The Copperheads, starting gang rating 1425
Game 1
The Copperheads v
@Lapin and his Emperors Chosen Brethren
Dallas Stoudenmire's gang snuck in to the dark and empty clearing to investigate the container and it's supposed 40 guns. Snarky and Wild Bill fanned out to either side, scouting ahead for any sign of the paleface and his gang. As Stoudenmire checked the crate the KingFisher set up his heavy stubber just in case the suspicion of an ambush turned out to be true. The rest of the gang were keeping an exit out of this territory clear as well, Stoudenmire new how ambushes worked and didn't fancy being in one.
The crate opened easily, it turned out to be empty, either somebody had got here first or it was bait, it was time to go. A scream of horror to his left made him look up, and he wished he hadn't, an abomination of flesh, a creature of nightmares had dropped onto Snarky, what manner of daemon the thing was Stoudenmire couldn't begin to guess but he didn't want anything to do with it, he signalled back to the rest of the gang and saw them break into a run towards the clearing. Worryingly the absence of the pale faces now ended, a pale man? with the air of the wyrd about him came into view with the sound of many running feet behind him. Dallas wasn't sure if he could out run the thing that was messing up Snarky but he would give it a damned good go, a quick shot from his plasma pistol at the wyrd to slow him down and he was off, straight towards his approaching reinforcements. He could see bright flashes to his right where wild Bill had been, the glare from his hot shot pistols proving the scummer was still alive. A thunderous roar from the heavy stubber chucking a hail of shots at the abomination started up to his left, the beast moved with a speed almost to fast to see, dodging the rain of shots and disappearing into the darkness.
A group of Copperheads led by Sam Bass burst into the clearing and started shooting at the wyrd who ducked behind cover, a few more copperheads made it in as well and the wyrd cover was peppered with lead, a single bullet smashing through and taking him down. With all his gang with him he moved over to where he had last seen wild Bill and saw a couple of downed cultists, the boom of a shotgun sounded, Dallas' one real friend, Jim the killer miller had come into the clearing to the side of the clearing with the youngster billy the Kid and downed another cultist, whether it was the boom of the shotgun or at the behest of the beast Dallas didn't know but the few enemies he could see started to retreat into the gloom.
This was a hit and run game, Lapin did very well to keep me guessing as to his mission but I think in trying to do that he perhaps lost focus on just concentrating on the real one. It turns out he needed to take out Stoudenmire, luckily I saw what the genestealer did to Snarky as in my inexperience v the cult I had actually been considering charging the monster with Stoudenmire, that might have changed the result somewhat
I did manage to capture the magus but with it being the first game and flushed with the win I was feeling generous and I sold him back for a fistful of credits, sorry to anyone that this may have caused any inconvenience to
Old Snarky is a apparently a tough old bugger and rolled full recovery
Lapin was very knowledgeable on the rules, thanks for getting me through the first game #feeling rusty
Game 2
Copperheads v
@Ned Noodle and the Mole Rats
Word had reached his friend Jim whilst working the Copperheads gambling den that the local renegade pitfighters were headed out to a score in an industrial complex nearby. Rumours painted these guys as shuffling tool boxes, repurposed servitors rather than true pitfighters and so Dallas figured if they were quick they could be in and out before the metal men knew what was going on. He was wrong. The rumours were wrong. The massive conglomerations of steel and muscle might take a while to get moving but once they did they looked like they had the momentum of a mag train behind them. The tools they had implanted weren't the delicate instruments of manufactory servitors, they were the hammers, rock drills and power servo assisted clamps of construction machines. As they barrelled towards Copperheads he cursed the high winds that kept the KingFisher and Curly Bill off the gantries above, down amongst the pipework maze their guns were almost useless. Luckily Stoudenmire had sent some guys with Jim through some tunnels to try to divert some of the pitfighters, three of them veered off to deal with Jim and his men but were gunned down, Dallas was beginning to think he should get a shotgun like Jim's, it had been doing some real work. Not to be out done he moved forward with the rest of the gang, concentrating on the enemy leader. Adding his plasma pistol to wild Bills las fullisade the mighty warrior was taken down mere yards in front of them and the rest of the machines turned tails and ran.
Another outlander gang that I hadn't fought before, we rolled for treacherous conditions and ended up not being allowed above ground level, on one of the big gantry maps
It felt counter intuitive to move towards the monstrous hybrids of man and machine but the mission was scavengers and there was loot to be had
I popped 3 guys up out of a tunnel behind a trio of pitfighters to draw them further away from the 4 loot counters, wild Bill unloaded on mole man taking him down, Dallas opened up with his plasma pistol on full power and took him out. I managed to stay out of combat against a close combat gang and so I won. A couple of movement advancements on the mole rats side and I reckon I would have got creamed, I wouldn't have minded too much as the freaky machine men are so damn pretty
Ned was fun to play against, I think he just needed to forget he had pistols and run a bit more, another or seven inches and he would have been in combat and I would have been dead
Game 3
Copperheads v
@CaptainDangerous and the crew of the I.S.S. Crumpet
Ambush, Dallas laughed at the thought, everybody knows you can't really ambush a Delaque, maybe these so called Goliaths weren't from around here? Slag Heap had finally returned after his disappearance, he had been chased by the pale faces now known as the Emperors Chosen Brethren across many territories. Dallas wasn't usually forgiving of desertion but he still remembered the glimpse he had had of the beast that led the Chosen. Slag Heap brought news of a water treatment facility that had been turned into a lucrative hot bath spa. The owners weren't locals, Stoudenmire had put in some effort, word had been given to just about everyone in the surrounding area that the Delaques were shipping some luxury toiletries through the sector but were weighed down by their goods and would be easy pray to any gang brave enough to face them. It now seemed that their so called captain had taken the bait, there were plainly visible feet sticking out from corners, a "clever" bright white camo hat was visible bobbing around atop some cover, Snarky was pointing out each group of "ambushers" to the rest of the Copperheads as they advanced into the gantries amongst the water works piping. The Copperheads already had their guns trained on these groups when the white hatted fellow stood up and shouted charge. Ambushers indeed. In a matter of moments the enemies were gunned down, Jim taking down at least two guys by himself, the Captain however had somehow survived Dallas' first plasma shot and he had to charge into the enemy leader who was wielding a fearsome looking pick axe. Faerasome though he was he was no match for Dalllas Stoudenmire, distracting him with fancy sword work he shot him again in the face, he wouldnt survive this time. With the owner dead it looked like this waterworks now belonged to the Copperheads, he wondered if Moira would accept an invitation into one of the hot tubs?
Captain dangerous, what a guy
his continuous bubbly enthusiasm for necromunda, yaktribe and all the yakkers didn't wain all weekend and was a joy to behold throughout the two days, truly inspiring. He went out of his way to make sure we were all looked after, organised food (with help from mac inventor) and is now one of my hobby heroes. So obviously I killed his gang leader and took most of his gang out. Sorry mate
I rolled hot, he rolled cold. With the proceeds of this game I was able to sign Bane up to my roster as well as Gordon Freeman and nicked a water still.
Game 4
Copperheads v
@Adam D and the Upstart Crew
Stoudenmire was worried, these Van Saar hadn't appeared in any of his informants reports, they were an unknown and as a man whose life revolved around the motto "knowledge is power" he was nervous of the lack of intel he had on the men in blue body suits he could see closing in on his latest shipment of contraband goods.
Whoever they were he wasn't about to let them take this latest shipment, it was worth a barrel load of creds And so there was going to be a fight. Using the tunnel network and infiltration skills he sent Jim and a posse of lads including the newly inducted Bane up field. He signalled to Curly Bill who was high up on a platform to take out the first ganger he saw, as he finished his hand signal he was mortified to see Curly Bill downed by what could only be a plasma cannon blast. Although gutted to lose a ganger and maybe his lascannon as well, Dallas kept his eye on the prize and his gang moved up. Snarky took a shot at some guys who popped up out of a nearby pipe pinning one of them but as he reached for another slug for his hunting rifle his hand found only an empty bag. He drew his knife and advanced on the pinned enemy. The KingFisher was setting himself up on a gantry as Wild Bill and Dallas rushed in and grabbed some of the containers, the KingFisher opened up on some gangers, knocking some down but was himself downed by return fire. On the far right Sam Bass, Clay and the freeman ran and ran in order to cover farthest box of goodies. Snarky was beating the crap out of his hand to hand opponent but was overwhelmed when another ganger entered the fray. Slag Heap finally got to the top of a nearby tower and nabbed the crate at the top, taking a pot shot at the enemy heavy plasma gunner. Distracted by this the enemy heavy didn't react in time to stop Bane from topping a ladder and charging in, giving him a serious punch to the heart.
Meanwhile down on ground level a close range firefight was raging between Jim's posse and some van Saar who were hunkering down in cover, shots were traded, some were dodged but even the lightning quick Billy the Kid was knocked down closely followed by Jim the Killer Miller whose body was riddled with bullets as it fell to the floor. Shocked at the death of his childhood friend Stoudenmire ordered a retreat, taking three of the crates with him, a poor substitute for his loss. Unsure even of the gangers name who had killed his friend, Dallas has vowed to kill every member of the Upstart Crew at the earliest opportunity................
Despite losing I had fun this game, Adam was a nice guy, letting me buy back my captured gangers, john Wesley Hardin and the KingFisher. He did however manage to kill my favourite ganger. Jim the Killer Miller had been reliably getting into short range and wrecking face with his man stopping shotgun all day Saturday. As I was boasting of this He rolled a one to hit with it and paid for the miss with his life. I was feeling ok though because I had killed one of the van Saar as well until Adam remembered medics are a thing and so instead of dead he got survived against the odds! It was good to fight a shooty gang after the mostly assaulty ones I had faced so far, the roll for first turn had us both pumped as it would decide which heavy died first, at least the plasma canon couldn't fire the next turn after deleting my lascannon heavy
Bane butchering the plasma gunner later on eased my pain from the lascannon loss somewhat
I'll get you next time
@Adam D
Game 5
Copperheads v
@Resmire and his Sanguine Veritas
Having retreated from the van Saar deep into the tunnel network Stoudenmire was struggling to deal with the loss of his friend. The gang weren't happy either, pulling out just before they could have really done a number on the enemy in revenge. Stoudenmire needed something to get their minds off the loss, the screams for help they had been hearing for the last hour or so were probably just what the gang needed, an investigation began. It turned out the screams were from some captives of a gang of Cawdor called the Sanguine Veritas, borderline redemptionists if the local talk was anything to go by. With the loss of Jim, Dallas knew he needed to reinforce his gang, maybe some thankful released captives would make good recruits, saved from the torturers of the redemption they should be loyal to their saviour. He had already sent word to Jim's son to come and join him, if a few captives survived the coming battle and Sonny Jim turned up they could probably make their way back and take on the Upstart Crew on more favourable terms than before. Just the matter of the advancing Cawdor gang to go through and he would have his revenge. The confines of the tunnel network were a bit of a disadvantage to his heavies so he had sent them to cover an open area where many tunnels converged, he had also seen more than a few cracks in the tunnels floor, the approaching gang had already lost one guy who slipped and fell but strangely made no screams as he fell, his blind faith telling him everything would still be ok. Dallas shook his head, there were more important things to do than watch a man fall to his death, like dodge that autogunner, a round clipped his shoulder and he went down hard.
He felt a wash of heat as two of his gangers were engulfed in flames nearby, they fell to the floor screaming as he heard lascannon and heavy stubber shots whizz over his head downing Cawdor left and right. He passed in And out of consciousness, the image of billy the Kid and john Wesley Hardin burning in front of him. When he came to again The rest of his gangers had managed to grab most of the captives and dragged dallas' prone body away with them. Despite having the jitters every time he closed his eyes he knew that john and billy had made it out ok as well and it had been a pretty successful raid, five captives had been taken, it was a shame that two of them had been van Saar, they had been thrown down a crack in the tunnel floor with their throats cut, there had also been one of the Chosen, he had had a pistol shot to the head but the other two were willing recruits. Not bad, not bad at all. The victory had cheered the gang
This game was very different, the tunnel tiles making my long range useless-ish ( heavies still did some work) we were interrupted by a round of the thundercube ( I didn't mind as my gang had just been heavy flamered
) when we came back I started to roll a bit better and things went well, getting five loot counters was unexpected after the flaming but it gave me enough cash to hire tom Horn junior, sonny jim and wyatt Earp. Thanks to resmire for dealing with the lack of 3D really well, anything that was a bit ambiguous on the tiles was easily cleared up between us.
The finale
Copperheads v games mastering
As they went through the bulk head door the joviality and bravado from their recent victory seeped out of them one by one as they each beheld the sight below them they could see the approach of a shambling horde, plague zombies. This wasn't like the occasional zombie you saw being pushed around by scavvies, there looked like over a thousand of them but Stoudenmire wasn't inclined to stay and count them. " that's a whole lotta nope, back through the bulkhead now, I know a shortcut up hive, we'll come back when this is all sorted"
"Should we raise the alarm? Warn the locals? What about the other gangs?" Asked Jim the killer millers son.
The new kid certainly wasn't his father yet, these were stupid questions, never mind, he would learn thought Stoudenmire.
"Frak'em" said Snarky
"Frak'em all" said Stoudenmire
"Frak'em all" said the rest of the gang as they followed Stoudenmire and left the gangs and the locals to their fate
Copperheads gang rating 2013
