Necromunday: Outcasts Review - Brawler Archetype

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only… these guns! Look at those biceps, he could lift a whole Hive on his shoulders! And those calves, they could cut diamonds! Outcasts are the dregs of society, forced . Today, we look at the Outcasts with the most muscle, the broadest of chests, and the gnarliest of lift records. This is an overview of the Brawler Archetype for Outcast gang.

The Outcast Brawler Archetype is the perfect choice if you like to rough up your opponents, shake them down and really show them what for, Popeye the Sailor man style. As with any of the Archetype choices, you have your ideal choices and options to choose from for your leader, their characteristic profile, weapons, and Skill choices. To aid you in understanding this better, we will look over these choices, and give you our general thoughts and opinions of what you should do.

Who Is My Leader and What Does He Do?

As we covered extensively in the initial Outcasts article, the Leader of your gang is the most important person, and the most influential to the way your gang performs. Thus, choosing your leader is one of the most foundational parts of your campaign. For the different Archetypes, this choice will vary, and thus you will need to weigh your options differently. First, let’s begin by picking a profile to use!

Crom, head of the Bruisers of Brüthall Outcast gang

Characteristic/Profile

When choosing your Brawler Leader, it’s a good idea to look through the profiles available and figure out what works best for the vibes you’re going for. Your first look should be at the generic leader options, because they are the basic outline of what an Outcast Leader should be. For 125 Credits, you get 4 options of leader, and 3 of them are good (or useful at least) to lead your gang as a Brawler.

One of these options is a quick little bugger. 6” of Movement, Weapon and Ballistic Skill (WS/BS) of 3+ each, good Initiative and Attacks. They’re wily and quick, none too tough, but they shine when paired with Combat Skills. The next option is one with the standard 5” Movement of most Necromunda (the game, which you just lost) models, and brings their BS down to 4+ to bring their WS to a 2+. Big man here also gets a Strength of 4, allowing him to bring the pain and lay the hurt down on the unprepared! The final of the three generics is a slow-mover, with a Movement of 4” and Toughness of 4, coupled with 3 Wounds and they’re a real tank suited to a Goliath. Any of these three options are excellent for what you need.

Alternatively, you can use the profile of other individuals throughout Necromunda. Take a Corpse Grinder Butcher, for example, or Goliath Stimmer. Both of these models are viable for use as an Outcast boss and will perform well under the Brawler Archetype. If you are taking this path, the main thing to be on the lookout for are individuals that have good Strength and Attacks, S4 and more than one Attack will usually do the trick just fine. Also be on the lookout for their WS, 4+ is ok, but anyone with a 3+ or better is ideal. In the same manner, if your Arbitrator approves, an Ambot or one of Necromunda’s (the planet) many beautiful wildlife specimens would also fill this role well. 

Palatine Justicar Executioner. Credit: 40khamslam.

Loadout Options

Weapons

Obviously melee weapons are the name of the game for the Brawler. However, considering the Skill sets given to the Brawler, two-handed, Unwieldy, high AP melee weapons are probably the best choice. The high AP is obvious, the weapon will cut through the enemies armor like nothing and leave them vulnerable to death by Injury Rolls. The reason to have them be two-handed, is because the Brawler Archetype has Brawn as a Primary Skill set, and thus you can take Bulging Biceps along with a two-handed weapon and use it with one hand and wield a pistol of some sort in the other! 

For starting out a campaign, the weapons the leader is allowed are anything from the Trading Post at a Rarity/Illegality of 9 or less. In my previous article, I mentioned giving melee focused people Boning Swords. Unfortunately I've had it now pointed out to me that that is not an available option from the Trading Post, therefore please accept this revision. For cheap but effective starts, consider two Fighting Knives or two Cleavers. Their AP is enough to take away the save of most fighters that will probably be running around with just Flak Armor or Hazard Suits at the start of the campaign, and at 10/20 Credits respectively, it’s a valuable investment. Alternatively, if you don’t mind sparing no expense, or have been saving up for a few games, consider the Heavy Rock Cutter. At 135 Credits, it’s a big spend, but if you have the aforementioned Butcher or Stimmer, you’re making a whirling death machine. At S+4, with AP4 and 3 Damage it’s sure to carve through anything without a Field Armor save, or mulch up any vehicles short of a Ridgehauler! The Butcher and Stimmer with the Rock Cutter hit like a Meltagun!

If you are going to give the Brawler a pistol to go along with his mondo melee weapon, the options are limited but varied at R/I 9. Stub Guns, Plasma Pistols, Autopistols, Bolt Pistols; the choice is really yours. I’d go for a simple Stub Gun though, because of the cost you’re already expending, you might as well save a little bit on something that’s reliable!

Necromunda Hired Gun - Credit: RichyP

General Loadout

The general loadout of your big guy kinda depends, as you probably play way different than I do when it comes to Necromunda. In terms of armor, I highly recommend the cheap, but effective, route to start off your campaign. The Brawler is probably already spending a lot of money on melee weapons, so spending inordinate amounts of money on armor is usually out of the question. Still, you do have to have something effective. Mesh Armor? Check. Armored Undersuit for a sweet 4+ save? Check. Light Carapace with an Armored Undersuit is also a good option to start off strong, it's just a pretty big spend to start the game with.

For other elements of your loadout, Photo-Goggles will be a must, and we’ll discuss why in a minute. But also having a Biobooster or a Stimm Slug Stash couldn’t hurt either; again, you just have to remember to watch your cost and not overspend! Finally, your general wish is to bolster your ranged defense with some grenades. Photon Flash grenades are always an excellent choice in this matter, as you deprive the enemy of sweet sweet activations, and the Photo-Goggles mean that if you miss, you're less likely to accidentally remove your own activation! Smoke grenades would also be useful in this regard, as you could saturate the area in front of your enemy so that they can’t shoot you. Meanwhile, you can see through with the X-Ray Specs and charge right into them. 

You know what, while I’m thinking about it, this is also the perfect time to mention it. Aside from Goliath and Slave-Ogryn, this gang is the best for buying Lho-Sticks, because Hive Scum are just dumb enough to think that smoking is cool. Grab some ciggy’s and light up bro. (I’m a nicotine addict that’s why, and I like to smoke Camel White’s)

For offensive grenades, Incendiary Charges and Blasting Charges are always excellent choices, and you can’t go wrong with setting someone on fire or hitting them like a truck. Alternatively, you could chuck some Shard Grenades, which I just remembered exist. They have the 5” Blast and Cursed Traits, meaning that anyone hit that isn’t killed has to take a Willpower check or absolutely lose their shit and go nuts. I just think it’s funny to point that out.

'Mad Dog' Brunnig at it again in the Underhive

Skills

The Brawler Archetype has three Primary Skill sets: Brawn, Ferocity, and Leadership. You also get access to Agility and Combat as Secondaries. The two Primary sets that you have (because Leadership is always primary on the gang leader) are pivotal to making a good Brawler and your choice of skill is really determined by the loadout they have. So, let’s get into which skills you should have, and what they’re good for with this gang:

Brawn (Primary):

Bull Charge and Crushing Blow are both excellent skills to have if you’re focused on having the Brawler have one-handed weapons, whether he’s got one and a pistol or is dual wielding. Getting a free +1 Strength and the Knockback skill is great with Bull Charge, as it means you have a higher chance to wound and then throw them back before they can attack back. Crushing Blow is a similar way, +1 Strength and Damage just for nominating an attack is crazy, especially if you already have a melee weapon with good damage! As mentioned, these two skills are good if your loadout is one-handed melee weapons, and they pair excellently with any melee weapons that have an AP of -2 or higher!

If you want to have the guy with the biggest weapon with the highest AP and the most Damage, then taking Bulging Biceps is a good option to get the biggest muscles too. Being able to wield an Unwieldy weapon in one hand is just beautiful, and you can pair it with a Sidearm to add some extra devastation in case you’re worried about not immediately dicing your foe into bite-sized chunks. Again, that Heavy Rock Cutter will just render your enemy into gelato.

For Headbutt, Hurl, and Iron Jaw, they’re ok skills, and the first two are quite funny to have, just because you can run up to some stupid bastard, say ‘Hey Shitass, check this out’ and chuck them over the catwalk edge into fucking oblivion. Funny as they are, they don’t actively give a boon to the loadout you’re going for, so maybe they’d be cool as a ‘I guess I’ll get this because there’s no other skills I really want?’ scenario.

Furious George and the Cape Scrod Bilge-Crew. Credit: Fowler

Ferocity (Primary):

What can I say? All these skills are so goddamned good. Berserker, Impetuous, and Nerves of Steel are the real kick, the real slugger, to go out there and beat people to death. From the Pinning protection, to the extra attacks, to Consolidating most of your Movement, these Skills will set you on the path to truly being a force of nature.

Fearsome, True Grit, and Unstoppable give you the survivability to keep on kicking well past your time, so that you can ensure the deaths of each and every foe at your hands. I’m almost tempted to say you should always take Unstoppable, but I am more inclined to say to take it if you are wielding one-handed weapons, and take Bulging Biceps if you are going for Unwieldy weapons.

Leadership (Primary): 

Honestly, I usually am not big on taking Leadership skills, as I just feel like there’s always 4 better uses of a starting Skill or spent XP, but looking at them there’s actually pretty good cases to make for most of them. This is especially true if you’ve taken a character with a good Leadership characteristic. In fact, the only Skill from here that you shouldn’t take is Overseer, because spending both actions of a guy that’s specifically intended to be fighting in close combat on telling a schmuck what to do is a waste of his valuable time that could be spent sprinting into the melee. 

Agility (Secondary): 

The Agility tree is pretty cool, because a fair amount of the skill can be pretty beneficial, but there’s 3 main ones you’d want to focus on. Dodge will give you an extra save against any shooting attacks, though if you’re relying primarily on laying down Smoke before getting into the fray, taking Step Aside from Combat might be more useful, as that relies on an Initiative test, whereas this is only saved on a 6. 

Sprint is good if you ARE relying on laying down Smoke before getting into the fray. You basically use both actions to move, and get a third move for free. Now, specifically the wording is that your second move action lets you move twice your Movement characteristic. Spring Up is SUUUUUUCH  a good skill for a prospective Brawler. If they have a good (or even middling) Initiative, you’re probably going to want it. Being able to stand up at the start of your activation without using an action is god-tier for a guy who just wants to get into the fray!

Combat (Secondary): 

Combat is a great tree to have, it kinda sucks they have it Secondary, but it’s better than nothing. All of the Combat Skills are something the Brawler wants, as they provide excellent offensive or defensive bonuses. Namely, Counter Attack and Rain of Blows will let them have the upper hand to absolutely waste some poor dweebazoid who tries to engage them, whether they charge or get charged. 

Combat Master, Disarm, Parry, and Step Aside give you so much survivability that you’ll be able to just wade into the fray and not give a singular fuck. You’re moving different, you’re off that Sumerian Gilgamesh Blessed-By-Ištar-in-the-City-of-Uruk Ea-Nasir brand Skunk, and it’s burning a hole in your lungs. But that’s ok, you didn’t need your lungs anyway, they were just holding you back by being another weak and fleshy part of your body some asshole can stab, and you’re a Brawler sent by the God Emperor, you can’t be stabbed in the lungs, that’s quitter talk, you’re not a quitter are you? Or are you a winner? I wanna rock!

They’re pretty good skills.

Ambot. Credit: SRM

The Supporting Cast

The other goobers in your list are… here, they’re just not the coolest of the cool. They’re definitely not like the leader, but they get the work done I guess.

Brawler Champion Armament

I wanna start off by apologizing, because I was totally wrong in my last article. Outcast Champions CAN take Special and Heavy weapons, I totally missed the one sentence in the Book of the Outcast where it says Outcast Champions get access to weapons from the Trading Post with Rarity/Illegality 8 or less. Thus, they do actually have options for weapons as opposed to the crap choices for Scum Gangers. 

The Scum Champion actually plays an ok Brawler, because they have a 3+ WS. Granted, they only have 1 Attack, but you can work with this to make a support character for your leader. My main suggestion, because of how cheap the guys already are, is to keep it in that manner. A Chainsword or Cleaver are probably the best options for the Scum Champion, as they are both cheap and have some AP and either a To Hit or Strength bonus, with the Cleaver being the option that gives you extra Strength and the Sword letting you hit better. Either take two of one option, or one with a pistol of some sort and you’re set.

For Wargear, keep it cheap. Mesh Armor, Smoke Grenades and Photo-Goggles. Other than that, if you wanna give them some extra stuff, maybe some cooler explosives, be my guest, it’s your gang not mine.

Brawler Champion Skills

Scum Champions get Brawn as a Primary set, and Ferocity and Leadership Secondary. Bull Charge or Crushing Blow should be the starting skill for the Scum Champion, as they have a 3+ WS, the AP on some very cheap common weapons is pretty good, you really just need a tad more Strength to your hits to get that good wound out on the enemy. For your Secondaries, I really can’t recommend giving any Leadership skills to your Scum Champion, just because they’re LD skill isn’t the best. Ferocity, though, well it’s the same as above. Ferocity is just a really good skill set. I think that the best ones for the Champion are Fearsome, Nerves of Steel, and Berserker; especially the latter, because that gives them an extra attack to work with when they get into melee combat, and thus give you more oomf behind your hits.

Death Maiden. Credit: SRM

Hive Scum Armament

Hive Scum are pretty simple, they have basic availability lists and thus your options are quick and easy:

GO CHEAP

Hive Scum are 30 Credits a pop for a reason, because they suck and you are only taking them because that’s all you get to pad your gang with. With that said, they play a vital role in your gang, doubly so for the Brawler. Give them a Lasgun and either Mesh or Flak Armor and you’re most of the way there! I’ve touted the reliability and my love of the Lasgun before, so I needn’t say it again, but it provides efficient cover fire for your leader and champions. Additionally, give them Smoke Grenades and lay down plumes of cover so that your opponent can’t fire on them as they advance down the line. If you REALLY need to outfit them for close combat, give them a Stub Gun and Fighting Knife, because otherwise you’ll be spending too much on a basic goober to do melee shenanigans.

Yes, I know I give them other weird bits and bobs in the sample lists below, both for Scum and Champions, but that's because I like to actually have variety, and a Hive Scum with a Chainglaive is a really fun sounding modelling opportunity. If you really have a problem with it then sue me.

Credit: Fowler & Hive Market Minis

Brawler Outcast Lists

The lists I’ve put together are intended to build a general gang around the main ideas I have discussed here, including the horrible Ambot list as well, because it’s silly. 



 



 



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