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... 

The Return of Karloth Valois - Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash

Every year I like to celebrate my birthday with a gathering of friends and a big game. I've been doing this for about the last 15-16 years. Initially it was one big game the evening of my birthday. One year it was a whole afternoon, as my birthday fell on a Saturday. After a couple years it grew into a whole WEEKEND of gaming - on the weekend closest to my birthday. Later still that moved to the Family Day weekend in mid-February... and now we've come full circle - one big game on my actual birthday! (Largely because ToonCon was just a couple weeks later, I decided to forgo a game weekend this year... or perhaps I'll host one later in the year, perhaps in the summer or fall...?)



Since this day was all about me, I started the day off right with the Breakfast of Champions - my regular Mocha smoothie, but with a bonus donut from Darkside Donuts - located just a block away from our house!



In the afternoon I got the game all set up - I knew it was going to take a while to play and this was a Tuesday evening - so a work/school night for most people. My hope was to get it done in under 4 hours.




I chose Necromunda because...well... I LOVE Necromuda and am feeling like I just haven't played enough of it lately - ALSO I'm running a game of it next weekend at ToonCon and thought I'd best get in one more practice/playtest of the scenario before so!

The scenario was The Return of Karloth Valois! I played Karloth and his horde of Plague Zombies - and a few Scavvies working for him. I had five players out (and a couple others stopped by briefly to say "hi" and "happy birthday" and see what was going on). Each played a different gang/faction - they common goal was to stop Valois - if Valois escaped the table THEY ALL LOSE!

I did keep track of Victory Points, however, to determine a "winner" - assuming they stopped Valois! One Victory Point was given for each Zombie, Scavvy or enemy Ganger taken out of action, TWO Victory points given for each enemy gang leader or champion taken out of action or each wound dealt to Valois, and FIVE Victory Points given for taken out Valois. In addition to this, however, each gang had its own "Secret Agenda" - something else their gang could do which would gain them extra victory points... I'm not going to go into those in THIS Game Report as there is a chance one of those players for next week might be reading and... well... they ARE supposed to be SECRET! (I'll let you know what they were in the ToonCon game report!)



Other Tim played a squad of Enforcers.



Jacob played a Crusade of Rademptionists.



Kurtis played a Cawdor gang.



Rick played a Delaque gang.



And Aaron played the Escher Gang.



Right off the hop, Kurtis sent his Cawdor Champion up the middle, with his Heavy Stubber, thinking that would be useful to stop the oncoming horde. The redemptionists didn't think it was so necessary and REdemptress Jezebel reduced him to a pile of ash and puddle of melted metal with her Melta Gun...

Yikes!

Didn't expect the inter-gang fighting to get started off so quickly! At that point I warned them that Valois and the Zombies were NASTY and if they kept that up they had NO HOPE of defeating him.

I should have kept my mouth shut and just let them fight...



Tim (Enforcers), Aaron (Escher), and Kurtis (Cawdor).



Kurtis (Cawdor), Rick (Delaque), and Jacob (Redemptionists)



End of Round One - the Horde moves out.



The Redmptionists were doing pretty good to start off - burning Zombies and Scavvies - then started taking fire from flanking Scavvies.



Scavvy that took three or four blasts from Enforcer Shredder shots to take out... Need to play the Scavvies a bit smarter - and be a bit more concerned about those Enforcers!!



Escher and Cawdor trying to set up a defensive line.



Escher taking the brunt of the Zombie attack.







Doelgr (Scavvy Champion) got into a protracted firefight with the Redemptionists taking turns pinning each other - eventually the Redemptress ran out of ammo on the Melta Gun (and everybody breathed a HUGE sign of relief - after having seen what it could do to a champion in the first round!)



Enforcers sneaking in behind Valois and his horde.



Rick, planning his course of action.



Enforcers unleashing shredder salvoes and not really caring who is caught in them... They made a mess of the Zombies.



massive line of defence that Valois and his horde had to fight its way through - while being blasted to bits from behind by the Enforcers.



Valois' horde looking a little thin on the ground...



And then, as it looked like the Enforcers were going to finish off Valois, the Delaque gang started killing other gangers...



Including their leader!



BLAM! Enforcer took down Valois.

DAMN! Those Enforcer shotguns are NASTY! I'm feeling a little like I should leave the Enforcers at home... I did set the game limit at FOUR for ToonCon... I was planning on brining enough for six to play (if other people showed up and wanted to join in... but now I'm thinking I might just stick with four - though I REALLY liked the Enforcers Secret Agenda!)



Losses weren't terribly high. There were a lot of serious injuries, but I think most gangs only lost one ganger Out of Action- the exception being Cawdor which lost both Leader and Champion. A few of them bottled out, and the entire Redemptionist crew up and fled the field at the beginning of the second last turn.

Good fun was had by all. I think the scenarios going to work out quite well for ToonCon. I think it took us 4.5 hours to play through the game - the exact time I have to run it at ToonCon - and that included explaining the scenario AND explaining all the rules (Aaron and Tim had never played Necromunda and Kurtis had never played a miniature game!).


Coming Soon to Tim's Miniature Wargaming Blog:

A round-up of all the other games I played in February - not nearly so many as I had planned!!!

After that some pics of a few miniatures that have been trickling off the workbench this last week!

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!!