Tuesday 13 March 2018

Necromunda: House Cawdor Gangers 01

In my last two posts I showcased my favourite Necromunda gang - House Escher. In this post I'm going to review my least favourite gang - House Cawdor. They fared very badly in my old campaign from the 1990's. They were used twice in my campaign. One of my old gaming buddies, Ken, used them at the start of the campaign and took such beating that he was forced to disband them and take a new gang. He then chose the Redemptionists, who were even more religiously fanatical than the Cawdors. Halfway through the campaign, when most of my players were taking second gangs to start with because their first choices had became so powerful, I decided to have a go with House Cawdor to see if I could do better than Ken. I lost nine out of my ten fights. Oh dear! Basically, I think that House Cawdor are crap! This is my House Cawdor gang that I'm showing and they were laughably called the Punishers. The Punished would have been a more appropriate name!
At the far left is Brother Coromell, a gang leader figure, who was used as an ordinary ganger because I much preferred the other gang leader figure. What was I thinking?! Coromell is armed with a Bolt Gun and a Power Sword.
Standing next to him is Father Paraden, the gang's first leader. He was such a disaster that another ganger challenged him for the leadership of the gang, and unsurprisingly, beat him. He would often get wounded and miss the next fight, which did not endear him to the other men in his gang. Paraden slunk off into the wastelands and was never heard of again. As shown, he is armed with a Bolt Gun, an Autopistol and a Chainsword.
Next up are three heavies. In the centre of this quintet of figures is Big Brother Dupaynil, who is armed with a Heavy Stubber, an Autopistol and a Knife. He was not used in my campaign. Note that all of my heavies were called Big Brother instead of Brother.
Second from the right is Big Brother Argray, who ended up being captured by House Escher. No rescue mission was made to recover him, so who knows what his fate was? It doesn't bear thinking about! He was armed with a Heavy Bolter, an Autopistol and a Knife.
At the far right is Big Brother Gerstan, who is armed with a Grenade Launcher, an Autopistol and a Knife. His Grenade Launcher could fire Frag, Krak or Hallucinogenic Grenades. He ended the campaign with a serious leg wound.
Moving on, we have the rank and file gangers. At the far left is Brother Quinada, who is armed with a Lasgun Rifle, an Autopistol and a Knife.
Next to him is Brother Sanborn, armed with an Autogun Rifle, an Autopistol and a Knife. He was not used in my campaign.
Nor too was the next ganger in line, Brother Garley, who was armed identically to Brother Sanborn.
Second from the right is Brother Ingrich, who is armed with a Lasgun Rifle, an Autopistol and a Knife. He was another figure who did not appear in my campaign.
At the far right is Brother Currald, who is armed with an Autogun Rifle, an Autopistol and a Knife. The sharp-eyed amongst you will recognise him as an old Grenadier Scavenger figure, who is now available from EM4 Miniatures as Scavenger with Assault Rifle. You have to admit, he does look just like a Cawdor ganger.
Continuing with the gangers, here we have Brother Dallish at the far left. He was armed with a Shotgun, an Autopistol and a Knife. Note the deliberate use of the past tense for describing his weapons. In a fight against a Van Saar gang, he was ambushed by an unseen monster and devoured! That was a most unusual way to die!
Second from the left is Brother Klepsin, who is armed with a Lasgun Rifle, an Autopistol and a Knife. He was not used in my campaign.
Second from the right is Brother Tollwin, who is armed with a Lasgun Rifle, an Autopistol and a Knife. He suffered a head wound and at the start of each fight he had to roll 1d6. On a roll of 1-3 he acted Stupid and on a 4-6 he would Frenzy.
Last in line is Father Follard, formerly known as Brother Follard. He was the ganger who challenged Paraden to the leadership contest. In the Punishers' eighth gang fight, Paraden was once again absent, recovering from a wound. Follard, as the most experienced ganger, took command against the House Orlock gang, Murder Inc. and achieved the Punishers' one and only victory of my campaign. He is shown armed with a Shotgun, an Autopistol and a Knife. When he became gang leader he bought a Chainsword as well as Frag and Krak Grenades to add to his personal arsenal.
Finally are the gang's juves. At the far left is Little Brother Varian (yes, the juves were called Little Brothers). He is armed with an Autopistol and a Knife.
Next to him, Little Brother Tailler is also armed with an Autopistol and a Knife. He was not used in my campaign.
At  second from the right is Little Brother Billis, who, once again is armed with an Autopistol and a Knife. He was not used either.
Last up, is Brother Paskutti, who managed to attain ganger status and thus dropped the "Little" from his title. He is armed with a Plasma Pistol and a Sword. Note that he is a converted figure. He was originally armed with a Slug Pistol, which I cut off and replaced once he became a ganger.
Despite my antipathy towards this gang, these are all nicely sculpted figures. As I said at the start, the two Cawdor gangs that took part in my campaign suffered an unbelievable amount of defeats. Ken's gang was so badly battered, with so many wounded gangers missing from action, that he sensibly disbanded it to begin afresh with a new gang. I thought I could do better. After all, my Escher and Goliath gangs finished in first and second place in my campaign, so I was a good player, but I just couldn't get a break with this gang. Not only did they lose nine of their ten fights but three of their five territories were taken from them by other gangs. That was just so pathetic! Clearly, my experience of this House has clouded my judgement of them. But quite frankly, I'd rather play any other gang than a House Cawdor gang. That said, I am curious to see how they fare in the new Necromunda rules. It's hard to imagine how much worse they could be!

22 comments:

  1. Lovely models Bryan, I never played enough Necromunda to know what gang might be good or bad, all I can remember is every time I'd to roll a bottle test my gang would bottle it : )

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    1. Many thanks, Frank. I can only imagine how frustrating it must be to fail all of your bottle tests. Commiserations!

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  2. Nice looking gang Bryan, liked the styling of the models they did for the gang, and used several for cultist models, but never as a gang (always played Spyres) shame to hear they didn't fair well in your campaign

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    1. Thanks, Dave. I agree that the Cawdors would make good Cultists with their masks and hoods. I'll be showcasing my own Spyrer gang in the near future, so watch out for that.

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  3. Please stop posting all this lovely Necromunda goodness as it is so distracting. I had a soft spot for House Cawdor and these pictures look great and just confirm that. I have seen one piece of concept art for the new edition Cawdor and was quite encouraged. So hopefully they can compete with these classic Perry sculpts when they are rendered as minis. No more Necromunda please as I have things to do!

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    1. Ha, ha, ha! I am so sorry I'm posting so much "Necromunda" goodness, but it is a game I am hugely enthusiastic about. I haven't seen any pics of the new Cawdors but I'm sure they'll look good.
      I'm afraid I can't promise no more "Necromunda" as i have a load more stuff to show. Sorry, Undercoat!

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  4. I always like that heavy stubber model, reminds me of Animal Mothers charge from Full Metal Jacket

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  5. I really liked the look of the gang but never got to play them! These look fab, shame they were so rubbish...

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    1. Cheers, Andy. They were rubbish for Ken and me but I'm sure others will have fared better with them. I agree, they do look fine.

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  6. Nice job, Vampifan! I remember the Cawdor boys gave my girls some serious trouble back in those days! Good memories, thank you very much for making me recall them! :O)

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    1. Much appreciated, Edu. I wish I could say that my Cawdors caused serious trouble but that was never the case. That said, I certainly have many memories of them.

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  7. Another great paint job of a much maligned and misunderstood house.

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    1. Thanks, Tim. Misunderstood? Sure. Much maligned? Yes, and deservedly so! :-)

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  8. Hi Bryan as you know I've never used these gangs but at the risk of incurring your ire, I think these are the best painted figures you have shown from your necromunda collection so far.
    If I didn't know better I would have thought it was all the love you showed them.
    I'll go into the wilderness now. ;-)

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    1. No ire from me, John. Whilst I wasn't impressed with how the Cawdors played, I did like the way they were sculpted. As for saying you thought they were so well painted because of all the love I showed them, that's not far from the mark, but it applies to all of the figures I paint. I always strife to paint any figure to the best of my ability. Mind you, it wasn't always that way when I started out painting figures!

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  9. I have never played against Cawdor gangers. In the 2 campaigns we played there was never a Cawdor player. Which is a shame as I always liked the way they looked and their fanatical (Red) zeal.

    Nice to see the figures and a gang I always wanted but never got.

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    1. Many thanks, Clint. Interesting to hear that none of your players wanted to play with this gang. To me, that says a lot.

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  10. Great painting as always Bryan, not a gang that ever appealed to me I'm afraid, they always looked like "renaissance fair" rejects to me. I seem to remember someone at the club years ago had them as his gang painted half red half yellow medieval style, but that's about all I can recall.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. LOL! "Renaissance fair rejects" is such a brilliant description of them. Nice one, Roger!

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  11. I think this is by far the most colourful looking House of Cawdor force I've seen, Bryan. Brilliantly done imho, which makes their performance on the tabletop all the more disappointing. Its not as if you've even kitted them out with low-level weapons either, as there's some seriously-armed dudes in those top photos... very strange indeed.

    I'm actually looking forward to these coming out so as to better arm my Torquemada forces for Terra, and add some additional menace to my sci-fi "Frostgrave" Terminators.

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    1. Very much appreciated, Simon. They were well armed and equipped but suffering defeat after defeat as well as losing so many territories meant they never advanced as well as the other gangs in my campaign. They were always trying to play catch up just to remain level.

      I can certainly see them working well as cultists in numerous settings. Good call!

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