Seidhamr

Cypher System by Monte Cook Games:

Apocalypse World/Powered by the Apocalypse:

Blades in the Dark:

Modiphius (2d20 system):

I know there are many more, but those are the big systems that pop in my head at the moment. (Technically, GURPS also lives in my head, but that's more of a curse, really.)

Hello! So, a few people at my local club have been wanting to get into Necromunda recently and I wanted to write an article to explain the key differences between Necromunda and ‘regular’ 7th edition 40k. They both have the same basic rules but, just like the switch between 40k editions, it’s easy to assume things in one that don’t really happen in the other. Hopefully, this guide will help you understand how the game plays, what the main differences are between it and 40k, and how to build a successful gang of cut-throat murderers and let them loose in the Underhive.

General Game Concepts

Necromunda is like a campaign-based, skirmish version of 40k, and is based on the 2ed 40k ruleset. You control a ‘gang’ of around 8-12 models, armed with 40k small-arms (lasguns, autopistols, etc) all bought with a starting 1000 credits (points). Most of your models havel the stat line of an average 40k human/guardsman, and since all the enemies you face also have that stat line, something like WS4 or T4 becomes a real advantage. Each model operates on their own during the game - there are no ‘units’. Your gang fights other gangs in various scenarios (missions) until one gang ‘bottles it’ (runs away because too many of their fighters are down). 

After the game, models get experience points based on what they did in the game, which could lead to stat increases or special skills. There are bonuses for winning a game, hurting enemy fighters, or playing against a more powerful gang. They may also acquire injuries which permanently affect their stats. Your gang also hold Territories, which you can work after the game to get more credits, and then spend these credits on more gangers, weapons that aren’t usually available to you, or rare equipment from the Trading Post.

Each gang has a ‘Gang Rating’ which tells you how strong they are (based on adding all their cost, weapons and experience together). One of the important things to note is that gangs get more experience for fighting stronger gangs, and more credits if they beat them. This means that you don’t have to make sure all the people in a campaign play the same number of games (unlike in, say, a Blood Bowl league) and means that new players can join mid-campaign and level up pretty quickly.

Which Version?

There are currently three versions of Necromunda floating around that people use. All of them have a lot in common, and are based around the same rules (so this guide works for any of them) but it’s important to know the differences:

Original Rulebook (ORB) - This is the boxed set you got as a kid, with the Rulebook and Sourcebook, and the Outlanders supplement. These three books were later released together as a single hardback book.

Living Rulebook (LRB) - GW relaunched the game in softback as Necromunda: Underhive, updating many of the rules. Additional gangs were made available in Fanatic magazine. Eventually, this morphed into an online-only ‘Living Rulebook’ which was supported for a while then quietly dropped. It has lots of extra rules available and lots of expansions, but generally is considered a bit of a mess as a rulebook, and badly balanced.

Necromunda Community Edition (NCE) - This is an attempt by the Necromunda Community to keep the last GW-approved version of the rules intact, while fixing all the imbalances and silly rules, and generally making the game better for everyone. It’s moderated through the Yaktribe forums (which also include really handy campaign and gang management tools) and available as a free download along with a updated Outlanders supplement (OCE). It’s by far the best ruleset available. This is the one you should use. Download it here.

What you need to play

Models - Around ten 28mm models to represent your gang. Just like 40k, models must be WYSIWYG (apart from grenades, knives and holstered pistols). This is VERY important in Necromunda as every model will have different weapons. It’s also useful to make models look unique, since models armed the same way might end up with quite different stats. Or, at least, number the bases!

Dice - You’ll need a couple of D6, preferably different colours for D66 rolls. You really won’t need more than a couple. You’ll also need a standard 40k Scatter die and an Artillery die (which has 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and MISFIRE). If you don’t have an Artillery die, you can roll D6 and double it, counting 6 as MISFIRE. “

Templates - The normal three 40k templates - flamer, small blast (called ‘Blast’ in Necromunda) and large blast (called ‘Gas Cloud’ in Necromunda).

Tokens - Tokens to represent special actions are REALLY useful, and I’d recommend printing out some. The most useful are Overwatch, Hidden, Ammo and Broken.

The Rules

Ok, so I’m going to go through the basic changes in each phase from ‘current’ 40k. For now, just assume you’re playing a very small game of 40k with no vehicles, psykers, buildings or unit types other than ‘Infantry’. And your army is 10 cultists with lasguns and no armour. You still follow ‘I go, you go’ turn sequences. There are still Movement, Shooting and Assault phases. Weapons still roll To Hit and To Wound. Leadership tests are still 2d6 vs Ld. Everything is the same. Ok? 

Pre-game

You’re going to play a mission, which is called a ‘scenario’. The player with the weaker gang will usually get to pick which one. The basic one is ‘Gang Fight’ where if you win by a massive margin, you might steal some territory from the enemy. There are much more complicated ones if you want.

You’ll roll off for board edge and the winner will probably deploy within 8” of it. You’ll roll off again for first turn.

There are no Scouts, no Reserves, and almost no Infiltrators, but some gangs have special territories (Tunnels and Vents) that allow them to ‘infiltrate’ a few models at the end of the first turn.

Movement Phase

Models move the same distance as their ‘M’ stat (which is usually 4”).

There is no ‘unit coherency’ and there are both advantages and disadvantages to clumping your models together - more on that later.

Charging and Running must both be done in the movement phase (and are double, so usually 8”). You can’t pre-measure charges.

There are no Difficult Terrain rolls, and buildings/ruins/low obstacles are generally considered ‘clear ground’. Moving up or down levels costs an inch per inch you go up. Real difficult terrain is decided before the game, and includes obstacles over 1” high and pools of chemicals, etc. This stuff just halves your movement that turn.

What is actually depicted on terrain is important. If you want to go through a wall, you’re going to have to do it through a window or door. If you want to go up a level, you’ll need to move to the ladder first.

You can jump off levels, but you might well get hurt.

Facing is important. Models can only fire in the 90 degree arc to the front, so remember to face the models the correct way.

Shooting Phase

No pre-measuring ranges.

You must shoot the closest target, unless there is one further away that’s easier to hit (because the closer one is in cover, say). When you nominate the target, you turn the model to face it directly.

Pinning - This is a BIG DEAL in Necromunda. If a model is hit in the shooting phase, they’re automatically pinned for a turn. The only way to escape this is if you have friends within 2”, in which case you can do an I check to recover at the start of your turn rather than standing back up at the end.

Weapons stat lines are quite different. Weapons still have a Range and a S value, but AP is replaced by a Save Modifier and they also do variable amounts of Damage (wounds). Generally, you won’t need to worry about Save Mod and Damage. 

Weapons also split their range into Long and Short, and give To Hit modifiers depending on which one you’re in. These are a BIG DEAL. Pistols are generally really good at short range (0-8”) and really bad at long range (8-16”), but heavy weapons generally have no modifier. Auto weapons tend to be better than las weapons at short range. Shotguns have a really short ‘short range’ (0-4) and have a modifier at anything higher.

Cover is handled as a To Hit modifier rather than a saving throw. Targets in Partial Cover (25% covered) at -1 To Hit. Targets in Full Cover (over 50%) are at -2 To Hit. All these modifiers mean you might often be hitting on 7+.

Blasts roll To Hit as a normal weapon. If you miss, they scatter with the scatter and artillery dice. You ignore the ‘Hit’ symbol. A Hit and Misfire means they explode in the the breach and can hurt you.

Generally, flamer and blast templates that cover a model’s entire base hit automatically, and if they only partially over it, they hit on a 4+.

People can catch fire from flame weapons.

Grenades are thrown just like any other weapon, with a range of Sx3.

Ammo Rolls - If you ever roll a 6 To Hit, you might run out of ammo. Each weapon has a different Ammo rating, and you make an ammo roll to see if you pass. So, even though Auto weapons hit more often than Las weapons at short range, they run out of ammo more frequently.

Some weapons have ‘Sustained Fire’ which means they fire xD3 shots, which can be allocated one at a time to the original target or other models within 4”. Of course, firing that many shots increases your chance of an Ammo roll.

Injury rolls - When a model loses it’s last wound, it’s not just ‘dead’. You roll on a table to see if the model gets a Flesh Wound (still pinned, and -1 to WS and BS for the rest of the game), goes ‘Down’ (can do nothing except crawl 2”) or goes Out of Action (remove from the table). Downed fighters might suffer a permanent injury at the end of the game, and OOA ones definitely will. The number of Down or OOA fighters you have increase your chance of Bottling and losing the game.

If a model goes down within 2” of a friend, the friend must do a Nerve test (Ld test). If he fails, he is broken, runs for cover and can’t do anything until he recovers his nerve. This is the flip side of the pinning rule, above.

Assault Phase

Remember, you charge in the Movement phase. So no shooting then assaulting.

Overwatch is a very different thing (see below).

The actual rules for fighting are very different from 40k, based on rolling a number of dice equal to your A (+ modifiers), picking the highest and adding your WS (+ modifiers). The winner inflicts lots of hits on his opponent. Suffice to say melee combat is brutal and rarely lasts more than one phase. If you outnumber someone in melee, you’re almost certainly going to win.

Anyone taken Down in close combat is automatically Out of Action. Yeah, did I say melee combat is brutal?

Before you fight, you get to choose which weapon you have in each hand. Two weapons still gives you the attacks bonus, but only if you ONLY have pistols and cc weapons on the model. You must split your successful hits between the two weapons.

Follow up moves can be used to get into another combat.

Completely new concepts

Recovery Phase - This is a new phase unique to Necromunda, and comes at the end of the turn. In this, you test to see if broken models regroup (recover their ‘nerve’ in Necromunda) and also test to see if Downed models stay down, recover to a Flesh Wound, or finally go OOA. You also stand up all your pinned fighters.

Hiding - models can elect to hide after moving (but not after running). They must be in cover. As long as they are hidden, nobody can target them until they come within their Initiative in inches (‘spotting distance’) or unless an enemy fighter moves into a position where they can obviously see them out of cover. If they shoot, they stop being hidden.

Overwatch - instead of doing anything in their turn, models can ‘go on Overwatch’. In the following enemy turn, they can shoot during the enemy movement phase. This is another BIG DEAL, and the way that gangs ‘control’ areas of the board.

Knockback - models pinned or downed within 2” of the edge of a building might fall off, based on an I test.

Bottle Rolls - the biggest of BIG DEALS. If, at the start of your turn, 25% of your gang are Down, Broken or OOA, you must take a Ld check or run away, losing the game. You take the check on the highest Ld in the gang still standing (not Down, Broken or OOA). You can always opt to Bottle if you’re losing and you want to preserve your gang. Bear in mind that 25% is often only three models!!

Gameplay

Necromunda plays fast. Generally, the first few turns are spent running, hiding and trying to get into good positions to Overwatch or charge, or shooting at enemy fighters who look like they might get the best Overwatch positions. The game then becomes one of trying to get models into the best lines of fire, or sending out dupes to take the flak so that other fighters can launch assaults. Not everyone will shoot every turn, and some may not hit anything all game. Shooting can be very difficult because of all the modifiers, so you need to know what ranges your weapons are best at and use the right tool for the job (or just concentrate fire). Assault is deadly, especially if you gang up on lone enemies, but getting into it means coming out of cover and potentially into Overwatch fire, so is risky.

Most players clump models into small groups of three or four fighters to try and avoid pinning, all suited to the same role - so the Leader and a few Juves might move forwards as an assault group, with the Juves in front of the Leader so they can take any Overwatch fire or force people to shoot at them first. The Heavy and some rifle-armed gangers might hold back as a group, sticking together in case some enemies pop out of Vents nearby. Generally, people don’t clump their entire gang together because of the risk of one person going down and half the gang breaking!

After the game, there’s a fair amount of record keeping to do, which you’ll get faster at as you play more games. In order, you will determine Serious Injuries on your models, roll for Experience and skills, collect income from your Territories and then spend it at the Trading Post.

Building a Gang

Necromunda gangs are divided into two types - House Gangs and Outlanders. For now, I’d recommend you stick to House Gangs until you get the hang of the game as Outlanders have a lot of weird special rules. All house gangs can recruit the four basic types of model - Leaders, Heavies, Gangers and Juves. 

Leader - You must take one, and they have a higher WS, BS and Ld than regular models. They also have access to decent melee weapons at the start (like a Chainsword) and can take special weapons. Many people arm them for close combat, but some take the special weapon option and use them as a second Heavy. They also allow models within 6” to use their Ld.

Heavy - You can have a maximum of two, and apart from being able to take heavy and special weapons, they are the same as a ganger, but gain experience slower.

Gangers - Regular guys who can take basic, pistol and melee weapons. You need them alive at the end of the game to collect income from your territories.

Juves - BS/WS2 kids who can only take pistols and melee weapons, but who gain experience more quickly.

A good starting gang might have a Leader, a Heavy, four Gangers and two Juves. Some people prefer to take two Heavies at the start and cut down on other models, since you’ll rarely be able to afford the really cool heavy weapons later in the game. Some people prefer to load up on Juves, since they level up very quickly, thus gaining cool skills. Remember to take a decent amount of Gangers, though, since you need them to be able to collect money from Territory.

At the start, the six different Houses are all very similar. The main differences between them are the weapons that are always available to them (their House Weapon List), and the skills they get as they level up, which means the gang develops the flavour of it’s House as the campaign progresses. The six Houses are:

Orlock - Denim-clad 80s street gang. Convert them from Catachans and Empire models. Good ‘average’ gang. Mix of shooting and combat skills.

Goliath - Steroid-fuelled meatheads. Convert them from Catachans and Chaos Marauders. Very muscle/combat oriented skills. Favour solid-slug weapons.

Cawdor - Crazy religious nuts. Convert them from Chaos Cultists. Mix of combat and ‘craziness’ skills. Like flamers.

Escher - Fast, scary punk women. Convert them from Wyches. Mix of combat and agility skills. Reasonably high-tech weapons.

Delaque - Sneaky weirdos. Convert them from Chaos Cultists and bald heads. Stealth and shooting skills, and most weapons.

Van Saar - Bearded weaponsmiths. Convert them from Eldar Guardians and bearded heads. Shooting and techno skills, and high-tech weapons.

Equipping your gang

So, everyone gets a knife for free, and weapons can be swapped between members of the gang after each game. Remember that. Also, when building the gang you can only buy weapons from your House Weapon List.

Let’s start with the basic ganger. Most people use these as ranged, shooty types armed with the basic autogun or lasgun. The lasgun is the best option if you’re staying at long range, as it has the best ammo rolls, but the autogun is slightly better if you’re going to close with the enemy. The third basic choice is a shotgun, which has lots of weird and wacky ammo types. The biggest advantage of a shotgun is that it’s Scatter shells ignore cover modifiers. You’re always going to be at long range with a shotgun (so -1 To Hit) but at least it won’t get any worse than that! Many people give their gangers a pistol as a secondary weapon in case they fail an ammo roll. This is less of a problem with a lasgun-equipped ganger. Some people arm their gangers for close combat, but since you HAVE to arm juves for close combat, most people take the opportunity to go with basic weapons at the start.

Your juves are always armed with pistols and knives. Generally, they’re so rubbish that it’s not worth spending points on them until they’ve got a few skills and you can ‘specialise’ them. If you want lots of cheap models, stub guns are the cheapest pistol. However, for five points more you can get an autopistol which gives +2 To hit at short range - useful when you’ve only got BS2.

Your leader generally falls into two camps - armed with a sword and pistol (possibly a cool one like a plasma pistol) he becomes a good melee model and close range shooter. Or, armed with a special weapon like a grenade launcher or plasma gun he becomes a great second heavy with his BS4. Flamers are also an option, but they’re a bit of a waste of his BS.

The most popular weapons for heavies by far are the heavy stubber or the flamer. Flamers are great if you can get into range, and heavy stubbers are long ranged, cheap, have a high rate of fire and good ammo rolls. Remember, S4 is nothing to be sniffed at when all your enemies are only T3! Heavy bolters are also great, but have a bad ammo roll, and lascannons and plasma cannons are amazing but ridiculously expensive - S9 and S5 are both wounding on a 2+, so is a S9 lascannon really worth it? Whatever you do, it’s always good to give the heavy a secondary weapon. Flamers run out of ammo a lot, so a pistol is good close-range backup, and long-ranged heavies might even have a basic weapon as their backup so they can keep shooting when their stubber goes down.

Injuries and Experience

After the game, anyone who went OOA will have to roll on the Serious Injury table, and has a 1 in 7 chance of being killed. Many of the other results reduce a stat by one point (Arm Wound, Leg Wound) or give them a special rule (Head Wound makes you crazy!). Some are even beneficial, such as Horrible Scars, which causes fear. Be aware of the 'Captured’ result which allowed the losing gang to play a rescue scenario to get their ganger back.

After this, experience is added up, and gangers advance. Most of the rolls are in the form of skills or stats. It can be quite random which stat advances you get, but it’s generally a good idea to try and specialise gangers as much as possible, and swap around their weapons to help this. For example, you may have a lasgun ganger who gains an extra WS or A, so you might want to drop that lasgun in the stash or give it to another fighter and buy your ganger a pistol and a sword instead.

Advances come very quickly when you have less XP, and more slowly when you’ve got more. So, from 0 to 20 XP, a new level comes every 5 points, but from 20 to 60, it’s every 10 points, and from 60+ it’s every 20 points. This is why juves (who start at 0) level up more quickly than gangers (who start at 20) and leaders/heavies (who start at 60).

Territory and Income

You start with five territories, which provide various amounts of income and other special rules. For example, a Spore Mine provides a fantastic 2d6x10 credits when you send a ganger to work it, whereas a Slag Heap only provides 10 credits. Some territories have a low income level, but a good special rule, like Tunnels - which allows you to infiltrate 3 gangers per game.

You must have uninjured gangers to work territories - juves, leaders and heavies can’t do this. This can severely limit your income after a bad loss, and is a good reason to bottle early if the game doesn’t go your way.

You can also gain extra credits by selling Captured gangers, getting Loot tokens in certain scenarios, or beating a gang with a higher Gang Rating. Once you know the total, you cross reference this on the Income table against the number of models in your gang, to find out how many credits you have spare after paying for food and ammo. This is the downside to having a massive gang - there are a lot of mouths to feed!

Trading

After each game, you have a chance to swap around equipment or buy new stuff. Items are sorted into 'Common’ and 'Rare’, and there are various ways of getting them.

Items from your House Weapon List can always be bought without any restriction. 

After each game your Leader will get D3 rolls on the Rare Trade Chart, representing single ‘Rare’ items which you can buy there and then.

If you want, you can swap a roll on the chart to buy a Common weapon that ISN’T on your House Weapon List.

In addition you can hire new gang members or recruit Hired Guns - experienced fighters who demand a fee after each game, but never gain any more experience. Hired Guns can be great for starting gangs (as long as they save some money to pay for them) but remember that any kills/wounds they make are kills/would one of your other gangers didn’t get - and Hired Guns don’t get experience!