New Squat Hired Guns & Machines Join The Scraps In Necromunda
October 17, 2023 by brennon
Games Workshop has shared that a pair of new Hired Guns are coming to the Ash Wastes of Necromunda to support the Squats in their endeavours. The burly Grimjarls are going to be using their weapons and accessories to mine out a fortune and use it to finance their future prospecting missions.
Orrin Grimjarl // Necromunda
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Orrin and his kinsman Urson are two of the last survivors of Jardlan which was a Squat hold that got destroyed under "mysterious circumstances". Orrin is armed to the teeth and acts as Last Charter Lord Of Jardlan. He has access to a deadly fractal pulse beamer and an inferno pistol! He also rocks a Techmite Exovator which could drill its way through some key objectives or some knees!
The second of the new Hired Guns is Urson Grimjarl, the younger brother of Orrin.
Urson Grimjarl // Necromunda
This fellow is a bit more of a lone wolf and comes with a longshot hunting rifle which is used for picking off enemies from a good distance. It can even be tuned to make it rapid-fire and with a dose of rending. He is also followed around by a neat little robot, the Techmite Occuli. He is eager to hunt down the Ash Wastes Nomads that destroyed his home.
The last of the new Forge World resin miniatures is the Skalvian Explorator.
Skalvian Explorator // Necromunda
These Explorators are going to be handy for watching over your Squats as they get stuck into their mining. Armed with an Ironhead Claw, it can destroy obstacles and anything that gets in the way and it also has a transport bed so you can get your Squats from A to B. You can also tinker with different weapons including a flamer or heavy stubber.
Could you be tempted to pick up these new Squats for your Necromunda gang?
"The burly Grimjarls are going to be using their weapons and accessories to mine out a fortune..."
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I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that vehicle before… The Abyss? The Man from Atlantis? Seawhatever? It’s a submarine on tank tracks.
Kind of reminds me of the vehicle from Deepstar Horizon.
I really like the vehicle, but sadly in resin so dreading the price point!
I think the Squats in necromunda are awesome sculpts across the board.
“Whoa, dig it! Those look really…
*Sees ‘Forge World’*
…really expensive!”
Those little robots and that vehicle *are* super-cool, though.
Liking that vehicle, pity it’s going to be in resin. It looks the part for going into high radiation areas to salvage that premium loot. PLUS an excellent paintjob on the model as well (not overdone).
As for the Van Saar stuff….I’m sure all the rules writers must play Van Saar gangs. Premium gear, Premium stats and skills…..sure it costs more credits, but when you are winning all of your matches that’s not so much a problem (still no idea how Cawdor on their mechanical carnival horses with pointy sticks are supposed to compete against a jumping dreadnaughts that can shoot twice at two different targets (or four times at a single one) PLUS support from flying surfboards with new rules that mean the rider can’t fall off (the same rule doesn’t apply to other gangs)).
Case in point, we started a campaign last year and a player new to the game said he liked the look as Van Saar and wanted to play those. He kinda got a reply “Sure, we’ve got the figures but you’re really going to be unpopular”. And after his first game (that he steamrolled his opponent), he dropped the gang and went with Orlocks instead as he felt there was no way he could lose with the Van Saar gang.
Van Saar love the Laz/Plas combo (and it’s cheaper for them to buy than other gangs), but the ammo is rare for the plasma. Guess what, the guild that they can ally to gets rid of that limitation. Add in the fact they can get bionics that raise the stats of the gang members who get them cheaper and easier than anyone else and you’ve got the campaign sewn up. Even at game start they get access to an undersuit that adds a plus one to armour saves that can be combined with other types of armour (which other gangs have to try and find as a rare item on the market for double the price) gives yet more advantages.
I don’t know why the game designers don’t try and calm things down with the Van Saar. Even with the house rules we’ve added to try and calm things down it’s almost impossible to balance them out. Even the fact that they are all supposed to be suffering from Rad sickness isn’t reflected in the stats (they have the same toughness as the Orlocks for example).
So my advice is skip these Van Saar purchases if you are planning to use them in your Necromunda campaigns (as the best solution is NOT to allow them in your campaigns…..use other gangs instead). BUT if your buying them to use in other games (like Infinity for example as they make excellent proxy substitutions as they are rather “manga” in style), as they are rather fine looking miniatures. But alas they just don’t fit in to Necromunda in style, and frankly the rules for them don’t seem to have been playtested much in a campaign as they don’t seem to have been balanced against other gangs (perhaps Space Marines might prove to be a challenge for them in games of 40K) 🙁