Necromunda Restart in Germany - A couple of questions

[Steelstorm]

Hey, everyone who is still on this board!

Boy, no new threads for a good 6 month... I hope someone is still alive in here :-D
A couple of my friends and I have recently started a new Necromunda Campaign here in Düsseldorf, Germany (coincidentally, the hometown of GW Germany ^^). We were able to aquire an ancient Necromunda Box in perfect condition, unearth my buildings and minis alike and have already mustered the Gangs!
And while the Specialist Games Rules Update is certainly great work (thanks for support guys, we appreciate it!), we'll probably stick to the basic rule-set, for tradition's sake and old Orlock miniatures.
Still, we're currently deciding on which new rules should be incorporated, and discuss the usefulness of a number of houserules and special scenarios we've found online.

This is pretty much the first question!
Do you have any recommendations, which new rules are worth a look? Anything you can recommend?

In general, "bringing the Gangs together" proved to be a hasslefree task, but we have a Scavvy player in our group, who's a bit worried about the number of miniatures in a gang, and the required number of "Scavvies" in general. And here's question #2:

The rules say:
"Recruitment. Unsurprisingly enough, Scavvies always make up the bulk of a Scawy gang. To represent this, at least half of the models in the gang must be Scavvies (not mutants)."

His Gang currently consits of:

1 x Scavvy Boss
2 x Scaly
4 x Scavvy (without mutations)
5 x Scavvy Mutant (with 5 different mutations)
___
12 - charakters in total

Is this a legit gang set-up, or does he need to a) reduce the number of Mutants, or, contraiwise, b) raise the number of regular Scavvies OR push them out into the toxic waste, because Scavvy Gangs suck big-time anyways, and he'll never win a single game.

That's all for now; as soon as we're ready, I'll post some pics of our Gangs, alright?

[Sumprunner]

He would either have to reduce his number of mutants and/or increase his number of regular scavvies. The new version of the scavvy gang rules (in the Necromunda section of GW's site) state "To represent this, at least half the models (not counting Mutants, Plague Zombies, Scavvy Dogs, or Ghouls)...". This clarifies that mutants are "not" scavvies, per se. Incidentally, if you are sticking to the classic scavvy rules, his gang could wind up being the greatest threat in your game (the one scavvy gang I played ended at around 60+ guys) since they are extremely easy to "game".
Hope this helps.

[Steelstorm]

Thanks for the quick reply!
My thoughts exactly, his other question was if the Boss counts towards the "Scavvy" level of the gang.
To me, the text refers to the "class" -Scavvy- and not the "race" of the mini.

[Sumprunner]

Basically if the rule is under the "class" then it refers to that type of model, at least that's how my groups always saw it. He should think of the Boss, Scalies and Mutants as 'elite' units/models and the regular scavvies as the grunts (which is really all they are at the beginning).

[Cardicus]

Im using the original rules myself and the only rule that we have changed is the one concerning sustained fire as in the rule book you roll to hit before rolling to see how many shots you get we have changed it so you roll how many shots you get then roll that many dice to hit. I changed this as im in the military and know that if your shooting a machine gun that if you point it in the right direction then let rip ur bound to hit something so felt this rule helped keep it near to real life

[Dimreapa]

Like yourself Cardicus, I generally use the old rules.  You are considerably more polite and flattering of "Underhive" than I am.  There's not many of us around here who were fully happy with the finished result of the remake.

I'm not sure the sustained fire dice change-over is as good as everyone says it is.  Back in the old rules was when you hit something with a salvo and rolled to hit once.  Now you roll to hit with every shot.  You are actually more (or in some cases 'just as') likely to require ammo rolls.  It wasn't as if recording a Sustained Fire Dice (which was essentially just a D6) was difficult.  However it is no worse or better than the last way of doing it imo.  It just depends on which you prefer.

The only rule I recommend from the new book that isn't in the old one is 'High Impact' (Underhive LRB pg.17), as it is a decent and clever rule that actually makes some kind of sense.  Otherwise I prefer the rules in most cases.  I've got used to the new rules, but what wasn't broken didn't get fixed very well.

[Cardicus]

Yeah i also dont like the rules for flamers in the new rules too as in the old rules u can set people on fire but not in the new rules its always funny watching ur opponenents fighters running around in random directions especially if they are on a ledge or up high. I also dont like the house list thing its a good idea but done wrong it just seems dumb that my olock leader has to hunt around for something as simple as a sword. Theres prob a couple of other rules that i dont like but its been a while since i read the new rulebook iv been enjoying using the old rules too much.

[Sumprunner]

I never liked the catch fire rules in the old book as they conflicted with the hit and injury rules too much (you take a hit and are pinned even if you are not wounded, but you still move in a random direction? Your pinned, but not? Huh?) Maybe my groups over thought this one, but we could never come to a decent consensus.
I like the change to hot-shot shells, re-roll to wound instead of catching fire.
I also like the High Impact rule.
Don't care much for house weapons lists either. Why can't Van Saar get boltguns? The most technical house in the game can't get one of the most technical weapons to start with?
I also have issues with the new Scavvy rules. I don't mind having some kind of rule to restrict their numbers (see my posting above about gaming them), but do you have to completely screw them and make them non-viable as a gang? If anyone in my group wants to play a scavvy gang I would be willing to let them choose which restriction they want to use (feeding limitation or leadership limitation) but I wouldn't saddle them with both. Now, I haven't seen these rules play-tested yet so maybe they aren't as bad as I think they are, but...
Since the rest of the rulebook is still the same as the old I found no problem picking and choosing the rules we run by, as long as everyone agreed.

[subzeroy]

Let me comment on that, as I am the Scavvy player in Steelstorms group
I started with the 12 characters mentioned in the first post. After 5 games I was down to 8 Scavvies, including the death of my boss and one scully. I got the money to buy new normal Scavvies, but I really suffer from not getting any money. So we decided not to use the leadership rule at all.

This is not always fun...

[Sumprunner]

Ouch! I feel your pain. Something similar happened to me on my first outing with Scavvies, too. I wound up scrapping the gang and starting over.

If you decide to retire this gang and start fresh, here is my recommendation based on what I did.

Start with a Boss with autogun and stub gun (based on the new rules), 1 Scaly with spear gun (because it's cheap and dangerous), discus and sword and as many regular scavvies as you can afford. Now, as I posted above, I don't know how well the new rules work. Since you are not using the leadership restriction this plan should work fairly well. The idea is simply numbers. Since each scavvy gets a free club and knife to start and has a starting WS of 3 it makes sense to use them as hth fighters. Most of my gang never gained more than their starting weaponry since I only upgraded when they got an advancement that made improving their gear worthwhile, i.e. only scavvies that got a BS increase got a gun. The Boss and Scaly are your backup. Due to range, the Scaly has to get fairly close to the enemy to be effective, but your horde of scavvies should be able to shield him enough to let him move into useful positions. The Boss sits back and shoots whatever he can, though if necessary he can usually hold his own in hth (if you can afford it, I also recommend a sword).

Now the new rules make it harder to feed the gang (in the original rules you could feed the entire gang by eating 1 guy and hire a replacement for 25 credits, cheapest upkeep of any gang, hence my mention of "gaming" them), and it may be a while before you can actually afford anything remotely decent, but at some point you will be able to choose the scenario. When that happens choose 'Caravan'. You will always be the attacker, since you are outlanders. The tactics are simple: run every model you can off the edge of the table. Only engage enemies if they are directly in your path. Casualties will happen, but if you can get enough men off the table you can really rake in the loot. I had 20 guys when I ran my first Caravan and afterward I nearly doubled my gang size, bought some new weapons for the guys who got BS increases (only 2) and still had enough left over to feed everybody twice!

Just some ideas. Good luck in your games!