Goliath Quality>Quantity?

[Ninjoe42]

Hey folks,

Going to have my first game of Necro soon, and I'm very excited! But I have a dilemma and was hoping I could get some advice.

Its a campaign game and I'm playing Goliath, but I only have 6 models to spend my starting money on. Is it possible to have an effective team if I go high quality? Armor on everyone, first aid kits, better guns, etc?

Any kit recommendation for this type of force?

All thoughts appreciated!

 

[spafe]

What rules are you using? bear in mind armour is a rare trade item for all anyway.

If this is your first game, who are you playing? do they have spare models? are they happy to do a reduced starting force? are you joining an existing campaign?

If you are starting with a friend, I suggest doing 600 cred gangs, then both of you can start with smaller groups to get the rules down first, if you are joining an existing campaign, and can borrow models, do. If not, go light equipment and keep your rating down, use the underdog bonus and aim to get a few more models fairly soon so you can do a rapid growth campaign gang plan (harder option but might be viable).

hope that helps, and with a bit more info I can probably try to suggest more specifically useful advice

Edit: oh and welcome to the tribe!

 

[cardyfreak]

You can't buy armour straight away I'm afraid, or med kits; they're rare trade so you may we'll never get any haha!
Are you playing WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), or is your group more relaxed about modelling weapons?
Cos personally, I started a Goliath gang a little while ago and those bastards hit HARD.
The leader had a Meltagun (high impact is for winnahs) and a backup pistol and maybe even a sword (probably auto pistol, and/or chainsword cos the range of the Melta means you'll be up close, so a sword to parry is handy and an autopistol as backup gives you +2 to hit), the heavy had an autocannon (these are nowhere near as good as heavy bolters btw, but when they hit they SHRED people. They're high-impact too, same as the melta), and then a few gangers with autoguns and shotguns to fill out the rest of the group.
The way I've used them is to position the autocannon to clear paths for your guys to move up relatively unhindered (people will fear the autocannon so much that they will hide away from it. If they don't, after it rips their guts apart, they will in the future), and get your guys up close for some Melta action, and shotgun the faces off anyone in cover by using the scattershot rounds, or manstopper's if they're out in the open.
Use any autoguns to flank around and pick off stragglers. You want to try to funnel the enemy towards you, straight into your melta. The autocannon will make your enemy want to split up into two flanking forces, so use ranged weapons to pin them and force them back together. That's the theory, anyways!
I've had quite a bit of success with my gang. They took out a bunch of spyrers no problem, and actually retired a chaos cult gang that was getting pretty large after their first meeting. They might have also killed an enforcer, it was a while ago and I can't quite remember.
The Achilles heel will be that if you lose either the leader or heavy, the gang is basically screwed. All your eggs are in one basket, so to speak, and you'd never recover from the loss of all that expensive equipment.
That said, they will easily take on gangs of much higher numbers because when you hit, you hit with such ferocity that most of your hits will wound and take guys OOA easily because of the multiple wounds your big weapons cause. If they have guys grouped together then at least some will fail nerve tests, and I guarantee that after a couple of guys get shredded by Melta and autocannon death, they will start to consider bottling.
All the while, you sit there laughing maniacally as your small band of roid abusing junkie freaks cannonball through the enemies carefully prepared gangs.

 

[p0dde]

Money-wise it it is not a problem to spend a 1000 credit on 6 fighters. Get two heavies with Autocannons, and you will have the coolest gang ever! Get a grenade launcher on your leader w. frag and krak, and you are already on 825!

I have also run a 6 fighter ganger (Van Saar), and in a campaign I would suggest getting the gang outlawed as fast as possible (Choose to play the Caravan, when ever you have the opportunity to choose scenario, and you will automatically get outlawed). Then you don't have to worry about working territories. And all the good Outlawed Scenarios have limited attacking fighters to deploy, but that is not a problem when you only have 6.

But when you say it is your first time playing, I would probably reconsider only playing a 6 fighter gang. It can be very difficult if all your opponents have twice as many fighters as you. And playing as outlawed it not something I recommend first time players. Maybe you could get some proxy models, or make up a story as to, why your gang has 5 ratskins/whatever tagging along =)

EDIT: got 2 x ninja'd by @spafe and @cardyfreak: I agree with what they are saying =)

 

[cardyfreak]

@spafe ninja'd me also. The damn ninja that he is.

 

[spafe]

All must bow before my mad ninja hatting abilities!

Oh and Hats>Radishes!

 

[Azzabat]

Hi @Ninjoe42, welcome to the Tribe. You don't say what Gang your taking, but with 6 members I'll assume you're taking a Leader, Heavy and 4 Gangers?

Personally don't bother with armour. The save it gives you is negligible, and you're still pinned even if you save the wound. Or fancy kit. Bolt Gun for the Leader because of his good BS, Heavy Stubber (I'm Delaque) and the rest of the gang gets Las Guns and Shotguns (Scatter, Solid, Manstopper and maybe Bolt).

Better in my opinion to take more models. 9 for me is always the magic number as it means you need to take 3 casualties before you take break tests (as opposed to 2 casualties with just 6 miniatures) but keeps you out of that higher upkeep bracket for income calculation. Also you are going to get a few models go Down or Out of Action each battle, which means they cannot work territory afterwards to collect income. Ideally you want to be able to work all 5 of your Territories at the end of the battle. More Gangers means more bodies available.

Also you're going to need more shots being fired/hits swung at your opponent. Starting gangs can't hit for shit, so you'll want as many people shooting/hitting your opponent as possible, and as many targets for your enemy to shoot at as possible.

Again a personal preference, but I'll spend the 35 credits on a Hired Gun for the first game (Scummer usually, or a Bounty Hunter) then sack him afterwards. Hired Guns count for gang size when calculating Bottle Tests, but not for Income. They also end up with better equipment, stats and skills. It's an extra target for your opponent to shoot at, and if he goes down rather than one of your Gangers, that's another Ganger at the end of the battle to work a territory. And if he dies or gets captured ... meh!

Make sure you take Juves. I'll always, ALWAYS take at least 2 Juves, even if it means I send them into combat armed only with their free knife. If armed with an Auto-pistol, they suddenly go from a basic 5+ to hit at long range, to a 3+ to hit at short. AND if you team them up with a Combat Ganger you can use them as the 1st attacker in multiple combats so the Ganger gets +1 to hit. Plus They're expendable and make great meat shields for your more reliable Gangers. They advance really fast, quicker than Gangers, so although they start of crap, they quickly develop skills and stats.

Hope this helps some. Remember the Scenario objective when you play, and don't be afraid to voluntarily Bottle if your getting Hammered. And let us know how your first game goes.

All the best.

Azzabat. = )

 

[Azzabat]

Damn, ninja'd by @spafe, @cardyfreak AND @p0dde

Must ...type ... faster!

 

[spafe]

I'm playing Goliath

You don't say what Gang your taking

@Azzabat , in the thread title, and in his second sentence he says he's goliath... you feeling okay buddy?

 

[Azzabat]

Ahh ... might have missed that.

I think both my brain cells have booked time off without providing cover. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

 

[p0dde]

But small gangs are fun, and I just remembered I had some old Small Gangs house rules in my stash. You could talk to your gaming group about using something like this, just to make the life of a small gang a little bit easier.

And also, OP is names NinJoe, and we are all getting ninja'd are we also getting trolled?

 

[Azzabat]

Agreed s agreed small Gangs can be fun, but for someone just starting out I'd recommend using a larger gang of 9 miniatures for the reasons outlined above.

Once you get familiar with the rules and work out your own particular style of play, then by all means go for a small gang, or Ratskins, or outlanders etc.

 

[cardyfreak]

@Ninjoe42 Never trust anybody's advice who doesn't promote over zealous use of Melta and/or autocannons

 

[Azzabat]

Multi guns are nasty, fear inducing monstrosities and should be banned from all games ... until I get hold of one!

 

[spafe]

Why stop at one?

 

[Azzabat]

Cost. 84 credits last time I bought one. Give me shotgun or a sword ... plus the ever underrated Auto-pistol!

 

[Ninjoe42]

Lol well aint you all just the friendliest!

We're not doing WISIWYG thankfully, but even so I want to collect some bits to reflect their load out.

I'm joining a new campaign, and a pretty vague one at that, no one is actually RUNNING it like you would a d&d game, which baffles me. So we should all be at the same power level. I might be able to get 1 or 2 more models, but likely not.

Thank for reminding me about starting equipment! I had just been using a Battlescribe file.

I guess another question I have is whether or not I can go FULL melee at the beginning, just charging on in. I suspect I'd get shot to bits though. Honestly I was surprised at how samey all the starting gangs are going to end up, outside of leader benefits! Thinking I'll take a Ratskin for the first game too, I like the non-non-compete benefits they can provide

 

[spafe]

all the house gangs really start to show their differences once they start getting skills tbh.

 

[Ninjoe42]

Oh, and indulge a noob a question if you would. When starting a new gang do any of the guys have any skills? The rules say where they START on the XP track, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to roll any skills or advancements for them too.

Kinda assuming no, and their 'advancement' is built into their stats. But figure I'd check first!

 

[spafe]

yeah, no advances, the xp is what they took to get to the rank they are.

Sorry, my other response was a bit rushed. I wouldnt suggest going ful lcombat, esp with such a small gang.

If you want combat, have goliathy models, and are experienced at games (so will learn necromunda fast), might be worth looking at pitslaves. They do okay with lower numbers and are combat based. If you are converting hte models then it isnt a huge leap from goliath to pitslves