Float like a Butterfly, sting like a Berserker.

This week I'm going to continue my musings around the Skills of necromunda by giving you my take on the first two skill tables- Agility and Brawn, this is pretty apt for those who have picked up the new boxed set as they are the primary skills for the two gangs in the box, although as we'll see the Escher skills are not particularly suited for a 2D game..

I didn't play last week due to family commitments, so have no nice pictures to share, instead I went the the 'Chronicles From The Underhive' podcast's Facebook group and stole some nice gangs from there, credits below the image:) you can find more pictures and a nice friendly community HERE.

Agility skills.

Agility is the primary skillset of the Escher gang and a secondary skills for Delaque, Cawdor and the cults (and a primary for Van Saar Juves too, nimble little sods). Agility skills emphasise passive skills and are perfectly balanced between reactive and proactive types. Agility skills are almost always situational, and as such can seem underwhelming compared to the power of combat/shooting/savant skills. That said it has two of the most useful skills in the game in Spring up and Sprint so expect to see these featuring heavily in Escher gangs on the table.

Escher gang by Paul 'Spuddy' Shaw

Catfall- passive/reactive. (half all fall distances, I test to avoid pinning after falls)

One of the most reactive abilities in the game Catfall's usefulness is going to depend entirely on the sort of boards you play on, if you have a tendency to play high in big three dimensional Sector Mechanicus games then it's an option, particularly as a second skill for snipers and heavies who want to get the best field of fire without risking extra injury. Unfortunately this is one of those skills that can be entirely negated by equipment- Drop rigs and Grav chutes will do the same job, and you're more likely to have a rare trade action spare than a hard-to-get skill slot at the moment. If you roll Catfall randomly it's a nice bonus, and gives a fighter more freedom to run around on top so may change the way you use a fighter, but I can't see anyone actually choosing this skill. certainly not in two dimensional Zone Mortalis campaigns!

Clamber- passive/proactive.(full move when climbing)

An underrated ability, Clamber is a movement enhancing skill that like Catfall is only really useful in 3D games. I quite like Clamber for snipers, objective grabbers and even combat beasts- the ability to charge unexpectedly up a vertical surface can catch a opponents out and get you safely into combat whilst taking the maximum advantage of cover.  A great second skill for Infiltrating and Sprinting objective grabbers to get right into the thick of things straight on, it's also a nice add-on for Impetuous Cawdor fighters, giving them a 4" climb after combat that will allow them to change levels on most terrain after taking someone out. Randomly gained it's a skill you will use, but it's definitely up there as a choice, especially if you intend to have a specific role for your fighter in later games. Again- if you only play Zone Mortalis it's no use whatsoever.


Dodge- passive/reactive. (6+ dodge save, move 2" when dodging templates)

Extra saves are always great, especially for the lightly armoured girls of house Escher, but the relative low chance of success balances the skill out somewhat.  Now if you are my mate Steven and have his ability to roll nothing but 6 this is a clear winner for you, for anyone else I'd say it's a good back up skill, especially if you know your regular opponents are the hidey/shooty/fortress types who are unlikely to move more than a few inches from their deployment zone- anything that gets you there is good.thing, But I would not take Dodge as a starting skill unless I was deliberately building a tank, and even then, maybe not.. Randomly it's nothing to sneeze at but it's not on my choice list, even for paper thin Escher.

Escher gang by Tom Carter

Mighty Leap- passive/proactive. (ignore first 2" of gaps  for I test when leaping)

I genuinely have never used or taken this skill (yet) so I'm all theory here, but Mighty leap is probably the least useful Agility skill. It suffered initially from being badly worded in GW1 so it just wasn't a choice then, and even though the errata has fixed it it still lacks the wow factor of other skills on the list. Escher in particular have no issue passing I tests for leaping anyway so it's not even something I'd consider as a back-up skill at this point. Now if you gained it randomly I'm pretty sure you'd find useful things to do with it, it's a surprise factor if nothing else, but it's definitely not a viable choice compared to pretty much any other skill in the set, or in most skill sets really.

Spring up- passive/reactive. (free INI test at start of activation to escape pinning)

Spring up is one of the best skills in the game- possibly top 5 though the fact it's reactive is a downside (you have to get shot and then survive before it kicks in, not exactly something to plan for, though you can pin yourself with Take cover- see later). Great on heavies- pass the test and you can still fire that turn, combat beasts can test and then charge straight in, and snipers can still move and fire or aim if they need to. fighters actions are one of the games core resources and anything that gives you an extra one (or stops you losing one) is golden for me. Update- It's been pointed out to me that in combination with the Take cover action, Spring up is a brilliant tool for good initiative gangs, deliberately pinning yourself as an action, then standing for free next turn before taking an action (like shoot) and pinning yourself again is a great way of keeping a sniper out of enemy crosshairs as they can't target pinned models behind cover- pop up attacks are back on the menu boys! and I've started with this skill in several builds so far, so it's always a choice- in fact I'd say it's a go-to for Escher's in particular due to their awesome initiative. If you rolled this randomly you would be pretty damn chuffed with yourself.

Sprint- costed/proactive (if both actions move, double distance on second action)

I mentioned in Spring Up about actions as a resource, and Sprint is another excellent skill because of the way it stretches two actions into three. This falls into the costed skill category as you need to spend BOTH actions moving to get the bonus movement, but on turn one and two it can be more versatile than infiltrate and once you have a couple of sprinters in your gang you can start pressuring your opponent very early on. A great skill for both objective runners and combat beasts Sprint is a skill that rewards you for having a plan when you hit the table- if you go straight into the enemies barrels you won't get the best from it, but with a little finesse it can turn games, especially when grabbing crates, rescuing prisoners and setting up to despoil relics. I'm always looking to take sprint on at least one model if it fits the role, and if you rolled it randomly you would have spent that XP very well indeed.

copyright Games Workshop

Brawn Skills. 

I think it's fair to say that Muscle was the single worst skill set in the entirety of the original Necromunda, Ferocity was pretty bad, but Muscle was absolutely terrible. Of course it had Bulging Biceps, a skill that was practically mandatory for every heavy, but in reality we all had heavies with Headbutt, Iron Jaw and Hurl opponent before we got the running, gunning brutes we were after. It's refreshing then that Brawn, the N17 offspring of Muscle, is actually pretty good, with some good choices in there for combat beasts and even one to help keep your stimm-heads alive. Almost entirely proactive you'll use these skills when you want to, not when your opponent  forces them on you, but remember it still has one major downside- you need to be very (very) close to your enemy for this list to shine. The Goliath's primary skill set, it also features in  Orlock's and Cawdor (gangs of legend at least) as a secondary skill.

Goliath gang by Ramon Nanez

Bull Charge- passive/proactive. (+1S & Knockback when charging.)

Bull charge is a skill designed for people that want to hit hard and fast. Stick it on a Goliath with S4 as standard, plus a +1S melee weapon and you are wounding most starting fighters that aren't from your house on 2+ on the charge. Once you've had  a few increases or bought some better stuff/drugs then S8 is well within the reach of your champions, making even Goliath's and Aberrants easy pickings. Knockback is a nice bonus too (remember you can get an extra strength and damage if you can trap them with the charge) but needs to be used carefully in melee- you don't want to punch them out of base to base and lose the safety of combat if they have shooty friends around. The biggest downside of Bull charge is that initially it doesn't make a lot of difference to S4 models- they wound most things on 3+ anyway, and as with all strength enhancements- you have to hit first! Like Catfall, a starting model can gain the same benefits from equipment as this skill, (in fact better as +1S on a melee weapon isn't charge only) so I'd never start with it, but it is a grand second skill to choose for a brawler, and you wouldn't be unhappy if you rolled it randomly.

Bulging Biceps- passive/proactive. (ignore unwieldy on melee weapons)

How the mighty have fallen.. Once the height of underhive chic Bulging Biceps has been errata'd down into the sump of potentials, no longer as sought after as a one-in-a-million boltgun... Alright, it's not that bad, it's effectively +1 attack when using an unwieldy weapon as it allows you to gain the benefits of an additional melee weapon, so its ok. Remember though- you split attacks equally between weapons, so if you give a model a Spud Crumper in their off hand they'll have to use half their attacks with that instead your expensive renderiser (that's why I like it with pistols as they are only ever one dice from the combat pool). I've taken as a starting skill in the past, mainly because i love renderisers, so it's definitely a contender, but I'm always torn between this and Berserk Charge for effectiveness. Randomly rolled it could be utterly useless as the model may not have an unwieldy weapon, (and depending on house rules may not be able to swap equipment to get one) but chosen for the right model it can be a solid skill.

Crushing Blow- passive/proactive. (increase one non-pistol melee dice Str and Dam by +1)

What's that you say? another skill for +1 Strength? this time with +1 damage as well? crikey! There's a theme in Brawn as you can see, and it mainly involves punching people really hard in the face. again this Crushing Blow can be replicated by weapons but (like bull Charge) it does stack with those very same weapons and can make some horrifyingly effective killing machines. I might choose this for a starting skill for an executioner type champion, someone I was definitely going to send after enemy champions and leaders and kit them out appropriately (two melee weapons, one already D2 with knockback if I can get one for the potential D4 smash!). Randomly rolled you'd be happy, and it's a viable choice but only if you have a plan for it- Bull charge or a better melee weapon are probably wiser options for the most part.

Goliath gang ' The Warboys' by Tom Carter (yes, I used him twice as these are ace!) 

Headbutt- costed/proactive. (may headbutt (basic action))

I love Headbutt, it's like an extra attack in melee (remember we talked about action resources earlier) and what's better most other houses have puny T3 so you are very likely to smash face at S6 D2 when you use it! I like it on shooty champions, so they have a back-up plan if they do get engaged, but it's also obviously useful for pure melee beasts to cause even more carnage if they don't get the charge. Probably not worth taking on a renderiser or serious damage dealer as they can usually be relied upon to drop the enemy without needing to plant face. One of my favourite uses is when you have been ganged up on- you can use this before your melee attacks to try and drop one of your opponents as it isn't effected by interference modifiers, and you can potentially take out 2 enemies in the same turn:) I like this skill as a starting skill, a choice for brawlers and I'd be well pleased if it came up randomly. alright there's a chance you can hurt yourself, but that's what Necromunda's all about!


Hurl- costed/proactive (May Throw Opponent (basic action)) 

Probably the best consolation prize in old school Necromunda when you once again failed to get Bulging Biceps, we all have fond memories of our Heavies throwing cheeky Juve's off buildings when they had inevitably ran out of ammo. Suffice to say it's still pretty much doing the same thing as before, with the difference being that it is it's own action now. between this and Headbutt there's actually little difference, if you tend to play tough opponents Hurl is better, against nimble enemies go for Headbutt. they both allow you to get out of melee without using a melee action, which is great for stopping interference modifiers, but where Headbutt relies on you passing a test, Hurl relies on your opponent failing one. Hurl is also less likely to injure an opponent, but will allow you to re-position them and pin them so again it's swings and roundabouts. Where Hurl really shines is on your 3D sector mechanicus boards, the ability to throw someone of a ledge for them to take the initial S3 hit, then falling damage, and then be pinned is a big advantage. Also Hurl is good for sharing kills and XP amongst a team- if your melee attack only wounds a multi-wound enemy, or flesh wounds them, chuck them into a nearby allies charge/shooting range for them to finish the job- especially easy with group activating champions and leaders. My favourite use for Hurl is on people with Combat shotguns, use hurl to get your opponent out of melee then give them a taste of the old Salvo. Marvelous. If you know you are fighting low Initiative enemies in a campaign it's worth picking, and it's pretty good if you get it randomly too.


Iron Jaw- passive/reactive. (+2 Toughness vs unarmed attacks)

Sort of the black sheep of the Brawn family, Iron jaw is an odd one. It's the only reactive skill in the set, and the only skill that on the surface isn't about beating face. This skill is pretty damn situational- but when it does kick in it makes a fighter very reliable in melee. A lot of players tend to load the living crap out of their leaders and champions, then just straight copy and paste autogun/lasgun etc down the gangers with no back-up weapons or melee reserves, and it is against this sort of gang that this skill is frankly epic. If you charge a standard ganger who's not got a melee weapon equipped, then even if you utterly fluff your melee attacks (which I do a lot) when they retaliate they can only wound you on a 6- even another Goliath needs a 5. Early doors in a campaign this allows you to throw your melee monster in against these morons that brought guns to a knife fight with very little risk, so it can change the whole way you play. However- late in a campaign when credits are more free and everyone has their backup pistol or fighting knife it's not as useful, though you can offset this by picking up Disarm skill or Disarm weapons. Definitely worth considering as a starting skill if your opponent has a cookie cutter gang and low imagination, and not bad if random (again, buy a Disarm weapon ASAP.) I can't see this being a viable choice as a skill in later campaign games unless you do have Disarm AND a Disarm weapon, in which case that's a pretty nasty combo for stopping enemy melee monsters in their tracks.

Copyright Games Workshop

That's the first two skill sets done, I just realised there's eight of them so i'll need to do a whole month of skill reviews before I move on! What I may do is intersperse them the game reports etc to break up the tedium for me and you:) Anyway I hope this is useful to someone out there, and I'll hopefully see you next week! comments and arguments more than welcome:)

some painting and an Ice witch

I've been painting the barges and crane since my last post, colourful in some ways but weatherbeaten mostly, here's a couple f shots of the crane progressing, I'm going to wait until I have everything together for finished photos as I think it will have more impact, if anyone wants a breakdown of colours and techniques used just ask and I'll write it up, for now it's just head down and paint!

I often refer to myself as a lazy modeller, and I should probably quantify that, I'm not lazy in that i don't do anything,m I'm lazy in that if I can find a faster, cheaper way of doing something in the long run, I will, for example- I want stone cladding on all the surfaces of the docks table, which could take a while to carve by hand, solution? I went out and bought some 'O' gauge red brick and stone texture plasticard from a railway range,, as you can see below, it's nice and detailed. 

I then built some formers around a couple of sections of this plasticard joined together, which I used to make plaster moulds, form these I'll cast thin latex skins that I can use to cover foamcard/wood where I want the stone texture of brick pattern, sure it's more work today, but in the long run it's a lot easier, and I'll have the moulds to keep for future projects:)

The last thing Ive finished recently is my Silent one for Malifaux, made from  Snow model I was given, sadly without storm, I added a green stuff cape and dreadlocks, and magnetised the base so I can hunt down a storm proxy to use in the future:)

My terrain making enthusiasm would almost certainly have stopped me finishing her off were it not for the Wyrd place november challenge, which has had some stunning entries and really got me motivated to get her done!

Malifaux docks table

I like to build at least one board every year, and I've spent the last few years building Bushido boards as that's still my favourite miniatures game at the moment, however Malifaux is happily sitting in second place, and as I now have a healthy number of Bushido boards I decided to build a Malifaux table instead, aimed to be ready for a local tournament in Firestorm Games.

I'll add here- I'm not a perfectionist with terrain, mainly using the Blue Peter method of scrounging up materials and building from there, I'll use reference images but tend not to stick slavishly to them where it would impede gaming (for example my barges have vertical sides as a rule, the sloped sides would have taken a lot of gaming space away from an already complex table) I'll add a huge amount of tiny details though, as these are what bring a table alive for me. If you have any questions just ask below and I'll try and answer.

I'll also add- as I've been too lazy to update as I go along, this is a HUGE post. sorry.

Main materials used-

PVA glue
Super glue
Cardboard (thick mountboard, rough textured cardboard and cheap thin biscuits boxes)
Foamcard (sometimes called foamboard)
Balsa wood
MDF strips and scraps
Plastic lollipop stick (chupa chups from poundland- £1=2m of plastic piping!)
Coarse fabric strips.
pins, lots and lots of pins.
bits from my mountain of 'useful' crap.

The Plan

The plan is to build a docks and factory inspired table set in Malifaux's dockside industrial zone, The rough plan is below, it will be mostly modular 'floating' on a flat watery table varnished to high gloss that I can double if as a swamp when needed. The main outstanding features of the table are 2 large barges, a docks crane, and a large factory with a detailed interior, I'll also need a fair few smaller boats and a tonne of scatter terrain (represented in the plan by generic crate shapes scattered around). The Playing area will be mostly usable, with only a few spaces like the two patches of water in the centre that will be unused, the scatter terrain can be used to correct any longer than usual lines of sight etc, and the smaller boats will provide a playable- if multi-level, playing area.

The Barges

I started with the barges, they are designed to be large enough to play across, and once I threw some scales around I came up with 6" wide, 14" long and 2" deep, both with raised fore and aft and a cargo hold in the centre. The first was going to be a generic transport barge to be pulled by a tug (no power of it's own) the second an ore barge with perhaps it's own steam boiler, dependant on how much time I have. I have a ream of research images but this one is probably the closest to what I'm hoping to end up with :

I started by planning out the footprint for the barges, I would build them both from the same basic frame and customise them as I build onto it. This frame consisted of two identical large rectangular foamcard shapes with rounded ends, one of which (the top) then had the centre cut out where the cargo hold would be. I marked out the areas that would need attention later and started building, boxing the cargo area in on the lower piece with more foamcard and added some supporting sections at either end.

Using PVA glue I attached the top section with the cut out, and while this was drying I used some thin mdf strips to mark out the skeleton of the barge where it would be visible inside the hold. I did this to both barges at once to speed the process up later (on one barge I also added wooden baffles to the top of the hold although these were changed later on)  I pinned everything in place temporarily and left it alone.

Once the frame was completely dry and secure I started plating the edges of the barges using thin cardboard and more PVA glue, I used long flat section on the sides and smaller overlapping sections on the rear- I wanted to give a more ramshackle feel to the barges that I think would suit Malifaux more than them being all spotless. I left the fronts for now as I has different bows in mind for each barge. when this dried a balsa wood fin was added to the rear of both boats- this was the last thing I would be identical on them, after this I would be working on one at a time.

The first barge is the all purpose transport vessel, I copied the bow from the image above, adding thick cardboard reinforcements to create a pointed bow, them plating it as before. I let all this dry overnight, (hence the strange discolouration on the next days photos) I added thin textured card strips across the bow in the manner of another of my reference images, then used the same 5mm strips of textured card to segment off the outside of the hull, matching the skeletal frame on the inside. 

For the inside I wanted walkway either side that a model with a 30mm base could stand on easily, and maybe even a 40mm with a bit of overlap, for this first barge I made these platforms using balsa wood strips and thin dowels. I found it easiest to build them separate to the main barge  then add them when they had dried. I left two gaps, (one each side of the vessel) for a ladder and a ramp, both of which I made using scraps of MDF and balsa I had lying around. 

I roughly floored both ends with either textured card or MDF (the fore I textured myself with a sculpting tool), One of the reference images had a tent on the aft raised area of the barge covering an access hatch, and I loved that idea, so I added a hatch with more balsa and mdf, then built a tent frame using mdf and a lollipop stick to hang cloth round (more on that later)

I mocked up a few goods to see if I was happy, and it looked pretty sweet, so I called it on barge one for now and started on barge 2. I also figured out how to change my cameras settings to get better colour again, which was nice. The bow on barge two is much simpler, an MDF prow which was then plated in using thin card as usual. 

As this was to be an ore barge, I decided the gangways would be empty wooden frames for any spare ore to fall through, it also would help defend the barge against boarders with the tricky footing. I was lucky enough to have some spare sections from one of 4grounds half built houses which when chopped up and reassembled looked perfect, I left two gaps as before, but this time I added a pipe funnel to one of them for receiving ore more neatly. Two supporting beams across the whole of the hold changed the shape of the vessel even more, and reinforced the flimsy looking gangways. 

Soulstone or Iron ore being valuable, (and Malifaux being more than a bit lawless) I wanted to armour this barge up, I used tiny corrugated cardboard and attached it to both sides, I kept it quite loose and irregular to add to the battered look. 

Rather than a tent on this more fortified vessel, I added a small hut, with shuttered windows and a corrugated roof, (There's also a drainpipe and water butt round the back, which you'll see on the painted images later), I planked the floor on both ends with MDF. after this I used more of the thin textured card and added the segmented look beneath the corrugated reinforcements as I did on the first barge. 

I left everything alone to dry for a week while I went on holiday, then when I got back it was time to add some soft furnishings, this started life as a fabric belt from an old top, which has a nice sacking texture to it. For the sandbag 'bumpers' on the first barge I soaked a section of cloth in a 50/50 mix of PVA glue and water, then rolled it up and tied it into sections using cotton, I then strung this across the bow of the barge, using pins to hold it in place while it dried.

I used the same technique to create the tent fabric, tying it to the tent frame and using the opportunity to Wrap more glue soaked cotton around the frame to reinforce it a little. 

For the second barge I added lots of sacking thrown over the armour, the crew would have soaked this and thrown it over to prevent sparks in case of an attack, (if they are carrying coal it could go very wrong) It also adds to the raggety look of the vessel, especially with a few more sections thrown around the deck and one used as a curtain on the rear hut window.

With the last of the material I created 6 more 'bumpers' for the sides of the first barge, I glued these on later once they had dried a bit.

The messiest job of the day- the ore. I wanted piles of ore in barge#2 to raise the interior and create paths across the sunken hold. to do this I roughly snapped section of polystyrene off and glued them in place to create mounds, I will cover these mounds in bird sand when they are dried to give an even rougher texture. This went everywhere, one of my cats still looks like it's been snowing. 

The Crane

As all that is going to take a while to dry (perhaps I watered down the PVA too much) I decided to build the Crane, As usual I built the balsa wood frame flat first, before attaching it to a square roof. on the roof I had added a large washer from my box of crap and punched a hole though the balsa wood to create a space for my crane to move.  

My first (precariously balanced) mock up of the crane, the giant cogs and bolts are more gubbinz from my box that I thought looked cool, and altered the historical style crane with a more mechanical look, although in the end I decided one cog would be enough.

Adding more reinforcements to the basic frame in balsa wood, then thick plasticard to give it some survivability, I don't trust balsa to retain it's integrity with height. I attached this to the base with the hollow end of the long bolt directly beneath the hole in the washer. I finished the base off with a walkway around the edge and some dowel legs, to continue the impression of a large mechanism (and add support) I added a wide plastic pipe section to the centre, directly under the centre of the cog. I cut this too short, so I had to add some thick card section under it to raise it up which I'll paint as ripples probably.   

This is the only image I took of the actual crane head in construction unfortunately, again it's mainly built from Balsa, Plasticard and gubbinz, mounted on another large washer and using a dowel 'pin' to allow it to turn. the wheels are from 4grounds western wagon wheels set, and fit my ideas for a crane perfectly. after this I added more reinforcements to the frame with crossbars etc, and bulked up the turntable area. 

The finished Crane- with Johanna for scale:) I'll update with more as I progress:) the only thing I'm unsure of is whether I should add a counterweight, to the back, most of my source images have one, but I think it would be too unwieldy on the table (and I also have deliberately avoided any flat areas on the top of the  crane to stop dirty 'from the shadows' action)  any thoughts?

 

update: after asking for advice I decided I would add a counterweight to the crane, however whilst attempting to add the weight I managed to break some fairly important bits, oops! anyway I spent the remainder of the night creating a big box weight and making it look a bit more like the reference pics:

After all that I'm much happier with it now, it has the look of a docks crane rather than an industrial one, and I'll add some wire rope to it as soon as I figure out how to build a bucket:) here it is with the barges so you can see it's size compared to them.