Wow… finally!
After having done three gangs, I finally found one that doesn’t need a major overhaul. There are changes. But they’re generally all for the positive.
With this gang and the next gang I’m going to do, Enforcers, I really didn’t expect a lot of changes because these are the two most recent gangs of the last edition. They didn’t just get their champions box, they got the most recent gang books and cards. Which, you know, thank you for leaving those as valid for, what… like a year? Really glad I handed out €70 to get each of those now that they’re rotting on my shelf…
So I can’t say I was super surprised that my list was mostly valid! That said, let’s still compare and contrast. Here was my old list.
As you can see, it’s not crazy original or diverse. I have three autoguns. But, in fairness, it’s really a choice between the Ironhead autoguns or bolt guns. And with the old 6+ ammo check on the Bolter, the autogun is really the no-brainer option. Also, I built this gang before the exo-suit guys came out, which was fine because I just don’t like those sculpts anyway so I wasn’t going to add them.
I should also note, just for the record, that the goal of this series isn’t to create the optimal list because then I would change a lot of things and plan out new miniature builds to replace things. It’s to take my existing lists and to see how little I have to modify them to make them playable with the new ruleset. I will be writing up new 1,000 lists after this to take advantage of fighters who have changed and improved profiles but this isn’t that.
And you can see why because, as per usual, I made my leader a melee fighter to take advantage of his three attacks. But, he has a bolt pistol because that used to be a great melee weapon but, as we now know, isn’t. He also used to have Crushing Blow to take extra advantage of his Power Hammer but… that’s not available to him, so Fast Shot it is so that, as he’s ideally running into combat, he can be extra shooty.
I didn’t give him any armor because armor is way over costed for what it does now and he has a natural 5+ save anyway. So he’s a little less protected and a little less bashy in combat but… he’s mostly the same. The big difference is the cost! He went from 315cr to just 255cr! This will be a factor later on.
Malachi, my champion, is also essentially the same. He also dropped radically in price. Still equipped with his mining laser, I was also able to give him a knife and a stub gun, just in case. And all of that for 115cr less than before. He lost his suspensors but took Bulging Biceps as a skill so it came out even in the wash.
My three gangers are mostly unchanged. They each got an Ironhead autogun and a fighting knife. On my old list Joesephus got a Telescopic Sight, so on the new list I gave him a Mono-sight. Also, while the other two got the Gunner speciality and Hip Shooting as a skill, because he has the sight, I gave him the Sniper specialty and he got Precision Shot instead. It only applies when the Hit roll is a natural-six and, what with having the sight, it just seemed like a good character thing.
The last ganger to talk about is my former juve, Asher.
Now, Asher was already built with two guns. Which, in N23 was a valid build because of the Twin-Guns Blazing rule. Unfortunately, the only way to play that as a valid build now is to give a ganger the Gunslinger specialty which comes with the Gunfighter skill. The skill is better than the old rule but the old rule applied to all fighters whereas the new skill only applies to fighters that have it. So I had to promote my juve to a full ganger to be allowed to assign him the skill.
Normally, this might be kind of a pain since having a juve is usually a way to add a cheap ganger to the gang when credits start getting tight at the end of the list. But, in this case, because of the cost differentials, it was actually no big deal.
Last on the list was the Claim Jumper. But since he’s been significantly nerfed and had his price jacked from the last edition, I decided to spend the credits differently. Yes, yes… the exercise was could I play with the old list… and the answer is obviously “yes” but I had so many credits left over, I just had to finally field the Vartijan Exo-Driller.
With three wounds, a heavy bolter, and a power fist, the thing is literally a brute and I find the Ironhead Squats such a boring gang that I wanted to do something to spice them up. It’s not like the squats are wanting in terms of firepower but if I can bring a mobile gun platform along with me… why wouldn’t I?
Also, for 290cr, this thing is a bargain. And it goes to show that, even on a 1,200cr list, how much cheaper things have gotten that I had this amount of money left over. That is one thing I like about this edition, the re-costing of accessory pieces like Escher cats and squat Exo-Drillers so that they can actually see play on the table. It’s just a shame to me that so much color was sucked out of every other gang that the squats feel like they haven’t changed at all. They’re just as boring as they’ve ever been. But, if they’re your gang, you won’t have to change much of anything.
