Well, good! I’m sick of runnin’ from these wimps!
Get your gang members and head into the hive with the Necromunda: Underhive rules summary and reference.
The original version of Games Workshop’s Necromunda is one of my favourite games of all time, so it was with trepidation that I heard of the new version, and then with utter horror that I learned the boxed game was a 2D version played on flat tiles. That’s not Necromunda! But fear not: it’s just a bit of tricky dicky Games Workshop sleight of hand to get you to buy another book separately with the 3D and campaign rules that, you know, basically make Necromunda what it is.
I could whinge about things like that, and the separate gang cards, the division of rules into multiple ‘Gang War’ books, the errors that need a FAQ and errata, but hell, you know the drill. Thankfully, they didn’t change too much with the new version and its still pretty much the game we all knew and loved, albeit with a little bit of rules streamlining. Though of course you still roll scads of dice: roll to hit, roll to wound, roll an armour save, roll an ammo die, roll an injury die … this is Games Workshop and that’s not going to change! In fact, despite the very nice new figures, there really is no compelling reason to get the new version if you have the old one.
Not many people still do however, so if you like a bit of old school sci-fi gang warfare, grab the boxed set and the damn over-priced Gang War book and get thee hence to the industrial underhive. Just don’t bottle out!
Oh and by the way, this summary includes the 3D rules from Gang War but not the campaign rules. Because if I did include more, GW lawyers would probably be on me like rust on an underhive gangway!
PS: My thanks to Rodney Smith of the fantastic Watch It Played!, who generously gave me his typed rules summary notes and allowed me to use them as the basis for my work. Thanks Rodney!
Definitely going to have to mark the gangers. Couldn’t tell one from another in first game.
I scanned and printed out the gallery of the miniatures in the books and used those as a reference – but that only works if you built them in the same way. In the old days I wrote the name of the ganger on the edge of the base in white paint!
I did use standard build, but there are similarities and it can get confusing. Thinking of just assigning a number to each.
Really is a dice fest in GW style. Reminds me of old Warhammer battles with the attack, wound, armour with added complication of ammo dice and injury dice.
Don’t know if you’re interested, but March 2018 issue of White Dwarf has rules for adding a Genestealer cult to Necromunda. Stats for gang, weapons, familiars, special abilities etc.
Assumes you have access to a Genestealer Cult Kit.
Thank goodness they didn’t put them in a Gang War 3 book!
I’m sure there will be gang war 3 though…
And 4, and 5 … release the rules for one new gang at a time and fill the rest of the book out with padding. NZD$50 a pop.