N18 New Cawdor player, looking for help!

[Zilraak]

Hey everyone!
A friend of mine recently has started playing Necromunda (first game last week) and has talked me into buying in.
I come from a scattering of other wargames, but am a little overwhelmed by the options and loadouts that I can run in Necromunda, and how to properly equip my crew.

Picked up a Cawdor box set (purely on aesthetics) and am now realizing I have no clue where to start building them properly. Would rather not build and paint a crew and have to start from scratch after a few games.

Any tips, information, tactic resources, beginner lists or advice is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Heart of Storm]

In general, Cawdor wants cheap bodies on the table, sadly they're not as cheap as they should be to be a true horde army.

The Heavy Crossbow is your most intimidating weapon, the 5" blast marker hitting at S4 -1 generally makes even Goliaths keep their heads down but also pits a big target on its wielders head.

Cheap gangers with stub guns/axes or reclaimed autoguns should be your mainstay, blunderbusses are useful for torching tough enemies, avoid polearm/autoguns as they're not worth the points, take some smoke grenades to cover your advance and hope the dice are favourable!

 

[Zilraak]

Thanks Heart, been looking over the forums alot for some info and getting alot of conflicting information. Lots of people take the polearm/autoguns, but I see why they arent worth the points for sure.
I think this is where I am for my list so far... Guess ill have to play it out and see how it works.

Leader (155)

• Wargear: Axe, Flak Armor, Cult Icon, Reclaimed Autogun,
• Skills: Overseer

Champion (180)

• Wargear: Photo-goggles, Flak Armor, Reclaimed Autogun, Long Rifle,
• Skills: Trick Shot

Champion (240)

• Wargear: Axe, Flak Armor, Heavy Crossbow,
• Skills: Step Aside

Ganger x2 (85)

• Wargear: Flak Armor, Polearm/blunderbuss,

Ganger x2 (85)

• Wargear: Flail, Stub Gun, Flak Armor, Smoke Grenade,

Juve (50)

• Wargear: Axe, Stub Gun, Smoke Grenade,

Juve (35)

• Wargear: Axe, Stub Gun,

 

[Heart of Storm]

The polearm / autogun is thematic, and looks cool, but there are very few occasions when you are in polearm range of an enemy and you arent just better off hosing them with the autogun instead, a basic axe will serve you better when properly engaged in melee as you dont get the -1 to hit and could pair it with a pistol in the future...

The gang looks good, you could trade the two juves for another 85 point ganger... Cawdor Juves are kinda meh but they do help out as melee assists / bullet shields so I think you're fine either way

 

[BearsWillEatYou]

I'd agree that looks pretty solid, but I'd definitely try tweaking it to get a few more reclaimed autoguns or long rifles in there. You'll have a much easier time getting into melee with all those axe/flail guys if you can give them some more fire support going in: getting into charge range is tricky enough as it is! Maybe move the spare autogun and axe from your Champions to free up the funds for that?

Also, unfortunately that long rifle champion can't take Trick Shot. They can only start with a Primary skill, and for Cawdor Champions that means Brawn or Combat. Sadly neither are great for the more shooty Champion stat line... Step Aside or Parry to add some resilience in melee is about as good as it gets, unless you're going for a very non standard melee Champion build.

 

[Chitriel]

I would skip the backup weapons on the Champions. The starting credits are better spent on better weapons or more bodies.
For a starting gang I would also lean more towards ranged weapons for gangers. It's tough getting in to close combat, so the best starting option is going ranged. You can always get backup melee weapons later.

Lastly, the gang is not legal.
As stated by @BearsWillEatYou the Champion cannot take the Trick Shot skill. Also at least half your fighters need to be gangers and you only have four gangers in a nine fighter gang.

 

[spafe]

Lose the axe on the xbow champ and your leader, drop the smoke carrying juve and then get a ganger with a reclaimed autogun. Not sure exactly where this leaves you with points, but if you can, upgrade the remaining juves aze to a flail, or give him dum dums.

That sorts out the ganger inbalance, gets rid of some less needed backups, and gives you an extra ranged fighter. Then its just the trick shot to replace with... step aside (cos cawdor starting skills suck). Maybe ... maybe ... buy the heavy xbow champ a back up reclaimed autogun... maybe.