How to Play House Goliath in Necromunda Underhive
Today take a look at some basics of how to play and get started with Necromunda House Goliath, the brawny beefcakes.
The Goliaths are one of the six Clan House gangs of Necromunda. House Goliath operates and owns many of the Necromunda’s great foundries and its workers are the masters of the metal and furnace. The Goliath House revere physical strength. House Goliath breeds its workers like prize cattle – to create the toughest, strongest, and most unthinkingly loyal workers of the furnace in the Imperium.
Below we offer some tips on how to play the gang and get started with them.
Who Is House Goliath?
House Goliath was originally created in early M40 by the rulers of Necromunda as a slave race meant to toil in the refineries and forges of the world. They were meant to work in areas where standard humans could not survive. They are nearly Abhuman in their size and strength yet still mercilessly cunning and resourceful. The Goliaths have a preoccupation with physique. Their style of clothing is often designed to reveal as much of their bulging muscles as possible. This style of dress usually incorporates large amounts of metal chains and bracers. Most Goliaths also wear their hair in a mohawk.
Goliaths are unique among the peoples of Necromunda, being on the whole gene-smithed beings. They are forged from a stable genus of humanity but enhanced for strength and endurance. To date, most Goliaths are still largely created through esoteric biological means. Rapidly grown in amneo-vats from flesh-templates and turned out into the refineries and factories for immediate hard labour. These brutish creations are mostly male and mostly sterile, living for less than a decade on a diet of backbreaking work and growth stimms before their bodies fail. Despite this short life-span, Goliaths are born with a baseline knowledge of their world and their position in it delivered via a cranial data-slug. In this way, the Goliaths share the knowledge of the clan gathered over hundreds of generations, giving them a working understanding of everything from hive industries to clan weaponry.
Why Play Goliaths
The Goliaths are swole, swole beefcakes. They are a hammer and everything is a nail. If you like playing with force, House Goliath may be the gang for you.
Strengths of the Gang
- Impressive physical stats (Strength and Toughness)
- Combat powerhouses.
Weakness of the Gang
- A less numerous gang with relatively few starting bodies.
- Impressively bad mental stats.
- Not exactly fleet of foot (they want to be in combat, but they take their sweet time getting there).
Goliath Signature Rules
Every Clan House gang has something special that truly defines them. Goliaths have Genesmithing. Genesmithing allows a huge amount of customization in rules and statlines for Goliath fighters, representing the manner in which they were born and how their genetics were manipulated. They can be born naturally or from a vat, have extra durable skin, get even better physical stats and much more. Be careful though; all these upgrades rack up the creds quickly! Most starting gangs should probably save most of the Genesmithing for their Leader. Full rules can be found in the House of Chains book.
Gang Units To Know
There are lots of ways to build a gang and a variety of fighters you can use. Here are some suggestions to get you off on the right track.
1. Forge Tyrant (Leader)
In Necromunda your gang will only ever have one leader, and the Forge Tyrant is a great one. If you want to really splurge on the Genesmithing and weapons, a Forge Tyrant is one of the only leaders that can easily top the 500 cred range (and not have it be totally unreasonable to do so!)
2. Forge Boss
The basic Goliath champion, with group activation, good stats, and good weapon options. If you decide to Genesmith anyone besides the Tyrant, the Forge Boss is a good choice.
3. Stimmer
The less traditional of the Goliath champions, the Stimmer is an extra ‘roided out Goliath with some extra crazy weapons. A Stimmer with paired weapons can mulch just about anything with his insane number of attacks.
4. Bruiser
The basic Goliath ganger. Everything that has been said about Goliaths above is exemplified by the Bruiser.
5. Forge-born
Specially equipped Juves, Forge-born are pretty bad to start out. In a campaign they can get pretty spicy after earning enough experience to be promoted to a Champion.
All hail the House of Chains
