[Necromunda] Dome Y'Fenni, Cycle 1

 

With Y'Fenni's Dome successfully breached and the first cycle of Occupation rumbles successfully slammed, it's high time to resurrect the ol' Underhive Inquirer and semi-successfully synopsise a season of some... sort of... nope, lost control at the end there.

Point is, the chaps have been very keen. At my most optimistic I thought we'd have a couple of no-shows and an early disbanding. Instead, we've had seven battles - more fights than players! - and eight territories changing hands. Our Nomads player has taken it upon himself to prepare the traditional hex map (final battle not shown) (image to be replaced) (no shade, Hedgehog, I'm just excited).

What's Everyone Else Been Up To?

An early declination of challenge by the Squats saw the Nomads off to a flying start, razing the Drinking Hole and burning their fat 240 credits' profit on a Brute before they'd even had to fight a fight! 

In our first actual engagements, House Escher did quite cruel things to the Venators to secure the Synth Still (never come between the girls and their drugs) while the Ogryns and Genestealer Cult began their month-long feud over the Refuse Drift.

Week two, and the Eschers stumbled, running face first into the Nomads and ceding control of the Archaeotechnika Hoard. It's fine. I didn't want lasers that set you on fire or radioactive autopistol rounds anyway. Genestealer worship continued to spread as they took on the Squats and took over the Mine Workings. Our Special Correspondent, embedded within the Cult of the Damp Stain, had this to say:

Pika Kard the Aberrant was sent to negotiate in the middle - oh dear! It could only end one way. The Squat (Juve) sent to negotiate, upon taking a power pick axe beating, rolled 11 (Lesson Learned) on the lasting injury table and walked away from the fight with 3XP! 

The mining laser was finally tuned properly and the Cultists could see over the pipes, so the dwarves had no chance. The stumpies' mesh armour saved them on lots of occasions - but the GSC kept hitting them and pinning them, if not necessarily wounding them. Drekki kept hiding scared and bottled voluntarily after turn 5 - we all know the wimp wanted to do it after turn 1. Nuffin, the cult leader, was a late-comer AGAIN, strolling in on turn 4 to hog the glory. 

 And the rebuttal to this libel from Drekki Drekkson, fifty-seventh of his name:

1 - The multi armed freaks don't seem to have a leader at all.
2 - Maybe they do? the silent one with the pick axe didn't seem smart though.
3 - While it is nice to make all your saves, it would also be nice to actually do some damage to someone.
4 - Loosing both champions on the board in short order is painful.
5 - How my juve survived and came away with a decent amount of XP I do not know.
6 - 'munda is harder/easier when stuff gets pinned (Ed. - we, er, may have neglected the "pinning" concept central to the game during our test games)
7 - The leader couldn't be that guy who swanned on at the end and did nothing?
8 - Flamer templates are longer than I thought, which is ace.

These words would prove prophetic going into week three, when a misunderstanding over distribution rights brought said flamer template from the Squats into the Eschers' highly inflammable hairdos, leaving the Squats in charge of the Narco Den. The poor Venators were forced to decline a challenge due to "the 'stances," real life writing the script once again, and so the Ogryns now run the Tech-Bazaar without a fight. 

In week four, the final challenge was resolved hours before the cycle closed: a tense tunnel tussle 'twixt Ogryns and Genestealer Cultists. A win for the Ogryns this time, with the 'Stealers forced to bottle and their most expensive fighter, Acolyte Alah Kazam and his mining laser, hauled back through the Ogreton Window as our first captive of the campaign!

The second cycle has just opened for business, with two challenges on the docket already! Venators vs. Ogres, with the Fighting Pit at stake - everyone wants those two free Scummers and +2 Reputation, and who can blame them? Eschers vs. Venators, for the Collapsed Dome, and quite sensibly the Venators declined... 

How are the Eschers doing?

After that declined challenge, pretty well - although you wouldn't guess it to look at their Reputation. Losing two games on the trot and not fighting a third will do that for you. It was looking rough for a while there, with four dead gangers after the first two games and no money-spinner territory to help me recover. 

Fortunately, I could sell the useless never-fired chem-thrower after its owner died, and my territories helped out too, generating a free Little Sister and enough credits for a Wyld Runner, her pet Phelynx and a bare-bones Death Maiden (thank you Synth Still for making Toxin weapons half price). Some similarly good rolls in the second cycle let me replace my dead Matriarch and Little Sister with their suspiciously similar replacements, and what I'm lacking in killer rep and experience I'm making up for in numbers and toxic trickery.

That isn't to say that none of the girls have learned new tricks. After two miraculous recoveries and one outright win, Evil Annie has the Spring Up skill to go with her Dodge and home-made "Fightin' Jollop." She might just blank an attack entirely, she can automatically recover her first Serious Injury, and on a 2+ she'll be right back on her feet and into the fray.

Smokin' Jo Rudegirl, the survivor of the original champions, has a 2+ BS now, to offset the impact of dual-wielding pistols whilst not able to access the Gunfighter skill. Pow-Pow, my Wyld Runner, has picked up a 4+ BS and some toxin arrows, and has her eye on the shotgun sitting in my stash (that's if one-eyed Gang Sister Jenna VV doesn't level to Specialist and grab it first). 

Finally, there's still one shot of Concentrated, Maiming "Ogre-Kill" custom chem kicking around, which I've handed to new Champion Jakki Spring-Heels in preparation for my next run-in with high-T opposition like the Ogryns, Squats or that damned dune bug.

More on this as details emerge...