After completing a handful of Scenarios in Necromunda I have my head somewhat wrapped around the mechanics. There are a lot of rules to remember, and the game can be literally set up to be unfair to one side. Not knowing all the scenarios and the way deployment works made starting the game somewhat confusing. It was a really big change of pace when the game duration is based on models on the table, no more playing 4-5 turns! The way they have baked moral into this game is one of my favorite aspects, because one day I will actually pass a bottle test and not have to worry about all my dudes running away! Let’s break down these points and talk about a few of my favorite mechanics from Necromunda so far.

The rules to this game are a lot more dense than Warhammer 40,000, if you remember when the new edition came out they wanted to streamline all the rules. This is the comparison I am making between these two systems, I obviously can tell the difference between a Skirmish game and an Army game. Reading through the rules didn’t take that long to get though, I did read the rules again after each time we played and that’s really when things started making sense. The way the models interact with the terrain really makes the game feel imersvie, because when you are standing in cover you actually feel like you are protected. There are a lot of modifiers to the shooting hit roll, so when you actually hit with a gun it feels good. Just don’t forget to roll for all those shots you don’t hit with! This is really going to depend on how much terrain you play with and what kind of board you’re playing on. The injury roll can take a few turns to get your head around it, but it really makes high Damage weapons pretty strong.

The most frustrating thing I found when we were starting was how to actually go about starting the game up. We would read through the rules and then make our gangs, after this we were surprised when it told us we had to deploy a small amount of them. In our first game we found out you get reinforcements which was nice, but in the next game we did not get any! It becomes clear as you gain context on the game, but I know we spent 30 minutes trying to process all of that. Just to look at how we started and it seemed to be a one sided game. That’s why I realized something, we aren’t play a competitive game of chess, we are playing a narrative game of Dungeons and Dragons! Only we control our whole party and we are roll playing against other people. This is why they are scenarios and not missions, because we are simulating events that happen in our campaign, so who cares who won or loss? If we can’t accept that we have to lose, then no one will want to play as the bad guys. Then our gangers will get bored with the diplomatic meetings of the Hive World, Beauromunda would be what we played. As much fun for me as that sounds like (no joke) I would like to stick to my “Warriors” style of Necromunda where we fight over turf with weapons and fist!

Having no specific turn limit in all of the missions we played other than once the last fighter is removed then you stop the game. This just kind of blew my mind after I threw a way a game because I thought we had to win by turn 5 like 40k. However for that Scenario, Cody had to get his guys to the other side of the board. By the end of the game I was wondering why I had blitzed him so bad, and that’s because I thought I had 4-5 turns to stop him. Not just sit their and wait for him to come to me. I could see this being abused by someone who doesn’t want to lose their last fighter but doesn’t want to lose the game, so we might need to talk about chess clocks soon.

Leadership is phenomenal, you have to take so many test just to do stuff. If you are just standing there and your buddy just drops over and starts bleeding out, that should freak you out. However if it didn’t then you would say you are “Cool” and that’s something that necromunda does well. The game rewards you for standing close to each other, but just as the lord giveth… You are more susceptible to damage from blast or missed shot! The more you understand of the game you will realize that there are items, characters, skills, etc. that will help mitigate a bottle check. When building your list I believe this is the one thing you should prioritize, you can’t win any Scenario if your guys are running of the board. This makes me believe this is how the game is balanced, because taking a bottle check is rolling one D6 and adding it to the guys out of action and who are seriously injured. Then you check this number on the starting count of your gang, so if you take less guys then you have a higher chance of bottling up. Since you could roll a 6, and if you only had 5 guys to start with, well you will be running away at this point. So take that into consideration when you are loading up all your dudes with the coolest gadgets, even the deadliest gun can’t be dangerous if the person handling it is running away.

There are a few thoughts I have had about this wonderful system as we have been playing it. We are going to be at Current in Decatur AL again on Sunday for a learn to Play Necromunda day. This is helping gear our players for a Necromunda Campaign we are starting sometime in January! Make sure you hop on the discord to join in the every day conversations. Leave a comment about what you enjoy about Necromunda or if I made any mistakes! I hope everyone has a great weekend and if you play any games, may the odds be in your favor, and stay classy wargamers!!!!