Games Workshop’s Sunday Preview revealed new Necromunda House Goliath and House Escher reinforcements, with both waves going up for pre-order this Saturday.
If you picked up the new Necromunda Core Set and immediately started wondering what comes next, well, this is your week. Sunday’s preview revealed new fighters, champion boxes, Underhive Journals, cards, and dice for Goliath and Escher.
Best of all, both houses are getting their follow-up wave together. Necromunda normally spaces these releases out by house, but this time both Core Set gangs get matching support in the same window.
The new edition has barely had time to settle in, and GW is already stacking more fighters and rules behind it, so anyone getting a Necromunda campaign started with Goliath or Escher suddenly has quite a bit more to build toward.
Here’s everything going up for pre-order this Saturday, along with our thoughts on each product.
Warhammer 40k Necromunda: New Pre-Order Releases
More new Necromunda is here, with Goliath and Escher both getting fresh support in the latest round of pre-orders.
These go up for pre-order on Saturday, September 5, around 1 p.m. EST in the States, with a street date of Saturday, September 19, for store shelves.
If you’re waiting on something else, the rest of the schedule is in our updated Warhammer Roadmap for 2026.
Goliath Forge Smelters
You get eight gangers in the box, and GW says they’re bringing a range of specialist skills with them. For Goliath players who want more bodies without buying another starter set, this is the straightforward expansion box the gang needed.
Champions get most of the flashy toys, but a campaign still needs regular fighters filling out the roster. Getting eight of them together gives you room to add bodies without piecing the gang together one blister at a time.
Goliath Forge Smelters Hobby Tips
Build these in subassemblies if you want an easier time painting around the torso and legs. Prime dark, then bring the skin back up with a warm zenithal so all that Goliath muscle still reads across the table. It may also be worth leaving two of the eight unfinished until you’ve gone through the Journal and know which loadouts you actually want.
Goliath Forge Bosses and Sumpkrocs
Six champions and two Sumpkrocs is a lot of characters in one box.
Necromunda limits how many champions you can put on the table, so this isn’t really about running all six at once. It’s more useful over the course of a campaign, when casualties happen and the weapon loadout you loved on day one suddenly isn’t the one you wish you’d built.
Goliath Forge Bosses and Sumpkrocs Hobby Tips
Paint the crocs separately from the bases and get the scales finished before mounting them, because working around the teeth afterward won’t be much fun. Magnetizing the champions’ weapon arms also gives you some room to change your mind once a campaign gets moving.
Underhive Journal, Goliath – The House of Chains
This is a 48-page paperback with variant rules, background lore, and expanded gene-smithing mechanics.
Gene-smithing is one of the big things separating Goliath from the other houses, so that’s where a lot of the interest in this book is going to land. Yes, it’s another paperback for the pile, but the new Goliath rules are here, not in the miniature boxes.
If you want a better idea of what a Goliath gang looks like before adding more fighters, our Goliath out-of-the-box breakdown still gives you the basics.
Goliath Gang Cards and Dice
The card pack covers Gang Tactics, Territories, and Fighters, putting the stuff you’re likely to reference during a game in your hand instead of sending you back through the book every time.
The dice pack comes with two Injury Dice, three Goliath-themed D6S, one Scatter Die, and two Firepower Dice.
For actual play, the cards are probably more desirable than the dice. Necromunda already gives you plenty to keep track of, so having common information sitting on the table is useful.
Escher Blades of the Matriarch
These are the specialists from the Necromunda Skirmish Core Set, now getting a box of their own.
That’s useful if you split a Core Set and didn’t end up with the Escher side, or if you simply want another set without buying the whole starter box again. Either way, the fighters are no longer locked behind the Core Set.
For Escher players, they’re also right in the middle of the gang’s chem-and-toxin side of the game.
Escher Blades of the Matriarch Hobby Tips
Thin the greens on the blades and build the toxin effect over bright metal instead of trying to cover everything in one flat coat. Three light passes will give you more control. It’s also easier to block in the hair before you fix the head to the body.
Escher Matriarchs and Phyrr Cats
Six Matriarchs and two Phyrr Cats come in this box. GW even footnoted the pronunciation for us: it’s “fear,” because apparently somebody knew we’d all argue about it otherwise.
The six Matriarchs work much like the Goliath champion box. You don’t put every one of them into the same gang at once. You’re getting options for a campaign, spare fighters, and some breathing room when you inevitably wish you’d chosen a different loadout.
The cats are where things get more interesting, especially with the new Journal building Wyld Hunt rules around them.
Escher Matriarchs and Phyrr Cats Hobby Tips
Paint the cats separately and mount them last. They’re small, covered in fur texture, and a lot easier to reach before they’re tucked around the Matriarchs. For the fighters, block in the hair first and work the skin around it so the two parts of the scheme don’t start fighting each other.
Underhive Journal, Escher – The House of Blades
The Escher Journal has quite a bit packed into it: Wyld Hunt gangs, Chymist Cults, expanded chem-alchemy options, and the usual background lore.
Two new gang archetypes give Escher players more to work with than a simple rules refresh. Wyld Hunt leans into the pets, while Chymist Cults push farther into the chem side, so there’s room here to build around something other than the same Escher setup you’ve already been running.
Escher Gang Cards and Dice
The Escher cards cover the same ground as the Goliath pack: Gang Tactics, Territories, and Fighters, all sitting on the table instead of buried somewhere in a rulebook.
The dice are bright translucent yellow with purple pips, which is about as subtle as an Escher gang has ever needed to be.
White Dwarf Magazine: New Monthly Pre-Order
White Dwarf is back for another month, with Ogor Mawtribes getting most of the attention this time around.
White Dwarf Issue 528
Ogor Mawtribes get the big spread this month, including a battle report against the Ossiarch Bonereapers and a Paint Splatter guide taking ogors from start to finish.
Elsewhere, there’s a hobby guide for customizing Cogforts, Ork background lore on Snikrot’s Red Skull Kommandos, and rules for using the Gorkanaut and Morkanaut in White Dwarf’s Titanic Duel minigame.
There is one regional catch, though: GW says this issue is delayed in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, so the normal Saturday timing doesn’t apply there.
Black Library: New Pre-Order Releases
The latest Black Library pre-orders bring two new English releases alongside French and German editions of existing novels.
Blackheart: Claws of the Maelstrom
Marc Collins picks Huron Blackheart up after Chogoris, with Huron baiting the White Scars through the burning ruins of the Yasan Sector while the Great Devourer pours out of the Cicatrix Maledictum into his domain.
Tyranids turning up to eat the Tyrant of Badab’s war out from under him is a solid setup. Huron spends his time building power, territory, and influence, while the Great Devourer couldn’t care less about any of it.
There’s a regular hardback and a Special Edition with an alternate cover, printed page edges, and a ribbon marker. The Special Edition isn’t going up with the rest of Saturday’s releases, though. That one goes live at 3 p.m. BST on September 10, while stocks last.
Voice of Command
Richard Swan takes on the Astra Militarum here. The Cadian 2002nd Mechanized have spent two years grinding Chaos off a holy shrine world, and somehow the final push still isn’t their biggest problem.
Capricious commanders, Inquisition inspections, and a mysterious blue star overhead all land on Colonel Gabriel “Venom” Velterson at once.
Final Thoughts on the Necromunda Pre-Orders
The big thing to watch now is that GW has already teased a long-awaited reveal for tomorrow along with more Necromunda rules during the week, so there should be more context around this release before the pre-orders even open.
Four miniature kits already make this a decent-sized wave, and adding two books, two card packs, and two dice sets can add up fast in your Saturday shopping cart.
🔗 Related Reads:
- Necromunda Core Set pricing and pre-orders
- GW’s new Necromunda release pricing and lineup
- Whether the Escher gang is worth it
- Our Goliath out-of-the-box breakdown
- Getting a Necromunda campaign started
- House Escher lore
- The Goliath Forge Boss reveal
What do you think of the new Necromunda Goliath and Escher pre-orders?
