Necromunda 2.0 review

[Pijlie]

In the time honoured tradition favoured by Games Workshop's marketing department GW has revived an old love of mine: Necromunda.



Now I played Necromunda to death around the turn of the century and collected and built gangs and terrain to my heart's content. I still revisit it occasionally and the game is one of my most prized and fondly remembered possessions.

So when a friend of mine asked me to try the rebooted version I was all for it. We played it a few times and I feel ready for a first review. In this review I will assume you know Necromunda already.

Read more here: http://pijlieblog.blogspot.com/2018/12/necromunda-20-what-do-we-think-about-it.html

[mcfonz]

I think this is 3.0.

History of Necro:
1990ish- Confrontation released as white dwarf rules split over a couple of issues. These introduced Necromunda as a setting and the house gangs etc.
1995: Necromunda Boxed game.
2000's: Necromunda and specialists games era sees old sculpts replaced with those only available direct. Rulebooks given revamp and made available as free downloads as 'living rulebooks'.
2017: Years after the death of the specialist games devision, it's reborn along with some old favourites including Necromunda.

[waitwhat]

3.1 - 2018 : edited and complete version of the 2017 version released. Call it a three-six-five-day patch if you like.

[Pijlie]

 
Well, I intentionally started counting with the first game of the name. I never knew or read Confrontation. So I have no idea if it was anything like Necromunda.

I do not consider the 2000 version a new game since the changing of the rulebooks was (as far as I know) only cosmetic. It is in my opinion no more  a new game than the Compendium from 98 or thereabouts.  There too, the rules remained the same.

Neither would I consider every edit a new game. Although GW might.   

[AWu]

I think this is 3.0.

History of Necro:
1990ish- Confrontation released as white dwarf rules split over a couple of issues. These introduced Necromunda as a setting and the house gangs etc.
1995: Necromunda Boxed game.
2000's: Necromunda and specialists games era sees old sculpts replaced with those only available direct. Rulebooks given revamp and made available as free downloads as 'living rulebooks'.

There was Necromunda Underhive in 2003 in Book form.
Updater some rules - this was a Living rulebook posted online.

There was Herdcover edition of Rulebooks from the Original box + Outlanders. I think in 1998

2017: Years after the death of the specialist games devision, it's reborn along with some old favourites including Necromunda.

[mcfonz]

Yup.

There was quite a lot of alteration over the years. Didn't the 1998 book combine the original rules with Outlanders? Battles for the Underhive or something I think it was called.

Then they had to take out sustained fire dice because they were axed from their game systems.

I wouldn't count confrontation either in the sense of it being called Necromunda, but it was where Necromunda came from.

I never got into the 2003 edition although downloaded it. I believe it was more reflective of the 40k rules at that time.

The latest edition seems less afraid of being different and more intent on paying homage to the backstory and earlier editions like Confrontation and the 1995 version.

[AWu]

I never got into the 2003 edition although downloaded it. I believe it was more reflective of the 40k rules at that time.

Not really.
It streamlined rules for being on fire and removed sustained fire dice  replacing it with plain d3 roll..
it could be considered to be more reflective to the rules of 40k att because 3rd edition of 40k stopped using sustained fire so dice were not produced anymore 

Most of the difference in this Underhive edition*  came from addition of new gangs and changing the classic ones (some times in strange ways)

There was Community edition too but it was unofficial.

*not to be confused with Necromunda Underhive 2017 - Yes GW is really repetitive with names here..

[Pijlie]

And not just with names.

The sustained fire die has returned, albeit as the Rapid Fire Die and now also indicates Ammo Rolls.

I noticed another weird rules thing.  You are not allowed to measure distances but you are supposed to play on a board of 2x2 inch squares 🤣 And using the ruler to determine LOS is recommended......

[AWu]

New  die is IMHO better thought up than old sustained fire die.

But it rarely was used as 1 die in 1st edition (if ever) and so in 40k.
Now it is quite common (much needed upgrade to the autogun, and welcome to boltgun and autopistol) so scoring a hit on jam result is much more helpful.
Change for ammo roll from every 6 to hit (or 6 and 1 to hit) to when bullet shows is nicer mechanic too although rolling sustained fire die when firing single shot weapons is counter intuitive.

[Braxandur]

I mentioned this on a few other places where I encountered this "review":

This review is in my opinion missing a lot of information. For my feeling a lot has been missed by the author, which in turn gives a poor representation of the game.

Allthough clearly written, I can't agree with a lot that you are writting and I think you made some errors/ I'll share my thoughts.

1) the rules for the chemthrower are in the rules. is has the special rule gas, which describes how it works
2) Overwatch is not gone, it is a skill you can get. IMHO it would also not work that well in combination with how the game now works.
3) the injury table is not gone, it is in the campaign rules. The boxed set is a skirmish set, not a campaign set.
4) Juves are not specifically young gangers anymore, so you can build them from the set.
5) you don't have to buy other books next to the box to have the rules. rather you can buy the complete rules (with all gangs, campaign system etc) instead of the box.
6) the changes in wound vs toughness and having a value that you have to roll instead of needing to calculate are superficial changes. They just removed the tables, but basically it is axactly the same.

You forget to mention a number of very big changes.
1) In the new edition you do not activate all models in one go, rather activation goes back and forth between players. There is also something like group activation
2) the box is not a campaing game, it is a skirmish game between to gangs.
3) the game can now be played on a 2D board and it plays very well.
4) A lot of grey areas have been fixed.
5) you have way more options in this rules as models have two action that they can do. You can now shoot and then move, or the other way around. This flexibility was never there before.
6) Combat has changes drastically. I like it, but som people might not. You really should have explained this.

There are more detail that you miss and I would suggest readers to search for more detailed reviews, instead of basing a desicion based on what you have written.

I have played Necromunda since the month it orginally came out and still played it until the new edition came out and find it a vast improvement on almost all fronts. I would defenitly recommend it to players who loved the old game, or who are looking for a nice sci-fi skirmish game.

[Braxandur]

And not just with names.

The sustained fire die has returned, albeit as the Rapid Fire Die and now also indicates Ammo Rolls.

Actually, you should roll this die every time you shoot, even with guns that don't have rapid fire rules. there is a 1 in 6 chance of rolling the ammo picture which means that you have to take an ammo roll. On the positive side, you can still hit with this shot. The rule that you have to make an ammo roll on every 6 that you roll with shooting has been removed, meaning that you can empty your gun just as easily when missing...

Running out of ammo is not that bad though as you can just reload weapons but making another ammo roll and succeeding. that is unless your weapon has the trait "scarce"

I noticed another weird rules thing.  You are not allowed to measure distances but you are supposed to play on a board of 2x2 inch squares 🤣 And using the ruler to determine LOS is recommended......

Indeed, you can just calculate the range if you want to. This is not a big issue. you can also do this on 3D table where you know the size of the buildings and length of the walls. With regard to the ruler, you can always tilt it so that you cannot read the numbers. It is only an issue if you want to make one out of it. Furthermore using it during shooting is pretty usefull as it also indicates who can be hit accidentaly in case you miss the original target... Well thought out by GW.

[Duncan McDane]

Well, one of the most notable changes in Necromunda 2.0/3.0/3.1  ( the current 2017 version, I mean  ) to me, apart form the alternate model activation, is the group activation, which has some major tactical influences on the game. Activate them early and you might get some benefits, but on the other hand, if your opponent still has 3+ models to activate when you're already finished it might lead you to reconsider your early moves...
I like this version a lot, better than the original tbh, to me it is more challenging with more possibilities than the classic ( 1995 or thereabout ) version.