Getting started with Necromunda

Sigard

Hey everybody.

To make a long story short, I'd never played Necromunda before, and recently decided I'd hassle my friends to start a campaign for the coming college year.

Because I knew some of them wouldn't bother unless most of the hard work was done for them , I trawled the internet for any useful advice I could find to help everyone get started. It went down well, and we've all played a few test games over the last few months, so hopefully we can get started come september.

I thought I'd throw the info up here, just in case there was anyone who might want to start their own campaigns wherever they live. hope ye find it useful!

Sigard

Here's most of the original e-mail


"So, for 08/09, I'm thinking we should have a Necromunda campaign.

Main reasons

1) Necromunda is great
2) rules are free to download
3) models can be converted with minimum fuss
4) only need a gang of 8 - 12 models max. thus saving our poor wallets for other pastimes!
5) the rules are based on 2nd edition 40k, which was perfect for small scale engagements such as these

Interested, of course you are!

But where do I find the rules Niall?
why in the specialist games section of the GW site.
all the original rulebooks and supplements are here, some have been updated
also, make sure to use the updated skill tables
once you've seen how awesome the techno skills are, you'll understand why they've had to upgrade the others.

Extra stuff

some very useful links I've found to help us on this magical journey

making a necromunda gang
an outstanding thread showing how to convert Goliath, Orlock, Delaque and Cawdor models from existing plastic sets

how to convert a lasgun into a shotgun
since many of us will probably buy a box of Cadians of Catachans. there's some great other conversion atricles on this site too. the mini marines are pretty funny.

Of course, the original gang models can be purchased on the gw site, but I reckon we could convert most of them.

From the bits gathered here and there, converting a gang would go something like this:

Goliath: Catachan + Chaos Marauder Parts
Orlock: Catachans, but not the bare torso models. prob sculpt jackets and tabards too
Cawdor: Bretonnian Men-at-arms with Cadian and Wood Elf parts (See article above)
Redemptionist: Same as Cawdor, possibly with different masks
Delaque: Men-at-arms with Cadian parts.
Van Saar: either cadian or eldar guardian bodies. possible use empire free company or scout heads, with some gs or putty work.
Escher: no real substitutes out there, except maybe witch elves. prob just have to buy them online, though they are fantastic models
Spyrer: could be converted using eldar aspect warriors (scorpion=orrus, banshee=malcadon, hawk=yeld, dire avenger=jakara)
Enforcers: space marine scouts (though I think they should be restricted to GM/Arbitrator use.
Scavies: Warhammer Undead
Pit Slaves:Chaos Marauders with some bionic bits added
Ratskins: not sure, but probably involves lots of green stuff, as the new metal models are rubbish.

Also, converted Ork 'big shootas' make the perfect heavy stubbers, the heavy weapon of choice in Necromunda. So start harassing any ork players you know right now.


Also, the new Ork box set would make a perfect Goliath type gang.

Of course, if people just want to convert whatever the hell they want and use a particular gangs rules, that's fine too.


also, there's plenty of Necromunda threads in forums, such as
The Underhive
Eastern Fringe
Warseer
Librarium Online

So, who's with me?"

Gunmonkey

Nice 1 mate, good to see Necromunda getting some love. Its by far one of GW's best games. Heres a hint, do not touch the house weapons lists, they are naff. Some, like the Eschers, don't even have weapons that the origianl metal models wielded

And if your running it, make up some interesting scenarios to run during your time playing, nothing says fun like a Dawn of the Dead zombie blasting mission.

Sigard

believe it or not, we ended up keeping the house lists. at first glance, I was totally against them, but they are kinda fluffy, and they don't really matter once you start going to the trading post between games.

I think we were mostly apprehensive about not having access to swords for our starting gangers, but in the end, we reached a gentlemen's agreement to not go crazy with everyone having a sword and two heavies with stubbers. (although the Escher gang I'll be facing is almost exactly that :rolleyes:)
I'm trying to stress the point that its not like a wargame, and should be a heck of a lot more story based.

Yeah, like the idea of a Zombie campaign, possibly as a finale towards the end of the year, since I get the feeling the gangs will suffer quite a few casualties