Necromunda Returns With Underhive Announcement
August 13, 2017 by brennon
The return of Necromunda has been announced this weekend with the newly titled Underhive making its way back onto your tabletops in the future from Games Workshop.
The premise of Necromunda takes the world of Warhammer 40,000 and boils it down to the skirmishes between gangs in Hive Cities. You will be starting out as fledgling gangs who are working their way up to become overlords of the underhive.
The Gangs
Two of the gangs that will be starting things off are House Escher who embracing the fast and the deadly.
As you can see the colours and wild array of accessories on display here is pretty different from your regular Warhammer 40,000 armies. We're also seeing a lot more female miniatures!
Arrayed against them it looks like we're going to have the forces of House Goliath who are more about brawn than brain. If you like smashing things into a pulp these fellows are for you.
Armed with all manner of cruel looking melee weapons and decked out in some Mad Max-style armour they are a dangerous foe to face in the Underhive.
As you might imagine, the models you see here are all going to be multi-part plastic and very customisable allowing you to make the gang that YOU like before taking it off on a new adventure.
Are you excited by the prospect of Necromunda: Underhive?
"You will be starting out as fledgling gangs who are working their way up to become overlords of the underhive..."
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Shut up and take my money
couldnt have said it better my self
ahhhh…. I’m having a heart attack 🙂
I am not, and before anyone jumps upon for me being a hater, this is one game whose appeal always baffled me even when I was heavily into playing GW games. Smart move on their part bringing it back. The nostalgia hit should maintain the revenue they got last year for the Blood Bowl release.
I feel exactly the same about Bloodbowl. I never understood the attraction. Different strokes for different folks I guess
Not fussed about Blood Bowl either, though I recognise it as a very strong piece of design for its time.
I extend that to fantasy football games in general. It all depends on what motivates you I guess. The IP is essentially a skin for a dice mechanic. For some people it’s the mechanics of the game that matter, for me it also has to have a wrapper that interests me. I can’t play a game just for the games’ sake. Having great looking models is also important, that’s my favourite part of the hobby – bringing parts of a story, the characters and locations, to life. I know that you have very different priorities though and you’re less motivated by the miniatures and probably more by the actual rules of the game.
Probably to a larger degree than you are. As you note in your next main comment, the original Necromunda minis were nothing to write home about, and coupled with it being just an okay game it held little appeal. These are undoubtedly better, but unless the game has had an overhaul to make it competitive in the current market on its gameplay then it’ll be a bit of nostalgia I’ll easily be able to let pass by. Looking at it from GW’s point of view, it’s easy nostalgia money and a smart thing to do. They obviously can’t trade on nostalgia forever as they’ll run out of titles eventually, but might as well take the revenue when it’s there.
@redben
You say that ( they obviously can’t trade on nostalgia forever ) but if they can trade on one round of nostalgia for one generation for long enough then they’ll have a new disgruntled generation to appeal to with a new round of nostalgia. If i use the phrase ‘Games Workshop’s good ol’ days’ in a comment i’d say there are at least three different periods in Games Workshop’s history that i could be referring to, depending on who’s reading, at least two of which contained significantly different iterations of the same games.
The longer you trade on nostalgia and don’t do anything new then the sooner you’ll run out of things to trade on. It remains to be seen whether the current wave of new games take root in the manner of the games from the 80s and 90s, but if they do then they can ride those for a while, and then revive them for a nostalgia hit further down the line.
The metal gang miniatures were pretty good, the plastics not so much.
I don’t know what the rules will be like and don’t really want to speculate. On the one hand Shadow Wars was released with what was essentially the old Necromunda rules. On the flip side the new Warhammer Quest games are a completely different rules system. So I guess it could go either way. I will also be interested to see whether it gets supported beyond releases of the original gangs.
brief chat with one of the creators today, he said the rules will be new, not the old ones from back in the day
Oh dear. This might mean i’m out on Necromunda…. I’ll wait and see.
It’s in here.
https://war-of-sigmar.herokuapp.com/bloggings/2318
Based on 8th ed rules but with an action point system similar to Space Hulk to activate gang members
The action point thing sounds like it could work, depending on how they do it obviously. I’d like to see that in WH40K rather than the You Go I Go. Anything is better than You Go I Go.
To really, truely understand the attraction of Necromunda you need to be open for the rich and dark but colourful atmosphere of the setting. It’s the grimey, gritty underbelly of the pompous Imperium’s inhouse fighting. Ever liked style and ways of Blanchitsu and Inq28 / Inqmunda? In a lower more industrial form this is *the* place for it.
Blanche, Ackland, and Miller were a huge part of the appeal of GW in the 80s for me. The rich, dark, colourfulness of that time was pretty absent by this time. Necromunda was an okay game with less than okay minis (even by GW’s standards of the time).
The miniatures in the box were pretty pish. I still have some plastic Goliath models and they’re so bad they’re funny. The metal gangs were pretty good though
Agreed – for the time, a lot of the metal figures were realy inspiring and characterful. And of course the game promoted a lot of conversions and customisation.
I would like to see female members of all the gangs rather than women being pigeonholed into a single faction defined by their gender, but these plastics look promising, and given what we know GW are capable of, this could be a really exciting release.
I do remember people getting into Necromunda because they thought the minis were cool.
The trouble was that the Goliaths were the game’s poster child- and they looked awful (there was even a White Dwarf article that admitted that they were the least popular among fans). It also hurt that the “Mad Donna” bounty hunter was an absolute wreck of a sculpt.
But the Escher, Ratskin, Scavvy, Spyrer, Deloque and Cawdor minis were all pretty cool in their time.
And as for the rules- mostly they were lifted from 40k with some tweaks. The part that really worked was where they started presenting the gangs fighting over resources and scavenging.
The fact that your gang would start starving to death if they couldn’t get enough to eat really worked.
Necromunda has been ticking along nicely in the underground for years without any assistance or interference from GW.
Now GW have decided there’s money to be made from it again they’ve stuck some big appendage (!?!) into the pit. I suspect this will see it rise like a star – burn brightly for a while (potentially pi$$ing off some of the long-standing faithful that have nurtured it for years) before exploding into small pieces and appearing to disappear again..
… apart from a few sparks that may land in that underground stream that will quietly carry on –
stubbornly ignoring the mayhem above.
I think the same is true for all the specialist games I know it’s true for Epic and Warmaster and I remember seeing a fan based Mordheim version that’s very popular as well
It will last as long as it is making money for them, which is really all you can ask. however I suspect that GW will make all the development costs for this game back with the release of the boxed set meaning that even if they don’t produce regular updates and expansions that the miniatures will remain in production for quite some time.
Those miniatures are absolutely stunning. I still have some of the original plastic House Goliath gangers from the 90s box set and they’re truly awful lol. I can’t wait to see what weapon options are available. Also wondering whether the box will come with more scenery and of course whether we will see all of the original gangs re-sculpted and perhaps even some new gangs. For now it’s time to dust off my Arbites…
I wonder if these might also make good miniatures for anyone running Chaos or Genestealer Cultists armies in 40k. At a push some of the gangs might make decent Astra Militarum conscripts.
That was my thought – mix up Delaque and stealer cult bits.
Check out Heresy miniatures for what can be done with Sci Fi gangs:
http://heresyminiatures.com/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=2_15&zenid=04lu30lhjmjs6asks49a3045m6
Would you even need to do much? I would think any gangers from any gang house could be a member of a genestealer ( or chaos ) cult.
Van Saar and Delaque – not much – maybe just head-swaps? and Goliath/aberrants – pale skin?
They made me have a pants accident. So excited for this. Those Goliaths would make great Khorne cultists too.
Yeah, I’m sold. Unless the price is absolutely bonkers.
I’m expecting around the £90 mark, that seems to be the going rate for a large boxed game. I would expect it to come with between 12 and 16 miniatures and some plastic scenery. If shadow wars is anything to go by the box will be worth it as a scenery bundle in and of itself
If people local to me have bought into it I’ll give it a go again as An have some Copplestone future wars stuff knocking about that would do. Hope they have tightened up the campaign rules though
Yeah, one could fear that it’s just a reprint.
Spoke to Andy Hoare at the open day, sounds like he’s made a lot of changes to the campaign system based on his experiences GM’ing campaigns over the last ten years.
Meh, I’ve been enjoying Necromunda Community Edition for years so don’t much care if its the same or similar although a re-worked system would be great, as long as its not based on collecting 15 Promethium Caches to win the campaign. I prefer a more perpetual campaign system.
Not only those look really good but i am also happy that Underhive Gangs are back with vengeance. Not to mention that I am happy that House Escher is among them because as far as human female sculpts go GW doesn’t really have many of those.
I think I still have some of the original House Escher models lying around. It will be interesting to see how much scale creep has occurred. However those new Escher models look very bad ass indeed. As do those Goliaths truth be told
Ignoring the diversity stuff for a second though, this is still a better choice than house Orlock which were a bit bland and out of all the original gangs they need a bit of a redesign in my opinion.
I have no diversity agenda like you might think.While I get that wanting more human female sculpts might seem like it to those that hate word “diversity” because of how aggressively opposing side pushes it so much I just want more of those for variety and because GW still hasn’t given us plastic SoB let alone upgrades to have some Guardswomen among all IG models when those are thing in lore. It’s that wrong to ask.
I didn’t mean it in that way, I just couldn’t think of another word to summarise the comment about GW not having enough female sculpts
the escher models i saw at the open day today do look very tall, bigger than the originals i would say
Great news. Time to dust off my Van Saar gang.
Holy Crap!!!
Necromunda is my favourite tabletop game of all time, still play the original one, we modified campaigns a little to avoid some of the issues you can get, but I love that game. Delaque plastics, here we come.
Never played Necromunda before but I’m willing to try anything.
An auto-buy. Maybe play necromunda, otherwise they are cultists.
could they work as I.G. conscripts?
If you can get enough lasgun arms I would think so
O.m.g…..the return of a great game…..
This is going to be an auto-buy for me. I used to love this game when I was younger. Me and my 2 brothers used to play this regularly, Sunday was always campaign day.
My list of wants for the new game:
Redemptionists
Spyre Hunters
Mad Donna
Ratskins and Scavvies
Rules for underhive NPCs and aliens
Oh, and I’ll start the petition now…
Please do a Necromunda Boot Camp!
GW have said on Facebook that Necromunda is its own game and is not an expansion to Shadow War Armageddon.
People have been asking if the 2 games are compatible, so this answer suggests the possibility of a new rules system, or changes to the SW:A rules to make it unique.
Shadow Wars doesn’t have a particularly in depth set of advancement rules for levelling up, that was a key part of Necromunda. So I suspect we will some changes there making the two games somewhat incompatible
they said at the open day that all the original gangs will be remade. i so imagine you’ll be happy with what they have planned
Great news…now, about Epic…bring it back! 😉
It will be next year, in the form of Adeptus Titanicus.
Holy cow, it actually happened! Do want!
Amazing one of the best games ever. Looking forward to new models and the old rules
My usual niggles with Games Workshop are that the miniatures are out of scale and cartoonish, and that they are overly pimped up. They apply here and these factors are off putting. On the other hand, i like Necromunda a lot, so i think that they’d have to change the game rules in some ‘fundamental’ way for me not to buy in. On the mutant wing though, i see Modiphius’ Fallout on the horizon, which looks like it could fill a Necromunda shaped hole quite well, and it has some fantastic miniatures i’m quite taken with. Modiphius’ offering could mean that i forgo Necromunda in favour of Modiphius’ Fallout, or it could act as an alternative miniatures source that mitigates my niggles and happy to buy in to Necromunda.
[ … ] and makes me happy to buy into Necromunda.
( +1 for an edit button. )
Really looking forward to this, love the idea of diving down into the depths of the 40K imperium and look at it from street level rather than a galactic level. Models look great and its good to see that they are plastic too!
As long as there will be plastic Adeptus Arbites I’m in, never cared much about any other ‘gang’.. Hunting down scum has a certain appeal to me tho 😉
This was just posted on the War of Sigmar site, along with what looks like some new Blood Bowl elf pics.
Necromunda is next, with FULL plastic support.
Adeptus Titanicus sometime next year.
Battlefleet Heresy after that, new scale.
https://war-of-sigmar.herokuapp.com/bloggings/2318
Yessssssssssssssssssssss !
All hail the underhive scabbies and muties !
So many board themes have just popped into my head I can’t decide on just one to start !
Dear games workshop,
Thank you for finally bringing necromunda back. I have one request though. Can you not go over the top with the scenery and push the cost up to 4 digits? Cardboard with plastic clips is fine. Other companies are making better scenery than you. Deal with it.
I don’t want a whole plastic city that requires a mortgage.
Thanks for taking the time gw for reading this and totally listening to me.
All the best,
Redyeti
I might have to disagree there. Card pieces and plastic clips was OK in the 90s, it doesn’t pass muster any more. I was personally happy to pay the asking price of £90 for Shadow Wars because of the scenery. It’s robust and hard wearing and the components were of a sufficiently high quality that scenery can be reconfigured each time you play. The only real niggle I have is that it’s very 40k centric and looks out of place in any other game.
*£80 sorry.
I see what you mean but the price was too high for shadow wars considering you didn’t really get enough scenery.
Think about infinity, the starter boxes come with the buildings made of card and they are pretty functional for the game.
Necromunda requires large amounts of scenery and to get people started there should be a tonne of cardboard in it 😀
The price being too high is debatable – it sold out very quickly (in something like half an hour in the UK on the GW preorders). It’s too high for you is a perfectly valid position to hold. It’s too high universally less so. I bought a copy and was more than happy with the contents, go figure.
Comparatively I think that Shadow Wars and the Infinity boxes are very similar. You get a functional amount of scenery in the Infinity boxes but it’s otherwise awful and looks exactly like what it is – cardboard boxes. But I would similarly criticise Operation Ice Storm and Red Veil (if I were pushed) because they don’t actually contain the rules of the game. To compare in price GW charges £80, Corvus Belli £60. For the extra £20 you get better scenery and a full rule book. The Infinity Rules would cost you another £50 putting you up to £110 (yes you can download for free but trying to play games with digital rulebook is actually very clunky). Or you could buy Shadow Wars and spend £30 on more scenery. So in terms of box value there’s not much in it – both boxes give you enough for a taste of the game but require additional purchases beyond that.
Oh my god… oh my god… oh my god… NEED… NOW…
Necromunda has kept me in the Hobby for a long time, I played this more then 40k… now it´s comming back, and I´m hyped.
Really excited about this.
Time to get my old badly painted minis stripped 🙂
This is wonderful news! Truly my favourite tabletop game of all time. The narrative of developing a gang of characterful reprobates over the course of a campaign, the rivalries between individual characters and the stories that emerged each time we played -and carried over into future encounters – were absolutely wonderful.
I also adored (and still do) the whole range of minis despite their age and lack of sophistication and have spent years trying to assemble as wider a range of them as I can. Can’t say the wallet is keen for this development but I could not be happier as a hobbyist.
Thankyou GW
If the rules are decent Im definitely getting this. First GW purchase in years!
Interesting – and finally the Goliath get some decent plastic miniatures!
I wonder what the terrain will be like?
I suspect I’m in a minority here, but although I had an awful lot of fun playing this game back in the day, I hope they do radically overhaul the rules for this version, rather than just tweak / reprint them.
We could do with faster and more dynamic action choices (think like Bolt Action). Just because we’re using a smaller model count doesn’t mean that an action needs to have lots of complicated steps when one or two will do.
I’d also like to see them take a leaf out of Mordheim and have the game focus on characters and have groups of gangers who aren’t quite so detailed but who you can treat in a more throwaway fashion. One of the problems with Necromunda was that the more powerful gangs got, the more cautious players became, not wanting to lose their veterans. So battles would come down to using hired scum as meat shields and bottling out if you took a few casualties. Having gangers who are a bit more generic and replaceable would enable the game to be a bit bloodier.
Based on 40k 8th Edition but with some changes (action points for activation).
Scenery is from the same range used in Shadow Wars
Good to see that Necromunda is making a comeback. GW back catalog of specialist games is truly a gold mine.
It would be interesting how they handle the large multi layer terrain requirement for this game.
For those familiar with the game. Let the “line of sight” arguments begin! 🙂
Halfway decent escher models and not Grimdarkified, I am impressed.
Loved necromunda back in the day. I’d be excited enough about a re-issue of the game with the same rules, but new miniatures and terrain.
What I’m really hoping for though is an entirely new edition, with the gameplay and the campaign rules given some love.
More info on the War of Sigmar site, from someone who says they spoke to Andy Hoare at the Forge World Open Day:
– The game system will be based on Warhammer 40,000 8th edition mechanics, but tailored to skirmish play.
– There will be Action Points system used to activate gangers, similar to Space Hulk. Different actions will cost different points.
– Release schedule will be similar to Blood Bowl, with a limited edition preview release, followed by a full proper release.
– Core box will contain Escher and Goliath gangs, plus terrain from Shadow War Armageddon. The rules will allow for play as we were used to on the gangways and towers, but also in tunnels, making use of the Zone Mortalis terrain.
– All of the gangs from the original game and its expansions will return along with new gangs.
Really excited…
What was old is now new again…and its about dam time!
WOW count me in. I always liked the specialist games. While I was never crazy of the concept of “gang” warfare the rules for this game were very good. While I generally am not a fan of tourney play, this game is an exception. Not only did it provide many hours of fun but I still have the Orlocks, Golioths and original card terrain(several sets).
I’ve been not-too-interested in GW’s bringing back most of their games (especially Blood Bowl, its successors are a huge improvement). This is another matter, though. You may take my money, GW.
Oh please let this be available at Spiel…
From this article (originally posted by @kommissar I can’t take credit for it) we have the following information (which I assume must be on display at Forge World open day):
1) All the original gangs plus those featured in the Outlander and Fanatic expansions will be released (which is cool if you still have some metal miniatures!)
2) There are plans to release new gangs on top of the ones we have seen (very cool)
3) There won’t be any new scenery as the Specialis Games studio does not have the capacity to do this. Instead the box will use the sector Mechanicum scenery (as seen in Shadow Wars and the subsequent kits).
4) The game also has rules for fighting in tunnels using the Zone Mortalis boards from Forge World.
5) The initial box will be set in Hive Primus, as per the original game. However there are (probably) plans for an expansion venturing into Hive Secundus, a radioactive ruin inhabited by genestealer cults and possibly other mutants and maybe Necromunda Defence Force patrols.
https://war-of-sigmar.herokuapp.com/bloggings/2318
Ironically I came across my old Esher, Orlock & Spyrer models in a bits box last weekend.
Fate?
Excellent.
So GW reuse the Necromunda rules for Shadow Wars: Armageddon, and now they’re re-releasing Necromunda with new rules?
Seems daft.
Damn, I really hoped it was time for Adeptus Titanicus revival….was this really necessary after Shadow War?
Titanicus release will be next year.
And if this was nexessary, hard to tell, perhaps Shasow Wars was a test ballon, as it used mostly the old rules not that mch work might have gotten into it so it was “quick and cheap” to make and this one is was getting a complete new ruleset.
I thought the same thing but i guess shadow war uses all the factions and is the 40k skirmish game (intro into new factions, starting with small collections and suddenly you have an army) this is gangers only.
If they put Adeptus Arbites into the game, I’ll be getting it.
They Have said that all gangs from the original game plus those in Outlander and Fanatic expansions will be re-released. So I guess we will not only get rules for Arbites but potentially some new models
Oh my…
I appreciate that they have to bring the skirmish rules a bit more up to date but. Please don’t let them cock up the campaign rules.
And…
Is it out yet..?
Is it out yet..?
Is it out yet..?
no *sigh
no *bugger
No !!!! *Jeez GW just release the damn thing !!!!!!!
Love new Golath gangers …..
never played this but the figures look better than the original ones.
So any word on Battlefleet Gothic being relaunched?
Yes. Next year will supposedly see the release of two more specialist games:
Adeptus Titanicus
Battlefleet Hdresy
Really ? They pushed Titanicus to 2019 ? Battlefleet Heresy sounds good.
Well this means they put Necromunda into their Q4 Boxed game slot. So no more Heresy boxes…
Titanicus probably will land Q1-2 and Battlefleet Q4 again.
No, they pushed it out to next year – which us 2018
This might get interesting, as long as we get dedicated miniatures and GW really tries to make a compelling game.
Lets have actions Points this time GW, plz
They do mate … it was in an interview with Andy Hoare above
ha! nice 😀
Wouldn’t be surprised if this is timed with the release of the Necromunda computer game.
I still feel burned from their short run ‘sold out in minutes and gone forever’ Shadow Run Armageddon box with all the contents and a hard cover sold at a much higher price once the loss leader was gone.
Meh.
If anybody I know plays it I’ll probably just proxy some weirdo cowboys/troopers/freaks from my Exodus Wild West or Dystopian Legions or Bones Chronoscope collections.
i think having a space cowboy gang or a Future Kaiser w/ picklehuabe gang in the bottom of a Hive sump seems cool. And I can do mutants w/ some Reaper stuff or my few carefully chosen Warzone minis.
As a teenager I never could afford BOTH 40k and another game, specialist or main. And now I love collecting the old metal minis.
I love the background to Necromunda, the game play however was something i couldnt get into (and not thorugh lack of trying!). I wish GW would take the plunge and have a go at using more than a D6 (i.e a d10 or something). I found the gameplay to be too random throwing the few dice you do in this game.
It works when you are throwing lots of dice as it all averages out i.e 40k, but one model one shot means luck can really swing this game using lower sided dice. Just my two cents from some past gameplay. Looking forward to the new edition either way, the models look very characterful, i dont mind losing if i can do it in style 😀
That’s true. Necromunda was super swingy based on the random stuff. It did make games tense some times, so that was cool.
Rather than using dice with more sides, they should consider adding dice together like Warmachine. 2d6 or 3d6 can give you a lot more predictable results.
But GW have their core system from Rick Priestly- I don’t know that they’ll ever part ways with the to hit/to wound/to save rolls.
Well it was only a matter of time, I never played the game, but I did have a Redemptionist gang which still remain unpainted, maybe I should get them out and have a play with the paint job. However it was a game that was of its day, I wonder will it stand up against the current games?
It’s an updated rule set based on 8E using action points to activate models. So I suspect it will compete slightly better than the original rules might have otherwise done
Looking forward to seeing if they have a stater box and what sort of scenery will be in the starter, Excellent they are bringing this our again 🙂
Same as, or similar to, Shadow Wars. Certainly it will be kits from the sector mechanicus range
Glad it’s back and nice to see more female miniatures 🙂 Love those Escher models! Cant wait to see the other gangs that come later as well.
Here (https://recalcitrantdaze.blogspot.de/2017/08/forge-world-open-day-2017-part-1.html) are pictures of those models unpainted and pictures of bases they will release for Necromunda (biggest one is sadi to be 40mm) and it says that the terrain in the box will be cardboard because it’s cheaper and playable out of the box. While the cost part makes sense they out of box doesnt for me, the gangs have to be assembled as they are multi part plastic kits but perhaps they are some kind of snap fit minis with weapon and head options?
Whereas this site says that the terrain in the box will be from the same range as that seen in Shadow Wars Armageddon (since released as the Sector Mechanicus scenery range). This seems far more likely than card terrain.
https://war-of-sigmar.herokuapp.com/bloggings/2318
Possible, just linked it never said it’s true, though I wouldn’t mind cardboard terrain and a cheaper price point.
That’s no longer GW’s M.O. for boxed games, which these days normally provide a discount by selling a bundle of miniatures cheaper than they would otherwise be. Shadow Wars Armageddon sold as much for the discounted terrain bundle as anything else, GW will want to capitalise on that again I would think.
How many YEARS did we have to tell GW : “please, come back to the time when you were such a prolific game Publisher”? I don’t understand why it took so long for them to realize how good this move would be. I’m very pleased to see them back in this track for a couple of years now. :o)