N18 New Player, New Malstrain Van Saar Gang.

[TheAlmightyPillock]

Hello, How do you balence the need for cheap guns at the start, vs giving your champions weapons they are going to use throughout the campaign and not put on thier alt loadout?
This is a progression question having not played a campaign yet.

Do you give CHampions and Specalists Lasguns, knowling latter they will replace them with special/heavy weapons and no longer use them?
Or do you give them sidearms at the start you know they will always use and jsut wait to save up for the better guns latter?

So should my two Champions have lasguns that they will latter not use, and upgrade them with specalist weapons latter?

Blessed Are the Strain

Van Saar (HoA) gang with a rating of 1000 by TheAlmightyPillock

yaktribe.games

The reason for the Guntek and Medtek, is one because I own the models already, but longterm I figured having the specalists early is benaficial, as they benafit from the experiance more than normal Teks, so getting them sooner is better in the long run.

 

[Xisor_of_Karak_Izor]

I can't say this with authority other than "It's what I often do and I don't regret it when I do", but for your conundrum: I'd give them lasguns. The sidearms are useful, but it gets you to an awkward position: if you're only sporting sidearms, will you ever *get* a better weapon? Gaining experience, or indeed: surviving!, is hard if you're mostly useless.

Ergo: lasgun. You can do a fair amount with a lasgun.

(For my Squats and Nomads, a Blast Carbine or IH Autogun really can do a decent amount of work. They're not *amazing*, but if you've got someone with Fast Shot or Hipshooting, they can really get quite a lot done in a game and contribute a lot more than 'just another bit of shooting'.)

Also, a lasgun's credits really isn't a hill of beans, compared to a few good credit rolls. (Again, IH Autogun at 25 credits isn't dirt cheap - but if you're comparing it to 100cr IH arc welder or 165cr IH inferno pistols or even 65cr two handed power aaxes... they're cheap enough to be cheap and cheerful, and give you a fair chance of living long enough and hard enough to earn a pile of credits *and* get to spend them!)

 

[ChapterAquila92]

Hello, How do you balence the need for cheap guns at the start, vs giving your champions weapons they are going to use throughout the campaign and not put on thier alt loadout?
This is a progression question having not played a campaign yet.

Do you give CHampions and Specalists Lasguns, knowling latter they will replace them with special/heavy weapons and no longer use them?
Or do you give them sidearms at the start you know they will always use and jsut wait to save up for the better guns latter?

So should my two Champions have lasguns that they will latter not use, and upgrade them with specalist weapons latter?

Blessed Are the Strain

Van Saar (HoA) gang with a rating of 1000 by TheAlmightyPillock

yaktribe.games

The reason for the Guntek and Medtek, is one because I own the models already, but longterm I figured having the specalists early is benaficial, as they benafit from the experiance more than normal Teks, so getting them sooner is better in the long run.

It greatly depends on the intent for each that you have.

The only one out of the crowd that really can get away with having only a laspistol is the bioteknist, because they're not there to shoot things but rather to help keep your other guys alive long enough for them to shoot.

The gunntek's long-las is a given, even if you decide later that they need to beef it up to the anti-materiel version (that is, a lascannon).

Beyond that however, I'd replace both hive scum and the one tek with three subteks. That way, not only will you have better control over the advances of your fighters, but you'll also be able to set aside enough cash to replace each other instance of a laspistol with a lasgun. Lasguns in themselves are excellent fallback weapons, so a champion, leader, or specialist later getting a special or heavy weapon isn't going to be hurting nearly as badly should they fail the Ammo check on a Scarce weapon.

You're also missing out on a lot of armour, it seems. Outside of the two guys with mesh, the 6+ t-shirt save you're getting from the armoured bodyglove is not going to get you very far in terms of keeping your guys on the table.

 

[TheAlmightyPillock]

Here is an updated list. (Note the Biotek has a palceholder itme for the Servo-Medicae.

Starseed

Van Saar (HoA) gang with a rating of 1000 by TheAlmightyPillock

yaktribe.games

I Get the idea of rplaceing some people with Subteks, but a lot of people said they are not worth it compared with full teks, apart from to bulk out your gang, and in this case the Hive Scum are one of the key thigns that make it a Malstraine gang. I would like them to have Scum right from the start so I look differnt to another Van Saar gang. THey are not getting a FUllgenestealer for some time after all.

I swtiched to lasguns, but jsut for variety I gave the Biotek a Carbine. I gave it to her becasue she is the most likley to be close, having to go up and medic people, and least likley to have the gun upgraded latter.
Without the Plasma Pistols I was also able to hand out some mroe armour as sugested and stick in a Augurtek. I figure I might as well try to bring as many as I can for flavour.

 

[Martini Henrie]

Here is an updated list. (Note the Biotek has a palceholder itme for the Servo-Medicae.

Starseed

Van Saar (HoA) gang with a rating of 1000 by TheAlmightyPillock

yaktribe.games

I Get the idea of rplaceing some people with Subteks, but a lot of people said they are not worth it compared with full teks, apart from to bulk out your gang, and in this case the Hive Scum are one of the key thigns that make it a Malstraine gang. I would like them to have Scum right from the start so I look differnt to another Van Saar gang. THey are not getting a FUllgenestealer for some time after all.

I swtiched to lasguns, but jsut for variety I gave the Biotek a Carbine. I gave it to her becasue she is the most likley to be close, having to go up and medic people, and least likley to have the gun upgraded latter.
Without the Plasma Pistols I was also able to hand out some mroe armour as sugested and stick in a Augurtek. I figure I might as well try to bring as many as I can for flavour.

Subteks are somewhat better than gangers, hear me out. Because they can still have lasguns, nobody cares if they get put down, and most importantly you cam advance them as you choose instead of having to roll a random when you hit 6xp with a ganger.

Personally, and this is my way of gang building, I will look at what I want my specialist and champions to look like after some creds have been spent on them. For the most part that means partially arming them at creation and accepting that the gang is going to be slightly deficient. Most of the gaming groups I play in do something similar. I would loose the long las, and give the augmek a decent weapon, as well as shaving off the backup laspistol on the leader.

In the current campaign we have a VS Mal player and they've struggled through the 1st half of the campaignby choosing scum over juves. At the end of the day it comes down to flavour or capability, and I like an even mix personally.