N18 Delaque Starting Gang list

Rygel

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Jan 6, 2024
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Hey all, it's been years since I've played any Necromunda, and I've got the opportunity to join one of my gaming groups, who are starting up a Necromunda campaing (no vehicles to begin with, and maybe in about 6-12 months, we'll look to transition some of the play into the outskirts/wastes). And I'm trying to put together a Delaque list, so any suggestions, critiques or tips would be appreciated.

The Wraith Spiders

I was thinking that I'd like to ensure I've got the most activations on the board (we have a goliath player and an enforcer who'll only have 4-6 elite/beefed up gangers, but everyone else is hovering around the 7-9 member mark), early game (as well as be more juve heavy than ganger heavy, as more of a long term investment, same reason why my Leader has Mentor, and my Phantom has Fixer.. play the medium to long game, and build up momentum with extra early game income and XP spending).

I was also thinking of maybe dropping something somewhere, and upgrade my Leader's Shock Stave and my Phantom's Long Rifle to be master crafted (Phantom will be grabbing Overwatch asap, while benefiting from the Fixer income asap)
 
Hey all, it's been years since I've played any Necromunda, and I've got the opportunity to join one of my gaming groups, who are starting up a Necromunda campaing (no vehicles to begin with, and maybe in about 6-12 months, we'll look to transition some of the play into the outskirts/wastes). And I'm trying to put together a Delaque list, so any suggestions, critiques or tips would be appreciated.

The Wraith Spiders

I was thinking that I'd like to ensure I've got the most activations on the board (we have a goliath player and an enforcer who'll only have 4-6 elite/beefed up gangers, but everyone else is hovering around the 7-9 member mark), early game (as well as be more juve heavy than ganger heavy, as more of a long term investment, same reason why my Leader has Mentor, and my Phantom has Fixer.. play the medium to long game, and build up momentum with extra early game income and XP spending).

I was also thinking of maybe dropping something somewhere, and upgrade my Leader's Shock Stave and my Phantom's Long Rifle to be master crafted (Phantom will be grabbing Overwatch asap, while benefiting from the Fixer income asap)
I am also hoping to eventually be able to afford a second Nacht-Ghul and/or an Infiltrator Phantom (webgunner or plasma gunner) to make them absolutely tear through vulnerable flanks of the enemies.
 
The shock stave on your leader, auto pistol on your long rifle champ, and auto pistol on your web pistol juve stand out to me as a bit unnecessary.

Armor undersuits are usually not a founding gang purchase. That 50 credits could probably be applied elsewhere and/or keep the one on the ghul as they are often in risky positions.

Your leader using the plasma wants to hang out in the 12"ish range (for the plasma short range). He is also going to want hang out within 6" of the juves if you want to power level them with mentor. Mentor also requires the juves to do something that can earn them xp in order to get the bonus xp. You need to consider what range you want your leader playing at, as well as the fighters you are trying to mentor.

It's risky to expose your leader for close combat as he's only so so at it (hence me questioning the purpose of the shock staff).

Bear in mind that juves/gangers/specialists are heavily limited on what they can equip. They can only use weapons off their house list (they can't use trading post weapons).

You're really going to be lacking fire power in most games (especially vs T4 goliaths).

I personally am not very impressed with long rifles. The range they have is often way too much. They rarely get the long range modifier (depending on what size board you all are going to play on). They just never seem to do much when the fighters that can use them can use better weapons instead. On the other hand, there are other players that like them a lot.

I'd probably drop the long rifle off your champ in favor of something else:
- plasma gun/pistol
- web gun/pistol
- grav weapons can be fun, but your going against goliath so probably not a good buy.
- flamer/hand flamer
- meltagun

Delaque are a challenging gang to play:
- van saar will out long range you.
- orlocks will out mid range you.
- goliath will our short range you.
- cawdor will out swarm/template you.

You need to play with with finesse and pick fights were you won't be taking a lot of return fire.

On a personal note, I like the psyker flavor of delaque a lot. The whispers are usually pretty niche, and even in their niche not all that good, but the outcast powers are very strong if you can get enough xp to get them.
 
So activation economy is a great thing but it's better to have effective models than just adding bloat.

You have 4 juves with very little killing power, sure they're cheap but you're going to have to spend on them to make them any good, which means you're carrying that expense in models for a while.

HugeSamples cost reductions above is a good start, I'd swap the web pistol onto a juve since it doesn't need BS to hit people and Juves have a better movement stat, so have a better threat range with a template.

I'm not as anti long-rifles, they're a cheap, reliable S4, however a sniper character would do better with Overwatch, for board control, or Infiltrate to put them in the best firing position turn 1 over Fixer.

Shotguns are good cheap weapons for dealing with Goliath, the solid slug has a S4, D2 shot at 18" range which works a heck of a lot better than auto/lasguns, also keeps you clear of the 12" range Enforcers like to work at.

I'd think about whether trimming a juve or two would allow you to upgun your firing line and add some real killing power.
 
How about this modification to the gang:


(for some reason I am unable to give my Champion the Master Crafted Long Rifle custom weapon profile I made, if I can, then I'll take the Autopistol from the Nacht-ghul and upgrade the Long Rifle to MC)

I've removed a juve, and Leader's Shock Stave, and armoured undersuit, and gave another juve a web pistol (so now 2 web pistols), and gave my ganger a shotgun instead of a lasgun. (so now I'll have 2 juves using templates to lay down a lot of webbing, and the 2 other juves can be CDG machines vs webbed or lay in some more pinning attempts or act as a bit of a meat shield to the higher value models behind them), the leader being there to Mentor and while having his plasma gun and the shotgunner deal some stronger hits, while the 2 long rifles do their best to pin or wound high value targets.

I still really like the idea of having my champ be a Fixer, to increase early game gang income, to be able to outpace the other gangs on the equipment and higher end gang member acquisition, but I plan on getting them overwatch asap.


As for Psychic stuff, I might drop another juve to be able to get my leader to become a psyker, but I'm not sure which power to focus on, (tho him being a mentor and close to other gang members would definitely mean he'll get the psychoteric choir boost more often than not)
 
How about this modification to the gang:


(for some reason I am unable to give my Champion the Master Crafted Long Rifle custom weapon profile I made, if I can, then I'll take the Autopistol from the Nacht-ghul and upgrade the Long Rifle to MC)

I've removed a juve, and Leader's Shock Stave, and armoured undersuit, and gave another juve a web pistol (so now 2 web pistols), and gave my ganger a shotgun instead of a lasgun. (so now I'll have 2 juves using templates to lay down a lot of webbing, and the 2 other juves can be CDG machines vs webbed or lay in some more pinning attempts or act as a bit of a meat shield to the higher value models behind them), the leader being there to Mentor and while having his plasma gun and the shotgunner deal some stronger hits, while the 2 long rifles do their best to pin or wound high value targets.

I still really like the idea of having my champ be a Fixer, to increase early game gang income, to be able to outpace the other gangs on the equipment and higher end gang member acquisition, but I plan on getting them overwatch asap.


As for Psychic stuff, I might drop another juve to be able to get my leader to become a psyker, but I'm not sure which power to focus on, (tho him being a mentor and close to other gang members would definitely mean he'll get the psychoteric choir boost more often than not)
I think you're going to have a hard time getting the 9xp you need to get the long rifle champion overwatch. He'll be out of mentor range most of the time. He's got a 1 damage weapon. Strength 4 is good, but it's not great (especially with goliath on the board). Very rarely will he get the long range modifier to hit.

Fixer is a great skill, but I'd get your champ a better gun if you want to go that route. Something like a shotgun with execution shells (+1 to hit at long range, S4, D2, AP-2) if you want to keep things cheap. Executioner shells are also excellent for overwatch.

Champions and leaders are your star players, they need to be getting things done.

I wouldn't make your leader a psyker.
- he's going to need to level leadership to increase the likelihood that mentor goes off.
- he doesn't have easy access to the psy-touched skill (perils of the warp can be really devastating).
- he's going to need to be leveling his combat stats--BS/T/W.

If you want to go that route I'd probably drop a juve or two and get a psy-gheist to level up.

That said spatial psychosis is a nice backup when the plasma gun runs out of ammo.

As far as the whispers go, the generally useful ones are:
- spatial psychosis
- penumbral mirror

The other whispers are generally too short range or specialized to use without one of the "node" models--psychoteric wyrms/thralls.

If you do have a wyrm or thrall then more options open up:
- existential barrage
- terrible truths
- unrememberable utterance
- deceitful thoughts
- suicidal embrace (good vs low intelligence, close combat gangs like goliath)
- opprobrious curse
- eternal slumber (combos well with web weapons)

It also sounds like you are trying to go the economic advantage route. Per the new rules you can start with a hanger-on. A whisper merchant will quickly pay for itself and then some.
 
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I think you're going to have a hard time getting the 9xp you need to get the long rifle champion overwatch. He'll be out of mentor range most of the time. He's got a 1 damage weapon. Strength 4 is good, but it's not great (especially with goliath on the board). Very rarely will he get the long range modifier to hit.

Fixer is a great skill, but I'd get your champ a better gun if you want to go that route. Something like a shotgun with execution shells (+1 to hit at long range, S4, D2, AP-2) if you want to keep things cheap. Executioner shells are also excellent for overwatch.

Champions and leaders are your star players, they need to be getting things done.

I wouldn't make your leader a psyker.
- he's going to need to level leadership to increase the likelihood that mentor goes off.
- he doesn't have easy access to the psy-touched skill (perils of the warp can be really devastating).
- he's going to need to be leveling his combat stats--BS/T/W.

If you want to go that route I'd probably drop a juve or two and get a psy-gheist to level up.

That said spatial psychosis is a nice backup when the plasma gun runs out of ammo.

As far as the whispers go, the generally useful ones are:
- spatial psychosis
- penumbral mirror

The other whispers are generally too short range or specialized to use without one of the "node" models--psychoteric wyrms/thralls.

If you do have a wyrm or thrall then more options open up:
- existential barrage
- terrible truths
- unrememberable utterance
- deceitful thoughts
- suicidal embrace (good vs low intelligence, close combat gangs like goliath)
- opprobrious curse
- eternal slumber (combos well with web weapons)

It also sounds like you are trying to go the economic advantage route. Per the new rules you can start with a hanger-on. A whisper merchant will quickly pay for itself and then some.
yea, I'm hoping to try and get an early economic advantage, and then rapidly make up for any potential shortcomings my starting list begins, through being able to pick up more equipment and gang members quickly. I was also looking into the Whisper Merchant, and was thinking that they'd be one of the first investments I'd make after the first game/battle (the Fixer would help make it more likely to get the 30 creds that it costs Delaques to hire the Whisper Merchant asap). The faster economic advantage would also allow me to upgrade my long rifles, to make them more effective, as well as get some more specials and stronger weapons into the hands of my gang.
 
yea, I'm hoping to try and get an early economic advantage, and then rapidly make up for any potential shortcomings my starting list begins, through being able to pick up more equipment and gang members quickly. I was also looking into the Whisper Merchant, and was thinking that they'd be one of the first investments I'd make after the first game/battle (the Fixer would help make it more likely to get the 30 creds that it costs Delaques to hire the Whisper Merchant asap). The faster economic advantage would also allow me to upgrade my long rifles, to make them more effective, as well as get some more specials and stronger weapons into the hands of my gang.
I'm not familiar with how one goes about "upgrading" a long rifle.

Are you talking about getting lucky with special ammo in the trading post? Or changing the long rifle to something else later? If it's the latter, why not just start with the something else now?

Are you talking about master crafting one? I could be wrong but I don't think you can make things master crafted after the fact?

As for the whisper merchant you could drop one of your 30 credit juves and get one now? Probably more value that way as his ability will be available game 1.
 
By upgrading them with equipment, like infra-scopes or gunshrouds.. etc. Making them more effective/reliable in their hits
 
By upgrading them with equipment, like infra-scopes or gunshrouds.. etc. Making them more effective/reliable in their hits
Unfortunately long rifles are a special weapon and cannot be fitted with gunshrouds :(

Infra sights are good on them though.
 
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