Necromunday: Tales from a One-Day Narrative Campaign

Welcome back scummers! Cody and I got together and had a grand day of Necromunda with a little narrative hook. I designed some custom missions to tie in with a story. With only a few in-game modifications we had a pretty solid day.

For our day of games, I tried to think about the reason our two gangs would end up fighting. What kind of rivalry would or could we develop based off the actions of the gangers and the outcomes of the gangs?

Game 1

For the first game, I decided the scenario would be a scouting mission to ease both of us into the day and get our gangs acquainted with each other. Given the gang composition for the scenario it also avoids the game 1 leader kill; which can be dealt with many different ways, but without arbitration is brutal.

Scouting mission

Your gang leader has heard about a convoy that was ambushed and looted. The powerful gang that did the hit took what they wanted, but there’s still some value in what they left – worth the risk for your young gang. He sends a party out to investigate and secure the wreck.

• Select 1 champion and randomly select half of your gangers (rounding down), your leader sits this one out. We both ended up with our champion and 3 gangers.
• Deploy within 6 inches of your table edge. Your gangers are a scouting party so must be deployed within 4 inches of another ganger.
• Objective: Scout the convoy and secure it. Drive off the opposing gang.
• Bottle checks are made on a D3. The first gang to bottle immediately leaves the table and the other gang wins.
• Winner gains D3+1 Rep. Loser gains 1 Rep. Gangers that took part in the fight gain 1 XP.
• Your gangers not in the fight are working and generate D6x5 creds per ganger. You leader and champions are not working.
• Your gang is unable to harvest creds from their territories between game 1 and 2.
• Your gang is unable to go to the trading post following this game.

DYLON: Game 1 saw my Specialist with a long rifle get seriously injured on the first shot. Just a few turns later, another ganger was taken out of action… and my gang bottled out. It was a quick little game to set the mood and start the story for our later games. Despite how quick my gang bottled, I still made it to the Cargo-8 and nearly got to pull off a charge with my champion.

DYLON: Game 1 took about 45-60 minutes and we broke for lunch. We both got toasted meatball subs from my local House of Pizza, and they satisfied our need for a sneaky sub. My Blunderpole welding Brethren that had been taken out of action ended up with an Eye Injury, which given his armament, could have been way worse.

A Campaign Rule!

A rule we discussed after game one and then implemented for this campaign is to ignore out of action results so that all gangers are available for the next game. Except for gangers who get a serious injury. They’re available for the next game, but because they actually got hurt, their fellow gangers have given them a bottle of Second Best to get them back on their feet and in the action. A ganger who suffers a serious injury gains a bottle of Second Best and starts the game with one inebriation token. Each time they activate they take a Willpower test, and if failed, take a swig of their drink and roll see if they run out.

Game 2

For Game two, I wanted whichever gang lost game one to be looking to come back with reinforcements. The underdogs would try to take the loot with the backing of the full gang. The winner is trying to load up the loot and drive off with it, not expecting their opponent to come back!

Ambush

Use the Ambush mission from the Main Rulebook with the following modifications:

• The gang that lost game 1 is the attacker (Gang A). Having been driven off, they return to claim what they think should be theirs. The winner of game 1 (Gang B) has secured the wreckage and are in the process of looting it.
• Gang B gets D6+1 barricades to reinforce their position while they load up.
• Both gangs use their full rosters. The winner of game 1 deploys within 12” of the wreck.
• One ganger must be assigned to loading the Goliath Truck.
  • At the beginning of turn 3, roll a D6. On a roll of 6, the truck is loaded up and that ganger will begin driving off the board.
  • If a 6 is not rolled, keep rolling the beginning of each turn, a 5+ on turn 4, 4+ on turn 5, 3+ on turn 6, or the truck is just ready at the beginning of turn 7.
  • The truck will drive 6” per turn (leaving at the start of turn 3). The rest of the gang will begin to disengage at this point as well.
• The gang that lost game one deploys anywhere on the table outside of 12” from the other gang. Do not use the deploying within 6” if hidden rule from the Ambush scenario.
• Priority for turn one is rolled as normal, with the defending gang gaining a +1 to their roll
• Winner gains 2D6x10 creds & D3+1 Rep. Loser gains 1D6x5 and 1 Rep.
• Your gang is unable to harvest creds from their territories between game 1 and 2.
• Your gang is able to go to the trading post following this game if they wish.

DYLON: As the second scenario takes place in the same place as the first one, we used the same terrain set up with Cody adding his barriers. He deployed, trying to be a little tricky – using the Cargo-8 trailer to shield his entire gang from half of the board. I deployed my gangers in three groups and got the first turn. My first action saw my ganger with an incendiary charge run up and pin 4 of his gangers – setting 2 on fire. Injuring none of the Delaque, I might add.

A close firefight broke out with seven of Cody’s gangers and several of mine being taken out of action. The end of the game saw Cody roll one after one for his bottle rolls until the Goliath rolled off the table and he took the win. Despite having a ton of Out of Action gangers, we managed to roll up only one lasting injury, with Cody’s Psy-Gheist, Pigeon, suffering a nearly career-ending Head Injury.

Game two saw the first beer of the day, a Blueberry Brunch from Tree House Brewing. Pouring like motor oil, with maple on the nose, it’s a heavy and delectable beverage. We followed it up with beer number 2, another from Tree House, a bottle of Quadruple Shot Extra Dark. Similar to the first, but with heavy notes of Dark and Baker’s Chocolate and coffee undertones.

Game 3

Given the arc of the previous 2 games I felt I needed to create two options based off the result of game 2. If a gang won the previous 2 games, they’re cruising through and on to bigger and better things. Or we’re looking at a come back from a losing gang what what they’re able to do. Which is exactly what happened.

Attackers (Gang A) win.

You managed to drive them off and take advantage of their hard work and run off with the loot. The Gang B gang leader is pissed. He rounds up his gangers and Gang B launches a desperate assault on the previous winner’s Gang Stronghold.

Defenders (Gang B) win.

You drive off Gang A and returned home beaten up but with all the loot. Your leader finds a buyer and you immediately head to the train depot to load it up onto the next outbound train. Gang A hears about this and launches a desperate ploy to stop the train (incurring the wrath of the Guild along the way) and steal the loot. 

The train engine and 1 car are sitting in the depot. One turn 2 they start to move, needing to escape the opposite board edge. Gang B will be defending the train. Gang A has to disable the train before it leaves the table.

• Gang B deploy within the train depot (12”x12”). Gang A deploys within 6” of the opposite board edge.
• The train uses Rockgrinder vehicle stats from The Book of the Outlands except it moves 3” per turn and has 6HP.
• The ganger that disables the train gains D3 XP. Winner gains 2D6x10 creds & D3+1 Rep. Loser gains 1D6x5 and 1 Rep.

DYLON: Given that I’d lost the first 2 games, we got to play option 2 (also the reason option 1 isn’t fully flushed out, sorry!). Which worked out because it was the first opportunity to play on the Train Depot which I painted last month. You can see a timelapse of me painting it on my YouTube. Cody deployed all around the depot and I was able to deploy surrounding him waiting to destroy the train. The train in these pictures is available from Imperial Terrain.

We opened up beer number 3 around this point, from The Veil called Maple Double Stuffed Bourbon Sleeping Forever. Based on the description, we were hopeful, but it had a nose of burnt rubber and was just TOO sweet. I think this is the sweetest beer either of us have ever had, and we get down with big ABV pastry-stouts and dessert beers all the time. Cody was out after 2 sips and I powered through to 4 sips, but to avoid physical harm or diabetes we retreated to the house for copious amounts of water and some Ritz crackers, the buttery saltiness saving our palates. We regrouped and opened up a can of a Golden Helles from Von Trapp Brewing (yes, those Von Trapps) which was light and slightly bitter and the perfect antidote to the mental and physical experience we’d both just been through.

We started the game with the train having only 4 HP, but I was able to knock those HP off pretty quickly, at which point I added 2 more to make the game more interesting. We discussed the toughness of the train at length and the point that some gangs would be able to take out something like the Rockgrinder we use fairly easily. If you play this, I’d recommended tailoring the train to the attacking gang, customize the toughness of the facings and HP to match. Don’t be afraid to alter it mid game if you over- or underestimated it.

The game ended up coming down to the last turn when I was finally able to destroy the train with my Specialist with Long Rifle taking the last HP off. My ganger with Heavy Crossbow, while doing the initial damage to the train, spent the rest of the game getting shot, pinned, knocked back and rolling a 6 for his armor save, just to stand up and have the experience repeated. And remember Cody’s Psy-Gheist Pigeon? He showed up with a bottle of Second Best and only ran out after his 4th drink.

Immediately after that picture was taken, the Nacht-Ghul jumped the gap and killed my ganger. After the scenario, my leader, who had been taken out of action, ended up suffering a critical injury. So, I’m going to need to take him to a Rogue Doc and get him patched up, hopefully not too worse for wear.

And with that, it was dinner time with the fam. Cody joined us for some low effort, but very tasty refried bean tacos in crunchy shells with a side of plantains.

This was a fun one. If you and your friends have done something similar we’d love to hear about it. Drop us a line at Contact@Goonhammer.com.