Necromunda’s new edition is almost here with new rules for gangers and combat, plus updated lore.
Necromunda is about to receive its first new edition in almost a decade. With the new core box and rulebook going up for pre-order this Saturday, it’s a great time to get into this venerable sci-fi skirmish game. Existing players are going to have to adapt to the changes, but having played the game in various iterations since its release back in 1995, I’m feeling pretty optimistic about what we’ve seen so far.
New Gang Building Options
This edition is making some foundational changes to the game. Where previously only your leader and a handful of champions/specialists began play with skill, now even the humble basic ganger gets to choose a specialization when you first hire them.
Options like Gunner, Scout and Medic (and presumably more) grant an associated free skill, making them more valuable to your gang than the generic fighters of the past. I admit I’m a little torn on this. It seems like it will make early campaign-play a little more interesting, but I’ve always enjoyed how my Necromunda mooks acquire character through random skill gains and injuries. Still, this probably does improve the gameplay experience on the whole.
It’s also been revealed that the new edition will allow you to hire as many Brutes and Hangers-On as you want (provided you still have more of your core gang members than these secondary types). This is a fantastic and much needed change. Where before you’d be lucky to have two or three by the end of the campaign, you can now just add those amazing Forgeworld sculpts to your gang as you please.
Post-Game Campaign Changes
Necromunda is a game that ultimately lives and dies on the strength of campaign play. It’s more RPG than wargame in many ways, and the post-game sequence is a critical element to consider. So far, it seems, the big change is that every member of your gang can now take actions between games. Previously, only your Leader and Champions could do so, but now every ganger can help by working your gang’s territories, training, or just recuperating.
I’m hoping more opportunities to earn credits (with some element of risk, this is Necromunda, of course) are available here. In the past, some gangs could end up in a pretty bad bankruptcy spiral over the course of a campaign, and this seems like a smart place to address that issue.
Combat Refresh
It seems that some big updates have been made to how combat is resolved, but the core statline of a ganger remains the same with one significant change. Every Fighter now has a built-in Saving Roll (Sv) characteristic. Previously, if you didn’t purchase your ganger’s armor, they just didn’t have an Sv. A 6+ Sv roll may not seem like much, but this goes a long way to boosting the basic survivability of every member of a gang. This is especially true in the early stages of a campaign where you have to scrimp and save every credit, so buying Flak Armor for every fighter becomes a real burden.
After nine years, I’m happy to see that Necromunda is getting an overhaul. After a somewhat rocky start, the previous edition turned into something really special and I’m excited to dig into the new set soon. It looks like a pretty radical update but the core of the game looks recognizable. If you’re a Warhammer fan who hasn’t tried Necromunda yet give it a shot. Leave your competitive streak at the door but bring your appreciation of a character running out of ammo or being eaten by mutants with you!
ICan’t wait to dust off the Orlocks of Local 138 for a fall campaign!
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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
