So what's a Gang Raid?

[ninefinger]

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What is a Gang Raid?

Some time in the last year or two (or maybe 20, its been a pretty confusing bit of time) a pamphlet was included with a purchase of the White Dwarf titled Gang Raids.  It outlines a model for 3-6 models per side, for missions that are 'below a gang leader's notice'.  Crews are made up of 1 champion, and a selection of other gang members, sometimes custom and sometimes random.  There are 4 different missions outlined in the book, all taking place on anywhere from 2 to 7 1'x1' tiles, with humble challenges and humble rewards... usually.  There are a handful of missions in the other books, that utilize a similar crew size, and would seem to be easily adaptable to this style of mission.

 

There is a copy in the library at the clubhouse, and if you’re familiar with the seedier parts of the internet Underhive, dataslates can be found for digital reference.  However, the basics rules are easy to outline

Why to Gang Raid?

So we've made references, for the upcoming campaign, to using the rules from the Gang Raids pamphlet. Why would we do this?  One of the big bits of feedback after running a handful of successful campaigns, is that for a skirmish game, Necromunda games are often really lengthy, due to the complexity and potential number of models each turn.  Occasionally, games are hyper fast, when someone bottles early or gets ambushed in a bad way, or gets a lucky draw on objectives.  Trying to get more than one game in during a night is a risky proposition, when you're not sure if it'll take 30 minutes or 3 hours.  Being the odd one out, and waiting for an opponent to free up is also a bit of a bummer, with that range of potential downtimes.

The smaller size, both in space and number of models, should allow for quicker and more consistent playtimes, as well as eliminating the sometimes lengthy setup times for a full table.  Fewer models will also let us get a tighter focus on the rules, for both novice and veteran players, as the complexity can be overwhelming, particularly for an extended period of time.

 

How to Gang Raid?

Feel free to give me feedback, as we start moving forward, and we can certainly make adjustments.  Part of this is being baked into how we’ve presented the campaign.  My recommendation when you build your gang is to include 2 champion models - this is a legacy limit, from the early 2017 rules, but is no longer a stringent requirement for House gangs, where you can theoretically field any number of champions, as long as you have the requisite number of other gang fighters.  The campaign limit of 2 games per cycle would allow for each Champion to lead one ‘raid’.

Mission selection has also been somewhat troublesome, as there are many, with a variety of rewards.  A deck of cards, the Open Hive War cards was released for a short time, and has been duplicated via the website: https://openhivewar.com/ . I’d like for us to try using these cards, and if adjustments need to be made to the rewards, that can be an option.  In order to keep these in the spirit of a Gang Raid, instead a crew size of custom (8) or custom (12), we will use custom (4) or custom (6) respectively, with only one champion included in the selection.  Peril Cards will be used, but not in every game.  Loot cards are claimable, but please alert the Arbitrator if rewards seem particularly high.

 

We will be using the following tables for mission selection.   (Note these have been created by your Arbitrator, and wheedling, cajolery or bribes could be effective means of getting them modified.)

 

Roll a D6, 

 

• 1-3 Use the Open War Cards but do not use a Peril card.  
• 4-5 Use the Open War Cards and do use a Peril card.
• 6 Roll again on the following table for a mission from one of the books:

 

•  
  • D6 table for Gang Raids missions
  1. Shootout (Necromunda Rulebook pg 166)
  2. Bar brawl (GR)
  3. Daylight robbery (GR)
  4. Clandestine Rendezvous (GR)
  5. Propaganda (Book of Ruin pg 64)
  6. Mercator Storehouse  Heist (GR)

 

Your  arbitrator will also have physical mission briefs available at Game Nights.

 

Gang Raid Rules

 

• Players may not include a Leader as part of their crew.  When using Random Crew selection, do not include their fighter cards in the fighter deck

• Players may only include one champion as part of their crew.  For Random Crew Selection, players may choose a Champion card which is shuffled into their fighter deck.

• Players may not  include any Hangers-on, Brutes or Hired Guns as part of their crew.

• Territories or Rackets are not staked over Gang Raid Missions

• When Deploying, the Infiltrate skill may not be used - deploy any fighters with that skill as normal.

• Bottle Checks use a d3 instead of a d6.

[ninefinger]

***reserved for future posts***

[jollyork]

Love this! I just built my Ogryn crew with 2 champions, should I replace one with a ganger? It looks like the rules will never let me field both in the same game?

[Ish]

Palanite Enforcers would treat Sergeants as Champions and Patrolmen as Gangers for these rules, yes?

[scottshoemaker]

1 hour ago, jollyork said:

Love this! I just built my Ogryn crew with 2 champions, should I replace one with a ganger? It looks like the rules will never let me field both in the same game?

How many total members in your gang?

The current rules state a gang cannot have more champions/leader than gang members (gangers, juves,prospects) so a gang could be composed of 2 champions and 2 gangers. The lack of depth would be bad though.  

[ninefinger]

3 hours ago, jollyork said:

Love this! I just built my Ogryn crew with 2 champions, should I replace one with a ganger? It looks like the rules will never let me field both in the same game?

My guess is that you’d want 2 champions, to be able to play a couple games in a cycle, or if one of them ends up in recovery.   Not sure how well that plays out in a high cost gang, though.  
 

Feel free to try out whatever you think is best, and if it seems like it’s not working, we’ll let you refund somebody and make changes.

3 hours ago, Ish said:

Palanite Enforcers would treat Sergeants as Champions and Patrolmen as Gangers for these rules, yes?

Generally, yes.  Enforcers, Helot Cults, Corpse Grinder Cults, Genestealer Cults and Venator Gangs haven’t had the shift  the House gangs have to add the Gang Hierarchy and Gang Fighter rules.  Instead they typically have hard limits on the number of Champion type models they can field.  
 

For building a gang, follow the Gang Composition rules pertinent to your gang, excluding the requirement to have a leader - we’ll be adding them in another chapter. 
 

For fielding models according to the Gang Raid rules, whichever model in your ‘Book of  …’  has (champion) listed in the parentheses, you will only be able to field one in a game.