The Hill Tribes arise.

Blatantly stock tallarns but these were painted to fit in with an existing army, the next band of tribesmen will have imperial insignia filed of and conversion to make them less well equipped and a little more rag tag.

Local fauna... WIP

Decided to make some local beasties courtesy of some pound store dinosaurs and copious amounts of static grass and PVA glue.

Hopefully with a herd of these we can have some very interesting scenarios.

A shadowy figure...

A rare data scan of one of the orders more senior brothers...

Native Defence Volunteer Force WIP

Having rolled three "juves" from the three settlements that the Garrison controls, I've decided to make these as auxillary troops fighting alongside the Guard. As Jeriko Reach has a Persian feel in places, I decided to make these up as the 40k equivelent of British Indian Army Sepoys.

The conversions use Imperial Guard Catachan legs and Cadian bodies, matching the main bulk of the Guard, as they would draw many of their supplies from the same source. The arms and weapons however are Forge World pieces, representing the troops being armed with locally manufactured autoguns rather than the rarer lasguns the Guard hold only limited stocks of. The heads are from West Wind Productions, from their British Indian Army WW2 range, and the feathers are from plastic High Elf infantry.

Hopefully they'll be painted up in time to take part in the captive rescue mission we'll be playing next week!

House rules

Here are some of the house rules we've used so far.

Messy Death: Inspired by the WW2 skirmish game 'Operation Overlord', we decided that when a model killed by a high impact weapon (Str 7+) goes out of action, all friendly models within 6" (rather than the normal 2") should take a Leadership test. Furthermore, that model doesn't get to roll on the Serious Injuries table after the game - he's dead Jim!

Pinned: we reckon a target that's just ducked for cover would be harder to hit. Therefore, shooting at a Pinned model is at a further -1 to hit.

Campaing mechanics intro

The campaign system we’re using is essentially that described in Necromunda, but we’re making a few tweaks as we go along…

Most importantly, territory isn’t tied to a ‘gang’, but to a faction. A faction can have multiple gangs, but only the last one to fight in a battle can work the territory, trade etc. This represents the faction sending out a patrol in an effort to enforce its control over an area. The income collected represents the faction’s control as much as any monetary benefit.

Furthermore, we’re keeping the gangs pretty fluid and not always tying specific characters to specific gangs. In order to keep things manageable we use each fighter’s starting value to determine whether we have a roughly even match up. Any skills and gear accumulated in the campaign are ignored in this value, as gaining them requires the fighters be put at risk actually fighting. So a typical fight might feature roughly 1,000 credits worth fighters, measured by their starting values, even if the actual gang ratings are much higher.

Only gang leaders, heavies and other models we consider especially characterful can earn experience points, though anyone can be bought special gear. Having said this, we've adopted a similar mechanic to Mordheim's 'Lads Got Talent' roll, so on a 2D6 roll of double 6 a single fighter of the owner's choice becomes a 'hero' and can start earning experience, gaining skills etc.

We’ve decided to ignore a few of Necromunda’s campaign rules, in particular awarding experience for wounds scored (we always forget to record it in the excitement of the battle!). We also ignore the rules for profit margin, which sort of balances off the above.

In terms of building gangs, we’re counting factions as different Necromunda gangs. For example, the Imperial Guard garrison members are counted as Orlock gangers for the purposes of gear and skills lists, while the Eldar Pirates that will be making an appearance soon will be counted as Eschers. If we think a gang should have gear that would normally be rare, we’ve ignored that and given it to them anyway, so the Guard troopers all started out with (and paid for from their starting value) flak armour even though they would normally have to earn this, and the Eldar Pirates will start out with mesh armour.

No doubt we’ll tweak things more as the campaign progresses, and if we do we’ll be sure to note it here.

Campaign background intro

The world of Jeriko Reach is situated on the galaxy’s northern rim, far from any strategically important worlds. Half a century ago, the planet, and the entire sector was ravaged by war as one after the other, the region’s worlds arose in outright rebellion. The Imperium’s response, though slow to mobilise, was brutal. The rebellions were put down in a crusade that lasted two decades and claimed the lives of billions. Jeriko Reach was just one battleground in this terrible war, and although decades have passed, the arid wastes are still littered with the remains of rusty warmachines and bones long bleached by the sun.

In the war’s aftermath, a small Imperial Guard battlegroup was posted to Jeriko Reach. This force was given the task of guarding against future uprisings against the rule of the Imperium. Although the garrison receives intermittent resupply, its commanders are largely left to prosecute this mission as they see fit.

Despite being so far removed from the Imperium’s interests, Jeriko Reach is an interesting place. Indentured workers mine the world’s only exportable asset – an ore used in the production of bulk plasma transmission systems. Salvagers and looters too are attracted to Jeriko Reach, drawn by the detritus of war to be found in the wastes. It is even rumoured that an intact, abandoned titan still stands, immobile, out there somewhere in the cratered wastes.

The world’s native population generally despise all outsiders, and the feeling is generally mutual. The garrison has its hands full maintaining what peace there is, periodically conducting punitive strikes against recalcitrant tribal leaders.

But now, those tribes are uniting, and the formally random attacks on the garrison’s patrols are becoming increasingly coordinated, and lethal. Some new influence is at play, and the Imperial Guard must face it alone…