N18 Necromunda on Hard Mode?

[Jayward]

With Necromunda being the easily-breakable nonsense that it is, I often give myself a set of restrictions when playing in campaigns. Generally this is simply 'no repeat loadouts' and 'no repeats of special weapons', and in my most recent outing I've added in 'No Plasma' and 'no buying a 2+ stat advance or model with a 2+ stat except Initiative' (Because I play Escher, so not being able to buy Champions is probably a bit too much even for me!).

I thought 'No Plasma' would have more of an impact than it did, but until things start hitting T4 and T5 a Bolter is more or less as good as a Plasma Gun, and the Grenade Launcher is still an absolute beast.

So for my next campaign I'm thinking I might go for no repeat loads, and no Bolters, Plasma, or Grenade Launchers of any kind. (I may backslide on the Grenade Launcher because it's the only weapon that can get the Expansive Chem Alchemy, which is my favourite).

When I sat down to plan this out it struck me just how limited this makes my choices. When I dropped Plasma I could switch to Bolters, but if you take out those three there's not an awful lot going on in the weapons list! For a starting Escher Gang:

Want to shoot 24"? Autogun and Lasgun.
Want to do more than 1 damage? Shotgun or Meltagun
Want to be S4 or higher? Shotgun or Meltagun, Lasgun with Hotshot
Want a blast weapons? ...Explosive Arrows for a Wyld Runner. Oof.

This set of restrictions seems like a doozy! And things don't get much better if you allow the trading post; you can add the Grav Gun and Shotgun Shatter shells to the 'Blast' list outside of heavy weapons. Heavy weapons do give you some more options with the Lascannon, Mining Laser, Missile Launcher, Multi Melta and Seismic Cannon all pitching in. A couple of Xenos or Imperial weapons from the Black Market can boost numbers too.

But overall the weapon lists feel gutted without those three categories!

https://yaktribe.games/underhive/gang/unreasonable_limitations.230384/

That feels about as good as I can do with no repeat loadouts, no Bolter/Plasma/Grenade Launcher, and man does that feel bare! I can rejig a couple of things for a bit of extra money... but there's no escaping the fact that the Melta and the Chem Thrower cost more than all of the 'Big Three' combined, with enough left to chuck another Bolter in! I think I might be able to do some damage with clever use of tactics cards like Chemical Reign and Running Battle to surprise people with the Chem Thrower, but this feels like it's going to be a really... interesting challenge.

I'm curious as to how other people would approach this restriction set (No repeats, bolters, plasma, grenade launchers), and which factions you think would be able to pull it off more effectively than Escher.

 

[spafe]

I'm curious as to how other people would approach this restriction set (No repeats, bolters, plasma, grenade launchers),

I think... I unintentionally followed that with my cawdor at yakmeet... I might have had 2 reclaimed autoguns... Can't remember.

sorry no, just checked, I had 2 gangers with blunder poles by the end, although only started with 1. I wasnt even trying to be strict I just like not having repeated loadouts as they get boring (beyond the odd 2 gangers having the same basic weapon or juves having the same single pistols which I just have to accept).

My orlock had a grenade launcher, and a bolter, although otherwise also followed your rules.

My Escher... had a plasma pistol and powersword on my boss, otherwise also followed those rules.

I dont think its that hard for most, although orlock will struggle with their leaning into nades and bolters I reckon.

 

[Thorgor]

Imo, those kind of limitations can be fine provided everyone in the campaign abide by them (which then wouldn't be 'hard mode' anymore for you, just a different normal).
As for plasma/nade/bolt, I believe removing them from the game completely is a bit harsch and unfun. Maybe try to allow only a few? (for instance, you could allow only one of each plasma/nade/bolt weapon in a gang at any given time, with only one heavy version allowed among them (counting Missile launcher as the heavy version of the 'nade launcher)). This should keep them in the game as rare and valuable tools to be used carefully.
A side effect of your restriction is that you may end up with more money than you can spend, as fancy weapons are a no-go. Income may have to be reduced a bit to compensate.

 

[Jayward]

I should clarify that this is not a ruleset for a campaign; this is something that I would be personally doing just with my gang in an otherwise lightly house-ruled Law and Misrule campaign. Other people can play what they want, although there's likely to be a rule banning repeats of heavy and special weapons.

Good point on Cawdor; they've got plenty of ways around it.

 

[Heart of Storm]

I think playing as Escher is already hard mode! But if you wanted to make things tough id suggest:

No more than 2 champions in the gang, ever, champions are rare.

50% of the gang must be made of Juves or prospects - gang warfare means lots of fresh blood, this way your gangers and champions/leaders are more critical as the rest of your gang is a burdensome liability

 

[Jayward]

It says a lot about Wyld Runners that I would rather forgo all the best weapons in the game than take them... It's so hard to make them feel useful when they are a ganger with worse stats and more expensive weapons.

That Juves thing would be really hard! If Necromunda was a game that had a functioning advancement system I'd probably give that a go to be fair. Or maybe if I wasn't doing this restriction set... I think both combined might be a bridge too far!