Necromunda: The Rise and Fall of General T.

Necromunda is (was) a great game, but I have encountered many people (Wil) who think it is horrible, and I really think it comes down to your gaming group. Back in the beginning of 2003 I started gaming with a group of Necromunda players and had a blast - easily one of my top 10 gaming experiences of all time. Our campaign lasted a full two years of gaming every weekend without fail. All in all we saw about 20 members with a core 8-10 guys who were there the entire two years.

The group was run by my buddy James who had a cool vision of the Necromunda world, and it really translated into the game quite well. For those of you who don't know, I should go back and give a brief rundown of the game. Basically think 2nd edition Warhammer 40k using skirmish rules, or maybe a sci-fi Mordheim is a better way to reference it.

You create a gang of warriors and fight in the 40k underhive against other gangs. The campaign is ongoing, meaning you play the same characters week after week and they improve in skill and weaponry using experience and credits earned to learn or purchase new things.

I created a group called "The Orlock Hounds" which was basically a band of rough and tough bikers. As the game went on, my gang grew in size, skill and reputation. There were many other gangs and as things developed alliances were formed and arch enemies developed. It was an amazing game and an amazing group of players. As I said before, I think the key to this game is ongoing story lines (campaign play) and reliable people whom you can count on time and time again.

When my gang first formed, the leader's name was Hannibal (from the A-Team), he was an ass kicking, name taking warrior who loved to put a pounding on someone. (One other thing about the game you soon will realize, is how you start to develop personalities for each of the members as time goes on).

Now Hannibal's strength was also his downfall, at the end of a scenario only a few weeks into the campaign, Hannibal took a bullet and was out of action. At the end of each game, any members who were 'out of action' would have to roll on a chart and possibly suffer a fatal injury. Poor Hannibal took one on the right leg and was crippled. His movement was forever lowered by 1". This was drastic in the game and a huge problem. How could Hannibal lead a gang when his leg was all messed up. A gang of biker warriors hobbling into battle won't strike fear into the hear of anyone!

Well, things went from bad to worse when in the VERY NEXT BATTLE, ol' Hannibal went out of action again and as fate would dictate, he rolled another critical leg injury. This time to the left leg. Dear lord!

James ruled that there was nothing I could do. Ol' Hannibal was now crippled at half movement and it was time to think of a new member to step up and fill the roll of leader. I wasn't sure how that worked, so James filled me in... when another gang member's leadership raises up (from experience) and equals that of Hannibal, they'll have a fight to the death to determine who becomes the new gang leader.

So for the next few weeks Hannibal sat on the bench and Mr. T took over as temporary leader (another A-Team reference, when this campaign started I was catching the reruns on the USA network, so a few names from the show made it into my gang). Mr. T was set to become the new leader and as time went on and he was nearly eligible for his leadership status, tragedy struck!  Mr. T was taken out of action in a conflict against another gang, he took a blunderbuss shot to the face. This meant I had to roll on the critical wound table and fear filled me... what if he also gets a leg injury! This would become a joke that the Orlock Hounds would never live down...

The dice were rolled, and much to my surprise, he rolled "Impressive Scars" an injury that actually would give him a boost to his leadership skill! Mr. T was officially the new team leader now and would from this moment forward be known as "General T", now there was only one thing left to do... kill Hannibal.

James told me that the next weekend, we'd take care of that first, get Hannibal out of the gang, and Mr. T would officially assume the role of General in my gang. I was depressed about it. Hannibal was a cool character, and despite his leg injuries, he was still a valuable member of the team. What could I do?

Well, inspiration hit me the night before our next gaming session and I went to work. I modelled a new mini of Hannibal, in (drum roll) a wheelchair! Sure enough when James saw the mini the next day, he agreed that not only was this mini kick ass, but it was too good to kill him off. We had to find a way to work a wheelchair bound gang member into Necromunda... James quickly went to work and made some awesome house rules.

I don't have them handy, but basically I had to dedicate a Juve (a lower gang member) to be the wheelchair pusher, so I made a mini and named him "Pusher" with a back story of him pushing drugs, so it worked out well... They had to move together and got normal movement, but both could shoot (Juve could only use a single handed weapon). There were also special rules for ramps. Going up a hill/ramp was half speed and going down was normal speed, but on a D6 roll of 1, Pusher would loose control of the wheelchair and Hannibal would roll the remaining distance down the ramp, plus another distance equal to how far down the ramp he went. If he hit a solid object in his path he would take proper damage (as if he fell).

It worked out great and Hannibal was back in the gang! Although, shortly afterwards he was renamed to "Scooter McWheels" because it seemed more fitting. Here is a nice photo of Scooter McWheels with a lasgun, baseball bat, knife and grenades.

Before I get back to my story "The Rise and Fall of General T.", let me introduce you to a few more characters from my Necromunda gang.  Here is Doogie, my heavy weapons expert. He is shown here with a Heavy Bolter. Doogie was one of my favorite minis in the gang and he always seemed to do a great job sitting behind some rubble or in a gutted out building, unloading with his heavy bolter turn after turn.

Next in line is Pete Chunk. He was my plasma pistol and sword fighter, in a battle he had a building fall on him (literally) and he was nearly fatally wounded. In keeping with tradition (Like with Scooter McWheels), I remodeled him to show massive chest damage and bionic parts, I got rid of his sword and gave him a shotgun, he kept the plasma pistol. 

Whenever a Juve was promoted to Gang Member they got a new mini to represent them which I would paint and detail with a nice base. This is a cool character that I based on Rambo and named him "Marbo". He has a bolt pistol and a power sword.

Next up is Wyatt Westwood... He is based on a rough and tough Clint Eastwood type of character and like Scooter McWheels, also suffered from a leg wound, having his movement hindered by 1" in all future games. I chose this mini for two important reasons. First, it looked like the mini was dragging his left leg behind him, which fit perfectly, and second, he was carrying some demolitions, which also worked great since his leg would was caused by an explosion. After that happened I decided that Wyatt was going to become the team demolitions expert. I modified his head to have the red neck facial hair and a cowboy hat.

The next character was added to my gang near the end of our two year campaign. He was named "Cook" for a special reason. Not because he was a chef, but because there was a gamer who joined in with us named "Cook" and for many months we had a great time with him playing. He looked almost identical to this mini (below), but something funny happened... one day we lost Cook. He never showed up and after a few sessions we began to worry. Since we were gaming at a local gaming story, it soon became obvious that nobody knew his phone number or address, or even his first name... "Cook" was either his last name or a nickname. One day, after several weeks of not showing up, Cook made an appearance. He apparently had been telling his wife he was out working on the weekends he was playing Necromunda with us, and she eventually found out and laid down the law... no more gaming. Poor Cook said his good byes and that was the last we ever saw of him. I kind of wish he had come back at some point, because shortly after the drama unfolded, I created this new gang member in his honor.  Take special note of the miniature dice that are between his legs, those dice are there for a reason which I will explain in a future blog entitled "What I gotta Roll!" so be on the look out.

The last character I want to feature here is Colonel Baracus (another A-Team reference).  He was General T's right hand man, and as the two year campaign came to an end, he would assume command of the gang as it's new leader in an 8 hour long dramatic and epic final scenario that will go down in the history books...

Ok, so back to the "Fall" of General T... I've already explained the rise, and how he took power from Hannibal after his crippling leg injuries... it has now been 2 years of ongoing gaming in a massive Necromunda campaign, the likes of which I will never take part in again (for a lack of players in my new home, not from a lack of desire).

So we embark on the final scenario... two 8'x4' gaming tables side by side and two smaller gaming tables attached to them. If I recall, we had a total of 9 gangs, each making a final assault to claim supreme leadership of the underhive. We had bridges setup going from table to table... some were small and dangerous, others were large and covered with a lot of protection, but one rule was made clear from the start as James announced a new house rule for the new gaming setup... never before had we played on multiple tables, and James announced that the pits below (over the table's edge) were bottomless...

As we battled for hours and hours, my Orlock Hounds were doing quite well. However, two gangs got me cornered in a building (see photo below), I wasn't sure what options I had but to go up... and with no ramps, poor Scooter McWheels had to take one for the team and stay behind. "I'll buy you as much time as I can!" he yelled out to his old friends, "Now get across that bridge!"

Here is a photo of my gang (the second and third floor), working their way over to a bridge (the thin railroad track), it was going to be dangerous, but we had no choice. On the bottom floor you can see three enemy gang members already inside the building with one already on the second floor engaging my gang, and on the front edge you can see Scooter McWheels (in his wheelchair) using his baseball bat to wave off a few more enemy gang members while his gang makes a break!

In this image below, you can see the gang has made it to another table and they are still making their way over the thin bridges... Doogie has taken the lead, in fear of meeting an opposing gang, we decided the most powerful weapon should go first. General T is in the third spot...

And here is another view of the bridge scene... In this image they are over table top, so it isn't as bad as later in the scenario when they crossed a similar bridge over no table top (bottomless pit).

Ok, to make a long story short, we took some heavy fire and lost some valuable team members, one of which was General T. He took a hit and went down, falling off of a bridge into the bottomless pit below.

The Orlock Hounds came close to a victory that day, but were unable to hold up against the two gangs that remained, they decided to disband for a short period, hide and gather supporters, to one day return! Colonel Baracus was promoted to team leader with General T dead, and against all odd's Scooter McWheels survived! He was taken out of action but nobody took the time to 'finish him off' while he laid there in the battlefield, he was simply forgotten. 

It was our hopes (this was in the end of 2005) to one day revist this campaign, but it never panned out. Here I am nearly 3 full years later wishing we had, but the memories from this were so good I'd hate to ruin them by having another campaign that is not as successful.

Here is my final Gang at the end of the two years... if a character is not shown here, it is because they had died in the final battle for the underhive.

Front and Center is Colonel Baracus, the new leader of the gang... with Pete Chunk promoted to his right hand man (standing next to him), right behind Baracus is Cook and behind Pete Chunk is Heavy Weapons man Doogie... in between Doogie and Cook you can see General T's widowed wife "Mamma Juggs", she would serve drinks to the gang (you can see she is carrying six mugs of beer), but don't let her fool you, she always keeps a plasma pistol under her apron. :) In the back row are (from left to right), Wyatt Westwood, Scooter McWheels and Corporal Marbo. 

Side note: after our big game and hands were shook and experience awarded, I looked over General T's character sheet and realized something. He had a grappling hook listed... it could be used to stop him from falling. After some speaking with James it was determined that 'sure, we can bring him back!" and the plan was to secretly have General T return in an upcomming scenario. Unfortuantely this never happened since we never continued after our first two year campign, but I still have General T's character sheet and his miniature, and one day, even if just one time, I am bringing him back... he'll have a story of how he had to claw and climb his way back from the depths of that pit.

I would like to take a moment to send a special shout out to the members I remember playing with all those years ago: James, Danny, Niko, Eric, Dave, Cook, Danny, Philip, Brandon and all the rest whom I have forgotten...  In the immortal words of Cook "What I gotta roll!"