Necromunda Tactics: Heavies- expensive crutch or vital gang member?

Having played a few campaigns now I was pondering on Heavies, are they essential or just a huge points sink?

An average gang with a two heavy load out will often go with Heavy Stubber & flamer. This is often the suggested load out on forums. Those two gang members with just those weapons come to 280 credits. Over a quarter of your gang in two models and that's without any other equipment.

I have run a gang without Heavies admittedly it was Scavvies and they can't take them... and I took two Scalies. But their lack of heavy weapons meant they were not used in the same way as heavies.

Heavies tend to be static and often make you protect them with at least one ganger or juve, so if you play a clever opponent they will simply avoid the heavies line of sight and render him useless.

They can be made more flexible by using Special weapons instead of Heavy weapons, but the loss of higher strength, multiple shots, huge range or a template can lead to them getting less exp.

In my current gang I have a Heavy with a Heavy Bolter and another with a Plasmagun. The HB heavy has earned far more exp than the PG heavy. But that is one of the things I was thinking, with all that exp on the heavy if you play a game with randomly chosen members, and don't get your heavy you can end up taking a kicking.

These are just some thoughts I was having what are your thoughts on heavies?

How we play Necromunda 2: Testing for falling

When a gang member is hit when within 1" of an edge they have to take an initiative test. If failed they fall!

The Delaque ganger takes a shot at the ratskin and hits, so the ratskin has to test to see if he falls

This time there is a railing, this gives the ratskin a re-roll on his test

And in this example the railing is the height of the ratskin so no test is needed

So thats how we test for falling!

How we play Necromunda 1: Ammo rolls

I thought I would share a couple of things about Necromunda in general and house rules my gaming group uses.

I figured I would start with one of my favorite things we have implemented in our group.
Ammo rolls, it always seemed silly to me that you get punished with an ammo roll if you roll a six to hit.

In the case of gang members with a low BS this is even worse.

So we roll two dice, one for rolling to hit and the other to see if you need to make an ammo test.

So an example of how we work it, the Delaque Heavy fires his Heavy Stubber at a Ratskin. Rolls 2 D3 to see how many shots he gets and gets 3 shots

The white dice are rolls to hit and the red are ammo dice.

So from this roll he would hit twice and have to take an ammo roll.

We find this system works well, still the same odds of running out of ammo. But you don't get punished for making a good shot. Although you can run out of ammo without hitting too!

Let me know what you think do you like this house rule? Also is this style of post any good? Would you like more of them?

Necromunda Hired guns

Just a quick update on some hired guns I finished painting!

The ratskin scout has already seen use on the table, but has not been of great benefit as yet.

It's a little hard to see but this guys eye (on the right in the pic) was a pain to get right, so I was lazy and bloodied it to look like it just got taken out.  Just my luck if this means he will never hit anything!

I like to think this guy is an ex Goliath turned gun for hire

Group shot!

Please let me know what you think or what you would change, they are not varnished or anything so changes can be made!