[WebMonk]

I'm about to start up some more Necromunda playing, and I'm thinking of trying a different tactic than normal (at least for me). I'm going to intentionally keep my gang small, both in size and cost, and try to gain experience rapidly through the underdog exp bonuses.

If my gang is over 250 pts smaller than the other gang, then I will get 5 exp per person even if I lose. (which would be most likely) I'm planning on starting my gang at 725 pts. (the guys I play generally spend all their beginning credits)

Has anyone tried this strategy? How does it work out later in the campaign?

I'm thinking that I can get the beginning 6 characters pretty heavily advanced in just 3 or 4 games, with everyone gaining at least 3 levels. (3 or 4 games * (5 xp + 1D6 xp + wound xp)) I'm hoping to end up with a cadre of kickin characters pretty early in the campaign.

I think I can put together a small group that will be able to put out a respectable bit of hurt (Van Saar shooters) even though their overall cost is low. I'll still be around 70% of their gang rating (at the beginning), and so I think I won't be getting killed too quickly/easily.

Once I have a nicely advanced core of people, I'll start expanding with more juves, but that will be later in the game.

Has anyone tried this sort of strategy? How does it work in the long haul?

 

[p0lak]

The problem i find with this is that later on in the game, people will have a balanced gang while you will have 2-4 good ones. So most opponents will pick apart your weakling easily and just over run your better guys.Might be wrong but thats what i think will come to.

 

[tribeof1]

The idea of not spending all your credits and keeping gang rating low is actually a pretty good strategy early on, and shouldn't hack anyone off too bad as long as you don't get too cheesy by voluntarily bottling at the first opportunity and being a general munchkin.

Rather than shooting for a very small gang, you're probably better off going with minimal equipment. Grabbing a decent number of juves also works well, since they gain the most from the underdog bonus and have no XP to start, again keeping gang rating low.

I'd go for a 9-member gang that looks something like this:

Leader: boltgun and bolt pistol: 175
Heavy: shotgun: 80
Heavy: shotgun: 80
Ganger: autogun: 70
Ganger: autogun: 70
Ganger: lasgun: 75
Juve: autopistol: 40
Juve: autopistol: 40
Juve: autopistol: 40

Total: 670

It's worth laying out for the boltgun and bolt pistol for your leader so he can put his BS 4 to good use. Other weapon choices are focused on cheap with an eye toward continuing usefulness - you can swap the autoguns to your heavies as backup guns when you buy them heavy or special weapons, and the shotguns (with bolt rounds later) will be good for gangers once you've picked up a few Armorer/Weaponsmith skills. I generally avoid las-weapons with Van Saar because tech skills are wasted on weapons with 2+ ammo rolls, but you can probably pick up a hotshot pack later and the reliability will help early on.

The +2 at short range for the autopistols makes your juves a decent close range firing squad in addition to meat shield duty. For the first few gangs, your heavies can work the mid-range with their shotguns - shielding your gangers if need be so they are healthy to work territory.

Your juves will level up to ganger status quickly enough, so 3 gangers should be sufficient early on - you'll probably have one or two low income territories anyway, so this way you can just work the best three. Combined with the underdog income bonus (if you manage to win, and you might with this set up) you should have no trouble pulling in 45-55 credits profit each game.

After 3-4 games, all of your juves should be ganger level and you can spend your creds to kit the group out better, or fire any juves that have picked up nasty injuries/crap advances and hire some more. By advancing two heavies early on, you can either buy both heavy stubbers, or (if one has gained some shooty advances and the other more melee), give the stubber to the marksman and a flamer to the other. You'll likely have at least one ganger or juve with specialist, as well, so you can look toward buying plasma guns/grenade launchers for any with an improved BS or flamers for the poor shots.

The list above leaves you 95 credits if you want start with a 725 credit gang. Picking up another two juves (or 3 if you don't buy them guns) isn't bad, but puts you into the next income bracket. Alternatively, you could buy one of the heavies a flamer for close range protection, give the leader a plasma gun instead of the boltgun, or upgrade a juve or two to ganger (although the built-in XP bumps your rating and you lose out on the extra advance). Buy man-stoppers for the shotguns with any change. I would highly recommend hiring a Ratskin scout, as well, for the chance of picking up a new territory or two.

 

[WebMonk]

VERY nice advice, both p0lak and tribeof1. p0lak's concern was my own. We have made up two house rules we pick between that helps us avoid gangers dying 1/6 times we roll recovery. We still get the occasional dead gang member though, often enough to make it dangerous to try building up just 6 characters.

I like tribeof1's idea to go with multiple characters with cheaper equipment. I've never been a fan of shotguns, so I'll probably change that, and maybe go with adding in 3 more juves, just to build up more characters with experience and possible skill advances. Having 12 characters to potentially gain Shoot/Tech skills (6 of which will have 4 chances each within 3 games) sounds really nice.

Yes, the Ratskin is a must, for me. I always keep him in my calculations for cost and gang rating.

 

[realitycheque]

VERY nice advice, both p0lak and tribeof1. p0lak's concern was my own. We have made up two house rules we pick between that helps us avoid gangers dying 1/6 times we roll recovery. We still get the occasional dead gang member though, often enough to make it dangerous to try building up just 6 characters.

How do these work? Personally I LIKE the danger of 1/6 casualties dying, it keeps me careful.

 

[WebMonk]

If we roll a 1 on our first die, then we re-roll that die. If we roll another 1, we have to keep it.

In the proper rules, I've found that typically the games end through voluntary bottling because people don't want to have 6-7 recovery rolls - a very high chance of a dead ganger somewhere.

This lets us be a LOT more aggressive with our fights, typically not ending a fight until we fail a bottle roll, in hopes that we can inflict another wound or two and gain more experience. If I've lost three or four characters (assuming they aren't all new juves) and he hasn't lost a similar number, with the normal rules I'll probably voluntarily bottle out since there's very little likelihood of being able to win the fight, and even if I do, I'll probably wind up with at least 6 or 7 OOA characters to recover.

The places we still voluntarily bottle out are when we have a bunch of down fighters, and prolonging the fight will mean a lot of those fighters will be put OOA. The 50% chance of avoiding a recovery roll for a bunch of characters is more valuable than possibly getting another 5 or 10 XP.

I realize this isn't particularly realistic since undisciplined gangs don't fight to the last, but it gives us a flavor we like. It also lowers the value of the medic skill a bit, which if you think the Tech skill list is overpowered compared to the others, then that's a good thing.