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LEADER - Bolt pistol, Grenade Launcher w/Krak, Knife

X 5 GANGERS- Shotgun w/Bolt Shells, autopistol, knife

X 4 JUVES - Autopistol, Knife

That leaves me with 20 creds to stash in case I get a free Juve at a settlement and want to arm the wee guy.

I wanted to give the leader a meltagun but the Cawdor weapons list won't let me!
What do you reckon? Would you want to run into this lot in a dark underhive?

That's a lotta strength 4 shots you'll be out putting every turn! A scary prospect.

In my opinion arming models with a variety of weapons just makes for a more fun game, and I think you should consider a heavy too. Either a Heavy Stubber or Flamer. You could drop some of those gangers autopistols for stub guns to find the creds

I hear what you're saying with the variety thing but if I'm starting a gang and everyone is base stats I'll tool up for all round awesome and leave the variety to develope as my guys get stat advances and skills. Buy a pistol here, swap a shotgun there. I'll get there eventually I just prefer to start here.

As far as a heavy goes I have little interest in a heavy for this list. Especially one with only S4 capabilities. and It's just too much expense for a heavy bolter which is a terrible weapon anyway.

This way I get two More gangers both with S4 weapons and income generating capability. Heavies just sit about eating doughnuts post battle. That's why they're heavy.

If you've already ran a lot of gangs with heavies I am sure leaving one out this time could be fun

I notice in the house rules you change Autoguns slightly. Do you do the same to bolters to make them better than a shotgun + bolt shells which has the exact same stats and cost but with alternate shell options IIRC?

Actually we didn't do the same for the Bolter issue but We probbably shouldve. More like a reduction in range for the shotgun version than an improvement on the boltgun. You're right a shotgun w/bolts does make a more reliable for the same cost weapon, just because the ammo rolls only affect the use of that ammo.
I once ran a massive tournament and the guy who on it figured this out pretty fast and used it to great effect. He also had two heavies in his gang though...

If you can spare the credits, it might be worth taking a Heavy or two and just arming them with shotguns like the rest of the gangers. It means they get experience while you save for a heavy weapon, and even if you don't buy a big gun, Heavies make good CC fighters due to all the Muscle skills they can get.

I do have to question your assertion about ammo rolls, though. I've always understood a failed ammo roll to affect the weapon, not just one specific ammo type.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
If you can spare the credits, it might be worth taking a Heavy or two and just arming them with shotguns like the rest of the gangers. It means they get experience while you save for a heavy weapon, and even if you don't buy a big gun, Heavies make good CC fighters due to all the Muscle skills they can get.

I do have to question your assertion about ammo rolls, though. I've always understood a failed ammo roll to affect the weapon, not just one specific ammo type.

you're right about a failed ammo rolls. I checked the book, both the ammo roll rules and the special rules for shotguns spell it out pretty clearly. Don't know where I got that from, unless it was someone's house rules that I just accepted was how it was and never checked it. I suppose the option is still there if I want the extra range or strength I have the option of bolt shells, otherwise I can just use regular shells especially early on in a game when I might not want to risk a jam.

I never thought of taking a heavy for the skills more than the actual weapon. I've had plenty of gangs with heavies and I find that heavy weapons are tricky to get their money's worth out of. If didn't buy one to begin with I can't see the gang ever getting enough cash together to buy one later. Especially with one of the gang being too lazy to generate income.

Play the Scavengers mission a lot. That helps with funds.

As for the meltagun, just leave the creds in the stash and buy it after the first game - it'll use up one of the Rare Trade slots for that visit to the trading post. Unless you do the Raid mission a lot, though, it's probably overpowered. The grenade launcher is always handy, especially if you can get some exotic grenades as Rare Trade rolls.

Yeah, the melta gun was really only ever the hard hitting cheaper alternative to the heavy weapon. It's like you say mostly overpowered unless for the raid scenario. Or anything involving structural features.
Is a krak grenade S5? It'd do alright I suppose. And I do love gas clouds in play.

I once ran a game where adeptus arbites were launching gas grenades as a crowd control measure at a shoot out scenario (can't recall if we used special rules or a standard rare grenade type, halucinogen or what have you) but the end of every turn, the gas clouds had a phase all of their own, it was great!

Anyway, my point being yes, I agree, grenade launchers are more versatile and often more fun.

Another thing: I was considering the suggestion about the heavy being a choice more for his available skill-set. I'd have to check that out because I recall the Cawdor skills table being a little on the frustrating side.

IIRC the heavy is the only guy in a Cawdor gang that can get Tech skills natively. I could be wrong though, been a while since I used the ol' leatherfaces. I never left the chem-pit without at least one heavy.

Same for every gang except van Saar.