Necromunda - Sump Croc Hunt!

 I picked up Necromunda: House of Shadow (House Delaque) book a few weeks back, when it came out.. So I figured I better get the gang out for our next game. Orion had suggested we try the Khymerix Hunt scenario from House of Blades (the House Escher book). Neither of us had a Khymerix... but Orion had a Sump Croc - so that seemed a suitable replacement. We used the scenario, as is, and even used the Khymerix stats. 

One of the Guilds put up a bounty for a Sump Croc that was on the loose and causing a lot of trouble in their area of the underhive. It was a BIG bounty so lots of gangs went out looking for it - and also a few enforcers looking to make some extra cash... 

Enforcers from the Omega Precinct. 

One-Eyed Red Snakes - House Delaque gang. 

Now, where's that Sump Croc...? 

Oh. there it is! 

Neo65145, on of the Delaque Juves, opened a door to find Enforcers sneaking up on the other side! Artifex, the Gang Leader, and Conflatura opened up with Bolter and Melta. I can't remember who hit, but the copper went down, and the Sump Croc, smelling the blood, burst up through the floor swallowing the downed enforcer whole!

Then it proceeses to attack the enforcers teammate who had been standing right behind him. Somehow she survived the Crocs initial snaps at her and let loose with a burst of quickly snapped off shots from her stub gun.

The croc, when hit, could make an initiative check and, if passed, would only take one damage from the attack and scarper back "into the Shadows"... or, i guess, in the Sump Crocs case, back into the sewers below! 

Terrified Enforcer, hearing the death screams of their commrade, frozen in terror... 

The other team of Enforcers pauses, hearing the confrontation beyond steel blast doors... 

Before they even heard the call of "Enforcer Down!", the captain was already shouting; "It must be over there, MOVE!" 

Quiet descends on the Underhive for the briefest of moments when the Croc dropped back into the sewer. Then both forces remembered the others were there and bullets and energy bolts began to fly.  

A concussion grenade shattered the skull of another Juve and up came the Croc to feed again!

Before it scarpered again, it shredded another Delaque Ganger. Artifex, so horrified by the grizzly demise of his ganger, completely lost his shit (failed Cool Check and was Broken... and could not pass a Cool Check for the rest of the damned game to recover... so he crawled behind some barrels and cried and muttered to himself while listening to the rest of his gang die...)

Dazed by the concussion grenade and shaken by the violent and bloody dismembering of his commerade, Conflatura just couldn't bring his meltagun to bear quick enough. The Croc dissapeared into the sewers - only to pop up instantly again when another gangers arm was redused to a bloody mess by a frag grenade the Enforcers fired at them. After biting the downed ganger in half, it snatched Conflatura and dragged them both down into the sewers as more fire came its way... 

Only a moment later, the Croc reappeared when ANOTHER Juve was beaten savagely by the Enforcer Captain. 

Shot gun blasts and bolter rounds poured in from both sides. severely injuring the beast. 

It fled, regenerated, and came back again for another snack when another enforcer charged in a shot a Delaque Ganger at point blank range. 

The Enforcer was chomped upon by the Croc... 

And then it turned it's attention to another Delaqu Ganger that had gotten its attention by pumpin gmore shot gun rounds into it! She did not survive long... 

Shortly after that, one of the Enforcers finally took it down, securing for themselves the reward from the Guilders. 

Another fun game of Necromunda! I have a feeling we'll be switching to KILL TEAM next week, though! At least for a bit... then, hopefully, maybe alternating between the two...? 

We shall see... 

El Akarm Market Massacre

Just outside the Snake Den lies the El Akarm Market. Close enough to the Den itself, it is considered Delaque territory - under their control - and protection.

After the One-Eyed Red Snakes brazen attack on the Cawdor gangers of Durango Pipe, their leader, Willem Campbell, declared that violence would be met in kind - but rather than an attack directly on the Snakes, they would terrorize those they claimed dominion over - show those under their "protection" that House Delaque truly is incapable of offering them any REAL protection... Impotent to save them from the cleansing flame of the Cult of Redemption....

 

Sunday evening my friend Brent stopped by to try out a game of Necromunda.

I thought I'd try out another new scenario from the Book of Ruin. the scenario is called called "Meat Harvest" and the idea is that one gang (presumably the Corpse Grinder Cult) is out to collect some fresh vittles if the form of dead peoples. I figured the scenario could easily be re-skinned to be a scenario where one side is simply trying to terrify the other sides populace (something it seems like gangs might do!).

Twelve unarmed hivers are placed on the table and the attacker is trying to kill them all, the defender is trying to help them all escape (by use of a special action "Shepard (Basic)", which allows them to lead a group of hivers away to safety.

The Attackers get ONE victory point for each Hiver taken out of action, the Defenders get TWO victory points for each they successfully get off the table - by leading them back to their own table edge where, if within 2" of the edge and 2" of a defending ganger (to prevent randomly wandering hivers from leaving on their own!) they can skedaddle! That's it. No points for taking out enemy gangers - you do still get experience points if you take one out... and less enemy gangers means less likely that they'll be able to do the thing that gives their side victory points... but I really, REALLY like the fact that the FOCUS of the scenario is NOT taking out enemy gangers and that one could potentially - in theory - win the game without even coming into direct conflict with the other gang!

Another interesting aspect of the scenario was that both sides started with d3+2 random crew!? But both gangs started getting reinforcements at the end of Round Two - so as the scenario goes on, there is the potential for more and more arriving on both sides... but as Bottle Tests are based on the number of the STARTING crew - it seemed VERY likely that one or both gangs could Bottle Out as soon as they started taking injuries!

Again, though, this is a scenario with odd game end/victory conditions which present a loophole that could be abused. The game ends when either all the Hivers are removed or only one gang has Fighters remaining on the battlefield - then victory goes to whoever has the most victory points. So, technically, the attacker could waltz onto the table, kill ONE Hiver and then voluntarily bottle and leave before the defender can get any off... and the attacker would "Win" because they scored one victory point and the defenders had none...



El Akarm Market - a relatively open area where guilders and other merchants and pedlars and vendors of all varieties hawk their wares to the residents of the south end of the Bronze Gates region.



Normally a bustling bazaar, it was early in the shift, as the scenario began, and few people were present at the moment.

The Durango Pipe Moors arrive on the scene to terrorize the residents and scare them away.



Round one Willem and Gib burst into the market square, Willem lighting up two small merchants just arriving to set up their wares.



Trinitatis rushed forward into cover and check out the situation while Rotis lead a couple of workers a the Corpse Starch vats away.



Lex and Hinton burst in at the other corner of the market - Lex threw a frag grenade - luckily the market wasn't as crowded as it is at time and only one servitor was taken out by the blast.



Hintone unleashed a long burst from his Bolter and took down a fabric merchant and one of his customers!

Things were looking pretty bad for House Delaque at this point - FIVE Hivers taken out in the first round!



Willem then tried to burn two more - but failed and ran out of fuel for his hand flamer.



Gib threw a grenade at them, but the also managed to survive that blast!



Neo65395 burst on to the scene and started blazing away at the Cawdor gangers with his stub guns. His shots were ineffective and was largely ignored as they went about their massacre.

In the following turn he got close enough to hit and wound Hinton - the Champion - TWICE (Two Guns Blazing)! Unfortunately he bled out during the recovery phase at the end of the turn before Neo could get in there and finish him off with a Coup De Gras!



Trinitatis gathered a bunch of the remaining hivers in hopes of leading them away to safety...



Rotis managed to get two out of harms way and into the needleways where the Cawdor gangers would not dare to follow.



checking to see where Hivers that weren't close to defending gangers ran - this one ran TOWARDS the Cawdor gangers!?



Reinforcements started arriving - as reinforcements can arrive ANYWHERE along the edge that isn't within 6" of an enemy fighter. Cawdor Gangers started showing up along the Delaque base edge - to potentially block any escaping Hivers! Oh, those devious Cawdor gangers!



Mus showed up behind the Cawdor gangers though and started shooting them up from behind!



Trinitatis moved off hoping to lead the terrified Hivers away - but they were too afraid to follow...

GAH!? STUPID HIVERS!



Lex, who has been pinned by fire from Mus (and took a Flesh Wound!), stood up and shot the nearby Hiver that mistakenly believed that the devout Cawdor gangers would be his salvation.... That's HALF of the hivers taken out by Cawdor at the start of Round Three...



Rotis took cover and fired on Babe, who'd just arrived, scoring a Flash Wound.



Then the big man himself arrived on the scene - Artifex was in the House!



Trinitatis, frustrated with the cowardly Hivers, decided to give up on leading them away to safety and charged back out, both guns blazing and took down Gib (seriously injured) and pinned Willem!



Neo65395, drunk with power from having taken out Hinton, charged in to try and finish off the pinned Gang Leader. HIs shots were wild, though, and totally ineffective.



Lex then charged him from the rear and stabbed him in the back!



More Cawdor gangers showing up in the Delaque deployment zone... Honestly, when Henry showed up with his Heavy Stubber, I figured it was ALL OVER and it would be another crushing defeat for the One-Eyed Red Snakes - with MORE permanent injuries... but the Cawdor gang had bottled out the previous turn and when Henry arrived on the scene and saw Hinton was down, he decided it would be a better idea to help his brothers to safety (Arrived as reinforcement at turn end, fled at the beginning of the next turn! Whew!)



Artifex took the cheap shot and finished off the seriously injured Gib while Trinitatis tried to finish off the pinned Willem.



Willem recovered, however, and charged Artifex... not sure how he did that if he was pinned... maybe it was the following turn...? Regardless, he failed to take out the Delaque leader with his chainsword and Artifex mercilessly cut him down with his Power Axe!



he the followed through charging Lex, but got a las shot in the face for his troubles...

Things were winding down at this point - both sides had bottled out and the Cawdor gangers were fleeing MUCH faster than the Delaque gangers.

Eventually ALL the Durango Pipe Moors were out of action or fled off the table... Which ended the game. At that point, however, the Cawdor gangers had SIX victory points - from taking out six Hivers, and Delay only had FOUR - from evacuating two off the table... So... technically the Moors won...? Doesn't really make sense...

I mean, the game COULD have kept going - with more Moors showing up as reinforcements at the end of each round (unaware that the rest of their gang had fled?) and try to block the fleeing Hivers being shepherded away by the Snakes. But that's not what the scenario says... and that would take forever...?

I guess they showed up, killed a bunch of Hivers and fucked off before the defenders could make safe enough of the others for the residents to really continue having faith in them...?

So the winners gained d3 reputation (I rolled one) and both sides lost one reputation for bottling out. The Moors took control of the dock access to the The Puddle - a vast underground Sludge Sea.

Neo65395 - the only Delaque ganger taken out of action in the skirmish was quickly patched up and will be ready to fight again when next the gangs clash. The Durango Pipe Moors took some more serious casualties. Hinton's armour took most of the damage from the hail of bullest he was subjected to and the bruises will heal up quick enough. Gib and Willem were more seriously injured and will need a bit of time to recover. Ernie was critically injured and nearly bled out. HE was rushed to a Rogue Doc just in time to save him, but his arm was seriously enough injured he won't be able to swing it to well when it's healed up as much as it can (-1 WS).


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Still have gang posts to finish up... WHY did I think it would be fun to write background fluff for EACH gang member of EVERY gang!? maybe I'll just stop and post what I've got so far!!

Probably won't be a game of Necromunda next Sunday...

bellboy miniatures keep maneuvering closer to the painting table... but so far I have failed to get it cleared off and ready to focus on just Hellboy things... maybe this evening I'll get to that!!

The Bronze Gates Redux

Just a quick note to point out I have created a PAGE for the Bronze Gates Campaign. It is listed under PAGES over on the left of the screen there. Or you can follow this link:

The Bronze Gates Campaign

The page has some background for the campaign and a listing of all the territories in the Bronze Gates and who currently controls them. It also has pictures of the gangs and Dramatis Personae as well as links to all the game reports of skirmishes that took place in the Bronze Gates.

The Bronze Gates Campaign started out as a Necomunda Dominion campaign I was running for my family to try out the system. As interest in it petered out, I decided to keep using it as a setting for a narrative campaign. My own little slice of the Hive Primus Underhive.

I am no longer keeping track of credits - to hire gangers and buy equipment. The campaign "system" is run more like a Kill Team campaign - gangers are added to the roster, as required, and with whatever equipment seems reasonable. The credit value of each ganger is tracked - so the value of a crew used for a scenario can be determined and additional tactics cards can be issued to the lesser gang if the difference is greater than 100 credits.

The only other things I am still keeping track of are Experience Points (Because it IS fun to watch gangers get better as they gain experience), Reputation, and who controls which Territories (some of which still confer some advantages - just not the credit incomes). Standing within the campaign is based on Reputation and the number of Territories controlled.


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog: 

More gang posts...

Retribution!

Yesterday evening Jacob swung by to have a go at Necromunda. We've played a bit of Kill Team, but he hadn't tried out Necromunda yet...

After last week's fiasco, the One-Eyed Red Snakes were DESPERATE to exact some retribution (and claw back a shred of reputation) so they planned to strike out at the New Cawdor Gang in Town.

I decided to try out one of the scenarios in the brand new Book of Ruin. Hit and Run seemed apropos.  The defender got d3+7 Random crew and the attacker got d3+7 Custom crew. Jacob - who played the Cawdor gang decided to defend and started with nine crew. The attacking Delaque gangers had eight crew to start - and I went heavy with Champions and Gangers - all the Juve stayed home!



The defenders started within 6" of the centre of the battlefield. Attackers set up anywhere that wasn't within 6" of a defender. There was a special rule that, after deployment, if any defenders could draw line of sight to any attackers they could make a roll to spot them (Int check - with modifiers based on distance and cover). If passed they could either make a free move or shoot action before the game started. So, I simply made sure ALL of my gangers had no line of sight to start with.

Victory point were gained for taking enemy gangers out of action (+2 if you took out the leader). The attacker then had a special rule whereby if they were out of line-of-sight of any enemy and at least 6" away they could take a special Double Action ("Fade") to simply disappear off the board - it seemed so very Delaque-like. So the idea it to get in quick, cause a few casualties - while taking none or minimal casualties yourself - and bugger off while you're in the lead... At least, that's the theory...



The Cawdor gangers were in a pretty solid position to start - and mostly we were blazing away at each other from hard cover and not doing too much...

Vindex, here, ran out of boltgun ammo after his first or second shot... doh... it was his first battle, one can forgive him if he was a bit nervous (although, he is a CHAMPION, so one might also think this wasn't his first rodeo and should have known better!?)



My leader and Meltagunner were poorly positioned behind some hard cover looking at a giant blast door that the Cawdor gangers had NO DESIRE to open... Eventually Conflatura - the Melta Gunner ran up and opened it - and got a shotgun blast in his face for his troubles - and was taken out of action before he could even try out his Meltagun...



At the other side, the Cawdor gangers busted out of their position to take the fight to the enemy - they quickly took down one of my gangers (looking bad when I'm losing the first casualty!!)



Then they got stuck in fighting Mus... He quickly took down Hinton, the Cawdor Champion, who charged him first, and then spent most of the rest of the game fending off two other Cawdor gangers.



Artifex, the Delaque Leader, charged up the centre, through the door Conflatura had opened. Swinging his power axe left and right, he was an unstoppable killing machine!



Architects snuck up the flank and shot one of the Gangers fighting Mus, and the other Cawdor ganger in the fight failed a nerve check and fled the melee.

 

 This actually gave Mus the opportunity to flee out of sight and fade from the table! (By this point I was actually leading in Victory Points and decided it was time to BUG OUT!)



There was a brief nervous moment as Artifex needed to be extracted from the middle of the damned table - in the open, in a long corridor, with two healthy Cawdor gangers firing at him! He did make it down the hall and around the corner and faded  from the scene!

the One-Eyed Red Snakes called it a Victory!! WOO!! I'd taken out SIX Cawdor gangers to only three casualties of my own (and one ganger that fled due to bottling out!). It did cost the gang, however! Of those three, TWO ended up with lasting serious injuries! Partem took a serious blast to the chest and is permanently enfeebled (-1 T!) and Glacies was Humiliated - one of the Cawdor Gangers carved "Cawdor Rules" into his forehead (-1 Cl and Ld!). Conflatura was saved by his armour and will be back in action next game!

Of the six Cawdor gangers take out of action four were minor wounds and only required some minor flesh stitching and two ended up in recovery but without any sort of lasting injuries (one even rolled "Lessons Learned" and gained a bonus experience point for her troubles!).


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Still have three more gang posts to finish up - The One-Eyed Red Snakes (House Delaque), Jezebel's Crusade (House Cawdor/Redemptionists), and the Crimson Wave (House Escher) - and some pics to post of recent items rolling off the Workbench (Battlefleet Gothic ships!?) - so expect those in the next few days... or.. possibly HOURS...?