N18 Van Saar start

[Simplycasualgaming]

Hello All,

I just bought the hive war box, and also bought the Van Saar box based on how the models look, only to find out they are powerful lol. My main question for starting in a Van Saar campaign is how many models and of what type should I be aiming for. I have seen 7 is a good number, but not how that should break down between gangers/champions and such.

 

[Sundown Dreamer]

If you have Hive War it should have simple rules for the Van Saar. The most extensive rules for Van Saar can be found in the book House of Artifice. The rules for forming a house gang are to my knowledge always the same:

- Each gang has a starting budget of 1.000 credits that can be spent on fighters and equipment.
- You need 1 leader and half of the fighters in a gang must be Ganger (Specialist), Ganger, Juve (Specialist) or Juves. Not counting Hangers-on oder Hired Guns.
- Each gang can have max 1 gang specific Brute.

Besides a thorough look at the Yaktribe forum "Rules & Mechanics" at https://yaktribe.games/community/forums/rules-mechanics.83/ , I also recommend a visit to the Necromunda download page. There you will find, among other things, a complete trading post: https://www.warhammer-community.com/downloads/#necromunda

 

[Simplycasualgaming]

If you have Hive War it should have simple rules for the Van Saar. The most extensive rules for Van Saar can be found in the book House of Artifice. The rules for forming a house gang are to my knowledge always the same:

- Each gang has a starting budget of 1.000 credits that can be spent on fighters and equipment.
- You need 1 leader and half of the fighters in a gang must be Ganger (Specialist), Ganger, Juve (Specialist) or Juves. Not counting Hangers-on oder Hired Guns.
- Each gang can have max 1 gang specific Brute.

Besides a thorough look at the Yaktribe forum "Rules & Mechanics" at https://yaktribe.games/community/forums/rules-mechanics.83/ , I also recommend a visit to the Necromunda download page. There you will find, among other things, a complete trading post: https://www.warhammer-community.com/downloads/#necromunda

Thank you! I didn't even know about the download page. I will read through the forums.

 

[Psyan]

Start with a Leader (Prime), two Champions (Augmeks) and a Specialist Ganger (Tek). You'll probably also want to give Mesh Armor to all 4 of those fighters. They'll also probably have your best guns, since they're your best shooters.
From there you'll be adding three or four more fighters, who will be Gangers (Teks), Juves (Subteks), or Prospects (Neoteks). With only 1000 credits available, you'll want to keep these fighters very cheap.
Van Saar fighters are somewhat expensive, so you may have trouble getting to eight equipped fighters. Seven is ok to start with for VS, but you'll want to start adding more fighters as soon as you possibly can.

 

[kelliegator]

Start with a Leader (Prime), two Champions (Augmeks) and a Specialist Ganger (Tek). You'll probably also want to give Mesh Armor to all 4 of those fighters. They'll also probably have your best guns, since they're your best shooters.
From there you'll be adding three or four more fighters, who will be Gangers (Teks), Juves (Subteks), or Prospects (Neoteks). With only 1000 credits available, you'll want to keep these fighters very cheap.
Van Saar fighters are somewhat expensive, so you may have trouble getting to eight equipped fighters. Seven is ok to start with for VS, but you'll want to start adding more fighters as soon as you possibly can.

I don't mean to hijack this thread but I'm also new to the game and starting up a Van Saar gang and I found this pretty helpful.

However, I'm wondering how to build gangs in relation to WYSIWYG? I kinda built my models before I knew that WYSIWYG is a thing so I'm kinda stuck with my models the way they are. That and I'm mostly thinking of playing skirmish gangs rather than a campaign, so I don't know if that changes anything. Seems a bit off to be stuck with the equipment glued onto your model for every game but it makes sense in a campaign, I suppose?

 

[Sundown Dreamer]

First of all, I would like to say that I can't go to events and don't have a lot of gaming experience and that the following can only be my own opinion.

What a fighter represents is decided with us by the profile card! - As a small group and in private among ourselves, we deal with it in such a way that the main armament and its category should be visible and recognizable. For example, whether a fighter has a melee weapon, pistol, rifle, a special or a heavy weapon. But grenades can also only be used as deco. In addition, before the start, we briefly introduce ourselves to each individual fighter and their profile. And if you want, you can also exchange your gang sheets.

But in many cases, Wysiwyg also depends on the event organizer, or the group, or maybe an arbitrator or unknown players. If nothing is given, I would therefore always ask beforehand. And when you're at it, I would also ask how and what is being played? - Easy going or Min-max, competition or narration?

In very less cases I have provided for a magnetization of the arms or weapons so that I have one or two miniatures in the gang, which I can weakly armed recruit cheaply and later change or improve them. For example two subjugators of the Palanite Enforcer. With or without shield, with baton or grenade launcher. But my other miniatures will not be converted after completion!

For Van Saar I don't know, especially since there is also the second box and the Forgeworld Champions, but for some gangs, sooner or later you should have a third sprue or a second gang box anyway. If real Wysiwyg is required or expected in an external campaign and I had no suitable alternative ready, I would always prefer to build a new miniature instead of converting a fully painted model.

 

[Psyan]

As Sundown stated, enforcement of WYSIWYG (wizzywig) depends on your group. For me, close is generally good enough.
RAW, once a fighter has a weapon, he or she is stuck with it, with the exception of Champions and Leaders, who can have alternate loadouts. Many gaming groups house rule this away, to allow weapon swapping.
Some people (myself included) like to magnetize the arms on some of their models to allow easy swaps, mostly Leaders, Champions and Specialists. This is easier on some models than others. That said, I still glue the arms on the majority of my Gangers and Juves, since their weapon choices are relatively limited; a VS or Escher gang is always going to have a few fighters with Las Guns, Cawdor and Orlocks will almost always have a few fighters with Auto Guns, etc.
Pistols can be glued on holstered and larger back up weapons can be slung, glued or magnetized to the fighter's back.
Alternately, you can always buy more models and rebuild and paint your models with different weapons. Naturally, this is what GW probably prefers.

 

[kelliegator]

First of all, I would like to say that I can't go to events and don't have a lot of gaming experience and that the following can only be my own opinion.

What a fighter represents is decided with us by the profile card! - As a small group and in private among ourselves, we deal with it in such a way that the main armament and its category should be visible and recognizable. For example, whether a fighter has a melee weapon, pistol, rifle, a special or a heavy weapon. But grenades can also only be used as deco. In addition, before the start, we briefly introduce ourselves to each individual fighter and their profile. And if you want, you can also exchange your gang sheets.

But in many cases, Wysiwyg also depends on the event organizer, or the group, or maybe an arbitrator or unknown players. If nothing is given, I would therefore always ask beforehand. And when you're at it, I would also ask how and what is being played? - Easy going or Min-max, competition or narration?

In very less cases I have provided for a magnetization of the arms or weapons so that I have one or two miniatures in the gang, which I can weakly armed recruit cheaply and later change or improve them. For example two subjugators of the Palanite Enforcer. With or without shield, with baton or grenade launcher. But my other miniatures will not be converted after completion!

For Van Saar I don't know, especially since there is also the second box and the Forgeworld Champions, but for some gangs, sooner or later you should have a third sprue or a second gang box anyway. If real Wysiwyg is required or expected in an external campaign and I had no suitable alternative ready, I would always prefer to build a new miniature instead of converting a fully painted model.

As Sundown stated, enforcement of WYSIWYG (wizzywig) depends on your group. For me, close is generally good enough.
RAW, once a fighter has a weapon, he or she is stuck with it, with the exception of Champions and Leaders, who can have alternate loadouts. Many gaming groups house rule this away, to allow weapon swapping.
Some people (myself included) like to magnetize the arms on some of their models to allow easy swaps, mostly Leaders, Champions and Specialists. This is easier on some models than others. That said, I still glue the arms on the majority of my Gangers and Juves, since their weapon choices are relatively limited; a VS or Escher gang is always going to have a few fighters with Las Guns, Cawdor and Orlocks will almost always have a few fighters with Auto Guns, etc.
Pistols can be glued on holstered and larger back up weapons can be slung, glued or magnetized to the fighter's back.
Alternately, you can always buy more models and rebuild and paint your models with different weapons. Naturally, this is what GW probably prefers.

Thanks for the input, guys. I'm new to this hobby so I'm a bit initmidated by the idea of fiddling with magnets and drilling holes into miniatures. Or, I can see the benefits but it just seems like too much work for me, so further down the road I'll probably just get a second (and maybe third) Van Saar box or something.

 

[Heart of Storm]

Thanks for the input, guys. I'm new to this hobby so I'm a bit initmidated by the idea of fiddling with magnets and drilling holes into miniatures. Or, I can see the benefits but it just seems like too much work for me, so further down the road I'll probably just get a second (and maybe third) Van Saar box or something.

To be honest thats how I've done it, I built models up with giving me maximum options in mind, and then bought extras when I found myself thinking "wouldn't it be nice to have a heavy stubber" etc