Necromunda Goliaths pt 00

Background

As I mentioned previously, I went gaga for the 2017 release of Necromunda.

Uncanny!

Having bought the game, I had this weird compulsion to also play it. Strange, huh? We managed to get two trial games in using some cardboard cutouts and a few painted barricades. Played decent enough, but what I really wanted to see was some cool minis, terrain, and at least the start of a campaign.

I have 3 gangs, and a 4th was already out….but I couldn’t rationalize buying yet another team until I get Necro seriously on the table. *Actually, I did rationalize it, because the teen picked the 4th team for his gang, so yea, they are on their way!

Onward! So I’m hoping to break up the ‘Watch me build a Necromunda Goliath gang’ post into a few smaller posts. We will see how good I am about doing that. I hope to cover the basics of getting the gang together in this one. If you’re more interested in seeing minis painted up, this would be a good one to skip!

 

The Gang

Kool!

Out of the 3 gangs I have, I decided the Goliath gang would probably be the most fun to paint and easiest to put together. So I started on some minis, was sufficiently satisfied that I could make them work, then restripped them and primed them in grey instead of white.

 

Wake me up, before you gogo!

Then it was off to the rulebook to figure out what to build and which minis to use, etc.

Being brand new to Necromunda, that has been a bit of a road block for me. I’m unsure of which weapons would be fun and the best way to spend my Gang’s money. There is also the problem of model representation, in that the gang member should be holding (or have on their person), the weapon they are going to buy. So if I make a gang member, I need to make sure I will have a model that matches.

I had considered magnetizing the weapons, so I could switch weapon options between gangers. However, the weapons have hands and/or whole arms attached to them, and the arms aren’t really swappable between models. The minis themselves are slightly smaller scale than the Blood Bowl minis I have been working with, which would also be a challenge in finding extra tiny but powerful magnets and figuring out how to keep them concealed. It just didn’t seem very feasible, and I decided to move on with just assembling the minis as is.

 

“Goliaths Assemble!” (If only it was that easy)

Upon first looking at the assembly guide, I was afraid that I had to choose to make 5 of the 10 Goliath minis. That was again, nerve wracking. I found out, that you have enough parts to build all 10 minis though.

Backing up a little bit…the models seemed like a good choice for my first gang. Goliaths, though? No particular strong affinity for them. But being new, I figure it’s going to take me a little while to figure out which gang I really like to play anyways. So the selection process was mostly “Why not?”.

 

Conception

 

 

*image removed by WordPress Administration*

 

 

I had the models, I had a Gang, but what are they? I know there is a lot of fluff in the Warhammer40K world, and Necromunda seems to be a subset of that world. Since I know even less about Warhammer 40K, most of my conception is loosely based on what’s in the Necromunda books, taking what I like, and discarding or augmenting the rest. Sorry, suckas.

 

Meet Kurt and Ram. A couple of nice boys.

To me, Goliaths are roid raging 1980s Jocks. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, there are quite a few examples of them in 80s American teen comedies. Unfortunately, I also went to school with some of the worst of them. It’s also very much a stereotype. They tend to belong to a pack, aren’t very smart/creative, and don’t have much of a mind of their own. They do have lots of big muscles though and love being on the sports team. Throw in some sadism and narcissism, shake well.

At first I was going to paint all of the Goliath’s hair the same color red, and make them all look basically the same. Bro-ness. But that could be really boring visually, and I find that the models look a little too similar to me already. I would need something more, so that my opponent and I could tell them apart on the table.

Scratch too much Bro-ness.

But, Bro!

Also, there is an obvious 80s punk influence in there with the mohawks and whatnot. So my thinking started to shift towards 80s jock mentality with 80s punk looks, but still try to keep a touch of Bro-ness™ (Bros everywhere). Will see how successful I am with that in the end.

Looking at Games Workshop paints showed that they mixed it up a bit, by painting different bits red or silverish. That should help differentiate models a bit.

 

The Name

I’ve basically come down to “Bully Boys”. It goes along with my 80s Jocks theme and sounds a bit British to me (which is where Necromunda originated after all). Gang members could have names based off of famous 80s jocks/bullies in movies.

 

The Build

This is not my actual arm. My arm is way bigger…. than this tiny picture.

Again, I have totally no idea what I’m doing. I’ve only found two sites which have some decent information on Necromunda, but I haven’t adequately done my research. Anyone who wants to point me in a certain direction, please feel free to sound off!

Sites:
BoardGameGeek – Necromunda
Yak Tribes

Now, I do know from the lore and our first test games that Goliaths are good at killin up close. But me being me, I went for gangers that I thought had cool looking weapons. The Krumper and Grenade Launcher looking particularly cool to me. I then set about looking at the models and buying a few gangers based off what gear the models had. I ended up with something like the list below. Feel free to take a guess which movies those names come from, though I’m guessing it would be pretty obscure for most people.

Leader: Doo Mas “Dream-Maker”
Weapons/Gear: Krumper ‘Rivet Cannon’, Fighting Knife
Cr: 260

Champion: Jonny “Sweeper” Kai
Weapons/Gear: Grenade Launcher, Brute Cleaver
Cr: 265

Ganger: Angerlo “Happy Birthday” Shank
Weapons/Gear: Combat Shotgun, Frag Grenade
Cr: 120

Ganger: Ramm “Punch It In” Wang
Weapons/Gear: Stub Cannon, Respirator
Cr: 90

Ganger: Krut “Spinwheel” Johnson
Weapons/Gear: Stub Cannon, Frag Grenade, Krak Grenade
Cr: 105

Ganger: Gym “Scissor-Knives” Dred
Weapons/Gear: Stub Gun, Spud-Jacker, Frag Grenades, Respirator
Cr: 105

Which puts me at the stage where I have a team concept, ideas for ganger names, minis that have been trimmed, washed, primed, and sub-assembled. Speaking of assembly…

 

I’ll spare you the horror stories of getting that cigar glued. Luckily there were two in the box!

Stay tuned next time, for when I start twittering about the paints!

• Necromunda