JStove is back with another great article and this time he’s giving us his break down ratings on the new Hired Guns minis for Necromunda. Are they worth their points cost?
Jstove here, and today I’m talking about the new hired gun models in Necromunda.
First things first- The full pack of these guys is £38 from Forge World, and you know they’re gonna be resin. Let’s look at the stats and see what we’re in for. Keep in mind of course, that you can just use the models as ‘vanilla’ scum like back in the old days, and throw out their rule cards. Which is something I’d feel like doing…
I personally think Yolanda is the second best character you can hire, but that’s not saying a lot since adding a 200+ cost model to your gang, especially one that doesn’t gain XP or stick around, is not a great idea. Her kit is pretty meh. Stub gun without dum-dum bullets, a stiletto, and frag grenades with a 9” range, and she is basically an Escher hero, but without the 2+ Initiative. The only thing Yolanda’s really got going for her is that she’s a wall. Fearsome makes her hard to charge, and, if you do try to fight her, parry and counter-attack make her a pretty uphill battle. Yolanda’s real problem is that there’s really no reason for anyone to come get her. With 9” on frag grenades and 12” on a stub gun, pretty much everybody except the cheapest Juve on the block outranges and outguns her.
That’s a lot to ask for a 230 Credit investment you’ll never get back.
Krotos has the same problem as Yolanda, being that he doesn’t bring a whole lot of guns to the fight. 4+ to hit with a stub cannon is pretty much standard for Goliaths, so he’s already operating at the level of a common ganger. The thing that makes me like him though is that he has inspirational, which allows him to override failed Cool checks for nearby allies with a leadership check. That’s pretty nice for keeping your boys in line when the bullets start flying. What he really brings to the table though is Munitioneer- any friend within 6” of him re-rolls failed ammo checks.
This is a big deal for Goliaths who have no access to the Savant skill group, so the chances of them ever getting access to this skill any other way are slim. You might think that Ammo rolls in Goliath gangs are pretty infrequent because the gang prefers short range shooting and melee, but the real working weapons in the Goliath list are combat shotguns, nade launchers, and grenades. (everything else is either overpriced or junk.) Losing an Ammo roll on one of the only guns in the Goliath gang that actually does work could be pretty devastating. So I would give Krotos a pass, and say he’s almost worth his credits for a Goliath gang to hire, sometimes. You definitely want to pick and choose your fights with this guy since you’re basically paying 220 credits per game to re-roll shotgun ammo.
This guy has Yolanda’s problem, to a lesser degree. The laspistol is at least more accurate than a stub gun at 8″. He’s got the same 9” frag grenades though. Slagmyst’s deal is that he’s about as close to unkillable as a model can be in Necromunda. (Which is not that unkillable if an Escher pops you in the face with a plasma pistol or a juiced up Goliath hits you with pretty much anything, and that’s before we talk about bolters, meltaguns, and two rapid-fire dice on a heavy stubber. He actually has an armor save, he has defensive skills that help him stay alive, the medicae kit, and bio-booster to lower the odds of him dropping on the first shot.
Slagmyst seems to have one goal in life, to stand in front of bullets for the rest of your gang. For being a bullet sponge, he’s pretty good at his job, but at 270 credits, you could take that money and invest it in more men and guns to kill people instead of standing around waiting to be killed. I’d rather just throw a cheap Juve or ganger with a pistol under the bus and let them take one for the team if I need a bullet catcher. His model is cool as hell though.
Finally, something we can get into. Gor Half-Horn, like every other scum we’ve seen so far, looks like he’s too expensive to pull his weight, but he’s got one thing going for him- Rule of Cool. He’s a beastman, he’s got a chainsword, his model is awesome. I’m willing to give him a shot for that alone. At least he actually brought some neat weapons to the table instead of just a pistol and some frag grenades, or a stub cannon that has a coin-flip chance of hitting on it’s best day. Gor is all about charging, and if he actually gets close enough to anyone, he’s probably gonna lay them out because he’s S5 when he charges, gets a bonus attack from Berserker, and the plasma pistol isn’t bad in a melee either. Gor’s biggest problem, aside from being a disgusting mutant that should be purged for his heresy, is that his job can be done cheaper and more effectively by pretty much any Escher chick with a plasma pistol, and she’ll do the job with a 5” movement. It turns out that being an awesome beastman is actually just a more expensive version of two Escher girls each with a plasma pistol. Now of course, if you’re not an Escher, and you can’t just buy plasma pistols in your starting gang for anyone you want (And Goliath can’t because the combi-plasma is an overpriced joke) then maybe you and Gor have something to talk about.
Grendl, like Gor, is not important because he’s good, he’s important because he’s cool. Do you want to hire a squat? Yes, you want to hire a squat. End of conversation. Do you not care that he’s a squat? Then I’ve got bad news for you… He has a bolter. Grendl’s tough as hell and the bolter is probably the best gun ever. The power hammer is pretty great by virtue of being Damage 2, but keep in mind that with a 3” move, Grendl isn’t going anywhere in a hurry and by the time he gets into a fight, your opponent is probably winning it. The bolter is really the biggest deal, Grendl actually has the best gun of any scummer you could hire. It’s got range, it’s got strength and damage, and rapid fire. The bolter just hits every base. Naturally, the only problem is you’re paying 280 credits per game for a bolter, and you can get 2 or 3 of those from the trading post instead and just keep them.
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The scummers are pretty much dead on arrival. They’re each about as expensive as a gang champion with a heavy weapon, but without the firepower. Yolanda is almost playable because she’s useful in a knife fight and is ‘almost cheap.’ Gor is cooler than Yolanda and hits harder on a charge, but doesn’t have Yolanda’s sustained damage output in a fight with her natively higher Attacks and her Counter Attack skill. The real winner is Krotos who can bring a very important skill to gangs that otherwise have no access to it. He’s really the only guy worth his model… And that’s the other big issue… These models are all Forge World, with Forgeworld shipping and Forge World price tags. I think if you’re gonna open your wallet for expensive resin, it’s go big or go home.
While the named fancy pants bounty hunters are a disappointment, the good news is that vanilla no-name scum is exactly what the unlicensed underhive doctor ordered.
These guys are 30 credits a body with average stats and work as the bullet catchers and stub gun jockeys that the God-Emperor intended. They can have pistols, melee, and basics up to 60 credits, although I doubt anyone would ever want to spend that much to equip a model whose job is to stand in front of more important people and jump in front of a lasgun.
