N18 Updated Van Saar Starting Roster

[Psyan]

Rewrote my Van Saar 1000cr starting list, updated for the Hive Secundus book. The list isn't min-maxed, but set up for my preferences (I always want a Hip Shooting Meltagun and a Neotek!) and good potential campaign growth.

I added a Tek Hunter Gunntek (Ann) that I didn't have in previous versions of the list and gave her a Long Las. She'll eventually get a Refraction Cloak and an Infrasight. If she levels up late campaign to be able to use heavy weapons, she'd get a Lascannon.

The previous versions of this list only had 7 fighters and the second Augmek (Maya) had a Plasma Gun. In this version, I traded out that Plasma Gun for a Hotshot Lasgun (Maya) and the Tek Hunter (Ann) with the Long Las. Seems like a fair trade to me.

Thoughts and comments appreciated.

Scions of Mars New

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

yaktribe.games

 

[Psyan]

Additionally, I'm looking for a bit of advice regarding a weapon upgrade for the Augmek Maya. She's starting with a HotShot Lasgun, but I'd like to upgrade her weapon ASAP to something not typical for Van Saar. I was thinking either a Grenade Launcher + Smoke Ammo or a Combat Shotgun + Rad Ammo (for flavor and a better template) and Shatter Shells (for enhanced range and 3" pie plate). Does anyone have thoughts on this?

 

[HugeSamples]

My loose understanding with Rad is you either go all in or not at all. That said take that with a grain of salt, I'm not a Van Saar player.

 

[ChapterAquila92]

Rewrote my Van Saar 1000cr starting list, updated for the Hive Secundus book. The list isn't min-maxed, but set up for my preferences (I always want a Hip Shooting Meltagun and a Neotek!) and good potential campaign growth.

I added a Tek Hunter Gunntek (Ann) that I didn't have in previous versions of the list and gave her a Long Las. She'll eventually get a Refraction Cloak and an Infrasight. If she levels up late campaign to be able to use heavy weapons, she'd get a Lascannon.

The previous versions of this list only had 7 fighters and the second Augmek (Maya) had a Plasma Gun. In this version, I traded out that Plasma Gun for a Hotshot Lasgun (Maya) and the Tek Hunter (Ann) with the Long Las. Seems like a fair trade to me.

Thoughts and comments appreciated.

Scions of Mars New

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

yaktribe.games

Additionally, I'm looking for a bit of advice regarding a weapon upgrade for the Augmek Maya. She's starting with a HotShot Lasgun, but I'd like to upgrade her weapon ASAP to something not typical for Van Saar. I was thinking either a Grenade Launcher + Smoke Ammo or a Combat Shotgun + Rad Ammo (for flavor and a better template) and Shatter Shells (for enhanced range and 3" pie plate). Does anyone have thoughts on this?

I suppose it depends on how optimized you're trying to go with your Van Saar gang, and the group that you typically play with. I found that a hipshooting meltagun in previous campaigns, while strong, led to one too many early-campaign NPEs for me to commit to it again at the start of one. Same with fast shooting plasma guns, for that matter.


With that said, setting aside all the stuff that's already been out since House of Artifice, it's going to be hard not to include a Gunntek sniper moving forward, I think. Augurtek might be a close second as a utility fighter, along with the Bioteknist.

As for the one Augmek, I don't suppose it helps that outside of the suppression laser there's not really a good middle-ground weapon available in the Van Saar house arsenal before you hit on plasma weapons. I'd personally probably lean on the grenade launcher, though I can see a Van Saar ganger having a lot of fun with an arc rifle or needle rifle as well, provided that they can get it at the trading post.

 

[Psyan]

I would definitely consider putting an Arc Rifle in this gang. Since I'll probably end up affiliating them with the Cold Traders, a certain amount of non-standard weaponry seems par for the course.
100% on the Bioteknist. This gang requires a medic. That will almost certainly be my first additional fighter.

 

[ChapterAquila92]

I would definitely consider putting an Arc Rifle in this gang. Since I'll probably end up affiliating them with the Cold Traders, a certain amount of non-standard weaponry seems par for the course.
100% on the Bioteknist. This gang requires a medic. That will almost certainly be my first additional fighter.

Yeah, the bioteknist is an absolute must-have. Currently rocking one as part of my starting gang for a Dominion campaign, and it didn't take long for him to get enough XP to buy the Medicae skill on top of being kitted out as a super-medic (servo-medicae, medicae kit, and web solvent). There's almost no reason to give them anything more than a basic laspistol, though I'm sure someone could make a joke out of using their servo-medicae as an improvised chainsword if they really wanted to.

As for the gunntek, you also can't go wrong with a grapnel launcher moving forward. It's very unlikely that you'll ever have to move one in the first place, but a sniper having the ability to Tobey Maguire their way to a high point or out of a tight spot can be worth the 35 credits alone. Depending on opportunities to do so, I'd also probably be looking at ocular cyberteknika instead of the infrasight just on the grounds of being able to benefit both the long-las and the lascannon at the same time (the long-las humourously being the fallback option).