Koyote

Be thankful for that. Last night I accidentally stabbed myself in the chest with a hobby knife. I have no f'ing clue how I did it. I was at home, in my office, working on magnetizing my Cawdor when I fumbled my knife (must have rolled a '1'). I juggled the fallen knife for a second or two and the next thing I knew the xacto blade had gone through my hoodie, my t-shirt, and into my chest. It stopped when it hit a rib. Thank goodness it didn't stick into it the bone. I yanked it out and pulled up my shirt before it started to bleed. The wound was quarter-inch long horizontal cut an inch to the left of my sternum. I'm glad I didn't stick myself any further to the left because then it would have gone through a lot more muscle. It bled quite a bit at first, but I applied direct pressure to it and it slowed enough for me to put a Mickey Mouse band aid on it and get back to work on my Cawdor. Good times.

Since all of the campaign's scenarios will be played using Zone Mortalis terrain, Nox and Howler have exchanged their reclaimed autoguns for shotguns. In general, I prefer to play WYSWIG, so I've begun to 'magnetize' some of my models' weapons. The smallest magnets I have on hand are 1.5mm, but as you can see from the photos they are a tad too big for the Cawdors' spindly little arms. Where the drill bit that I used to drill the spotface holes broke through the sides of the arms, I used GS to patch and reinforce the surrounding material. The cowls' shoulder drapes conceal the point where the arm meets the body, so I was able to use slightly larger (and stronger) magnets in the models' armpits. The FW Cawdor Weapon Sets 1 and 2 include sawn-off shotguns, but not shotguns. Using some plastic dowel cut from a GW SM bike flag pole/antenna, I extended the sawn-off shotguns' barrels and added tubular magazines.

The store's intern is running the campaign. You can find the rules on the DT Facebook page under Events. https://www.facebook.com/events/212750856268703/

I spent last night 'magnetizing' some of my Cawdor minis, using a pin vice to drill spotface holes. I'm using 1.5 mm magnets and they are a tad too big for the Cawdor's spindly arms and wrists. Where the arms meet the body is easy, because it's concealed by the shoulder drapes, it's the wrists that are causing me the most grief. Orlocks have thicker limbs, so the 2mm magnets may work, but if you plan to magnetize your Cawdor, you may need to buy smaller magnets.

I know. It's sad. I have a sickness.

When it's time for me to build a 3D board, I'll definitely have to include some of Promethium Forge's can terrain. I like that the cans completely block LOS. I also like the the guard rails are solid rather than simply rails. The solid rails justify a cover save. I look forward to seeing what you do with all of this.

The first game of the campaign went well for my Cawdor gang, the Second Sons. We played the Zone Mortalis Tunnel Skirmish scenario. My opponent played a Genestealer Cult. Except for his leader, familiar, and an aberrant, all of the cultists were equipped with hazard suits, making them immune to the Blaze rule. Doh! The game began with the Genestealer Cult's champions (Hybrid Acolytes) infiltrating 9 inches down the corridor from my gang. One was equipped with mining lasers (the champ's 3rd arm allowed it to move and shoot the heavy weapon -yikes!) and the other was equipped for close combat. The two champions were hiding around a corner at the end of the hall, so they were out of LOS and charge range. I won the first priority roll and group activated a champion and a ganger. I moved the ganger (aptly named Demo) 5 inches down the hall and lobbed a blasting charge another 6 inches. The 5" template's hole cleared the end of the corridor's walls, catching the concealed Genestealer champions in the blast. The fighter with the mining laser was taken out-of-action and the other was unhurt, but knocked down. The knocked down cult champion eventually got back up and caused a little trouble a turn or two later, but shortly thereafter, I severely wound him with a long range autogun shot, and then Demo ran over and took him out-of-action with his flail. This particular Genestealer Cult is led by a Cult Adept "equipped" with a psychic familiar. Boy, that familiar was a pain in the ass! If my opponent had played less aggressively with him, I don't know how I would have taken him out. Fortunately, he elected to move the Cult Adept and familiar to my right flank, unsupported. This let me group activate my leader and 2 gangers and exploit the Omen of Fortune's limitation of avoiding "one successful hit per turn". It took a couple turns but I managed to set the Adept on fire and then chase him down the corridor to finish him off in melee. Lady luck smiled on me for the third time during Round 1 when a cultist smashed open a loot casket, triggering a booby trap. The blast knocked down 4 cultists and 1 or 2 of them suffered a flesh wound. The game ended on Round 5 or 6 with all the Genestealer Cultists out-of-action. Only two of my models went out, a ganger and my champion equipped with the Cawdor heavy crossbow. My ganger received the Out Cold result (no effect). I rolled a 66 for my champion and his spirit was released to join The Emperor. Thankfully, I ended the game with models on the table, so I was able to reclaim my dead champion's crossbow. Losing the crossbow would of cost me 125 credits to replace. Yikes! One of our campaign house-rules allows players who perform a coup de grace to elect to "knock out" their opponent rather than taking the fighter out-of-action per the standard rules. If a fighter "knocks out" an opponent, that fighter earns an extra xp. A fighter who is knocked out is removed from the game, but does not roll on the injury table. The rule's purpose is to make the games a bit less deadly with the aim of reducing the kinds of crippling losses that make players drop out of campaigns. My leader "knocked out" the Cult Adept, took a ganger out-of-action, was the winning leader, and survived the game, so he ended up with 7 xp. That's enough for some advances, but I think I'll hold on to the xp and save up for a toughness increase or possibly an extra wound. Demo received 6 xp for taking a champ out-of-action, performing a "knock out" coup de grace on a second champ, and surviving the game. His BS is now 3+. Ha ha ha. All the better to blow things up with. After a rough start, Cage managed to earn himself 3 xp. I spent the xp to increase his Intelligence stat because I now have the credits to purchase bomb delivery rats. Squeak-BOOM! Another campaign house-rule modifies the loot caskets table, making it significantly more generous. A 2-4 produces 2d6x10 credits. I opened 2 loot caskets (both had credits), won the game, collected the bounty for taking a Non-Sanction Psyker out-of-action, and collected income from the Settlement that I began with and the Refuse Drift territory that I won in the fight. I also managed to capture one of the Neophyte Hybrids and I ransomed it for 50 credits. My sum total was 375 credits. Crazy! I used my ill gotten gains to replace my dead champion and add a third champion to my roster. I purchased shotguns for Howler and Nox, bomb delivery rats for Cage, and plasma pistol & flail for my new Champion, Crow. Crow (Champion)

Nice. Incorporating cans into the MDF terrain is a brilliant idea. What faction are you playing?

Cage (Champion), Grist (Champion), Cutter John (Leader) Ash, Nox, Echo (Gangers) Demo, Howler, Cowl (Gangers)

Those are very nice. They even come with hand holding a detonator switch. Sold!

Making my own bomb rats would be a simple conversion, but these little fellas are amazing, so I'll probably use rat proxies until these models are available.

Is he thinking about playing a Dominion campaign or a campaign of his own design? What are the houses of the 4 players?

Can you make it to DT on the weekends? Who is David? Is there a campaign in the works?

Sweet! My gang is still in the WIP stage, but it is assembled enough to play. I have the Cawdor card, but not my dice yet. Speaking of cards... The fighter cards are a cool idea, especially for scenarios that require the selection of random fighters, but House Gang card decks don't give you enough for a proper gang and it doesn't look like GW sells them separately. Also, unless you laminate them, they are one use, no? I suppose one can print their own, but I like feel of cards printed on card stock. What's your availability like on the weekends?

I told myself that if I get into Necromunda, I won't go hog wild and build a full table of terrain for it. I'd play on store terrain or other players' tables. However, I am intrigued by the two types of play, Sector Mechanicus and Zone Mortalis. I've always like the look of Zone Mortalis boards, but since I've hung up my bolter and chainsword, I haven't had much use for Zone Mortalis terrain, until now. Giving FW a car payment for 15 pounds of toxic resin isn't very appealing; however, I recently learned that Death Ray Designs sells a nice MDF alternative. Even better, one of Death Ray's kits, the Deadbolt’s Derelict Corridors Bundle, appears to have been designed specifically for the Necromunda tiles and scenarios, and you get it all for only $130. I can see myself using the Death Ray walls and Necromunda tiles for TNT as well. Hmm? Not bad. Not bad at all.

So I've decided to take the plunge and play Necromunda. Returning to the GW fold makes me feel kinda icky, but I'll just keep telling myself that it's "Specialist Games". Based upon from what I've read on the interwebs and my own observations, the House I've chosen, Cawdor, isn't really good at any one thing, so it's a bit of an underdog gang. Nevertheless, I love the models and I'm eager to get started. Overall, the stats of Cawdor fighters are slightly worse than those of other houses, but in exchange they are less expensive. Similarly, some of their equipment is inferior, but again, this appears to be balanced out by a decrease in price. Taken together, I was initially convinced that Cawdor gangs are supposed to make up for what they lack in stats and equipment with gang size, so my first shot at a 1000 credit Cawdor list included 12 models. However, this notion got thrown out the window when I got a look at the scenarios in the Necromunda Rulebook, where many, if not most, restrict the gang size to a randomly generated number between 4 and 7 models. So I went back to the drawing board and designed a gang comprised of 10 models. The credits not spent on the gangers number 11 and 12 were instead spent on extra equipment. Leader: polearm-autogun, flail, mesh armor, & bulging biceps Champion: cawdor heavy crossbow, & headbutt Champion: long rifle, flail, auto-pistol, & bull charge Ganger: polearm-blunderbuss Ganger: polearm-blunderbuss Ganger: reclaimed autogun & axe Ganger: reclaimed autogun & axe Ganger: flail & reclaimed auto-pistol Ganger: flail & reclaimed auto-pistol Juve: stubgun, auto-pistol, & flak armor If I were to use this in campaign play, my priority post-game purchases would include smoke grenades, incendiary grenades, a cult icon, and bomb delivery rats. The cawdor polearm weapons appear to be a point of contention with the internetz chattering class, but they look cool and if used correctly, can give my gang some modest advantages -namely, the ability to deny some reaction attacks and equip models with half-price hand flamers. Equipping my leader with a polearm-autogun isn't optimal, but the model pictured below is my favorite out-of-the box pose, so that model is going to be my leader. I'll give him a different head, a flail hanging from his belt, and add a bit of bling, but that's probably about it. Since this is going to be primarily a painting project (I typically spend much more time painting than playing), I spent a lot of time looking online at how others have painted their Cawdor. I decided to shamelessly steal someone else's color scheme, and paint them yellow and black. The Imperial Fists recruit from Necromunda, so perhaps my gang's color is meant to emulate the Emperor's angels of death? WIP pics to follow...

Ok. Thanks. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't missing something.

Overall, the stats of Cawdor fighters are slightly worse than those of other houses, but in exchange they are less expensive. Similarly, some of their equipment is inferior, but again, this appears to be balanced out by a decrease in price. Taken together, this led me to believe that Cawdor gangs are supposed to make up for what they lack in stats and equipment with gang size, so my first shot at a Cawdor list included 12 models. However, this notion got thrown out the window when I got a look at the scenarios in the Necromunda Rulebook, where many, if not most, restrict the gang size to a randomly generated number between 4 and either 7, 8, or 9. If Cawdor are required by scenario to field roughly the same number of fighters as their opponents, and on average, field slightly inferior fighters with worse equipment, what's their angle? Is the intention to use the discounted prices to buy extra weapons and equipment for their fighters? Is it their access to weapons with the Blaze trait? Do they have above average Tactic cards? Or do stat & skill advances plus increased access to a wider variety of weapons and wargear naturally even out the gangs after a few games?

Wasteland Hunter and Deadman (woman)

The newest member of my family arrived January 21st. Mother and baby are doing great. So, once things get a bit more settled in my household, I will take you up on your offer. In the meantime, I would like hear (read) your take on the game. Thanks.

I'm kinda-sorta-maybe getting interested in Necromunda. Can anyone tell me how it plays? What are its strengths and weaknesses? My interest in the game stems from nostalgia of the original Necromunda and my love for the new Cawdor kit & FW weapon upgrades. My plan to use Cawdor minis as TNT Raiders, so I won't use the Cawdor heads. I also plan to magnetize many of the weapons, so I can upgrade at will and use the models for both games. Now that I think about it, if I magnetize the heads, I could play them as a Cawdor or as a Genestealer Cult. I read the new Necromunda fluff, and one of the splinter cults passes themselves off as servants of House Cawdor. They call themselves the Resurrected.

What began as me painting a few models to serve as unusual antagonists for a Mordheim campaign's final game ended up as full blown Carnival of Chaos warband. You'll never see a brighter or cleaner cult of Nurgle worshipers. 😉 Carnival Master & (counts-as) Nurglings Brutes Plaguebearer & Tainted Ones Brethren WIP Plague Cart The first Plaguebearer that I painted turned out pretty good. It is much more in line with what one thinks of when one imagines a daemon of Nurgle, but it just didn't fit in with the rest of the warband. It's too dark and dirty, so the Carnival Master summoned one a bit less far gone and then sent it to the carnival's make-up artist for a makeover. 🙂

Cool. I've never seen the Gunnery School warband played. Let me know how it goes.

The baby is due in the next couple of weeks, so I've decided to put the campaign on hold for a month or two. I know that the holidays put a lot of people behind, so if you want to use this opportunity to catch up and play all six scenarios, you are certainly welcome to do so. I don't know how much I'll be in the shop over the next couple of months, so I'll take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy new year.

Thanks for the input. I'll move the scope forward. 🙂