Necromunda Part 3

Gangs, gangs, gangs!

The Underhive has loads of gangs you can join up to. Anyone who wants to get ahead in life joins a gang, it’s the only way to move on up and not be a victim, it’s a Giant Rat eat Giant Rat Hive World so make sure you bite first. Most young Juves will be born with an allegiance with one of the Hive City Houses, so I'll go through them first, they're the most common gangs in Hive Primus and what most players would use and, where possible, show you a typical ganger from the man whose pen defined my childhood, Mark Gibbons.

House Cawdor

Firstly is House Cawdor, this gang are strict members of the Redemption Cult,  a militant offshoot of the Imperial Cult that means they can’t show their face in public or risk death, so they wear heavy hoods, cowls and masks to hide themselves. This gang are typically aggressive and straight forward , they get access to lots of the close combat skills making them nasty in hand to hand.

House Delaque

The next house is House Delaque, these are the shiftiest dudes in the hive, if there is a scheme or a plot, these guys know about it. They wear long coats to conceal weapons in and shave their heads to make it hard for others to tell who is who, they prefer to shoot you in the back than take you on face to face, and they just think that makes more sense.

House Escher

House Escher are unique in that they're all women. Due to a genetic quirk, Escher men are all weak and a bit thick, so the women have to do everything. They are a fast, hand to hand gang who excel at getting in close before you can do anything about it. If you like to outmanoeuvre your opponent, before dispatching them in the bloodiest way imaginable, this could be the gang for you.  

House Goliath

Goliaths are all muscle, especially in their heads, they can grow into brutal combat monsters able to take a lot of pain and dish out even more, raging steroid enhanced techno-barbarians, they respect strength above all else. And they all have Mohawk’s which is cool.

House Orlock

House Orlock is the most populous House in the Hive City, they’re well balanced, having access to combat and shooting skills so are easy to use as you can build it the way you like to suit your play style as the campaign unfolds and adapt to who you’re fighting against, good all rounders who can take on any gang out there.

House Van Saar

The Van Saar are the most technically advanced of the Houses, they are renowned for making the most reliable tech in Hive Primus and so can sell at a premium price, because of that, they’re very well off. Most Van Saar have a knack for technology, which is a massive advantage as the campaign unfolds, the Techno skills are very handy. Its appropriate that this is literally a very beardy gang.

Outlanders; renegades, outcasts and psychopaths. 

The Outlanders supplement introduced a few other gangs as well, these less common gangs all operate very differently from the standard gangs and so you should check with your group if these are ok to use.

Ratskin Renegades

No MG image for the Ratskins, sorry, this is ace though

 The Ratskins are the natives of the deepest parts of the Underhive, thousands of years living among the debris of the Hive has given them a deep spiritual connection with it that no one else has, they avoid the other humans that don't show the Hive the respect it deserves.Some Ratskins do get involved in the world of the Hive City, through curiosity or to revenge harm done to their people. Known as Ratskin Renegades, they have been shunned from the tribes and group together into gangs of their own.  They have pretty crap ranged weapons, unable to make much technology themselves but are decent at hand to hand and can get around the Hive better than nearly anyone else.

Scavvies

The Scavvie gangs also live in the deepest depths of the Under Hive, not because its their ancestral land like the Ratskins, but because they’ve been driven out of the slightly more civilised areas of Hive Primus, they’re mutants and freaks all. They have tons of weird mutations but really bad at getting ammo for their weapons meaning they run out quickly. They can get an equivalent to a Heavy in the truly abhuman crocodilian Scalies, who have massive harpoon guns or shot cannons.

Redemptionists 

The Redmentionists are members of the same intolerant religion as House Cawdor, but they’ve decided that not enough is being done to purge the Hive of sin, so they gather up as many flamers as possible and set about doing it. These guys have tons of flame weapons, all their basic weapons can fit a one shot flamer on to add extra burning goodness.

Spyre Hunters

Just one of the 4 Hunting Rigs available to the Spyrer kids, the creepy Malcadon

The Spyrers aren’t from the Hive City or the Under Hive, they’re from the Spire, the world of the upper class, the rich and powerful. The 1% on Necromunda literally and figuratively look down on the teeming masses. They also hunt them for sport. That’s what Spryrer gangs are, bored and spoilt teenagers, proving themselves worthy of inheriting their family fortune by donning advanced Hunting Rigs with hosts of exotic and powerful weaponry and then hunting down the proles for a lark. Its fox hunting taken to its logical conclusion. Rich people never change, as is now, as will be in the 41^st millennium. They’re the smallest gangs, numerically, you’re never going to have more than 5 gangers, but each one is massively powerful, starting with weapons and armour even the more experienced gang could only dream of and it gets better the more they kill.

Another Goliath because they're cool and never get enough love. 

That covers all the gangs in the main game and the expansion set, there were more though, the Arbites, the Pit Slaves and more but that's for another time, next article will be about the Hive City and how to go about getting one of your own to fight over.