Van Saar, finally!

   To start a Necromunda campaign, each player must create a gang with only 1000 credits to spend.  The gang must have one leader and at least as many Gang Fighters as characters.  We're getting close and it was finally time to pull my gang out and get it ready.  Collective sighs of "FINALLY" expelled from so many since I've been cajoled about this for years.  

  Van Saar are particularly known for the tech skills and ridiculous wargear.  Most don't know that, under those armoured suits, the gangers of House Van Saar are wasted, irradiated forms barely surviving simply being alive.  Needless to say, they are especially embittered by this but can't do anything about it.  Imagine being the cancer patient in a world of bullies...

  With only 1000 credits, I can't afford much of the awesome stuff.  I reserved a bit for the leader and one of my champions, but the rest of my gang has to be frugal with their equipment.  In fact, even the fighters are expensive and a Juve would have to be recruited.  Luckily, Juves count as Gang Fighters and are limited in their equipment selection.  This will give me a bit more room in the budget for this goal.  

  I used the "Nexus Nines" straight out of the box, but I didn't build all ten models as I picked the ones that would make up my gang.  The leader would be Prime Larz "Lightning Hand"- holding a plasma gun and shock stave!  If someone wants to fight up close, I might be able to electrocute them away.  But Larz is really about annihilating the enemy with plasma bolts... over there!  He also has the Munitioneer skill so he can keep that plasma gun working longer.

  Next were the champions- necessary for the group activations in-game and shaking down the territories post-game.  The first one I chose is Augmek Lisset "Darkfinder"- she's rocking two plasma pistols and the Gunfighter skill!  With the prodigious shooting talents, she will be the 'enforcer' for the team by using those high-powered weapons for setup and cleanup.

  Here's where things get weird- the other champion is Augmek Marteeus.  He is simply armed with a lasgun.  Great shooter, cheap gun.  But my goal is to immediately use some credits in the market to add a scope to his gear and suddenly turn him into a sniper.  His skill is Precision Shot, so he's already primed for the role.  

  This leaves a requirement of at least three Gang Fighters and I like variety, so I chose to build Teks Dael, Rutgeer, and Koen.  Each are armed with lasgun, las carbine, and suppression laser, respectively.  These are cheap weapons that serve the same roles as the basic lasgun (reliable), autogun (rapid fire), and shotgun (knockback).  

  Finally, with only 60 credits left, I dove into my old Necromunda stuff to look for an old N95 Van Saar Juve- they are smaller and less detailed, which is convincingly a juvenile try-hard compared to the newer stuff.  This Juve is armed with a laspistol.  He has time to learn and grow...

  Every model has an Armoured Bodyglove (required for survival) and adds mesh armor over it.  Except the Juve- he's got flak because he's just some punk right now.  Everyone has some long range firepower because I don't want to get up close to anyone else.  So the gang is set up to be a mid- to long-range team with great armour.  And I still have 10 credits left in the stash.  

  That's my gang!  Now to put it into the Underhive and see how it goes.  Can you tell I'm a bit excited?

Happy Gaming!

Getting some work done

 

  Everyone in the game group is comfortable with their gangs.  They remember the names of the fighters, have ideas on which weapons they like versus the ineffective ones, and their questions focus on esoteric actions rather than basic rules.  We've hit the point where a campaign may be in order...

  If we're going to begin the goal of taking territories from each other and building a narrative for the bloody action in our dome, I should probably leave my 'ringer' role behind and join in.  Four of the six houses are already claimed by the rest of the group, leaving me to choose from the Cawdor or Van Saar.  My son plays the Redemptionists already, so the techies are my guys!  It is time to get assembling and painting...

  The Van Saar gangers are TINY!  The models have an average of 16 parts per dude and they're so tiny that my skinny tweezer-fingers can't even hold them (my carpet seems to love the taste of plastic bits).  Building these guys was not fun, but the results look awesome!  Tiny and awesome...

  A little primer and it was time to kick off the paintbrush activities.  I started with the bases so that could glue down the models while I worked on them, but I wanted to quickly paint them first.  A basecoat of Doombull Brown for that reddish undertone and an overbrush of Zhandri Dust makes the bases very much match the game boards.  Goal accomplished!

  Now comes the fun stuff- their armour!  Much like the Eldar from 40k, these guys have very detailed plated armour that gives lots of panels to highlight and shade.  To cheat (and the fact that I only have four days to get these done), I simply played the Drybrush game.  First came an overbrush of Caliban Green, followed by a drybrush of Warpstone Glow, another drybrush of Moot Green, yet another drybrush of Nurgling Green, and finally a liberal wash of Biel-tan Green was added to fade the colors back together and blend the current highlights.  And they already look awesome!

  My next steps are to paint the pipes black, the metal bits silver, and then finish the highlights on the green armour.  Let's see how fast I can get this gang done...

Happy Hobbying!

Laying down on the job

 

  As the rubble collapses, new territories become open to exploration and claim.  As the Delaque and Goliath gangs crawled through these recently-revealed areas, they found an ancient construction and each other.  As is the way in the Underhive, the battle soon started.  

  High atop the battlefield sat a single gang relic- an ossuary hiding the controls for this construct and conspicuously presenting itself as the 'throne' for the area.  The goal for each of the gangs in this battle is to claim that relic while killing as many of the enemy as possible.  

  Okay, that's enough with the narrative!  Notice that I changed the terrain yet again for these guys; I was putzing around in the garage and found all my Necromunda boxes from 1995- two sets!  It's been a long time and I wanted to show the group the roots of the most expensive part of this game.  That's right- if you haven't played this game before, you'll find that the terrain is easily the largest cost!  Beyond that, I needed to show the guys some of the real mission rules rather than always playing 'Kill and 12', so I adapted the rules for the Border Skirmish scenario (the new default for this edition?).  That also included a 'Custom (3+d3) Selection', which everyone seemed to really like!

  My opponent for this battle had already played against another buddy of mine using the gang that I was going to use.  Our buddy wanted to see someone else use his gang to observe (he's finally figuring everyone out and is excited to see what he's missing) and my opponent was on a tear and beating everyone he played.  My turn...

Goliath Deployment

  The Goliath rolled for their custom size and only got four.  Worse, they had no leader or champions at all- nothing but chads for this fight!

Delaque Deployment

   The Silent Ones rolled up for their custom crew and they got 6, including the sniper (Mandoth), the Psy-gheist, and the Nacht-ghul.  No leader and a sniper for leadership?  Well, we have more!

Battle!

  Admittedly, I was up all day and night (see my post about my brother coming over), so my memory of the events may not be clear.  There were some fantastic moments and I'll describe them specifically, but I'm just going to slap some pictures here.  Everyone was moving up and trying to slow the other gang's advance, with most of the action happening on the ground floor.  

  Brakk and Trembrah found themselves facing each other through a bulkhead and each spent the battle trying to take the other out.  Much like a scene from any good shooter movie (think 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith'), the two exchanged rounds and ducked between trigger-pulls, each taking turns being pinned.  

  The Delaque, being the smarter crew in the area, was wholly focused on getting to that relic.  While the rest of the snakes moved from shadow to shadow and fired for suppression against the brutes, the Psy-gheist effortlessly climbed up to the top layer and dashed.  Luckily, none of the brutes could see him from this angle as he was stuck halfway across the bridge.  Looking around to make sure he was unseen, he continued his moves.  

  As soon as the Psy-gheist reached the platform with the relic, he dove for cover so that he wouldn't be shot.  Only one more round...

  Little did the psyker realize that he was, in fact, seen by one of the Goliaths.  Nox the Ripper quietly celebrated and climbed up the ladder to charge the unsuspecting Delaque.  With a swing of his spud-jacker, he sent the mechanically-armed ganger to his doom.  "That's what happens when you lay down on the job!"

  While the battle roared below and after the arrival of the Nacht-ghul to relieve the pressure from some of the Silent Ones, Iagorth and Daendreth charged up the ladder to take turns beating on the brute and finally taking him down.  It was a vicious fight on the platform, but they were hoping to steal the relic back and claim victory.  They checked the control panel and found that it had already been gene-keyed for the Goliaths- their efforts were too late!

  Whisperblade and Trembrah were unable to finish Brakk off, running low on ammo and patience.  The arrival of the Nacht-ghul was very welcome as he advanced from the shadows to claim his second victim with a simple coup-de-grace.  

Conclusion

  It was a brutal battle where the Delaque completely had the upper hand from the beginning.  With the Nacht-ghul's 'From the Shadows' rule and the Psy-gheists rapid movement, there's no way the Silent Ones should have lost.  But such is the way of a fight- one moment of feeling safe led to victory being snatched way.  Brakk embarassed the Psy-gheist and took the relic before the gang bottled off.  The Golaiths, with only one fighter left in the fight, bottled out but claimed victory in the process.  The Delaque will need to seek revenge now...

by Crabstuffedmushrooms

Happy Gaming!

The Chaplaincy hasn't ended!

 

by Paul Canavan

  So there I was, minding my own business on a gaming day, setting up a big Necromunda board for the group (see that post in a couple of days), when my brother called me out of the blue.  This isn't normal, so I had to answer.  The other end of the phone blurted out the familiar voice, but I had to interrupt it and schedule the call for later as I was busy.  But the confusion set in.  Later, after a great evening of gaming (and a copious amount of chicken wings!), I called him back and he offered to come over.  Now I was deeply confused.  

  My brother shows up with a box and excitedly thrust it forward to show me what he had recently purchased.  I held by breath and he eagerly dove into the cardboard container.  He swiftly revealed three boxes with that ever-so-familiar Warhammer logo on them!  I immediately exploded into a wide smile.  He tells me, with that sparkling eye gleaming in support, that he got bored and decided to get into the hobby.  And it has finally happened.  

  You see, my brother was my captive audience way back when I was school-age and I wanted to do something during the weekdays.  We played 40k, Necromunda, and D&D (coincidentally the same games I focus on now), but he never really took hold.  When we grew up and I moved back home, I tried to wrap him into my hobby again, but he was busy and just not really interested (he's a video gamer).  So this particular recent development was definitely a surprise.  

  So what is he doing?  The three boxes he picked up are a Sanguinary Priest, Lord Commander Dante, and the Blood Angels Combat Patrol.  He did a little bit of fluff research and settled on the space-vampires for his army.  And because he picked up the Combat Patrol box, we can already play games and learn those rules!  

  Much like any good preacher, it's not about the instant conversion.  In fact, it will take great effort to impart one's message onto the others, and it's a combination of observable action and dictates.  My proselytizing finally sank in for my closest and longest subject, and now the conversion has happened.  My brother is getting into 40k!!!

Happy Hobbying!