N18 Van Saar growing

[Sky Rider]

Hello!
Pretty new player here, just going to play my first campaign with Van Saar gang and reading books at the moment. I have a little problem - our community has many 40k "sporty" players so it will be hard to play something too narrative and not competitive.
So I got a bunch of questions what are most common ways to expand later on campaign.
My current idea on start:

Eorsea consequences

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

yaktribe.games

I've ordered half of core van saar box more, neoteck box and forge world weapon sets but they will arrive after first 2 weeks of campaign.
My main questions:

• what are the most useful skills?
• what are the must have defensive and offensive equip you need to invest?
• gravgun, melta/multimelta, plasma cannon, another big weapons?
• what are the best sources to generate income and what are must have spenders on start?
• how do you think Van Saar gang is looking good at 2000?
• best alliance and traits?
• do we need bounty hunters?
• what are good loadouts for neotek?
• does archeotek discount is for all gang or only for him and how do you see his equipment?
• lasers and plasmas for the win or we have some another good options?

Sorry for this sweaty questions but im not sure if I will manage to survive in our campaign if I won't be prepared

 

[Psyan]

Copy of Scions of Mars

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

yaktribe.games

Here's the link to my current favorite list. It's good and flavorful, but not optimized. The plan is to get a melta gun on the hip shooting Augmek and a grav gun on the Specialist quickly, as well as adding a few more gangers, a second Neotek and mesh armor and hot shots on everyone.

Regarding your questions...
1) Fast Shot is good, but remember that you have to be standing still to use it. Hip Shooting and Trick Shot are also good. For your pistol Augmek, you should switch to Gunfighter; it's almost mandatory if you're running a dual pistol Augmek.
2) You're going to want mesh armor on everyone, ASAP. It pairs really well with VS undersuits. For offense, you generally want either plasma guns or lasguns w/ hotshot packs.
3) It's probably optimal to wait until late campaign before going with heavy weapons. Plasma cannons, las cannons and multi meltas are all nice, but since you'll need to also buy a 60cr suspensor to move and shoot them, they're not points efficient.
4) Lots of people seem to prefer the Promethium Guild for alliances. I'm not an expert here, so I'll defer if anyone has another opinion.
5) Start a Neotek with a las gun and give him frag grenades or incendiary charges as soon as you can afford to. When it's convenient, get him a flail and a pistol... and a friend (ie, a second Neotek).
6) I haven't used any bounty hunters in my very limited games in this edition.
7) The Archeotek discount only appplies to the Archeotek. I think they're a flavorful mid-campaign addition, but definitely not mandatory. They just don't fill any niche that an Augmek or an Ambot can't fill better, for less.

 

[Psyan]

Oh... and this is my version of a fully optimized list. 7 bodies, 5 plasma weapons.

No Friends

Van Saar (HoA) gang with a rating of 995 by Psyan

yaktribe.games

 

[mateyboy3000]

The promethium guild is a must on a plasma heavy list as it removes the scarce from plasma, if you are buying champions later on as well you can consider Arkeoteks for the discount cyberteknika, the 15cr increase isn't a direct stat line change but does cover the ocular alpha you want to give him and you can then stack Weaponsmith and promethium guild if you are trying to be super competitive for maximum breaking of plentiful plasma weapons.

Skill wise you don't want to take trick shot, you can buy ocular alpha which gives you an infra sight on everything which does the same and doesn't stack with trick shot

 

[Sky Rider]

Thanks for replies!
And what about hagers?
Are there musthave ones?

 

[Psyan]

Ammo Jack and Rogue Doc, like most other gangs.

 

[ChapterAquila92]

Thanks for replies!
And what about hagers?
Are there musthave ones?

You can't go wrong with either a rogue doc or ammo-jack as your first hanger-on in Van Saar.

Because Van Saar gangs tend to lean on the "elite" side (i.e. relatively few but well-equipped gang members), you're likely to face more crippling blows to your gang if even one member is critically wounded, and having the rogue doc helps mitigate the chance that you'll have to recruit an entirely new gang member (or worse, a new augmek), or at the very least a means of recovering their equipment should they die on the operating table. Having a rogue doc in-house can also potentially save you quite a few credits in what would otherwise be a 2d6x10 credit Visit to the Doc for one of your gang members (it sucks having to pay upwards of 120 credits just to watch one of your prized gang members die anyway).

The ammo-jack improves your odds of keeping your guns from failing their ammo checks if you roll a natural 1, which is extremely valuable in its own right for a gang with a propensity for Scarce weapons like Van Saar. For an added bonus, you can have up to 3 of them (provided you have sufficient reputation), each improving the re-roll conditions further such that you can potentially re-roll on a 3 or less. Since Van Saar champions and leaders can take Savant skills (and thus the Munitioneer skill) as a primary skill however, you may find ammo-jacks to not be worth the credits unless you lack such gang members.

The tech merchant is good in a pinch by reducing item rarity by 2 and offering a discount, but you're better off sending what augmeks, archeoteks, and primes you can spare to the market for rolling on item rarity instead, especially if you have the Tech Bazaar as one of your territories. Again however, another hanger-on potentially made redundant through skills (in this case, Savvy Trader).

If instead you're going to the trading post for grenade launchers or items you're not usually getting from the Van Saar equipment lists, Bullet Merchant is a decent, if pricy, means of getting that special ammo without having to roll for rarity. Van Saar love their energy weapons which don't really have special ammo though (seriously, even the focusing crystals Van Saar have immediate access to aren't worth the 20 credits), so you may just want to pass on this.