Necromunda GSC questions/errors?

[killercroc]

So a few people at the LGS were looking into starting Necromunda and I thought I'd jump in as well, was torn between Genestealers and Chaos and figured I'd go with the cult. I can mix the gang into my army and make some interesting conversions. So I got an extra box of Neophytes and the White Dwarf and after slowly reading it a lot of issues came up, and checking online I saw other complaints and the latest FAQ didn't address anything. Figured I'd post here and see if anyone else has these issues and found a work around for them or what they've done.

-Movement values, everything has a movement of 4". So an Acolyte is just as "fast" as an Aberrant, not sure if this one was an error or 4" is the norm. When compared to Goliath which are hulked out brute and Orlock/Escher that as far as I can tell are normal (as far as a necromunda gang is concerned) humans so when the Goliath have movement 4" and Orlock/Escher have 5" it seems the cults movement of 4" is really slow.

-Acoyltes wounds and attacks. So far every champion has 2 wounds and 2 attacks, so I cannot figure out why the adept has only 1, he even costs the same as Escher and Orlock so I have a feeling this one is just a typo.

-Paying for armor, so far all the gangs have the cost of their armor included into the model but GSC units have to pay 10 points for theirs, effectively making them the more expensive base fighter.

-Missing extra arm. Now this one would explain why the acolytes have 1 attack if they were suppose to have extra arms built in, but all the models that have extra arms do not have it on the equipment or have access to it. I'm not sure if this was intentional or not but it seems both Acolytes and Aberrants should have the extra arm as a piece of equipment, because they both literally have it and would make sense why they only have 1/2 attacks respectively.

-No wargear options. This one is big but Acolytes just straight up cannot take wargear, even though they're listed as having wargear they cannot take and there being an acolyte only wargear that only the Adept and Neophytes have access to. Also the wargear options are pieces that the acolyte box physically has (goggles, respirators).

-Demo charges, this one is pretty minor but it's a 5" blast weapon that at max can only be thrown 6" so not sure if this was either suppose to be a 9" thrown range or a 3" blast but as it stands you're very possible to take out multiple enemy units, or even your target and yourself at the same time... seems a bit off.

-Power pick/Hammer. Another minor one, but the pick is cheaper than the hammer and has much better AP, a better ability but only does 1 damage instead of 2 making it almost always the better weapon. So not sure if they meant to give the Aberrants a different hammer or just forgot what the normal hammer did and gave them a cheaper better weapon.

-Staff of office/Chainsword. Both of these options have the same price but the chainsword does everything the staff of office does in addition to getting +1 to hit so... why ever take the staff?

-Bonesword and heavy rock cutter have an accuracy bonus of 1. Not +/- 1 just 1.

-Familiar. Literally unkillable.Since they never take serious injuries as far as I understand the rules these things just cannot die. I mean sure, they're S/T 2 with 1 attack and WS 5+ which is crazy weak even for Necromunda but the fact they cannot die doesn't seem right.

There is more but I think I'll leave it there. So has anyone else noticed these and made some changes to make the group more reasonable? Seems the biggest fixes are increase the movement of everything but Aberrants to 5", give the Adept/Acolyte/Aberrant the extra arm built in, remove the cost for armor and give acolytes access to wargear and an extra wound. I mean as far as I know barely anyone plays this game but hopefully one or two people out there do.

[Nightmare20]

Yeah, the entire WD is rife with errors. Abberants are supposed to be Move 4 and everything else 5, as far as i can tell. Acolytes are supposed to be W2, and Abberants/Acolytes are supposed to have extra arms base. Bonesword and heavy rock cutter should have an accuracy bonus of +1 and -1 respectively. Familiars aren't supposed to be invincible and go out as regular, they just don't suffer injuries afterwards.

[autoxidation]

I've been playing with the rules as is, with the exception that acolytes have access to wargear, and have won most of my games. I wouldn't worry too much and I think most of the "corrections" posted by nightmare are incorrect.

[killercroc]

So we're going to start a gang war in my local area and for now I'm running them as is in the WD with the exception that acolytes get wargear but that's it. I'll see how it goes and how they play. I didn't make anything competitive at all, just a few dudes with autoguns, shotguns, adept, banner acolyte, and aberrant just to try everything out. I hope they FAQ the WD gangs (Also got the rules for Chaos) because I don't want them to get left behind and play with a handicap every time I game.

[autoxidation]

My starting gang looked something like this:

Adept. Hazard suit, autopistol, Hypnosis skill

Acolyte. Autopistol x2, blasting charges, hazard suit. Infiltrate skill

Acolyte. Autopistol x2, chainsword, hazard suit. True Grit skill

Aberrant. Power pick

Neophyte. Webber

Neophyte. Autogun

Neophyte. Autogun

Neophyte. Autogun

Neophyte. Lasgun

Neophyte. Lasgun

If I was making it again, I'd drop the true grit acolyte and run double acolytes with infiltrate and blasting charges and autopistols.

[snakezenn1]

How are people finding the genestealer cult rules as written? Competitive?

[killercroc]

I had my first game last week and I only won due to my opponent bottling out. The fact that you get pinned if you get hit makes combat impossible to focus around, my Aberrant got in and squished 2 gangers but in reality another acolyte in his place for group activations would have been a better use of points. The whole game he got pinned 3 times, and as soon as he got into combat he got gunned down right after by a heavy stubber.

I opted for a special weapon over a heavy weapon but cannot say if it's good or not due to horrible rolling and him doing nothing all game. Took a grenade launcher but I can tell right away limited to 1 Special or Heavy at beginning is a huge disadvantage, plus only 1 heavy weapon even is an unreasonable handicap.

I don't think they're competitive as they don't really get anything over other armies. Weak armor with the only buff being combining it with another piece of wargear you need to buy is silly not to mention toxic is so rare it's pointless to build against. The option of Autogun, Lasgun or shotgun is nice for variety but none of those are really outstanding weapons. Overly expensive acolyte weapons for a model with 4" move, 1 wound and 1 attack, just take 4 neophytes with autoguns instead.

Lack of any special weapons or gimmicks outside of infiltrating acolytes with demo charges and cheap gangers with autoguns the gang doesn't really stand out with much. To be fair they have good Cool so they won't run away as easily but that's about it.

My gang as is was this:

Adept- 2x Autopistols, Bonesword

Acolyte- Autopistol, Chainsword, Cult icon

Aberrant- Mining pick

Neophyte- Shotgun, Autopistol, Fighting blade

Neophyte- Shotgun, Autopistol, Fighting blade

Neophyte- Autogun, Autopistol

Neophyte- Autogun, Autopistol

Neophyte- 2x Autopistols

Neophyte- Grenade launcher, Autopistol

Nothing really special, just took some models I had and made a gang, wanted numbers so didn't focus around having a heavy, 2 acolytes and 2 aberrants from the start.

After the first game I dropped the fighting blades on the shotgun neophytes and got another autogun neophye for more firepower and pushing the gang up to 10 models. Nobody died in the first game but 4 models did get put into recovery which was super awesome. I think dual pistol adept/acolytes is a good deal. Make use of their BS 3+ and weight of shots is better than relying on 1 good shot.

[autoxidation]

May 16, 2018 19:01:49 GMT snakezenn1 said:

How are people finding the genestealer cult rules as written? Competitive?

They're okay. I had my first real loss last week vs a Van Saar gang with 4 Plasma guns. I rolled really poorly, had both of my demo charges from infiltrate miss which really put me behind.

[tomcaet]

Movement 4" seems to be the standard, with 3" for slow ones (like the squat Bounty Hunter) and 5" for fast ones - and Escher are apparently faster than Genestealer Cultists here. Juves often get an extra 1" and Escher Juves are 6" fast.

The Serious Injuries for the Familiar was definitely meant to be "Lasting Injuries". To be fair, they were called Serious Injuries previously in Necromunda. Now "Down" is "Seriously Injured".

Hazard Suits are included in Neophytes' and Acolytes' prices, you only need to buy it separately for the Adept. Flak from Trading Post is pretty much always better at the same price though.

Including the GSC weapons in Gang War 3 gives me hope that GW won't just forget this gang as WD oneshot but I'm not betting anything. Yaktribe guys meanwhile did a good FAQ (YAQ) that accounts for GSC and I'm using it.

Still don't know though whether a Specialist Neophyte can become a Champion with experience - would they then use Acolyte skill access? Probably, because it's Specialist access + secondary Leadership, as standard, but not that sure.

I played once with my GSC gang, got a pyrrhic Ambush against Goliaths - won by one body, killed them a Juve but got an Acolyte killed in turn. Had a solid rating disadvantage to use the credits right after the first game but ended up just rebuying the Acolyte - the cost of the Doc is even more awful for GSC. Mining Laser hit stuff but injury dice were borderline lucky for the Goliaths and ended up doing pretty much nothing.

Didn't yet include the first game results:
yaktribe.games/underhive/gang/goliath_p747.6482/

Simply had to take a Mining Laser with an Extra Arm (going to buy an IR sight for it sometime) and went for a WYSIWYG Adept and minimal Acolytes. Autoguns to match requirements. Was going to buy a Grenade Launcher but will probably prioritize demo charges.

[killercroc]

4" movement is a bit annoying but after playing it is doable. Escher and Orlock get 5" but Goliath and Van saar get 4" which is why I'd figure the cultists would get 5" because so far the 4" move ones are either hulking brutes or seriously teched out dudes with overlapping armor and cultists only have a hazard suit which isn't really that good but whatever.

Well they included GSC weapons in but I don't think that means the cult will get updated, they're basically just giving the weapons that were specific to the cult to everyone, effectively making them less special for the cult itself.

But I had a game this weekend against Goliath and unfortunately he had bad rolls all game and I had good rolls (Basically the reverse for both of us compared to last week). we were playing the loot grab and I only had 6 gangers against his 8 but his CC specialist took himself out with stims, his leader failed to hit my aberrant twice with his combi-plasma and the aberrant power picked him through the head. so in the end he had 5 dudes out, I had 1 and of his 3 remaining he had a rivot cannon champion with no ammo, a juve that was seriously injured and a normal ganger in front of my aberrant and a shotgun cultist so he decided to bolt and call the game. I got no cash but I did gain 8 reputation that game which was pretty sweet. And my Aberrant got enough exp to buy himself an extra 1" movement so that should help out getting to combat some!

The cult isn't the best but it isn't terrible either. The lack of special and heavy weapons plus more expensive hospital gives you a lot of unnecessary handicaps but if you play smart and focus down units it's possible to still get a win.

[tomcaet]

Cunning and smarts are highlighted in the gang - apart from literal Cunning skill access they have great Cool and low resilience. I think average everything else? They have to skulk around and their strength (if any) lies in ease of selecting targets. Goliaths have great Cool too though and their champions and the like aren't even that locked into close range as ours. And even Van Saar champions get those 2 W.

I'm venting after the last game though. Lost the Adept and a Neophyte, another Neophyte got a leg wound and an Acolyte got blinded. Literally no Lasting Injury below 51. And both Acolytes got eliminated by one shot from Gunfighter laspistols. Maybe an Acolyte leader will be for the better. Still missing the 2 W on the Adept. Didn't even land a single shot in return. I'll be racking up that underdog reputation good.

[autoxidation]

With the clarification in GW3 that any fighter can take wargear, I've been giving my Aberrants stimm-slug stash and mesh armor, and ho boy are they monsters. Had 1 Aberrant take out 3 enemy Goliath champions and a ganger over the course of a game.