Necromunda How many models?

Ben_S

The Ninefold Entrant
Yak Comp 3rd Place
Honored Tribesman
Jul 26, 2015
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Southampton, UK
Assume you're assembling/converting/painting models for ORB/LRB/NCE Necromunda. You're not simply doing them to fit a roster, but looking to make a 'complete' pool of models for several campaigns.

How many models do you make? (Bonus question: what are they?)
 
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Which gang?

Scavvies for instance you'll need far more models than a House gang.

House wise, I comfortably did many campaigns with my old Escher and Van Saar metals which were the original boxes plus a couple of blisters, so 12-14 models.

This allows a bit of variety as you don't particularly want a House gang going over 9 modes for tax reasons.

Both flavours of Heavy & Leader for each gang (I used the box leader and Mad Donna for the Escher), four Juve models, the rest Gangers - So 6-8 various ganger models.

Blend of close combat and ranged for the Escher, all ranged for the Van Saar.

Two shotguns, at least two auto/lasguns, something special should you roll lucky on Tech advances.

Using the quantities above it wasn't that often that I found I needed a Ganger or Juve model when I didn't have one, but it did mean speccing the gang to the available models. I don't think that was particularly detrimental at any point, but if you wanted to add more to fill out the pool I'd play a couple of campaigns with the chosen gang built as above and see what sort of stuff you find you need most often.

I don't think there's any such thing as a reasonable "complete" pool of models for ORB/NCE! You could keep building models to fill a niche loadout forever.
 
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How many models do I personally make, or how many should a sane person make?

House gang - 2 options of Leader, 8-10 Gangers (with a mix of weapons), 4 Juves (with a mix of your preferred Juve weapons), 3-4 heavies (either HWL options or just your favourites).

Scavvies - I'll let you know when I finish. I think I have about 100 by now. Enough that I'm considering seeing if I have enough for a Traitor Militia army for Horus Heresy. Only 2 Leaders and 3 Scalies though.

Also a bunch of hired guns as they're always handy, particularly a Pit Slave, a Wyrd (a generic looking one with optional beasts means you can use them as any version) and a Scummer.

Having limited minis for each gang is quite nice as it means you end up using slightly sub-optimal loadaouts rather than min-maxing an entire gang of the best (subjective) weapons. As @Stoof says, the old metal gangs are great for having a fairly well rounded loadout.
 
as an obsessive collecter , id say too many is never enough.
i have a hole in my soul that i will one day fill with plastic
 
Not sure…. I have a few ORB gangs that are over 40 models because, umm, well, because…. Just because.
 
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In my latest gang I've made 10 miniatures. Leader with magnetized gun hand, primary heavy with 2 choices of weapon, budget heavy that can share the leader's guns, 3 juves and 4 gangers. But that is probably too few for most people and campaigns. I think it will do for me because I only get a game at tribemeets and I usually lose guys over the campaign, not again them.
 
My Escher gang only has 10 models (1 box of Wyches), but I would like a few more. I have played with them and made do, though. Van Saar I have a gang box and a blister or two of gangers. Here I really want another couple of juves... Also, special weapons are on the wish list, but not absolutely necessary, just nice to have. But as has been mentioned, scavvies are different...
 
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Pit slaves. Magnetise the arms.

Have four of each pit slave weapon (depending on how granular you want your magnetising, two left-hand and two right-hand), and four of each pistol option.

Three of each basic/special weapon, since there's only three models who can wield them, and these can be limited to the cheaper options if needed (shotgun, lasgun, autogun).

After that, one chief model, two technos (who could also be pit slave bodies tbh), and maybe up to 9 pit slave/fighter bodies - I've never had more than 12 models in a Pit Slave gang due to the higher gang member costs and no juve options, and you don't usually run more than maybe 8-9 models unless you win big with a caravan scenario.

That's a top-end wishlist for making a modular pit slave gang model setup - you could cut down the number of arms and weapon options if you were more realistic about what you could bring to the table and play in a campaign.
 
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Hmmm for my Trolls counts as Scavvies gang? 70 odd I reckon, and that’s not including vehicles and mounts.

Escher at least one of each of the original metal models and then a few with weapon swaps. I’d guess 25+

Orlock at least one of each of the original models and quite a few plastic Catachan / original plastic hybrids. I’d guess 30+

Pit slaves only 10 Iron Golem conversions but I’m going to revisit them for next Tribemeet.

And then there’s probably 50+ general hangers on, civilians, scum, bounty hunters, Yak Santa presents etc etc any of which can do double duty as gangers when required.

Sane? Meh.
 
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An interesting question. - A question that I might have to answer in a similar way for the new Necromunda.

I'm just guessing here, but to have a certain range of models and weapons and to allow for different playstyles, maybe about twice as many as you would actually need? Then it comes down to personal preferences. One might magnetize and another would rather build a new model.

I tend to be one of the latter and I've already considered that I should keep at least one sprue in reserve for my gang and later, to be prepared for all eventualities. And as a model builder, I also like having and being able to represent different options.
 
Magnetizing could help keep the number of gang members down I suppose. But I believe in GLUE FOR THE GLUE GOD!!!

Besides, it’s fun building and painting minis. I can remember the last time I played a mini game if I dust off some of my languishing brain cells…
 
Thanks everyone. I wanted to see what other people did, before giving my own answer.

For my Cawdor, I have 2 leaders, 5 heavies/specialists, 5 juves, and something like 13 gangers - so, 25 models in all. I consider them 'complete' although I wouldn't absolutely rule out making a handful more at some point for some additional options.

For my Van Saar, I have 14 currently painted, I just made 6 more and will probably do another batch of 6 or so later (having found that a nice size batch for painting). So, again in the 25-30 ballpark. (Given access to Techno skills, I'll probably need a few more specialists here.)

I realise that these numbers are larger than strictly necessary for Necromunda, but they allow me to have plenty of options and also potential to use the models in Xenos Rampant or even 40k, should I ever want to.