N18 Starting a Van Saar gang in 1995/2003 Necromunda

[kelliegator]

Hello, I know a guy with the 2003 edition of Necromunda that I plan on playing with. I'm less familiar with old-school Necromunda but I've read the 1995 rulebook and I've skimmed through the gang creation part of the 2003 rulebook.

I dunno if this information is relevant but I don't have the 1995 models but I have some models of the modern version of the game and I was thinking of making the loadouts for my old-school gang match the weapons of my modern models as closely as possible, with some liberties on armor and grenades.

I've never played old-school Necromunda before. Well, technically not the new one either but with the new one I'm much more familiar with the rules and such because I actually have those books.

Any advice?

 

[Punktaku]

From what I understand of the new version, it’s much more restrictive than ORB/LRB. So by using current models with wysywyg loadouts, you’re limiting your gang unnecessarily.

For instance: Every gang had access to shotguns, autoguns, and lasguns at creation.

 

[Daganisoraan]

Yeah, if you plan to use N18 models, don't obey the rule of "what is on the mini is what you have". Heck, back then it was a nightmare to follow since we didn't even had plastic/resin kits. Ain't easy customizing pewter. Also, all your minis should be on 25 mm bases.

Anyway, making an ORB gang is super easy. You take a leader, 2 heavys, and about 4 gangers and 4 juves. In ORB, while it true is that all six base gangs share the same equipment list, the list itself is really small when compared to N18. You don't get 17 shotgun options and so on.

As for the rules, the main difference is close combat and there's no coup de grace. Also, you should familarize yourself with the hiding rules (movemement section) and overwatch.

 

[kelliegator]

Yeah, if you plan to use N18 models, don't obey the rule of "what is on the mini is what you have". Heck, back then it was a nightmare to follow since we didn't even had plastic/resin kits. Ain't easy customizing pewter. Also, all your minis should be on 25 mm bases.

Anyway, making an ORB gang is super easy. You take a leader, 2 heavys, and about 4 gangers and 4 juves. In ORB, while it true is that all six base gangs share the same equipment list, the list itself is really small when compared to N18. You don't get 17 shotgun options and so on.

As for the rules, the main difference is close combat and there's no coup de grace. Also, you should familarize yourself with the hiding rules (movemement section) and overwatch.

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Any suggestions on what weapons and gear I should give the gang members?

 

[Raven Morpheus]

Magnets are your friend here.

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Any suggestions on what weapons and gear I should give the gang members?

Lasguns and laspistols. Plasma for your leader/heavy (and/or a heavy stubber, although in my experience a plasma gun for the heavy would be better due to being able to move and shoot. YMMV.).

This is my ORB/LRB Van Saar gang using the current models, with a bit of work. It's nearly wysiwyg, I could probably have stuck lasguns on the backs of the two pistol guys, and holstered laspistols (if they existed) on the others, to make it completely wysiwyg - https://yaktribe.games/community/threads/van-saar-oldcromunda-style.9496/#post-214468

 

[MusingWarboss]

What else to say @kelliegator - the standard boxes at the time were:

Leader
Heavy (with Heavy Stubber)
x4 Gangers
X2 Juves

It’s not a bad basic lineup either.

Guns wise the leader can have the most choice, including a special weapon but a Boltgun isn’t too bad a start.

Gangers can have a mix of standard guns and h2h, pistols.

Juves get h2h + pistols only.

So just go with what you can afford creds wise and have fun. As always there’s no need to go mad with optimising, most of the fun with ORB-LRB was levelling up, that includes guns!