The Soul Crows: Necromunda Gang

My Necromunda Gang, the Soul Crows

Thanks to the inspiration I picked up over at Ragados' blog I decided to post my own Necromunda gang. I've mentioned what a great gang Blood Bowl is, sure, but what about Necromunda? This game is also great, and its FREE! You lead a small gang of fighters through the twisted wasteland that is the Underhive against other rival gangs. As your gang progresses, your members gain skills and equipment, earn money to buy weapons, capture rival gangers for ransom, get killed or wounded, and the like.

There's a large selection of gangs to pick from with each emphasizing a particular specialty of that gang; some rely on strength, some dexterity, others on stealth, etc. These gangs make up the staple of the Underhive denizens. There are a few outlying gang subtypes too; like playing an Enforcer (Police) 'gang', a gang of unrelenting religious zealots, a gang of mutants and zombies, a troupe of aristocrats hunting in the slums as sport, or what I chose, the Ratskin Renegades; a gang full of outcast natives living off the lay of the land. These 'outlanders' have it tougher than the standard gang types because they don't earn money or food as easily, nor can they get supplies at the more established trading posts.



My Chieftain (leader) flanked by his Shamans

My gang leader has become a shooting ace in his rise to the top. Whenever it came down to skill rolls, time and time again I kept rolling the option that let me choose a non-Ratskin skill set to roll from. Since the 'gunfighter' skill set isn't normally available to my gang, I kept choosing that one for him. Originally the fig was an old Warzone Wolfbane figure, but with the addition of a Skaven tail to the cloak, he fits perfectly.



Three gangers with a couple of lasguns and an autogun



Three Ratskin Braves (juveniles)



On the left is another Warzone Wolfbane figure, again, a simple Skaven-tail-to-the-cloak trick is all it took to make him part of the gang. Where my leader is the shooting expert, this ganger is my combat monster, with many skill and equipment upgrades that will send even the toughest foe running from melee. The other figure is a Games Workshop fig believe it or not, he's an old 40k figure from the Talisman figure expansions, I believe his slottabase once read "Rogue Trader", but I could be wrong. He's got tons of character though, and his overall appearance meshes quite well with the rest of the gang.



More gangers

The fig on the left is the original chieftain figure that came with the box, but now he just pulls duty as a well equipped ganger. The one in the middle shows up in a lot of non-Ratskin gangs, as a normal gang can hire a Ratling Scout to help guide them, and this is the figure I see most often elsewhere in that role. The last fig is a standard ganger.


Some slight add-ons

As you progress through your games, gangers will acquire new equipment and weapons. This is always fun because you can keep adding little mods to your guys to represent these upgrades. In Necromunda, the WYSIWYG practice is a must, not just for your opponent, but for yourself! It really helps you remember who has what. Above I have added a very vintage GW hand crossbow to the belt of one ganger and the addition of a Space Marine scope to the AK-painted autogun of another let him have a farther shooting range.


I used a Kroot rifle barrel tip to add to the end of one Brave's autopistol to represent a silencer. The other ganger received a bionic eye, a rare thing indeed for a Ratskin; here I just used a small cut piece off of a plastic sprue, and glued it in place.


How do you modify a bionic arm to a single piece figure with only an elbow showing? You paint it up! My melee monster received this awesome upgrade, so I painted his arm silver with blue to represent a Colossus-style arm. The other ganger has an old beaky Space Marine equipment pouch, which serves as his 'ammo reload'.


The Chieftain's upgrades

First off, no self-respecitng Chieftain goes into battle without a proper melee weapon, so on his back he is sporting a sheathed sword from a Skaven sprue, tricked out with a fantasy Orc totem. Since this character has rolled so many shooting skills, dual-wielding pistols was a must. The autopistol came standard for this Warzone fig, but the plasma pistol is from a chaos space marine sprue. Finally, another Skaven tail addition transforms this wolf pelt into a giant rat pelt with the greatest of ease.

For more information on my gang, and to add your own gang, I highly recommend the Necromunda Gang Registry. It may not get a lot of site traffic, but at least it's out there. Although they haven't seen any action the last couple of years, you can read all about my gang, the Soul Crows, and their exploits here.