Game On! Not-romunda

Posted On January 10, 2013
This past weekend I finally had everything in place to introduce my son to the glories of Necromunda by way of 15mm figures and the great big ISS Major Tom.  The process was fairly painless as the boy has a firm grounding in the basics of the GW game engine through 5e/6e Warhammer 40k.  Which meant that it only took five minutes to cover the 2e wrinkles and skirmish-specific rules for Necromunda.  
To complicate/simplify things one more step, I chucked the whole background and built two gang rosters, one for the mangalorcs and one for the crew of the ship.  Every figure started out WYSIWIG, which meant that the balancing rules requiring X number of gangers, and Y number of heavies went right out the window.  The mangalorcs have three heavies (2 big stubbers and a flamer), and a lot of juves.  Both sides also started with some exotic stuff like flak vests and power swords.  We didn’t bother with gang ratings or territories, either.  We just talked through the narrative between the two games we played

Here, my heavy gets the drop on the mangalorcs and makes them pay a heavy price for sneaking on board my ship.  Although the mangalorcs won the game, I did manage to kill one of his heavies and capture another.

So we immediately played through a rescue scenario in which the boy made good use of the vents to get up close to the captive.  He managed to sneak up to the captive and bushwack two of my three guards at the same time.  Unfortunately for him, the now-freed captive ran straight into the mouth of my overwatching heavy who punched him full enough holes that you could use him as a colander.  The captive was freed, but did not live to enjoy his freedom for very long.

In the end, his mangalorcs put a beat down on my boys on the way out of the ship, but in the final analysis the experience favored my crew more than his raiders.  My experience and injury rolls were just what I needed, while he wound up with corpses and liabilities.  Again, we jettisoned the whole territory and gang rating section of the rules, which might balance things out fine for tournament play, but we’re just goofing around, so it works for us.

Still and all, he is eager for more, and that’s the best a wargaming father could ever ask for.

6 Comments
  1. Clint

    Great idea to change Necromunda's scale. Good report chock full of ideas and things for me to adapt! Excellent stuff

  2. fireymonkeyboy

    I love hearing about this kind of stuff. Hoping to interest my own boy over the next couple of years.

  3. Simon Quinton

    He He brilliant.

  4. Maxamillian

    Good idea, and glad you have a wargaming son!

  5. Unknown

    Hurrah – the battle report photos on the ship that I've been waiting for!! And with 15mm Necromunda no less! (-:

    When I use 28mm rules with my 10mm I just convert inches to centimeters. Did you use the standard 28mm ranges with your 15mm minis? (A reasonable choice considering how short the weapon ranges in the GW games are.)

  6. Warren Abox

    We used standard 28mm measurements, and it worked fine. The confines of the ship result in a fast playing game. You wind up with a huge number of short range shots, so pistols and hand to hand troops have and edge compared to the rules as written. I kind of like the aesthetic of 15mm figures with 28mm ranges, though – it makes those short GW ranges seem more reasonable.