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!