N18 Redemptionist-heavy Cawdor

[Vladvar]

Hi all, I've mainly be playing as Chaos Cult or Corpse Grinder over the past few campaigns and I have done petty well with both. Starting a new Badzone campaign next month and wanted to give a different gang a try; one option was to go with Cawdor, as I love the redemptionist models and wargear. So I have a few questions.

- It is worth taking a firepike for an extra 10 creds?
- Are eviscerators any good? Are they better to put on leaders/champions rather than zealots?
- What do other use for their cawdor gang lists, do they include any redemptionists?
- What special/heavy weapons do people prefer?

Any tips/hints would be awesome

 

[Heart of Storm]

Haven't used redemptionists much, but with, building your gang with an eye towards the rules which let you take extra bodies (so multiple juves in the starting roster) leverages one of the gangs big advantages.

Blunderbuss/polearms are good weapons, I personally enjoy Heavy Crossbows but there's plenty of people here who'd disagree.

Overall my inclination with Cawdor is keep your troops cheap and expendable, redemptionists can get pricey and so work better (in my view) sprinkled in a Cawdor list rather than forming the bulk of the gang.

 

[MysticWolf]

Pretty much what Heart of Storm said.

A solid amount of regular Cawdor units is a necessity, but you can definitely boost your effectiveness by diversifying with redemptionists.

IMO grenade launcher Deacon is a must, I run them along side the heavy crossbow, however there is a strong argument to be made for replacing the heavy crossbow entirely with a GL wielding deacon or two.

Shotgun is a solid weapon to throw on a regular redemptionist ganger, not quite as crippling to the enemy as a blunderpole, but I've seen my shotty redemptionist take out a leader and a champ in the same game at least a couple times.

The melee weapons also give a lot of diversity, whether it's throwing a chain axe on a deacon or red. Brethren, or beefing out a model with an eviscerator, which is actually a solid melee weapon shielded behind a few bone pickers.

 

[daveh]

i like a long laz with a scope on my specialist.
chainglave with

book keepers2.JPG

• daveh
• Mar 20, 2022

reinforcements

cawdor3.JPG

• daveh
• Feb 28, 2022
• cawdor gang

the book keepers

cawdor2.JPG

• daveh
• Feb 28, 2022
• cawdor gang

the book keepers

the leader
and fill up with bonepickers for faith points (and rushing forwards to grab objectives)
may the emprahh bless you

 

[Sicko]

Cawdor are my main gang, my view of redemptionists is that their characters and specialists are very good, their gangers are mediocre and their juves are bad. I'm echoing what some of the above posts have already said.

Leader: Go nuts they've got some great equipment to choose and some piety skills are decent: Eviscerators are a terrifying weapon if they get close, just use smokes and bonepickers to make it happen. If you want to keep the cost low then a Chain Axe + Autopistol is a good reliable combo. NEVER take the chainsword, the 5 credit saving is not worth it. The pyromantic mantle and book of redemption are fun items to pick up later into a campaign.

Champions: Better for shooting than melee, if you MUST go melee then a chain axe is better for the +1 to hit. But typically these guys are taking grenade launchers, 65 creds with house list access to smokes and flash is obscenely good, the fire pike is a shinier flamer and not worth the price IMO especially compared to blunderpoles. if you're playing with trading post these are the guys who will end up with plasma guns.

Gangers: Redemptionist gangers are mediocre, they don't have any amazing equipment or stats, if you must have one or 2 them for theming/flavour just stick a shotgun on them, its a decent weapon.

Its worth having a couple Cawdor gangers to take advantage of their special rule allowing +1 to be fielded over the deployment limit, The Blunderpole is the choice of weapon for these guys, arguably the best standard weapon in the game except maybe the Enforcer Boltgun. If credits are at a premium then just put a reclaimed autogun on them, its cheap and cheerful.

Specialists: Oh Look another grenade launcher, anything else in the house list is a waste here.

Juves: Way too niche and expensive for what you get, always pick bonepickers over the zealot, you get to field an extra d3 of them, they cost almost nothing, put a stub gun on them and use them as meat shields for more important fighters, especially your melee leader.

 

[Lunarcruiser]

- It is worth taking a firepike for an extra 10 creds?
- Are eviscerators any good? Are they better to put on leaders/champions rather than zealots?
- What do other use for their cawdor gang lists, do they include any redemptionists?
- What special/heavy weapons do people prefer?

Any tips/hints would be awesome

1) If you are committed to getting a flamer type weapon, (the redemptionists model be awesome) then a fire pike is a ok weapon. It gives you a extra -1 Ap and rending for only a measly extra 10 credits. If it was available for other gangs it would be a serious special weapon choice. However, see my blunderpoles point below.
2) All weapons are better on leaders/champions. Zealots are still juves and are fragile. Keep them cheap to start with as your opponent will mow them down in droves until you get some survival gear/xp increase on them. Good choice for a later combat weapon though
3) I only would use redemtionist brethren to have access to gangers with shotguns a favourite weapon of mine and only maybe some zealots as cheaply as possible to make up the numbers to get a higher fanatic fighter ratio if I am going full redemtionist.
4) Never use a heavy flamer under any circumstances. A unwieldy template weapon? Bad. Costing 255 credits after as suspensor which are not even on your house list. Madness! Firepikes may look viable and cool and if a template special weapon is a must get one of these, see blunderpoles later however, the flamer given its cost pales before other available template weapons. The heavy stubber, long rifle and grenade launcher may be workaday and mundane but they are reliability in weapon form they will always do the work. The crossbow is essentially a long ranged, where cawdor otherwise is a little lacking in, crowd control weapon with a 5" pie plate to drop and pin foes right from gang creation at 30" Great!.

The blunderpole is probably credit for credit the best, most effective basic weapon in the game. Not one but two templates so pinning for days one is plentiful so if you do run out of ammo you reload without needing to check, still takes a action but so does every weapon. The other has blaze all for the low price of 40 credits. Once you add emperor's wrath rounds it adds some combat shotgun level carnage. Oh and the polearm melee stats are pretty good for the price too.
Make sure you have at least one pious cawdor brethren and three bone pickers over what you need. The devot masses rules let you take 2-4 extra fighters over crew limits every game. They may be mediocre but a true horde of them is intimidating.
Blaze and the chaos it brings is your friend. All blaze weapons have the same chance of getting your opponent to catch 🔥 even the cheap blunderpoles. Add gunk to add to the inferno 🔥

 

[daveh]

i wonder how the ash wastes will effect our gangs.
templates may be less of an option.

cawdor.jpg

• daveh
• Jun 23, 2022
• 2

 

[TheMonkfish]

For me the greatest advantages of the Redemptionist models specifically is some of the melee weapons they have access to.

Chainaxes are a very good pick, they're (IMO) the single best weapon if you want a melee Deacon to take advantage of the funny attack doubling gimmick.

The Eviscerator will do pretty horrific damage to most human sized targets if you manage to get in and it essentially comes with a free Hand Flamer bolted to it which will come up sometimes.

The other really useful tool Redemptionists get is (as others have already mentioned) the Grenade Launcher which excels in crowd control and is very versatile.

I would definitely take some regular Cawdor Juves and Gangers as well, they're filthy cheap and very cost effective with Acts of Faith and the ability to cheat extra dudes into a scenario over the normal headcount.

 

[Majortrauma]

Sorry to sort of hijack this conversation, but I'm following in a similar vein to this discussion and feel like the question regarding the weapons might help others in the future. I've bought two boxes of Redemptionists for a pure redemptor gang, and i've currently made them into

1 priest with chainaxe + book
1 Deacon with Firepike
1 Deacon with grenade launcher
2 gangers with eviscerators (one could be used as a deacon)
2 gangers shotgunners (one could be used as a deacon)
2 gangers autogunners
1 ganger with chainaxe + auto pistols (could be used as a deacon)
1 Zealot with duel auto pistols

I now have one last model to make and i'm torn on what to equip it with.
I've narrowed it down to the last model either being,
A. a clearly looking deacon / priest with an eviscerator
B. another deacon / ganger with chain axe and autopistol,
C. a deacon / ganger duel wielding chainaxes
I'm not going to be buying anymore Redemptionists, so I'm trying to future proof myself a bit here with my decision.

To which I now have the questions regarding the weapons. I'm torn between the Eviscerator and the Chainaxe for my last model (unless someone strongly suggests a different weapon found in the redemptionist box). I really like the visuals of the Eviscerator and people on this post seem to find it very deadly, but when I compare it to a Chainaxe I'm still having a hard time making a decision. The Chainaxe seems to be really good for leaders / champs or even regular gangers in making them good close combat fighters, to which I've also noticed no one seems to suggest putting them on ganger. I've also noticed no one seems to suggest duel wielding Chain axes for the extra attack and parry, and was wondering why? you could even put an exterminator on both for the same price as an eviscerator.

I will say I haven't played much necromunda, and the little of it that I have played, was ONLY against an out of the box Van-saar gang against my out of the box Cawdor gang. so maybe I'm not seeing the whole picture and how this plays out against more close combat centric gangs.

Any thoughts on this would be very illuminating considering my limited understanding of Necromunda.

 

[daveh]

it would be an easy conversion to make a chainglave , they have been good for me.
sorry to add a new option.
welcome to the 'munda

 

[daveh]

does anyone know why adding a preist to your cawdor 'legal' gang makes them outlaws?
it seems so counter intuative , if anything it should make them more acceptable to the authorities

 

[Majortrauma]

it would be an easy conversion to make a chainglave , they have been good for me.
sorry to add a new option.
welcome to the 'munda

good news is I already put one on my Cawdor Word Keeper, as they look very very nice visually and rule wise. Just trying to sort out the last Redemptor now.

In regards to the leader making it outlaws or not, that seems to only apply if they're equal numbers of fanatical and Pious people in your gang. In which case, it is your leader's leaning that swings it in either said direction.

 

[daveh]

thanks Majortrauma , but i meant the preist 'hanger on' character not the gang leader.
i dont have my rulebook so he may be a preacher or cleric

 

[Vonvilkee]

The redemption in the fluff is a little radical in their preaching and suggested actions so are outlawed on Necromunda. You go too far down the redemption path and your cawdor are outlaws. Certain hangers on are only available to outlaws. I think this is one of them, away from my books right now.

 

[Lunarcruiser]

Outlaws? Tell it to my Flamer!!!!

 

[daveh]

to quote Joan de Arc 'lawks my bottoms on fire'

 

[Majortrauma]

Has anyone tried equipping there Redemptionist's with two chain axes? Or is the eviscerator that much better.

 

[Scabs]

Kinda skimmed though the posts. Did anyone say, "Fire good!" Even better if you can disguise it with an Eviscerator. "Oh, it has a flamer, I didn't even notice." Remember, you are burning them for their own good! It's a thankless job.

 

[Majortrauma]

Kinda skimmed though the posts. Did anyone say, "Fire good!" Even better if you can disguise it with an Eviscerator. "Oh, it has a flamer, I didn't even notice." Remember, you are burning them for their own good! It's a thankless job.

Yea, but should I make 3 out of the 12 redemptor models I have be eviscerators, Or is that overkill in a heavily flavored redemptor gang?
Or would another model with chainaxe and auto gun of which I have 2, including the leader (or duel wielding chainaxes?), be better mileage as one of the 12 models?
I've only played 3 games as cawdor and only one of them included some redemptors (courtesy of Goonhammer's starting list), so I'm not sure.

 

[Scabs]

A chainaxe and autorun model is one that doesn't shoot too good, or fight too good. Which is just fine for Gangers. NOT a Leader. He needs to do more, and survive longer. Dual chainaxes has a certain je ne sais quoi! But, the Eviscerator is both their thing, and A THING. Given a choice, you do want your Leader to make an impact. Style'n is bonus.