This week’s Hammer of Math goes on a murderous joy ride with the scions of House Helmawr and examines the weapon options of the Spyre Hunt Master.
In the Grim Darkness of the Far Past known as 1997, when the Backstreet Boys were in a bitter fight with Hanson and the Spice Girls for supremacy while everyone was playing GoldenEye, those of us with dice and a determined desire for a third dimension were gifted with the Outlanders Expansion to Necromunda. Among the gangs included in this expansion were the Spyrers, and the played like nobody else. These sociopathic rich kids were an absolute terror to face, equipped with exotic weapons and armor (not to mention legitimate armor saves) while the rest of the gangs were likely to have a boltgun. Now they’re back, but this isn’t the same Underhive as before. They certainly have some competition, and they’re still heavily outnumbered.
Every Spyrer Hunting Party consists of an assembly of Orrus, Yeld, Jakara, and Malcadon Spyre Hunters led by a Spyre Hunt Master. While the four baseline hunters have relatively limited options, the Hunt Master has the option to select weapons from the Yeld, Jakara, and Malcadon sprues. The blatantly superior Orrus gets left out, which makes sense given how expensive and good the damn thing is, but the Hunt Master still has plenty of interesting selections. The basic profile is WS 2+, BS 3+, and S3 while the Sovereign Hunting Rig has a 5+ armor save, 6+ field save, and can be Augmented to a 5+ field save and +1S. We debated things considerably when the review first came out, and it was largely a question of what the Hunt Master would take in addition to the blatantly superior choice of Malcadon Web Incisors and a Toxin Whip, as that choice also comes with a Grapnel Launcher and Drop Rig. Realistically there are three options beyond that.
- The Jakara Mirror Shield is 60 credits and has the Energy Shield and Flash traits, but only an 8″ range. There’s no reason to augment this weapon since the Sovereign Hunting Rig the Hunt Master is equipped with gets the same field save. Although it is a shield it does not have the Melee trait so you don’t get a bonus attack.
- The Naga Blade is 50 credits and is a Versatile weapon with a 2″ range. The attack profile is S+2, AP -1, 2 damage, and has the Disarm and Parry traits. Fully enhanced it also has Shock, AP -2, and deals 3 Damage.
- The Yeld Missile Gauntlet is 30 credits and with a profile of S5, no AP, and 1 damage with the Knockback trait. Augmented it has AP -1, S6, and Blast (3″) which is kind of cool. There’s also the Yeld Laser Guantlet but fully boosted it’s basically a hot shot lasgun.
- The Web Incisor is a 8″ range S3 attack with the Silent and Web traits. Augmented, the long range is enhanced to 10″ and then 12″ while the Strength characteristic is boosted to 4. The Toxin Whip is a Versatile weapon with a 2″ range (-1 Accuracy at 2″), AP -2, and it has the Entangle and Toxin traits. When Augmented it loses the accuracy penalty, gains the Shield Breaker trait, and then treats the Toughness of targets as having been reduced by 1 (which is similar to, and stacks with, a chem-synth).
Web Incisor
The Web trait of this weapon means that it has the potential to be extremely deadly against many targets, as when a Web attack is successful the target automatically becomes Webbed and is effectively Seriously Injured until it either escapes, succumbs to the web drugs, or is killed by a juve with a sharp stick. This makes it perfectly suited to take on armored targets so long as their Toughness characteristic isn’t too high, although getting within 8″ and LOS of most targets means you want a good chance of success. Unfortunately even with an improved BS and a target you’re wounding on a 3+ the chance of success is only slightly better than even.
Toxin Whip
Toxin weapons are nasty. Rather than wounding the normal way, the attacker has to roll equal to or higher than the target’s Toughness (or get a natural 6), and if the target fails to save then it takes an Injury roll. Amusingly enough the probability spread is identical to the web incisor, but the range of relevant Toughness characteristics is different. This shows how powerful combining the third level of augmentation and a chem-synth can be, boosting the probability of wounding a T6 target by 28% assuming you hit on a 2+. With 2 or 3 attacks (depending on the second weapon chosen) and a high AP there’s a good chance a target will be injured.
Mirror Shield
The Mirror Shield is a purely defensive selection. The efficacy of the Flash attack depends on the target; the probabilities are identical to the web incisor chart if you replace the Wound roll target with the Initiative characteristic. The flexibility of choosing between a web attack and a flash attack might be appealing if you’re facing a tough but slow target (or you just like to watch a Van Saar player cry). The other benefit of the mirror shield is the Energy Shield trait, which provides a boost to armour saves in the front arc (+2 vs melee, +1 vs ranged). With a single augmentation the field save of the hunting rig becomes equivalent to the armour save, so the benefit of the shield is inversely proportional to the AP of the attack. At ranged anything AP -1 or better simply disregards the shield.
Naga Blade
This weapon is brutal. In addition to being Versatile, it’s a defensive nightmare thanks to Parry forcing an attack to be re-rolled and Disarm forcing the opponent to make Reaction attacks without a weapon on a Hit roll of a natural 6. Offensively it deals the most damage of any Spyrer weapon. The chart below shows the probability of wounding and it’s not even funny how lethal the naga blade gets thanks to getting Shock, especially when it’s maxed out with 3 Damage.
Missile Gauntlet
The gauntlet is a single damage weapon that has as range of 30″ and offers the ability to clear out chaff if they’re not too close. The chart below shows that has a fairly reliably chance of wounding against many targets, but maxing out at AP -1 and a single point of damage puts it at a disadvantage when you consider that the goal of Spyrers is to kill the target and not junk inconvenience them.
Wrapping Up
I was surprised at just how lethal the naga blade is, and I think it’s definitely worth considering given how melee-focused the Spyre Hunt Master profile can be. Combined with the mobility and flexibility of the toxin whip it offers a brutal combination which can deal a lot of damage. Using the mirror shield sacrifices lethal output for a slight increase in defense; I would actually consider replacing the toxin whip instead of the naga blade so that I could still deal damage. The missile gauntlet offers some flexibility against weaker opponents, but it seems evident that this hunter wants to be close to its prey.
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