Underhive Journals will be the new supplement format for Necromunda. Clan Escher is the first up with new rules and models.
The new edition of Necromunda hasn’t quite arrived yet, but we’re already getting a look at how that edition will function. Hot on the heels of Saturday’s pre-orders for the new core set and books, Games Workshop has revealed the first expansion and related new minis for the game.
Underhive Journal: Escher – The House of Blades
It seems that this edition of Necromunda will be receiving supplements in the “journal” format. This is a format pioneered in The Old World and The Horus Heresy over the past few years. Eschewing the traditional 150+ page hardbound book format, Journals are slim, softcover volumes that expand existing material instead of replacing it (typically).
In the past, Necromunda gang rules were released in a core book (like this edition’s upcoming Gangs of the Underhive/Outlands books), but quickly updated in hardcover “House of…” supplements. By the end of the year, the core gang rules book would be totally deprecated and replaced by these supplements.
However, the Journal format means that the new Gangs of the Underhive/Outlands supplements will be useful for an extended time, presumably until the next edition or mid-edition rules overhaul. Journals are smaller, but less expensive supplements and will likely be priced in line with their analogs in other games, most likely $29 at the of this article’s publication. It seems that these journals will follow the usual path of providing additional rules to supplement but replace key gang rules.
The first in this line will be Escher – The House of Blades, and it looks like a really fantastic way to approach Necromunda supplements. An overall examination of House Escher’s place in the setting kicks off the book before offering a variety of new ways to build an Escher gang or expand your existing fighters.
The real joy of Necromunda is exploring the deepest, weirdest corners of the 40k setting and this looks like it delivers just that. A pair of new ways to build a gang from scratch are offered here. These specialized gangs give up some of the options available to a standard Escher gang in return for alternate equipment, rules, and gang fighters. Just how this will shake out remains to be seen but the two options sound interesting. Wyld Hunts are for Escher gangs that tend to menageries of exotic xenos and genecrafted creatures, while Chymist Cults are the House’s dedicated toxin manufacturers.
Escher Matriarchs & Phyrr Cats Miniatures
Naturally, new gang options means new models and this looks like a great kit. Necromunda’s core plastic box sets have been really excellent since they first released in 2017. This new kit fills a gap in the range offering a new basic Escher Queen and 5 Matriarchs to choose from, along with a pair of Phyrr Cats that can accompany your gang leaders as vicious pets. Necromunda lives and dies by kitbashing and while these models all look amazing on their own they’re going to be a treasure trove of new options for anyone looking to build out their Escher.
This is all extremely cool stuff and I’m very excited to see more from this series. While it seems a safe bet we’ll be receiving a Goliaths journal before long, I am really excited to see where the series goes once the core gangs have received their supplements. Maybe we’ll finally get some of the weirder settings of Necromunda examined as environments for play in a journal. A dedicated Sump Sea journal doesn’t seem out of keeping, or a journal devoted to exploring just what’s happening in low orbit on the Eye of Selene.
Time for me to dust off Siouxie and the Dust City Banshees!
Don’t Miss:
Simon Berman has been a wargamer since 1993 and has worked in the tabletop games industry since 2008 as a staff writer for the first three editions of WARMACHINE and HORDES. These days he’s the General President of the Brush Wielders Union, a worldwide organization of miniatures painters of all skill levels, a freelance games writer who has contributed to a number of roleplaying games like Eclipse Phase, Dune: Adventures in the Imperium, and The Hammer and the Stake. He runs his own small-press publishing company, Strix Publishing, and paints more miniatures than he can keep track of. Simon lives with his wife in Tacoma, Washington along with a number of cats and a pack of savage wiener dogs.
Source: Bell of Lost Souls
