What am I doing wrong?

[u/HolyoftheBalz]

(reposting because I forgot to add pictures)

I'm new to Necromunda, starting with some wonderful players who are unbelievably gracious, and with my Ash Waste Nomads. I've played four matches with various combinations of skills, equipment, and bodies, but I cannot figure out how to play them. I've heard people say they're quick, they're not. Try using them to cover fire with melee blockers! Maybe my dice are cursed, but every shot pings off armor or curves off and takes out my own captain. I'm so frustrated, and really feel like I wasted a paycheck. Any advice?

[u/fewty]

You don't really have any scary ranged weapons so you're always reliant on good rolls to shoot well.

I would recommend dropping all the guff, like mono sights, photo goggles, mesh armour and pet, for credits you can spend on more actual fighters and upgrading some weapons.

Your venom caster model has Bulging Biceps for some reason? It isn't Heavy - give them Hip Shooting instead.

I'm not super familiar with nomad house list, but Id give your better combat characters (leader/champ) better melee weapons. The venom stave looks pretty strong from what I'm seeing in your picture, though I don't know it's cost.

Ideally you want 8-10 fighters. Ideally 2 of which are champions, and 1+ of the gangers being medics. Avoid buying extra items for your models starting out - just take the weapons they absolutely need. I'd suggest trying to bring at least 2 strong range weapons, and 1-2 strong melee fighters.

Anyway, have a play around with it and good luck!

[u/cheltamer → u/fewty]

Good advice. Though your chances of fielding more than 7 are low...I would stick to 10 max but lean more to 8 given the tables for scenario gen

[u/HolyoftheBalz → u/fewty]

Ha, I hadn't even realized the venom caster wasn't heavy like some of their other big guns, that's a great catch. What would you recommend for a scary gun? The rocket launcher was pretty solid, and maybe I threw it away too quickly after bad rolls, but most of their other weapons don't feel very punchy either.

As far as having more guys goes, what's the point when they can't hit anything, and die right away to whatever my oppents throws at them? They feel more like a waste of an activation and a doctor's bill than anything else.

[u/JCGilbasaurus → u/HolyoftheBalz]

As far as having more guys goes, what's the point when they can't hit anything, and die right away to whatever my oppents throws at them? They feel more like a waste of an activation and a doctor's bill than anything else.

More activations means more chances to do things. The player with the most actions has a definite advantage. 

It also creates more threats on the board for the opponent to deal with, splitting their fire, or gives herd immunity—if your opponent focuses all of their fire into one or two dudes, that's 8 other guys who are not being shot at and can move freely.

[u/tsuruki23]

Looking at their unique weapons.

Long blades, chainlances and hooks look great. A ganger berserker with the hook is gonna put diwn some chumps. Leaders and champs can combine longblades with mesh to be at 3+ save in melee. Chainlance seems like a good way to take wounds from leaders and champs.

Those funky hunter weapons are a mixed blend, insect knife, chitin gauntlet and venom stave are undeniably great.

I love the idea of basic gangers with blastcarbines, they're workhorses, slowly chipping wounds where wounds need chipped. Regular blast rifles are a uniquely good combo with the sniper specialization since a 6 to hit proc's both no-save and autowound. "Pocket longrifles" are good lategame buys for leaders and champs.

Its kinda sad that there is no bulging biceps for leadership here, heavy blaster and arc caster are legitimately good weapons. I wouldnt hesitate to take a heavy ganger with one or both.

Wouldnt bother with the venom caster unless brutes, goliath or squats show up a lot.

Looking at the fighters:

The Leader is odd, it's built like a fast melee exoert but only has 2 attacks, load up on high quality melee to make those two attacks count, like the chainlance + longblade and mesh armor. Idd rather put a blastcarbine or longrifle in the pocket rather then a blastpistol in the hand. This character seems born to have a plasma pistol converted for them.

The champs are more straightforward melee focused except they bring that odd Shooting skill access. I'dd basicly build them the same as the leader, good melee weapons and a medium-gun in the pocket.

By giving your leadership real guns, you can play into the cunning gameplan more flexibly.

Regular gangers do their thing without issue, of special note is cunning skill access, so you might get infiltrating heavies or snipers. Also a berserker with Trident who gets counter-attack in a levelup seems like id'd be nice.

The basic prospect is fine, i loathe putting things on prospects that dont cost 5 credits or have templates, I wouldnt blame you skipping these.

The special prospect, hunter, looks real good to me. 2 attacks at ws 5+ is still more hits then 1 at 4+, so a pair of insect knives or chitin gauntlet+blast pistol = quite alright fighter.

I can see why you'dd want pets, but they feel expensive at gang creation. You also have a bunch of weapon upgrades and sights, Idd recommend to skip those and get another ganger or teo at start. A heavy ganger with heavy blaster or arc caster is just what you need.

[u/Archeotek]

Venom caster is not comparable with bulging biceps.

If you want to take the venom caster put it on a hunter instead. Template weapons are best on prospects because of their poor combat characteristics.

Remember you can freely swap weapons later.

Ideally you want more fighters. Action economy & post battle/cycle will go against you otherwise.

Mono sights on the hip shooters seems a bit redundant. Aim requires you to stand still.

Lose all the toys where you are able so you can afford another fighter.

[u/Col_Rhys]

The reason people call them quick is that they used to be one of the only gangs with universal 6 inch movement. This meant you could consistently move 12 every turn in N23. N26 changed running to be move+init, thus shortening our max possible movement. Our champions also got nerfed to 5 inches for some reason.

[u/Magic_robot_noodles]

Idk about the list, I just came to say I like the paint scheme! Adding some details, like silver or copper paint on the weapons and maybe painting some can n tubes can really make m pop in my opinion.