ranged team at the Escher ranged team, but they didn't hit anything.

Joffrey moved a few of his girls, including his Heavy around the front of the tower block they had been hiding on so that they had LOS to the Delaques, but not the Orlocks.  Delaque Overwatch fire from hotshot lasguns, bolters and the Heavy Stubber pinned 3 of them and took down Joffrey's Heavy Stubber (riddled with Heavy Stubber rounds).  Downstairs, Joffrey's main force darted left to target the Delaque Vent team, made up as it was, primarily of low level Gangers with some Ratskin support.  Morgana threw a smoke grenade ahead of them which landed in a cluster of boxes and debris, partially shielding the group from the incoming fire of the Vent team.

Turn 2

Gannicus's ranged team finished what they had started taking down another Escher ranged team member, pinning another 2 and sending another fleeing.

Downstairs, his main force pursued the main Escher force, keeping to cover and taking good firing positions where possible.  The Infiltrating Delaque and 2 Ratskins ran ahead of the main force ready to knife any wounded Escher.  Over to the middle of the table, the two Ratskins at ground level went into Overwatch as did one of the Gangers above them, the other two Gangers dropping from their hiding place and fanning out to either side ready for a counter charge, if necessary.

In the shooting phase, a single Escher in the main force was pinned, and then downed by shotgun fire from the main Delaque force.

On his turn, Joffrey needed a 7 or lower on 2d6 to pass his bottle roll, and he did, by rolling a 7.  his heavy recovered to a flesh wound, but kept her head down.  The Escher ranged team couldn't do much, and didn't.  Downstairs, the main Escher force ran closer to the Vent team, being careful to stick to cover.  Even so, a Juve was pinned by Overwatch fire from the overwatching ganger in the Vent team.  The rest made it into the cover of the smoke cloud.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on August 4, 2012, 10:42:27 PM
Continued:  This is going to be a long one.

Turn 3

On the Orlock player's turn, Ramirez made contact with the first loot counter while Kowalski started the long climb up the ladder to get to the third level where the second one was stored.  Every other ganger stayed in Overwatch.

Gannicus's main force had poor line of sight to the main Escher force they were stalking, so he pulled them up and put them on Overwatch, ready to open fire as soon as the Escher broke cover to assault the Vent team on the next turn.  The only exceptions were the Infiltrator and the 2 Ratskins who kept running to catch up with the fleeting Escher, all three of them diving onto the prone Escher who had been wounded in the previous turn, slicing her up with their blades and auto removing her before using their follow up moves to edge a bit closer to the main force.

All of the ranged team went into Overwatch, ready to blaze away at any of the Escher ranged team who poppoed their heads up. 

In the middle of the table, the 3 Delaque and 2 Ratskins all went into Overwatch, guns trained on what would be the main line of approach for the main Escher force.

Joffrey's turn determined the game.  He had 6 close combat specialists and a pinned Juve in a cluster of heavy cover.  5 of his close combat specialists had agility skills which could get them into close combat with the Delaque Vent team, the closest members of which were 10" away.  He would probably lose at least a few to Overwatch fire, and some others would be pinned, but once he was into close combat, it would be at least 2 highly skilled and well geared Escher against 3 low level Delaques and a couple of Ratskins.

Of the Vent team, 2 were low level gangers armed with autopistols and knives, one had a sword and was decent enough in close combat, but definitely not in the class of any of the Escher.  The Ratskins are a close combat oriented mercenary, but the time that they could have matched Joffrey's girls in the melee have long passed.  2 Escher against the 3 Vent team members and the 2 Ratskins were decent odds for Joffrey.  He was still in a losing position overall, but if he took out just 2 Delaque, then Gannicus would need to take 6 Escher out of action to take the territory, if he took out 3, then Gannicus would need to take out 9, and that wouldn't be easy. 

His juve recovered from pinning, increasing those odds further.

Regardless of how it might go, Joffrey would be rolling for a bottle check next turn.  Accordingly, he stood his ranged team up and had them open fire.  All of them were cut down with one going out of action, only a single lasgunner remained on her feet.

Downstairs, the main force broke from the smoke cloud, the previously pinned juve leading the way and getting cut down by shotgun fire from the main force.  Glinda came next and was taken down by Smiling Sam's bolt pistol.  Morgana came behind her and was also taken down, absorbing 2 shotgun blasts.  That was it for the pursing force who had spent their firepower for that turn.  The Vent team would have to rely on their own meagre firepower to take down the last 4 Escher.  Esmerelda came next, and was hit by Autopistol fire, she still had a wound to spare, but the hit alone was enough to pin her for a turn.  Tabitha followed with a 6" Leap which would have allowed her to reach 2 of the Vent team at once, but was wounded and pinned by a shotgun blast from one of the Ratskins and a burst of Autogun fire from the other. 

That left Shamora and Bellatrix still to charge, and only 2 members of the Delaque team yet to fire, Gunner Gus and Steely Stan, both of whom only had BS2.  But they did have autopistols, and at close range, they can be dangerous. 

Bellatrix went first, breaking to the left and targeting Steely Stan.  Stan blasted away at her with his autopistol, but missed, and Bellatrix crashed into him, chainsword singing.  That left Shamora, and a no doubt petrified Gunner Gus.  Shamora didn't charge Gus though, she went straight for the Ratskins who were crouching behind a doorway underneath the bulkhead he was standing on.  Gus fired and missed, and Shamora slammed up against the doorway of the bulkhead which was partially shielding the Ratskins, her powersword and plasma pistol ready to kill.

In the shooting phase, the lone lasgunner form the ranged team still on her feet took a shot at one of the Ratskins that were scooting ahead of the main Delaque force together with the other Ratskin and the Delaque infiltrator, taking him down and causing the other Ratskin to break and run.

In the close combat phase, Bellatrix chopped Steely Stan to shreds, getting 6 hits and 5 wounds.  There was no real cover where she was, and she followed up towards the third Vent team member Dapper Dan (Gannicus painted him with red lining on the inside of his coat -  looks very tasteful).

Over at the bulkhead doorway, Shamora wailed on the two Ratskins.  The two Ratskins were fighting back from an elevated position behind a barricade giving them three separate positive modifiers to their combat score.  Normally those would be overwhelming odds for an attacker, but in close combat, Shamora takes overwhelming odds and does horrible things to them.  Unspeakable things.  The Ratskins died.  That left Shamora free to follow up, and thanks to Joffrey trying to pick up Iron Will to compensate for Shamora's crappy leadership and instead picking up Impetuous, that meant she could follow up 4" which got her up over the lip of the nearby ladder and into base to base contact with Gunner Gus.

The turn ended with 1 Escher out of action, 5 down, 4 pinned, a lone lasgunner standing and Bellatrix and Shamora, covered in blood and ready to kill some more.  On Gannicus's side, he had lost 2 Ratskins and a ganger, had another locked in close combat with one of the top three close combat specialists in the campaign, had another Ratskin bleeding on the ground, and needed to work out how the hell he was going to take another 8 Escher out of action in order to take the territory.

Turn 4

The Orlock Player climbed Kowalski  up to the top of the tower and nabbed the second loot counter.  Ramirez stood over the first loot counter and went into Overwatch to cover Kowalski as he descended with the loot.

With 3 guys already out of action, Gannicus needed to take a further 8 Escher out of action to take the territory.  If he lost one more, he would need to take out another 11.  Given that Joffrey only has 12 gangers, that probably wouldn't be possible.  Gannicus therefore had to prevent Shamora from taking down Gus.  There was no way that Gus could do that on his own.         

Somehow, Gannicus had to intervene in the fight between Gus and Shamora.  The obvious way to do that would be to shoot Shamora, which was doable because he had 6 guys with 8 shots between them, all within range, and some of those could get within close range to make the shot even easier.

The problem with such a plan was that in Necromunda, firing into close combat means a 50/50 chance of hitting your own guy.  A 50/50 chance of taking Shamora down was one that Gannicus probably would have taken, since it was a lot better than Gus's chances of surviving a round of melee fighting, but there was an additional complicating factor.  Shamora is a multiwound character, and could take 2 wounding hits before going down.  Gus only had a single wound.  So if Gus took a single wound before Shamora lost both of hers, he would probably go down, and due to being locked in close combat at the time would be automatically taken out of action, giving Joffrey that all important 4th casualty.

The only other option was for Gus to break combat, but that would give Shamora a free hit with a S5 powersword, which Gus was even longer odds of surviving than if the rest of the gang opened up on both of them.

Gannicus asked me my opinion at the start of his turn.

Gannicus:  What do you think?  Run him out of there or take the shot?
Underhand:  Take the shot.  He's beslubbered if he stays there.
Gannicus:  Yeah, I'm taking the shot.

If his plan succeeded, and he brought Shamora down, all Gannicus would have to do, would be to take down  Bellatrix before she made it into close combat with Dapper Dan, as well as Tabitha and Esmerelda.  That might seem like a lot, but with the smoke cloud gone, the close range (which would take a lot of cover out of the equation) and multi shot capability of his gang, the odds were definitely in favour of it happening.  Once the last 4 of the main Escher force were down, it would be a mad scramble for Gannicus to make it into base to base contact with all 8 of the downed Escher to take them out of action and win the territory before Joffrey failed a bottle roll.  Normally that would be a tough ask, but given that he would have Dapper Dan, Gus, his CC specialist and a Ratskin within close range, he could probably manage it in 2 turns, possibly one, if he got lucky shooting downed Escher.

Gannicus moved as many of his gang into position to get them into position to be able to shoot at the targets he wanted.  This involved positioning some of his gang to prevent them from being able to shoot at what would have been the closer targets of Tabitha and Esmerelda, and to allow them an unobstructed shot at Shamora.  This was a perfect example of how the technical aspects of Necromunda's shooting rules make the movement phase such an important tactical phase of the game.

Gannicus lead with his leader, and Smiling Sam took the first shot with his bolt pistol.  Needing only a 2 to hit, he fired into the melee, rolling a 3 and hitting one of the fighters.  Rolling the dice to see whether it was Gus or Shamora, he rolled the dice, and hit Shamora, and wounded her dropping her to only a single wound and evening the odds of taking the territory to 50/50.

And that was when the Orlock Player entered the battle.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on August 5, 2012, 12:38:58 AM
Continued

Having been subjected to several days of unrelenting abuse by the entire local gaming community due to his base betrayal of Joffrey, his exploitative modelling of his miniatures, general lack of skill, overall amphetamine parrotty state of his gang, poor painting skills and stupid face, he'd had a lot to think about.  I dare say, that while I definitely don't approve of bastardisation in general, I think that in circumstances where it is effected in response to repeated acts of utter moral ignominy such as is the case here with the Orlock Player, it has its place.  Even someone with such an obtuse understanding of honour as the Orlock Player could not have avoided some sort of critical self examination of their own behaviour.  Judging by how he's cut back on the use of the word 'be-atch' lately, I guess that's what he might have done.

In any case, despite his earlier overtures towards Gannicus, to try to work out a division of the spoils of the battle, during the course of the game he must have experienced some sort of personal epiphany where he looked back at his actions which had brought him down to his present wretched state, both within the campaign and in the wider gaming community, and decided to take action.  No one is completely beyond redemption.

Orlock Player:  Overwatch!
Gannicus:   Huh?
Orlock Player:  Hotshot lasgun over here, targeting this guy (indicating Dapper Dan).
Gannicus:  What?  Are you serious - ?
Orlock Player:  Rolling to hit. Five. Hit. 
Gannicus:  You little fu-
Joffrey:  (clearly flooded with relief) Good to have you back, mate.
Orlock Player:   Rolling to wound.  Three.  Wound.
Gannicus:  You're beslubbering dead.
Orlock Player:  Rolling for the injury.  Two.  Down.
Gannicus:  I mean that literally.  I'm going to pull your heart out THROUGH YOUR beslubberING ARSE!
Store Manager:  Okay, why don't you take a break there Gan.  Come back when you've cooled off.

Normally threats to kill another player are a banable offence, but the store manager doesn't like the Orlock Player because he keeps telling everyone about other stores that sell GW products for cheaper prices than at the store, so Gannicus just had to go outside for a while and promise not to perform any radical cardio-rectal surgery on anyone on store property.  When he got back, the game resumed.

In moving his gang up to get the best shots at Bellatrix, Shamora, Esmerelda and Tabitha, Gannicus had exposed his main force to the Overwatching guns of the Mortlock Cartel.  The Orlock player opened up on Gannicus's main force, pinning a shotgunner and a lasgunner, wounding Smiling Sam and taking down another shotgunner and the last Ratskin which Gannicus was relying on to bayonet the downed Escher and win him the territory.  Then came the final betrayal.

Orlock Player:  Ramirez is shooting into the combat with Shamora and Gus -
Joffrey:  Don't worry mate, she can take him on her own.
Orlock Player:  . . . with a frag grenade.
Joffrey:  What?  That'll hit Shamora too!  That could take her out!
Orlock Player:  I know.

This was the little rather unsavoury chap, what-ho old bean?'s plan:  He would drop a frag grenade on Gus and Shamora, taking them both down, then, with no other targets (Ramirez and Kowalski being out of sight of the Black Coats), Gannicus would be forced to shoot Tabitha and Esmerelda.  The Orlock Player could then run in with Ramirez and Kowalski, slit a few Escher throats, probably under the cover of a smoke grenade,  thereby getting 3 Escher kills which would be enough to take the territory , and run away and wait for Gannicus to fail his bottle roll.

Joffrey saw it.  Gannicus saw it.  And neither of them were happy about it. Joffrey was seething.

Gannicus still had a turn to play though.  He could still win if he took out another 8 Escher (the loss of Dan and Gus didn't count towards Joffrey's kill ratio), so he unloaded on Esmerelda and Tabitha, taking down Esmerelda and taking out Tabitha.  He also shifted his ranged team to face the Orlock ranged team and opened up with a bolter, a hotshot lasgun and his Heavy Stubber, pinning a lasgunner and taking another one down.  He left a shotgunner from his main force on overwatch.

Joffrey passed his bottle roll and took a shot at Gannicus's ranged team with his one ganger who was on her feet, but she missed. The rest of his gang all crawled 2" in whatever direction they could to huddle behind whatever cover they could find.

Turn 5

The Orlock Player again opened up on Gannicus's main force, wounding one, taking another down, and pinning 2 others.  Kowalski dropped further down the tower and dropped a smoke grenade to cover Ramirez, but it went slightly wide, leaving a gap between the cover Ramirez was hiding behind and the prone Escher.  His ranged team fired back at Gannicus's ranged team, wounding a Lasgunner.

Another couple of shots ripped into the already downed Escher, but failed to take any of them out.

Gannicus ran a few of his ranged team forward to attempt to get into base to base combat with some of the other Escher, should the game last that long but he left 4 on Overwatch and pointed in the direction of Ramirez. Gus crawled a couple of inches to take better advantage of the smoke cloud which was shielding him and Shamora from the Orlock ranged team.  His CC Specialist streaked ahead of the rest of the Delaque, his Leap ability allowing him to clear man high obstacles without penalty, and managed to make it into base to base contact with one of the Escher, auto removing her from play, but there were still another 5 that had to be taken out.

In his shooting phase his Heavy Stubber fired back at the Orlocks and took down another lasgunner.  A couple of shotgunners blasted away at Glinda and succeeded in taking her out of action.

Gus recovered to a Flesh Wound.

Once again, except for that one lasgunner in the ranged team, Joffrey's girls were all wounded, and so they could all only crawl 2" to try to take advantage of whatever cover they could find.  his lasgunner shot at Gannicus's ranged team, but missed again. 

Bellatrix went out of action, but Glinda recovered back to a flesh wound, which didn't last long when Gannicus's Overwatchers opened up on her, taking her down again.

Turn 6

On the Orlock Player's turn, Ramirez was stuck behind cover, unwilling to run the gap between the tower and the smoke cloud, lest he be cut down by Overwatch fire by the Delaques.  Kowalski made it down to the ground level next to Ramirez, cowering, rat like with him, out of the view of the Delaques.  Kowalski tossed out another smoke grenade, creating a thick wall of smoke between them and the Delaques, protecting their line of approach to the downed Escher.  They would be in a position next turn to run out and start taking Escher out of action.

But not if Gannicus had anything to say about it. 

He charged Gus into close combat with Shamora, auto removing her, and followed up into cover, placing himself between Ramirez and Kowalski, and the downed Escher.  The Delaque CC specialist burst through the smoke clouds and managed to make contact with 2 of the Escher at once,  auto removing both Esmerelda and Glinda.  He used his follow up move, but was .5cm short of base to base contact with the Escher Juve, which would be the last casualty he would need.

Much to his infuriation, Joffrey passed his bottle roll, and his Juve squirmed a couple of inches away from Gannicus's CC specialist who was standing over her.  His lasgunner fired at the CC Specialist, hit, but failed to wound.  It might not have been a casualty, but she had done her job.  Pinning the CCer meant that he wouldn't be ab le to engage the Juve and auto remove her, thereby buying Joffrey another round to hopefully fail his bottle roll, lose the game but keep his territory.

Turn 7

The Orlock Player needed to take out 3 Escher to take the territory.  To do that, he would have to take out the Juve, then take out the remaining Escher ranged team.  That would take about 5 turns, if everything went his way, which realistically, just was not going to happen, so the best scenario for him would be to escape with a few pieces of Loot, which would make a significant difference to this income after the game.  That, or he could try to spoil the game for Gannicus.  Have a guess which he picked?

He declared a charge on Gannicus's CC specialist and the Juve with Ramirez and Kowalski.  That could have ended any chance of Gannicus taking the territory, but fortunately, the Orlock Player is not too bright, and he moved Kowalski first, moving him into base to base contact with Gannicus's guy.  Kowalski was slightly closer to the Juve than Ramirez, and was the only one capable of getting into close combat with her to auto remove her.  Had he moved Ramirez into the Delaque fighter first, he would have been able to get the charge on the Juve and deny Gannicus the territory, as it was, Ramirez ended up in close combat, and Kowalski ended up short.

The close combat phase was a very tight fight between the Delaque CC expert and Kowalski.  I say that they are both CC experts, but only by the standards of shooting gangs like the Delaque and Orlock.  Theoretically, Delaque are a weaker close combat gang than Orlocks, but the Orlock Player has come to close combat late, and Kowalski only has a single combat skill.  Gannicus's man actually had an extra +1WS over him, so it was quite an even fight, ending in a true draw with neither fighter getting a hit.

In Gannicus's turn, Gus charged into close combat to aid the fight against Kowalski.  His main force moved up into a firing position on Ramirez, shooting 6 times and taking him down.  The others remained on Overwatch, ready to unload on Kowalski should he win the close combat against the CCEr and Gunner Gus.

That nearly happened.  Gus, nice guy that he is, is a junior member of the black coats, and is no CC specialist at the best of times, being really only suited to stomping the already wounded out of action.  The fact that he had a flesh wound didn't help either, since it meant that he was fighting with WS of only 1.  Kowalski took him out, but he'd done his job, which was to grant a bonus to the Specialist, who managed to get three hits on Kowalski, taking him out, and allowing him to use his follow up move to reach base to base contact with the Juve, auto removing her, and taking his 9th Escher casualty.

Joffrey had one last chance to save the territory if he could use his last remaining lasgunner to take a Delaque out of action, but he failed his bottle roll and went out of the game.

That just left the Orlock Player and Gannicus, and Gannicus was relishing the prospect of potentially taking a territory off both the Escher and the Orlocks in a single game (which hadn't come up before, but yeah, why not?).

Turn 8

The Orlock player failed his bottle roll, probably much to his relief and Gannicus won the game and the Friendly Doc.

Probably the most tense game of the campaign so far, and anyone could have won it.  Both Gannicus and Joffrey had to pass a lot of bottle rolls to make it through to turn 7/8.  and despite the patheticness of his gang (and soul), the Orlock Player nearly pulled off what would have been an amazing win.

He didn't of course, and his actions will be remembered only as a betrayal at which even officials of the Vichy government would cringe.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on August 5, 2012, 05:20:25 AM
You've got to admire the sheer audacity of having both players believe even if for a while that he was on their side before attempting the solo win. Quite amusing how it panned out thou.

Good write up.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: bsucbe on August 5, 2012, 07:14:48 PM
Totally agree with Hymirl, he played it well, though i suppose now he has played that hand he will never be trusted in that way again!

And loving the write up as usual underhand!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: cardassian on August 7, 2012, 07:21:12 AM
Can't blame a traitor for trying to back stab 2 opponents.
Could of pulled off a great victory for him.
Glad it didn't but got to admire the tactic imo.
Great write up as usual, and looking forward to the next instalment.
Really like the map campaign idea and wish my current campaign was using a map.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on August 11, 2012, 07:37:47 AM
Hand of Redemption -v- Gothika

I attacked Joffrey's southe western Old Ruins via my Old Ruins.  This meant that if Joffrey won with sufficient casualties to take a territory off me, he would only be taking my Old Ruins, which wouldn't be much of a loss.  Although it would isolate my southern Vents which could prove problematic.

Because Joffrey has such a amphetamine parrotty gang rating these days, and because Shamora has a Ratskin Map, he got to pick the scenario, and in keeping with the guerrilla tactics he employed against Gannicus, he went with another Hit & Run.

Joffrey didn't get to pick what type of Hit & Run he got to play this time, and rolled Scrag.  In a Scrag scenario, the attackers (being the side that picks the scenario, being Joffrey) have to randomly pick a member of the opposing gang and take them out of action in Hand to Hand combat.  Joffrey got lucky and rolled Jemuel, who is probably my wussiest gang member.

Scrags are usually pretty tricky for the attacker because of the very specificnature of the victory conditions.  In Necromunda, it is very difficult to target a specific enemy model for melee treatment at the best of times, and it isn't any easier when your opponent is desperately trying to prevent it from happening, as normally happens in a Scrag.

Having said that, the scenario does offer some bonuses for the attacker.  Firstly, the deployment rules are the same as for most other  Hit & Run scenarios, so the attacker turns up with 4-6 gang members of his choosing compared to 1-3 randoms for the Defender (one of which, according to the FAQ, must be the Scragee).  They also get to deploy as close as 8" to the defenders, and the attackers get the first turn, so for a gang with agility skills, that will often mean close combat on the first turn, and a short game.  Gangs with Combat and Agility as part of the core skill set love Scrags.  Both Escher and Cawdor are such gangs.

The tactics of a defender in a Scrag are pretty simple:  Keep the scragee out of close combat long enough for reinforcements to arrive.  Normally this is done by setting up in a spot as far away as possible from the attackers - normally this means setting the scragee up high. 

Those were the tactics I employed, setting Jemuel up on the third storey of a tower, and my one other defender, Abijah, at the bottom, placed precisely to provide 2 free turns for reinforcements to show up.  Jemuel meanwhile, would be in overwatch with his flamer, ready to auto hit, anyone the second they crested the top of the tower, which would at least automatically pin any attacker, thereby blocking further access for that turn, unless they fell, in which case, so much the better - given that they would be falling down a ladder, they would take out anyone below them.

This was a game where Abraham's Old Battle Wound was playing up, so he wouldn't be making an appearance.

Turn 1

Joffrey had 4 attackers.  Shamora, Morgana, Glinda and Tabitha were his choices.  Shamora and Morgana slammed straight into Abijah, and took him out, Tabitha dealing one wound, Shamora another.  Joffrey was obviously awake to my Overwatching flamer tactic with Jemuel, so he ran Glinda up an adjacent tower to provide some cover fire that would knock Jemuel out of Overwatch.

In my turn I put Jemuel into Overwatch.  It was tempting to put him in hiding, to avoid any future Overwatch fire, but there was an outside chance that Tabitha could make it up over the top edge of the tower with her 6" leap (we allow Sprint and Leap to be used on ladders).  In my turn, Isaac and Zohar (suffering from stupidity due to his head wound, which I failed to cancel)  turned up, but on the wrong side of the table.  I ran Isaac up another tower with a plan to get LOS to Jemuel to provide overwatching coverfire as soon as any Escher came close to him.  Zohar wandered around scratching his arse like a moron.

Turn 2

Joffrey moved Shamora halfway up the ladder, but kept the others at the bottom.  This was smart.  Shamora has multiple wounds, so a single blast from Jemuel's flamer wouldn't kill her, but it would pin her.  That would be enough against any other member of Gothika, but because Shamora is the leader, she gets to test to recover from pinning regardless of whether she has any friends close by.  Given her high initiative, she would almost certainly pass that test.  Her high initiative would also prevent her from falling once hit.

On my turn, Josiah turned up and ran like hell towards the bottom of the tower.  Isaac got himself into a firing position ready to shoot at whoever came over the top of the tower at Jemuel.  Amon snapped out of his stupidity and ran towards the tower.  Jemuel went into hiding to avoid any shooting from Glinda.

Turn 3

Shamora crested the top of the tower and Jemuel let rip with his flamer, pinning and wounding her, but failing to send her off the edge.  That wasn't necessarily fatal though, since he would get to shoot her again during his turn, as would Isaac, so I there was a very decent chance that he would be safe.

Joffrey wasn't going to let that happen though.  Glinda had been on Overwatch waiting for Jemuel to give away his position, and with her keen eyes, all it had taken was a minor slip, like him unleashing a jet of hot flame at her boss, for her to zero in on his position. 

This will give you an idea of Joffrey's attention to detail:  Glinda took the shot with her autopistol, which is her back up to her bolt pistol.  Joffrey chose the autopistol because its lower strength would mean that there would be less chance that Jemuel would take a wound, therefor less chance he would go out of action, which would prevent him from winning the game given that a Scrag requires the attacker to take out the scragee in hand to hand combat.  The low strength though would still get the pin, which Jemuel wouldn't be able to recover from in time to shoot Shamora because he had no friends nearby. 

That worked, and Jemuel avoided being wounded, even with his chest wound.  However, being 1" away from a ledge when he was hit, he had to take a falling test, which he failed despite his Initiative of 4.  He dropped off the edge and splattered onto the ground 3 levels below, taking 5 wounds, going out of action, and taking the game out of Joffrey's grasp.

In my turn, Ram and Boaz turned up.  Ram took a shot at Glinda and pinned her (rhymes).  Isaac didn't have a shot at Shamora, because she was lying on her side and out of his view, so he just stayed in Overwatch.

Turn 4

Glinda pulled herself into cover away from Isaac's Heavy Stubber.  Shamora recovered from pinning, and was immediately shot down by Issac, who only got 2 shots, and even then nearly managed to run out of ammo, being saved only  by his Weaponsmith skill,  but still got the single wound necessary to take her down.  There was a brief argument as to whether Shamora was able to immediately go into hiding after recovering from being pinned, thereby staying out of Isaacs LOS, but since Overwatch is used as an interuption of a player's turn, it was ruled that it could be used right between the point of recovering from pinning and the rest of the movement phase, including declarations as to hiding etc.  Joffrey conceded that point on a RAW basis.

Tabitha and Morgana took a couple of shots at Josiah who would have been in charge range next turn, dealing a wound and pinning him.

On my turn, Amon turned up behind Boaz and Ram.  Ram shot a Glinda wounding her.  Boaz also took a shot at her with his shotgun (manstopper rounds) but missed.  That just left Amon, who with 6 shots, wasn't going to miss, and didn't, but only hit once and failed to wound.

Turn 5

The writing was on the wall for Joffrey.  Nearly my whole gang was on the table, and only 2 of his gangers were operational.  He was playing at this point to avoid losing his Old Ruins, which would reduce him to one single territory.  He started by moving Tabitha and Morgana within charge range of Josiah and took another couple of shots at him, dealing another wound, and taking him down.  Either of them  would be able to charge him next turn and auto remove him.

Glinda had to stay where she was, because she was pinned.

On my turn Asa and Jacob showed up, and they showed up exactly where they were needed.  The spot where they turned up had LOS to Josiah's prone body.  That would mean that while Joffrey might get them into contact with Josiah, and auto remove him, it would leave whichever one he used at the mercy of Jacob's One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter (that's zero mercy, in case you were wondering). 

Boaz took a shot at glinda with a manstopper round from his shotgun, and missed again.  Amon opened up again, hitting twice, but failing to wound.  Ram took a shot and managed to wound her, taking her down.

Turn 6

With Shamora and Glinda down, that required a morale check from Gothika, which they failed.  Final score 1 Cawdor out of action to 2 Escher Down.  A win to me, but nowhere near close enough to take the territory.

Thoughts:

You might be wondering why I went to take Glinda out, given that she was so well covered by three of my gangers (including Amon).  If I had left her there, maybe I could have got everyone else into position to take out Tabitha and Morgana, and maybe take 3 casualties and claim the territory.   That's what Octavian asked, anyway.

The reason is that, next turn Tabitha or Morgana would have auto removed Josiah from play.  With Jemuel also out of action, that would have required me to take 6 Escher down to take the territory, which obviously wasn't possible.  Although Jacob had a clear LOS to Josiah's body, he wasn't on Overwatch, and would only be able to take either of them out during my shooting phase, by which time Josiah would already have been gone.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on August 11, 2012, 01:43:40 PM
Ram took a shot at Glinda and pinned her (rhymes).

That amused me far more than is should have.  ;D

Out of curiosity, if in a really desperate situation, could you have gotten the scragee to attempt something ridiculous like trying to jump from one tower to another - something they have an incredibly slim chance of doing - and effectively make that model commit suicide, thus preventing the enemy winning the scenario?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on August 11, 2012, 06:08:33 PM
In my view, that would amount to an exploit of the rules.  If it came up, I'd be inclined to let the player try it, and if the jump came off, then good for them, but if it failed and the scragee went out of action, then too bad, they forefeit.

Same thing if the scragee died as a result of a fellow gang member shooting into close combat.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: bsucbe on September 1, 2012, 07:06:12 AM
Long time without a post here, really hope we hear from this campaign again soon, guess it is a summer based delay though :P
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Dralith on September 1, 2012, 07:58:52 AM
Unlikely, since Underhand is in Australia. But I agree.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on September 3, 2012, 02:57:00 AM
I'm sure underhand has better things to do that satisfy our nerd cravings  ;D
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on September 4, 2012, 05:04:21 PM
I totally tripped over this thread by accident...and I'm incredibly happy that I did! It has been an enthralling read thus far, with twists and turns to the campaign plot, humour from our protagonists and a great deal of tactical insight.

All this leads me to say only 1 thing...

...Damn you Underhand! Damn you to hell!

I had totally forgotten how much I enjoyed Necromunda, crafting gangs, raiding others and then rolling with glee or trepidation at the results of my advances/injuries. I had survived for about 15 years without really thinking about the game at all, and then you come along and casually enquire if I'd like some drugs. I'm not sure, but you promise me there are no side effects...well there are side effects UH! I'm totally Yhwh-condemned addicted to Necromunda again. I haven't done anything about it yet, but you can be sure that it's only a matter of time.

Damn it, I'm happy to be hooked on this thing again though! Thank you for realising what I had been missing.

One question though, and chance that you'll be incorporating some of the new Dark Vengeance cultists into your gang? They're beautiful minis and I'm pretty sure a lot of them would fit the bill nicely (Maybe after some of the chaos symbology etched into their flesh has been purged...).

Thanks for the entertaining read, keep it up and good luck with the rest of the campaign!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on September 5, 2012, 04:21:15 PM
Thank you Looshkin, that's very nice of you to say.

The new chaos cultists do indeed look very nice, and would fit in perfectly in Necromunda.  You could easily make a very nicely balance gang with them, particularly if you had some spare catachan, or cadian bits lying around.  I will be buying some.

I personally don't intend to fit them into my Cawdor Gang because I don't think they quite fit the Cawdor/Redemptionist costume theme (Tabard, gloves and mask for Cawdor and robes and mask for Redemptionists), but I imagine a lot of people will use them as Cawdor gang members.

I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they take over from Catachan guardsmen as the most common stand in for Necromunda miniatures.

As regards the delay in an update - that's been caused by combination of me being in a trial and Gannicus getting a one month ban from the store.  There will be another one this weekend.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on September 5, 2012, 04:31:24 PM
...and Gannicus getting a one month ban from the store.

Looking forward to the update, and really looking forward to the detailed description of which campaign member Gannicus killed (I'm voting Joffrey) to get his 1 month ban!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on September 5, 2012, 08:15:31 PM
WHAT DID GANNICUS DO?!

Wait, you're in a trial, and Gannicus is banned from the store. I'm sensing a link here...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on September 6, 2012, 08:16:51 AM
According to the store manager, Gannicus is banned for: being the stupidest snake on a plane who ever lived.

A more technical formulation would probably be:  banned for utilising store premises and property for the manufacture of simulated narcotics.

Now, I wasn't actually there when the events in question took place, but I've heard both sides of the story, and cutting through what I suspect to be the exaggeration and arse covering on both sides - this is basically what I think took place:

[Gannicus was sitting at the stores craft table]
[By way of background, Myrcella's university was having their annual Meet the Profession Night.  It's basically a night where the law department of the university invites alumni to a night of free drinks so that the students can make contacts with the industry and so the members of the profession can have sex with university students.]

Store Manager:  what are you doing?
Gannicus:  Crushing up panadol tablets and mixing them with crushed up caffeine tablets.
SM:  Why?
G:     I'm meeting up with Underhand and Myrcella, and some of her friends, and Underhand says they're pretty easy on the eyes.
SM:  So?
G:     I mix the panadol with the caffeine. I put it in this little bag [holds up a little plastic bag]...
SM:  ...
G:    ... I tell them it's cocaine....
SM:  ... 
G:    They get all excited ... 
SM:  Are you serious?
G:    ...And then I get to beslubber them.
SM:  That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard.
G:    You should try it.  It's like fishing with dynamite -
SM:  I cannot believe how you would think that what you are doing is in any way acceptable.  Pack up your amphetamine parrot and beslubber off.
G:     It's not actually cocaine.  It's just panadol and caffeine.
SM:   GET THE beslubber OUT OF MY beslubberING STORE, YOU STUPID beslubberING beslubber!

It would have been a permanent ban, but I smoothed things over with the Store Manager and reduced it to a month.  But we're all on our last chance.  The next time someone beslubbers up, the campaign is over.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on September 6, 2012, 11:55:54 AM
Hang on a minute...is this the start of a joke? I'm fairly sure it's the start of a joke...

A fake drug dealer, a racist, 3 socially inept beslubbertards and a lawyer walk into a GW...

...I'll work out the punchline soon enough...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on September 6, 2012, 06:27:55 PM
Looshkin, the punchline is over 60,000 words long...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on September 15, 2012, 10:57:45 AM
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:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F060.jpg&hash=e8c3fc5640800e1d70590a750a1e987f9059e37b)


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:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F002-4.jpg&hash=963d34ead0ba4d3d24a10b73f232205af0447f0c)

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



Gannicus:    

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.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on October 1, 2012, 08:53:54 AM
Turn 13:

The Map:


(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F002-4.jpg&hash=963d34ead0ba4d3d24a10b73f232205af0447f0c)

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



The Hand of Redemption:
As tempting as Octavian's fat terriories are, Joffrey has to go.  I attacked the Escher Old Ruins to the West.

Gothika:

Joffrey attacked my Guilder Contact.  A smart choice.  If he were to win the terriory, he would make territorial contact with the Goliaths, which would have opened up the possibility of some doubleteaming against either me or Gannicus.  It would also break my empire up, which would make it slightly more difficult to defend.

I know that he is looking to try to start doubleteaming with Octavian, because he was talking up the virtues of Guilder Contacts to Octavian, who has none.  Sad to see a player of Joffrey's stature reduced to such a state.

The Black Coats:

Gannicus:  Mate, I know this isn't what you want to hear, but I'm going for that Spore Cave.   Joffrey can wait.  I promise I'll go straight after the Spore Cave next turn.
Underhand:   That's okay, I agree.  It's just pissing Jonah off having it sit around.  Go for it.

The Mortlock Cartel:

In what was likely to be his last game of the campaign, he took the hero's option and attacked the softest target he could find.  He attacked Jonah's Workshop.

The Second Stringers:  

Last turn, Jonah had the opportunity to attack the Orlock Spore Cave or any one of 3 Goliath territories being a Gambling Den, Mine Workings or a Settlement.  of those 4 choices, the Spore Cave was both the most valuable territory and the softest target.  At my urging he went for the Goliath Mine Workings.  That decision turned out to be catastrophic because he not only missed out on a plumb territory, but also lost his Tunnels.  That wasn't just bad for the Van Saar, that was bad for everyone else.  Tunnels are a great territory for any gang due to the tactical advantage they give in setting up a Gang, but they are particularly valuable for a Goliath Gang, which is a close combat gang which always struggles to get into charge range of the opposition.  A Goliath Gang with Tunnels is a much more formidable foe than a Goliath Gang without Tunnels.

So basically, Jonah gave up the opportunity to take a valuable territory and destroy a hated enemy and exchanged it for losing a useful territory and making an enemy of a neutral opponent.  And in doing so, he strengthened that opponent.

So I wasn't exactly looking forward to trying to convince Jonah to hold off on attacking the Spore Cave for another turn.

Underhand:  Hi mate.
Jonah:  Say what you have come to say.
Underhand:  Is there any chance you could leave off on attacking The Orlock Player's Spore Cave for just one more turn?
Jonah:  No there is not.
Underhand:  Gannicus is attacking the Spore Cave this turn.  I'm attacking Joffrey, and I'll probably take his Old Ruins.  Once I've done that, I'll be attacking Octavian with you next turn.
Jonah:  I have believed your promises before, and I have nothing to show for it.
Underhand:  Look, I'm sorry you lost your Tunnels, but you'll get them back and more as soon as Octavian starts taking casualties.  In a couple of turns time, Gannicus will be smashing him as well, and the three of us will wrap him up in no time.
Jonah:  I do not blame you for the loss of my Tunnels.  My loss to Octavian was due to my own failure.  What I regret is that I could have had that Spore Cave for the last three turns, but I held back to allow you and Gannicus to deal with Joffrey.  I have waited long enough.  I will not wait any longer.
Underhand:  I'm not asking you to wait.  Gannicus will attack him this turn.  That is what is happening.
Jonah:  Can you guarantee me that he will take the Spore Cave?
Underhand:  Heh.  I think it's a pretty safe bet.
Jonah:   Will you stake your Spore Cave on it?
Underhand:   That's stupid.  It's a game of dice -
Jonah:  Then once again, your assurances mean nothing.  I will take the Spore Cave myself.
Underhand:   It's not that easy.   Gannicus will be attacking it too.  You will be fighting him as well.
Jonah:  I have no desire to fight Gannicus, but I have made my choice.  I will be targeting the Orlocks.  If Gannicus wants to fight me afterwards, then that is his choice.

House Bloodaxe:

Octavian might very well have been open to Joffrey's suggestion of adding my Guilder Contact to his real estate portfolio, but evidently Jacob's exploits with the Heavy Bolter in turn 12 convinced him that his interests lay elsewhere.  He attacked the Orlock Spore Cave.

So that'll be interesting.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on October 6, 2012, 05:38:22 AM
The Hand of Redemption -v- Gothika

Thanks to Shamora holding a Ratskin Map, this game took place in an old dome on the verge of collapse giving special rules.  Basically, if anyone used a heavy weapon or a grenade, the dome would collapse on a D6 roll of 4+, ending the game in a draw and inflicting a strength 4 hit on anyone who failed an initiative check.

I got to pick the scenario, and since I knew that Joffrey would tank the game by firing his heavy stubber or throwing grenades (of which he had 3),  the second it looked like he was losing, I picked Scavengers, with a view to tempting Joffrey into hanging around an extra couple of turns to try to steal some loot, during which time I might be lucky enough to take out a couple of his girls.

We rolled 5 bundles of loot and I placed 3 of them towards the middle of the board to try to tempt Joffrey into making the game last at least a couple of turns.  I loaded my vent teams up with my CC specialists and deployed them as close as possible to Joffrey's deployment zone at the end of my first turn. 

Joffrey had deployed all of his girls out of sight and only sent out a single runner to nab the closest piece of loot he could find.  As soon as a frenzied Zohar leapt out of cover in an attempt to get into close combat with Morgana, Joffrey opened up with two frag grenades, one of which was a dud, and the second of which hit, but failed to wound and went out of ammo.  The one that hit was enough though to cave in the roof of the dome, so the game ended in a draw, with no one getting any loot and no wounds being inflicted. 

In my Gang, only Ram, Boaz, Jemuel and the new guys Joshua and Esau have only a single wound, so they were the only ones in danger from the falling debris.  Boaz and Joshua were the only ones who failed their initiative rolls, and neither of them took a wound.

Joffrey had one ganger go down.

The Mortlock Cartel -v- The Black Coats -v- The Second Stringers  -v- House Bloodaxe

The second four way game in the campaign, and likely the last for the Orlock Player.

Or so I had thought, but maybe not.  The Orlock Player has 8 guys.  None of the other players are allied with each other, so to take the territory, one of them needs to take out 3 times as many Orlocks as they lose themselves.  Given that there would be 3 players all squabbling for Orlock scalps, that could be very difficult in and of itself.  If the Orlock Player could take out 2 of any other gang, that would require that opponent to take out 6 Orlocks in return.  Hard to see that happening with 2 other enemies trying to achieve the same objective.

 Apart from that, to take the territory, the player would still have to win the game against the other two opponents.  So in actual fact, while the Orlock Player was almost certain to lose the game, he was unlikely to lose the territory to any of his opponents, divided as they were.

The obvious solution was for Jonah and Gannicus to buddy up and flip a coin to see who got to keep the territory.   I approached them both separately.

Underhand:   You should talk to Jonah about allying with him for this game.
Gannicus:  Bullamphetamine parrot.
Underhand:  It's going to be almost impossible for you to take the territory  on your own.  You have to get a 3:1 casualty count on the Orlocks, and then beat the Van Saar and the Goliaths as well.
Gannicus:  No sweat.
Underhand:  If you lose 2 of your guys to the Orlocks, then you have to take out 6 Orlocks.  No offence, but I don't think you'll be able to pull that off with Jonah and Octavian picking them off at the same time.
Gannicus:  Mate, relax.  Firstly, with all the amphetamine parrot that's gone on between the Orlock Player, Jonah and Octavian, I'm the last person he'll be shooting at, so I doubt he'll even wound any of my guys.  Secondly, even if he does take down any of my guys, he's only got something like 2 guys with close combat weapons, so he's not going top be able to take anyone out of action anyway. 
Underhand:  But -
Gannicus:  I'm not the least bit worried about the Orlocks.  Half of them will spend each turn pinned by Jonah and Octavian, the other 4 will be shooting back at the other two.  Thirdly, all the same amphetamine parrot that goes for the Orlock Player goes for Jonah too.  He's not going to shoot at me until the other two have been dealt with, and none of his guys will step foot out of his deployment zone anyway, except for that gay little vent team, and they'll either get taken out by Octavian again, or I'll just drop a frag grenade on them if I have to.  Plus, Jonah's a complete spastic anyway.  He's just not a threat.
Underhand:  Yes, well -
Gannicus:  So it's just Octavian that I really have to keep an eye on, and he's using Goliaths with the official rules, which suck.  I can't believe you ever lost to them.
Underhand:  Octavian's gang is a lot tougher than you'd -
Gannicus:  They're amphetamine parrot.  They're too slow.  They'll be getting shot at by Van Saars and Delaques.  I bet you a hundred bucks that not a single one of them makes it into close combat.
Underhand:  He has tunnels now, and he's picked up a couple of Agility-
Gannicus:  [Not listening] You know what they're like " Too much weights, not enough speedwork, bro!"

This was said in an appalling New Zealand accent and was accompanied with a flurry of mock blows to my stomach.  It was a reference to the movie Once Were Warriors, which if you haven't, you should totally watch. 

Once Were Warriors - Bar fight with Jake the Mus (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZSv4HlyfIo#ws)

Knowing that it would be impossible to talk any sense into Gannicus while he was in the depths of a Jake the Mus recitation, I walked away and sought out Jonah.  Seeing as how it was 11:00am that would mean that he would be having brunch.  I found him at the Dominos pizza place around the corner.  I passed Octavian and Joffrey on my way over.  I went in and sat down in front of Jonah:

Underhand:  Hey.  I just came over to explain how the game is going to work in terms of what the criteria are for taking the territory.
Jonah:   Joffrey and Octavian already told me. [I had already been through it with them after my game against Joffrey].
Underhand:  Okay, well in that case, in light of the difficulty in taking out enough Orlocks and also winning against Gannicus and Octavian, I thought that I'd suggest that you might want to consider an alliance with Gannicus.
Jonah:  That is what Octavian and Joffrey offered me.
Underhand:  What did you tell them?
Jonah:  I told them no -
Underhand:  Good man!
Jonah:  - I told them that I would not accept an alliance of any kind with anyone.  And I will not.
Underhand:  Your chances of -
Jonah:  I will not dishonour myself by engaging in the same base tactics that you so often complained of so many times.  In fact, I must say that I am surprised that you appear to have abandoned the principles that you espoused so often in the recent past.
Underhand:   It is very unlikely that anyone will take the territory if someone doesn't align with someone else.  If you don't ally with Gannicus, he could end up allying with Octavian.
[that was a stupid thing to even suggest, and Jonah treated it with the contempt it deserved].
Jonah:   Pfft.  I think that unlikely.  I have made my choice.  I have come to fight for the territory, and I will fight alone.  If I do not win the territory then so be it.  If none of us are able to take the Spore Cave in this game, then so be that too.  the Orlock Player has elected to attack my Workshop.  I will fight him off and take the Spore Cave from him then.  And If I do not, then I will attack him again next turn, and every turn after that until he is gone.

I wasn't going to be able to convince Jonah to take any other course of action.  He was on Jihad.  I left and returned to the store.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on October 6, 2012, 06:10:07 AM
The tension builds! Stop being a tease and tell us how it the four way went, I'm thinking it turns into an ineffectual girly slapping a hair pulling session as they all cock block each other from taking the territory...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine on October 26, 2012, 03:28:52 AM
Ok seriously UH, I'm experiencing serious withdrawl symptoms here now. It's not nice to keep an addict from his fix
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on October 27, 2012, 06:28:14 AM
agreed, I haven't slept in days.....
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on October 27, 2012, 11:26:34 AM
Appologies for the delay:

Set Up:

Joffrey and I acted as joint Arbitrators for the game, and set up a bit of extra terrain here and there to accomodate a 4 way battle.  The players rolled for their sides and the Orlock Player got the East, Jonah got the North, Gannicus got the West and Octavian got the South.

The Mortlock Cartel

The Orlock Player set up first  (To the East) and set up the exact same way that he always set up.  Half his gang on the ground level, half his gang above them.  In this case, that meant 4 guys on the floor - two lasgunners (one with frag grenades) and Kozlowski and Ramirez, both with grenades, lasguns and laspistols.  He had three guys above them, including his leader, Mortlock with his meltagun and another two lasgunners and another lasgunner Marksman on the third story.

The Second Stringers

Jonah set up next, to the North and faced  most of his gang towards the Orlock Player.  Jonah's gang is based around a formidable firebase of his Heavy Stubber and two high BS Plasma Gunners.  While Plasma pistols are common enough in Necromunda, Plasma guns are rare.  They are relatively expensive, they require a Specialist, a leader or a Heavy to wield them and there are no official models with Plasma Guns.   As a result, not that many players have that much experience in using them (despite what you read on net lists), and most players don't use them all that well.

In Necromunda, Plasma guns can be fired on either high or low setting.  Low setting is S5 with -1 to armour saves, 24" range and does a single wound, which is pretty nice, but is hardly fantastic.  High power on the other hand . . . hoooly amphetamine parrot.  High power is S7, -2 armour save, 1 wound and 1 sustained fire dice (ie 1-3 shots).  S7 is the killer because S7 is High Impact, which causes targets to go out of action on a 5 or 6 on a D6 rather than just a 6.  You can obviously see how having 2 of these in a gang (being fired by BS6 and BS5 guys) is a daunting prospect. 

Jonah doesn't use them properly though.  The draw back to shooting on High Power is that they only have 16"range and take a turn to power back up.  There is no Gets Hot rule.  As a result, Jonah usually fires them at low energy, content to just sit back and fire a decently powerful shot every turn, usually on Overwatch.  This is the wrong way to use Plasma guns in Necromunda.

The way to use Plasma Guns is as mid range support weapons for your close range teams.  Give them to a Ganger with agility skills, have them sprint forwards into cover, pop up, let of a burst of High Energy Plasma, then spend the next turn repositioning anywhere within 12", and blasting away again at high energy from a flank.  Sending a Plasma gunner down an opponent's flank the turn before you charge with your CC team will turn a lot of the enemy guns away from your main strike force.  Such tactics are easiest for Escher to employ because their Heavies get Agility skills, but Cawdor and Delaque can readily employ it too if they roll a Specialist.  I mean to buy one before this campaign is done.

Anyway, Jonah usually sets up with his Stubber, plasma gunner(s) and leader up high with the rest of his gang spread out around them to take incoming fire.    His Vent team normally gets deployed close to an enemy flank to take advantage of short range modifiers, and reduced cover.  Those tactics were successful for a long time against the Orlock Player and only finally came unstuck once he went up against Octavian who has a much more dynamic and aggressive playing style. 

His set up didn't vary this time either.  His Stubber, plasma gunners and bolter marksman were stationed high up and positioned facing the Orlocks.  Below them, he had his Leader, and 3 lasgunners and on the ground level he had a flamer guy and a shotgunner both armed with swords. The flamer and the shotgunner both have combat skills and were there to stay in heavy cover, probably hiding, and would intercept any enemy melee specialists.  His vent team consisted of a flamer guy and two autopistol gunfighters.

The Black Coats

To the West, Gannicus divided his gang into 4 teams.  His heavy Stubber, 2 lasgunners and Bolter Bill were positioned up high and to the back.  Below and in front of his ranged team, he had two three man teams, on the left, closer to Jonah, he had 3 shotgunners, to the right, closer to Octavian he had Smiling Sam and 2 shotgunners.  His vent team consisted of 2 juves with autopistols and Flaming Moe.  He also had an infiltrator equipped for close combat which he placed just to the East of the centre of the board, at a spot that would have been perfect for Octavian's Tunnel team to get the jump on the Orlocks.  Once Again, he hired a Ratskin Scout with Infiltrate and Sprint, and deployed him in heavy cover, 10" away from the Orlocks.

House Bloodaxe
   
Octavian announced that if he won the game and took the Spore Cave, he would be donating the territory to Jonah.  This was despite Jonah having turned down his offer of an alliance.  This was obviously done in an attempt to curry favour with Jonah and to avoid the prospect of having to fight a Cawdor-Delaque-Van Saar alliance in future turns.  Jonah told him that he was happy to accept any territory that anyone wanted to give him for free, but that OCtavian shouldn't expect anything in return.

An interesting strategic move, to be sure.  Probably pretty smart too.  For reasons I've already mentioned, it would be difficult in any case for either Jonah, Octavian or Gannicus to win the territory by taking out a minimum of 3 Orlock casualties acting on their own and then beating the other two gangs, so offering to give the Spore Cave to Jonah ahead of the game was a grand gesture that he probably wouldn't have to follow through on anyway.

However - If it worked out and Jonah ended up with the territory though, then it could be a potentially brilliant strategic move.  Have a look at the map.  Say that Jonah ends up with the Spore Cave after this game.  That would leave Octavian facing three opponents, but one of those opponents (Gannicus) would only have a narrow path of attack (via the Delaque Friendly Doc, towards theGoliath Workshop).  If Octavian was cunning enough (and he could be), all he would have to do next turn would be to hold Gannicus off for one game (ie - either win, or at least not lose by enough to lose the Workshop), and then attack either me or Jonah via the Workshop, tank the game, and lose the Workshop, thereby sealing his territories off from Gannicus.  Assuming that Joffrey gets taken out soon, that would leave Gannicus with no option but to attack either me or Jonah.  Obviously Gannicus would attack Jonah which would probably result in a war between Gannicus and Jonah, leaving just me as an active opponent.

Fuuuuuck.  Surely there's no way a teenager would be that clever?

Octavian's tactics were obvious as soon as he set up - let Jonah take care of the Orlocks on his own and simply run interference on Gannicus.  He divided his 18 man gang into 5 teams starting with a five man ranged team in elevated positions to the back and left (west) of his deployment zone.  They were obviously set up to target Gannicus to the West rather than the Orlocks to the East.  Two close combat gangers and a shotgunner deployed on the ground floor and to the left of them.  In the middle right he deployed Bloodaxe and another 4 gangers, two CC specialists, a lasgunner and a juve.  He kept back 6 CC specialists which would be deployed from Vents and Tunnels.  For once, he didn't hire any mercenaries.

Rest to be posed shortly.  It would be of great assistance if someone could post a reply to help me avoid the automerge/wordcount bug.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lonewolf on October 27, 2012, 12:04:04 PM
Let the games begin!!  :)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Awfully Dandy on October 27, 2012, 01:44:29 PM
Keep us posted Underhand, this is a fantastic thread!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on October 28, 2012, 08:50:11 AM
Thank you gentlemen.

Turn 1

Jonah got the first turn and took a couple of shots at the Orlocks who were in heavy cover, pinning one and wounding another, but not taking anyone down.  He deployed his Vent team to the North  East in a flanking position overlooking the Orlock position.  He repositioned a few other guys and put the rest of his gang on Overwatch, facing the Orlocks, with the exception of the flamer guy and CC specialist on the ground floor, whom he put into hiding.

The Orlock Player went next and managed to manouver one of his gangers into a position where he had a clear shot at the Orlock Vent team (used the Hip Shooting skill which allows him to run and fire with a -1 to shooting).  That also soaked up a couple of Overwatch shots which missed.  The rest of his gang stuck to cover, but either went into hiding or Overwatch facing the Vent team.

The hip shooter managed to land a hit on one of the Vent team, hiting Jonah's flamer guy.  That hit wasn't enough on its own to take out the Shotgunner, but it did cause him to lose his footing and hit the ground, two stories below, which was more than enough to take him down.

Octavian ran both his close combat squads at Gannicus.

He had 2 lasguns and his Heavy Stubber in range and with a shot, and he opened up with all of them.  The lasguns both missed, but the Heavy Stubber was dead on target and managed to get 2 hits on a lasgunner and Gannicus's Heavy, wounding both, taking down the lasgunner.  Unfortunately for Octavian though, he failed an ammo roll, and would have lost his stubber, but was saved by his Workshop

 He deployed his Vent team towards Gannicus's flank, in a similar way that he attempted on me last turn, and in a similar way to how Jonah does every game.  His Tunnel team were deployed below them and would probably be able to make it into close combat in a couple of turns time.

Gannicus hadn't had the ideal start to the game, losing a BS5 lasgunner with Rapid fire and having a wound taken off his Heavy, who was also pinned (and failed his pin check).  The pinning of the Heavy Stubber was the worst part since it deprived Gannicus of its firepower this turn, or the option of going into Overwatch, and when you have a geared, well experienced  up Goliath Gang heading your way, a Heavy Stubber isn't a luxury, it's a necessity.

His first move was to redeploy his shotgun teams to intercept the Goliath charge.  Gannicus has several Hipshooters in his gang, and they were able to redeploy quickly and direct fire at the tunnel team, taking one of them down.

Bolter Bill claimed all the glory for turn 1 however, using his Marksman skill to line up the Orlock Heavy Stubber and taking him down with a single well placed shot.

The Black Coats main force clearly needed some backup to cope with the Goliath threat, so Gannicus sent Flaming Moe, dropping him out of a Vent close to the second shotgun team.  If it had been me, I would have deployed the entire Vent team against the Goliaths, but Gannicus has complete disdain for Goliaths under the official rules, and took them more lightly than I would have.  Over towards the  centre of the board, he deployed both Juves next to the Ratskin infiltrator.

Score:  Up/Down/Out
Van Saar: 11/1/0
Orlocks:  8/0/0
Goliaths:  16/2/0
Delaque:  14/1/0


Turn 2

Jonah's turn opened with a fusilade of Overwatch lasgun fire from the Orlocks directed at the Van Saar Vent team as soon as they popped their heads up out of cover to line up the Orlocks.  They both got taken down having soaked up 6 lasgun shots between them.  Jonah would be taking a bottle roll next turn.

The Van Saar response was typically brutal and efficient, a combination of heavy stubber and plasma gun fire taking out one Orlock and taking down another.   Another 3 Orlocks were pinned by lasgun fire .

Downstairs, Jonah repositioned his interceptors to better defend against the Delaque Infiltrators and Vent Juves.

With only 3 unpinned gang members on their feet, the Orlock counterfire was pretty unspectacular, succeeding in pinning a single Van Saar lasgunner.  He also took a shot at a Delaque Juve who wasn't quite out of view and managed to pin him.  With one guy out of action and another down, he would be taking a bottle roll next turn too.  And if he was lucky, he would fail it.

With Jonah having the Orlock situation well in hand, Octavian was not going to be rushed in taking the Delaques part.  Rather than rush forwards to get into close combat as soon as possible, and with cannon fodder to spare, he was prepared to spend a turn getting all of his guys into position before bringing the hammer down in one single unstoppable multi angle charge into close combat.

The pinned tunneler recovered at the begining of the turn (Nerves of Steel) and with the other one who was still standing, returned fire with autopistols at Smiling Sam and his shotgunners, wounding one and pinning another.  The downed Tunneler recovered to a flesh wound at the end of the turn as a result of his True Grit.

With one guy down and having committed 4 of his guys to dealing with the Orlocks, Gannicus was left with only 10 (8 of whom were unpinned) guys to deal with 17 Goliaths, 3 of whom were already within charge range, and the rest of whom were spreading their net for a turn 4 charge.  I think it was at this point that he might have realised that he'd underestimated the threat posed by Octavian.

A lot of people, upon realising that they have made a grave error that is likely to result in disaster can let it negatively effect their gameplay.  The realisation that they have made an error of judgment, that they aren't as good as they thought they were, that they've stupidly ignored the wise counsel of a trusted ally and so forth can cause them to second guess their own judgment and make further bad choices (this has been happening with Joffrey lately).  Not Gannicus though.  For all the disadvantages his complete inability to engage in any introspection might carry, it does at least mean that he doesn't dwell on the mistakes of the past.  More so than most people, Gannicus has the ability to play the game in front of him, rather than the game in front of him, and that's an ability worth having, both in Necromunda, and life generally.  As in Necromunda, so it is in life*.

Anyway, Gannicus started subtly repositioning his guys, paying particular attention to how far apart they were from each other and examining his Gang Roster really carefully and getting down to table level to check lines of sight.  Of his guys at ground level, he ran 4 to new positions, placed 2 on Overwatch and was able to shoot with 5 due to some of them having Hip Shooting.  Only one guy ended up in charge range for turn 3.

Gannicus might have only had 5 guys who could shoot, at ground level but many of them were capable of firing multiple times.  Smiling Sam started up the shooting and took out one of the Tunnelers.  A lasgun wounded a Goliath Juve, but only dealt a flesh wound.  Shotguns with a mixture of manstoppers and scatter shot took down anothe Goliath, took wounds off another 2 and pinned another. 

Up top, the Heavy Stubber took down a lasgunner and Bolter Bill pinned another.

Score:  Up/Down/Out
Van Saar: 9/3/1
Orlocks:  6/1/1
Goliaths:  14/4/0
Delaque:  13/2/0


*Carl Sagan

Turn 3

Jonah passed his bottle check and opened up on the Orlocks.  He took down one and pinned another 3.  One of his Vent team members went out of action.

The Orlock Player passed his bottle check.  2 Orlocks recovered from pinning, and they fired back at the Van Saar, taking down a lasgunner.  Mortlock repositioned himself and took a shot at one of the downed Vent team members, hitting him and dealing 5 wounds, which took him out of action.

Octavian had about half of his force more or less in position and he shot at the Delaques he could see, which was only 3 guys, one of which he took down and two of which he pinned.

The other half of his force was led by Bloodaxe and they continued to run to spread out around the Delaques for a charge on turn 4.  Overwatch fire from Gannicus took down a Juve and pinned Bloodaxe, but the remaining 5 Goliaths continued their run ending up in cover ready for the attack next turn.

Both of Gannicus's pinned gang members recovered and went into Overwatch (he had positioned his gangers so that they would help each other recover from pinning).  The two shotgunners who were in Overwatch from last turn remained in Overwatch too, ready to meet the Goliath charge with solid slug and manstopper shotgun rounds.  Behind that first line of defence, Smiling Sam pulled back and positioned himself to cover the widest angle of Goliath approach possible with his twin bolt pistols.    Over to the Western side of the table, Flaming Moe slid into cover the Western avenue of Goliath approach with his flamer.

Behind them from above, Bolter Bill slid two stories down a ladder and turned to cover the Delaques on the ground floor.  He was unable to shoot this turn, but he would provide deadly cover fire in the Delaque turn 4, if they were still in the fight at that stage.

The Delaque Heavy Stubberist was too far away from the ladder to be able to get into a position to be able to fire on turn 4, and Octavian had put his last standing lasgunner in hiding, so he turned to face the Orlock position to the East and went into Overwatch (not having a shot at the pinned Orlocks who were lying down behind cover). 

The Ratskin and the two Juves kept their heads down and went into Overwatch.  The close combat Infiltrator darted out of cover and used his Dive skill to hide in cover within charging distance of the Orlocks.

In the shooting phase, Moe fired an autopistol at the Tunnel team and pinned one of them.  Smiling Sam took down another Ganger but in doing so failed an ammo check on one of his boltpistols, losing it for the rest of the game.

Gannicus kept a poker face, and Jonah always maintains stoic inscrutability during a game, but I can't have been the only one who noted how Gannicus's casual adjustment of the Heavy Stubber to face the Orlock position cooincidentaly happened to also bring the Van Saar into its fire arc.

Score:
Van Saar: 8/3/2
Orlocks:  5/2/1
Goliaths:  12/6/0
Delaque:  12/3/0
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on October 28, 2012, 09:52:54 AM
Intriguing...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on October 28, 2012, 10:37:53 AM
Actually I find the best use of plasma guns is to have a leader with two of them, shoot one while the other recharges!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Scorn on October 31, 2012, 02:55:47 AM
Come on Underhand, keep that momentum going.  More posts...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: silverspindle on November 1, 2012, 06:44:24 AM
Gannicus kept a poker face, and Jonah always maintains stoic inscrutability during a game, but I can't have been the only one who noted how Gannicus's casual adjustment of the Heavy Stubber to face the Orlock position cooincidentaly happened to also bring the Van Saar into its fire arc.
What a cliffhanger!
Gannicus would be smart to limit Jonas' chances of taking the territory because Octavians denial tactics have already taken him out of the running.

Can't wait to see what the 105 credits is for.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Krutor on November 17, 2012, 02:39:39 AM
I randomly found this thread while googling something unrelated. I was bored and started reading..
I've never played Necromunda, but this is one of the most amazing (and amusing) things i have ever read. Now i can hardly sleep because of your damn cliffhanger endings. I love your style, tactical and psychological insights and sense of humour.

I registered on this forum just to wish you best luck in the campaign.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on November 17, 2012, 08:19:56 AM
Trial Over!  Claim Issued 2006. Trial started August 2012. Trial finished November 2012. Written judgment due around about July 2013.  Never let it be said that the Australian justice system is not swift!

Thank you Krutor, that's high praise.

Turn 4

Jonah passed his bottle check again and his heavy Stubber opened up on Mortlock, taking a wound off him and pinning him. 

When a model gets pinned in Necromunda, it is placed lying down face up (face down, is down).  Most Necromunda players realise within about 2.3 turns of being introduced to Necromunda that when being pinned, it is best to have a model fall into cover, if possible.  In the case of Mortlock, this was possible, but whether due to indifference, incompetence or bieberness, the Orlock Player failed to take that opportunity and left his leader open to being shot with the second Van Saar plasma gun.  Being targeted by more than one plasma gun in Necromunda is just as fatal as it is in 40k, and Mortlock went out of action.

With Jonah not moving a single model during the movement phase, the Orlock Player took the opportunity to take a shot from Overwatch at Jonah's leader and hit him with a hot shot lasgun.  Jonah saved with his Blindsnake Pouch resulting in multiple caslls of 'Diplomatic Immunity!'  in pseudo South African accents.

The remainder of the Van Saar firepower proved to be very accurate and took another Orlock down outright and caused another to fall over an edge also taking him down (Just missing Ramirez, which would have been hilarious).

The Orlock Player passed his morale check and fired back at the Van Saar with all of two gang members.  From 4 shots, there were 3 hits and the Van Saar leader ended up losing a wound and getting pinned, but that was it.

At the other end of the table, Octavian was ready for his charge.  To the left, he had two remaining tunnelers, Hardarm and Bonecrack.  Next to them he had another two slightly more junior CC specialists Ironfist and Rockface, in the middle Jugger , Silverback  and Bloodshot, and around to the right, Grimskull, Axehand (who was pinned) and Hektor.  Bloodaxe was back behind them, having been pinned on the previous turn.   With a numbers advantage of 10 on 7, Octavian was ready to charge.     

And Gannicus was ready to receive the charge.  Gannicus had se up a layered defence with 4 shotgunners in the front line all crouched behind cover, positioned with minute precision to prevent any of the Goliaths being able to sprint past them into the second line which consisted of Flaming Moe to the left and Smiling Sam to the right.  Behind them and a level up was Bolter Bill, his fire arc covering the entire Goliath advance.

With 4 guys in Overwatch, for a total of 7 shots at point balnk range, it was pretty clear that not all of the Goliaths would be making it into smashing range.  But Octavian wouldn't need all of them, or probably even half of them to do so.  As much as they suck at actually getting into close combat, once they're there, Goliaths are usually bloody good at it, and House Bloodaxe is no exception.  The contrast with Delaques generally, and the Balck Coats in particular, could not have been be more stark. 

Of the 6 House Gangs, Delaque are the only gang that don't have Combat skills as standard for their gangers.  That's not to say that Gannicus had ignored the close combat aspect of the game, but out of his 15 gang members, only 3 had combat skills, and two of them were on the other side of the table preparing to tackle the Orlocks.  Of the portion of his gang opposing the Goliaths, only Smiling Sam was even equipped for close combat.  None of the rest even had so much as a single sword between them.  So any Goliaths that made it into close combat would be taking down a lot of Delaque.  It would not be an exagerattion to say that the the game hinged on how many Goliaths made it into close combat.

There are several ways to halt a charge in Necromunda.  A defending gang can shoot the chargers down from Overwatch, literally halting the other gang dead in their tracks.  Alternatively, they can pin them, and at least slow the charge for another turn, or maybe pull off a counter charge of their own.  If desperate, or without sufficient firepower,  the defenders can hide behind cover and station their gangers at bottlenecks to prevent the opposition from getting enough of their guys into close combat all at once.  By resorting to a layered defence, it was clear that Gannicus knew he would have to resort to the bottleneck approach.

The Goliath turn started with Bloodaxe recovering from being pinned.  Octavian kicked off his charge by having Hardarm on the left dart out of cover at  the leftmost Delaque shotgunner, Machinegun Max (the rearmament of Gannicus's gang means that a lot of the names don't make a lot of sense anymore).  Max had fast shot and managed to put 2 manstopper rounds into Hardarm, taking him down. 

Still on the left, but closer to the centre, Octavian sent Rockface at Slippery Pat who was manning the other end of the barricade Machinegun Max had been hiding behind.  Slippery Pat has Rapid Fire, giving him two shots of manstopper, both of which found their mark, taking Rockface down. 

In the middle, Shady Shamus found himself lined up against Jugger, Silverback and Bloodshot, which was problematic, because he was only able to shoot once.  But he made that shot count.  Gannicus elected to take the shot at Bloodshot before he made it out of cover, and dropped him, causing  Silverback to fail a morale check and fall back 8" into cover next to Bloodaxe.  That made Octavian realise his rookie error in not having moved Bloodaxe up to support the rest of the gang at the start of the turn, thereby providing the benefit of his leadership bubble.  Which he then corrected by moving him up next to Jugger.

Around  to the right, Axehand recovered from pinning thanks to his Nerves of Steel, and Grimskull charged at the last Delaque Shotgunner, Pistol Pete, who actually did have a couple of autopistols, which he put to use on Grimskull, taking him out of action. 

And that was it for the Delaque Overwatch fire.  And it had been deadly - 4 shotgunners had managed to take down three Goliaths, put one out of action and set another one running.  But that still left the second wave of Bonecrack, Ironfist, Jugger, Axehand and Hektor ready to charge.  And Bloodaxe would be ready as a one man third wave on turn 5.

To the left, Bonecrack slammed into Machinegun Max Towards the middle, Ironfist crashed into Slippery Jack and Jugger thundered into Shady Shamus.  Around to the right, Pistol Pete had it the worst, being crushed between  Axehand and Hektor.

The first wave that Octavian had sent at the Blackcoats had been his bullet takers, the second wave were his killers.  The combat was extremely onesided.  Like Tau against Orks.  Bonecrack dealt 6 wounds (that's probably a campaign record so far) to Machinegun Max, taking him out of action.  Slippery Jack failed his Jump Back roll and was cut down by Ironfist, who then stomped his prone form to pulp, taking him out of action.  In the centre, Jugger dealt 3 wounds to Shady Shamus, taking him out of action.  On the right, Pistol Pete was chopped to bits by Axehand before Hektor even got to take a swing.

That left Flaming Moe, Bolter Bill and Smiling Sam to face Bonecrack, Ironfist, Jugger, Axehand and Hektor, all of whom were within charge range with Bloodaxe to follow.  Plus any of the downed Goliaths who might recover from their wounds, which is always possible with Goliaths.

No doubt anticipating that Gannicus would attempt to flee, Octavian used all of his Gang's follow up moves to move closer to Flaming Moe and Smiling Sam.

Turn 4 had been a good one for Octavian, and I have to admit that I thought that Gannicus was pretty much beslubbered, no doubt about it, but I also thought that when he was ordered to turn over his computer to the Federal Police that one time.  And Turn 4 wasn't over yet. 

Gannicus passed his bottle roll.  With only 4 Orlocks still standing, he took the opportunity to run his Ratskin, CC specialist and Infiltrator into cover closer to the Orlocks ready to jump them next turn.

Back where the main action was happening, he spread his defenders out, moving Flaming Moe left, and smiling Sam right.  Bolter Bill stayed where he was, Bolter pointed right at Bloodaxe.

Bolter Bill opened up the shooting phase with a well placed bullet to the forehead of Akilar Bloodaxe, dropping him down to his last wound, and pinning him again. 

Flaming Moe did what flamer guys do and counter struck Bonecrack and Ironfist with his flamer, taking Ironfist down and pinning Bonecrack.

Smiling Sam had a choice of targets, being, Jugger, who was on his own, or Axehand and Hektor out to the right.  Given that Axehand and Hektor were nicely grouped together, he picked them.  He dropped a frag grenade on them, taking Axehand out of action and causing Hektor to break and run.

Of the original Goliath charge, that left only Jugger, and he wasn't within charge range of any of the remaining Delaques.

Van Saar: 8/3/2
Orlocks:  2/4/2
Goliaths:  6/10/2
Delaque:  8/3/4 
     
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on November 18, 2012, 08:19:15 PM
Bolter Bill opened up the shooting phase with a well placed bullet to the forehead of Akilar Bloodaxe, dropping him down to his last wound, and pinning him again. 

Anyone who survives a bolter shot to the face deserves a medal.  :o

Can't wait for the next update. I love this campaign!

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on November 19, 2012, 05:04:43 AM
Turn 5

With 2 of his own guys out of action, Jonah needed to take out another 4 Orlocks to take the Spore Cave.  Taking down the last 2 Orlocks would automatically mean that the Orlock Player would lose, but he wouldn't lose the terriotry, leaving the other three players fighting over nothing.  Jonah definitely wanted that Spore Cave, so he put 5 of his guys on Overwatch and sent his leader, his flamer guy and his CC specialist on the ground level towards the Orlocks.

The Orlock Player passed his bottle check and saw what was coming and repositioned his guys to take a couple of shots at the approaching Orlocks.  Jonah didn't have a shot at them though, so the last 2 Orlocks were able to shoot at the Van Saar unmolested.  They missed.

Octavian passed his bottle check, and was quick to withdraw Jugger into heavy cover out of  Moe's flamer range and Smiling Sam's throwing range.  Bloodaxe went into hiding.  He moved the rest of his downed fighters into or as close to cover as they could get.  In the recovery phase, Hardarm and Ironfist recovered to Fleshwounds, Bonecrack got back to his feet and Silverback and Hektor recovered their nerve.

With half the Goliaths back on their feet, Gannicus drew Smiling Sam back, and repositioned Flaming Moe for another flamer blast from the left.

Gannicus then turned his attention to the Orlocks.  Not having to worry about Orlock Overwatch fire, he ran his Infiltrator and Ratskin around the back of the tower and up to the first level.  His CC specialist was started closest to the tower and was able to make base to base contact with one of the downed Orlocks, taking him out of action automatically.

Jonah:  Hey!  I shot him!  That one's mine!
Gannicus:  No he's not.  He's there for anyone who can get to him.
Jonah:  You're stealing my kills!
Joffrey:  Don't let him do it!  Shoot him!
Octavian:  Do it!  Don't let him take your kills!
Jonah:  [Glaring at Gannicus]   This is your last chance! I will do what I have to do to take this territory.
Gannicus: [Leaning across the table, meeting Jonah glare for glare] Try it.  See what happens.

So Jonah opened up with everything he had on Gannicus's CC specialist (Steely Stan), taking him down, and the Cawdor/Delaque/Van Saar alliance (such as it was) ended in a hail of plasma, laser, stubber and bolter fire.

The shooting phase started with Flaming Moe blasting Bonecrack and Ironfist again with his flamer, but, disasterously, failing to wound either (and not even pinning Bonecrack), and running out of ammo.  Smiling Sam took a shot with his remaining bolt pistol and back-up laspistol at Hektor, but missed with both shots.  Bolter Bill did not miss though, taking Ironfist down again.

Gannicus then opened fire with his Heavy Stubber on Jonah's main force, rolling 5 shots and getting 4 hits which he divided up between a hotshot lasgunner, a plasma gunner and the Heavy Stubber taking down the plasma gunner and the Heavy Stubber.

His Vent Juves, Dapper Dan and Gunner Gus stayed in hiding and went into Overwatch, waiting for the Van Saar CC team to get into close pistol range.

Van Saar: 6/5/2
Orlocks:  2/4/2
Goliaths:  8/8/2
Delaque:  7/3/5  


   

Turn 6


Jonah passed his bottle check and turned his his bolter sniper on Gannicus's Heavy Stubber, the remaining hotshot lasgunner and plasmagunner  went on Overwatch to cover the Orlock position.

In his shooting phase, his bolter maksman took down Gannicus's Heavy Stubberist, sending him toppling off the side of a three story building and taking him out of action.

The plasma gunner taken down by the Delaque Heavy Stubber in the previous turn recovered to a flesh wound.

The Orlock Player took another couple of shots at the approaching Van Saar, pinning Jonah's leader, but failing to wound him.  Upstairs, and Orlock recovered to a flesh wound, but was promptly shot back down by the Orlock plasma gunner on Overwatch.

One of the lasgunners Jonah had shot went out of action.

Octavian failed his bottle roll, and House Bloodaxe fled the table.

With the Goliaths gone, that left Gannicus free to concentrate on Jonah and the Orlock Player.

Flaming Moe and Smiling Sam were simply too far away to be of any help for at least a couple of turns, but Bolter Bill, as a Marksman, was in a great position to make a contribution.  Turning around and moving to the corner of the tower behind him, he was able to target the main Orlock firebase.  Bolter Bill shot the Van Saar Bolter Marksman, pinning him and leaving the way open for Gannicus to send in his Infltrator and Ratskin scout to mop up the wounded Orlocks.  Which he did.

The Ratskin took out a downed lasgunner, and the Infiltrator (Sneaky Nick) dispatched Mortlock.  Only one Van Saar hotshot lasgunner was left to provide Overwatch fire for the Orlocks, but he missed.     

Dapper Dan and Gunner Gus targeted the Van Saar Leader and the Flamer guy with their autopistols, but both shots went wide.

Steely Stan recovered to a flesh wound.

Van Saar: 7/4/2
Orlocks:  2/3/3
Goliaths:  8/8/2
Delaque:  6/3/6



Turn 7


Jonah passed his bottle check and asked for a rule clarification.

Jonah:  If I win the game and kill three times as many Delaques as I lose, do I get to take a territory off Gannicus?
Joffrey:  Yes!
Gannicus:  Why don't you shut the beslubber up and let Underhand answer.
Underhand:  The answer is yes.  And vice versa.  Same rules as usual.  All three of you can take a territory off each other, but you have to be the overall winner as well.
Jonah:  Very well.

And with that he altered the course of his leader and flamer guy to target the Vent Juves, one with the flamer, and one by hand to hand with his boss.  With Gannicus already having taken out 2 Orlocks, it was unlikely that Jonah would be able to take out the remaining 6 Orlocks that he needed to, to take the Spore Cave, and it appeared that Jonah wasn't content to leave the battle without taking a territory off someone.     

In the shooting phase, the first plasma gunner opened up on Gannicus's Ratskin Scout, hitting him, but not wounding him, which didn't matter, because he still caused him to stumble off the side of the tower, which took him down, but not out of action.  But that left him lying in the open exposed to the other plasma gunner, who took him out of action with a single low energy plasma blast.

Toward the centre of the table, the Van Saar flamer guy bathed the Delaque Juve in fire, taking him down, which caused the other Juve to break and run from combat with the Van Saar leader, presenting him with a free shot at his back, which he took, successfuly using his powersword to evenly divide the poor little bastard into meticulously categorised little chunks.

The Orlock Player passed his bottle check.

With only 2 guys on their feet, the Orlock Player was obviously going to lose this game.  It was just a question of who he would lose to.

The chances of Jonah winning the territory were infintesimal.  To do so, Jonah would have to take out all of the remaining Orlocks without losing any of his own guys, and make sure that the last one taken out was one of the two who were currently still running about, since a gang automatically bottles out as soon as everyone is either out, down or broken.  I consider myself to be (with all due modesty) a master of the game, and I reckon I would have, at best,  a 5% chance of pulling that off.

Gannicus, on the other hand, had a very good chance.  All he had to do was move either Sneaky Nick or Steely Stan into base to base contact with a downed Orlock, and that was it, save for beating Jonah.

So basically, all the Orlock Player had to do was thwart Gannicus, and even if he lost, the Spore Cave would be safe.  Given that Jonah had several guys on Overwatch waiting for Sneaky Nick or Steely Stan to make a run at any of the downed Orlocks, it would seem like a no brainer to use his last 2 guys to fight off Gannicus.  Provided GAnnicus either failed to take out one more Orlock, or lost to Jonah, the Spore Cave was safe, and the Orlock Player would live to call everyone be-atch for another turn.

But he's an idiot.

Orlock Player:  You're not taking my Spore Cave be-atch!

He must have done some sort of calculations in his head and worked out that the best result he could get out of the situation was to screw Jonah over, so rather than trying to save himself from Gannicus, he moved his guys to target Jonah's fire base.  He got a wound on a lasgunner and pinned another one.

He conducted the entire turn with his right arm at full extension, his hand mere inches from Jonah's face, middle finger extended.

That left only one lasgunner on Overwatch to shoot down both Steely Stan and Sneaky Nick, which wasn't enough, Sneaky Nick getting pinned and Steely Stan managing to dispatch a third Orlock lasgunner.

In the shooting phase, it turned out that the Van Saar leader's charge at the Orlock Juve had taken him into range of Smiling Sam, who shot twice, and hit once with a laspistol but failed to wound.  Bolter Bill shot the unwounded plasma gunner, taking him down.

Van Saar: 5/6/2
Orlocks:  2/3/3
Goliaths:  8/8/2
Delaque:  5/3/7



Turn 8


Jonah's leader passed his pinning check and charged the Delaque Juve who had been fried by the flamer guy the previous turn, auto removing him.  The flamer guy moved into cover and flamed one of the last two Orlocks, wounding him but not taking him down.

None of the rest of the Orlocks had a shot, so they went into Overwatch.  The Heavy Stubber guy recovered to a flesh wound.

The Orlock Player failed his bottle roll. 
 
If Gannicus beat Jonah, he would win the Spore Cave, if Jonah beat Gannicus, he would win the Delaque Workshop.

Gannicus moved the Infiltrator and the CC specialist to a position where they couldn't be seen by the main Orlock fire base, but could target Jonah's leader, and did so.

In the shooting phase, the Van Saar Leader was taken down by a combined fusilade from Smiling Sam, the CC specialist and the Infiltrator.

Van Saar: 5/6/2
Orlocks:  2/3/3
Goliaths:  8/8/2
Delaque:  5/3/7



Turn 9


Without his leader, Jonah failed his bottle roll.

Van Saar: 4/7/2
Orlocks:  2/3/3
Goliaths:  8/8/2

Delaque:  5/3/7


Gannicus won and took the Spore Cave.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on November 19, 2012, 06:35:15 AM
Wow, an epic battle! Thanks for the update, it's a great read.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine on November 19, 2012, 05:07:32 PM
Wow Epic!

Two great things came from this 1) the Orlock is now gone and 2) Jonah learned that traitors never prosper.

here is hoping you have similar luck on your turn next UH.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lewis on November 20, 2012, 05:12:34 AM
out of curiosity how many hours did that game take ...? :D

also can we have a map update with your next post underhand? Thanks
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on November 23, 2012, 08:50:16 PM
Thanks guys.

Wow Epic!

Two great things came from this 1) the Orlock is now gone and 2) Jonah learned that traitors never prosper.

here is hoping you have similar luck on your turn next UH.

The Orlock Player isn't quite gone just yet - he's lost all his territory, but he still has his turn to attack Jonah's Workshop.  So if he can take the Workshop he'll still be in the campaign.

With regard to Jonah, I find it hard to be too critical of him.  By throwing his lot in with us, he had missed out on winning a very valuable territory, lost a good one, and wasn't really getting much in return.

out of curiosity how many hours did that game take ...? :D

also can we have a map update with your next post underhand? Thanks

A bit over two hours?  Jonah and the Orlock Player don't really move their guys about much, so they fly through their turns, especially with me an Joffrey there to stop any arguments.  The Orlock Player only had 4 guys on their feet for most of the game, so there wasn't much for him to do.

The turns that took a long time were turns 4 and 5, where Octavian and Gannicus (especially Gannicus) spent a lot of time positioning their guys to get the best lines of approach and shooting arcs.  It wasn't helped by the fact that much of the action took place underneath overhanging scenery, making the movement and positioning even more fiddly.

The map will be in the next post.  In the meantime:

My loot runners, Asa and Josiah:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F002-2-1.jpg&hash=0c13e62cb223ec8c4be3956cb32f26f8bde1ca7b)

Note the awesome conversion work.  Asa has a Catachan bastard chainsword and a Cadian left hand with a Catachan plasma pistol (in game, he only has an autopistol).  Josiah has a Cadian boltpistol (autopistol ingame) and Cadian chainsword.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on December 6, 2012, 06:54:25 AM
Thems nice looking models. I like the paintscheme, although it is always the way with Necromunda that models end up not having the gear on the models.

So hows the campaign going? *cough cough*
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 8, 2012, 05:48:36 AM
Here you go:

Gothika -v- The Hand of Redemption

Joffrey attacked my Guilder Contact.  If he took the Guilder Contact, he would open up a border with Octavian which he might be able to use for some strategic advantage.

Once again, Joffrey got to pick the scenario, and he went for another Hit & Run.  He rolled a Bushwack.  To win a Bushwack, the attacking gang needs to take the opposing gang leader out of action, and they can do that by any means necessary.  Not an easy task when the opposing leader is Abraham.

Joffrey rolled to see how many girls he could bring along, and he got 6.  Shamora, Bellatrix, Morgana, Tabitha, Esmerelda and Maleficent. 

In response, I rolled a 1, meaning that Abraham would start on his own.  Given that in a Bushwack, the Attackers can deploy anywhere within 8" of  a Defender, that was problematic.  As much of a badass as Abraham is, he definitely can't survive a simultaneous charge from 6 Escher.  In fact, he would be flat out not getting killed by just Shamora on her own.

With that in mind, I deployed Abraham on top of the third level of a tower, next to the only ladder granting access to that level.  Each Escher would have to attack him one at a time and he would have a high ground advantage in any combat.  The high ground advantage would slightly negate any charge advantage of any of the Escher, which would meant that Abraham was superior in close combat to all of the the Escher with the exception of Shamora.

There isn't much separating Abraham and Shamora in terms of their close combat abiltiy.  Shamora is a little bit more skillful, and hits harder with her plasma pistol and powersword, but Abraham is tougher.  Shamora is probably slightly more dangerous, especially if she gets the charge.  So Abraham's placement at the tp of a ladder was important since it took away much of any charge bonus Shamora would get, making it very unlikely that he would get taken down in the first turn of any combat and giving him a clear advantage in future rounds.  Simply put, if the combat lasted more than one round, Abraham would probably win.  He'd likely lose a lot of skin in the process though.

I set up Abraham in his spot, and Joffrey set up his girls all around him two levels below, except for Maleficent, who had a high balistic skill, whom he set up on a neighbouring tower. 

Turn 1

Joffrey went first and moved his girls into charge range of Abraham for next turn.  Maleficent took a shot with a bolt pistol, hitting him but not wounding him and leaving him pinned.

Abraham recovered from being pinned and went into hiding at the top of the ladder.

Turn 2

Morgana was first cab off the rank, and she raced to the top of the ladder, only to receive a boot in the face from Abraham, wounding her once, dropping her two stories down onto the ground, and taking her out of action.

On my second turn, I got lucky and rolled three reinforcements.  Then I rolled to see who those reinforcements were and got even luckier when  it turned out to be Jacob, Isaac and  Abijah.  They came on to the left side of the table which meant that they only had to move a little bit to get a line of sight at the ladder leading to Abraham.  Once they went onto Overwatch next turn, The Escher would have to climb up two stories, while weathering a hail of Heavy Stubber and Heavy Bolter fire.  Then they would get to fight Abraham.  So in my view, at that time, the balance of the game had swung dramatically in my favour.

I ran them into position for next turn.  Abraham went to the edge of the tower and dropped a plasma grenade onto the head of Shamora, also hitting Tabitha and Belatrix, dealing a wound to all three, and pinning Esmerelda.  Grenades can be glorious.  Best of all, the Plasma Blast stayed in place at the foot of the ladder preventing anyone from approaching the foot of the ladder.  Heh.

Turn 3

All of the Escher recovered from pinning.  Joffrey  realised he was in trouble and sent Bellatrix, Tabitha and Maleficent after Abijah, Jacob and Isaac.  He kept Esmerelda back with Shamora, waiting for the Plasma cloud to fizzle out.  Maleficent took a shot at Abijah from the second story of her tower and did him a wound.   

On my turn, I rolled another 3 reinforcements, and Zohar (stupidity), Esau and Jemuel turned up on the right side of the table.  Zohar remained stupid for the turn, but I ran Esau and Jemuel over towards the middle of the table.  They would be in a position to help Abraham in a couple of turns time.

Abijah stayed pinned and Jacob and Isaac went into Overwatch.  So did Abraham, holding a plasma grenade out over the lip of the tower, ready to drop it as soona s either Esmerelda or Shamora went for the ladder.

Turn 4

On Joffrey's turn, the plasma cloud fizzled out. To the left, Maleficent, Belatrix and Tabitha spread out and presented targets to Isaac, Abijah and Jacob.  Joffrey would never normally do that (because it's stupid), but it showed that he was going to attempt a charge next turn and didn't want whoever was climbing the ladder to be shot at.  In the middle of the table, he moved Esmerelda out of cover, presenting her as an easy target for Abraham.  Tempting as that was, I elected not to drop the grenade on her, because doing so would allow Shamora a free charge up the ladder at Abraham.  Joffrey then moved Shamora out of cover as well, placing her in a position where she would be able to both shoot at Abraham this turn with her plasma pistol.  Esmerelda would also be able to shoot. 

Given that Abraham was safe from a charge, for this turn at least, I had him drop the plasma grenade on Esmerelda, who was the closest and easiest target and she went down.

Maleficent, Belatrix and Tabitha shot at Isaac, Jacob and Abijah and succeeded in taking another wound off Abijah, taking him down.

Shamora shot at Abraham with her plasma pistol and wounded him, which was not ideal, since he would need as many wounds as possible if he was to defeat her.

In my turn, Ram and Joshua turned up on my side of the table.  The plasma cloud from the grenade which had taken down Esmerelda exploded out 4 inches, hitting her again, wounding her and taking her out of action.  It also barely missed Shamora, which was agreat shame, because if it had done a wound to her, Abraham might have been able to take her out this turn.  Joffrey felt differently.

Zohar recovered his wits and ran 14" to catch up with Esau and Jemuel, who would be within pistol range of Shamora next turn.

Over to the left, Joffrey had been wise to spread his girls far enough apart so that Isaac and Jacob could not walk fire between targets.  Isaac took to Maleficent with his heavy stubber, wounding her and causing her to fall over the edge of a balcony, which caused another wound, taking her down.  Jacob opened up on Belatrix with his heavy Bolter, taking her out of action.  Ram ran fast towards the left of the table ready to mop up any downed Escher.  Both Ram (hip shooting skill) and Joshua took a shot at Tabitha, with Joshua managing to wound her.

I put Abraham on Overwatch again, daring Shamora to make the charge next turn. 

Abijah recovered to a fleshwound.

Turn 5

Joffrey passed his bottle check.  With only Shamora on her feet, and surrounded by enemies, Joffrey took the only option open to him and charged Abraham.  Abraham duly dropped another plasma grenade to the foot of the ladder and Shamora took another wound and was pinned in the open at the foot of the ladder.

In my turn, Amon and Boaz turned up turned up and the plasma cloud at the foot of the ladder remained in place. 

Amon and Boaz had turned up on my side of the table, which was within pistol range of Shamora, which meant that Shamora was looking at taking autopistol fire from Amon and Esau, shotgun fire from Joshua and Boaz, another plasma grenade from Abraham and even a stub gun round from Jemuel.  Tabitha was the only other ganger not down, and she was covered by Isaac, Abijah and Jacob.  Ram was also close by, and would autoremove Maleficent this turn. 

Barring a miracle, the game would be over at the end of my close combat phase and I would take the Old Ruins.  Everyone could see this, and people were already talking about it being a massive win given the uneven starting odds.  None of my guys were even pinned.  Joffrey was clearly having a bit of difficulty dealing with suffering such a thrashing, made worse no doubt by the knowledge that it had been fair and square, and that he had started from what should have been an unassailable position of strength.

These are the times when it can be appropriate to show a bit of grace to an opponent.  There isn't any need to add insult to injury.  A big win speaks for itself. 

In that regard, the gracious thing to do was to offer Joffrey the opportunity to voluntarily bottle out.  Normally, you can only bottle out in your own turn, but seeing as how there wouldn't be another turn after this one, the only difference between the game ending now or at the end of the turn would be how many of his gangers would be rolling on the serious injuries chart.  As things were it would be a minimum of 3, possibly four, by the end of my turn it would probably be 5, possibly all 6.  If that happened, it would be hands down the worst defeat anyone had suffered in the entire campaign, worse even than the first Shoot Out I played in.

By bottling out, Joffrey would still lose the Old Ruins, but he would save at least one, possibly 3 of his girls from serious injuries.

Underhand:  Would you like to bottle out?
Joffrey:  [lip curling in disgust at the very thought of being offered honourable surrender by a hated foe] beslubber off, mindless fleshy pawn of the Illuminati.

So, Ram charged Maleficent, and autoremoved her, Jacob heavy boltered Tabitha out of action and Shamora was wounded multiple times, going down, but not out of action.

Final Score:
11/0/0
0/1/5

I took the Old Ruins.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lonewolf on December 8, 2012, 09:29:25 AM
*deep throaty voice*

"Joffrey didnt get the beating he deserved, but the one he needed!"
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on December 8, 2012, 02:44:40 PM
Well played, great write up :)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 8, 2012, 06:24:02 PM
The Mortlock Cartel -v- The Second Stringers

Having suffered the simultaneous Delaque/Goliath/Van Saar attack, the Mortlock Cartel had lost their last territory and would be out of the campaign at the end of the turn unless the Orlock Player could somehow engineer a 3:1 casualty count victory over Jonah and capture the Van Saar Workshop.  For the Orlock Player, this was quite literally the last roll of the dice.

For Jonah, this was the opportunity to take revenge for months of childish taunts about everything from his weight, to his personal politics, to his ridiculous accent, to his clinically diagnosed psychological disorders.  And since it was a type of revenge that wouldn't involve utilising his inimate knowledge of long range firearms or explosives, I have to say I was all for it.

They played a Gang Fight, and set up as they both always do.  Both keeping to their deployment zones with a double tiered gunline.  Jonah of course kep his vent team back.

Turn 1

Jonah got the first turn, and opened up with his marksman, taking down the Orlock Marksman.  His Heavy Stubber then focussed fire on a single Orlock lasgunner and took him down.  Everyone else went into hiding.  His vent team deployed out of sight on the right Orlock Flank.

The Orlock Player passed his bottle check, but with his marksman down, didn't have anyone in range of Jonah, so he went onto Overwatch, repositioning some of his guys to face the Van Saar Vent team.

Turn 2

The Bolter Marksman fired at another Orlock and took him down.  The Heavy Stubber focussed fire on the same guy he had shot at last turn, and wounded him again, but failed to take him out of action.  The Vent team went into hiding, everyone else went into Overwatch, from hiding.

The Orlock Player passed his bottle check, but had literally noone who could shoot back at the Van Saar.  He stayed in Overwatch.  His Marksman went out of action.

Turn 3

Jonah had his marksman take a shot at the Orlock Leader, dealing a wound.  His Heavy Stubber went into Overwatch.  At this point, he realised that Jonah was just waiting for him to fail his bottle check.

Orlock Player:   Come and get me be-atch!
Jonah:  I will not come and get you, nor am I your be-atch.  This farce ends today.  I have endured your childish taunts as one has to the bleating of a castrated lamb, but no longer.  Your imminent defeat marks the end of our association, and no longer will I have to suffer to look upon your greasy skin, your shifty eyes or your recessive chin.  Never have I met someone whose cowardly countenance so aptly fits their character.  But it is not only in terms of courage that the defects in your character express themselves.  You are a fool.  While both of us started this campaign as newcomers to the game, I have learned from my experiences and taken advice that has allowed me to develop my tactical skills and knowledge.  I am many times the player I was several months ago.  The opposite is the case with you.  The story of your campaign is one of unlearned lessons and repeated mistakes.  Your only successes have come about on the back of the labour of your more worthy friends.  Friends you have since betrayed.  Outside of this store, I do not know you, and for that I am grateful, but I expect the shortcomings that are so evident here are repeated elsewhere in what you call your life.  I have said more to you than I care to already.  You are not a man, you are an ant.  Roll the dice.
Orlock Player:   . . .
Jonah:   . . .
Orlock Player:   be-atch!
Jonah:  Roll the dice and do not speak.

The Orlock Player rolled the dice and failed his bottle roll.  And that was the end of the Mortlock Cartel.

5/2/1
13/0/0


And that's it for turn 13. 

The Map:

 (https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F042-1.jpg&hash=70637038dbaa42037c4e269790e8aa68dd7353eb)

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

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on December 8, 2012, 08:03:29 PM
It's always nice when people get their comeuppance. It does seem to have got quite personal in some places!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: bsucbe on December 9, 2012, 01:24:15 PM
Thank you once again underhand, great reports, and so glad he got what he deserved.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 10, 2012, 07:52:19 AM
It's always nice when people get their comeuppance. It does seem to have got quite personal in some places!

That's the nature of Necromunda.  It's the campaign based experience point system that causes it.  People get attached to their gangs.  And they get more attached the longer a campaign lasts.

It's a completely different dynamic to a regular game of 40k.  40k is like chess, what happens in this game doesn't effect the next one.  There are no ongoing consequences for failure.  What happens to an individual model is irrelevant to the overall outcome of the game. A pawn is a pawn, a knight is a knight, a devastator squad is a devastator squad.

That just isn't the case in Necromunda.

In Necromunda, every gang member is special.  They develop individual quirks over the course of a campaign.  If they have a good game and take out several of the enemy, then they get better and get the best jobs (Asa and Josiah), if they don't do anything special, then they get left on the sidelines and don't really get anywhere (Ram), if they beslubber up, then they get the amphetamine parrot jobs (Amon, initialy).  Every gang member is an investment.  It hurts when they go down.

In that last game against Joffrey, the only gang member I had go down was Abijah.  Luckily, he subsequently managed to recover to a flesh wound and didn't have to roll on the serious injuries chart at the end of the game.  I was relieved.  Abijah is Abraham's bodyguard.  He has taken a lot of bullets (and knives, and chainswords, and lasers) for Abraham over the course of this campaign.  It would have been sad to lose him to some stupid long ranged Escher potshot.

The consequences of a bad decision don't linger in a game of 40k.  In the 5th turn of a 40k game, I'll chage my Imperial Guard Company Comander at an Eldar Autarch because beslubber yeah this'll be awesome! But in a game of Necromunda - no thanks, Abraham will stay upstairs, and Shamora can eat another plasma grenade.  This game is important.  Unless egos get involved, which they occasionally do.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on December 10, 2012, 08:54:37 PM
Unless egos get involved, which they occasionally do.

Yeah, "occasionally."  ;) Don't worry, your secret's safe with us.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 16, 2012, 01:20:12 AM
Aftermath of Turn 13

The Black Coats

Gannicus won a 4 way, effectively against 3 other players and thinks he's bullet proof. 

There is no doubt that was a massive victory, but he could easily have lost.  Both Octavian and Gannicus were rolling for bottle checks by the time that the Goliaths gave it up.  And if Octavian had lasted an extra turn, the Goliaths would have torn through the remaining Delaques like a chainsaw through butter.  Think genestealers against Tau fire warriors.

Managing to stop that Goliath showed Gannicus's skills as a Necromunda player.  It required a knowledge of the core rules, weapon statistics and special skills, the mental ability to calculate odds, visually judge range and angles, and just generally work out who he could lose and who he needed to keep.

If Octavian had lasted one turn longer and Gannicus had failed his bottle roll (which was basically a 50/50), then Gannicus would have been looking at losing a territory.

Post sequence, he lost one guy and picked up  a few nasty injuries.  One of his guys got captured by Octavian, but he had the Escape Artist skill, and automatically escaped.  I suggested that it might be worth spending some of his extra creds on swords for his gangers, considering how he got pasted so badly by the Goliaths in close combat, but he ignored that and sent a bunch of his guys off to the trading post instead.

He asked me if I wanted the honour of wiping Joffrey off the map next turn, but I told him in no uncertain terms that I was not going to waste another turn fighting over some Old Ruins, so Gannicus will be targetting the Escher Old Ruins next turn.

House Bloodaxe

Octavian was never playing to win the Spore Cave, so not winning wasn't exactly a big loss for him.  What he was playing for was to drive a wedge between Jonah and Gannicus.  In that, it would appear that he succeeded, and that is probably more valuable than any territory on the map, because regardless of the fact that he outclasses Jonah, both in terms of skill and gang rating, there is no way that he could withstand being attacked by 3 opponents each turn.  No gang could absorb the injuries that would unavoidably be taken from playing 3 or 4 games per turn of income.  His gang would be about half the size within 3 turns, and those who remained would be cripples.

He lost one guy and for once didn't pick up another Juve.  He spent most of his creds on buying a second Heavy Stubber.  And that plays into my hands.  He'll attack me next turn.

The Second Stringers

It's unfortunate what happened with Jonah.  At my request, and in gratitude for me and Gannicus coaching him in how to play the game, he held off going after the Orlock Spore Cave for several turns, and attacked Octavian instead which resulted in him losing his Tunnels.  Then, having waited longer than we really could have expected him to, he finally went after the Spore Cave, only to have Gannicus snatch it away from him at the last second.  So I wasn't really surprised by what happened next:

Jonah:  Underhand, I want a word.
Underhand:   Of course, what's up.
Jonah:  I wanted to tell you ahead of time so that it could not later be said that I tricked anyone.
Underhand:  [I knew what he was going to say] Go ahead.
Jonah:  I am going to attack Gannicus next turn.  I have not decided which territory as yet.  While I am grateful fo the assistance you have given me, there can be only one winner of this campaign, and my ultimate interests do not rest in helping my ultimate enemies.  I have looked to the future, and while I acknowledge that there might be some small benefits in me siding with you and Gannicus against Octavian in the beginning, I know that in the end you would both turn against me.  That is inevitable.  I mean no insult in saying that.  The bond you share with each other is older and stronger than that which either of you share with me.  So I will not help strengthen you.  At this time, with the map the way it is, of the two of you, only Gannicus can fight me, so I will go to war against Gannicus.  I cannot say with confidence that I will win that war, because I know that Gannicus is a formidable opponent, but I would have to beat him to win the campaign anyway, so it does not matter if I lose sooner or later.  Perhaps, many weeks from now, we will meet in battle, me having defeated Gannicus, and you having defeated Octavian.  Until that time, I thank you for the assistance you gave to me in the past, and wish you the best of luck against Octavian, because he is no friend of mine.
Underhand:   Thank you Jonah.  I get what you are saying, and I appreciate the sentiment.   I wish things hadn't gone the way they have, but nothing is set in stone and this campaign has a long way to run yet.  I urge you to reconsider your plans.
Jonah:    I have considered the matter in full, and I will not change my decision.
Underhand:  Well, good luck then.

And he will need all the luck he can get, because as good as the Van Saar skill set is (probably the strongest of all the House Gangs), Gannicus has the higher gang rating, has greater per turn income and is by far the better player.   Between the Black Coats and the Second Stringers, in a war of annihilation, all the diplomatic immunity in the world won't be enough to save Jonah.

He picked up another Juve from his settlements, bought another plasma gun and invented some infra red goggles.  Injury wise, he got off pretty light, with one ganger developing a hatred of the Orlock leader and another one getting captured by the Orlocks which were both now irrelevant.  The only effective injury was a leg wound to a lasgunner.

Gothika

Joffrey was not a happy chappy.  Injuries aplenty, and zero profit for the turn. 

Next turn, Gannicus will attack him, and will likely take the Old Ruins off him.  He will either attack me or Gannicus, and both of us have his measure.  That last loss hurt him badly.  He brought his best fighters to that last game, and two of them picked up leg wounds, one picked up a chest wound, one picked up a head wound, one was blinded in one eye, and onedeveloped an old battle wound.  All bad injuries (maybe not so much the old battle wound).  The leg injuries in particular hurt an Escher gang, reducing their movement, and hence charge range.

The Orlock Player  

This happened:

While everybody else sorted out their post game book keeping, the Orlock Player had some spare time to reflect on things and apparently think out some sort of semi prepared final address to the campaign group, and the store generally:

Orlock Player:  Guys, I'd just like to say, that it's been a pleasure to play in the campaign, even thought the rules are all beslubbered up.  It's absolute bullamphetamine parrot that three people can gang up on one person and take their territory.  Any be-atch could write better rules than that.  The campaign would have been a lot better if there was less be-atching about rules like little be-atches.  Individually, I'd just like to say: 
Jonah - you're a fat be-atch.
Joffrey - [Joffrey didn't even look up from where he was filling in his gang roster] thanks for your help, sorry I couldn't help you out more with Penguin boy.
[He has taken to calling me penguin boy.  I think this is because I am usually wearing a suit during the week, and because he doesn't understand the difference between business and formal attire, and thinks that any suit is a penguin suit]
Gannicus - we're cool.[Gannicus just nodded.  For some reason, he seems to hold Gannicus in great respect.  Which is the complete opposite of the low regard in which Gannicus holds him.  Gannicus forgets his name half the time.]
Octavian - Sorry things turned out the way they did.  Catch you later.
Octavian:  beslubber of and die you dickless piece of amphetamine parrot.
Orlock Player:  Underhand - there were some good games we played there.  By my count, the ledger's about even. Who'd have thought that a noob like me would be able to match it with one of the all time greats.
[That seemed a bit more gracious than I was expecting, but it also had a hint of sarcasm in it, so I let it go]
Anyway, time for me to move on.  Good luck to all of you.  I'm sure we'll meet again.

Then he turned walked away, weaving his way between the painting and display tables to leave the store via the front door and the rest of us went back to working out the post game sequence.  But then, as he got to the front door, he turned around, and raised his voice so that it carried across the store [the store manager rearranged the tables so that the necromunda tables are down the back, out of the way of 'decent ordinary customers, just trying to enjoy the hobby in peace'].

Orlock Player:  Oh, and by the way, Underhand!  [every head in the store turned in his direction, then swiveled around to face me, then back to him]
Orlock Player:  [pausing  to make sure everyone was listening]  I know that you were never the official number two world ranked Necromunda player in 1997!
Underhand:  What are you talking about?
Orlock Player:  That's right be-atch!  Don't lie about amphetamine parrot that you can google!  You'll get found out, be-atch!
[And then he pivoted on his heel, strode out into the parking lot and the door slammed shut behind him.]

I looked at the store manager.

Underhand:   What the beslubber was he talking about?  Where did he get that from?
[I realised the answer even before I finished asking the question.  I turned around to Gannicus.]
Underhand:  Did you tell him that I was the number two world ranked Necromunda player in 1997?
Gannicus:  [not even looking up from his gang roster] Yeah.
Underhand:  ...
Gannicus:  ...
Underhand:  Why?
Gannicus:  [shrugging] Dunno.
Underhand:  Who else did you tell that to?
Gannicus:  Ummm . . .  pretty much everyone.
Underhand:  Why would you do that?
Gannicus:  Dunno.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on December 16, 2012, 06:20:32 AM
I think i'm in love with Gannicus.

I think i may kill Orlock Player. Orlocks are one of my favourite gangs, and that tit alone has put me off of them.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: silverspindle on December 17, 2012, 12:23:25 PM
Ah, I love reading this campaign, hope I don't have to wait till the new year for more but know I probably will.

With regards to the long term, when are you going to call it? Joint victory when there's two gangs left? Or in your experience does one gang end up with snowballing superiority and make it easy to discern a victor? Surely it won't be to the bitter death with that many territories to fight over?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 27, 2012, 02:59:59 AM
Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays.

Abraham:  Leader:
M   WSBSS   T   W   A   I    LD Skills & Weapons
466343258
Old Battle Wound, Nerves of Steel, True Grit, Iron Will, Parry, Sprint  .
Bolt Pistol, Chainsword, Plasma Grenades.

No change.
Jacob: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills Injuries & Weapons
43544 2348
Partially Deafened.  Fixer,  Medic,  Armourer, Iron Jaw  .
One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter, Lasgun.

Having made the gutters of the Underhive run red with Goliath blood on turn 12, Jacob was due a couple of advances (he got 45 experience from that one game alone).  The first advance was a +S, which is probably the least useful advance that a Heavy can get. 

The second advancewas a bonus skill.  I have a rule when it comes to rolling for skills that has  served me very well over the years - never roll on the Muscle skill table.  Just about all of its skills are amphetamine parrot, and the ones that are any good are outperformed by all of te combat skills.   The only exception is Bulging Biceps, which only Heavies can get, which allows Heavies to move and fire with heavy weapons, and is actually a really good skill that everyone would probably pick if they got the choice.    But even then, there is still only a 1/6 chance of rolling it, and if you miss it, then you end up with some amphetamine parrotty close combat oriented skill which is exactly what you don't want in a Heavy.  Nevertheless a lot of newbies roll on the Muscle table with their Heavies and end up with a lot of useless skills.  More experienced players roll on the Techno skill list (since most gangs have restricted access to it), or the Shooting list, since some of the skills are compatible with heavy weapons, or at least have the oportunity to be used if you run out of ammo or need to spend a turn repositioning the Heavy, which happens quite often, in which case you might as well use that backup lasgun.  You can see that both Jacob and Ram have a lot of Techno Skills.

On the other hand - Jacob is already an Armourer (global bonus to gang ammo rolls), he's a Medic, and a Fixer, so he already has most of the best Techno Upgrades (Specialist isn't available to Heavies, Weaponsmith would be virtually useless, and Inventor doesn't help too often).  Also, with a One-In-A-Million Weapon, he wouldn't ever be running out of ammo, so he won't be shooting his back up weapon too often. 

And can you imagine what a BS5 heavy with a OIAM Heavy Bolter would be like if he could also move and fire!?!  Ho-lee shiiiiiiit . . .

So I abandoned the rule that has served me so well for so long, took my chances with a roll on the Muscle table and ended up rolling Iron Jaw.  I'm not even going to bother explaining what it does because I can pretty much guarantee that if I play another 30 games with Jacob, I won't even get to use it once.  What a piece of amphetamine parrot skill.  I beslubbering hate the Muscle table.  And myself.  I hate myself for rolling on it.
Isaac: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
444331 238
Medic, Armourer, Weaponsmith, Inventor, Fixer, Counter Attack, Crushing Blow  .  Arm Wound . 
Heavy Stubber, Stub Gun, Sword. 

Yep.  I did it again.  I know.  I'm a dipamphetamine parrot.  Don't rub it in.

beslubbering Muscle table.
 
Ram: Ganger:
 
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4443321 57
Armourer, Impetuous, Arm Wound.  Berserk Charge, Nerves of Steel, Catfall, Leap. 
Lasgun. 

Got back the Strength point he lost a while back.  Meh.  Still looking for a shooting upgrade.
Boaz: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4644321 37
Specialist, Inventor, Crack Shot, Feint, Nerves of Steel.
Flamer, Shotgun + Manstopper rounds, Sword.

No upgrades.  Had a bit of bad luck with the shotgun.  I'd like him to pick up an extra wound sometime.
Abijah:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
444 43223 6Nerves of Steel, Impetuous, Fixer, Disarm, Combat Master, Dodge, Quickdraw, Leap.
Handflamer, Autopistol, Sword. 

Abijah is one of those gang members that never does anything spectacular, but still always seems to get the job done.  Sort of like a Damien Martyn or Mike Hussey in cricket, or an Adam Ashley-Cooper in Rugby.  Although equipped for close combat, his main job up until now has been taking bullets for Abraham, but that has mainly been due to his lack of any movement enhancing Agility skills.  That has changed now, and he will be getting stuck in a lot more often, and Goliath heads are going to roll.
Asa: Ganger
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
455442246
Impetuous, Step Aside, Leap, Feint, Disarm, Combat Master, Nerves of Steel , Counter Attack  . 
Autopistol, Sword.

Counter Attack can convert parries into extra attacks. Normally, that would be a stupid thing to do, since a Parry is usually more valuable than an extra Attack in the endgame when all the other close combat enemies will be loaded up with swords and chainswords, but when combined with Disarm, it can work really nicely.
Amon:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries and Weapons
334323358
Gun Fighter, True Grit, Killer Rep, Nerves of Steel, Fast Shot.  Hand Injury, Leg Wound, Chest Wound.
Autopistol , Autopistol, Sword. 

A bonus leadership.  I normally send Amon up the middle with Abraham, sohis leadership isn't that important because he takes leadership rolls using Abraham's Leadership.  The bonus Leadership will give me some options in that regard.  It's not hard to think of ways to use a guy with BS4 who can shoot 6 times a turn, but dropping him out of a Vent to the side of the Goliath ranged team would have to be top of the list.
Josiah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
44 4333268
Parry, Sprint, Counter Attack, Combat Master.
Autopistol,  Sword x2. 

+1 Initiative.  Woop-di-doo.

Zohar: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4523323 48
Partially Deafened,  True Grit, Leap, Disarm, Step Aside, Head Wound, Shell Shocked.
Hand flamer, Stubber, Dum-Dum bullets, sword, flail. 

Weapon Skill 5, with Frenzy and a weapon that can't be parried.  People aren't going to want to fight him.

Jemuel: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
43232214 6
Specialst, Armourer, Nerves of Steel.  Shell shocked, Arm wound, Dodge, Feint, Blinded in One Eye, Chest Wound, Jump Back   .
Flamer, Hand Flamer, Stubber.   

Jump Back is possibly responsible for pissing more opponents off than any other skill in the game (Disarm being the other).  Basically, it gives the gang member a chance to Jump Back 2" at the start of a round of combat.  Imagine how it feels to spend several turns lining up your gang, getting ready for the charge, ducking bullets the whole time, losing a few people along the way, and then finally launching one of your most tooled up close combat monsters at one of the most expensive special weapon carrying opposition gang members, only to have the little amphetamine parrot take a couple of steps back out of chainsword range, leaving one of your best guy (or guys) in the open.  Well that's what Jemuel is going to do.

Then he will flame them in his turn.  And there is nothing they can do about it.

I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about the look on Octavian's face. 

Esau: Juve:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
42233113 6
True Grit, Specialist.
Flamer, Autopistol.   

As a Juve, Esau is not allowed to use Basic Weapons (ie - rifles).  I imagine the conversation must have gone something like this.

Esau:  Hey, boss, can I have a shotgun next time?  Please?
Abraham:   A Shotgun?  Don't be stupid.
Esau:  What about a lasgun?
Abraham:  No way kid, you'll hurt yourself or someone else.  Here, take this flamer.

So that's 3 flamers in the gang now.  Which means converting another miniature.  Damn it.

Joshua:Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
443331147
Shotgun, Manstopper Rounds, Sword.   

The one time I really would have preferred a BS upgrade over a WS upgrade.  Ahh well, he's just a bullet catcher anyway.

I'm still not sure who to give the medikit to each game.  I'm playing it on a game by game basis at the moment.

Boaz managed to invent some Choke grenades (non fatal, but they stop opponents from doing anything and have a bigass template that tends to hang around a long time).  I've given them to Asa, who should be able to use them to good effect with his BS5.

I went to the Trading Post and picked up a Red-dot laser sight and gave it to Amon.  I passed on a Red -dot laser sight a few turns back, and have regretted it ever since.  That was a stupid, stupid decision.  giving a red dot laser sight to a guy who can use it 3 times a turn is an absolute no-brainer.  I have no idea what I was thinking.  Anyway, it's not a mistake I was going to make twice.

I also got a concealed blade.  Concealed blades are cheap, and grant a chance of escaping a captured result on a 4-6.  They also grant the chance of dying in the attempt on a 1-6.  At 10 creds, they are worth buying.  I thought about giving it to Jacob, but considered that the 1-6 chance of him losing all his equipment, on top of the chance of death meant that Abraham was a better choice, especially since he will be in harm's way a lot more often.  THere's no way I'm letting Jacob's OIAM Heavy Bolter fall into the wrong hands.

I also rolled a weapon reload, but with so many Armourers in my gang, I consider the chance of an ammo explosion as more of a risk than running out of ammo. 

I was tempted to buy a bolt pistol for Amon, and maybe some back up autopistols, but I need to save up that 105 creds.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on December 27, 2012, 05:11:57 AM
Ah, the muscle table... Giving heavies useless skills after tempting them in with sweet sweet move and fire is its best trick. And what's worst is that next advance they get you'll try your luck again...

Quote
Esau:  Hey, boss, can I have a shotgun next time?  Please?
Abraham:   A Shotgun?  Don't be stupid.
Esau:  What about a lasgun?
Abraham:  No way kid, you'll hurt yourself or someone else.  Here, take this flamer.

lol! Although a flamer suits his BS2 pretty good at the end of the day.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 27, 2012, 08:37:17 AM
Ah, the muscle table... Giving heavies useless skills after tempting them in with sweet sweet move and fire is its best trick. And what's worst is that next advance they get you'll try your luck again...

Not a chance in hell.

Turn 14:

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F042-1.jpg&hash=70637038dbaa42037c4e269790e8aa68dd7353eb)

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


The Hand of Redemption

I'm taking my Vents back.

The Spore Cave is the obvious target, because it's the best territory, due to the massive income they generate.  My income (as opposed to actual money in the tin profit) last turn was a bit above average at 215 credits.  Of that 215 credits, 80 of it came from my one Spore Cave.  Vents only yield 10 credits per turn, but their value is in the strategic benefit they offer, allowing as they each do 3 gang members to enter the board anywhere on the table above ground level at the end of the first turn.  That's good, but it's not the reason I'm going after them.

Those Vents are one of my starting territories.  Octavian captured them from me back during the period of the Gorlock Alliance.  Well that little alliance is well over, and so is the time that he can enjoy the use of my territories. 

I'm taking back my Vents from Octavian, then I'm going to take everything else.

The Black Coats

Gannicus elected to attack Joffrey via his Holestead.  Joffrey will get to pick the Scenario, but it won't make a difference.  The Black Coats have the superior numbers and are well geared compared to Gothika, who are riddled with crippling injuries.   Gannicus is on top of his game whereas Joffrey has the baring of a hunted rat. 

The Second Stringers

Jonah attacked Gannicus via his Workshop, and Gannicus could not be happier because he regards that as a free Workshop.  Mind you, he thought that he would sweep Octavian off the table in the last game, and that was a very close run thing.  He also didn't think he had to clean the oven at his last appartment, and that didn't exactly end well either.

House Bloodaxe

Octavian attacked my Slag via my Vents.  Well, I guess that gives me two chances to take those Vents.

Gothika

Joffrey attacked my Spore Cave.  So assuming Gannicus takes the Old Ruins, I'll get to be the one to see him out of the campaign.  That'll be fun.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on December 27, 2012, 08:57:04 AM
He also didn't think he had to clean the oven at his last appartment, and that didn't exactly end well either.

Oh Gannicus. :') I know it's completely and utterly off topic, but I kinda want to know what happened there..

Looks like another player is gonna be heading out of the campaign pretty rapidly..  ;D
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 27, 2012, 09:52:46 AM
His oven eventually caught fire, the fire department got called, he had to pay a call out fine, he didn't and it got taken out of his rental bond.  To hear him tell it, it ranks alongside the greatest crimes against humanity of the 21st century.  Him getting fined that is, not him negligently setting fire to his decent, law abiding landlord's property.

The Hand of Redemption -v- House Bloodaxe

I got to pick the scenario and I picked Scavengers, because that's what I pick when I get the choice.  We played in Space Hulk terrain.  We rolled a single loot counter which I placed in the centre of the map because I wanted to tempt Octavian into doing something stupid.

Octavian, as should be clear by now, isn't stupid, but he does have an ego, and that can be exploited.  In this case, it meant that he wouldn't be willing to just let my guys altz off with the loot. 

He got the first turn, and he dropped three guys right on the loot.  And that's what I wanted.

There were three ways out of the room that held the loot, and I made sure that everyone of them had a Cawdor ganger with a flamer sitting in them.  And two of those flamer guys (Jemuel and Esau were backed up by a ganger with a hand flamer.  The flamer guy on his own was Boaz, who is enough of an all round badass to take whatever the Goliath loot runners could throw at him for a turn or two.

Octavian kept his loot runners in the loot room for the second turn, waiting for the bulk of his gang to clear a path of retreat for them.

The last Vent team member was Josiah, and he was out on his own in a small room 13" from the Goliath deployment zone.  The Goliaths ran as far towards Josiah as they could on turn 2, but couldn't quite make it, which allowed him to pop a choke grenade and stop them in their tracks.

The Goliath Vent team managed to wound a couple of my hand flamer guys (Zohar and Abijah), but that just left the way open for Boaz, Jemuel and Esau to close in and flame the room inflicting multiple wounds.

The main Goliath force was held up by Josiah's Choke grenade and couldn't break the cloud.

Only one of the Goliath Vent team was still up on his feet at the end of turn 3, and he got charged by a frenzied Zohar and was taken out of action.  Esau and Jemuel autoremoved the other two Goliath Vent team members.  Josiah threw a second Choke grenade into the cloud left by the previous one.  Goliath overwatch fire missed him and wounded another Goliath ganger.

The Goliaths didn't have any luck getting through the Choke clouds, and were unable to stop Ram running, taking the loot and running out again.  Josiah retreated away from the Choke clouds, out of sight of any Goliath pursuit.  The other members of the Vent team set up in overwatch and awaited the end of the game which came two turns later.

Final score:
Hand of Redemption:  0/0/0
House Bloodaxe:  14/0/3


I took my Vents back.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on December 27, 2012, 03:48:32 PM
Ah, Flamers and tunnels! A classic combination...

Quote
Not a chance in hell.

Move and fire one in a million heavy Bolter? Look at it, seductively winking at you from the middle of those other skills, a sly smirk on her lips beckoning you to come thither, she knows you know you want it... and this time your odds are better...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on December 29, 2012, 11:14:14 PM
Gods dammit Hymirl, stop turning me on!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Perigrine on January 12, 2013, 05:58:10 PM
Just went back to the first page of this thread, and has this thread really been going since July 2011 or is the date stamp wrong?

on a side note need me some more updates
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Scorn on January 28, 2013, 10:53:02 PM
Getting antsy here UH.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on January 29, 2013, 03:48:10 AM
Just went back to the first page of this thread, and has this thread really been going since July 2011 or is the date stamp wrong?

Pretty sure it's not a mistake. I know I've been following this for a long time but I can't remember when exactly it was I discovered it.


Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 29, 2013, 05:17:13 AM
Sorry for the delay in an update, holidays and floods have slowed me down a bit. 

And also Xcom: Enemy Unknown.  Holy amphetamine parrot, it's good.  It's basically Necromunda the computer game.

Incidently, if anyone in the Brisbane area sees someone turn up with a new Cadian Imperial Guard army with a catachan green and codex grey colour scheme,  let me know.

If I find the rather unsavoury chap, what-ho old bean? who stole it out of the boot of my car, or the person he sells it too, I promise I won't even call the police.

Because that wouldn't be enough fun.

I'll sue the stupid prick.  And in doing so, regardless of whether I get them back, I'm going to make damn sure that I'll get a costs order just above the statutory minimum amount necessary to bankrupt the little amphetamine parrot.

I'm actually looking forward to it.

But I digress.

The Black Coats -v- Gothika

Joffrey started out the campaign in arguably the strongest position.  He had the best starting territories and arguably the best gang.  He was able to leverage that to squeeze Gannicus while I was on the run from the Gorlock Alliance.  For a while he had more territory than both me and Gannicus combined.  But then he had that shootout with my guys, and Shamora was deafened by Amon and the campaign turned.  Gannicus and I started attacking him, and he has been in retreat ever since.  His territories have fallen like dominoes, his gang members have died, and the ones that remain are riddled with injuries.

Due to Shamora's crappy leadership, he's been forced to resort to playing the scenarios where attacking gangs get to resist bottling out until taking 50% casualties.  In that regard, he's played mainly Hit & Run scenarios which Escher gangs are well suited to.  He is able to pick the scenario each time, because his leader, Shamora holds the strongest type of Ratskin Map, which allows him to modify the scenario by +/-3 per roll.

So that is what he did again.  Joffrey rolled a 6 on the Hit & Run table meaning that he could pick the specific type of Hit & Run scenario.  He picked Blitz, which requires the attacker to run a model from his deployment zone to the table edge of the opponent. 

Blitz can be a hard Hit & Run to defend against during the mid to late stages of a campaign.  TO conduct a Blitz, you want a gang that can run fast and either avoid getting shot or absorb enemy shooting.  The three gangs that are best at Blitzing are the Agility gangs, Escher, Cawdor and Delaque. 

In my view, Escher are probably the best at Blitzing, because the Stealth skills suplement their Agility skills by allowing them to avoid enemy fire.  Cawdor are not quite as good, because although they are fast and  their Ferocity skills help absorb incoming enemy fire, it still tends to slow them down, so they are a little bit slower which allows more reinforcements to show up.  Delaque are third.  Although their Stealth skills supplement their Agility nicely, they lack Combat skills, and gangers at the forefront of a Blitz have a very good chance of ending up in close combat.

The difficulty for a defender in a Blitz is that you only start out with D6 gang members, and reinforcements come on at random table edges.  If you start out with only 1 or 2 gangers and are up against a fast moving attacker, then if reinforcements come onto the table on the wrong table edge, you're pretty much beslubbered.  Ganicus wasn't going to let that happen to him.  He hired 5 Ratskin Scouts at a cost of 75 creds, assuring him of starting with at least 6 Defenders.

Given all the be-atching I've done about other players using mercenaries to gain an advantage over me back when I had no money, I guess it would be totally hypocritical and obnoxious for me to laugh, and laugh and laaaaaaaugh about such a tactic being used against one of my principal opponents, so I won't. 

Anyway, Joffrey rolled 5 attackers, and Gannicus rolled 4 Defenders (including both Heavies), so it was 5 on 9, and Joffrey was beslubbered from the word go.  4 of his girls were pinned on the first turn, and one of them was down.  Gannics had 2 Defenders come on behind the Escher on the second turn, and from there, it was just a matter of keeping the Escher pinned and concentrating fire to take down 3 gang members to allow the flanking reinforecements to remove them from play.

There was one tense moment for Gannicus when it looked like Shamora might make it to the end, but she beslubbered up her Leap roll and came up short by 2", and Joffrey failed his bottle roll on the following turn.

Gannicus ended up taking the Old Ruins 3:1.  Gannicus expressed his joy at securing the last Escher territory by going on a circuit around the entire store, one arm, fist clenched in victory, the other pointing at Joffrey and all the while humming the tune to Land of Hope and Glory. 

Land of Hope and Glory (GREAT VERSION) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=podh1wht9RY#)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on January 30, 2013, 05:28:04 PM
100% class.

So now it's a fight for supremacy between 4 survivors? Or is there politics afoot to put the shoe in on one more public enemy?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Mr Joe Moose on January 30, 2013, 05:53:02 PM
Thanks again for writing all this out Underhand.  You always have me on the edge of my seat.

Also, your stories have helped me talk a few members of the crew into playing!  Tonight's project is to start building taller terrain.  My normal 40k ruins will never cut it.  Any suggestions on types of terrain to avoid?  or is there anything especially awesome that we should gravitate towards?  From reading the rules, it seems like more levels = more fun.  Is this true?

As for the rules set, should we be playing the PDFs from GW, or is there a better community version?  At least one of our members has never gotten in to miniatures game, so easier to digest is probably better.



Glad to see that you guys finally thinned out the opposition.  That only took what, 18 months? 
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 31, 2013, 05:14:58 AM
You should use the community edition rules by Anthony Case:

  anthony-case.me.uk (http://anthony-case.me.uk/)

(they are down the bottom).

They are a modified version of the standard rules that make for a much more balanced game.  They are very well known among Necromunda players, and are probably more widely used than the official rules.

In general, if you are looking to learn more about the game generally, I recommend the Yakromunda website and forums.  They have pretty much every extra rules supplement that was ever published in PDF format.   It contains a number of threads dealing with ideas for terrain and alternate miniatures.

As regards terrain, you are correct, a lot of the time regular 40k terrain won't cut it in Necromunda.  Necromunda requires terrain to be a bit more interactiveYou are correct in thinking that more levels equals more fun.

In general, a Necromunda table should be a lot more cluttered than a 40k table with lots of cover for the gang members to run between.  Base movement is only 4" and running is 8", so clusters of cover need to be pretty close to encourage movement.

With regard to buildings with extra levels, I recommend having lots of walkways connecting them all together.  They provide more tactical challenges, and look awesome.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: bsucbe on February 3, 2013, 11:30:14 AM
Thank you once again underhand, yuor reports are great, and tbh pretty much recommended reading for your tacical insights on unit loadout and how to handle situations!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on February 13, 2013, 01:16:56 AM
come on UH, getting those withdrawal symptoms again. also, to prevent this post from being completely pointless, what is your opinion on goliaths in the NCE, are they viable? I'm looking to start playing necro, and found some cool goliath conversions that filled me with inspiration. here is the link for those interested:
A Modern Take on Necromunda (http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?22049-A-Modern-Take-on-Necromunda)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on February 17, 2013, 05:53:34 PM
I Registered to this site just to comment on this thread.  You are a skilled writer, and reading through 18 months of your posts has kept me quite entertained over the last few weeks.  I have been trying to get some of my friends to start a Necromunda Campaign, and reading your exploits has gotten me quite eager! 

I suspect that this one thread has scored you a fanbase Underhand!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: bsucbe on March 5, 2013, 12:21:02 PM
Really hope this hasn't died out when it was so close to completion!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on March 5, 2013, 01:00:05 PM
Patience.
Underhand has a real job which I suspect takes priority over our Necromunda voyeurism.
And as much as we'd all like him to jack in the court case to play wargames, I suspect we'll have to hang on for the next installment.



Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on March 16, 2013, 10:21:21 AM
Apologies for the delay in posting - it appears there was a glitch either at my end or this end:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F003_zps8364c0e7.jpg&hash=f2a1129e715da927ee10f8185b0994324899682b)

Scandalous.

The Second Stringers -v- The Black Coats

At the start of this turn, Jonah had two choices.  He could side with Gannicus and me and go after Octavian.  If he did that he would probably end up with 3 or 4 Territories of the Goliath Territories (The Mine Workings, Tunnels, and 2 Settlements to the South).  That would guarantee him a spot as one of the last three gangs in the campaign. 

Instead, he attacked Gannicus's Spore Cave.  He'd wanted that territory for a long time, and could have taken it long ago.  As things played out, Gannicus ended up with it, and Jonah felt betrayed.  He felt it was his by right and he had come to take it back.

He rationalised that decision to me on the basis that by wiping Octavian off the map, he would just be helping me and Gannicus to grow stronger before we both ganged up on him and destroyed him.  He figured that he would be better off fighting Gannicus on his own (since he can't attack me) and let me and Joffrey destroy each other.   What an idiot.  He has all the strategic nous of a gnat.

I can't say in any definitive sense what would have happened if it had come down to Gannicus, Jonah and me as the last three factions in the campaign, because nothing is certain, but put yourself in this position:

You are a player in a three way competition.  You are player A and have a 40% chance of winning due to a combination of resources and skill.  Player B is in a similar position to you and also has a 40% chance of winning.  Player C on the other hand is a bit of a noob and speaks with a ridiculous accent and has a 20% chance of winning.

Would you choose to:

1)  side with Player B (40%) against Player C (20%), combine your resurces at 80%, kick C's arse and divide up his territory between the both of you and fight out the final stages of the campaign against B at 50/50 odds; or
2)  side with Player C, combine your resources at 60%, defeat Player B, divide his territories between you and then fight Player C at 60/40 odds (or probably better in your favour since Player C probably wouldn't grab as many territories off Player B as you?

We'll never know which way things might have gone if Jonah had chosen differently, and obviously Gannicus and I are friends, but . . . none of us are still playing this campaign after all this time to take out second place.

But what's done is done.  Jonah made his choice and the dice are in the air.

The first chip would fall either with Jonahg fionally taking the Spore Cave or Gannicus taking Jonah's Workshop.

Van Saar are widely regarded as the strongest gang, and it's not hard to work out why.  Their core skills are Shooting and Techno.  Shooting Gangs have an advantage over Close Combat gangs because it is easier to stand and shoot than manouver a ganger over several turns into close combat, especially in a game with Overwatch.  Techno is valuable because it has so many nice skills.  Specialist means that by the late stages of a campaign, a Van Saar gang will be full of flamers, plasma guns and grenade launchers, whereas other gangs will only have 2 heavies and a leader that can carry heavy or special weapons.  Inventor means that the gang will have lots of neat little extras that they don't have to pay for.  Armourer and Weaponsmith  means that those dodgy bolters, hotshot lasguns, unreliable flamers and multi shot plasma guns, and heavy stubbers won't run out of ammo.  Fixer simply results in extra income every turn and medic means that serious injuries occur much less rarely - it also stops people from dying, so the longer a campaign goes on, Van Saar gangs not only outnumber other gangs due to fewer deaths, but have more deadly gang members because Medic skills are usually used on the best and brightest of the gang first (Abraham is only still around thanks to my Medics). There is a reason why I always roll on the Techno skill table when I get the chance.

The third Van Saar skill is Combat, which makes them more effective in close combat (duh).  Unfortunately, without Agility skills to deliver them into melee, Van Saar will never be a proper close combat gang, but having access to Combat skills mean that they will never crumble in close combat the way that, say, Delaque will.  In a well developed Van Saar gang, there will be 2 or three guys with enough Combat skills to at least blunt the charge of a Goliath/Escher Cawdor adversary long enough to allow the rest of the gang n extra turn or two of deadly shooting.

All that means is that Van Saar are able to shoot down Escher, Cawdor and Goliath Gangs before they do too much damage in close combat.  They can also usually out shoot Orlock Gangs (Shooting/Ferocity/Combat) because Techno Skills grant more shooting power than Ferocity grants sticking power.  Van Saar/Orlock fights seldom result in much close combat. 

It's different with Delaques though.  Delaques are the bogey gang for Van Saar. 

Both gangs are shooting gangs.  Van Saar are Techno/Shooting/Combat and Delaques are Stealth/Shooting/Agility.  The fights will take place at range.  Van Saar have the skill up close, but they will never make it into combat, because they are too slow, and the Delaques are fast enough to run away.  That means that one of the core Van Saar skills is taken out of play, and any flamers they have mean much less than usual.

By contrast, Stealth is more useful against a ranged gang.  Ambush, Dive and Evade all cushion against the impact of incoming enemy fireInfiltration is just an all round good skill that opens up alternate firelanes.  All  are all good skills for a shooting gang to be able to deploy against another shooting gang.

For all their firepower, Van Saar are also probably the most brittle gang.  None of their skills help to mitigate damage.  Escher and Delaque have Stealth skills which stop the hits from landing, Cawdor, Orlock and Goliath have Ferocity which absorb the damage from the hits.  Van Sarr take the hits on the chin.  It is for this reason that Iron Will is a vital skill for any Van Saar leader, but Jonah is new to the game and he hasn't learned that lesson yet.  His leader has a combination of Shooting and Close Combat skills.  He might as well be an Orlock.

Apart from that, and probably most tellingly, his guys aren't as good as the Black Coats.  Gannicus (when not banned from the store) has been fighting 2 games a week.  For a long time, Jonah was only playing once a week.  As a result, the Black Coats are more experienced than the Second Stringers.  The Second Stringers are good at Shooting, but the Black Coats are good at shooting and have a variety of Agility and Stealth skills mixed in as well.

So, all things considered, I don't like Jonah's chances.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on March 17, 2013, 03:44:02 AM
Praise the lord, Underhand is back! It amuses me that in the photo you attached, the sign up link is directly beneath the ban notification. "We banned you, but feel free to sign up under a different name and continue causing havoc!". Some interesting points about the Delaques, looking forward to seeing how this will turn out. good to have you back!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on March 17, 2013, 05:47:31 AM
Thank you Skoops6.  It's good to be back.

Anyway, Jonah got to pick the scenario and picked a Gang Fight. 

Jonah did his usual thing and set up his 14 guys in a standard castle formation.  Heavy, hotshot marksman, Bolter Marksman and 2 plasma gunners  on the third level.  3 lasgunners and his leader on the second level and 2 flamer guys on the bottom floor.  2 gunfighters and a Juve with an autopistol in the vents.

Gannicus was a bit more dynamic in his set up.  Heavy, Bolter marksman and two lasgun fodder in an elevated position (all leadership 8 ) on the third level.  Then two groups at ground level - 2 shotgunners (both leadership 6) and Smiling Sam in the middle in one group and 2 shotgunners and Flaming Moe in the other to the left.  He had his close combat specialist and 2 shotgunners in his Vent team.  He had a single Infiltrator, which he put in a flanking position, up high to the right of the Delaque position.  By turn 3 Gannicus would have the Van Saar more or less surrounded on 3 sides.

Turn 1

Jonah got the first turn and moving his plasma gunners to the edge of the tower, fired his top level at Gannicus's top level (4 Heavy Stubber shots, 4 Heavy Plasma shots, a Bolter round and a shot from a Hotshot lasgun shot), taking both lasgunners out of action and wounding Gannicus's Heavy Stubber and Bolter Bill.  In doing so however, his Heavy Stubber went out of ammo.  Running out of Ammo is always embarrassing for Van Saar, who are basically the dwarfs of Necromunda, and normally have half a dozen armourers in their gangs.  He also exhausted his plama guns for a turn, giving Gannicus's shotgun teams an extra turn to run into position.

He put his second level lasgunners on Overwatch facing the Infiltrator, who would have to move to get into line of sight of any of the Van Saar.

At the end of his turn, he deployed his Vent team on the second level of the tower next to the tower on which Bolter Bill and the Heavy Stubberist were lying prone.

At the end of his first turn, with the Delaque ranged team lying bleeding on the floor, Jonah probably felt pretty confident, and I know that some onlookers took the view that Gannicus was in trouble, but it is foolish to praise the day before the sun has set and Gannicus had not so much as rolled a dice in anger.

On his turn, Gannicus ran Smiling Sam's team forward down the middle of the table.  To the left, he ran Flaming Moe's team forward as well.  He managed one hipshot at an Overwatching lasgunner which pinned him.

In Necromunda, a fighter with multiple wounds who is pinned cannot recover from pinning unless  they are within 2" of another gang member who is not down or out of action.  Both Gannicus's Stubberist and Bolter Bill are multiwound characters and both recovered from pinning.  And both were able to shoot that turn.  Obviously, Jonah isn't a complete idiot, and had dropped his Vent team into position out of sight of Bolter Bill and the Delaque Stubberist.  Given that his guys can move and shoot, this was basic common sense.

The problem for him was  that the table that Gannicus suggested they play on had 5 three level towers.  One big one on Jonah's side, a big one in the middle of the table, to the left (where the Delaque Infiltrator was placed), two on the Delaque side (now occupied one each by Delaque and Van Saar) and one in the middle just forward of the tower on Which Jonah had placed his Vent team.  Gannicus placed two vent shotgunners (one with Rapid fire) on that last tower.  Doing that put Jonah's Vent team in a cross fire between 2 shotgunners  on one side and a Heavy Stubber and Bolter Bill on the other side. 

Gannicus deployed the Close Combat specialist to the right on the second level, 10 inches away and out of sight of the Van Saar.

Gannicus moved Bolter Bill back 4" and took a shot at the Van Saar Bolter Marksman, taking him down.  He moved his Stubberist back a couple of inches and went into hiding.

Turn 1: Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers :  14/0/0
Black Coats:  13/0/2

 
Turn 2

On Turn 2, of Jonah's main battery on his third level, the heavy stubber was out of ammo( and only had a laspistol as backup) and the plasma guns were recharging so only the hotshot marksman could shoot and he missed Bolter Bill. 

The Vent team elected to divide their fire between Bolter Bill and the Vent team shotgunners.  I think that was a mistake.  Jonah should have manouvered around the central pilar at the top of the tower to only be in LOS of one lot of targets or the other and concentrated fire on them, taken them out then moved around to the other side on the next turn.  As it was, he didn't do that, and things didn't work out well for him.

He managed to wound Bolter Bill, taking him down, but he only pinned the shotgunners.

Back at the castle, Jonah set his leader and his seond level lasgunners on Overwatch, dividing them between  the Infiltrator and Smiling Sam's shotgun team.

With the Van Sar Heavy Stubber out of action, and both plasma guns on cool down, Gannicus had the luxury of having a turn to get his shotgunners into position without having to worry about anything more than a hotshot lasgun, two autopistols (on flamer guys, which were out of range in any event) and a plasma pistol.  There was plenty of cover in the middle of the table, and only 2 Delaques got hit and only one was a wound, which was only enough to pin him.

Gannicus was able to shoot with 2 members of his shotgun team (Smiling Sam and Dapper Dan, and managed to wound one flamer guy and pin the other.   This would be telling because the flamer guys were spaced wide apart, each guarding a ladder up to the second level, and would only recover from pinning at the end of Jonah's next turn.

The Infiltrator (Shady Shamus) stayed in cover and went into hiding, wasting the Van Saar Overwatch.

Over at the Delaque side of the table, Jonah had two gunfighters Peeter, and Miichael (Jonah doesn't spell them that way, but I feel it's appropriate) and Fredeerick the Juve.  Peeter has a botl pistol and a plasma  pistol and BS5 making him one of the scarier gangers in the campaign, Miichael has twin auto pistols and BS4 making himpretty dangerous at any range under 8" and reasonably effective otherwise.  Fredeerick has an autopistol.  But he tries hard.

Bolter Bill was down, but that still left a Heavy Stubber and two shotgunners (who both recovered from pinning) to deal with 3 vent gangers with 4 wounds between them.

Gannicus has played a lot of Necromunda and he knows what order to shoot his guys in (knows what order in which to shoot his guys? [Sorry - I might be dating an English teacher later this week]).  So he opened up with one of the shotgunners (Fast Pat) who was packing frag grenades. 

Needless to say, given the relatively cramped confines of a Necromunda tower, that beslubbered the Van Saar Vent team, all were pinned and Miichael and Peeter were wounded, with Peeter going down.  Fredeerick and Miichael both passed their morale checks, but that just meant that Machine Gun Max got to open up on both of them.  He only fired three shots, but that was enough to take Michael out of action.  Peeter had been unscathed to that point, but a double shotgun blast from Pistol Pete (he also has a couple of pistols) took him down.

Turn 2: Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers :  11/2/1
Black Coats:  12/1/2

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on March 17, 2013, 05:01:20 PM
Not finishing the game in one post?!

Underhand!! You tease!! :-[
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Leeroy_002 on March 18, 2013, 01:57:56 AM
Things do not look good for our young heroes...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on March 18, 2013, 03:18:45 AM
Not finishing the game in one post?!

Underhand!! You tease!! :-[

Although I'm not above the occasional flirty cliff hanger, in this case it was just a word count issue.  Thank you for dropping in with a quick reply.

Turn 3

Jonah passed his morale check and with his plasma guns fully charged was ready to wreak vengeance on the Delaque for the loss of his Vent team.

Jonah moved His Heavy Stubber(laspistol) guy to stand in front of his plasma gunners who both unloaded with onto the Delaque along with all his lasgunners.  One Delaque Shotgunner from Smiling Sam's team was taken down (a couple of plasma hits will do that) and another wounded and pinned along with 2 others.

Another Van Saar went on Overwatch to protect against Shady Shamus, and that was it for the Van Saar.

With no Van Saar on Overwatch, Gannicus seized the advantage.  Two of his shotgunners recovered from pinning and he moved his forward teams within 18"-14" of the Van Saar. 

Back at the Delaque end of the table, Bolter Bill stayed down, but Machinegun Max rotated 90 degrees and set his sights on the Van Saar castle.

Pistol Pete dropped down one level and ran along a gangplank towards the Van Saar castle.  Fast Pat targetted the downed Van Saar vent team and  descended two levels and used Catfall to drop the last level to get to the floor unscathed.

To the left (on the Van Saar right flank), the Van Saar close combat specialist Steely Sam dropped to the ground floor and ran into heavy cover.

In the Delaque shooting phase, Machine Gun Max opened up on the Van Saar castle wounding the Heavy Laspistol guy and pinning a plasma gunner.

Smiling Sam had better luck, taking down a lasgunner on the second level and pinning the Van Saar leader.

Then Gannicus opened up with his shotgunners.  And this was when Gannicus's Van Saar strategy came into play. 

Jonah has a 24" gang.  Apart from a couple of marksmen and his heavy stubber and his vent team and flamer guys, everyone shoots at 24" and has a +1 bonus if shooting at a target under 12".  His tactics are to castle in his deployment zone, outshoot the other side at long range and deploy his vent team to pick off any targets of opportunity.  He has 2 flamers waiting for anyone who gets close.

Gannicus knows this and has spent the last couple of turns rearming his gang with shotguns.  Gannicus has 15 guys and 9 of them have shotguns.  Shotguns have a maximum range of 18" which obviously gives the first couple of turns to Jonah.  But after that, the advantage switches.  Shotguns can load up with several different types of ammunition, one of which is cattershot, which comes standard, and ignores penalties for targets in cover (albeit with a -1 for targets at greater than 4"). 

Given that Jonah keeps most of his guys in heavy cover, this means that in any firefight taking place between 12" and 18", The Black Coats will have a +1 to hit advantage over the Second Stringers.

So in Gannicus's shooting phase, his shotgunners were able to pin pin both flamer guys and a lasgunner and wound the Van Saar leader, taking him down.

Turn 3: Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers :  9/3/2
Black Coats:  11/2/2

Turn 4


Jonah passed his bottle check. 

Jonah didn't move his gang and just opened up on the Delaques, but with half his gang pinned and his heavy stubber and plasma gunners unable to shoot, there wasn't much he could do.  He pinned a couple of shotgunners and Smiling Sam.

Gannicus passed his bottle check.

Smiling Sam and one of the shotgunners recovered from pinning.  The close combat Specialist sprinted into charge range of a downed Van Saar Lasgunner.  Smiling Sam and a couple of Shotgunners threaded their way through cover towards the pinned Van Saar flamer guys.  On the left Flaming Moe did the same.

Pistol Pete clambered up to the second story of the tower with the downed Van Saar Vent Team.  Fast Pat ran up behind a tower in the middle of the table, within shotgun range, but outside line of sight of the Van Saar.

In the shooting phase, Gannicus had 4 shotgunners and his leader able to shoot at the Van Saar, and that's what he had them do, 6 shots pinning 4 Van Saar, but causing no casualties.

Machine Gun Max made up for that though, taking six shots at the top level of the Van Saar, taking down a plasma gunner, pinning the other one and missing the Heavy Laspistol guy.

Turn 2: Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers :  8/4/2
Black Coats:  11/2/2

Turn  5


Jonah passed his bottle check.  His plasma gunner went out of action.

A couple of lasgunners recovered from pinning, and they shot at the Delaques, but they were shooting at targets in cover, and Gannicus had been sure to  have the gang members who still had wounds to spare at the front, but they still took down one guy.

Gannicus passed his morale check.

Steely Stan, the Delaque close Combat Specialist charged into close combat with a Van Sarr Lasgunner.

Smiling Sam charged into CC with a flamer guy.

Pistol Pete made it to the top of the tower which housed the Van Saar Vent team, and made it into base to base contact with Fredeerick.

The Infiltrator out to the left took a shot at the Van Saar Heavy and took him down.

Machinegun Max took another shot at the Van Saar castle and pinned the lasgunner and the remaining plama gunner, but went out of ammo.

The remaining Van Saar shotgunners spent their turn shooting at the remaining Van Saar lasgunners and flamer guy.  The remaining flamer guy eventually went out of action after taking 2 shotgun hits and a blast of promoethium from Flaming Moe.

In the close combat phase, Steely Stan auto removed the Delaque lasgunner.  Pistol Pete also auto removed Fredeerick.

The only proper combat was between the Van Saar Flamer guy (who had only just graduated from being a Juve) and Smiling Sam, and there was nearly a 300pt experience gap between the two of them.  So that went the only way it was going to go.

Turn 5: Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers :  4/4/6
Black Coats:  10/3/2


Turn 6

Jonah passed his morale check, but with only a single guy who could shoot that turn, and several Delaque within charge/auto remove range of his gang members, including his Leader, he took the smart option and voluntarily bottled out, and Gannicus took his Workshop.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on March 18, 2013, 08:28:43 AM
Wow, that turned into a massacre very, very quickly. Jonah's up amphetamine parrot creek without a paddle, and you and Gannicus are both far more experienced than he is.

I'm quite curious as to what the tables are like - I'd love to see pictures! Is there any way we could get a few?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Leeroy_002 on March 18, 2013, 10:13:20 AM
Wow, that turned into a massacre very, very quickly. Jonah's up amphetamine parrot creek without a paddle, and you and Gannicus are both far more experienced than he is.

well Jonah could learn from this lesson and change up his game plan.If he had gotten with in 12" but stayed outside of 4" he would be getting that +1 to hit for short range on a lasgun while shotguns would still be sucking on -1 to hit. Also, I feel that the Heavy stubber going out of ammo hadn't done so, that may have changed the outcome some. Losing a heavy weapon system on turn 1-2 is very harsh.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on March 18, 2013, 12:32:32 PM
As always exciting times in necromunda!

Shotguns are king, I like how you can pick a different ammo to shoot with after running out the first one! And with bolt shells its almost as good as a bolter.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Leeroy_002 on March 18, 2013, 08:32:32 PM
As always exciting times in necromunda!

Shotguns are king, I like how you can pick a different ammo to shoot with after running out the first one! And with bolt shells its almost as good as a bolter.

Uhhhh... no you can't. the ammo roll represents more then just running out of ammo, it also represents weapon malfunctions. Jam up/Run out of ammo/Malfunction with one type of round the weapon is useless for the rest of the game regardless of the number of different types of rounds that you have.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Guildmage Aech on March 19, 2013, 01:12:03 PM
i see, I guess my group played that wrong back in the day! (Umm 2001 I think)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on March 20, 2013, 10:51:26 PM
Is the consensus genuinely that Van Saar is the most powerful gang?  I've heard it argued that the title of "most powerful" falls to Delaque, Van Saar, Escher, and/or Cawdor (specifically if hand flamers aren't nerfed). . .
(my point being that there doesn't appear to be a consensus)

Personally, I'd like a cross between the Van Saar and the Delaque. . . Techno, Shooting, and Agility. . . plus access to bolt guns on their house weapons list. . . that would be one munchkin'ed gang.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Leeroy_002 on March 21, 2013, 06:29:41 AM
Is the consensus genuinely that Van Saar is the most powerful gang?  I've heard it argued that the title of "most powerful" falls to Delaque, Van Saar, Escher, and/or Cawdor (specifically if hand flamers aren't nerfed). . .
(my point being that there doesn't appear to be a consensus)

Personally, I'd like a cross between the Van Saar and the Delaque. . . Techno, Shooting, and Agility. . . plus access to bolt guns on their house weapons list. . . that would be one munchkin'ed gang.

well its arguable, they are definitely one of the strongest out of the six houses. the main reason for Van Saar having earn that reputation is because ALL of its members can roll on the Techno skills fresh out the gate. This means that Juves after a few games often have one or two levels with an average of half of them being able to roll for a skill. That means that in as little as three games it is quit possible for a Van Saar gang to amass three or four armorers, medics and specialist etc.  That means that you now have a gang that can afford and wield up to 4-6 plasmaguns, thanks to Fixer and Specialist, with several IMPROVED re-rolls on ammo test, thanks to Weapons Smith and Armorer AND the experience gang members that do get hit are far less likely to be wounder or die do to the medic skill which means that you save credit on having to rehire new blood for the meat grinder which in turn means that you can also afford more items from the trading post. Not to mention that you can with 1 in 6 odds per post game earn a 'free' item with a model with Inverter. 

Is that ALWAYS going to happen with a Van Saar gang? No, but I like the odds. This also means that If my Juves are rolling on the Techno skill that frees up the Heavies and leader to roll on other skill tables like Combat or Shooting instead of postponing them for the Techno skills like other gangs have to, thus making them more effective.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on March 22, 2013, 07:31:55 AM
Leeroy_002 pretty much nailed it.

The Techno skill tree is just very, very good.

Because of Techno skills, Van Saar gangs have much more reliable weapons, which allows them to use bolt weapons, grenades, flamer weapons, and multi shot weapons with much greater confidence than other gangs.  Obviously, with access to Shooting skills, they are also good shots.

Specialist lets juves or gangers use special weapons (plasma guns, flamers, melta guns, grenade launchers), which are normally only available for heavies and leaders.  So Van Saar gangs not only run out of ammo less often, but they tend to be shooting with more dangerous weapons. 

Techno skills also make a gang more money.  Fixer can make a significant difference to a gang's base income and inventor just simply gives you free stuff.  Often, quite expensive and effective free stuff.

Techno also makes Van Saars resistant to injury with the Medic skill, which allows a reroll on the serious injury chart.  Van Saar don't die as often and the injuries they have tend to not be as bad as those of other gangs.  Medic becomes more and more valuable the longer a campaign progresses, because saving a gang member with 400exp with a bolter, chainsword and frag grenades is obviously a bigger deal than saving a 25exp new recruit with a lasgun.

All of the above taken together mean that Van Saar gangs start to dominate from the mid game onwards.

Escher are often considered a top tier gang as well because the sublime combination of Agility, Stealth and Combat together with easy access to swords make them so good at getting into close combat and dominating it.  Stealth, Combat and Agility are also a great combination for a lot of scenarios like Ambushes, Raids, Hit & Run, and even Scavengers.  Swords give the parry ability, and Necromunda close combat is parry centric.  Other gangs have to spend rare trade opportunities to pick up swords, which means that it could take a Cawdor or Goliath gang 5 or 6 turns to be able to equip all their guys with swords.  Escher can start the campaign that way.

Delaque are a mid tier gang along with Cawdor and Orlock.  Both Cawdor and Orlock compete well against Delaque because their Ferocity gives them extra sticking power against the Delaque guns.  The resilience of Orlock Ferocity evens out against Delaque stealthiness.  Cawdor are fast and ferocious enough to be able to get into close combat with Delaques and even up the hits they took on the way in.

However, Delaques are extra effective against Van Saar.  Their Stealth skills help to nullify the potent firepower that Van Saar typically wield. Their Agility skills also help them maneuver around slower moving Van Saar, and nullifies the Van Saar combat skills.  Unlike other gangs the Van Saar can be pretty brittle.  Without Ferocity or Stealth skills, they have little ability to mitigate damage.

Cawdor can definitely run away with a campaign if hand flamers aren't nerfed.  Everyone always nerfs hand flamers though.

Goliaths just suck.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Leeroy_002 on March 22, 2013, 08:00:10 AM
I would like to add that much of what I said doesn't change much if you use the CE rules either. The Techno skill is a little more balanced, but the major difference is that swords are common to all the close combat gangs and cost 15cr so Escher loses some of its early game advantage.  Also the muscle skill table gets a HUGE facelift and no longer sucks... in fact one may even say that its on par if not a little better than the combat skill table.

For example Iron Jaw, which sucks big flompy donkey dick in the living rules, is replaced with a +6 armor save in the CE rules that can be combined with other armor rolls. So a model equipped with mesh armor (+5 armor) and the Iron Jaw skill (+6 armor) would have a  +4 armor combined roll. Pretty nice huh?

Underhand I bet that just makes you wish you were using the EC rules, seeing as you rolled on the muscle table  for bulging biceps.... twice.What did you end up getting again when you rolled on that? Oh yah!  It was IRON JAW!

Well fancy that.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: CardinalCrimson on March 22, 2013, 07:03:20 PM
Had to make an account just to say how awesome this thread is. It's nice to see my favourite game still has a following.

I must also say thanks for influencing a number of my friends to try a similar campaign. Out of interest how would you implement outlaws on the map (specifically redemptionists) as one of the players wishes to use them, despite this being his first ever campaign.

Also it would be interesting to know your plans for the rest of the campaign. I know you'd planned on taking out the Goliaths to the south but has this changed? with gannicus occupied by jonah in the east you have an opportunity to weaken or eliminate the delaque, probably your closest rivals.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on March 22, 2013, 09:29:33 PM
Last campaign I did, we did not Nerf the Hand Flamers. . . they weren't a huge issue.

Regarding the Techno Skills, we've always played that Armourer, Fixer, Inventor, and Medic can't be used by a ganger who went out in the previous battle (IE anyone who had to roll on the serious injury table regardless of result).  Additionally, Armourers and Inventors couldn't use their skill and work a territory during the same turn. 

We saw those as just "common sense", but I suppose they really were house rules that nerfed the techno skill table. . . Van Saar did not end up with all that much money, and the ability of Cawdor and Escher to steal Van Saar territories in the early game combined with Delaque's unique advantages against Van Saar really removed what you guys are describing.  Switching to bolt weapons was risky, because you may go into one battle with 3 armourers. . . and the next with one or none.

Post Merge: March 22, 2013, 09:33:36 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.

It's worth noting that reducing the strength of an attack by 1 and getting a 6+ armor save are statistically identical in 90% of cases. . . all the community edition did was extend the bonus beyond just HtH into all hits.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Leeroy_002 on March 23, 2013, 12:36:03 AM

It's worth noting that reducing the strength of an attack by 1 and getting a 6+ armor save are statistically identical in 90% of cases. . . all the community edition did was extend the bonus beyond just HtH into all hits.

That is a HUGE difference mechanically speaking; and I would go as far as to say that the differences is larger then just 10%, or 90% identical.

1) As you stated it works outside of H2H, that's already hugely difference. I'd say the majority of the game is shooting. (Situationally dependent)
2) Its now a flat +6 armor save, meaning less math involved with adjusting the strength/toughness wounding roll of every weapon fired/swung vs. said model, compared to "did you wound me with that lasgun? well ok I get my 6+ armor save now, hope I roll a 6!"
3) As an armor save it can be combined with other armor saves for greater effect and again, its simpler. Carapace armor (4+) plus Bionic chest (6+) plus Iron Jaw (6+) would give you a 2+ armor roll. Throw in a force field and watch the tears roll into your cup. 
4) On the negative side, the CE Iron Jaw is now affected by armor save mod from anything stronger then a lasgun or S3 model. That means that with the CE there will be times where it will be statistically worse then Living Rules.
 For example:
 "how about that S4  -2 save mod Chain Sword and S4 -1 save mod bolt pistol that my leader is wielding? What does that sound like again" 
"...well it may sou-"
"IT SOUND LIKE NO ARMOR SAVE FOR YOUUuzzZZZzUZzz Bbu Bbu Bbu BuZUZzzZZZZ Bbu Bbu Bbu BUuzzzZZUZuuZZzzzZZ zz"
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on March 23, 2013, 04:19:42 AM
Had to make an account just to say how awesome this thread is. It's nice to see my favourite game still has a following.

I must also say thanks for influencing a number of my friends to try a similar campaign. Out of interest how would you implement outlaws on the map (specifically redemptionists) as one of the players wishes to use them, despite this being his first ever campaign.

Also it would be interesting to know your plans for the rest of the campaign. I know you'd planned on taking out the Goliaths to the south but has this changed? with gannicus occupied by jonah in the east you have an opportunity to weaken or eliminate the delaque, probably your closest rivals.

Thank you Cardinal.

If we were starting from the beginning, I would let the Outlaws start the campaign on any tile not occupied by another gang.  If they were to be slotted in afterwards, then I would just let them nominate a tile and roll a dice.  If it comes up 6, then they get to start there, otherwise they have to nominate a tile next to it and roll again and so forth until they get a 6.

Since the campaign relies on gangs accumulating territory to determine a winner, I would say that Outlaws can take multiple territory like any other gang, but they can only work territory in accordance with their special territory rules.  This represents the Outlaws dominating an area, but not necessarily being able to control it like a non Outlaw gang.

In addition to that, any territory that the Outlaws take automatically gets converted into an Outlaw territory.  If a house gang retakes a territory, then they can work it, but it takes a turn to convert it back to what it was.  That represents the time it takes a regular House Gang to clean up all the clear out the Outlander ne'er do wells/ clean up the scavy amphetamine parrot/unbrainwash the redemptionist converts/take down the Spyrer trophy racks and just generally let the old inhabitants move back in and reestablish their old businesses and communities.

As regards the issue of my future strategy - well, if I was going to betray Gannicus, I obviously wouldn't talk about it on the internet before I did it.

In any event, it doesn't seem like a prudent strategy.  Of the 3 remaining players (I am assuming I will see Joffrey off this turn), I am more or less allied with Gannicus, neutral with Jonah (we can't take hostile action against each other even if we were so inclined), and enemies with Octavian.  Turning on Gannicus would make an enemy of him and leave Octavian free from harassment and likely have disastrous consequences.  I imagine the conversation would go like this:

Underhand:  I'm attacking Gannicus's Friendly Doc!
Gannicus:  You rather unsavoury chap, what-ho old bean?!  Did all that free cocaine I gave you count for nothing?
Underhand:  It wasn't real cocaine, and I'm afraid it counted for very little.
Gannicus:  You'll pay for this, you overdressed son-of-a-be-atch!
Octavian:  Hey, Gannicus, would you like me to help you kill Underhand?
Gannicus:  YES!
Octavian:  ... In the campaign, I mean...
Gannicus:  Oh ... YES!

Fighting Gannicus and Octavian at the same time would mean fighting 3 games per turn against 2 powerful gangs.  It would be hard to avoid a similar fate to what Joffrey has suffered.


Last campaign I did, we did not Nerf the Hand Flamers. . . they weren't a huge issue.

Regarding the Techno Skills, we've always played that Armourer, Fixer, Inventor, and Medic can't be used by a ganger who went out in the previous battle (IE anyone who had to roll on the serious injury table regardless of result).  Additionally, Armourers and Inventors couldn't use their skill and work a territory during the same turn. 

We saw those as just "common sense", but I suppose they really were house rules that nerfed the techno skill table. . . Van Saar did not end up with all that much money, and the ability of Cawdor and Escher to steal Van Saar territories in the early game combined with Delaque's unique advantages against Van Saar really removed what you guys are describing.  Switching to bolt weapons was risky, because you may go into one battle with 3 armourers. . . and the next with one or none.

Post Merge: March 22, 2013, 09:33:36 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.

It's worth noting that reducing the strength of an attack by 1 and getting a 6+ armor save are statistically identical in 90% of cases. . . all the community edition did was extend the bonus beyond just HtH into all hits.

I believe that some of the FAQs restrict the use of the off table Techno skills to fighters who didn't go out of action at the end of the previous game.  In this campaign, given that in an average campaign turn, a gang will play two games and get only a single postgame sequence, we lifted those restrictions.

The CE rules cut down on the power of Techno skills quite a bit - especially Armourer.  With the nerfs to the Shooting skills (which are overpowered in the official rules), Van Saar are brought back to the pack.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on March 23, 2013, 09:52:50 AM
Regarding Iron Jaw, I was speaking statistically. . .

Unless the weapon strength/ganger toughness ration is in the fringes of the "to-wound" chart, then a minus 1 to the attack strength gives a 1/6 chance of the iron jaw being the difference between a wound and a non-wound.  (for a toughness 3 ganger, the 6+ save is only better against weapons of strength 6 or better and for a toughness 4 character it only provides a benefit at weapon strengths of 7 or better)  At least 90% of hits will fall below those levels.

Also worth noting:  Assuming no save modifiers, taking a 6+ armor save and a 5+ armor save separately is the same as taking one 4+ save.

I acknowledged that the extension of iron jaw to non HtH attacks is a major benefit, but the ability of an attacker to nullify it with an armor save hugely weakens it.  In the end it's not that much more powerful than the standard rules.

(We should probably move this discussion to another thread. . . I hate to dilute the awesomeness that underhand is posting here!)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Leeroy_002 on March 23, 2013, 01:21:54 PM
Underhand, what are the current rules that your group uses for the hexes representing territories in your campaign? would you do me the favor of listing them?
I am actually thinking of using them myself for an upcoming Necromunda campaign that I hope to launch after my demo on the 30th(tabletop day) at my local gaming store.  I also intend to use the CE rules because they are far better, so I won't need edited hand-flamer rules, just rules regarding initial setup,income, attacks, defends, multiples there of etc.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on March 23, 2013, 05:47:43 PM
The rules we are currently using are the ones from the first post with the amendments listed on this page:  Rules for a Necromunda Campaign (http://www.40konline.com/index.php?topic=215599.140)

I heartily recommend using the CE rules over the Living Rulebook.

Good luck with the demo and the campaign.

Post Merge: March 24, 2013, 07:01:37 AM
In the future, please use the modify button. Double posting is against the forum rules, and for that reason, the system merged your posts.

House Bloodaxe -v- The Hand of Redemption

Another Gang Fight.

Not much to report on this one, so I'll make it quick.

Octavian deployed his guys in two groups.   He had a 5 man ranged team made up of 2 Heavy Stubbers and 3 lasgunners.  His second group was a horde equipped for close combat.  The low leadership guys were in the middle closest to his leader, the higher leadership guys towards the outside.  He didn't bother to use his tunnels, which I consider to be a mistake.

I deployed my guys in 4 groups.  My ranged team (Team Matthew) consisted of Ram and Joshua as the cannon fodder (I feel sorry for Ram getting stuck with that designation) and Jacob and Isaac.  With my aquisition  of my third Vents from last game, I could once again deploy three vent teams.  And each one brought the flames of redemption with them.

Team 1 (Mark) - Abraham, Abijah, Jemuel

Team 2  (Luke) - Josiah, Asa, Boaz

Team 3 (John) - Amon, Zohar, Esau

Turn 1

I got the first turn and took out a lasgunner and took down another lasgunner with my ranged team.

My Vent teams deployed on my left toward the right flank of the Goliath horde.

Joffrey opened up with both his Heavy Stubbers (11 shots between them) and took down Ram and Joshua. 

Turn 1: Up/Down/Out
Hand of Redemption :  11/2/0
House Bloodaxe:  15/1/1


Turn 2

Isaac took down a Goliath lasgunner.  That left the way clear for  Jacob to unload his heavy bolter on thre Goliath Heavy Stubbers, which Octavian had very unwisely left within 2" of each other.  He took down both the Goliath Heavy Stubbers.  Having one guy take out two Heavy Stubbers in a single round of shooting is probably the most destructive round of shooting it's possible to get in Necromunda.  That's like a singleblast template in a 1500pt 40k game taking out an entire Seer Council.

Zohar and Jemuel got taken down by the Goliaths overwatch fire.  The rest of my dropped down to the ground floor and ran for cover to position themselves for a charge in the next turn or two. 

Joffrey passed his bottle check and fanned his guys out to try to counterflank my guys who had already flanked his main horde.  A Goliath lasgunner recovered from pinning. 

Turn 2: Up/Down/Out
Hand of Redemption :  9/4/0
House Bloodaxe:  13/1/3


For the first time in this campaign, Abraham failed his first morale check of the game and my guys bottled out. 

I think that scoreline flattered Octavian.  The four guys who I lost were my cannon fodder.  Both of Octavian's Heavies were down.  I had the ranged advantage, and it would have been up to Octavian to make something happen, which would be difficult with all of my overwatching flamers.

Anyway, that's Necromunda.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: bsucbe on March 24, 2013, 11:40:47 AM
Every time i read your reports i wish i could play necromunda, however no one i know around here touches wargames in general, never mind this specific one :(
Thought about online (ran a mordheim one with some success) but have been told the loss of the 3d factor is a major issue. Congrats on another great report, and hopefully Joffrey will get his cummupance with injuries or the like!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: spafe on March 25, 2013, 03:57:55 AM
Registered to comment on this thread, loving the detail of the write ups, keep them coming. Seriously makes me wish I had people near me who would be up for this sort of campagin.

Looking forward to hearing how it goes putting joffrey down for good  :D
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on March 29, 2013, 08:23:39 AM
Thank you Spafe.  Gothika -v- Hand of Redemption

Joffrey attacked my Spore Cave.   Due to a combination of his reduced gang rating (only 11 girls left) and Shamora's Ratskin Map, he was once again able to pick the scenario and he picked a Raid.

I hate being raided.

A Raid is a special scenario where the Attacker turns up with his entire gang.  The Defender gets D6 guys who are hanging out in one of their home territories doing sentry work.  They are protecting a 'gateway' terrain feature that is key to the control of the territory (eg a waterstill, power reactor, entrance to a mine shaft etc).  The terrain piece is meant to be a bit smaller than a Rhino.  The goal of the attacking gang is to destroy the gateway.  The gateway is T6 with 3 wounds, which is pretty tough in Necromunda. 

Standing between the Attackers and the Gateway are D6 defending sentries.  They wander about at D6-3 inches per turn like dumbasses.  If the D6-3 roll is positive the defender gets to move them, if negative, the attacker gets to move them.  Scatter dice determine which way they face.  They have a chance to see an enemy in a 90 degree arc 2d6 inches  in front of them with modifiers for the level of cover the enemy is in.  They have a chance to spot enemy within their initiative range regardless of their facing.  If taken by surprise, Sentries fight with only half their weapon skill.  Sentry duty is not a fun job in the Underhive.

As you can no doubt imagine, Raids can get pretty ugly for the Defenders in the first few turns.  The tide turns however once (if) the alarm is sounded.

Once the alarm is sounded, the Defenders get to roll to bring on reinforcements.  The alarm can be sounded in several ways.  A Sentry can spot the attackers.  Shooting can set it off pretty.  Chainswords can also set it off.  If a Sentry survives a round of close combat he'll raise the alarm.  Even if the Sentry goes down, a fight might be heard anyway, especially if their are multiple attackers.

Once the alarm is raised, the Defenders start rolling up.  The Defender assigns his guys to groups and starts rolling D6, one roll per turn.  The smaller the group, the more likely they are to turn up.

The Defenders win if the attackers bottle out or are all taken down or out of action.  The Defenders will not bottle out and cannot bottle out voluntarily.

The raiders win if they destroy the gateway and manage to get all their surviving members off their side of the board. 

Winning a Raid as the attacker can be very hard.  In order to win, the Raiders have to not only destroy the Gateway, which is hard enough, but they have to get all their guys off their side of the board before bottling out.  Given that a ganger who goes down can only move at 2" per turn, that can take a long time, especially if the ganger goes down on the wrong side of the table.

So Raids are by no means a cake walk for the attacker to win at all, let alone by a 3/1 casualty count, so you can see why no one has selected a Raid in this campaign until now.

The reason Joffrey finally selected a Raid is because he is a bitter and twisted little amphetamine parrot, who knows he can't beat me by 3/1, and is thrashing around like a stuck piglet trying to do as much damage as he can before bleeding out.  In that sense, while I can't praise him for showing grace in the face of defeat, I can at least give him points for vidictiveness.

You see, apart from Raids being notoriously bloody affairs for the defenders (the Sentries really get served with the rough end of the chainsword), even if the Raiders don't win the fight, the Defender can still lose overall.

That's because, if the Raiders manage to destroy the Gateway (which isn't that hard this far into a campaign), regardless of the final outcome, the Defender has to roll a D6 at the end of the game.  On a 1-5, the territory is disrupted, and no income can be generated from it that turn, which sucks enough since that Spore Cave is responsible for roughly a third to a half of my income every turn.  However, if a 6 comes up, the Territory is destroyed.  As in wiped off the map.  So that's another reason no one has undertaken a Raid in this campaign - a successful attacker could lose the territory that they just won.

But what does Joffrey care? - this is his last game of the campaign either way.

What a douchebag.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Leeroy_002 on March 30, 2013, 01:02:34 PM
But what does Joffrey care? - this is his last game of the campaign either way.

What a douchebag.

By the Emperor that's a foul act of spite! I feel as though you should inform the Inquisition of his douchery, post hastily.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 1, 2013, 07:16:00 AM
Thanks Leeroy_002


Set up

I set up first.  I placed the gateway deep on my side of the table.  If Joffrey was going to try to beslubber up my Spore Cave, he was going to lose a lot of blood doing it.

I had 4 sentries, and they weren't a bad team. - Boaz and Jemuel with flamers, Zohar (in a state of frenzy) and Asa.

In a raid, sentries have it tough.  They wander around aimlessly with an average line of sight at 7", which is slightly under the average Necromunda charge range.  They are very prone to getting gang charged and overwhelmed in close combat.  They usually get taken out of action, and that means injuries or death. 

I was lucky in that I had a good sentry team.  Boaz and Jemuel both had flamers, and flamers are a nice weapon for a sentry, provided he can spot the enemy.  In that sense, Cawdor, along with Redemptionists are a good gang for defending aginst raids due to their penchant for flamer weapons.  Apart from Jemuel and Boaz though, I was lucky to get Zohar and Asa.  Both those guys have 3 wounds, so they are hard to take down.  Zohar also has WS5, meaning that he wouldn't be as badly as affected by the half WS rule that sentries suffer.  Asa also has Step Aside, which is a 4+ save against hits in close combat.  All that together meant that for either of them to be taken down in a single turn would require either a lot of gunfire, which would definitely set off the alarm, or a gang attack which would increase the chances of the alarm being raised markedly, especially considering that some of Joffreys best girls were equipped with noisy chainswords.  Shamora could probably do it on her own, but the others would have a tough time of it.

The key to stopping a raid is to raise the alarm early.  There are a lot of ways to do that depending on the type of table you are playing on.  Our tables are cluttered with lots of heavy cover, so pinging a raider straight off the bat was not that likely to happen.  Relying on a sentry surviving a round of close combat is not reliable either.  Different people have different views, but I rely on a layered defence.  Give up the first couple of guys, but have a second layer behind them within spotting range who can see them go down and raise the alarm.

In this case, I decided on a three layered defence.  I placed Jemuel and Boaz next to the gateway, and Asa behind the gateway.  They would spread out over the course of the first few turns to hopefully intercept the raiders.  Zohar, I put up front on top of a single story structure with a wide footprint (about 2-3 rhinos in breadth and width) in the middle of the table.  Any Escher passing underneath him would be spotted by his initiative, and any of them going for a charge would be delayed by having to climb up and down ladders.  Placing sentries above ground floor is also a good tactic to thwart raiders.

Jofrey set his girls up in 4 teams.  Gytha and Esmerelda were up top in the middle of the board.  Gytha had a clear shot with her heavy stubber at the gateway, but I wasn't really concerned by that.  heavy stubbers only have S4, and that isn't a great way to take out a T6 W3 target.  Shooting at it would sound the alarm, long before blowing it up.  Also, the rules we play apply the target priority system to the gateway, meaning that she would have to take out Zohar first, who was in plain view.

On the far right (from his view), Joffrey deployed his senior close combat gangers - Belatrix, Tabatha and Maleficent.  At one time, those three would have scared the amphetamine parrot out of me.  But last turn, Belatrix and Tabatha received leg wounds reducing their movement and charge range, and Maleficent took a chest wound reducing her toughness.  Those three injuries might not seem like much, but trust me, in Necromunda, inches count, and those leg wounds literally and figuratively cripple more than just the models the gang members who suffer them.  The chest wound is just all round sucky. T2 in necromunda is far from ideal for someone who has to spend three turns running before getting a chance to swing her sword at someone.

In the middle, Joffrey deployed Shamora with Glinda and Morgana.  Shamora is arguably the best close combat fighter in the campaign (along with Abraham and Bloodaxe) , being able to get the charge, fight with a high weapon skill, dodge any lucky incoming hits, and hit back with a power sword and plasma pistol.  Morgana is at the top of the second tier of hand to hand badasses, being about the equivalent of Asa, Josiah, Abijah or Zohar.  Glinda is very solid too.

Over to the left, Joffrey had his more junior team, Hermione and Eskarina.  The left had the least cover, and they were probably sent over there just to keep me in two minds.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on April 1, 2013, 07:51:00 AM
You can't leave it there?! What happened?!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 1, 2013, 10:08:49 AM
Wouldn't dream of it:

Turn 1

This game was played with about 20 onlookers.  The previous manager of the store has set up another Necromunda campaign, and people have been looking at our game to get a feel for it.

With Agility, Stealth and Combat as their standard skills, Escher are a nightmare to defenda against in a Raid.  Agility means they move fast, Stealth means they don't get spotted and they can take their time getting into position. Combat means they are deadly when they strike.  They are the perfect Raiders.  Only Outlaw Ratskins rival them.

Joffrey sent all of his girls forward.  To the left, Eskarina and Hermione ran forward and left.  Zohar was the closest sentry, and he was outside his maximum spotting range, so they didn't even have to stick to cover.

In the middle, Shamora , Glinda and Morgana sprinted forwards along ground level.  There was an outside chance that Zohar might be in range to spot them, so they kept to cover.

Up top, Gytha and Esmerelda went into hiding.  Appropriate that those two finally got to team up.

To the right, Belatrix, Tabatha and Maleficent climbed to the first storey of a two level tower and darted forwards (limping and wheezing) along a catwalk towards my left flank.  In a normal game, they would have been horribly exposed, but in the early turns of a Raid, my guys weren't operating under normal LOS rules, and they were safe.

On my turn, Joffrey got control of Asa, and had him move one inch towards my table edge facing away from everything.  Meh.  I controlled Boaz and Jemuel and had them move a couple of inches forwards towards the middle of the table. 

Zohar was positioned in the middle of the table on a large single storey structure.  I elected to keep him in Frenzy and was able to move him three inches.  His structure was connected by a catwalk to the tower that Gytha and Esmerelda were hiding on.  I stalked 3" forwards towards that.

Turn 1: Up/Down/Out
Gothika:  11/0/0
Hand of Redemption :  13/0/0


Turn 2

Same as turn 1.  To the left, Eskarina and Hermione continued to run forwards, this time ending up in cover far out to the left.

Up top, Gytha and Esmerelda went into Overwatch, both guns trained on Zohar below.

At ground level in the middle of the table, Joffrey took a slight chance with Zohar's awareness and ran his Shamora, Glinda and Morgana forward again, bunching them behind solid line of sight blocking cover in the centre of the table out of the view of both Boaz and Jemuel.

To the right, Belatrix, Maleficent and Tabatha continued their run down the right flank, ending up on the first level of a tower block. 

Once again I got control ofg both Jemuel and Boaz, and edged them forwards, spreading them out slightly to each cover the two most likely lines of approach of Shamora, Glinda and Morgana.

I got control of Asa and had him climb up on top of the gateway to present Joffrey with one extra target if he decided to go the shooting route, and to prevent Joffrey from being able to move him very far if he got control of him again.

Zhar stalked another 3" closer to Gytha and Esmerelda who remained undetected.

Turn 2: Up/Down/Out
Gothika:  11/0/0
Hand of Redemption :  13/0/0


Turn 3

This is where things start to get tense with Raids.

Sentries get to detect raiders within 2d6" of them.  Obviously, anyone outside 10" is pretty unlikely to get spotted, but there is still a chance, and you would be amazed at how players dither about placing their guys within 12" of sentries.  Not Joffrey though.  He's played this game a lot and he knows what's a good risk and what's a good risk and isn't put off by someone like Gannicus making flamer sounds as soon as he touches one of his miniatures with the intent of moving it closer to a sentry.

Eskarina and Hermione didn't really have anywhere they could go without risking Boaz spotting them and flaming them in the event the alarm was raised, but this being his last game, Joffrey risked it anyway and sent them both forwards, hugging the very edge of the left side of the table, ready to move into a good flanking position next turn.

Up top, Esmerelda and Gytha held their position.

In the centre of the table, Joffrey adjusted the positioning of Shamora, Glinda and Maleficent.  All three of them were within potential spotting distance of Jemuel, and possibly Boaz next turn.  Keeping three raiders bunched up behind cover is a potentially disastrous choice with a couple of flamer armed sentries, so he went to spread them out.  How to break cover was the issue

They only had to move apart a couple of inches to be protected from being covered by a single flamer template, but that meant crossing within spotting range of the sentries.  A rookie might have made a bad choice there, but Joffrey is anything but.

He moved Shamora first, sprinting her in a wide arc, away from, and then closer into Jemuel, ending outside of his LOS.  Morgana has Dive and Leap which let her pull the same trick, but end up in hiding at close range to Jemuel.  Glinda went into hiding, greatly reducing her chances of being found.

Over to the right, the cripple crew continued their gimpy run, hooking towards the centre to get into a flanking position.

On my turn, Jemuel was in deep amphetamine parrot, being within charge range of 3 Escher close combat hardasses.  But that was okay - I was happy for him to go down.  If that happened, both Boaz and Asa would be in a position to see it and retaliate with fire and choke grenades.  And nothing rains on a Raid parade like promethium and choke gas.

I got to move Jemuel a single inch, and I moved him to cover the approach of Morgana and Glinda.  Boaz got to move 3" and I moved him towards Jemuel, facing the approach of Shamora.  Asa moved 2" not leaving the top of the gateway.

Zohar moved another 2" closer to Esmerelda and Gytha.

Turn 3: Up/Down/Out
Gothika:  11/0/0
Hand of Redemption :  13/0/0


Turn 4

Out to the left, Hermione and Eskarina ran into LOS blocking cover behind a tower in my deployment zone.

In the middle, Shamora moved minutely to better set herself up for a charge.  Glinda and Morgana both went into overwatch.

Up top, Esmerelda and Gytha had a bastard of a choice.  Zohar was approaching charge range, and the alarm was likely to be sounded in a turn or two.  At the moment, Zohar was within shooting range, and a heavy stubber and a lasgun would be good odds to take him out in a turn or two, given that he was in the open and couldn't recover from pinning without friends being present.  With another 3"movement though, Zohar would get close enough to the foot of the tower to be outside LOS of Gytha with her heavy stubber and would be within possible charge range given his Leap ability.  And a frenzied Cawdor close combat badass is nothing to beslubber with.

A lot of people would have opened fire at that point, but Joffrey has discipline, and knows how to stick to a plan.  He kept them on overwatch.  Zohar still had to get over the edge of that tower.

Over to the right, Belatrix and Tabatha dropped a level and darted into cover setting themselves up for a potential charge next turn.  Maleficent stayed up a level, bolt pistol trained on Jemuel.

I moved Jemuel into spotting range of both Glinda and Morgana, but he failed to notice them despite only needing a 4+ on a D6.  Joffrey got control of Boaz and in true horror movie style, had him walk backwards 2" towards the spot where Shamora was lying in wait.  Joffrey also got control of Asa and had him turn and press his face up against the gateway (I picture him having a piss).

I retained control of Zohar and moved him 3" closer to Gytha and Esmerelda, frenzy still active.

Turn 4: Up/Down/Out
Gothika:  11/0/0
Hand of Redemption :  13/0/0


Turn 5

And it was on.

Glinda and Morgana charged Jemuel.  In my view, that was overkill, but it worked well enough.  Jemuel failed his Jump Back (initiative check to jump 2" out of close combat (golden for a flamer combat Tremultuous O like Jemuel), and got beat to a pulp.

Shamora charged Boaz.  Boaz is one of the few characters in the campaign to have WS6, so ordinarilly, he would have given a decent account of himself, but at half WS for being a sentry, he was no match at all for Shamora and was taken out of action.

The fight with Jemuel sounded the alarm.

Esmerelda broke cover, moved to the edge of the ladder of her tower and shot at Zohar, but missed, and that was a fatal mistake, because it gave away her position, allowing Zohar to charge her.

Gytha remained on Overwatch.

Maleficent, Belatrix and Tabatha all shot at Asa but only managed to pin him.

Morgana followed up 4" to close with Asa and Shamora followed up into base to base contact with the gateway.

Eskarina and Hermione fired their autopistols at the gateway but didn't manage a wound.

With the alarm sounded, I was able to roll for reinforcements. 

When defending a Raid, you divide up your reinforcements into teams and roll a D6. Each turn, you pick a team.   If you roll the number of reinforcements  or above on a D6, then you get to bring on that team.  Obviously, the first team is the best team.  I divided my teams into teams of 3, needing 3+ per roll to bring them on.

Nohting in Necromunda makes you decide who your A-Team are than having to pick your reinforcements for a Raid.    I rolled a 5 on my first roll and Abraham, Jacob and Amon walked onto the table.

My first move was to position Amon to unload on Maleficent, Belatrix and Tabatha.  He'd be unlikely to take down any of them, but he could at least wound and pin them.  I ran Jacob into cover behind the gateway, ready to unleash hell next turn.

I figured that I could let Asa take care of Morgana without help. 

Zohar was in a frenzy, so he had no choice but to attempt a chage on Esmerelda.  That was no trouble as it happened, with him Leaping a full 6".  That didn't save him from overwatch fire from Gytha though, and he took a wound and was lucky not to fall off the ladder.  Nevertheless, even though Esmerelda was fighting from an elevated position, it wasn't anywhere enough to stop Zohar, who got 4 hits on her with his chainsaw (flail), easily taking her out of action before following up onto Gytha.

With Asa fighting Morgana, Abraham was free to attack either Glinda, who was unoccupied, or Shamora who was closer but in close combat with the gateway.

I had decided before the game that I was resolved to losing the Spore Cave for at least a turn.  late campaign Escher are just too hard to stop.  But with Amon ready with 6 shots to provide cover fire to Abraham and the chance to save the Spore Cave, I went against my better judgment and charged Abraham into close combat with Shamora.  The 20 onlookers might have had a baring on my choice, which was stupid of me.

Anyway, Amon opened up on the cripple crew and did a wound to Belatrix and pinned the other two.

Asa beat Morgana in close combat, but failed to wound her.

Abraham charged Shamora in an effort to prevent her from destroying the gateway.  As I've noted before, there is little separating the two.  They both move at the same speed.  Shamora hits harder but Abraham is tougher.  Shamora probably has a bit more skill, but that gets nullified if Abraham gets the charge, and that's what I was counting on here.

Abraham crashed into her, rolled well and got two hits.  Shamora used her step aside to avoid the first hit from Abraham's chainsword, and avoided a wound from his boltpistol.  And that sucked, because that was the best chance Abraham was going to get.

Turn 5: Up/Down/Out
Gothika:  10/0/1
Hand of Redemption :  11/0/2


Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on April 1, 2013, 04:41:53 PM
Good stuff as always UH. I'm really looking forward to whatever is in store for Abraham...I just hope he doesn't pick up anything too debilitating in the postgame sequence for you that could scupper your chances in the campaign...

...but that would kinda teach you a lesson for bowing to the peer pressure of 20 onlookers...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on April 1, 2013, 09:57:44 PM
Arg!  Cliffhanger eating at my soul!!  Arg!

Jokes aside. . . Sometimes the big dogs have to fight.  I'm picturing Willow with General Kale and Mad Martigan. . .
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 3, 2013, 09:03:08 AM
You're old.

Turn 6

Over to the (sort of) right, out of the cripple crew, only Maleficent stayed pinned.  Belatrix charged at Amon, but came up an inch short on her leap, Tabatha moved up closer and took a shot with her bolt pistol and dealt Amon a wound, pinning him.  That was a shame, because he would have loved to have unloaded both autopistols at Belatrix at short range.

Out to the left, Hermione and Eskarina repositioned once again and fired their autopistols at Jacob, but failed to hit.

Up top, Zohar made short work of Gytha, getting 4 hits and two wounds which was enough to take her out of action.

All of that was just window dressing for the fight at the gateway. 

The fight between Asa and Morgana went badly, with Asa rolling 1,1,2 on three dice and getting hit 8 times by Morgana's boltpistol and chainsword, which was enough to deal him 3 wounds and take him out of action. 

Losing Asa was a big blow.  Apart from being one of my best guys all round, he was holding choke grenades, which I could have used to throw near the gateway to deny the area from Shamora.  Doing that would havealso hit Abraham, but I'm pretty sure he would take a hit from a choke grenade over a hit from Shamora's powersword or plasma pistol any day of the week.

So losing Asa was bad enough, but things got a lot worse when Morgana used her follow up move to charge into Amon.  There was only one way that fight would go.

At the gateway, Shamora and Abraham were fighting.  Shamora won the combat by 2 hits, both of which wounded but weren't enough to finish him off.  And that sucked for Shamora, because that was the best chance she was going to get.

On my turn Josiah, Abijah and Isaac turned up on my side of the board, and not a moment too soon. 

Issac ran and parked himself next to Jacob.

Josiah used his sprint ability and went to the rescue of Amon who was about to get pasted by Morgana.

Abijah, who plays the role of Abraham's bodyguard decided to start doing his job and leaped into combat against Shamora.

Zohar stepped over the bodies of Gytha and Esmerelda, leaped off the tower to the level below and ran towards the fighting.

Jacob opened up with his Heavy Bolter on Hermione (Joffrey had placed her far enough away from Eskarina that Jacob couldn't walk fire between them), but rolled badly and only took her down.

Near the gateway, Josiah and Amon were locked in combat against Morgana.  Morgana is one of the best close combat fighters in the game, and had already taken down two of my guys so far this game.  Josiah is also a badass, but taking Morgana down in a single turn would not be easy for him, even with the charge, and he had to take her down this turn, because if he didn't, Tabatha would enter the combat next turn, and even with his Combat Master skill (bonus versus multiple opponents) he would not win that fight.

So to give Josiah the best chance possible, I elected to attack with Amon first.  That didn't go great for Amon, and Morgana hit him 4 times, dealing 3 wounds, taking him down, which would normally be an auto remove, but because Josiah was there, was just a regular downed result.

Amon had done his job though.  By manfully thrusting his chest onto Morgana's chainsword, he was able to give Josiah +1A and +1 to his combat score, which, together with Josiah's two swords, 3 Attacks and Parry skill were enough to do get three hits on Morgana, for two wounds which took her down and out of action.  Josiah then followed up to put himself between Tabatha and Amon's prone form.

At the gateway, Abijah was about to earn his salt.  Once again, I was going to use the lesser fighter to give the better fighter a better chance of taking down the scary woman with pink hair.  However this time, I had the advantage of a bastard rule on my side.  Abijah has Disarm.  That means on a D6 roll of a 4+, he gets to take away an opponent's weapon for the durtation of the combat.  Shamora was winning at that moment, but take away her power sword and she would lose an attack, and half of those remaining attacks would be hitting at S3 and she would lose a parry (you can see how sword type weapons are king in Necromunda).  Without her powersword, and outnumbered as she was, the tables would well and truly turn against Shamora.

So you can imagine how I was disapointed when I rolled a 3.

Shamora then hit Abijah 3 times, but with his dodge skill, he only took one wound, so he was still on his feet.

But that still left Abraham with +1A and +1 combat score which put the odds back in his favour. 

The combat result was a tie which Shamora won because she has I6 compared to I5 for Abraham.  And that one hit was enough to take Abraham's last wound and take him down.  And if Abijah hadn't managed to somehow survive the round of combat, Abraham would have been taken out of action.

Turn 6: Up/Down/Out
Gothika:  7/1/3
Hand of Redemption :  9/1/3

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on April 3, 2013, 01:34:12 PM
That's just not fair.
Finish the damned battle already!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on April 3, 2013, 09:39:34 PM
Willow came out the same year as Rambo III. . . just sayin'
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 6, 2013, 10:35:03 AM
Turn 7

Like the teen-pop sensation that he is, Joffrey passed his bottle check.

Josiah got charged by Glinda and Belatrix. Tabitha tried the same, but fell just short. 

On the left, Eskarina repositioned.

Joffrey made an interesting tactical decision with Shamora.  He moved her out of combat with Abijah, and into base to base contact with the gateway, which allowed Abijah to get a free hit on her which succeeded in wounding her.  That was a soft wound, but by giving that up, Joffrey got 3 attacks on the gateway.

That would have been a tough decision for Joffrey to make:  spend another turn in combat and probably take out Abijah and Abraham, but risk bottling out before blowing up the gateway; or risk a wound, and hope to take out the gateway.

Hard decision.  Best case scenario if he stuck around in close combat is that both Abraham and Abijah could die as a result of being taken out of action in close combat.  But the chance of Abraham dying was relatively small, because I have Medics in my gang, and Abraham always gets first access to them.  On the other hand, if he managed to destroy the gateway, I would lose a significant amount of income for one turn, and potentially a lot over multiple turns.  And the loss of a Spore Cave can switch the balance of an entire campaign.  There are very understandable reasons why Joffrey turned against me and Gannicus over the Orlock Spore Cave.

In any event, Maleficent and Eskarina took shots at the gateway and hit, but neither scored wounds.

Glinda and Tabitha took on Josiah.  Normally being outnumbered is a major disadvantage in Necromunda, but Josiah is perfectly suited to dealing with multiple combatants.  He has 3 Attacks, Initiative 6, two swords, Parry and Combat Master.  He is Jet Li-esque.  So Glinda went down. 

Belatrix fared better, scoring a tie on the combat roll, which was a true tie, not resulting in a hit either way.

Shamora got 4 hits on the gatway and managed to get 2 wounds on it.  One more wound and it would be destroyed, and I would be out 2d6 x10 income for the turn, or possibly forever.

Despite Abraham being temporarily indisposed, The Hand of Redemption passed their bottle check with their typical sense of taste and sophistication with which we've all become accustomed.

Ram, Joshua and Esau turned up as reinforcements on the right side of the board.  Not much was happening over there, so I ran Esau towards the middle of the table to cut off any Escher retreat.  I positioned Joshua and Ram to take a shot at Shamora, but Maleficent was closer.  Joshua shot first and missed clean.  Ram shot and pinned her, but that was it.  Shamora was still free to wail on the gateway.

As the defender in a Raid, there is a world of difference between defending a gateway with three wounds, and a single wound.  In Necromunda, S4 is serious business.  S5 is a heavy weapon and anything above that is for the crazy gun nuts with no sense of proportionality.  A lot of gangs never hit more than with anything above S4.  So a T6 structure with 3 wounds, is pretty solid.  But with only one wound, that T6 gateway is one lucky stub gun shot away from collapse.

So, with Shamora in base to base contact with the gateway, things weren't looking good.

I could have charged Isaac or Jacob into close combat with her to hold her up for a turn, but that would have just meant losing either (or both) of them.  I wasn't willing to lose either of them, or their weapons, so I kept them where they were.

I could have charged Abijah at Shamora, but that probably would have just resulted in losing Abijah, and only delaying the inevitable for a turn.  Dealing a wound to Shamora's back was more than enough for Abijah to dine out on for a while.  Besides, Abijah was carrying my gang's medkit.  So I kept him next to Abraham.

Zohar ran back 11" towards the action.

Isaac opened up on Eskarina and took her down.  Jacob could have unloaded his heavy bolter at the prone forms of either Hermione or Eskarina, but in a Raid, there is something to be said for leaving downed gangers alive since the victory conditions require the Raiders to exit the board with all of the surviving gang members.  And downed gang members aren't moving anywhere fast.

Josiah got a single hit on Tabitha and managed a wound, but that wasn't enough to take her down.  Glinda crawled away 2".

Abijah attended to Abraham with the medkit and managed to restore him to a flesh wound.  So they were both free to have another crack at Shamora next turn.

But before that could happen, Shamora would have another free turn at the gateway.

Turn 7: Up/Down/Out
 Gothika:  5/3/3
Hand of Redemption :  9/1/3

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Chuckles, The Space Marine Clown on April 6, 2013, 02:15:06 PM
Great stuff, very tense so far. I'm aquiver with anticipation
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on April 7, 2013, 06:29:34 AM
This is taking forever, I'm so impatient!!  :'( I wanna know how this ended!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: spafe on April 9, 2013, 04:15:49 AM
bah, cant be doing with such a long wait! I reckon joffrey will get the still down, but its his last swan song so even though he's lost he'll gloat over crippling your income  :(
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 13, 2013, 03:32:22 AM
Thanks guys - okay, here's the end:

Turn 8

Joffrey passed his bottle check.

Maleficent was the only member of Gothika who was still on her feet and not engaged in close combat.  Joffrey moved her slightly and had her take a shot at Abijah who was busy attempting to resuscitate Abraham.  She missed.

Tabitha and Belatrix continued their fight with Josiah, with Tabitha receiving another hit but again avoiding a wound.  He didn't do as well against Belatrix though, and taking a wound, but was still in the fight.

Shamora got another 4 automatic hits on the gateway, and armed as she was with a power sword and plasma pistol, that was enough.  BOOM.  Gateway gone.  And with it, 2d6x10 income for this turn, and possibly forever.

Eskarina recovered to a fleshwound.  Provided Joffrey could get his girls off the table, he was looking at actually winning.

Jacob and Isaac stayed where they were but pivoted, ready to shoot at Eskarina with their secondary weapons to take her down or pin her, but also ready to line up Shamora for an overwatch shot if she came at them.

Seeing the gang's beer money for the month go up in flames, Abraham and Abijah simultaneously charged Shamora. 

Zohar didn't do to great on his Leap, but he would be able to reach combat on the next turn with either Belatrix and Tabitha or Shamora, depending on how things went.

I directed Joshua , Esau and Ram towards Maleficent to cut off any retreat by her.

Jacob shot at Eskarina with his lasgun and took her down again.  Isaac stayed on Overwatch.

In the close combat phase, Josiah took down Tabitha dealing 4 hits and two wounds, but was himself taken down by Belatrix, who followed up in the direction of the gateway to assist Shamora.

Among the the smouldering wreakage of the gateway, Abijah and Abraham fought Shamora.  Abraham was fighting with a flesh wound, so he had a WS penalty, luckily the presence of Abijah would even that out, and give a slight advantage to Abraham.  Nevertheless, after the first combat phase, Abraham and Abijah would lose their charge bonus, and the advantage would dramatically swing to Shamora, so winning the combat on the first turn was everything.

So Abijah went for the Disarm on Shamora's Powersword, succeeded neatly and sent it flying.  The loss of that sword swung the odds dramatically since it reduced Shamora's Attack dice by one and deprived her of an all important Parry.  Sometimes a single dice roll can determine the outcome of a game, and by the look on Joffrey's face, everyone could see that he knew that was it.  Everyone else knew it too, because Gannicus explained it to them once he'd stopped laughing.

Nevertheless, the fight wasn't over.  As it turned out, even without her powersword, Shamora was still more than amatch for Abijah, hitting him three times, twice with her plasma pistol, and taking him down. 

He'd done his job though, and Abraham went to town on Shamora, with his boltpistol and chainsword, outnumbering her with Attacks and Parrys.  He got 4 hits, and three wounds, but Shamora managed to dodge two of them, resulting in only one wound, which was enough to keep her on her feet for another turn.

Underhand:  FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

Amon went out of action.

Turn 8: Up/Down/Out
Gothika:  4/3/4
Hand of Redemption :  6/2/5


Turn 9

Joffrey passed his bottle check.

Belatrix charged, joining Shamora in combat with Abraham. Shamora decided she'd had enough of all this Abraham bullamphetamine parrot, licked her lips and drew her back up sword.  That gave her back the parry she lost with her power sword and once again the pendulum of the battle swung in Joffrey's favour.

Maleficent adjusted position and took a shot at Esau, pinning him.

At the gateway, Belatrix had come to Shamora's aid against Abraham.  Belatrix is one of the best close combat specialists in the campaign, even with her leg wound, but she isn't quite in Abraham and Shamora's league.  Nevertheless, her job wasn't to kill Abraham, it was just to slow him down enough for Shamora to give him another face full of plasma.  Accordingly, Joffrey had her attack first.

Abraham got three hits on her for three wounds.  Belatrix has Step Aside, but she failed to save them and went out of action.  And thank beslubbering christ she did, because the sight of her being chopped into hamburger meat was too much for Shamora, who turned and fled the fight. 

And that was all the luck that Abraham needed, shooting her between the shoulders as she ran.

And that was pretty much it.  Joffrey passed yet another bottle check to take the game in to one more turn before Maleficent was pinned by gunfire from Esau, Joshua and Ram long enough to be diced up by Zohar's chainsaw.  Glinda was autoremoved by Abraham.  Eskarina was taken out of action by Jacob and Hermione was autoremoved by Isaac.


Final score:
Turn 10: Up/Down/Out
 Gothika:  0/3/8
Hand of Redemption :  6/2/5


What a bloodbath.


And that's it for turn 14.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lonewolf on April 13, 2013, 03:48:06 AM
Wow, Shamora was quite a be-atch to take down, probably the most epic fight till now.

Hope your sporecave did survive the aftermath.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 13, 2013, 09:04:19 AM
Thank you everyone who has been a part of this thread.  It's grown into something bigger than I originally envisioned when I wrote the first post.  According to the word document that I cut and paste from to upload each post, the story of this campaign is nearly 110,000 words long. The spelling and grammar checker has actually been overloaded and no longer works.

That probably makes this thread the longest campaign report in the history of miniature wargaming. 

Not sure how I feel about that...

Anyway, thank you all.  I very much appreciate all the feedback and the kind words.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on April 13, 2013, 09:59:18 AM
It's long, but worth it.

I suspect there are several people who (like me) eagerly await each update.  That last fight was epic. . .

Joffery may be a dick, but he may have dealt you a significant blow in his death throes. . . At least the Medics should be able to keep your leader safe. . .
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on April 14, 2013, 07:24:37 AM
I have no idea why you are thanking us, we should be the ones thanking you for providing such engaging content all these years. your dedication to this thread is astounding and I look forward to and eagerly await each and every update. you are the reason I started playing necromunda, and I am sure I am not the only one you have inspired. this is my favourite thread on the entire forum and I cannot express how much I have enjoyed being a part of it, however small. So, I think I speak for all of us when I say
Thank you Underhand!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 15, 2013, 07:43:38 AM
You're both far too kind.

I have been glad to hear that people have been inspired to play Necromunda as a result of this thread.  Necromunda is one of the best games that GW has ever produced, and I am genuinely mystified as to why it's been sidelined like it has.  It has way more commercial potential than I think GW give it credit for.  I'll write more about that at some stage.

Aftermath of turn 13

The Black Coats:

Gannicus did very well out of turn 13.  He knocked out his principal enemy and gained an Old Ruins and a Workshop through conquest.  He also gained a Holesteadfrom exploration by taking all those Ratskins against Joffrey.  Picking up 3 territories in a single turn is a good turn no matter how you cut it.  He is winning the campaign.

He lost 2 guys to Jonah though, and one of them was pretty senior  he replaced them with three Juves, because, beslubber it, he has the money.  He picked up a couple of minor injuries, but nothing that was too much of a big deal.

He bought some more frag grenades and picked up some mesh armour for his leader.

Bolter Bill got himself a red dot laser.

If I were Gannicus, I would attack the southern most Van Settlement to build up a buffer to prevent Jonah from being able to attack his Spore Cave.

The Second Stringers:

Jonah has 3 Medics, so he didn't go too badly injury wise. 

He invented some mesh armour and gave it to his Heavy Stubber guy.  He also invented a grapnel gun, and to everyone's disapointment, sold it for creds. 

He recruited aggressively, hiring 2 Juves and recruiting another from one of his settlements.  He bought them autopistols.  He also bought a couple of swords.

Unlike previous turns, he picked up a couple of combat upgrades.  Originally he took Shooting upgrades, then he started picking up Techno skills.  Combat is an area his gang is generally lacking in, and it is usually the least used of the core Van Saar skills.  I'll reserve expressing my thoughts on that for the time being.

House Bloodaxe

Octavian did terribly in the post game sequence, rolling a double 5 for one of his gambling dens as a result of a reroll (of a 3), causing him to lose 100 creds.  Luckilly his Spore Cave and other Gambling Den stopped him from going broke. 

He also lost a guy and his newer heavy took a leg wound.   Generally speaking, if someone has to take a legwound, most people would prefer it to be the guy with the move or fire weapon, so that wasn't too much of a big deal.

He picked up another Juve, as usual.

He rolled a poweraxe on the rare trade chart and gave that to his leader.  Otherwise, nothing special.  He upgraded some of his stub guns to bolt pistols. This deep into a campaign, S3 just doesn't cut it anymore.  In my last fight against Joffrey, the only reason that Josiah finally got taken down by Belatrix was because he was only hitting with S3.  If he'd had a base S4, or a bolt pistol or a chainsword, it would have been him intervening in the final fight between Abraham and Shamora and not Belatrix.

I don't know what his plans are for next turn.  He has the option of targeting 4 of my territories, only one of which (the Guilder Contact) provides decent income.   But if he takes the Guilder Contact, then he's just begging for Gannicus to intervene.

The Vents obviously grant a good strategic advantage, particularly as he now has a second heavy stubber.  Being able to deploy him anywhere up high would present a lot of inviting cross fire opportunities.

He won't attack the Slag.  Stupid Slag.

Gothika

Gothika is defeated.  The Escher are gone.  Joffrey accepted it with grace and dignity:

Joffrey:  Don't stand there looking so beslubbering smug you fat pudgy prick.  I could have wiped you out of the campaign a dozen different times.  You're just lucky that I didn't.
Underhand:  Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
Joffrey:  The only reason that I didn't is because I know you would have cried like a little be-atch!
Underhand:  Maybe you could have mate. [leaning in close]  But you didn't, did you?
Joffrey:  You think you're a beslubbering legend don't you?  You're not.  You never had the balls to attack me until after my leader went deaf, and you never once beat me in a straight up fight.
Underhand:  Hmmm.  Interesting.  Yet here we are...

He does make some interesting points.   I never actively attacked him until after Shamora was deafened.  And after that point, I don't think I ever played a gang fight against Joffrey, because with that Ratskin Map, he always got the choice of scenarios and always picked other types of confrontation.  The only time I beat him before all that happened was in one of the first few games which was a three way with Gannicus.

It's also true that if he had piled in on me during the days of the Gorlock Alliance, I would have been in trouble.

He was in a very strong position before Shamora got deafened, and if that hadn't happened, both Gannicus and I might well have been wiped out by now.  But in Necromunda,  you make your own luck, and it was one of my guys who deafened Shamora and set in chain the course of events that ended with him trudging out of the store to be driven home by Myrcella.    Watching Joffrey leave the store was the most satisfying experience I have experienced during two decades involvement in gaming generally, and that includes having sex with that girl from my World of Warcraft guild back in '08.

This was the song I had stuck in my head while writing up the events of turn 14:

The Lannister's Song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-T9QvzfMBs#ws)

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F034_zps39096c7a.jpg&hash=c401095d44b89523f3fe2a76c621bb6f085b00f8)

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

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on April 15, 2013, 07:57:40 AM
Great stuff as always UH. Looking forward to hearing what mishaps may have befallen you during the postgame sequence...I hope it's nothing too debilitating...or at least nothing that will stop you beslubbering up Octavian!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on April 16, 2013, 03:51:56 AM
that song fits scarily well to the situation. I second Looshkin, wouldn't want to be deafened, would we?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on April 16, 2013, 04:06:19 PM
Today is a good day. I like how he be-atched you out for playing strategically.

All hail Redemption! All hail Abraham! All hail UNDERHAND!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 21, 2013, 02:55:55 AM
The Hand of Redemption

My Spore Cave Survived.  Which meant I didn't have to smash one of the store display cases so that I could reach in, grab a Chaos Juggernaught and throw it at Joffrey's head.

For those who were concerned about Abraham - it was  a non issue.  Even though he was taken down during the game, the fact that he finished with only a fleshwound meant that he didn't have to roll on the serious injury chart.

Income wise, without my Spore Cave, I didn't do to great, even with my guilder contacts helping me out with my scavenger loot. 

On the rare trade chart, I rolled:

A bioscanner:  Golden for defending against a Raid.  It allows the holder to spot attackers at 3x initiative range.  At this stage of the campaign, that means 12"-15" on average.  It is very hard to get the drop on a sentry with a bioscanner this far into the campaign.  If Gannicus was my enemy, I would take it, but he's not, and I can't see Octavian picking too many Raid type scenarios, and it would have cost all my income from this turn, so I didn't take it.  I might well regret that. 

I also rolled 2 infra red sights, which gives bonuses against targets in cover, but not for multi shot weapons, and not for overwatch fire.  I passed.  I'm saving for that 105 creds.

My Inventors didn't invent anything.

So not much happened in my turn sequence.   At least not until we made Joffrey roll his post game sequence.   For a destroyed  gang, it obviously doesn't make a difference how things turn out since they are gone anyway.  The only exception is if one of the destroyed gang is captured, in which case the victorious gang can get some extra income selling them off to slavers.

Shamora got captured.

Ha-hah-hah-haah!

That resulted in some extra 20 credits from selling her off to the Convent of the Sororitas  Redemptia, which was nice.  But that was just pocket change.  The big bonus was looting her plasma pistol, power sword and Ratskin Map.

That plasma pistol and power sword were obviously great aquisitons, but that Ratskin Map was huuuuuge.  Against Octavian, it basically grants me my choice of scenario each turn until my gang eclipses his in value, and even then will always stop him from picking the scenario.

That's obviously a massive advantage, since it allows me to totally nullify Octavians biggest advantage which is his numbers, since so many of the non gang fight scenarios reduce the number of starting gang members.

That's not necessarily a good thing for an experienced player to have over a relative newcomer to the game.  Octavian might know his way around a gang fight, but he just doesn't have experience with the less common scenarios like Hit & Runs and Raids.  It wouldn't be fair. 

So I rolled again on the Ratskin Map table and came up with a three, which meant I still had the occasional chance to influence the scenario, but nowhere near like what Joffrey had.

The state of the gang:

Abraham:  Leader:
M   WSBSS   T   W   A   I    LD Skills & Weapons
466343258
Old Battle Wound, Nerves of Steel, True Grit, Iron Will, Parry, Sprint  .
Powersword, Plasma Pistol, Plasma Grenades.

Abraham now shoots with S5 and hits with S5, and that's a big difference.  Looking forward to the next fight against Bloodaxe.
Jacob: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills Injuries & Weapons
43544 2348
Partially Deafened.  Fixer,  Medic,  Armourer, Iron Jaw .
One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter, Lasgun.

An extra wound is always good, especially on the guy that every opponent wants to kill the most.  Jacob has now capped out.
Isaac: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
444331 238
Medic, Armourer, Weaponsmith, Inventor, Fixer, Counter Attack, Crushing Blow, Body Slam. Arm Wound . 
Heavy Stubber, Stub Gun, Sword. 

Shut up.

Ram: Ganger:
 
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
444332357
Armourer, Impetuous, Arm Wound.  Berserk Charge, Nerves of Steel, Catfall, Leap,  Horrible Scars.
Shotgun, Bolt ammo, Sword. 

Poor old Ram.

Horrible Scars means that he causes Fear, which means enemies need to pass a morale check to charge him, or if he charges them.  Since Ram isn't that much of a combat monster, it's a really nice upgrade to get.  Most of the time he will be next to Jacob and Isaac, so if I position him between my heavies and any prospective attackers, it will make it a lot easier for Octavian to engage Jacob and Isaac in close combat. 

It's also really good for sentry duty, since hand to hand attacks are the best way to take a sentry out without raising the alarm.  Having Horrible Scars can potentially stop the attackers making their attack.  And Ram's initiative of 5 will help him spot them at a much greater distance as well. 

If I use him as a loot runner (which is likely), then the scars could also help slow down any pursuers.

I gave him Joshua's shotgun and laid out the cash for bolt rounds to extend his range to 24".  He also gets a sword from Josiah.
Boaz: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
46 5 4321 37
Specialist, Inventor, Crack Shot, Feint, Nerves of Steel.
Flamer, Shotgun + Manstopper rounds, Sword.

If I ever have enough credits for a Plasma Gun, Boaz will be the one to get it.
Abijah:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
454 43223 6Nerves of Steel, Impetuous, Fixer, Disarm, Combat Master, Dodge, Quickdraw, Leap
Handflamer, Autopistol, Swordx2 , Medkit. 

Avoided death thanks to Jacob's medical skills.

Weapon Skill 5 means that Abijah ain't no one to beslubber with.  He saved the day in the last game by reviving Abraham and disarming Shamora.  He gets Shamora's backup sword as a trophy.
Asa: Ganger
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4554422 56
Impetuous, Step Aside, Leap, Feint, Disarm, Combat Master, Nerves of Steel , Counter Attack. 
Autopistol, Sword, Choke Grenades.

+1I,  Meh. 
Amon:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries and Weapons
33432335 8]
Gun Fighter, True Grit, Killer Rep, Nerves of Steel, Fast Shot.  Hand Injury, Leg Wound, Chest Wound.
Autopistol , Autopistol, Bolt Pistol, Red dot laser sight, Sword. 

No upgrades for Amon, this turn.  I gave him Abraham's old Boltpistol, which will make him a lot more dangerous.
Josiah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
44 4333268
Parry, Sprint, Counter Attack, Combat Master, Step Aside  .
Autopistol,  Chainsword, Sword. 

Josiah had a pretty good turn 13.  He picked up 40exp, and managed to avoid injury.  Step aside is a great close combat upgrade, basically granting a 4+ invulnerable save in melee. 
I also gave him Abraham's old chainsword, which he badly needed.  Josiah only has S3, which at this stage of the campaign isn't great.  If he'd been hitting with S4 last game, then there is a good chance he wouldn't have gone down, and a possibility that he could have intervened against Shamora and maybe saved the gateway.

That might be wishful thinking though.  The Strength bonus of the Chainsword will still make a big difference though.

Zohar: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4523323 48
Partially Deafened,  True Grit, Leap, Disarm, Step Aside, Head Wound, Shell ShockedParry, Combat Master, Bitter Enmity of Goliaths .
Hand flamer, Stubber, Dum-Dum bullets, sword, chainsaw (flail). 

Zohar is the stuff of nightmares.  He's fast.  Half the time he is frenzied, which doubles his attacks.  Most of the time he fights with a weapon which can't be parried and gives a strength bonus.  He is skilled.  He can Parry.  He can Disarm.  The more enemies in base to base contact with him, the better he fights.  If the enemy get a hit on him, then he has a 4+ Step Aside save. 

And he beslubbering hates Goliaths.

There will be nights when Octavian will wake screaming because of the things that Zohar will do to his gang.

Jemuel: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4 4 3 32214 7
Specialst, Armourer, Nerves of Steel.  Shell shocked, Arm wound, Dodge, Feint, Blinded in One Eye, Chest Wound, Jump Back,Impressive Scars   .
Flamer, Hand Flamer, Stubber, Sword.   

Not a bad series of upgrades for Jemuel.  He actually had to roll on the Serious Injury Table twice, and got captured by the Goliaths.  Luckily, I was able to autotrade him for one of Octavians that I captured.  IT was the Escher which gave him the Impressive Scars, which grant +1 Leadership.

Esau: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
42 33 3113 6
True Grit, Specialist, Medic, Leap, chest wound.   
  .
Flamer, Autopistol.   

A ton of upgrades.  These kids grow up quick.  Medic is always a good skill, and it just keeps getting better as the game continues, since the gangers they save become more and more valuable.  And he learnt how to Leap too.  Leap is actually a really good skill for a flamer guy, since using it doesn't count as charging, it's just extra movement points.

I hate chest wounds (-1T).  They are the one injury that cybernetics can't heal.  Luckily, Esau also got a Toughness upgrade, so it equals out, but that just means it was a wasted upgrade.

Joshua:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
44433114 7
True Grit

Lasgun, Sword.   

BS4 and True Grit are good for a guy who will be staying back with Jacob and Ram and soaking up bullets.  His repositioning to the back row requires him to take Ram's old Lasgun.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on April 21, 2013, 06:55:35 AM
Wow. Even when you get involved in a knock down drag out war, you still come up smelling of roses. What could have been a total non event turn sequence instead gifted you with a ratskin map, and big upgrades to the equipment of several gang members...not a shabby outcome at all!

Quote
Medic, Armourer, Weaponsmith, Inventor........... .... Body Slam.

Shut up.

Lol. Still trying that muscle table are we?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 21, 2013, 07:24:06 AM
This was the best post game sequence I've had in this campaign.  The temporary loss of the Spore Cave was easily outweighed by the gains from Shamora's wargear.

The injuries were . . . gifts.  I had to roll 10 times on the Serious Injury table, and only had 3 medics to absorb the wounds.  I got 2 deaths and a Multiple Injuries, which were saved by my three medics (this is why you always take Techno skill upgrades if you can get them). There was also another captured result.  In the end I only ended up with one real injury which was a chest wound to Esau (which is one of the worst injuries in the game), but really came out ahead with 4 positive results (Jemuel rolled Survived Against The Odds). 

I think between Abraham going down, Shamora blowing up the gateway, Abijah saving Abraham, Shamora regaining the upper hand in the combat against Abraham and Abijah, Abraham taking out Shamora and ultimately selling her off into slavery, I experienced the full potential spectrum of human emotion.  I think it's fair to say that there are concentration camp survivors who subsequently won state lotteries who did not experienced the rollercoaster of emotional I experience of that last turn.


Lol. Still trying that muscle table are we?

I SAID SHUT UP!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on April 21, 2013, 09:14:36 AM

Lol. Still trying that muscle table are we?

I SAID SHUT UP!


You're just hell bent on it, aren't you?

Underhand is quite the stubborn chap.  ;)

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on April 21, 2013, 10:10:45 AM
Each time you roll on the Muscle table your chances improve. . . your next attempt will have a 50% chance of getting that Bulging Biceps.

I love the closure of you selling Shamora into slavery!  Priceless.

Your gang is getting so powerful.  How do you not have that 105 yet?  Some of your guys have so much extra equipment, you should be able to sell a few things, hit the 105 (and deflate your gang rating a bit in the process)

Will we find out soon what the 105 is for??  I'll assume it's not 3 bounty hunters.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 22, 2013, 08:24:09 AM
Something I've been meaning to mention for a while:

Necromunda is less well supported by GW than it could be.

While I have little doubt that GW have done their market research on the subject, I think that Necromunda has a lot more commercial potential than it is often given credit for.

People often say that to play Necromunda, you only need 10-12 models.  That is true.  But that is no more true than saying that to play a game of 40k you need 1000pts of models. 

In both cases, that might be satisfying in the short term, but people move on from there.

While it is true that Necromunda gangs very rarely get to 20 models on paper, to play the game properly in a reasonably WYSIWG compliant way - and WYSIWYG is much more important in
Necromunda than it is in 40k - I think, most players would need about 60 models  per gang.

To give you some idea - to cover the average 20 game campaign, this is what I think the average Cawdor gang needs to be WYSIWYG compliant (these are very conservative estimates):

4 lasgunners
4 Autogunners
4 shotgunners
3 Juves with stubbers
3 Juves with handflamers
4 gangers with autopistols and swords
2 gangers with boltpistols and chainswords
2 gangers with boltpistols and chainswords
2 gangers with plasma pistols and chainswords
2 gangers with plasma pistols and power weapons
4 flamers
2 plasma guns
1 meltagun
1 grenade launcher
2 heavy stubbers
1 heavy bolter
several other heavy weapon types
throw in maybe another 10 miscelaneous types with laspistols, other melee weapons, powerfists, powerweapons, cybernetic components, different types of armour etc.
Plus some leader types.

It would be similar for other gangs.

I own every single Cawdor miniature.  I own all of the current Redemptioists, and most of the original line.  I still can't assemble a gang that I consider to be of late game standard.  I rely on the indulgence of my opponents with regard to WYSIWYG.  And I'm lucky that most people accept a Cawdor/Redemptionist crossover.  No other gang has that luxury.  Maybe Orlock with the Catachan sprues.

GW should release 5 man plastic kits for Necromunda. Even if Necromunda isn't a popular game in its own right, there would be plenty of people who would buy the kits to use them as allies for their 40k armies.

Anyway - until GW gets its house in order, there are several other options available.

[Just for the record, I don't approve of people ripping off GW IP.  GW came up with the whole 40k universe and spent time, enbergy and money coming up with the various rules and aesthetics of the game and so forth.  It's wrong that grubby little independent operators should be able to leech off GW's work to make money without GW getting a cut.  I don't shed a tear for those companies who try to market (say) Eldar Harlequins or an Imperial Guard Medusa under a different name.  GW invented those concepts and their (likely) aesthetic.  It is wrong for some third party to come in and start selling a model of something that GW could very well be planning to sell in the future.  And that's not to mention the impact that the sales of the knock off might have on the sales of current GW merchandise.]

Having said that, it's different with Necromunda.  GW pretty much stopped developing Necromunda 10 years ago.  The available range of miniatures has actually decreased during that time.  It would appear that GW do not intend to expand the range.

It is also clear that the current range of miniatures are woefully inadequate.  Look at any Necromunda oriented webpage - there will be a section dedicated to alternate sources of miniatures.  It is therefore a good thing that independent operators have stepped into the void left by GW.

I particularly recommend the following:

Heresy Miniatures happen to do a great line of 'Trenchcoat Gangers' which some peple think look like Delaques.  I think it's just a coincidence.  If you were to buy all of the Trenchcoat Gangers and the GW line, you would have a very complete Delaque gang.  The Black Coats are about 60% Trenchcoat gangers.

The other resource for Necromunda miniatures is Notnorm, which can be found here:

Gang War Miniatures by notnorm on Shapeways (http://www.shapeways.com/shops/gangwar)

If you browse through those miniatures you will find a host of models which could potentially be used as variants for Delaque, Orlock and Cawdor and Van Saar.    The Stealth Ladies, Miners and Tech Gang are all female, which ofers variety to the GW range.  The Stealth Ladies are the best.  The Tech Gangers and the Fanatics  are decent.  I'm yet to form a view on the Miners.

A painted result of the Stealth Ladies set against the Heresy line and the GW originals is available on the link above.  I bought some of the Fanatics.  The Fanatics are intriguing because they include a model armed with two pistols and another armed with a chainsword.  Cawdor lack a dual pistol wielder and close comabt oriented models, so both are good supplements to the Cawdor model range.

Here are the results of my painting them:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F008.jpg&hash=9f79db45d3755c9b4f0585bbdb8db6bb0e441a57)

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F010.jpg&hash=ad8f677c6b70be46727bac319a48b03c5c697221)

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F011.jpg&hash=405632103d396fbdf3d16b0603bbb7709495668f)

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F017.jpg&hash=061af2438fea62d6961f0fe80a369b92d02ab8dd)

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F018.jpg&hash=508ebb2c4c41c60c2635c9ccabae625eff95e79a)

My thoughts:

They aren't perfect.  But they are still good.  I make the following observations:

1.  The artistic designs are very good.  The concept behind the individual models is great.  I like the grenade guy and the Autogun guy the best.  They radiate this solemn fotitude about them which just whispers crazy lunatic cultist.  I think they capture the spirit of Cawdor better than the original Citadel line.  I'm a bit less enthusistic about the dual pistol wielder.  I would have much rathered see him wearing the full Cawdor mask rather than the blindfold he's been modeled with.  As it is, he is an old beardy guy (ganger), decked out in rags, and skinny looking (juve), so I'm not sure where he fits in the gang.  If he'd had the traditional Cawdor mask, I would have used him as my Amon model.

2.  They are a bit on the skinny side.  Compared to a GW miniature, these guys are annorexic.  The hands and heads are too small.  They are thin across the torso compared to GW miniatures.  The extra slender style is fine for all the female Stealth Ladies, Miners and Tech Gangers, but not for the male Fanatics. You can see in that last photo above that the Notnorm miniatures are much more finely built than the citadel models.  This isn't a huge big deal, but it's something which I would like to see changed for the next batch.  At the moment, Escher Juves have broader shoulders than these guys.

3.  The definition of the models isn't of the standard to which GW consumers are accustomed.  This is more to do with the limits of the shapeways technology than the attention to detail of Notnorm in the design (which is excellent).   The models are not the same standard as modern GW plastics.  It's about what I would have expected from GW in the early 90's.  There were a couple of places where I had to paint in the line where clothing ended and flesh began, rather than simply relying on the sharp contour of the model itself. 

4.  If you buy the models (and I recommend that people do), then you will need to do a bit of work on them to smooth off the surfaces.  But it can be dificult to determine whether you have got the surfaces smooth due to the transluscent nature of the models.  If you have a look at that autogunner on the right, you will see that his neck looks kind of rough - that's the texture of the model rather than (more so than) my amphetamine parrotty painting. 

5.  In modeling a dual pistol wielder a grenadier and a basic weponer, Notnorm missed a commercial opportunity.  Cawdor are begging for such a model.  There are people out there resorting to OOP Bloodbowl miniatures for their Cawdor melee specialist standins.  If he designed another three models with a combination of pistols and melee weapons, they would sell like hotcakes.

So basically, to sum up - people should buy Notnorm models and Notnorm should redesign his 'Fanatics' to be a bit bulkier and carry more melee weapons.

People shouldn't take the fact that I spent three quarters of this post complaining about some very minor and largely subjective nit picks.  The models are very good, and I'll be using them as soon as a spot opens up for them.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Swamp Rat on April 22, 2013, 06:35:40 PM
Underhand, that last piece has put me firmly in the "Starting Necromunda" camp. Notnorm is going to see a lot of my money, i don't have to trawl through ebay to grab one escher juve for my Orlocks any more.

In all honesty, i've been debating doing the Trenchcoat gangers, and the starting box of Delaque, and just getting all of them in one go, simply to try and prevent the amount of conversions i can see coming. Throw a couple of those women from Notnorm in and i'd be a happy camper.

The only other way i've been thinking of combating it is being selective with my weapon choices, and using a few plastic kits, such as Orlocks, Catachan Command Box, and Space Marine Scout arms for bolters and shotguns. Autoguns will just have to suck it.

And the same again for Goliaths, only replace the Catachan Command Box with Chaos Marauders and Space Marine Scout Arms.

Escher, Van Saar and Cawdor are goosed though. Maybe the new Cultists could be done as Cawdor if you convert/cover enough, but i doubt it'd work well enough.

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on April 22, 2013, 07:44:37 PM
My first campaign I did a lot of mid-campaign conversions. . . WYSIWYG suffered as a result.  At this point I have 20-30 models each of the gangs I like to play (Cawdor, Delaque, and Van Saar) so that I can progress the gang through the campaign without many extra conversions.  I use mostly GW necromunda figures with various GW bits.  It can be a pain especially with some of the models who 'hug' their guns. . . but even there I have had some success.

I find making the conversions fun when it's not under the time constraints of getting ready for next weeks game.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on April 23, 2013, 05:22:26 AM
In all honesty, i've been debating doing the Trenchcoat gangers, and the starting box of Delaque, and just getting all of them in one go, simply to try and prevent the amount of conversions i can see coming. Throw a couple of those women from Notnorm in and i'd be a happy camper.

With the original line, Notnorm and the Trenchcoat Gangers, you probably will be able to basically field anything.  The Trenchcoat Gangers come with the hands and arms on separate sprues, so they are very flexible.

Quote
Escher, Van Saar and Cawdor are goosed though. Maybe the new Cultists could be done as Cawdor if you convert/cover enough, but i doubt it'd work well enough.

The best thing about those cultists is that several of them are wearing Cawdor style masks - they look pretty much identical.  If you were to remove the heads, then there are probably a lot of possibilities for conversions with some of the Empire or Bretonian kits.  In the past, it's always been the absence of anything that looked like the Cawdor mask that always made authentic looking conversions impossible.

I never understood why they stopped making the multipart Van Saar kits.

My first campaign I did a lot of mid-campaign conversions. . . WYSIWYG suffered as a result.  At this point I have 20-30 models each of the gangs I like to play (Cawdor, Delaque, and Van Saar) so that I can progress the gang through the campaign without many extra conversions.

That's an impressive collection, especially for the Cawdor.

Quote
Your gang is getting so powerful.  How do you not have that 105 yet?  Some of your guys have so much extra equipment, you should be able to sell a few things, hit the 105 (and deflate your gang rating a bit in the process)
  My average income per turn based on my current territories, assuming they are all operational and not counting bonuses from Fixers and Loot is about 215 creds.  With 13 guys in my gang, that drops back to 55 creds profit.  I can normally get my income up above 230 creds with my various bonuses, but that still only gets me 75 creds profit, which doesn't go far (for example, a bolter costs 35 creds). 

In the last few turns, I have also been distracted by picking up some rare trade items such as plasma grenades, choke grenades, gun sights and a medkit, all of which are good and none of which are cheap.  And I've been neglecting my close range firepower - most of my hand to hand guys are still shooting autopistols, which are a bit weak at this stage of the campaign.

Regarding the question of my guys being over equipped - I don't really agree.  While it's true that a few of them have back up weapons, they are pretty much all necessary.  Some are probably a bit of a luxury (such as the hand flamers and extra swords on a couple of guys), but I intend to recruit more gang members in future turns, and those extra weapons will be passed down to them.  Selling a sword, hand flamer and autopistol now might net me 22.5 creds this turn but it would cost me 45 creds two turns from now when I recruit a new Juve. 


Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on April 23, 2013, 07:58:54 PM
My Cawdor has redemptionists mixed in (none of the one with pointy hats, but a bunch of the hooded ones). . . I also have a few scavvy that I converted and hand painted masks on their faces. . . with the matching color scheme you have to look pretty close to see the trick.  (specifically I used the one with the pick/scythe and stub gun)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 4, 2013, 11:24:52 AM
Turn 15

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F034_zps39096c7a.jpg&hash=c401095d44b89523f3fe2a76c621bb6f085b00f8)

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 attacked Octavian's Spore Cave via my Slag.
Gannicus attacked Jonah's Settlement via his southernmost Workshop.
Jonah attacked Gannicus's Spore Cave via his Settlement.
Octavian attacked my northernmost Vents via his Workshop.

Hand of Redemption -v- House Bloodaxe

We played a Gang Fight.  I managed to drop Asa out of Vent within throwing distance of the Goliath ranged team and he dropped a choke grenade on their position, which effectively nullified them for the entire game, and allowed Jacob and Isaac to pick them off one by one over the following 4 turns.

The main Goliath force  (15 guys) were held up by Abraham lobbing a plasma grenade into their midst.  Abraham was throwing from overwatch, and Octavian was smart enough to send a Juve out to eat the plasma, and so there was only one casualty at first, but on the following turn, the plasma cloud drifted 6" along a perfect line and hit 4 guys, taking one down and triggering a mini rout which allowed my flamer guys to move in and finish off the rest of them.

Final score: Up/Down/Out
Hand of Redemption:  11/2/0
House Bloodaxe:   12/2/4


My guys took the Goliath Spore Cave

The Black Coats -v- The Second Stringers

Gannicus attacked Jonah's Settlement and played a Gang Fight.

Jonah played this one a lot smarter than he had done previously.  He still played a tight castle, but he didn't put his Vent team in a vulnerable position and set up good overlapping fire lanes.  Gannicus was probably a bit lazy in his initial set up and Jonah was able to get the upper hand by keeping Machinegun Max and Bolter Bill pinned for most of the game with his Heavy Stubber and marksmen.

Gannicus wasn't able to advance all of his shotguns into the 18"-12" sweet spot that gave him the advantage, and the game ended in a long range shooting match which saw a lot of guys go down on both sides but few went out of action.

The Black Coats finally bottled out on turn 6.  It was the best game I've seen Jonah play up to that point.

Final Score:  Up/Down/Out
Black Coats:  8/6/2
Second Stringers:  10/5/2



The Second Stringers -v- The Black Coats

The previous game was the best I had seen Jonah play, so I was interested to see how this next one would go.   

It was another Gang Fight and Jonah, as is his way, set up in a tight castle with a bunch of Juves off the table ready to drop in from a Vent somewhere. 

Gannicus had been taken by surprise with Jonah's step up in performance in the previous fight and wasn't about to let it happen again.  He deployed in 4 teams consisting of, a ranged team and 4 other teams as follows : Smiling Sam and 2 Shotgunners, Flaming Moe and 2 Shot gunners, 2 Infiltrators, 3 Vent Shotgunners and a 4 man ranged team.


Turn 1

Jonah got the first turn and opened up on Gannicus's ranged team with his marksmen and Heavy Stubber, pinning them all and talking down a lasgunner.  He deployed his Vent  Juves in a tower towards the middle of the table, which was of questionable value since it put them outside of short pistol range and therefore would be unlikely to hit anything.  They were out of sight of the Black Coats ranged team.

Gannicus's Heavy Stubber guy got back to his feet and took a wound off a Van Saar lasgunner.  Otherwise, the rest of his gang rang forwards, fanning out with a future view to surrounding the Van Saar position.  He deployed his Vent team up high and to the right of the Van Saar position.

End of Turn 1:  Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers:  17/0/0
Black Coats:  15/1/0


Turn 2

Jonah put most of his gang into hiding, leaving only his Heavy Stubber guy, two marksmen and a Juve up on their feet.  He moved the Juve to light cover on the right, interposing himself between the ranged team and the Delaque Vent shotgunners.  The Heavy Stubberist opened up on the Goliath ranged team and pinned all of them.  The marksmen then both shot at Bolter Bill, taking him down.

Gannicus ran the rest of his team forward.  He ignored the Van Saar Juves in the tower because he couldn't shoot at them because they were hiding and climbing the tower to engage them in close combat would expose his gang members to a clear shot from just about every Van Saar gang member and would inevitably result in a painful fall to the ground.  In any event, the Juves were little threat, hitting only on 6s with low strength weapons.

The Black Coat Vent team opened up on the Van Saar Juve, taking him down.

After two turns of running, the Black Coats were all nearly inside their preferred 16"-12"range, and would be free to open up next turn with all of their cover denying shotguns on the tightly packed Second Stringers.

End of Turn 2:  Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers:  16/1/0
Black Coats:  14/2/0


Turn 3

The better the player, the better they can formulate a plan and carry it out.  Bad or mediocre NEcromunda (and 40k) players set their army up on the table and wait to see what happens, each turn taking shots or charging whatever target presents itself.  Good players have a plan, manoeuvre to execute it, draw their opponent in and then strike at the perfect moment to effect the maximum amount of damage and wreak the most havoc in the enemy plan, denying them any chance to recover. 

Gannicus had spent two turns running his agile gang into position and had Jonah's ranged team covered from above to the right with his Vent team, and by his ranged team who had recovered from pinning.  At ground level he had surrounded Jonah from the front and the left.

The Van Saar Juve team, perched on the third story of a central tower, while technically still in range of a bunch of Black Coats, was not much of a threat to anyone due to their poor accuracy.

Gannicus's plan had executed his plan to perfection as only a player at the top of his game can do.

And that's when Jonah struck.

He rotated his ranged team 90 degrees to the right, facing them away from the Delaque ranged team and towards the Delaque Vent team.  He ran a Juve up to the first story of the tower on which the Delaque Vent team were stationed with a clear view to autoremoving the fallen.

He then moved his Vent Juves around to the front of their tower, presenting all three of them as targets for the Delaque ranged team.  HE took care to make sure that one of them was more than 4"away from the other to prevent all three of them being taken out by one burst of Heavy Stubber fire.

Two flamer guys, escorted by Juve bodyguards advanced around to flank the Delaque shotgun teams to the left and right.  Then the two Plasma gunners who had spent the game in hiding popped up and unleashed high powered plasma salvoes at the Delaque Shotgun teams.  5 shots scored 4 hits, for 4 wounds, taking out two Black Coats.  A hotshot lasgun and a double plasma pistol shot from Jonah's leader took out Smiling Sam.  Another Black Coat ran.

Upstairs, the Second Stringer ranged team took down two of the Black Coat Vent team, and pinned the one remaining.

The Black Coats who were still on their feet backpedalled with the exception of Flaming Moe, who advanced to blast the flanking Second Stringer flamer/juve team.  But he was pinned by Van Saar overwatching hotshot lasgun fire and came up short.

The Black Coat ranged team were unable to fire at the Van Saar ranged team because of the Van Saar Juves who were capering about in between them, so they opened up on them instead and took one out, pinned another and took down the third.

End of Turn 3:  Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers:  14/2/1
Black Coats:  9/4/3


Turn 4

With the tide of the battle having firmly turned in his favour, Jonah moved in for the kill.

On the far right, he charged his Juve up the tower to autoremove one of the Delaque shotgun vent team members.  He moved his Juve/flame team around on the right to cover Flaming Moe at close range, blasting him with flamer and autopistol fire to take him down.

Towards the middle, his other Juve/Flamer team managed to take out another wounded Delaque.

The ranged team divided fire between the pinned Delaque Vent team member, taking him down and the Delaque ranged team, which only managed a single wound.

Gannicus opened up with his remaining shotgunners and took down a Juve and a lasgunner.  His ranged team concentrated fire on the two Van Saar Vent Juves, but only managed to take them both down.

End of Turn 4:  Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers:  12/4/1
Black Coats:  7/5/4



Turn 5

With 5 guys down, Jonah finally had to take his first morale check, and he failed it.  And that was a Yhwh-condemned unjust outcome, because he had been kicking arse.

Jonah played both games this turn like a pro.  I don't know where he pulled that from, but he definitely stepped it up a gear this turn.  The plasma gun/ flamer combo is what makes Van Saar so formidable, and it takes finesse to get right.  Watching Jonah evolve his gameplay this turn reminded me of that scene in Jurassic Park where the velociraptors work out how to operate the door handle.  Hopefully it was a fluke.

Clever boy.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on May 4, 2013, 12:25:50 PM
Wowzers. Jonah in learning shock. It's going to be really interesting to see how the campaign goes from here...I really was expecting Jonah to be next man down but maybe not now. Certainly Gannicus may have a lot more on his hands than he bargained for.

Which would all help you nicely, especially if they cripple each other over the next few turns!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on May 5, 2013, 09:52:56 AM
Wow, Gannicus almost lost his spore cave.

You need to make sure you play the psychology of this situation wisely.  If you start steamrolling Octavian to the tune of 1-2 choice territories a turn, while Gannicus and Jonah fight an effective stalemate. . . you could be quickly seen as the biggest threat.

Options might include using Gannicus's ego to fuel the fight between him and Jonah. . .
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 11, 2013, 05:32:07 AM
House Bloodaxe -v- The Hand of Redemption

What a fool.  Octavian fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is never get involved in a land war in asia, but only slight less well known is this - never go in against the Hand of Redemption in their Vents.

Now to be fair, Octavian pulled that off once before, but back then I had only about 9 guys and he had about an 800pt gang rating advantage over me.  But that was a long time ago and those days are a distant memory now.  He might have a big numbers and slight gang rating advantage over me, but I have the advantage in ranged firepower and maneouverability.  He probably has a slight edge in close combat ability, but I have a beslubbertonne (that's the metric equivalent of 1.47 amphetamine parrotloads) of flamers, and I can drop 9 of my guys nearly anywhere I like at the end of the first turn.

Thanks to Shamora's Ratskin Map, I got to pick the scenario, and I picked scavengers, because that's the scenario I always pick if I get the option.  We rolled 5 Lots of loot.

Octavian ended up with 1 of them, which was right near his deployment zone and I got the other 4, with Ram, Josiah, Abijah and Esau running them off the table early.  Octavian made a token effort at coming after them, but I had Jacob and Isaac covering one corridor with their heavy weapons and Asa and Abraham covering the other two lines of approach with their choke and plasma grenades.  All of them were backed up with overwatching flamers and hand flamers. 

Octavian tried a couple of charges through Asa's choke gas cloud, but lost several guys to the gas, another one to Boaz's flamer and the last one to Asa himself in close combat which was enough to fail his first bottle check of the game.

Final score:  Up/Down/Out
House Bloodaxe:  13/4/1
Hand of Redemption:  12/1/0


And that's it for turn 15. 

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F009-3_zps082b6878.jpg&hash=fcb4b2cd2eec4b6633bd0d6963fb774d0ce7013b)   

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



General thoughts:

Jonah has stepped his game up and was unlucky not to finally take that Spore Cave that he has had his eyes on for so long.  Van Saar are an easy gang to play well, and the only thing holding them back in this campaign has been Jonah's unimaginative gameplay. 

Part of what made him more dangerous this turn was the increase in his numbers.  Jonah has had a pretty small gang for most of the campaign, but that is no longer the case.  17 guys is a big gang in Necromunda, and the extra juves let him take 5 casualties before having to roll a bottle check.  They also eat up a lot of the early enemy fire, allowing his best shooters to stay on their feet for longer than they used to be able to.

Being a big gang does have its drawbacks though - they cost a lot to keep fed each turn, and that's why you don't normally see them.  Normally, Jonah's 7 territories would have trouble keeping 17 gang members going, but with 6 Inventors in his gang, Jonah will usually be inventing a rare item which can be sold each turn.  His Fixers also ensure that he will be making maximum income from his Drinking Hole and Waterstill without having to worry about leaving his territory undefended.

But one swallow does not a summer make.  Gannicus still has the upper hand and he will not be taken by surprise twice.

Octavian never looked like winning either of the games I played against him, and he was lucky to run when he did, because things would have only got worse for him if both games had continued.  He simply has not adapted his gameplay to cope with my special grenades.  No doubt he will - he's a smart kid, but he'll have to learn a lot of tricks in a short amount of time to save himself because we both now have 10 territories, and my money troubles are a thing of the past.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on May 12, 2013, 02:53:39 PM
Great stuff UH. I'm particularly impressed with the fact that every time you play Octavian now, you just crush him. You don't give him a chance to get into a game and learn anything credible...the knife just goes in and twists until the inevitable bottle.

Ruthless. We like ruthless.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: spafe on May 15, 2013, 03:22:45 AM
Wow, that was brutal. How do you play the vent games? is it jsut free move, assumed cover from corners and any barrels/scatter terrian you put down in a space hulk board?

Keep the updates coming, cant wait to hear how the offensive goes in turn 16!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 15, 2013, 07:31:38 AM
We play Vent and Tunnel games like a regular game of Necromunda using the store's Space Hulk terrain which was put together by the previous store manager.

It is fully 3D, and to my eye (I've never actually played a game of Space Hulk despite getting into the hobby right at the time that the original Space Hulk came out) is a bit bigger in dimension than the proper Space Hulk map tiles from the boxed set.  I gather it was designed to be able to be compatible with 40k or 40k kill team rules.

We generally rule that corners give heavy cover until the models get about a 45 degree angle on the model using the corner as cover.  We also let models move through friendly models in corridors.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on May 15, 2013, 04:40:43 PM
It still really annoys me that we can't get pictures of the terrain you guys play on - by the sounds of it, it'd be quite the sight to behold!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on May 19, 2013, 09:41:02 AM
Aftermath of turn 15:

Owing to my ruthless domination of Octavian this turn (thank you Looshkin), my guys didn't gain that much extra experience through wounding the goliaths (except Asa who kicked arse).  Anyway, here's what they look like:

The state of the gang:

Abraham:  Leader:
M   WSBSS   T   W   A   I    LD Skills & Weapons
466343258
Old Battle Wound, Nerves of Steel, True Grit, Iron Will, Parry, Sprint .
Powersword, Plasma Pistol, Plasma Grenades.

No change for Abraham.
Jacob: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills Injuries & Weapons
43544 2348
Partially Deafened.  Fixer,  Medic,  Armourer, Iron Jaw .
One-In-A-Million Heavy Bolter, Lasgun.

Jacob has capped out too.

Isaac: Heavy:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
444331 238
Medic, Armourer, Weaponsmith, Inventor, Fixer, Counter Attack, Crushing Blow, Body Slam.  Arm Wound . 
Heavy Stubber, Stub Gun, Sword. 

No change for Isaac.

Ram: Ganger:
 
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4443323 57
Armourer, Impetuous, Arm Wound.  Berserk Charge, Nerves of Steel, Catfall, Leap, Horrible Scars, Marksman 
Shotgun, Bolt ammo, Sword. 

Hell yes.  Ram finally got a chance to roll a shooting skill, and he came up with the best skill in the whole game.

The fundamental difference between tactics in Necromunda compared to 6th edition 40k is that 40k is a game where tactical thought is dominated by determining what to destroy - the better the player, the better they are at knowing what enenmy unit to shoot.  But in Necromunda, the target priority rules take away a lot of choice in what you can shoot at (you either have to shoot at the closest target or the easiest target within the shooter's 90 degree front arc).  As a result, the tactics relating to shooting are less to do with what target to shoot at than they are to do with what target to present to your opponent so that your more powerful units don't get shot. 

Marksman skill is so good because it allows you to totally ignore the target priority rules, and lets the model shoot at +50% of long range.  Ram can now shoot at anyone he likes as long as they are within 36".  Given that a standard Necromunda table is only 4'x4', there won't be many people he can't shoot at.

Marksman is just such a flexible skill.  It means that Octavian won't be able to hide his heavies behind his Juves or Lasgunners.  It means that if ther eis an overwatching Goliath flamer guy or grenade chucker thwarting my charge by waiting in Overwatch, I'll be able to knock him on his arse by having Ram shoot at him.

As an aside - you might have heard 2nd edition disparagingly referred to as Herohammer.  Part of the reason for that was because 2nd edition 40k had the same target priority rules as Necromunda, but every single character model had the equivalent of the Marksman skill, only they could use it with special weapons.  Even guardsmen characters had BS6 back in the day.  There was a lot of incentive to take character models back then. 

It's also going to see Ram advance more rapidly too.   Ram has missed out on his share of wounding shots because he sits up the back in front of Isaac and Jacob.  Even when he isn't getting shot (which is a lot), he often doesn't have anyone to shoot at because he is out of range of any targets.  That will no longer be the case.

Anyway, my point is that Marksman is a damn good skill.

Boaz: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4654321 37
Specialist, Inventor, Crack Shot, Feint, Nerves of Steel.
Flamer, Shotgun + Manstopper rounds, Sword.

No upgrades for Boaz.

Abijah:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4 54 43223 6 Nerves of Steel, Impetuous, Fixer, Disarm, Combat Master, Dodge, Quickdraw, Leap
Handflamer, Autopistol, Swordx2 , Medkit. 

No change for Abijah.

Asa: Ganger
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
45544225 7
Impetuous, Step Aside, Leap, Feint, Disarm, Combat Master, Nerves of Steel , Counter Attack. 
Autopistol, Sword, Choke Grenades.

Asa did inflicted about half of the wounds for my entire gang in turn 15.  It still only translated to a single advance though.

That LD bonus is important for Asa.  Given that he is one of my primary close combat guys, and is usually deployed close to the enemy, there is a good chance that he will find himself next to someone who gets shot, and will have to check for leadership.  There have been several times already that he has failed his morale check in such circumstances, and many other times where he's been lucky not to.  So I'm happy with what would often be considered a cruddy upgrade. 

The difference between LD6 and LD7 is the difference between 'probably going to run away and 'probably going to stick it out'.

Amon:  Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries and Weapons
3343233 6 8]
Gun Fighter, True Grit, Killer Rep, Nerves of Steel, Fast Shot.  Hand Injury, Leg Wound, Chest Wound.
Autopistol , Autopistol, Bolt Pistol, Red dot laser sight, Sword. 

Initiative 6 is usually a useless statistic.  The difference between I5 and I6 is tiny.  However, with Amon it has its advantages.  I6 means that Abraham is genuinely fast in a Shootout, even without Quickdraw.  No one is going to want to risk going into a Shootout knowing that I have an I6, BS4, A3 Fast Shooting Gunfighter with an boltpistol with a red dot laser sight and an autopistol.  He could conceivably take out all of the opposition singlehanded.

Josiah: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
44 4333268
Parry, Sprint, Counter Attack, Combat Master, Step Aside  .
Autopistol,  Chainsword, Sword. 

A quiet turn for Josiah.  No change.

Zohar: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
452 4 323 48
Partially Deafened,  True Grit, Leap, Disarm, Step Aside, Head Wound, Shell Shocked, Parry, Combat Master, Bitter Enmity of Goliaths.
Hand flamer, Stubber, Dum-Dum bullets, sword, chainsaw (flail). 

Although he didn't do anything except get shot a few times in turn 15, Zohar was right on the cusp of an upgrade, so he bumped his Strength up to 4.  So now he hits with S5 which will help him get a start on fashioning a new tabard out of Goliath face next turn.

Jemuel: Ganger:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
44332214 8
Specialst, Armourer, Nerves of Steel.  Shell shocked, Arm wound, Dodge, Feint, Blinded in One Eye, Chest Wound, Jump Back,Impressive Scars   .
Flamer, Hand Flamer, Stubber, Sword.   

The new kid is already LD8.  What a nerd.

Esau: Juve:
M   WSBSS   T   A   W   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
4233 3113 6
True Grit, Specialist Quickdraw, Sprint Medic, Leap, chest wound .
Flamer, Autopistol.   

Quickdraw probably has less utility than any other upgrade in the game (maybe Headbutt or Ironjaw? ugh, muscle...), but for a non shooting gang, it can be useful to have a smattering of Quickdrawers scattered throughout the gang to deter an opponent from selectin a Shootout.  And a flamer guy with Quickdraw is a pretty big deterent.

Sprint is the big upgrade though.  Sprint and Agility are the two big Agility skills for a close combat gang.  I usually prefer Sprint because it is more reliable, but I've rolled a lot of Leapers in this campaign.  Generally if I get one or the other, I stop rolling on the Agility table and start focussing on Combat skills.  In the cae of Jemuel though, I broke my general rule.  We are deep into the campaign now, and WS2 just doesn't cut it.  Even if he gets the charge, he'll only be rolling at a base of 3, and with a Special Weapon, he won't be getting any extra bonuses for having 2 hand to hand weapons. 

If I was likely to be fighting against Jonah or Gannicus, I'd go with Combat Skills, because their gangs are both pretty bad at close combat, but I'm not - I'm up against Octavian's Orlocks, and he's loaded them up with Combat skills.  A junior ganger with WS2 and a chestwound is meat for the beast.

Anyway, Sprint when combined with Leap means that he'll be running 12+D6 inches per turn, and  that's the sort of speed that would give a Malcadon Spyrer a run for its money.  He's going to run a lot of loot.  So much loot.

Joshua:  Ganger:
M   WSBS S   T   A   I    LD Skills, Injuries & Weapons
444331147
True Grit, Dodge.

Lasgun, Sword.   

Joshua is in that same Awkward spot that Ram was in for a long time.  He's a member of a Cawdor ranged team, but isn't very good at shooting.  Unlike Orlock, Van Saar or Delaque, Cawdor have a much harder time upgrading their shooting ability.  He's probably going to advance pretty slowly. 

He's the new bullet catcher for my ranged team.  He's going to spend a lot of time lying in a pool of his own blood.  Luckily, both True Grit and Dodge will help him out there.  True Grit makes him twice as likely to recover to a flesh wound and therefor half as likely to go out of action in a game.  Dodge simply gives him a 6+ save, which just means that he'll soak up an extra 16.5% hits per game.

Poor bastard.

With the addition of the new Spore Cave and a nice hall of Loot, even with some pretty average rolling, I still managed to haul in 90 credits profit for the turn.  I rolled a Weapon Reload, a Ratskin Map, a Bionic and Boaz invented a Photon Flash Flare.

I passed on the Weapon Reload because I have enough armourers that they aren't really necessary, and I hate the explosion chance.  That Ratskin Map only cost me 10 creds, so I took the chance, and came up with a fake, which sucked.  The big decision was on the Bionic.

If you roll a Bionic, you can buy a bionic Arm, a Bionic Eye or a Bionic Leg.  All of them cancel out a relevant Serious Injury and grant certain bonuses.  A Bionic Arm and Bionic Leg make you better in close cmbat, a Bionic Eye lets you see through Smoke.

My general philosophy is that if you have the creds, it's always a good idea to buy a bionic if one becomes available, even if you don't need it right at that moment.  The wrong injury on the wrong fighter can really hurt a gang.  I still remember my first ever gang getting gimped by a leg wound to their leader.  He could only charge 6" and could rarely get into close combat.  Similar tragedy can befall a Heavy who suffers an eye wound.  In fact, having a spare bionic eye can mean the difference between losing a fighter altogether and keeping him if it's he's already lost the other one.

Anyway, only one of my guys has suffered an eye wound so far (Jemuel), and he's not an essential gang member, so I picked the bionic leg.  A bionic leg cancels out a leg wound (-1M), adds +1A and allows a special kick attack where a fighter can swap his hits for a single hit at +2 strength and D3 wounds - which is a bargain if you were only hitting once anyway. 

I could have given it to Amon, who is the only person with a legwound in my gang at the moment, but I don't want him to get into close combat anyway.  It would also seem ridiculously cheesy to claim the +1A as counting towards his Fast Shot skill.  Though technically, that's what a RAW interpretation would allow.

Not sure who I'll give the Photon Flash Flares to.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: spafe on June 12, 2013, 06:56:42 AM
I'd normally say photon on a guy in your vent team, so they can use in case of an emergency, but given how advanced your entire gang is, and how many people your vent team consists off(!), I'm not so sure.

Cant wait for the next update, I'm wondering how the van saar/delaque trade war will go. Also be careful not to appear too dominant, as if you quickly start taking ground from the goliaths, then the others may realize that your becoming too powerful
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on June 13, 2013, 06:55:22 AM
It's been neary a month, I'm having withdrawals here.  :-[ :-\
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on June 13, 2013, 10:18:37 PM
Yes indeed. . . me wants more.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on July 12, 2013, 09:19:52 PM
What happened to this? I really miss it...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: bsucbe on July 14, 2013, 06:38:33 AM
Agreed!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on August 7, 2013, 11:14:27 PM
I have returned.

For this.

due to the corrupt and venal nature that is intrinsic to the Bieber generation (sorry, Crew4man)

Eh. Such is our fate.  :P

 :D

Anyways, I've been catching up after not reading for a year or two now. I just remembered this a few days ago. Its really excellent stuff.
I've decided its really a type of journalism, on par with Mark Bowden. The events practically write themselves, and you had/have a top-notch set of real-life characters you could hardly make up; the drug-dealer oven-arsonist who is probably the reason you can't take pictures in the store. The husky foreign veteran with a sense of cold, brutal honor. The douchebag, of course. The arrogant child who thinks he can be king, and the arrogant child who is Octavian.  Their not-at-all friendly game of gang warfare, seen through the lens of the 1997 master/ lawyer.

Its a new TV drama someone (you) should pitch to a major network. d:

Really though, good events are only so good as how they're presented which I think you know you excel at. Its a shame updates are so sporadic, but like a good novel or show, time elapses between books or seasons. Like so many others, if I had the means to play, I would probably be painting my Necro models right now. As it stands, I probably will never play a game, let alone a game of 40k.

As far as the game goes, I am curious as to what those 105 credits are for too. You'd think it be easier to get games together with only four players, but hey, scheduling problems. Also, I'll agree with you 100% that XCOM is a great game, definitely your type of tactical shooter (I thought about it reading this just now).

An excellent topic, a great cast, a riveting set of battles, presented well: don't lose your word document, its priceless.

And sorry about the lost IG army. :c

 
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: plainoldandrew on October 23, 2013, 09:46:11 AM
So i was linked to this thread from the yakromunda forums on sunday evening and i've spent a total of about 12 hours over the course of the last few days reading your story in it's entirety. I stayed up until almost 2 AM reading when i had to be in work at 0430 this morning. Goddammit Underhand, what have you done to me!?!?! I'm devestated to see that this campaign seems to be on hiatus.

Hanging on the edge of my seat to see what happens from here!

EDIT: On another note UH, i picked up that you're in Brisbane, so am i and i've been looking for people to play Necromunda with for about 18 months with varying degrees of success. do you guys meet up for 'social' necromunda or is this campaign all you play at the moment? Please reply or PM me if you'd be interested in having another regular player. Hope to hear from you!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Jaws on November 5, 2013, 01:43:14 PM
I am building a few gangs in order to start a Necromunda campaign in my local gaming club, and came over a link to this thread on the Yakromunda forums.

Been reading everything from the first post over the last two days, and it's pretty brilliant.

Hope to see more updates. :)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on November 6, 2013, 07:36:48 AM
Unfortunately, I don't think you will be getting them, underhand hasn't updated since May. It seems as if he has abandoned the project, which is unfortunate, because he had many fans here. All good things must come to an end I suppose. But I may just go reread it all again, just for old times sake, I do actually really miss it  :P aw well.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: crew4man on December 23, 2013, 03:26:26 AM
I have a godawful amount of time on my hands right now, so I spent the last 5-6 hours rereading this entire thread. At first I felt bad about my reading speed, considering I was able to polish off a 600 page book in about three hours just a few weeks ago.

Underhand has said that his commentary is about 110,000 words long. That puts it in the top 50% of word count in novels, as long as Lolita, half the size of Moby Dick, about twice as long as Slaughterhouse Five.

What I'm saying is, Underhand needs to finish the campaign then edit his book so I can go out and buy it and save myself the trouble of printing 300 pages.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 30, 2013, 06:49:27 AM
What's a lousy 8 months between friends?

Apologies, for the delay in between updates.  Things happened - I lost a computer with all my notes on it, Jonah got married, Octavian did six months in England and Gannicus spent some time in Victoria to let the heat die down.

Anyway:

Turn 16

The Map:

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F009-3_zps082b6878.jpg&hash=fcb4b2cd2eec4b6633bd0d6963fb774d0ce7013b)   

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 attacked Octavian's Gambling Den just to the south of the Spore Cave via my Slag.
Octavian attacked my Spore Cave via his Workshop.
Gannicus attacked Jonah's southernmost Settlement via the southernmost Workshop which he won last time.
I expected Jonah to go for the Spore Cave again, but I guess a Van Saar gang just isn't a Van Saar gang without a Workshop, so he attacked the Workshop that he lost a while back.

The Second Stringers -v- The Black Coats

Jonah launched the first attack of the turn and he went to take back his old Workshop from Gannicus. 

Last time they played each other Jonah managed to draw the Black Coats into a really nasty double plasma gun ambush and would have taken the Delaque Spore Cave if not for an unlucky bottle roll.  He went with the same gameplan this time.  The exact same gameplan.

Seriously – exactly the same gameplan.  They played on the same board as last time and he set his guys up in the exact same positions.

Suffice it to say that it didn't work out as well on the second try.

Gannicus saw what Jonah had planned and didn't let any of his guys get into a close range plasma cross fire.  Quite the contrary, the second Jonah’s Vent team dropped onto the table top, they were hit by 5 shotguns, a Heavy Stubber, a bolter and a frag grenade.  Two of them went out of action, the third went down, and was dispatched by Steely Sam.

From turn 4 onwards it was just a matter of both sides trading shots at range, gradually whittling each other down until one or the other bottled out.  Jonah turned out to be the unlucky one and with three guys out of action, he lost his Old Ruins.

End of Turn 7:  Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers:  11/3/3
Black Coats:  10/6/0
[/color]

If someone could leave a comment that would be appreciated, because the remainder of the post exceeds the 2k word limit.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: SnipingSnowman on December 30, 2013, 07:04:15 AM
It's taking all my self restraint not to squeal like a little girl and fill this post with OMG. Giddy is the best way I can describe myself - it's so good to see you back Underhand!!

Octavian did six months in England

Not gonna lie, I expected this sentence to end with "in prison".

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on December 30, 2013, 09:48:32 AM
Thank you Sniping Snowman.  That was quick.

House Bloodaxe -v- The Hand of Redemption

Octavian went next and he came to take back his Spore Cave.  Abraham has a Ratskin Map, so I got to pick the scenario, so I picked Scavengers, which is what I always pick. 

We rolled three loot counters, and they ended up getting set up more or less in a line across the middle of the board at ground level.

The spread out layout of the loot counters lead Octavian to spread out his own set up, although with an 18 man gang, that can often be hard to avoid.  He set up (from my view) with his ranged team of three lasguns and two Heavy Stubbers in a tower on the left, a five man assault team in the middle which included his leader (Akila Bloodaxe) and a four man assault team on the right.

I set up Jacob, Isaac, Ram and Joshua on a tower in the centre of my deployment zone. 

Turn 1

Octavian got the first turn and he moved the team with Bloodaxe to the bottom of a three story tower towards the centre of the board.  The 4 man assault team also moved forward keeping out of sight of my ranged team. 

Shooting wise, Octavian had limited options.  I only had 4 guys on the table and they were all in heavy cover and none of them were within lasgun range.  And I had set my guys up so that he had to waste one heavy stubber on Joshua.  Which he did.  Joshua took his riddling like a trooper.  That was a mistake – Octavian should have taken out Joshua with his newbie and saved his senior stubber guy for the second burst to at least pin my multi wound senior ranged guys.

The newbie Goliath stubber guy opened up and he pinned Ram and  Isaac and went out of ammo.

The Goliath tunnel team popped out onto the loot counter in the centre of the table.

On my turn, Ram recovered from pinning, but Isaac stayed down.

I started out my shooting phase by giving Octavian a big hint about how the rest of the campaign was going to go:

Underhand:  Which one of your heavies has the higher ballistic skill?
Octavian:  [indicating the senior heavy] Smackhand.
Underhand:  Okay.  Well, from now on he’s Ram’s personal beslubberbe-atch.

With his newly acquired Marksman skill, Ram is able to shoot the bolt shells from his shotgun 36 inches, which is a long way on a 4’x4’ table.  He is also able to ignore normal targeting restrictions, allowing him to pick out whichever enemy model he likes, regardless of proximity.  From this point on in the campaign, every bolt round in Ram’s ammo pouch will have Smackhand’s name carved into it.

Anyway, Ram picked out Smackhand, shot at him, pinned him and took a wound off him.

Jacob opened up on the rest of the Goliath ranged team, hitting 2 of them taking one out and taking down the other.  Isaac went onto Overwatch, waiting for the Goliath Tunnel team to break cover with their loot.

I dropped my first vent team (Boaz, Jemuel and Amon) over to the right in the Goliath deployment area ready to intercept the Goliath assault team once they returned with their loot counter.

End of Turn 1:  Up/Down/Out
House Bloodaxe:  16/1/1
Hand of Redemption:  12/0/1


Turn 2

It was clear that the hinge point of this fight was going to hinge on the outcome of the fight around the central tower. 

The tower was three stories tall with plenty of cover on each level.  5 of my best guys were at the top level – Abraham, Abijah, Asa, Josiah, Zohar and also Esau. At the bottom of the level were 5 of the toughest Goliaths.

Octavian was acutely aware of the damage that Abraham’s plasma grenades could wreak on his assault team, tightly clustered as they were around the ladder at the bottom of the tower.  Accordingly, he climbed Bloodaxe, Jugger and Silverback up the ladder to the first level and left his two best shooters at the bottom of the ladder on overwatch, waiting for any Cawdor to so much as poke their heads over the edge.

Over to the left, the Goliath ranged team was in a bit of a mess.  Smackhand was down to one wound and was pinned.  And he wasn’t going to recover from pinning until the end of his turn because he had no other gang members within 2” of him that weren’t either out of action or trying to work out where their internal organs had ended up after receiving a blast from Jacob’s Heavy Bolter.  His Junior Heavy (Bloodshot) had run out of ammo, and so was basically out of the fight as far as the duel between the long ranged teams was concerned.  Accordingly, he turned 90 degrees to his left, drew his backup lasgun, lined up Josiah, fired, hit and took a wound off him.

Towards the centre of the board, the tunnel team hunkered down into as much cover as they could get from my ranged team (Isaac with his Heavy Subber could see them, as could Ram), and turned to face the main tower.  One of them went into Overwatch.  Not being presented with any decent targets, Isaac unloaded with his Stubber at the tunnelers, but only got two shots and missed with both.

Over to the right, the second Goliath assault team collected the loot and set themselves up into Overwatch facing towards my third Vent team (Boaz, Jemuel and Amon).  And that would be an interesting confrontation in the turns to come.  I had selected a team that I thought would be good at stopping any of the 4 Goliaths getting back to their deployment zone with the loot – a holding mission.  I figured that Boaz and Jemuel with their flamers supported by Amon would be up for the job.  2 flamer templates and 6 pistol shots would normally be plenty to deal with 4 gangers, but this deep into a campaign with lots of multiwound gangers running around, that isn’t as much firepower as it looks like, and of my guys, only Boaz was any good in close combat, and he was outclassed by at least two of the Goliaths.

Back at the ranged team, the downed Goliath succumbed to his and wentout of action. Smackhand recovered from pinning and stood back up, ready to rejoin the fight.

On my turn, Ram shot Smackhand in the chest and pinned him again.

I shuffled my tower team.  Asa went to the far right of the tower, and got shot and pinned by the overwatching Goliath tunnel team below.  Josiah went to the edge of the northernmost ladder and got pinned by one of the overwatching Goliaths at the bottom of the tower.  Abraham went to the edge of the tower, plasma grenade in hand, and barely missed being hit by the other overwatcher.  Zohar passed his check against stupidity and went to the left ladder ready to decapitate any Goliaths foolish enough to stick their head over the top of his ladder.

I kind of pussied out with my third vent team and didn’t move them out in front of the second Goliath Assault team. Statistically, the odds were probably with me, but Jemuel and Boaz only have one wound each, so if the dice were only a little against me, things could get very bad very fast for those guys.  In hindsight, probably not my best team selection.  Anyway,  they were on the second  level (first story) of a large tower, and rather than advance them to the front of that level without much cover to face the Goliath Overwatchers, I had them go back and down to the bottom level keeping them out of charge range.  Not how I usually play.  Maybe I should have walked out on the second level and opened up with Amon, taking my chances against the overwatch fire.

Jacob splattered Bloodshot.

Isaac opened up on the Goliath tunnelers, getting four shots and pinning two of them.  I was deliberately spreading Isaac’s shots over multiple targets to pin rather than kill because I wanted to suppress as many Goliaths as possible to give Asa a chance to start dumping choke grenades.

Abraham dropped his plasma grenade onto one of the overwatching Goliaths at the bottom of the tower taking him out of action.  Esau went onto Overwatch protecting the righthand ladder to the tower.

End of Turn 2:  Up/Down/Out
House Bloodaxe:  15/0/3
Hand of Redemption:  12/0/1


Turn 3

Over to the left, Smackahand was the sole survivor of the Goliath ranged team, and he spent the term lying on the ground patting out the parts of his clothing that were smouldering from where Ram had shot him. 

In the middle of the table, Hektor stepped out of cover inviting a shot from Isaac.  That was smart tactics from Octavian, since it meant that Isaac would have to shoot at Axehand instead of any of his tower Goliaths, which he was going to move next. 

On the second level of the tower, Jugger, Silverback and Bloodaxe spread out and moved up a level, keeping to heavy cover.  All three were in range to assault my guys next turn.  Conversely,  all three were in range for my guys to assault them this turn.

Over to the right, Octavian mad a move that I would be damn proud of.  Here’s a diagram (Thesae are what my personal notes for every game look like, in case anyone has ever wondered.  hard lines are ground level terrain, dotted lines are the platform/walkways above):

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2Fabed94bf-f10d-4881-9222-d7d611c9ade7_zps2c37d40b.jpg&hash=fcb0048af5c85373228dbc0077432555697b26d5)   

As you can see, the Goliaths are in a tough position.  They have to get past two flamers and a lot of shooting, and are prevented from using their standard tactic of just charging into close combat because the terrain puts them just outside their charge range.  The Cawdors are in a much better position – both flamers only have to move a few inches to be able to hit a couple of Goliath models each (in fact Jemuel can potentially Leap far enough to hit all four at once.
)

(https://www.40konline.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi1184.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fz338%2FUnderhand01%2F2de20e78-8f26-41e6-89f0-1bb1d24d8729_zpscf807b86.jpg&hash=aff94f34fff994e171fa2f03d311139860b077e1)


Rather than squat around in overwatch like a Tremultuous O, Octavian took the initiative and spread out.  Normally, in Necromunda, it’s best to run models close together because they help each other get out of pinning, but in this case, with flamers on both sides of the column, it was smarter to fan out.


As you can see, on the next turn the Goliaths are set up to engage at least two of the Cawdor gangers in close combat, which should give them the advantage.  Even if they lose two gangers to flamers, the other two gangers should reach close combat with Boaz and Jemuel, nullifying Amon’s fearsome shooting ability.

So that made things interesting.

Bonecrack took a shot at Boaz and missed and Axehand took a shot at Jemuel and pinned him.  And that was pretty much it for Octavian's turn.

Smackhand recovered from pinning. Heh.

 

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on December 30, 2013, 12:22:29 PM
Heh.
Welcome back, Underhand.  :)
Great to see you back in the fight.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Lonewolf on December 30, 2013, 12:33:58 PM
Heh.
Welcome back, Underhand.  :)
Great to see you back in the fight.

Couldnt have put it any better  :)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on December 30, 2013, 06:16:41 PM
I'm really pleased to see this thread alive and kicking, Deadzone was a pretty good Christmas prezzie, but I think this thread being resurrected just won Christmas for me!

Good to see you back, good to see you haven't been hit by a bus, and you have nice hand writing. Well done.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 1, 2014, 12:55:04 PM
Thank you Killing Time and Lonewolf - it's good to be back.

Looshkin, you are far too kind with regard to my hand writing.

Turn 3 Continued

Tempting as it was to have Ram pin-lock Smackhand for another turn, that little game had run its course.  Besides, Jacob was standing right there with a belt full of Heavy Bolter rounds with no one else to give them to.  I repositioned Ram to give covering fire to Boaz, Amon and Jemuel.

Up on the tower in the middle of the board, all my guys recovered from pinning.  They all went onto overwatch except Asa who dropped a Choke grenade onto the Goliath tunnelers below.  Choke Grenades are nasty, rendering anyone inside the gascloud (large blast template) completely useless but for the ability to craw 2” per turn.  No toughness or initiative checks – they just get beslubbered.

Jacob lined up Smackhand and took him out of action with a burst from the OIAM Heavy Bolter.

My big decision for the turn was how best to use Ram to help out Boaz, Amon and Jemuel.  I figured that close combat was pretty much inevitable in the next turn, and of Boaz, Amon and Jemuel, I was able to use both my enviable ability to figure out complex wargaming related mathematical equations and nearly 18 years playing experience to determine that Boaz was best able to defend himself in close combat.  I won’t bog this post down with pages of boring  algebra, but basically Boaz had WS6 and Jemuel and Amon only have 4 and 3 respectively.

So, I moved Amon back a bit to cover Jemuel, figuring that 6 shots ought to be enough to stop at least one of either Grimskull or Axehand and hopefully, Jemuel’s flamer would pin the other.

So Ram lined up Boneckrack, who was in the open, and shot him, taking off a wound and pinning him.  He would not be able to recover from pinning until the end of his next turn, because he was more than 2” away from Rockface (who had the loot).  That might not seem significant, but it was.

Jemuel and Boaz went into Overwatch.

Isaac went onto Overwatch ready to shoot any of the tunnelers who managed to crawl out of the choke cloud.

End of Turn 3:  Up/Down/Out
House Bloodaxe:  14/0/4
Hand of Redemption:  12/0/1


Turn 4

As things stood at the beginning of Turn 4, I calculated that I had the advantage.  Up in the middle tower, I had the greater numbers, and I doubted that Octavian would attempt to climb up to the top level to launch a melee assault, and if he did, I would probably win.  At ground level, the tunnelers were at least temporarily nullified thanks to the choke gas.  Over to the right, things were tight, but my guys had some special skills which could tilt things my way.  And of course my guys still had Ram, Isaac and Jacob with their fingers on triggers ready to intervene the second the balance of the fight looked like tipping against them.  And the three of them could bring a lot of weight to bear.   

A lot of players would throw their toys about at this point and give up.  And if it was just a regular game of 40k, I dare say that’s probably what Octavian would have done.  But this is Necromunda, and doing that now would mean the loss of a territory, and a decent one at that.   Losing his Settlement would mean less income at the end of the turn which would stop him from buying new weapons or replenishing losses.  Even worse, every cred of income he lost would be going to me instead.  He would not only be weaker, but I would be stronger.  So basically, he had to keep on playing, even though it meant more than likely meant just having to take a amphetamine parrot kicking. 

This is why old players, jaded with 40k often go back to Necromunda to refreshen their interest in the hobby.  It’s also why Necromunda is best played between either the best of friends or the worst of enemies.  You can’t help but commit to a campaign.

But I digress.

Octavian was behind, but such is the ridiculous size of his gang, that even with 4 guys out of action, he still wasn’t rolling bottle checks.  On paper at least,  he was still in the fight.

He started his turn by moving the guy he had previously been keeping on overwatch at the bottom of the middle tower (Ironfist - who was coincidently, the one  gang member that my ranged team couldn’t see) back into his deployment zone, giving him a shot, albeit significantly obscured, of Boaz.

In the middle, the gas cloud stayed where it was and Octavian managed to get one of his tunnelers out of the cloud.  That didn’t help him much though, as he was immediately targeted by Ram and taken down.

At the middle tower, Octavian took a calculated risk.  I had three of the four ladders covered (North, East and West ) by my gang members in the tower – Abraham and Abijah had the North tower, Josiah and Zohar had the East and Asa and Esau had the West.  The Southern ladder faced my ranged team, and would have been suicide to climb, so Octavian hadn’t placed anyone there.  Down below, waiting for their chance, Silverback had the Western ladder, Jugger had the Eastern ladder and Bloodaxe had the Northern ladder.

Charging up the Eastern or Northern ladders would have been suicide.  The shots would have all been at shot range, and would basically have required mainly 2's to hit, and at this stage in a campaign, and although I bemoan the fact that my gang has 'wasted' a lot of advances on extra initiative, my guys rarely miss a chance to pop a shot off at a moving target.  On top of that, even if my guys didn't wound, every hit would require Octavian to test against falling.  And at a height of 9" that wasn't something he felt much like doing.

To the East, Silverback would have had to get through a fusillade of autopistol and dum-dum stubber rounds before facing Josiah and Zohar in close combat.  If he managed to avoid pinning/falling off the ladder, then he might  have had an even fight with Josiah.  But unfortunately Zohar would also have been there, and so there was only one way that fight would end.  Silverback stayed down on the second level and went onto Overwatch.

There was a similar story at the Northern ladder.  Although Bloodaxe was obviously a much more fearsome fighter than Silverback, He would have to cope with Abijah’s hand flamer and Abraham’s plasma pistol at point blank range.  Given that Abraham has shooting skills comparable to a Space Marine Captain, and hand flamers being template weapons, don’t miss, Bloodaxe also remained downstairs, Hatred of Abraham notwithstanding.

The Western ladder was a different story.  I had spent Asa’s shooting on dropping the choke grenade on the previous turn, and while that was a good move, it meant that only Esau was covering the ladder.  Esau had a flamer, which would auto hit, and usually that is enough to deter most attackers.  But to get the shot off, he would need to pass an initiative check, and Octavian was desperate, so Jugger went for the charge up the ladder.

And Esau didn’t get the shot off fast enough.

Over to the left, I figured things were balanced in my favour.  Boaz would be charged by Rockface, and had a decent chance of holdig him.  Axehand and Grimskull would charge Jemuel, and Amon would take one of them down, or out of action (6 shots, BS4, I6 – there are fewer things more certain).  The one which Amon didn’t take down would be subject to Jemuel’s flamer.  Even if Jemuel missed, he had the Jump Back ability, which allows him to take an Initiative test at the start of the combat phase to Jump Back 2” to avoid combat altogether.  After that, on my turn, Jemuel and Amon would dispatch Axehand and Grimskull at their leisure if they survived.  In truth, Jemuel would probably be able to handle it on his own, and Amon could go onto Overwatch to take care of Rockface, if he managed to take out Boaz, which was far from likely.

So Rockface charged Boaz, and Axehand and Grimskull charged Jemuel. 

Boaz stopped Rockface dead in his tracks with a blast of flamer which took him down, but only did a flesh wound, so he was only pinned.  Nevertheless, he had stopped him and reduced his WS by 1 making him very vulnerable to a counter charge  (WS4 v WS6 + the charge).

Amon shot Axehand twice with his bolt pistol and twice with his autopistol.  Axehand saw the red dot laser sight of the bolt pistol  (“the Gaze of Amon”) and dodged one shot, but still took two wounds and went down.  Grimskull rounded the corner and Jemuel wasn’t quick enough on the trigger and Grimskull crashed into him.

Down the back, Ironfist was the only Goliath who could shoot at anyone and he lined Boaz up between the sights of his bolt pistol and fired.  This was one of those shots that requires a third party to determine whether or not it can be allowed, and Jonah made the call (and I accept it) that it was able to be made, albeit only because the model I use for Boaz has a gigantic-whatever-that-weird-ass-branch-of-Spanish-Catholicism-it is-that-has-those-big-white -hoods-that-inspired-the Redemptionist-models, and wounded him doing a flesh wound. I blame the current Pope.  This wouldn’t have happened back in Ratzinger’s day.

Jemuel went for his Jump Back and failed.  And that was less than ideal as it turned out, because even though Jemuel is otherwise okay in close combat, Grimskull was a lot better and hit him 3 times for 2 wounds taking him out of action.  And, that was all the more annoying becaue Grimskull has the impetuous ability which allows him to follow up 4”  which brought him into close combat with Amon. 

Back at the tower, Jugger slammed into Esau, and I’m not going to go into the grizzly details, but suffice it to say that Esau played no further part in the battle and Jugger followed up into Asa.

This is exactly the problem with all these late gen Yers - all the unwarranted positive reinforcement that their parents have heaped on them means that they're completely incapable of recognising when they're beaten and they just won't stop fighting against the inevitable.

Why can't they be more like the current English Cricket team?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: 13thMordReaper on January 1, 2014, 08:34:15 PM
Underhand, this is truly a gem. I found this thread three days ago and have been reading it in my spare time ever since, becoming sadder and sadder as I reached the most recent pages for fear that I would find it discontinued. But you've revived it at the perfect time! I wish the Orlock player wasn't such a wuss, I really enjoy playing them.

Anyways, good luck with the rest of the campaign. You have another fan here.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on January 2, 2014, 04:00:40 AM
Why can't they be more like the current English Cricket team?

You can go off someone pretty quickly you know... :o
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: bsucbe on January 6, 2014, 02:04:20 PM
Could not be happier about the return of this thread! Welcome back Underhand!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: spafe on January 7, 2014, 03:44:00 AM
Yay, it lives! seriously want to know how the battle ends though, keeping us hanging man!

Welcome back, this thread basically sorted my january blues, so for that, I thank you
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: skoops6 on January 17, 2014, 04:37:36 AM
I am so glad I checked this again. I don't even visit this site or play 40k anymore, but I was bored one day, thought I'd come back to read the thread again. and I find THIS. Underhand has returned, the campaign has been revived. You actually have no clue how happy I am right now. Welcome back Underhand, well and truly ecstatic to hear from you again :)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 23, 2014, 06:49:38 AM
Thanks guys.

Turn 4 continued:

With Octavian having got one of his hand to hand guys in amongst my decidedly weaker 3rd Vent team and with Jugger getting onto the top level of the middle tower, it would be fair to say that the fight had started to go a little sideways on me. 

That’s not to say that I was losing – I still had a lot of moves to make and just as you never judge a wicket until both teams have batted on it, the balance of a game of Necromunda can’t be determined until both sides have had their turn.

First order of business was to sort out all this bullamphetamine parrot going on down at the other end of the table with Boaz and Amon.  Given that Boaz was pinned and Amon was engaged in hand to hand with one of Octavian’s more competent combat monkeys, this could have turned into a complete disaster. 

For those who might have temporarily forgotten how pinning works, this is it:  If you get hit, but don’t go down, you get pinned.  At the start of your next turn, if you have a team mate within 2” you can test against initiative to recover from pinning and carry on as usual.  If you fail, or if you don’t have a friend close by, then you spend the turn pinned (cowering like a wuss).  You automatically recover at the end of your turn*.

Given that Boaz has only got I3, this was potentially bad.  And it got worse when he failed that roll, leaving Amon at the mercy of Grimskull.  If Amon went down, it would leave Boaz open to being charged by both Bonecrack and Grimskull on the following turn, and that would be a hard fight for him to win.

Luckily though, Boaz has Nerves of Steel, allowing him to retake a failed pinning test.  And he passed that test and rose up to his feet and turned around to Grimskull who was locked in close combat with Amon. The pilot light of his flamer flickered blue.

That was all well and good, but Bonecrack was back on his feet and would be in a position to cause trouble and needed to be dealt with.  Ram was the man for that job.  Ram is not only a very capable shooter these days, but with his Leap ability, he can move fast over obstacles and with his WS4, he is a genuine allrounder.  That extra manuverability was key in this case, since it let him get to the bottom of his tower and move another few inches onto the top of a barrel to get an unobstructed shot at Bonecrack.  And he got that hit with a bolt round, wounding him but only doing a fleshwound.

Once again, the Tower in the centre of the table was key to the battle.  Jugger had busted through my defensive ring, and that breach had to be plugged in such a way as to not allow other gaps to open up.  Far from easy.

At first glance, this would normally look like a pretty easy fight for my guys to win.  Afterall, Cawdor and Goliaths  are both close combat gangs, and my guys outnumbered his.  That is sound reasoning, but it wasn’t true in this case.  Normally, one on one, I would back my guys over House Bloodaxe – afterall, I have been collecting underdog experience nearly every game I have played, so individually, my guys are all more experienced than his guys. 

The problem is that I have generally been spreading my skills between Ferocity, Agility and Combat, (and also picking up Techno skills wherever possible) whereas Octavian has been concentrating purely on Combat skills.  Diversifying in that regard was a sound strategy for my gang, and it has ultimately served me well, but no strategy can cover every scenario, and right now, it looked like this might be a hole that my guys might not be able to fill.

The benefit of Combat skills in a close combat situation needs no explanation – Every Combat skill makes a fighter better.  Agility skills are more diverse in their application, but several of them assist in getting into close combat, and Sprint and Leap in particular assist greatly in getting the charge bonus, which is often decisive.  In fact, it is the access to Agility skills which makes Cawdor superior to Goliaths.  But in this case, they were irrelevant because the distance between the fighters was only about 4” at most.  Ferocity skills are morale based and tend to help a gang soak up damage and stay in the fight.  They are of only peripherall value in melee combat. 

So on one hand, my guys had a spread of Combat, Agility and Ferocity skills, and on the other Octavian had a choice of Combat, Ferocity and Muscle. Octavian has never been a fan of Ferocity skills (the shear weight of House Bloodaxe numbers has made morale unnecessary), and he abandonned the  Muscle skill table after the first few turns of the campaign, so Bloodaxe, Jugger and Silverback are all Gang Champion level gangers loaded up on Combat skills and well equipped to boot thanks to the incredible income that House Bloodaxe has enjoyed for so long. 

Normally, that wouldn’t be too much of a big deal for Abraham, Abijah, Asa, Josiah and Zohar (especially with a high ground and numbers advantage), because they all have the Agility skills which would give them the charge and grant them bonuses which would tip the balance in their favour, despite the inferiority of their equipment.  But in this case, my guys didn’t have the charge advantage.  Jugger had already taken out Esau (who actually is a bit of a Tremultuous O) and was in close combat with Asa, who really does depend on the charge bonus to be able to take down an opponent since most of his Combat skills are defensive in nature.

This meant that I had a decision to make.  Silverback was in position to charge up the Western side of the tower, but Josiah and Zohar had that covered.  Bloodaxe was ready to launch himself up the Northern ladder, but was covered by Abraham and Abijah and couldn’t defeat them both at once.  The problem was to the Eastern side.  Jugger had curbstomped Esau and was fighting Asa, and would probably ultimately win.  If I let that continue, then he would be able to charge one of my other guys, gain the advantage of the charge and maybe defeat them, but at least draw that guy away from the ladder, thus allowing his mate to fight my other guy one on one.  Obviously, I wasn’t going to stand by and let that happen.

So I decided to stomp down hard on Jugger and sent Abijah (from the North) and Josiah (West) into the melee to aid Asa.  The chances of Jugger surviving a single round against the three of them was very remote, and would force Joffrey to take a morale check, potentially winning me the territory, assuming I could take out one other Goliath that turn. 

Back up at my ranged team, Jacob simply had no one to shoot at because I had originally set him up towards the back of the tower to let Ram and Joshua soak up bullets.  As a result people at ground level were simply out of his line of sight, so I had to spend his turn moving up next to Isaac.  He could still shoot his backup lasgun though, but he missed his target who was still choking on gas.  Isaac stayed on Overwatch.

Abraham stayed on Overwatch over the northern ladder and Zohar stayed on Overwatch over the Western ladder.  The only other shooting I had was Boaz with his flamer.

Genius utilises a variety of different tools to expresses itself in a myriad of different ways.  Rembrandt used paint and brushes to turn a blank canvas into beautiful paintings. Michaelangelo used a hammer and chisel to turn slabs of marble into breathtaking sculptures.  Boaz uses a tank of promethium and a flamer unit to turn people into smouldering corpses. 

Boaz had two potential targets to express his genius on.  The first was Bonecrack, who was wounded and pinned and thus out of the fight for another turn.  The second was Grimskull, who was about to cleave off a chunk of Amon’s arse and hand it to him.  Grimskull then was the higher value target.  Of course flamers are not exactly the most discriminating of weapons, so that would mean hitting Amon too, making it a somewhat difficult decision. 

Not too difficult though.  Boaz blasted Grimskull with fire, also catching Amon who failed to dodge (in Necromunda, a model that is only partially covered by a template is only hit on a 4+, and I had positioned Boaz and the template so that Amon had a chance to avoid the hit).  This wasn’t quite as ruthless as it might have seemed.  Amon  has 3 wounds, and Grimskull has only one, so even in a worst case scenario, Amon wasn’t going down.  Boaz is also a Crack Shot, so he could reroll the wound table if Grimskull was lucky enough to only suffer a fleshwound.  Amon would then autoremove him in the combat phase.

Unfortunately, it didn’t work out that way.  The fire burnt a wound off Amon and Grimskull just took the roasting like a champion.  All those hours under the sunlamp at the Goliath gym must have paid off.

So it was time for the close combat phase.

Amon is not my best fighter at the best of times, and this was not the best of times, Grimskull getting 3 hits and wounding with all three.  That allowed him to follow up into Boaz using his Impetuous skill.  Boaz would be a much harder prospect than Amon, but that was still not an ideal situation.

Up on the middle tower, I gave Asa first crack at Jugger.  Jugger was the stronger fighter, but Asa has three wounds and Step Aside, giving him a 4+ save in close combat, so I figured that even if Jugger won, he wouldn’t be taking Asa down.  Jugger did win, and did not take Asa down, dealing only a single wound.  Josiah went next, and fumbled badly, losing the combat and also taking a wound.  I still had Abijah though, and with the charge and numbers bonuses he was rolling an extra three attack dice with +3 to hit, which was more than he needed to deal with Jugger, whom he bathed in fire with hand pistol before kicking him off the edge of the tower, which was quite sufficient to take him out of action.

End of Turn 4:  Up/Down/Out
House Bloodaxe:  11/2/5
Hand of Redemption:  9/0/4
 

 
*From the above, you can see how it is possible to ‘pin-lock’ an enemy out of the game, which is what Ram was doing to Smackhand earlier in the game.  Pin-locking via Overwatch (ie using a model on Overwatch to re-pin a model that had managed to recover from pinning at the start of its turn) was/is a weakness of the living (undead?) rulebook, and has been fixed up in the Necromunda Community Edition Rules to allow models pinned by Overwatch fire to automatically recover at the end of the turn on which they were pinned.  It is for this rule change, more than any other (and there are a multitude of other excellent changes) that I have repeatedly nominated Mr Anthony Case for a mention in the Queens Honours list for the last several years.  His repeated snubbing is an indictment on the entire British Honours system*.

*Honestly – Paul Collingwood scores a measley 17 runs in an Ashes test and he gets an MBE whereas Anthony Case spawns a new epoch in miniature wargaming and soldiers on, unrecognised, his genius unappreciated, forced to endure the drudgery of the endless cocaine and hooker parties of the Necromunda gaming subculture in total obscurity.  It’s fundamentally unjust.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Killing Time on January 23, 2014, 11:31:43 AM
*Honestly – Paul Collingwood scores a measley 17 runs in an Ashes test and he gets an MBE whereas Anthony Case spawns a new epoch in miniature wargaming and soldiers on, unrecognised, his genius unappreciated, forced to endure the drudgery of the endless cocaine and hooker parties of the Necromunda gaming subculture in total obscurity.  It’s fundamentally unjust.

Maybe they're just waiting for him to sort out the autogun...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on January 24, 2014, 06:53:07 AM
For those not familiar with the mechanics of Necromunda, Killing Time is alluding to what is known as 'the Necromunda Conundrum' . 

It is the phrase used to by mathematicians to describe the inherent but undefinable imbalance among the Basic Weapons in the Necromunda armoury.  They include the Autogun, the Lasgun, the Shotgun and the Bolter.  It is generally recognised that imbalance exists, but where the imbalance lies and how to achieve equilibrium, and even whether that is even theoretically possible or morally desireable is a divisive issue.

In his article 'Finding Balance among Basic Weapons:  The Necromunda Conundrum' published in the November 1999 New Scientist magazine, Professor Stephen Hawking declared the matter to be an unsolveable mathematical mystery.  Dr William Hugh Woodin went so far as to describe it as a paradox. 

Professor Saharon Shelah, in his paper which subsequently won the Wolf Mathematics Prize in 2001, eloquently summarised it as:

Quote
What are Ranges, Strength Values, Save Modifiers, Ammo Scores, etc.? Are they real objects or are they simply relationships that necessarily exist in all structures? Although many disparate views exist regarding what a basic weapon is, the discussion may be roughly partitioned into two opposing schools of thought: Jervisism, which asserts that mathematical objects are real, and Caseism, which asserts that mathematical objects are merely formal constructions. This dispute may be better understood when considering specific examples, such as the "continuum hypothesis". The continuum hypothesis has been proven independent of the ZF axioms of set theory, so according to that system, the proposition can neither be proven true nor proven false. A Caseist would therefore say that the continuum hypothesis is neither true nor false, unless you further refine the context of the question. A Jevisist, however, would assert that there either does or does not exist a transfinite set with a cardinality less than the continuum but greater than any countable set.[citation needed] So, regardless of whether it has been proven unprovable, the Jervisist would argue that an answer nonetheless does exist.

While I suspect it may never be solved in our lifetimes, if I had to bet on who would be the man to solve it, then Case would be that man.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: spafe on January 30, 2014, 09:51:43 AM
Really looking forward to seeing how this ends, soo much suspense!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on February 1, 2014, 08:51:49 AM
Turn 5

Turn 4 had not gone well for me.    And turn 5 didn’t start any better. The gas cloud which had been generally dicking with Octavian’s plans in relation to the 2nd loot counter cleared up.

That meant that the remaining members of the Goliath Tunnel team were free to either grab the loot and run for cover, or stick around and take a couple of shots at Ram, who was standing on top of a barrel and could not possibly have ben any more exposed. 

Isaac wasn’t going to let either of those scenarios play out without a fight though, and opened up on both of them with his heavy stubber, albeit with no effect at all, missing both targets. 

That left both Tunnelers free to do as they wished – shoot Ram, or Run the loot.  Octavian ran with the loot.  That was the smart choice.  For starters, Ram has 3 wounds, so even if both of his guys had hit and wounded, they still wouldn’t have taken him down.  Then they would have to have withstood a combined barrage from both Isaac and Jacob the following turn.  So running with the loot was the smarter choice.  They made it into cover under the main tower which would block LOS from my heavies, but would still allow Ram to manouever into a shooting position the following turn.

Down the back, Bonecrack had recovered from pinning.  He charged into Boaz who was already exchanging blows with Grimskull.

Up the top, Octavian bit the bullet and committed Silverback and Bloodaxe to the tower fight.  Silverback went first, hurling himself up the Eastern ladder.  Zohar missed with his stub gun and took the charge. 

Bloodaxe flung himself up the northern tower, launching himself at Abraham, who shot him in the chest with his plasma pistol, pinning and wounding him.  And that was lucky, because as tough as Abraham is, Bloodaxe would give Kharn the Betrayer a good fight, and I was not looking forward to Abraham having to deal with a hit from his poweraxe.

Down the back, Bonecrack had first crack at Boaz.  His charge bonus was largely cancelled out by the wounds he had previously suffered and Boaz got two hits on him, but not wounding with either.  Grimskull did better.  He only got one hit, but that was enough, wounding Boaz once and taking him out of action.

Up the top, Silverback had made the very dumb decision to try to take on Zohar singlehandedly, but got off comparatively lightly, taking only a single wound and staying in the fight.

Down the back, Rockfist recovered to a fleshwound and would be ready to run with the second loot counter the following turn.

On my turn, Abraham must have decided that three loot counters weren’t worth getting into an arse kicking contest with a shaved gorilla armed with a poweraxe and called it a day, bottling out and bringing a pretty good winning streak to an end.

End of Turn 5:  Up/Down/Out
House Bloodaxe:  12/1/5
Hand of Redemption:  8/0/5


Hard to say who really came out on top in that game.  Octavian had taken more casualties, but he also had more guys on their feet.  He also had two of the thrre loot tokens.  That probably weighs the scales in his favour, but had the game continued for another turn (and we were both taking bottle checks), Zohar probably would have been able to take out Silverback on his own, and Abraham would have been able to charge Bloodaxe with the help of Asa, Josiah and Abijah.  Or the four of them could have stood back and fired their guns.  Either way, the odds would have been against Bloodaxe surviving.

Regardless, I lost because I made some bad decisions.  The first, and worst was the composition of my Vent teams, especially the one up the back of the board.  Amon, Boaz and Jemuel were not a good combination, particularly how I played them.  Against a close combat gan like House Bloodaxe, a Vent team really needs to have at least one close combat badass. Boaz might fulfil that criteria against Delaques, Orlocks or Van Saar, but WS6 on its own doesn’t really stretch that far against a late campaign Goliath gang. 

The other problem was that Amon was the only multi wound model between them, which made me nervous about letting them get shot, since it would have seen a 4/2 match up against the Goliath team they were facing.  In future, I think I might swap or Jemuel out for Zohar.  Having Zohar and Abraham effectively deployed together up the top of the centre tower was probably overkill.

The other decision I regret was to keep my guys on overwatch at the top of the tower.  Silverback, Jugger and Bloodaxe were all formidable fighters, but I probably should have backed my better guys to beat them with the benefit of the charge.  Even one on one, which is all that the ladders would have allowed, Zohar would have dealt with Silverback comfortably, either Asa or Josiah could have at least held Jugger in place for a turn, given their Step Aside skill and Abraham against Bloodaxe would have been even.  I was probably the fact that I wasn’t confidfent of beating Bloodaxe with Abraham that I didn’t go for the charge.  I didn’t want to lose Abraham, and there was a real risk that I would have.  Hanging back was the easy choice, and probably not the right one at the end of the day.

Credit to Octavian though.  By the end of turn 3, I honestly though that I was cruising towards a comfortable victory.  He did well to turn it around over the next couple of turns.  I didn't seize the chance to ram home the victory by attacking with my tower teams, and he managed to squeeze a win through that tiny little bit of breathing space.

It won't happen again.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Looshkin on February 1, 2014, 04:31:45 PM
Every day's a learning day they say.

Another great write up, and it's always nice to see some humility from you when you make mistakes so that we peons may learn something. Cheers UH!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on February 1, 2014, 07:50:18 PM
Thanks Looshkin.

The Black Coats -v- The Second Stringers

Having taken the Van Saar Workshop in turn 15, The Black Coats used it as a staging point to launch an attack on the southern Van Saar Settlement. 

I missed the start of this game because I had left to go and have lunch.  When I came back, for reasons that remain unknown to me, both Gannicus and Jonah had taken off their shirts and were playing bare chested.  Wanting no part of that depravity, I left without seeing any more of the game.

Gannicus later told me that Jonah tried the same gameplan and tactics as the previous couple of games.  That just meant Ganicus was able to refine his tactics slightly more, and achieve an even more comfortable win.  Jonah was just lucky that he bottled out earlier than in the previous game, otherwise he would have lost another territory.

End of Turn 5:  Up/Down/Out
Second Stringers:  10/5/2
Black Coats:  13/1/2

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: spafe on February 4, 2014, 10:47:18 AM
unlucky on the loss. does sound like he pulled off some very sweet moves though.

the van saars sound like they need to learn a new trick!
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Underhand on February 9, 2014, 05:53:18 AM
He could not have played it any better down the back with Bonecrack, Rockface, Axehand and Axehand (and Ironfist) against Boaz, Amon and Jemuel, and that's what won him the game.

My games against Octavian often put me in mind of this song:

The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down to Georgia (live) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgvfRSzmMoU#)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: spafe on February 28, 2014, 05:06:21 AM
I hope we wont be waiting the better part of a year for the next turn again :-p

starting to crave my necro campaign update fix again lol
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: celticgriffon on March 21, 2014, 01:38:55 AM
Hey Underhand,

Greatings from Canada!  Like many I had to create an account to say great job on this campaign.  Not many players have the fortitude to keep something going this long.

I must ask, however, what ever happened to your girl or the junior law member?

Michael
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on March 22, 2014, 10:14:24 AM
So glad to have this thread active again!  Here's hoping that we get another update soon.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Padaxes on April 8, 2014, 02:40:45 PM
I started reading this thread and had to make a profile just to keep informed about it! :)
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Vikram-soul-taker on August 13, 2014, 10:31:11 AM
I've only just discovered this site/thread well I was searching for the rules and FAQs on the interwebs. Would just like to say that this is a great set of posts. Its really made my work days go quicker reading through it all and has given me (I think) a bit of a head start over my mates who are getting together to play are first game of Necromunda later this month. Hope to see some more of this thrilling campaign up soon.
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Scorn on August 16, 2014, 07:05:28 PM
We all keep holding out hope...
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: thameswhale on May 14, 2015, 08:29:15 AM
Had to start an account just to post.

Easily one of the most enjoyable things I've ever read and really made me miss playing Necromunda.

Hope to see more in the future!!

Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: MingVas on February 18, 2016, 10:53:06 PM
Arg... I came back to check up... I actually just re-read the thread.  Please sir, may I have some more?
Title: Re: Rules for a Necromunda Campaign
Post by: Leeroy_002 on November 23, 2017, 02:43:02 AM
waiting for the next part is just about as bad as keeping the faith for plastic Sisters Of Battle....