I mean, you can’t get a bigger announcement than when Games Workshop wants to talk about your favorite game. And we got that in spades as the (last) thing tonight.
It’s like they knew that Blood Bowl players would only stick around for forty-five minutes because they got their announcement early. We had to wait until almost the very last thing. My wife was not impressed.
Apparently Necromunda is Warhammer. Who knew?
The big bullet points that deserve pointing out:
- We’re getting new sculpts for gangs that have been out for a while. You love Escher, congrats, here’s a bunch of new sculpts. Same for Goliaths and I think we can assume the same for at least every House gang.
- There is a new set of rules. The promo material is speaking about it like it’s a rewrite of the existing rules but sources I have and my own intuition says that this is probably an easy onboarding version of the game for people that are put off by the number of faction books. Time will tell what is true.
- Games Workshop is continuing to support Necromunda when it has killed off Warcry. My source says that, on a sales call, a higher up in Games Workshop described Warcry as the game they “took behind the barn and shot.” Which lines up with the way a lot of YouTubers have been talking about Warcry as a verb, as in: Necromunda hasn’t been Warcry’d yet.
I should point out one more thing… in case you weren’t aware… apparently Necromunda is Warhammer. Who knew? But don’t worry, the new branding won’t let you forget.
Like everything else GW has been touching lately (paints, Blood Bowl, the moon), they’re slapping the Warhammer brand on it. I mean… okay…
Beyond that, look at these new sculpts:
When it comes to the miniatures, I admit I am… underwhelmed by the Goliath sculpts. For all the talk of women being important and inclusivity, and considering that the prospects in the champions/prospects box were generally read as female, I think it’s interesting that they didn’t push that further with a set of new sculpts. I mean, maybe it’s my “heteronormativity”, or just GW being bad at sculpting women’s faces, but none of the new sculpts read as female either.
To that end, I’m not in love with the new Escher sculpts either. While I’ll always take a new range of bodies in poses, none of them speak to me, as displayed on the website. I entirely admit that this might be a failure of my own imagination! It wouldn’t be the first time. But I’m also looking at them and wondering how I would integrate them into a gang.
Side note: I love crouching poses but I hate them also. Sure, they look cool I absolutely agree. But they also, generally, get more cover and have to be debated about more than a mini standing at full height. I absolutely understand that this works in reverse as well, I’m just saying that when 90% of your minis are handled with standing at a certain height and the other 10% stand at another… it’s annoying…
(I don’t think I’m going to build a lot of fans on that position…)
Then there are the new gang boxes
Don’t get me wrong, for a beginner in the game these look cool. Except I think the base prices has gone from €40 to €80 in a stroke. If each box cost €40, I can’t see how combining them makes them cheaper. And then there are the new gang books.
So… let’s play this out… under the current edition of the game, if you want to get into it, you need to buy a gang box and the House of… book that corresponds to your gang. So, like €90. But, under this new scheme, you need the new Core Rulebook, maybe the Gang Book (there are only two now) you want to play as, as House gang or… otherwise… and then the new Crew Box that could include minis you never intend to play with for… €50 (core book) + €50 (gang book) + €80 (gang box) totaling €180 instead of €90 before.
That’s literally a 100% price increase to get into the game. And I struggle to see where that’s a good idea.
It’s also bad for those people already invested in the game. I’ve never known a player who needs more than one Escher Deathmaiden. But, ganger bodies, all day long. If the Gang Crew boxes are the only way to purchase gangs going forward, this feels like a tax on the community that’s kept Necromunda going… or… alternatively, it’s also maybe their way of trying to get us to share bits within our communities.
I certainly hope for the latter even though I expect the former.
That said, this is an easy buy for me. I want the different sculpts, I want the new rules. The terrain doesn’t blow my hair back but it would be a good add to my collection. Assuming it’s priced reasonably (two gangs + rules + terrain… €120-140) then it’s not even a choice. They’ve even got me on the two new books. So… gotta submit some client invoices!
