The new House Escher Underhive Journal is available for pre-order from Saturday. To get ready for the next underhive rumble, we asked Rob from the Warhammer Design Studio for some top tips on getting the most from your gang.
Rob: House Escher, also known as the House of Blades, are known for their fast and deadly fighting style favoring precise strikes over brute force. In order to get the best out of them in a campaign, you need to be ruthless, precise and adaptable – just like the clan themselves!
Fighters
Compared to other gangs in Necromunda, the Escher have a higher Initiative characteristic and their gang specific rule, Nimble, allows them to re-roll natural 1s when making Agility tests.
In addition to the standard Leader, Champion, Ganger, and Prospect, Escher gangs have 6 unique Fighters which can help fill any gaps in the gang composition.
In general, when founding a gang for a new campaign, I always aim for 8-10 Fighters and try to cover the following roles:
Close Combat: With the number of Objective cards that require you get up close and personal with the enemy, you will want some fighters able to perform well in close combat. For the Escher, both the Death-Maiden and the Blade Maiden excel in fulfilling this role with their increased number of attacks.
Objective Control: You will also want Fighters who are able to run up and claim or contest objectives, ideally ones who are not essential to your gang, as they will be high priority targets. Wyld Runners are perfect for this role, especially if you equip them with a wyld bow. With the Clamber skill and high Initiative they are able to move 10” with a Dash action and still threaten with their bow thanks to the Assault trait. When you get the credits, buying explosive arrows for them is a great idea as it helps mitigate their poor BS.
Suppressing Fire: The bulk of the rest of your gang should be made up of Fighters with various ranged weapons. Their job is to deny the enemy their full mobility by Suppressing them, as well as to make their key fighters less effective by causing them to become Injured, thereby losing their skills. The Escher have many fighters who can fill this role effectively, ranging from the Huntress, who with a pair of autopistols and a multi-harness can quickly get into position to lay down a torrent of fire, to the Gun Maiden with a repeater needle rifle able to put down even the toughest targets.
Utility: Finally there are the miscellaneous roles that a gang might need filling. These include performing Coup de Grâce actions on Seriously Injured Fighters to clear them off the field and restoring Wounds to injured allies to restore skills. The first of these is a job best done by Prospects as their lower BS and WS will not hamper them, and it is a quick way to gain XP – and thus earn Advancements. For restoring Wounds, no other gang has as powerful an option as a Chem Wytch with an auto-chem loaded with Blood Rush. Even if they are Injured, they can use the auto-chem to restore a Wound to themselves and then use their Medicate skill to heal another Fighter!
Weapons
House Escher are famed for their use of toxins and poisons, which on the battlefield gives them an advantage against the toughest of foes. With weapons like the Khimerix sting and ‘Nightshade’ chem thrower, they have wide access to weapons with the Toxin (3+) trait, meaning you always wound on a roll of 3+ regardless of your enemy's Toughness. They also have a variety of swords (appropriately enough for the House of Blades) which, while also providing good offense, also increase the wielder’s Save characteristic thanks to the Parry trait.
Chem-alchemy
Escher may take a range of elixirs produced by their Chymist Cults, represented by Chem-alchemy. Chem-alchemy Elixirs come in three main variants:
Stimms: Stimms can be used to gain a bonus in battle. Knowing when to use them can mean the difference between winning or losing. While some, like Blood Rush, are obvious in their use, Hyper is a bit more nuanced. While under its effect, a Fighter increases their Movement characteristic by 2” and they move an additional 3” when they perform the Charge action. However, all this energy means they suffer a -1 penalty to all their Hit rolls. This is best used on Fighters that need to be in position and are equipped with weapons with either the Blast (X”) or Template traits so the Hit roll penalty is not relevant.
Gaseous Ammo: These Chem-alchemy Elixirs may only be applied to weapons with the Gas trait like the ‘Nightshade’ chem-thrower. The standout option here is Lifting, which allows the template to be placed further away from the fighter, effectively increasing the weapon’s range.
Toxins: Toxins are applied to any weapon with the Toxin (X+) trait and increase the weapon’s effectiveness. One of the sneakier options is the Paralysing Toxin, where if your target is Seriously Injured and becomes Webbed due to the Toxin, they are unable to move away during their activation and so are automatically taken Out of Action!
Campaign Development
As your Prospects gain advancements, you should start to specialise them towards certain roles based on their Advancement rolls. If you get really lucky and manage to get a 12, it can be really good to pick up one of the skills that are really hard to acquire for an Escher gang like Juggernaut or Infiltrate – however, sometimes it is better to pick up a Characteristic increase.
With your Post-cycle actions, the focus should be on developing the Fighters you have. If a Fighter is just one or two XP shy of their next Advancement, Train is a really strong action for them. I always try to have the maximum of five Fighters perform the Work Territory action as this is the most reliable source of credits for your gang. Visit the Trading Post can be a very powerful action if there is certain equipment you have your eye on. Finally, Visit the Doc and Fit Bionics, while situational, are very powerful!
Conclusion
At the end of the day, these are just the tactics that work for me. There are so many different variables in a Necromunda campaign that can completely change the approach to take. Is your campaign full of close combat powerhouses like Corpse Grinder Cults or Malstrain? Prioritise shooting more – the needle sniper becomes an incredibly powerful weapon and web guns from the Trading Post can really slow the more melee-oriented gangs down. Keep going up against Van Saar and Ironhead Squat Prospectors? Invest in some smoke grenades and use your speed to your advantage to out-manoeuvre them.
There is only one rule that must be followed at all times when playing Necromunda – if you think it will be fun and lead to a cool story, do it!
Thanks, Rob! Ready to rule the underhive? The new Escher Underhive Journal and miniatures are available to pre-order from Saturday.
