N18 Thoughts on which list for my first gang? (Orlock)

[Dagger_Drop]

I'm just getting started in my dive into Necromunda and I'm jumping in with House Orlock. My roster for the Iron Eights can be found here and I also have a second potential roster for house Orlock that makes some shifts.

The first list is a bit more focused on heavy firepower, with the leader putting down some covering fire with a grenade launcher accompanied by a gunner specialist armed with a heavy bolter. The second list trades the heavy bolter for another gunner and some different equipment, switching the leader's launcher to a specialist gunner. In this list the leader is more of a counter-charger/close combat fighter, rather than providing covering fire and support at a distance with the grenade launcher.

I'm not super concerned with what's considered meta, and am more interested in what'll be more fun to run to start a campaign, but I'd also like to avoid any major pitfalls in list building. Is the heavy bolter not worth starting out with? Is having a grenade launcher on my Road Captain a bad idea? I'd appreciate any and all advice or tips for adjusting these rosters. Thanks in advance!

 

[BranBuccarcher]

You'll probably find the back up pistols never get used and could squeeze a few creds back and I would always give your ld a back up melee like a flail Justin case, apart from that is fairly all round orlock list that and you may enjoy using the bolt gun on your ld more.

 

[Heart of Storm]

As above, the back up weapons are largely bloat.

I don't understand the smoke grenades on your leader, hes got a good gun and good BS so you want him shooting every turn, not throwing smokes (let a ganger do that).

I'm not sure why you'd want to throw smokes with this gang anyway, you're a shooting gang, why would you want to make it harder to see?

Id swap the heavy bolter off your specialist, your leader or champions will make better use of it with their superior BS

 

[Dagger_Drop]

On the subject of smoke grenades, I had been told that Orlock really shine at midrange, and smoke grenades can help you close that distance without getting lit up on your way there.

As for backup weapons I was mostly concerned with getting charged and not having any weapons to use in close combat, but if they're not always needed I'll look at dropping some of them them.

 

[BranBuccarcher]

I never remember to use them or prefer to shoot with a proper weapon over smokes but everyone plays different.
I also find a melee back up is really for champs and ld only at creation for a shooting gang. If you are charged by a cc spec you'll probably be ooa before you can retaliate with standard ganger.....

I would take advantage of the copy function for your gang and do 1 at current and very viable, then just play about with what the 2nd could be from there after you've stripped off stubs or done weapons swaps etc You don't have to try and reset if you don't like then

 

[Vonvilkee]

...

As for backup weapons I was mostly concerned with getting charged and not having any weapons to use in close combat, but if they're not always needed I'll look at dropping some of them them.

Like has been said most of not all models charging will eliminate their target on the charge, CC is just so all or nothing.

Back in old munda it made sense to have backups ammo free CC weapons as all guns were effectively scarce (reloads were rare and not just an action models could perform). Now when a shooter runs out of ammo it is a much better idea to just reload. You can do it while prone so can hide until ready to shoot again. This leaves very little reason to carry backup weapons, especially to begin with.