Necropokemon: gotta catch ’em all! Jstove is back with us today, going through Gang War 3. This time he’s looking at the fun new rules for pets in Necromunda.
With pics, courtesy of Warhammer Community lets dive into the meat of the animal companion goodness.
The Core Rules
Each house has its own exotic pet that only they can recruit, but there are also generic pets. Those are the servo-skull and the caryatid, that anyone can get.
- Pets are recruited as wargear and belong to a champion or leader in your gang.
- Pets group activate with their owners but do not count as one of the extra activations for champs and leaders activating their buddies in group activations. (they’re free)
- Pets try to stay within 3” of their owner. If they get outside of 3” of their owner, they must spend their next activation making move actions in the owner’s direction until they come back. Pets flee to their owners if broken.
- Pets gain XP and can become specialists; they have unique skill tables.
- Pets are automatically removed from play if the owner is removed.
- Pets do not count for your maximum model count for selecting fighters for a scenario.
As you can see already, pets confer some serious advantages, chiefly that they’re basically free bodies that don’t count towards your limits for gang members or group activations. That by itself is pretty powerful.
Unfortunately, most pets are pretty expensive, and you definitely won’t be throwing them away. Currently, there are no pets in the game that I would describe as “dog missiles” or “rat missiles.” Those were the cheap pets that Skaven and Witch Hunters had in Mordheim that you could just throw at your opponent to open up charge lanes.
There definitely are missile pets, but not CHEAP missile pets. Also, the majority of pets only make melee attacks, so for shooting gangs, they tend to be expensive bullet catchers and charge blockers.
Caryatid- Random
This little cherub guy is free, but your leader has to hit a rare 15 roll to find him. A caryatid is a chump in a fight, but he gives ridiculous perks like allowing your leader to ignore one hit against him every turn.
The caryatid has what is essentially a 3+ invulnerable save, but if he dies or abandons the gang, (which he will do if you lose enough Rep) you lose Rep. Overall, he’s mostly a fluff piece. If you get a caryatid, that’s cool, but it’s not a model to build a strategy around.
Cyberachnid- Pretty Great
The Cyberachnid is a cyborg tarantula for Van Saar gangs and he’s freakin’ great. He solves a lot of problems for the gang and covers their weaknesses. First, he has a web pistol, which is a template weapon that can stop enemy models in their tracks when they get too close. This will help keep the Van Saar where they want to be, in standoff range.
Second, he has the fearsome skill and gives it to his owner, making them both require a willpower roll to charge. This little bug is a game changer for Van Saar and allows them to turn the tables on gap closers and shut down aggressive gangs that want to bully them at close range. An enemy gang can’t get near the Van Saars while they have live Cyberachnids. They cost 75 credits each, and the gang can have 3 of them. This little dude is an MVP.
Cyber Mastiff- Does His Job
Robot dog is Orlock’s best friend, but that’s about all he is. He has a basic human stat line, but he does come with an awesome S5 -2AP bite attack. He grants a bonus to detection checks if his master is a sentry, and while he’s near his master, his master cannot be coup de graced in melee. Overall, his job is to catch bullets, be an extra body, and bite.
He’s probably best paired up with an aggressive shotgunner or servo-arm badass that he can charge in with and put his teeth to work. Unfortunately, he’s prohibitive at 100 credits, so while he is good at his job, it’s hard to like him more than just hiring more gangers.
Phyrr Cat- Actual Cat Missile
The Eschers get an actual heat-seeking missile, and it’s 120 credits, but it’s pretty badass. Super Kitty is allowed to stray from her owner, and can be as far as 9” away, making the model easier to use, and allows you to slam into your enemies on a missile charge. She has the same bite attack as the Orlock dog, except she’s got 2 attacks and they Pulverize. The Phyrr cat does for Escher melee gangs what the Cyberachnid does for Van Saar, it plugs the hole on a serious weakness.
Before the Phyrr cat, I would have said that a melee focused Escher gang was an uphill battle. (even after the toxin FAQ) But with a Phyrr cat leading the charge and opening up a hole for the girls to run in, there’s some opportunity for some pretty brutal unladylike behavior. It is something you have to plan around though because you can have 2 cats and they’re both 120 credits.
Sumpkroc- Goliath Can’t Have Nice Things
I want to love the Sumpkroc, but he’s 130 credits and at the end of the day, Goliaths can’t afford that. Why is everything in House Goliath so stinking expensive? Somebody, please get these guys some 15 credit auto guns.
Servo-skulls – Useful
Servo-skulls aren’t technically pets. They aren’t independent models and behave more like familiars, armory cherubs, and other little dudes in 40k- They just have a model to represent that they exist, they don’t actually get their own stats. A servo skull is part of his owner’s wargear, and normally can’t be shot, but if his owner is caught in a blast or template, then there’s a chance the servo skull can get hit and destroyed. The gun skull is almost completely useless. It has a BS of 5+, can’t aim or benefit from other wargear that increases accuracy, and has a piddly little Strength 2 peashooter.
You’d be better off just buying one of your gang members a real gun instead. The sensor skull and the medskull however, are top tier. The sensorskull counts as having a bioscanner, and if it’s owner takes an AIM action, it gets +2 rather than just +1 to hit. This bonus is cumulative with other skills and wargear. The medskull allows you to roll 2 injury dice and drop the worst one when the owner is down, which is also cumulative to assisting fighters or skill benefits.
Some pets do seem egregiously better than others. What other pets would you like to see the coming gangs that were previewed at Warhammer Fest? What’s your favorite pet so far? Let us know in the comments on Facebook.
Keep up with the latest Jstove articles
About the Author: Jack Stover
