The Friary of Jade (and Friends)

[Reyner]

Cheers dude :) 

[Brother Dallo]

Hi all, 

 

Apologies that it's been a while since I last updated. The campaign has been going really well and we're approaching the final two weeks. There's already talk of another campaign, so I think this one has gone down well.

 

As I mentioned before, I've been arbitrating for myself and three other blokes I game with.

 

In an effort to keep up interest and momentum between games, I've been writing up little "newsletters". Please excuse any grammatical errors, as they typically get put together the night before we're playing our next game because forward planning is for sensible people.

 

 

 

Here you can see an introduction to our four gangs. There was a little tongue-in-cheek humour here as the Goliath player was struggling to decide which name to go with.

 

The newsletters are put together in PowerPoint as it's quick/easy to use and is powerful enough for my purposes. There are probably dedicated tools out there which are better, but this one works for me.

 

 

Here we have Hutt, my poor, brave ganger. He was captured by the Goliath player during our Gang Moot and was sadly killed during the following rescue attempt. A single las pistol shot from a Rogue Doc knocked him to the ground and a Goliath stomped his head in. It was a bloody game with NINETEEN models being taken out of action. The game came down to seeing who would retreat first and in the end, there was a single Goliath ganger on the table, who for some reason, ran away from Psalm-Bot in the hopes that the Ambot would fail his Cool check first. Sadly he did, so the Goliath player then captured my poor Juve "Two-Creds".

 

Two-Creds has a bit of a reputation in my gaming group now. He was a free Juve from the House Favours table. He still has no gear and isn't going to get any until he scavenges enough for a stub gun. He has searched two loot crates and both times he has passed the test to open them, found d6 credits and then rolled two to determine how many credits he found. 

 

Finally, for now, here is a WIP on my new Ganger Darnok.

 

Darnok is a Cawdor Ganger whose hobbies include praising the Emperor, counting to three (or occasionally seven) and avoiding bathing in case it washes away the Emperor's blessing.

 

 

Rumours that say Hobb only walked away from a melta hit and a krak grenade impact to the face during the Gang Moot as a result of prayers to some darker power are definitely heresy. 

 

C&C Welcome.

 

Dallo

[Darnok]

Hilarious!

 

That campaign newsletter is nicely done - funny, but short and not over the top.Things like that can really elevate a campaign from normal gaming to something remembered. Well done!

 

And that Darnok fella? He looks nice...

[Brother Dallo]

Thanks Darnok,

 

Glad you like your namesake. The base poxwalker is a pretty stupid looking model in my opinion (the ETB one with the tentacle), so I'm glad how it turned out. It's slightly hard to make out in the photo, but he's holding a Cawdor mask in his free hand.

 

I've certainly enjoyed making these newsletters. I won't spam you with all of them but I quite liked this one.

 

 

The background here was that the Blue Dragons captured a Settlement during the Occupation Phase, which I decided was Solitude's Shadow (the place the newsletter is based), so the bias towards the Van Saar gang makes sense. If you look closely at the letters in bold, Inky Pete is trying to send a secret message in the text.

 

My next game is against the Van Saar, so I might try to rescue the poor inhabitants of Solitude's Shadow. In the name of the Emperor, naturally.

 

Dallo

[Darnok]

I think I will convert a "Brother Dallo" for my Cawdors tomorrow - he might have some weird ideas about the Emperor though. Talking about things like "His Holy Four Aspects" that are "shining like an eightfold star" ...

[Brother Dallo]

Who you will then paint for the painting event? There are still two weeks and you DID say you’d come help me. :P

 

Dallo

[Darnok]

I might actually do a "Chaos Cawdor" group now.

 

There is a Sheenbird to be painted for actual House Cawdor though - I will stand by my word. Do you want it in the Chem Pits or the Settlement?

[Brother Dallo]

Chen Pits probably makes sense.

 

Dallo

[The Gentle Axeman]

Nice work Dallo, love the conversions and the narrative you bring. I hope I can find a group like yours to game with. I'll be staying tuned for more.

[Brother Dallo]

Thanks for the comment The Gentle Axeman. What’s your current gaming group like? I actually met the guys I’m playing with via a Lord of the Rings SBG Facebook page and it turned out they were reasonably close to where I live.

 

If you’re keen to get a campaign going, I’d recommend volunteering to Arbitrate it, as it makes it less intimidating (much like if you want to start a RPG group, volunteering as the GM tends to have better results).

 

Ask around your gaming store/GW or any Facebook groups you’re part of. Yaktribe also has a gaming map, so could be a decent way to find some gamers if you don’t know any. Beyond that? Paint up some models (and terrain if you have the budget/space) and spread the word that you’re thinking about Necromunda.

 

Don’t be discouraged if it takes a while. I got my first Cawdor ganger months before there was any serious talk of starting a campaign. Even if it’s just you and a friend to start with, these things tend to build momentum.

 

If you have a few people on the fence, put on a demo game or two. It doesn’t need to be expensive, you can just use one Gang with each player getting five models.

 

I’ve really enjoyed playing Necromunda, so if you can get into it, I’d recommend it.

 

I think the new campaign system is clever in that typically it runs for seven weeks. Having a set start, middle and end point for the campaign helps people to stay motivated and avoids so many people dropping out through boredom.

 

Really hope this is helpful.

 

Dallo

[The Gentle Axeman]

Very helpful, cheers.

 

I'm going to my local games store's wargames night tonight, apparently mostly kill team and starwars gets played but I'll be dangling the 'munda bait.

 

I like the idea of a fixed campaign, I roped some mates into a kingdom death campaign and we got 4 games (out of 30) in before they lost focus. That one did have the advantage of being all my models. I'm happy leading the campaign (I'm usually DM too - pathfinder/dnd) and will take inspiration from your write ups.

[Brother Dallo]

Glad you like the newsletters. A few simple tricks I used were:

 

Find a style and stick to it. A constant background will go a long way to establishing a familiar setting.

 

The image formatting tools in PowerPoint are useful. I mainly use “Soft Edges” and the recolouring tool to get an old-timey feel. It also avoids worrying if all of the models in the shot are painted.

 

Having some kind of impartial (or not) narrator helps to add to the setting.

 

Tongue-in-cheek humour is encouraged, as is player participation. A few of the adverts I’ve added are requests from the players.

 

Most of all, have fun with it and don’t take yourself too seriously. It’s Necromunda.

 

Dallo

[Darnok]

And so it begins...

 

Meet Brother Dallo:

 

 

Please excuse the horribad pictures, it is nighttime here already.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Bother Dallo the one on top of the lamp? :P

 

In all seriousness, I look forward to seeing them in better light.

[Darnok]

In all seriousness, I look forward to seeing them in better light.

I did some more, taking this back to my own thread.

[Brother Dallo]

I feel there’s a certain irony in blaming bad lighting while taking a photo of a lamp...

 

Like I said in your thread, those are some nice conversions. Make sure you keep us up to date with their performance in game. My Sheen bird has been awful. On his first outing he charged the Van Saar leader, failed to wound and is now toughness 1 due to the reaction attacks.

 

Darnok will be having his first game on Tuesday, so I’ll let you know how he gets on (and try to get some paint on him).

 

Dallo

[noigrim]

Nice bit of fake ne... I mean exemplar journalism!

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

I could have sworn I had commented in here before, but some damn fine work! I wasn't much a fan of the Cawdor aesthetic but your work and some other I've seen on the internet might be winning me over to the threadbare side. 

[Brother Dallo]

Thanks to you both for the comments.

 

@noigrim I’m glad you know unbiased, truthful reporting when you see it.

 

@Brother Chaplain Kage I very much appreciate the kind words. I really enjoy playing Cawdor. It’s generally accepted that they’re not a “top tier” competitive gang, but they’re lots of fun. Do share if you ever get around to collecting any.

 

Dallo

[noigrim]

Indeed! In fact my version version of Klovis the redeemer's exploits is a parangon of objectivity Edited July 3, 2019 by noigrim

[Darnok]

Make sure you keep us up to date with their performance in game. My Sheen bird has been awful.

I just learned today that there is a Necromunda campaign in my local GW starting this Saturday - but I will field my Walking Pox. The gangs are supposed to be painted, and I won't get my Cawdors coloured until then. So neither Dallo nor the bird will see action soon. Maybe another plaers fields a Sheenbird though, I will let you know about their experiences.

[Brother Dallo]

Hello again Underhivers.

 

As you may have gathered from the Conversion thread, I've started a new gang for a new Campaign.

 

I'm sure you'll meet the rest of the gang later, but for now, here's King, leader of the Iron Maw.

 

 

So far I've had one game against an Escher player. He's been in the hobby (see playing with tiny plastic people) for a long time, but had never played Necromunda, so it was a bit of a learning game for him.

 

In the end, his leader ended up inflicting a Memorable Death on my Chainsword Champion (McBane) and by Ganger (Bjorn) later died of his injuries as the Iron Maw decided his life wasn't worth paying 70 Creds to the Doc.

 

In return, the Iron Maw inflicted six injuries on the Escher gang, which consisted of a Death, Enfeeblement, recovery and three serious injuries. They won a Gambling Den for their troubles and King is now rocking Suspensors for his Heavy Bolter and inherited McBane's chainsword (representing the chain bayonet).

 

My remaining Champion (Toodles) was the MVP causing thee OOAs over the course of the game (two Champions and a Ganger), including one Champion where he got the charge, fluffed all of attacks with his Renderizer, took three fleshwounds from the powersword wielding Escher Champion before killing her with his retaliation attack. He earned enough Exp to get himself an extra point of movement.

 

The Arbitrator has introduced a scheme where you get bonus Creds based on having a painted gang. Sadly, my gang is still bare plastic as I haven't had opportunity/weather to prime them, but I've made a start on my bases. They'll all be getting hazard stripes, hence the yellow patches.

 

 

I split a Dark Uprising box, so got everything except the gangs, so you'll hopefully see some terrain photos too. The current plan is to get a set of the plastic tiles and make a classic 2x2 Zone Mortalis board for my Badab Wars Kill Teams (which have been on the back burner for a while, but I hope to return to soon).

 

Thanks all.

 

Dallo

[Reyner]

Looking good Dallo I am really tempted to start a Goliath gang and your Leader rocking the Heavy Bolter is similar to what I had in mind. Does it work well in game before you got the Suspensor?

[Brother Dallo]

Thanks Reyner.

 

Honestly, most heavy weapons before Suspensors are pretty tricky to use. Last game I used one of my Champions to bait a flamer wielding ganger into the firing line of the heavy bolter. The Champion ended up getting flamed to draw the ganger into the Kill Box, but the Flamer failed to wound or set Toodles on fire. It was a fairly big risk to set up a shot. Not being able to move and fire is a big deal, as is not being able to fire if you’re pinned, so that’s why King is running Nerves of Steel.

 

I’d say Heavy Weapons without suspensors are more for area denial, rather than actually getting kills, unless you lure someone into the line of fire.

 

Hope this is helpful.

 

Dallo

[Reyner]

That makes sense ta :)