Necromunda returns!

[Tom]

Lowering the entry point for new gamers is a great plan. Having a functional game out of the box before you've had the chance to get a proper table together is great.

[Dave]

Taken from Dakka, quote by some dude who claims to have played, all sounds good to me. Of note is that the ranges are still measured in inches. This has edged slightly ahead of fallout now for me!

- "The gameplay we got to experience in the demo was a quick and dirty 4 on 4 (four players with two models each). The game is fast, but VERY crunchy! Lots of special weapons that have to be carefully considered when you choose to use them.

The models we used were the gang leader/named character models from the cards included in the game, but you can also create your own, and there are blank cards you can write on in the box, which can wipe off to make changes or add things to.

There’s a few different dice, a regular d6, with a “Skreagle” as Adam called it (a skull/eagle), scatter dice for grenades (and grenades cause knockback, which can throw people off of walkways!), injury dice (used for determining how badly you wounded a model, and also rolled when you’re attempting to stand back up after taking a flesh wound), and the ammo dice.

The ammo dice involved a really cool mechanic. Firstly, assault weapons roll to see how many wounds are caused, and weapons that are rare and run out of ammo due to your roll have a 6+ reload roll in the next turn. So if your bolter runs out of ammo, you may be out of luck. Makes your weapon choices very tactical as well."

Everything seemed geared towards tactics — you trade activations per model, so you can fake out your opponent by moving in a way that causes them to expose themselves to an attack by another model. That mechanic also makes multiplayer games way faster and more fun, since everyone is constantly taking turns.


There are also cards which give you the ability to react to an event. We saw one which allowed the Goliath gang to charge and do more damage, one called Last Gasp that gave you a last retaliatory shot against an enemy who just killed you, and one called Blood Debt that gives your gang +1 on attacks against an enemy model who killed one of your gangers.

Bottling was interesting. There’s the possibility of both teams bottling out. Downed models give bottling a negative modifier, as your gang is more likely to run away as their buddies lie dying on the floor.

Being in base to base contact with a downed model allows you to make a coup de grace and kill them.

There were a large number of modifiers, so you really had to consider exactly what advantages and disadvantages you were giving yourself based on what you did.

Adam talked about how the Studio campaign is mapping the Hive for their game. As the gangs take territory, they keep a record of the way the tiles were laid out, and then reuse those maps to fight over existing turf, which sounds very cool.

I'm personally thrilled about the blank cards you can write your own gangers on.

*EDIT*
Missed some bits in the comments section -

"Tiles that match the Zone Mortalis tiles from Forgeworld come in the box. There’s no grid based movement or shooting, that’s all in inches. The boxed set focuses on tunnel fighting in the Underhive, the first expansion is Gang War, and is releasing at the same time, goes upwards and includes more about fighting and moving through vertical space.

I asked Adam if that meant that if we were seeing an expansion that moved upwards into the higher levels of the Hive, did that mean we might see something that moved outwards, into the Ash Wastes. He gave the typical “anything is possible” kind of answer, but it seems that they’re focused on each expansion also expanding the environments you fight over."

In response to a comment about the tiles:

"Yeah, the tiles are just there to be a quick and easy play surface, with some interesting gameplay possibilities. I saw a tile with a bridge over a pit, one that was swamped with toxic green goo, etc. they were all double sided.