A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Necromunda – Slowly but surely I’m getting though the backlog of Necromunda miniatures I’ve acquired since the game was rereleased in 2017 (and again in 2019). My goal for the year is to get through a gang per quarter. Initially I was shooting for one per month but with my commission load I don’t think that’s realistic.
Read More
Necromunda – We haven’t started our official pit fight campaign yet, however I was able to play a few exhibition matches to test out my latest fighter.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about a grenade launcher wielding Stimmer in a pit fight. Not having access to his guns until round three could be a bit scary, that is until I found inspiration from Sump City Radio. Their discussion of House of Chains in Episode 5 was quite good and it made me rethink my opinion of the Muscle Skill Tree.
My champion Knuke did a phenomenal job smashing his opponent. Dancing around the board is a little easier when you’re playing 1v1 so most games I was able to either get off the charge or weather the storm of blows to beat my opponent back with my Fists of Steel.
I think this will be my fighter of choice for our Pit Fight campaign. He’s tough enough that most weapons have a hard time hurting him so I might feel pretty comfortable betting on myself in a few matches.
Four Player Pit Fight Over Google Hangouts
Necromunda – Perseverance pays off, when this pandemic made meeting up in person a bad idea and then potentially a crime I thought our Necromunda campaign would die off. Luckily with a little bit of trial and error we were able to work out the kinks in our pit fighting rules.
First up using the 24”x24” mat that came with Dark Uprising is a much better choice. I made some identifiers for the grid one the side so players could call out the direction they wanted to move. We also opted to just have me do all the moving and measuring. Using my phone to join the hangout and suspending it over my dining room table we got a decent view of the map.
Second the changes we made: to only allow (1) action on the first turn, allowing pistols and grenades Turn 2 and all other ranged weapons on Turn 3; seemed to balance the game out a little better. We were able to play two games and each went to turn 4 before there was a winner. Even with five players it seemed to flow smoothly.
Next time we’re going to start an actual campaign that will allow betting and fighters to buy further upgrades. Here’s a summary of the first pass at betting/campaign rules:
• Each player get 300 credits to build a fighter and 50 credits for entrance fees/betting to start
• To enter a fight it costs 5 credits, the winer takes the purse
• Players may place bets with the house for: First Blood - First fighter to eliminate another, Winner - Player that wins the match, Sacrificial Lamb - First player Eliminated. These bets will pay out 1:1, so a five credit bet will pay out 10 and so forth.
• Players my use their winnings to improve their fighter. Any upgrades cost 3x the listed cost in credits. This represents training and the slave owner keeping the bulk of the winnings.
• In the event a player runs our of money they may sell back weapons and equipment for 1/2 the listed cost in credits. Players may not sell back stat increases or skills.
• The Injury chart will not be used to the first pass at this campaign. If this goes well we might incorporate it into the next iteration.
Here’s the Goliath Stimmer I ran in the last match as well as another I’m considering for future matches.
Revised Pit Fight Rules
First pass at playing over Google Hangouts
Necromunda – Five members of my gaming group were able to meet up over Google Hangouts to have a pit fight. We used the rules I posted up the other day day and it was pretty successful. After three games we did have a few issues that need to be addressed before we play again.
First off being locked in a tiny fighting pit with a Corpse Grinder armed with Paired Heavy Chain Cleavers is bad news. Corpse Grinders are a very strong in close combat and many of the abilities they have seem to be an over correction to the weakness of close combat in Necromunda. If you don’t have a chance to shoot and pin them or stay out of charge range there’s little hope of beating them. Right now we’re considering limiting pit fights to the original six house only, it makes sense from a fluff perspective and puts everyone on a more even playing field. The downside is the non-house gangs are really cool and everyone wants to be able to play their favorite character. The compromise is to eliminate the “scary” part of the masks and remove any ability that flat out takes a model out of action. We’re going to try this next week and if it doesn’t work out better than we’ll go to just the original six gangs.
The other issue we had was a chess board isn’t big enough if you count squares as 1” the easy fix is to change them to 2” squares and count a diagonal move as 3”. Intially we opted to use a chess board because everyone could easily replicate the board state at home. In practice I use my laptop and phone to both join the call and suspended my phone above the board. So it wasn’t necessary for everyone to have a board at home. That being said we’re going to use the game mat that came with Dark Uprising next week. I’ll make a number and letter key for the grid so we can easily call out our moves.
We’ll also be tweaking a few things.
• Showboating: Models only get one action on turn one.
• We Want Blood: Ranged weapons aren’t allowed until turn three.
• From the Hip: Weapons with the Sidearm trait may be used on turn two.
• FIGHT CLUB: Fighter may purchase any items from theBook of Judgement Trading post up to Rare 9.
Apart from those minor snags we had a great time and played three games. We’ll try again next week with the tweaks detailed above.
Necromunda – Prior to all this COVID nonsense I was participating in two separate Necromunda campaigns. Neither of my gangs was doing particularly well, but I was having fun. Both campaigns were moving along and didn’t seem to be in danger of stalling out, then the world went to shit and getting together for games wasn’t going to happen.
After a few brainstorming sessions we decided that running Necromunda pit fights over video chat seemed to be the most feasible way of playing. Only having one model per player to keep track of and an easily translatable grid seemed to make sense. In the event that this goes well we can continue to have fights during lockdown and generate some credits for our gangs when we can meet back up face-to-face.
Here’s the rules I came up with, I’ll post a follow up later this month with some type of after battle report.
Necromunda – Dark Uprising is an amazing starter set for Necromunda, not only do you get a boatload of terrain to battle over, you also get two full gangs and a bespoke campaign that you can battle out using just the starter contents or expand to include the other gangs.
Read MoreNecromunda – When you think of Necromunda most likely the first thing you probably think of is a large man with a mohawk and big guns, which makes sense since it’s been the cover of 2 of the three rule books for the game. This burly individual is a Goliath, a vat-grown mound of muscle that serves the furnace works of the Hive. Big and brawny these guys are the 80’s stereotype bully/punk/jock.
Read MoreNecromunda – The gang houses of Necromunda all have a specialized role in the Hive, with that role they also have an ‘80’s stereotype that they’re based off from. Orlocks are the bikers. Tough as nails and in control of the caravans that traverse between the Hives they also control many of the slag mines.
Read MoreNecromunda – This year I’m going to try and focus on Necromunda. A few members of my regular group are going to get together once a month to play out a Dominion Campaign. Hopefully with getting together just once a month everyone will be able to play out the full campaign.
Read MoreNecromunda – This year I’m going to focus on getting all of my Necromunda collection painted. Which seems appropriate being the “Year of the Rat.” For the uninitiated Necromunda is a game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, however rather than focusing on large scale battles between armies it focuses more on the day-to-day struggle for power on the planet Necromunda. This planet is an industrial wasteland in which trillions of people live in massive Hives dotted across the toxic wasteland.
Read More
Terrain – 3D printing continues to move forward leaps and bounds which means getting access to cool terrain and custom parts is easier than ever. Back in January Jose at funboardgames.etsy.com sent me a bunch of terrain to review. Sadly I’m just now finishing it up, my year has been pretty swamped and I’ve almost surpassed my total painted model count from last year (822) at the halfway point of this year (617).
Anyway this terrain is great and with minimal effort your can get you board populated with some cool stuff that fits multiple systems. The Gaslands and Star Wars themed crates fit in with most other systems to give a variety in shipping crate options. I used the same rust technique I’ve done with my other Necromunda themed pieces.
Terrain – 3D printing is all the rage these days. There are some amazing designers selling stuff on Shapeways, super creative generous people that upload designs to thingiverse and a plethora of etsy shops that specialize in table top accessories. In fact there’s so much cool stuff out there it’s sometimes hard to cut through the clutter and find the best stuff.
Read MoreHOBBY GOALS - Every year in late December/early January bloggers everywhere post about their goals for the new year. Not one to be left out I figure I’d follow suit.
Read MoreNecromunda – Combat shotguns are probably one of the most versatile guns available when playing Zone Mortalis style Necromunda. Knowing you're going to get up close and personal against groups of enemy fighters means the shredder rounds will put in work. Template weapons in general are nasty because they pin you without having to "hit" against a close combat orientated gang like my Genestealer Cult it's devastating.
Read MoreTerrain Building – Blade Runner really set the tone for me as to what a dystopian future would look like. Dirty, crowded and dark. Ultimately that's the look I'm going for with my city table. Ideally this terrain will be "useable" across several different rules sets like 40K, Necromunda and Batman as well as any other random "near-future" sci-fi games I might find myself interested in.
Read MoreNecromunda – Having played a few games with the gangs that came in the boxed set I decided it was time to branch out and experiment with the Genestealer Cult. I've always been a big fan and while I'm not using my Warhammer 40,000 Genestealer Cult until they get a new codex I can use the models I already own to build a pretty cool gang.
Read MoreWarhammer - I have a few models up for sale on eBay at the moment. One of the services I offer my clients is to sell models either for a percentage or for painting credit on a larger force. Occasionally I'll have commissions that were never collected or test models that didn't make the final list.
Read MoreNecromunda – I've always loved Necromunda, the idea of fighting in a the slums of a giant city with a small gang is just so cool. The original game (and it's nearly identical reprint) was incredibly fun even though their were some noticeable issues with the campaign system and the common problem of some gangs growing to fast for anyone else to catch up. The newest version of the game seems to have addressed those issues and introduced some new ways to play.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Necromunda used to be one of my favorite games. Sadly the awesomeness the is 8th Edition Warhammer 40,000 has overshadowed the game in my local group. Combined with the "lack of rules" for older gangs it's been a hard sell. However once we wrap up our current escalation league I plan on doing a short Necromunda campaign.
Read MoreTerrain Building – Last Christmas I received several buildings from Knights of Dice in their Sentry City Chinatown Range. For some reason I had shelved these with some other "rainy-day" projects. I pulled these out while I was looking for another box and decided to make some time to get a simple paint job on them and assemble the buildings so I can use them for some games.
Read More
