Choosing a Heavy weapon

Your heavy weapon is the single most expensive item of your gang, period. It should be chosen with care, as you are unlikely to swap it for another. Foreplan which couple of weapons you want to end up with and purchase the most expensive one right from the start. If you buy a second heavy weapon during the campaign, a heavy stubber at 120 credits is usually the best choice, or a Heavy Bolter if other gangs are getting tough. But what should be the first one?

The Laser Cannon is the most impressive of all, but frankly its cost doesn't reflect its effectiveness. The price tag of an anti-tank weapon is insane in the hive, where targets are man-sized. The Lascannon is unable to kill more than one ganger at a time, but has an undeniable psychological effect: each ganger hit is likely to become dead meat. I've rarely encountered a lascannon in the hive but I've never seen any ganger survive a wounding hit either. Even with those impressive destructive abilities, in my opinion the lascannon is overpriced. Choose one only if you are fond of display.

The Auto-cannon does not appear often in the hive, mainly because there are no Heavy miniature wielding one. It suffers from the same drawbacks than the Lascannon: wiping out a single model, at best, is not enough. The effects of the Auto-cannon are less impressive than its laser counterpart but its price is also more affordable. It is not enough to make it a popular choice.

The Heavy Plasma Gun is a common choice for gangs who have access to this delicate weaponry. There are two levels of energy for each shot. The low level is usually enough to rip anything, but the high level is even better, reducing any unlucky target to a pile of dust. In Necromunda, all missing template shots scatter, so you are likely to hit something anyway. The template also means you can wound enemy gangers stacked together. Of course, your opponent will space his fighters to avoid that, but it makes his whole gang weaker for morale tests. When shooting at a high energy level, the plasma gun spends the following turn building up energy again so it can't shoot, but that doesn't prevent the Heavy carrying it to move. So if you plan to move your Heavy out of harm's way the following turn, pull the trigger for full power before you go!

The Heavy Bolter could be the perfect weapon - Strength 5 hits causing multiple wounds, plenty of sustained fire dice and a moderate price tag - but suffers from an horrendous ammo roll. You are very likely to run out of ammunition quickly. Tech skills, always accessible to Heavies, and rare items that can solve this problem. If you manage to get better ammo rolls, then go for it!
If you plan to give this to your starting gang, then you may give an extra ranged weapon to your Heavy.

The Missile Launcher is an odd choice. Krak missiles are designed for tank hunting and are overkill in the Underhive, duplicating the Laser Cannon effects in a less impressive manner. Frag missiles can lay the largest template in the game, but with insufficient strength for a killer effect on experienced gangs - it really can't compare to the damage a Heavy Plasma Gun inflicts. The frag template is so large that when scattering it may catch something, even your own Gangers. Only shooty Houses should make any use of the missile launcher.

The Heavy Stubber is the poor man's heavy weapon, close to the Heavy Bolter but inferior in almost every aspect. Affordable, useful in a starting or in mid-campaign, it becomes next to useless when gangs become powerful. Inflicting Strength 4 hits causing just one wound is not enough to stop the monstrosities that wander in the underworld, especially with a -1 save modifier.

Other powerful weapons exist in the special weapon list, like Grenade Launchers and Meltaguns, but they don't come close to heavy weapons: they are all either weaker or force the Heavy to be dangerously exposed to use them because of their short range. The flamer is a noticeable exception: it's really a dangerous tool. Giving special weapons to Heavies can be an odd choice to surprise your opponents and only cost a fraction of the heavier guns.It gives a very different feel to your gang and appropriate territories - Tunnels or Vents - come handy for this different style, allowing the Heavy to be deployed close to his targets and then... Open fire, literally.

Gun shots break the silence of Necromunda underworld.

In-Game Tactics

Your gangers should not be deployed alone, but in groups of 2-3 members at least. A lone fighter has a lot of trouble standing up, and he's done for as soon as he loses a round of close-combat. A group of several members can help each other and swarm opponents. A typical spearhead is made of one Ganger and two Juves, the juves moving forward with hand-to-hand weapons, while the Ganger delivers shotgun hits. The shotgun is a weapon of choice when you expect to get close, since it can negates cover saves. Flamers fall in this category also, but require to get dangerously close, and since they're specialist weapons they are scarcely available.

Hiding is also a mixed blessing. Hidden models can't be shot at, but since it's unlikely to have all your gang hidden at once, your are just forcing your opponent into alternate targets. A fighter should hide only if it can prevent an enemy model from firing at all. If some of your gangers share interesting Stealth skills, you can make a group from them.
Going for a complete opposite is also a viable tactic - but only if you have more than your share of Juves. The trick is to expose them to incoming fire. They may not survive long in that role, but their sacrifice may be worth it. Some protective items, giving a good armor save can help a lot. Of course, the bait will be hit, but a Juve hasn't more chances of rolling a "Dead" result on the wound chart than any experienced Ganger. And if he dies, you can give his flak vest to someone else (evil grin). Since your Juves will spend most of their time lying on the ground spilling blood, no need to give them a lot of gear. If you rolled one or two Colonies for your territories, you'll get Juves very often to make up for your losses.

Your Heavy is your most expensive ganger, even more than your Leader. Since in Necromunda each opponent has to shoot at the closest target, make sure that your Heavy is never the closest target. Even better, deploy your whole gang whith the Heavy on the rear, so he's among the last fighters to be targeted, no matter the losses. It's saddening when a Ganger is deployed as a bodyguard, gets shot at, and leaves the Heavy exposed to the whole enemy gang.

Run away!

In Necromunda, it's not very rewarding to fight until the bitter end. The only difference between victory and defeat is +1 EXP for every member against superior odds, and +10 EXP for your leader. Of course, if you beat a seasoned gang you will earn a cash bonus, but it's usually harder that it seems. If two gangs fight three times in a row and the second flees all the time while having better territories than the first one, this gang will come ahead quickly.

Since you can flee as soon as you have reached 25% casualties (that's two to three downed members) the game can stop very quickly. You can lose a lot from a protracted fight: serious wounds, kills, captured gangers, and so on. Even in scenarios where your gang can plunder some booty, every Ganger down is one less Ganger sent to collect income from your territories. Between-game rolls are more rewarding than the fight. Every game, win or lose, allows a gang to collect income and to roll for rare items.

Since it's more interesting to flee two battles than to win a single one, I suggest a rule change to make victory more appealing: for example, models down at the end of the game may suffer from a serious wound on a roll of 5-6 instead of the usual 4-6, representing how their comrades can come to help them once their gang dominates the battlefield. It's up to your gaming group to adopt such a modification to Necromunda rules. But through experience, with closely matched gangs, we discovered quickly that fleeing was more rewarding than fighting and the game ended as soon as one side had reached the minimum two casualties. We spent more time in campaign rolls than actually playing the game...

Becoming an Outlaw

Outlander gangs have no such dilemma since they're outlaws by definition. But for a seasoned gang, becoming an outlaw may be interesting. The right question is - when? Timing is everything.

Welcome! (miniature painted by Gaël)

As soon as your gang is outlawed, rules for income are completely different. You lose all your territories except one. As it may sound like a curse, it's far from it since your income is not limited anymore by the number of fighters in your gang. Just one ganger alive and well after a game is enough to get all the income. If your only territory is a good one (bringing 1D6 x 10 credits or even 2D6 x 10 ones), your income will stay reasonable even when halved. So, avoid being outlawed if you don't hold such a valuable territory. But if you hold one and lead a numerous gang, don't be afraid at all! Unwounded models can be sent out to gather food - even Juves - and even if you have to pay 3 credit per gang member the cash flow is usually better for a large outlaw gang!

A 10-man strong gang with a reasonably good territory (Mushroom bed, Mine packed with slaves) can cross the red line with confidence. Other players of your group may even be afraid by your nonchalance...

If you decide to fall for the dark side (figuratively speaking, there's no good side in Necromunda) do so with style, at your pace. Gather some credits, buy all the Juves you can for your last scenario, and throw your gang into a Caravan Raid! It can bring an impressive amount of loot, and killing a merchant will avoid the dilemma of paying a fee to lift your outlaw status. Becoming an outlaw is not a big deal if you have plenty of cash and a good territory.

Retiring your gang

Choosing when to retire is always a tricky decision. Too early, and your new gang will be wiped out every time when fighting one of the seasoned gangs remaining. Too late, and the games become too complex and annoying - the combination of better profile, skills and dedicated equipment being able to turn a gang in a near-invincible striking force.

In my opinion, whenever a gang reaches the 2'000 pts limit it becomes barely playable. It's a general consensus of course; depending on your rolls, you may have a rather weak force at 2'000 pts (for example if you loaded your gang with utility equipment or two weapons for everyone) or really a bunch of killers. In one of our campaigns, I sometimes fired gangers getting high on experience but without any interesting skill to replace them by fresh meat. This way I ensured the ruthless efficiency of my force by filtering out the weakest elements. I'm not sure this tactic was really fair...

When you retire your gang, you have the option of buying back some of the fighters for your new gang, paying their total value (base + experience) as some kind of "penalty". This penalty is a rather light one, and by choosing the best fighters as a frame for the new gang a second-generation group can really devastate any fresh opponent built with 1'000 credits.

Ideally, retiring a gang should be a rule for a group and not only a decision by a player. If a veteran gamer refuses to give up at some point, the league play may become annoying. Here are several suggestions that you may introduce for your group of players. Feel free to pick any or all suggestions from this list.

The last suggestion is a bit tricky but it's very funny to have a rule for random retirement! It only happens after a victory and avoids all the reorganization a player can do to optimize his next-generation gang. The purpose of all those optional rules is to make next-generation gangs slightly more appealing, especially in a campaign where gangs are strong, and keeping the pressure (with Deed of Valour) on players that keep running the same gang for too long.

Maybe time to hole up...

published on 18 Mar 2005