Jstove is back with his six hot topics on the reboot of Necromunda for the salty old veteran Games Workshop hobbyists out there, and new ones alike.
Jstove here, and while I’m a little late to the Necromunda parade, there are some things I want to talk about for all the salty old vets who are on the fence about buying into the new game.
From cautiously optimistic to completely blown out.
I’m gonna start with both feet jumping into the pool and drinking the whole pitcher of Kool-Aid: I’m a believer. I tore open that box, looked at everything inside, read the rule book and Gang War, and I have to say that this game completely turned my opinions and prejudices about Games Workshop on its head.
As a gamer who’s been in the hobby since the 90’s and 3rd Edition 40k, I lived through the cynical Kirby-era of GW with a lot of other hobby vets. I saw corporate support for community events erode and disappear and the downsizing and closure of hobby centers.
I saw the lazy game design, lazier rushed-to-print codices with spelling errors, and the FAQs that never answered any Q’s. I think everyone who was playing during the old Kirby 90s to mid-aughts GW has a chip on their shoulder. Which is why I’m so absolutely excited to say today that the guy who was lead designer on this revolutionary Newcromunda box is a creative genius.
This is the most complete game-in-a-box since Battlefleet Gothic.
I’m going to start with what I think is the most important accolade. Even with having to buy Gang War, (and you do have to buy Gang War) this is the most complete, most ready to go, out of the box, specialist franchise game that GW has ever made. I’m not counting the born-to-be-board games like Dreadfleet and Space Hulk, which have limited campaign, replay value, and are more like Grimdark Monopoly in terms of depth than proper tactical tabletop games. I’m talking about having everything you will ever need to play being in that box. The last time a box was this good was Battlefleet Gothic.
The models are gorgeous and you get exactly as many as you need. The dice set is complete and you actually get multiple copies of the special dice with the wacky symbols. No more of that problem of losing the one scatter or arty die that came in the box and not being able to play the game.
Most impressive of all though, is that the map tiles are freaking gorgeous. As a fan of classic GW skirmish games like the original Necromunda and Mordheim, I was very suspicious of a flat, 2D battlefield. Shooting people so that they fell off of cliffs and jumping out of 3-story buildings to stomp on people with a diving charge was a staple of that 3D terrain strategy. I was worried about trying something new. However, these tiles are amazing, there’s more than enough of them to play the game, and even the box lid itself is actually a map tile! 3D battlefields are, of course, still an option. However, I would encourage all Classic Necromunda enthusiasts to give the new 2D tiles a try. They solve the biggest problem Necromunda has ever had, which is lugging around enough stuff to cover the table with enough junk to make the game worth playing.
These tiles were designed by someone who really was a skirmish game player, knew the kind of battlefield the game required, and rebuilt it in a way that was easy to transport and infinite in replayability. The days of the old half a table worth of cardboard Mordheim houses are over. This is the new hotness.
Turn Sequence is dead, long live turn sequence.
Newcromunda has, what is for GW, a fresh new concept. There is no longer an I-go, You-Go turn sequence. Instead, one player activates a single/group of models (leaders can activate nearby friends) and then resolves their actions completely. Then the other player does the same, alternating until every model has acted. This is a massive shift in the way GW games are played and I am very optimistic about it working in Newcromunda.
I fondly remember the days of Mordheim when a whole gang of Skaven or Sisters of Sigmar could just blow out an entire gang in one turn by just machine gunning down their opponent in a hail of sling bullets. In a large scale game like 40k, moving all your toys at once makes sense because you bring so many of them. But in a skirmish scale game where every model has crucial impact, having to watch while a bunch of rats with 2gc slings hit some sweet sixes and blow out your whole front line and sinks your campaign can be a pretty crappy experience. With alternating model activation, you always have the chance to react to your opponent’s last move, so no matter how much volume of fire he brings or how buff his best character is, you always have an opportunity to answer it.
The best Campaign Rules ever printed in a GW game.
Gang War is an obligatory purchase. The campaign rules are phenomenal and were written by someone who has lived through all the worst and laziest parts of previous GW campaign writing. In old Necromunda and Mordheim rules, GW campaign writing was lazy at best, and at worst, prone to massive, easy abuse. These games typically ended one way: One or two players hit a hot streak and got massively out in front of the other participants, causing everyone to lose interest and fall off. A crucial hero hitting a very specific lucky roll on the XP-table could pick up a skill that made him a campaign ending ringer.
Newcromunda has some amazing answers for these typical problems. First of all, the XP-system is the best GW has ever had and should be retroactively bolted onto Mordheim for the benefit of all Mordheim enthusiasts. (NEWCROMORDHEIM!) Rather than having specific level breaks with random gains, the game has switched to a pool buy system, similar to some popular RPGs. Rather than just hitting a predetermined plateau and leveling up, models spend their XP to buy advances. Each skill or stat gain is weighted to a specific value and the model pays that much to get it. Classic Necromunda fans will remember randomly rolling their skills. That mechanic isn’t gone but it has been cleaned up and made more fair. Now, instead of being completely random, fighters can pay a little extra to pick one of the skills in their tree or pay the reduced price and roll on the table. It gives the player more control over how his gang develops but still develops within the framework of their faction’s character since out-of-faction skills will still cost a premium.
The other great answer that solves the “Fall off” issue is that campaigns now have rules for setting periods and, at the end of these periods, there is a winner-take-all battle between the top rated gangs and a finalization of book keeping. Everything is squared out, captives are automatically bountied and released, and Juves that hit enough XP to grow automatically rollover to Champions. These period breaks put the necessary stops in the campaign rules to actually keep it rolling, instead of just letting everyone play until the top dog gets too far out in front and everyone falls off. Again, this was a brilliant new idea written in by someone who really knew the game.
The last thing that is truly wonderful is that the serious injury table is significantly less punitive than in Mordheim or Classic Necro. I consider this a great gain. Although it means you’ll be less likely to put a premature end to the career of an opponent’s gang member that is getting too strong, it also means that you aren’t constantly tossing and replacing models that you invested time and paint into creating. In Mordheim, anything in the 30s and under was potentially career ending. Now, your model only dies on a flat 66. On a 61-65, they go into Critical Condition. This gives you an opportunity to take them to the doc to save them, allowing them to live by spending credits on a doc’s bill. The other classic injuries that knock one of the model’s stats down a point are all still there, so injuries are still debilitating. They are just not as likely to be potentially career ending. This encourages going for interesting plays, instead of always playing safe for fear of your mortality.
Models for Days
The box contains ten Goliaths and ten Eschers, which is about how many models you’d fit in a starting gang if you fully equipped your leaders and Champions with all the coolest toys. So, you’re about right where you need to be. The models are all the new style of multi-part plastics that GW seems to be pushing, where the design is big on being pretty and dynamic but small on options. Apparently, GW is no longer interested in doing the multi-part master torso-legs-arms system that made space marines such great models to collect and convert. There are 2 frames of 5 models for each gang in the box, and each model has 2 loadout options. You have a Champion with a faction-only signature weapon, and the other is a Leader with a faction-only signature weapon. Both the Champion and the Leader can be assembled alternatively as regular mooks, so you can have 2 Champions with cool toys, a Leader with a cool toy, and 7 Juves/Gangers.
The only problem that I really have with these models is that I think the Escher models have MASSIVELY BETTER alternative options than the Goliath models. The Escher models seem to have a better loadout option for diversity in firepower. They can all either have a gun or a pistol and melee. The Goliath kit is whole hog on one option or the other. Most of the models either have a gun, or have a big melee weapon or 2 melee weapons. Only one or two figures in the kit have the option to have a gun in one hand and a melee in the other. This worries me a lot for the Goliaths because, as most veteran Necromunda players know, most pistols have very generous accuracy modifiers for short range. The best pistols have short ranges that are as long or longer than a model’s charge range.
Meaning that, unless you are very clever, there’s a pretty good chance that your model is going to take a shot to the face while trying to close into melee range. With pistols being such an effective deterrent for gap-closing and must haves for close range firefights, especially for Juves that need the accuracy bonus for their poor BS, the lack of options in the Goliath kit feels really punishing. What’s even worse is that the Goliath gang roster leans heavily on short range firepower and gap-closer weapons, so these models’ options are bad for the campaign and bad for the gang’s character! The silver lining here is that classic Necro fans that are holding onto their old starter box plastic Goliaths and their metal buddies will still have plenty.
What do I need to buy to play?
First off, at least 1 person in your campaign group needs to get the boxed game for the dice, rulebook, counters, and map tiles. The new models are also absolutely great. The whole thing is worth it. Even if you’re already sitting on piles of classic cardboard and bulkhead Necro terrain, I really believe that the paradigm shift to the tiles is worth a try. It is also an easy answer if you don’t want to haul that box of terrain around. Assuming you have one person in your party that is getting a copy of the core rules, you need the GANG WAR book for the campaign rules and for the rosters for the Escher and Goliath gangs. The core rules do have rosters for Eschers and Goliaths in them. However, the core rule book rosters are for the one-off introductory version of the gangs and are not complete campaign rosters.
If you are not an Escher or Goliath player, then simply wait it out. GANG WAR 2 will have Orlocks, Genestealer Cults, and Chaos Cults. The remaining houses will be printed in the future. Arbites and Spyrer gangs will never be updated and reprinted. If you want to play Arbites, you’re a tool and a narc. Seriously, why do you want to be a cop in a game about GANGS? Get the heck out of here. Spyrer players are all rich kids from the suburbs, so you can all get yapped too.
(Not facts. Arbites and Spyrers may or may not be printed at a later date. However, you are still a yuppy NARC if you want to play them.)
Overall though, I think this edition of Newcromunda is so phenomenal that every enthusiast should aspire to own a hard copy of every book, because the value on a GW brand game has never been better.
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About the Author: Jack Stover
