And so, all good things must come to an end. The Necromunda Campaign that we started all the way back in October came to an end after 6 weeks of furious gaming. It’s been a great little ride, giving em a chance to try a brand new game, build up a cool gang for it and then beat up my friends in open combat.

However, before we wrap up, we must first talk about my trip t’up North to Middlesbrough to catch up with the campaign arbitrator (and former housemate). One of my goals in terms of moving back was to be able to catch up with my friend groups in the Leeds/York/Middlesbrough area but in a move that will shock literally no one, that didn’t happen due to the past year. However, it was nice finally getting up there and just hanging out, going for food and few beers on the Friday evening.

But enough life stuff, lets talk about the games! So the big thing about going up north is getting to play on different types of terrain. Despite having a pile of MDF buildings, most of my terrain is very modern realistic, with not a massive variety in terrain elevation aside from maybe a floor or two. This is in contrast to the Campaign Administrator’s pile of terrain – from the tiles of the Underhive release up to this rather marvellous multiple layered monstrosity that he came up with. The MDF is all from Mad Gaming Terrain, which I have to say is a pretty fantastic set with plenty of nice design features – I particularly like the fact they have assembled a full system with different wall sizes, doors and more. Plus they are easy enough to go from walls on a single plane up to multiple levels with large detail pieces to stretch between the levels.

This is also the third style of terrain for Necromunda I’ve played on, adding in a greater amount of vertical terrain than I’ve tried before. It’s great seeing how the same rules work in different ways, with the vertical terrain adding in another level of horror/complications to the usual gang fights. Different gear becomes much more useful – things like grav-chutes and rappels went from “a nice handy thing” to “incredibly important to get an edge”. Also positioning becomes much more important – being near edges means you’re likely to fall off if your stats are lacking.

With that pre-amble out of the way, lets run through the games!

Game 1

On the Friday night I kicked off taking on an Orlock gang. As someone who had only been fighting Delaque and choas gangs so far, fighting Orlocks was a pretty major change. They feel a little bit like Enforcers with their statline but OH BOY they have some fiendish tools at their disposal. The combination of demolition charges and jet packs would prove to be a pretty nasty setup.

In the game, the mission “The Hit” was decided, with Orlock competing for my Whisper Broker. Thanks to the bar on the board, it was obviously the McNespy boys had been hitting the beers when suddenly the Orlock attack! And let it be said, the Orlock attack was pretty damn effective. Sending in the juves in jump packs and demo charges let them out manoeuvre my guys (especially with the weekly event of Bad Air slowing my guys down) and drop large templates of death down on people. My attempts at return fire were… unlucky to say the least; one of the Orlock gangers ended up with 10 serious injuries after being opened up on by a close range heavy bolter attack, made worse when the knockback pushed him into a pit right next to a secondary objective. On the other hand, I did cause some damage – the Heavy Bolter on Grom actually did wreck another Orlock but Kimsesys managed to do some glorious death from above before destroying a few other gangers.

End Result? The Orlock guys took control of my Racket and I had some guys out of action for the following day.

Game 2

Game 2, after a breakfast of Greggs Steak Bake, saw me face off against the Van Saar gang that had been kicking ass left right and centre and was at the time leading the pack with how many territories and kills they had. Because of this, I had a little bit of worry facing off against them.

As predicted, the game had the most out of actions I think I’ve ever seen, with the Enforcers ending up with a single figure who eventually bottled out. However, aside from a few standout deaths (including me 66’ing one of the Van Saar champions who had been a Pain for most of the campaign) the vast majority were simply knocked cold or into recovery, leaving each gang relatively well off by the end. The Van Saar provied just how dangerous their shooting was. However, after some tutoring the night before form my fellow Enforcer player, I realised that concussion weapons and edges were going to be key. That said, the best drop related death had to be what’s pictured above – a falling Van Saar manged to land and knock out my ever useful bounty hunter.

The mission however was key – Manufactorum Raid. This required the Van Saars to actually get across the board to all three locations and set off bombs. I managed to hold off one flank, thanks to the combination of Heavy Bolters and building hugging Bounty Hunters and this just scraped me a win thanks to some interesting wording in the scenario, despite managing to set off the other two bombs.

In the post game, I managed to reach into intrigues and pulled “Resurrection”. This intrigue is dangerous with a very high chance of knocking your alignment around. Luckily, I rolled successfully and my favourite Grenadier Tikho returned to the fray.

Game 3

***Image Missing – reminder to always take photos of games!***

The final game of the weekend was supposed to be a full size battle but unfortunately we ran out of time due to the first game overrunning. Because of this, we settled on doing a Gang Raid, something quick and fun to wrap up. Even better, we settled on Clandestine Rendezvous – a rogue enforcer? I guess someone in the McNespy organisation was about to tell the rest of the gangs about what we’ve been up to and has joined up with the OTHER Delaque gang. I end the campaign as I started – fighting Delaque!

And to make it even more of a similarity to the start of the campaign, a certain intrigue card re-occurred. Turns out Tikho wasn’t exactly who we thought he was, swapping sides and adding a grenade launcher to the Delaque arsenal. The bigger problem was that it removed half of my coverage of the map, giving an easy route out for the corrupt enforcer. A good win for the Delaque!

On the other hand, Grom once again proved his worth by just vaporising a juve turn 1. I’m really annoyed I didn’t get the heavy bolter out sooner – it’s definitely worth the 305 points he totals.

Wrap Up

And with that my campaign finished. I unfortunately missed out on the finale game as I was busy the following weekend but from all the photos, the remaining gangs had to survive the ravenous hordes of hungry cannibals.

Of course, as part of the wrap up is seeing how well I fared in the grand scheme of things. There are several “triumphs” that are awarded at the end of the campaign and I managed to do pretty well overall! Out of the 11 gangs in the campaign, ending up in the top 5 for everything was a pretty successful result.

How did I find it personally? Honestly, a Necromunda campaign is unlike anything you can play. I love campaigns anyway but the addition of all the extra building blocks means that Necromunda just sticks in your brain for long time. I spent several evenings still thinking about what the next step of the gang would be, what gear and gangers do I need, what might I need to purchase for. Enforcers were both a good first choice and maybe a little bit of a crutch at the same time – they have a well rounded statline and a pretty handy house equipment list but the free juves is a real good safety net. On the other hand, you’re lacking some of the more exciting elements – only having a max of two champions, a lack of weird and wonderful alternative gangers/juves/champions and less chance to do wild and crazy things. If I run them in a future campaign, I’ll probably push in a few other directions with them, such as leaning HARD into the boltguns and picking up more concussion weapons.

However, there is a whisper on the breeze that there will be a new campaign next spring… and I do have all these Escher to assemble. Necromunda will return…

Originally, I was planning to write out long-form battle reports for each and every game of Necromunda. I have been taking the photos in preparation for them, and even starting writing the second set. However, as you might have spotted, I just havent got around to actually sitting down to them. And, with us rapidly approaching another big weekend (where I’m off to Middlesbrough for some final battles against some new foes) I realised I should probably get down some details of how my campaign has actually gone so far!

Game 1 is available in full here – a caravan escort mission against my Sneaky Opponent and his Delaque. Not too much to add, aside from it being a great time. Definitely worth a read.

In the post game, I managed to do rather well, rolling high on the rarity and earning a shed load of credits. It took me a while to decide but eventually (mere moments before game 2) I settled on some heavy firepower. Originally, I had looked at the prospect of an Autocannon but alas, I had only rolled for a trip to regular trading post. So in that case, I just had to settle for a Heavy Bolter – bringing up some Rapid Fire shots that do 2 damage on every strength 5 hit will make me very unpopular. The downside? I didn’t have enough to purchase a new recruit to carry it. I guess it will need to wait (he says foreshadowing).

Game 2 was a Forgotten Riches battle that saw both team walk away with a pile of loot. I managed to just about squeeze a win (although my opponent snagged more of the event’s treasure caskets which sold for a pretty penny). The mission did turn into a little bit of a logistics exercise, with Enforcers carrying back objective markers before handing them off to some Hive Scum I hired due to the numbers. In terms of intrigues, we managed to have two traitorous Delaque looking to switch sides, although my Sneaky Regular Opponent took them both down before I could extract them safely.

Sadly, Trooper Bezlikiy died a memorable death to one of the Pit Fighters the Slave Guild brought along. I did also get a first taste of an enemy psyker. I’m sure nothing bad will come of this.

Trust the Delaque to bring a psyker to a Shootout. Deciding to play a quick game to wrap the evening up, I entered with my leader and one of my champions going up against a Delaque force of a Juve, a ganger and a Psyker. I thought it would be easy, as I passed cool check after cool check while the Delaque started to freak.

It was not easy. I managed to knock one out of action but being pinned from multiple angles (and the psyker dropping flame templates left, right and centre) meant I didn’t have enough actions to lock down opponents into a charge. Before it was over, my Champion got taken out with a spine injury and my leader ended up bottling. Luckily no one was captured.

Well, that was certainly a big blow to the gang. Between losing Bezlikiy and my champion taking a spinal injury, I was looking at some pretty major holes in my force that needed patching up.

First up – numbers. Numbers are king, and losing a trooper puts me at risk of being constantly outnumbered. Luckily, Enforcers get the “Fresh from the Academy” rule, meaning I was able to replace Bez with a new rookie, Hoyt. All I had to spend was enough creds for a boltgun and dum-dum rounds. My rolls at the trading post for this game 2 was not great so I decided to save it for after the next game.

And oh boy am I glad I did. Ser Hajlte, the unfortunate bastard who got his spine broken by the psyker, is one of my two champions. And, important to note, Enforcers only get two – there is a lot of money in him to lead the force and keep things going. With a -1 to his strength, his job as “supreme beating man” is definitely undermined. I’m definitely in the early Necromnda stage where, as a player, you burst into emergency rooms and shout “I’ll do anything to save him!”. But I think in this case, it made sense – my group would put up the creds to keep a team member alive. With the case I saved and a VERY high rarity roll, I was able to give Ser Hajite a robo-spine, removing the injury and getting him back in the fight.

At this stage, we came to the middle of the campaign, a rest season brought on early due to everyone grabbing territories like they were going out of style. Luckily for me, this meant 250 creds in my back pocket to be spent on recruiting new guys to the squad. Due to just how much people cost, 250 creds didn’t go as far as I thought it would go.

The main spend was adding a new replacement Subjugator by the name of Arctalan. I had originally intended to simply re-usue dearly departed Bez’s model but I soon realised that actually as cool as the stub pistol looked, it was probably cooler to bring a shock baton. This gives me a duo of stick beating people, ideal with the teamwork skill that Ser Hajlte has.

However, there was another addition to the stick beating squad. Looking at my coffers, and checking the rules, I decided that my previous injured Champion might be needing an animal companion. Originally, I had considered putting it on my actual gang leader but after checking on the rules, a lot of the effects of a Hardcase Cyber-Mastiff made more sense to accompany the shield carrying lunatic. It also played into the cool dramatic scene – the veteran returning from his time with the Doc (probably on a ship somewhere orbiting the station) with a new robo spine and a loyal friend following along beside him.

With the gaming group being split roughly into 1 main group (Middlesbrough) and two smaller ones (Leeds and Tyneside), one issue with being in the small is getting to play against other gangs can be tough. At this stage in the campaign I’d now played three games against the Delaque, and frankly the sneaky boys suck, with their literally pile of tricks and evil psykers.

Around this time, the campaign organiser (a former uni housemate) and his current housemate dropped me a message to look for a week where they could come down and stay over. Due to the speedy territory grabbing, they ended up coming during the rest week, meaning I got to pay three games for relatively low stakes. A perfect intro to the Zone Mortalis tiles!

In terms of gangs, I was up against two different chaos gangs and (perhaps my second biggest concern in the campaign after a Cawdor gang up north) the Campaign Organiser’s own set of Enforcers. Having been mostly dealing with slightly squishy enemies, coming up against armour was going to be a new experience.

First game of the weekend at 8pm on the Friday was a trip to the pub. We decided on a fun multiplayer brawl to amuse us all and oh boy was the bar brawl fun. Facing two chaos gangs and my rival Delaque, and with no guns or armour to even the odds, the sudden appearance of three separate psykers did set the tone. There was so much psychic fire being thrown around that I highly doubt the bar would have survived.

However, my boys and girls managed to drink themselves merry. I really like the rules tweaks this mode does (there is a dedicated drinking phase), and it was perfect as a special event to get us started off.. Some highlights was the brawl on the central dancefloor, a chaos ganger setting himself up as the bartender and managing to drink every turn of the game, and how often my Enforcers tried to get revenge on the Delaque but instead got knocked out.

Stupidly, I forgot to bring along my additional tactics cards (thanks Whisper Brokers). These could have been very useful, especially as one is literally “you have a stub pistol in your ankle holster”. Sure, it might have been cheating and whoever had it would probably have been taken out quickly but it’s a cool image to have.

Day 2 dawned at a reasonable time and after bacon sandwiches it was time to face my opposites, the dreaded Shimzu Enforcers. And for the first time, on the Underhive tiles, complete with all the hazards and extra rules they include.

I had, the worst game I think I’ve ever had of Necromunda. I played through it all, managing to get some damage on the other team but I really didn’t enjoy the experience. I think it was down entirely to being unfamiliar with the rules of the new location, especially when combined with the gear the Enforcers were using. I need to stress that this was nothing to do with my opponent (he’s a great player and we usually gel very well in previous games) and entirely to do with my own preparedness. It was also made worse by the injury and then death of my Grenadier Tikho which was really the cherry on the top of a bad time.

However, one thing about playing your own faction is you really do appreciate their strengths. The armour saves Enforcers get, the usefulness of all the gear that they can get their hands on. If I was to remake my gang, I’d probably add in a few more concussion weapons after being on the wrong end of them.

Finally, the last game of the weekend. I went up against the other Chaos gang, notable explicitly for having a Sump Beast that stomps around the table. We decided to go for the Blood Rites mission, one that seemed appropriate for both the gangs involved and meant I could play to my relative strengths – long range firepower. I was even able to get the board setup with some relatively long firing lines, letting me hit the bezerkers with a few rounds of shooting before they could get close.

And it worked for a while! I used my free bounty hunter Kimsesys to inflict some early blows on the enemy and work out their abilities (don’t worry – in fiction her repeated deaths are all handwaved by a combination of the mysterious suit she’s wearing and the endless packs of lho-sticks she keeps getting her hands on). From her sacrifice, I was able to determine that the Sumpbeast is an absolute fiend in combat and should be dealt with ASAP.

Luckily, I was able to trap it in a relatively thin space and hit it with lots and lots of gun fire. Plus, just as it was about to charge, I managed to drop a tactics card that made my gang Fearsome for the turn, blunting it’s attempts to get into combat.

At the same time, my upgrades to Ser Hjalte were paying for themselves. Fighting against the enemy gang’s leader and then a swarm of gangers, Hjalte and his dog were able to take down multiple fighters for only a flesh wound or two. Having the dog be able to counter-charge someone who attacks their master is definitely.

However, the game had another massive swing, mostly focused on the Sumpbeast managing to avoid being taken out and get back up. It injured Arctalan, humiliated Yalniz and just kept coming despite the rounds we were throwing at it. In the end, the Chaos gang eventually bottled out, leaving me with a captive…

That I immediately sold back to cultist for raw creds. What, I’m efficient.

So with that bloodbath of a weekend over, it was time to count the bodies and begin doing some prep. Even with the aid of a Rogue Doc, I sadly lost my favourite boy Tikho. 6XP down the drain and a heavily armed lunatic no longer available. There were also other injuries, with Yalniz being humiliated and Arctalan taking a hand injury (that -1 WS really hurts a CQB fighter).

First order of business – getting a support gun back on the field. Tikho was replaced by Grom, the heavy bolter taking over from the grenade launcher. I was tempted to arm him with both, but that seemed a touch overkill and I’d rather have that third hand free for a pistol at close quarters.

The academy also came a calling and decided to offer me up a fresh Rookie. Originally, i investigated giving them another full loadout but then it hit me – lets get some chaff. One of my enforcer models is actually doing their best wild west gunslinger impression – why not go all in? And so Cassidy arrived – Dum-Dum stub pistol in one hand, Manstopper Autopistol in the other. Do I think she’ll do well? Probably not. Will it be amusing? Oh yes.

I also took this opportunity to invest in the gangers and use up some XP. Ser Hjalte got a new skill “Helmawr’s Justice” so I get to potentially cause more damage from a coup de grace. My other Champion got a boost to his movement, which should hopefully let me setup some better plays with the concussion carbine. The Captain got a +1 to his BS skill, which combined with the bolt gun should make him handy for putting targets down across the field. Tohtori (the Sgt) and Tilki were also issues Photon Flash grenades, which should give me a touch of extra utility on the field.

This sets me up for going into this weekend. I have 0 creds but a pretty well equipped gang. Fingers crossed I manage to take a territory or two (with one I have a particular eye on due to it being linked to some I already hold) but worst case, this should be a fitting end to the campaign for me. And how fitting is that for my military group – time running out, one last roll of the dice to sweep in and claim as much glory as possible.

For more details on just what’s going on I recommend reading my intro post where I explain the basics

The armoured truck rumbled through the slums surrounding the Whisper Broker’s compound, each of the ramshackle shacks assembled from the detritus that forms in a busy shipping port, bonded together and covered in a strange sandy material to hold its’s form. The Captain ran an armoured glove down it, before being returned to the task at hand. Inside the vehicle, a riches a plenty, enough to buy a kingdom instead sent to buy the Security agency into the good graces of

A cough from beside him brought The Captain back to reality. He turned to find the bulky form of Tikho, one of the heavily armoured Subjugators and the squad’s explosive man. His visor raised, The Captain couldn’t help but notice the concerned look in the man’s eye.

“Well?” The Captain snapped before drawing himself back. “What troubles you trooper?”

“It’s Yalniz, Sir” the voice from inside the helmet rumbled in reply. “He’s acting a little… odd.”

“What kind of odd?” The Captain asked, peering over the mountain of flak to look up at the gas masked trooper sat behind the heavy stubber. Yalniz was never the most stable of troopers but The Captain did have to admit, he seemed especially squirrely today. His fingers seemed to be dancing over the safeties on the stubber, his head moving as if scanning for something.

Before the Captain could investigate further, a cry came up from the slums. Frantic radio messages echoed across the net, reports of shadowy figures creeping into position, of slave drivers and roaring chain blades. However, one sound cut through all of that.

The snap of the first heavy stubber round passing right by his head.

And we are off, the first game of the campaign. This was in some ways a bit of a trial by fire – neither myself or my opponent had played much Necromunda recently so there was a lot of re-learning to be done. Additionally, this was our first time in the campaign so we had to get used to things like Intrigues.

We’ll come back to those guys later.

I decided to challenge my opponent to the Whisper Brokers. It’s location bordered both of our holdings, it links to the life coin exchange I hold and sneaky dealings seemed perfect for the Delaque. My opponent agreed and decided the scenario. I had gathered a few suggestions from the GM, and we eventually settled on Caravan Heist, a fun scenario requiring something to represent the caravan. Thank god for the Bushmaster looking suitably “big bus”-y and roughly able to fit into the setting.

Sidenote: As you can see, we’re not playing over the traditional Necroumunda ironwork or sci-fi slums. Instead, I’ve broken out my modular Adobe compounds from Sarissa Precision. They are still in need of a paint job but as someone who hasn’t got dedicated Underhive terrain, the adobe buildings and tiles should make it easy enough to assemble a maze of firelines, sneaky places to move through and cover that matches up to the “traditional” way of playing Necromunda.

We laid out the terrain with a route through the maze, with two right angle turns (as with any vehicle escort mission in a FPS). Having worked it out, with the vehicle moving at 6″ a turn, we probably wouldn’t reach the final gates but it still gave use plenty of ground to play over.

Now let’s talk about deploying the Enforcers. I decided to use a tactics card to give me an extra figure in the infiltrate position, alongside my bounty hunter. This left me six figures to deploy. Two of my Subjugators (the champion Ser Hjälte and a stub gun wielder Bezlikiy), along with my Palanite Champion Tohtori and his concussion carbine, took up position on the southern board edge, planning to move parallel with the caravan.

My gang leader, The Captain, and my grenade launcher wielding Subjugator, Tikho, set up position to move alongside the caravan. The boltgun and GL are both among the longer range equipment in my arsenal and so can run a firefight along the main route.

The core of my plan was the little variation rule in the scenario – “The Caravan may be equipped with a weapon”. We decided a forward mounted pintle heavy stubber would be suitable and (after quickly printing it off on the 3d printer) undercoated it and put it to work.

My final enforcer, Yalnız, would sit behind the gun and man it, able to put down a storm of fire. The profile of the Heavy stubber in Necromunda is pretty nasty, with higher than average strength and a great set of range bands. It would be more than handy for dealing with anyone getting in the way of the convoy.

After realising the gap in the far side of the table, we added a few additional buildings. And then the Delaque started to deploy… WELL by deploy I mean place a few gangers down while piling the rest into infiltrate. A sneaky stand-off.

On the bottom side, the Delaque had brought along their ace in the hole – a Slave Guild group. Bringing four fighters at almost 800 credits in total, these guys are a fundamentally different fight compared to the rest of the gang – tough as nails and lots of lovely wargear.

On the top edge of the board, the rest of the Delaque appeared, taking up positions overlooking the centre of the board. The biggest danger at first appeared to be the gunman on top of the building, but the other chain-glaive fighter was lurking among them.

For infiltration, I deployed my final enforcer, Tilki, at a position to flank the Delaque on the top board edge…

And my personal ace in the hole, my bounty hunter appeared in the middle of the board. Thanks to her various pieces of equipment, Kimsesys is able to move across the terrain easily, making up for her lack of ranged weapons. From this location, she could either choose to tangle with the Slavers or help clear the route for the

The Delaque infiltration was mostly filling in gaps. The main threat for me was the sniper champion nad a lasgunner taking up positions close to the target location. There was also the Delaque appearing behind cover along the vehicle route, obviously planning a quick rush to grab a loot token.

And then the bullshit began.

I MEAN, Intrigues. My opponent revealed he acquired this card from the roll. And worse the dice gods were against me. As we rolled for a which character I would be losing control of they chose…

Yalnız, the Enforcer currently sat behind the heavy stubber, with a perfect flank on my leader and main death dealer.

Well then.

Game on!

As expected and out of the gate, I wanted to shut the stubber down ASAP. For first activation, both The Captain and Tikho started dropping rounds onto the caravan (probably much to the drivers annoyance). I only managed to inflict a single flesh wound, but it was better than nothing.

On the bottom flank, a melee brawl was soon to begin. Of course, the Delaque started it off the way they usually do with a quick burst of webber fluid. Unlike in the demo game however, only one figure fell foul of the annoying stuff. Ser Hjälte, despite his best attempts, found himself tied up in the horrible goo.

I pushed forward to lock the webslinger down, using Bezlikiy and his riot shield to engage the target.

Of course, a lasgun equipped Delaque was quick to start putting lasgun shots down range, just showing how enveloped the Enforcers were.

On the main road, Kimsesys, my bounty hunter moved quickly to take out the lone gunman in the way. Although she was able to move quickly, the sneaky little Delaque managed to just about survive with a few lucky dice rolls.

Back at the caravan, the grenadier decided to move into a more dramatic position, climbing on board for a scuffle. These two would fight as the vehicle drove along.

While the Subjugator Champion was still webbed up, the Palanite Champion would now have to fight the Slavers and their pile of toys. Surprisingly, the fighting wasn’t as against the Enforcers as you might expect. The armour held, while the use of a Dum-Dum rounds as a reaction caused some damage.

Also useful in this fight was the armoured shield of Bezlikiy, the nearby Subjugator. It made his armour save stop nearly everything thrown against him, and being able to react with a higher strength pistol shot gave him the ability to react to someone attempting to chain-glaive him, seriously injuring a slaver but not taking them out of action.

On the other side of the board, the sniper and lasgunner were trading rounds with Tilki, distracting them from the main group. In fact, the sniper even managed to run out of ammo, forcing a quick reload check.

Also trading rounds with the enforcer was the other overwatching lasgunner. These two got into a little bit of a two way shooting range – turns out combat shotguns had just enough range and just enough firepower to land a hit (even if it didn’t cause a kill)

Back at the Caravan, The Captain was about to climb aboard when a lone Delaque juve came round the corner and went in all guns blazing. The shots were successful, knocking him prone before he could join the brawl on top of the vehicle.

In the midst of the street fight, the first enforcer was about to bite the dust. Distracted by a fight against the Webber gunner, the Bezlikiy didn’t spot the harpoon gun Slaver creeping up on him. With a resounding THUNK, the harpoon went through the armour and knocked down the Enforcer. Just afterwards, the Webber Champion delivered a killing blow, taking my guy out of action. And to finish off this whole fight, the currently webbed up champion also received a coup-de-grace.

On the other side of the map, the Delaque Leader started sneaking up behind the shotgun wielding enforcer on the balcony before the round ended.

At which point my opponent revealed another of his intrigues – there was more than one imposter on the board! And again, the dice rolling was here for shenanigans. Turns out the Delaque Leader was actually an imposter here to provide some information to the newly arrived McNespy Agency. Time to swap more character cards over and give me an extra ganger to use.

Another good piece of news was Kimsesys finally wining the back and forth. With them already being engaged, victory in the first action meant the second was the stomp of a servo claw onto the ganger, taking them out of action.

Of course, you can’t win all the time. Tohtori fought bravely, Stub rounds flashing in the darkness, but King of the Slaver group did one point of damage, a mastercrafted las pistol did another and then a final Delaque assault administered the coup de grace.

You can also see a similar event in the background as The Captain, injured by the burst of pistol fire was finished off by the whirring chain glaive of the slaver. Two major characters taken out in one turn, not a good event!

However, it wasn’t all going the Delaque way. As well as murdering the lone ganger in the open, Tikho had killed off the imposter on the caravan. For the moment, the caravan was relatively safe and I had some gun covering it.

Bad news – the sniper and lasgunner were about to open up. First of all, Kimsesys was hit by a round and knocked prone (although unharmed and able to roll out of the way of the oncoming caravan).

Into the Round 4 (and the final one of the evening as it was getting late and a school night) and the Delaque shooting caused more havoc. Pretty much all of the remaining fighters were knocked prone by the pair of lasguns and sniper rifle.

In fact, Kimseys was knocked prone so hard she fell off the room. Luckily the low buildings means she was okay, although I am now wondering if Catfall might have been a handy skill.

With all my activations done, the Delaque managed to get to the caravan and start looting. However, as bad as this might look, it actually wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Only four token were able to be grabbed before we called it (obviously the Whisper Broker’s guards came out to see what the gun battle was).

I had managed to withdraw a few people, preventing them from being taken out completely (or worse, captured). But the caravan got through, and only for the loss of four enforcers.

In the post game, both sides came away pretty nicely. The Delaque took no long term casualties (servo claw injuries can just be walked off) while I only had one of my casualties sent into recovery. We both raked in the cash and XP – you earn a lot of dosh from each loot token, and the Delaque getting only 4 tokens meant I still got the bonus for delivering (obviously the Whisper Broker accepts a certain amount of corruption).

I’m still working out my spending. Despite only spending two champions to the trading post (my captain being out of action and unable to go) I managed to hit a rarity of 14 and so pretty much anything legal was on the table. As much as I don’t want to waste my opportunity for some new shiny toys, I would also like to add another ganger to the board – someone with a boltgun and stub pistol would give a handy additional long range weapon, while the dum-dum rounds are handy for close quarters reaction shots.

Helena McNespy rested her armoured boots on the desk of her cabin. She lowered her sun-shades, closing them and placing the fine lenses into the top of her armour. “So, the Whisper Brokers have come round to our ways? Excellent, the Life Coin Exchange will look forward to having an inside track on the location of new bounties. Before we know it, we’ll have those underhive scum on the run.”

Across from her, Sgt Tohtori shifted uneasily, rubbing “Commander, the Delaque are…”

“A minor obstacle, nothing to be too concerned about. Once we have a foothold, we can work to break their organisation apart.” She sniffed. “Go and prepare your team for a new mission Sgt, we’ll have need of them.”

“But the Captain…” Sgt Tohtori started but a gloved hand was raised in front of him.

“The Captain will need time to recover. But don’t worry. I have heard some of the local scum wish to assist us… for a price. And thanks to your success, we have plenty of credits to go around.”

It is the end times! A pox has swept the docks of Mercy Longshore. Industry and trade have ground to a halt, and the scum of Mercy’s underdecks have floated to the surface to take advantage of the chaos. The Great Houses of Syracuse demand the trade through Mercy Longshore flows again, and have issued legions of fearsome Shimazu Enforcers to impose their will on the space port.

Will you side with the Great Houses to enforce the law on Mercy, or will you take advantage of the misrule and take what you can?

Campaign Brief

It’s finally here! The Necromunda Campaign mentioned back in the before-times has begun. A Law and Misrule campaign spread over 7 weeks, the campaign sees me going up against a collection of old university friends (wrangled by Mr Dreadquill from that blog with all the pretty words and minis) in Games Workshop’s second most unbalanced gang game (Now fight for which one is the most).

I decided to go with the Enforcers. However, Mercy Longshore already has it’s law enforcement, the dreaded Shimazu Enforcers. For this reason, I decided to make my Enforcers into the McNespy Private Security Agency, named for a past Dark Hersey character who pulled off some shenanigans. This Private Security Agency had been brought in by some of the private citizens of the station, who decided that the local boys weren’t up for the job. Hopefully the collection of misfits in green flak will be good enough to bring order to the chaos… or at least redirect the chaos elsewhere.

As the campaign begins, you’re assigned a Racket to act as your income/provide bonuses. At first, I rolled up the Witch Seeking racket (every melee weapon gets the shock bonus), until my GM pointed out all my melee weapons already have the shiny blue glow. A quick re-roll and I ended up with… Life Coin Exchange. One free bounty hunter in every game. Very handy for someone who has a model for the chain smoking Eldar version of Doc Ock, especially as the combination of gear and skills I rolled up is a terrifying prospect.

Good thing I got her because rolling up 1000 creds of Enforcers is an experience. Each enforcer comes with at least flak armour and an armoured undersuit, as well as stub pistol. This makes them on the more expensive end for individuals but does give you a pretty chonky baseline. The Subjugators are even better, the Layered Flak adding even more fun to the party.

As for the gear, I went for a 50/50 mix of Subjugators and Palanite, with each group getting a champion and two enforcers. For the Subjugators, the goal was a phalanx of armoured shields to take the brunt, with a grenade launcher to add some firepower. The Palanite was to be a bit more varied, taking a Concussion Carbine and Shotgun for their effects, as well as the Captain being from that type. The final ganger was more of a stand-in, bringing the points up to a solid 1000.

One thing I was immediately aware of when i assembled my gang was that I was really low on numbers. 7 core fighters is well below the ideal 10, and it will get worse once the injuries kick in. Luckily the campaign house rule allows for some allies to be called in if you’re under the target numbers for a scenario – I now just have to make them. I’m sure nothing bad will come of not having some gangers hanging around…

My main rival, mostly because he lives the closest to me, is one of my former housemates. Now however, he has prepared his own gang of sneaky trenchcoated folk. We played an intro game back in August, where the Delaque managed to take out an informer with ease as well as generally causing havoc so it will be interesting to see how it goes – I can see the pair of us learning to play each other’s lists well, but maybe struggling once other gangs (including a vastly more numerous Cawdor gang up beside the Tyne that I think most people are concerned about).

I’m really looking forward to this campaign. I’m expecting it will not be the smoothest progression, with a bit of a learning streak, but it will be a nice chance to meet up with people and get some games in.