[Necromunda] Bad Heir Day (Shift 010726, M42)

"You sure about this, kid?" Evil Annie's chair emitted a series of unpleasant noises - grinding, squeaking, and one metallic pop - as she leaned back. "'Cause I was lucky out there today, and we're burying two of our own who weren't. Jenna's lost a rutting eye, and Mari's jumping every time she hears a critter skitter."  

"They got Bertha first. She wanted to go out there and parley. Said she'd seen the big nasty the clickers had behind 'em, and Noisette had cooked up something to knock it out. Dunno what she said to 'em, but we all saw her get popped and dropped. Shot to the gut, stock to the face."

"I knew something would go down, so I'd told the little sisters they were backup, and we had Jo up top to cover. Harri and the others should've been up there, and when I find out why the frag they weren't..."

 "All I know is they let one of the clickers through, and Tabs gave 'em what they had coming. Took longer than I'd like, but you don't turn your back on our Stabitha and live to tell the tale."

"Rest of us were a little distracted. Rutting dune bug the size of a cutter comes climbing over the outhouse! Jo and me cranked up our plas and gave it all we had, and it barely even slowed down. Chewed Swordsmary up real bad and spat her up the wall. Still don't know how she walked away... or had her own legs. The jaws on that thing..."

 

"Angel shows up and she's got a choice, KK? She's got three clickers coming round to the left, or that big rutting bug ahead of her, and what she ain't got is one of those full-auto shotguns the meatheads and gearheads are packing. So she does what she's gotta do, makes the sacrifice, takes the shot on the bug and knocks it back, and - she's outflanked, she's outnumbered, and she's outgunned. One of those clickers had some kind of rocket..."

Annie shifts in her chair again, and she can't look the listener in the eye.

"I'm gonna miss her." 

 "I can hear Harri's bolter going, but the hide on that bug's better'n any armour I've seen, so I do what I've gotta do and whip it till it ain't even wiggling. 'Course, the clickers saw that coming, and this chica with her own lashers comes racing round the corner, clips me in the head... this is where it starts getting hazy."

 "Jenna's saying she got here with Ave a little too late: the clickers were all over us by then, and she took a hit in the eye ducking that rocket."

"Evan was round the other side with Harri, and she says they got one clicker down, but four other bug-rutters were setting up a web gun and the one that scragged Bertha was still shooting.

"I don't blame the girls for bolting. I'd have called it the same way, if Tabs hadn't carried me out of there." 

 "So, yeah. Half my crew out. The clickers got whatever tech was sending out that buzz, and you just know they stripped it for parts before they burned the place down. If you wanna come out there with us, you're welcome, and mothers know we could use you, but... you deserve the truth. Ain't fun, ain't safe, and the locals ain't friendly.

"You're still in? KK. One more thing: that name's no good. You like knives? You're Shivella. Welcome to the sisterhood."

Gameplay Observations

So, this one was rough. Losing the initiative, and losing my expensive Specialist who's my best hope of dealing with the Big Bug, and only having pistols in my starting crew, put me on the back foot. 

The Nomad Juve who showed up behind me did get his, but Stabitha didn't do it on the charge; no, she jammed her pistol and muffed her knife attacks and only managed to scrag him with the free attacks when he tried to Retreat. Bless Escher Initiative.

Then the Big Bug arrived, and - good grief that thing's powerful. Hits like a gang leader, has armour equivalent to the heaviest in the game that doesn't even slow it down... I had to overcharge Jo's plasma pistol just to land a Flesh Wound on it, and it shrugged off three rounds from Harriet's boltgun because I just couldn't get past T5 and carapace armour, not without a clean shot from Harriet's needle gun and I wasn't about to blow expensive chems on a 5+ hit roll. The damn thing put six injury rolls into Swordsmary and honestly, I don't know how she got off just being Humiliated. Presumably it's the entemophobia.

I got lost in the sauce with Angel and could have sworn her shotgun had a Template attack (it does not, that's combat shotguns), so I had to beg for a backsie and have her put a scatter shot into Scuttles instead. Lots of rolls to wound, needing sixes, just needing to pin the damn thing so I could finish it off with a coup-de-grace. That meant Annie had to break cover and gamble on her Dodge skill to keep her upright through four Nomads potentially piling on her... in hindsight, she was probably lucky the first one took her out. 

Once Annie was out for the count it was only going to go one way; I stuck out the round, but Stabitha and Evan Jellicle failed their Cool checks for bottling and left me tragically short on bodies. No point sitting this one out: Archaeotech Hoard is a nice territory but not something I'd want to die for.

Injuries / Advances / Trading

Annie, at least, was just Out Cold. Jenna lost an eye, not brilliant for a lasgunner but bearable. Stabitha was Humiliated (I thought she was very brave, personally, standing in front of Scuttles to be sure it couldn't charge Annie). Bertha and Angel? Critical Injuries. I could have paid the doc's fees for one of them, maybe, but... I could also recruit new gangers for that kind of money, and I have yet to fire a single shot with that chem-thrower in two practice games and two for-real-real ones. And if she died, I could sell the chem-thrower and ammo...

Nasty and cynical it may be, but it paid for Pow-Pow, my new Wyld Runner archer, and Buttons, her Felynx. It also paid to equip Shivella, the free Juve who trotted out of my settlement to shore up the depleted ranks. I decided to keep her cheap for now: throwing knives and a stiletto, which will work as a toxin vector for when I come up against the Ogryns.

Also, Jo's sterling performance in seriously injuring multiple Nomads paid off, and I could afford my first advance: +1 BS to offset the penalties for going in two guns blazing. In another game's time, I'll be picking up a skill for Evil Annie (she just has to show up and survive, participation XP alone will be enough for a primary skill), and maybe putting some numbers into the three Juves and one Prospect with whomst we are now rolling.

At the moment, that's it for the first cycle, unless someone wraps up their games and picks on me with their second challenge. I've observed the Genestealer Cult and Ogryn Slave Revolt going at it in their warm-up game, and they have two more to go in a territorial exchange. Squats vs. Venators and Venators vs. Ogryns are also on the cards. Much to look forward to. In the meantime, I need to crack open that Escher expansion box again and get to work on more teenagers...