Hey folks,

I enjoyed working on the last article, and I’ve got plenty of tactics and strategy articles planned, but right now, I’m enjoying something different…

This article is a soft sequel to the “Plans for 2025…” article that kicked off this series, and as I mentioned in that article, one of the games I’m planning on playing during this transitional phase of still being in Canada, but with most of my stuff boxed up and ready to ship to the UK, is Necromunda.

My goal? To figure out if I genuinely enjoy playing Necromunda as a game, or if my enjoyment was more about playing it as part of my friends’ group rotation.

My first foray into Necromunda: Underhive (I think that’s what the cool kids are calling the 2017 relaunch, but who knows…) was a few years back, when I built and painted a Slave Ogryn gang, the Red Cogs.
 That was a really fun campaign—some lucky rolls in my early games gave me a great foundation, and I ended up in a very strong position. Old Red became a terror of the underhive, ripping enemies apart with his Augmented Powerfists and attracting followers from far and wide to join his revolution.

Looking back, it was a great time, reminiscent of when I first started playing games like Necromunda and Gorkamorka. That said, I always worry that my amazing start to that campaign (rolling boxcars on my Settlement two games in a row to get two free Ogryns, which meant I was fielding as many Ogryns as other gangs were fielding regular gangers) has that rose-tinted glasses effect on how I remember it.

My second campaign wasn’t as stellar for a multitude of reasons. I struggled with what gang to play, as I was trying to avoid doubling up on factions. I built a Cawdor gang, but the Arbitrator was playing them this campaign, so I pivoted to Genestealer Cults, only for our Van Saar player to switch to them. That left me with two fully built gangs but no motivation to get them painted.

Finally, I settled on Delaque. At the time, they were unrepresented in the campaign, though that would change later.
I had taken them on a trip to the UK with me and planned on painting them in my downtime.
Thus, The Outsiders were founded, with their plans to sow chaos throughout the Underhive and sneak their way to the top.

Delaque was an interesting proposition, as the release of the House of Shadows book shifted them from being a mid-range gunfighter-style gang (which happened to fit a lot of the options you could build with their gang box) into something entirely different. They lost primary access to the Shooting Skill Tree but gained weird Psychic Powers and lots of other shenanigans.
For the most part, their stat lines were nothing special.  Their starting weapon list in House of Shadows felt odd to me at the time, without a clear niche.  (Oh, my sweet summer child, we will revisit this in a later article…)

So, I looked at what tools I had and tried to put them together into a usable package:

• Master of Shadows: A cheap Overseer to give one of my other fighters an extra activation.

• Infiltrating Meltagun: A threat designed to put fear into opponents. Nothing ruins someone’s day quite like a short-ranged hit from a Meltagun.

• Nacht-Ghul: The standout combat threat with WS 2+ and 2 Attacks base, equipped with Serpent’s Fangs to make short work of enemies.

• Warm Bodies: Plenty of them to delay key activations until later each turn.

The campaign started well, but I quickly found that the best way to do well with Delaque involved taking full advantage of all their pre/post-game shenanigans. Their Psychic Powers allowed them to choose scenarios, their Whisper Merchants guaranteed steady income, and their territories provided disposable bodies, mass infiltration, and other dirty tricks. It worked, but it wasn’t fun for newer players. I made a mental note: no more dirty tricks next time.

Then, I missed the next campaign as they wanted to keep the numbers lower, and I didn’t have time to paint something new before it filled up.

That brings us up to the start of the current campaign, which I joined just in time to test whether I could enjoy Necromunda outside my comfort-zone playgroup.

So, I hopped onto the Rust Punks Discord, scoped out the competition, and found a mix of mostly new players and returning veterans of older editions, with only a few people who had played “Modernunda.”

As I tried to nail down what to play, my reconnaissance revealed that the gang mix already included three Cawdor and a Genestealer Cult, so I eliminated those options. Since this was a “fully painted only” campaign, I narrowed my choices to my Slave Ogryns or Delaque.

Given the name of the article and what you’ve read so far, you might be expecting Delaque, but there’s a twist: I chose Slave Ogryns!

I started prepping the Mellow Yellows with a core of what I used for The Red Cogs but added some new models to give me a fresh upgrade path. Then, more gangs landed in the campaign—two Corpse Grinder Cults.

Now, I have opinions on Corpse Grinders, but that’s a rant for another day. Let’s just say going toe-to-toe with Corpse Grinders as Slave Ogryns isn’t just a bad idea - it’s a death sentence.
Their Cult Masks make combat nearly impossible for low Willpower gangs, and so the Ogryns would just be meat for the grinder (see what I did there?).

I considered trying to dodge those matchups, but let’s be honest—what’s the point of playing if you have to avoid half the campaign just to stay competitive? The more I thought about it, the clearer the choice became. The Outsiders had to return, with a brand-new Delaque gang.

This time, I wanted a more new-player-friendly approach since I didn’t know this group well. My list aimed to maximize mid-range firepower, use infiltrate for tactical deployment, and then play “good, honest Necromunda.”

• Master of Shadows: Plasma Gun with Infiltrate.

• Phantom: Plasma Gun with Infiltrate.

• Nacht-Ghul: My trusty melee threat.

• Ghosts: Ranged support with Lasguns.

• Shadows: Pistol-wielding button-pushers.

Nothing fancy—just a balanced, all-around gang with some solid firepower. I left the dirty tricks of my previous Delaque playthrough at home, hoping to ingratiate myself with the Rust Punks so we could all have fun Necromundering together!

Yes, I know, “good, honest Necromunda” doesn’t sound like the best plan, but let me tell you about my first two games, which were nothing short of classic Necromunda chaos!

My first matchup was against a relatively new player running a Goliath gang. The Border Dispute scenario meant we each started with just four models on the board. I chose my Master of Shadows and Phantom (both armed with Plasma Guns), while my Nacht-Ghul wouldn’t arrive until Turn 2.  Whilst I only had 3 fighters on the table Turn 1, Two of them had Plasma Guns and a base Ballistic Skill of 3+, so I was feeling confident in my firepower.

I had the Priority, so I activated my Gang Leader first, I couldn't take the Aim action as I had to move up to get the clear shot (you have to infiltrate out of Line of Sight), but I made it to short range anyway, and my Plasma Gun was hitting on 2+.  I had lined up the perfect shot, took my time, squeezed the trigger…
And of course, I rolled a 1.

My opponent fired back with a Boltgun at long range, through full cover. He hit the 5+ he needed, and immediately put my leader into critical condition.
I wasn’t out yet, though—at least not until he fired another long-range shot and took out my Phantom with my other Plasma Gun, who was hiding in full cover, on a 6+.

By the end of Turn 1, I had one model left. Then came the End Phase…
I failed my Bottle Check, followed by my Specialist failing his Cool check, leaving me with no fighters on the board, and a Game Loss.

But, the on-table part of Necromunda is just one piece of the campaign.  Sometimes, the pre- and post-battle sequences matter even more.

In the Post-Battle Phase for Game 1, I earned a decent 60 credits of income, considering I lost the game, that's not bad, but then I had to pay 70 credits to the doctor to save my Leader…

Thankfully, I’d saved 25 credits from gang creation, leaving me only 10 credits in the hole.
A rough start, but at least no one died permanently…

On to Game Two then!

Andrew is new to Necromunda, and is playing The Cult of Ash, one of the Cawdor gangs.  For this game, I was the Attacker in a Smash and Grab scenario, meaning I had a chance to make some big money and recover from my slow start. And admittedly, things did start better this time!

I lined up a long-range shot from one of my Lasgun armed Ghosts, who got to do the aforementioned Aim and Shoot at one of his flame template-wielding fighters.
I wounded him, but after rolling the Injury Dice, it was only a Flesh Wound. Still, Pinning him would slow his advance and keeping those Templates at range would be key.

I followed up with my Specialist taking a shot at his Deacon with a Grenade Launcher who would be hitting on 2+ and had the potential to cause me real problems. My specialist managed to successfully hit and wounded, but as his Long Rifle was only Damage 1, he was not out of the fight just yet, but again it was another model pinned.

I had also infiltrated my Phantom with Plasma Gun, supported by the Tactics Card “Crossfire” for a guaranteed hit.  I managed to wound his Champion, taking him Out of Action.
On to the Injury Roll, I rolled up “Lessons Learned,” granting him d3 extra XP so I didn’t feel too bad about what I thought was a nasty One, Two Punch!

[Image Placeholder - Game in Progress]

At the start of Turn 2, I still had a solid position. Then Andrew played ‘Effigy of the Damned,’ and in an instant, my entire plan went up in flames!

‘Effigy of the Damned,’ allowed him to target a Terrain Feature or Tile. Any model that activated on or moved through it was treated as if they were hit by a weapon with the Blaze trait.

Now, we were not playing Zone Mortalis, but we were playing on the cool Necromunda Tiles where we have fixed terrain, and so we were not sure if it should target the building or the tile, to keep things flowing, we ruled in favor of letting him target the whole tile, but it’s probably worth asking your Arbitrator for those older cards that have different effects between Zone Mortalis and  Sector Mechanicum.

It doesn’t do any direct damage, and it's only a 50% chance that he will set the fighter on fire when they activate or move through the tile anyway…

He hit 4 out of 5 of the 50/50 rolls to set my gangers on fire.

Not only did this cripple my turn two activations. Two of my models went Out of Action and only one of them managed to put the fire out.

This swung the game massively in his favor, and in honesty, it snowballed from there.

My Gang Leader was one of the people set on fire, and while he only took a wound from the Blaze, it left him open to the fighter who I had only Flesh Wounded in the previous turn, He went out of Action and then ended up being Captured.

My Specialist with Long Rifle was also affected, and he took a wound, he just flat out died.

Meanwhile, on the other flank, my Phantom with Plasma Gun ran out of ammo. She and my Nacht-Ghul were left exposed to Andrew's Leader, who used the One-Shot Flames template attachment of his Eviscerator to pin them both. Next turn he charged, and the giant chainsword did work, leaving both of them in Critical Condition. That meant both my Phantom and Nacht-Ghul would need to be taken to the doctor, or they would die.

The funny part about that is that you need a Gang Member with the Gang Hierarchy Ability to perform the Post Battle Action. So, either my Gang Leader (who was captured), my Specialist (who was dead), or either my Phantom or Nacht-Ghul would need to take my Phantom and Nacht-Ghul to the doctors to prevent them from dying.

You see the problem there?

We laughed about it afterward because it was clear that trying to play “good, honest Necromunda” with Delaque wasn’t working.
 With a captured leader, no surviving Champions or Specialists, and only two Gangers and three Juves left, The Outsiders weren’t just on the back foot—they were dead in the water.
After two brutal losses, and with a gang on life support, it was time for a change.

So I cut my losses, retired The Outsiders, and embraced the darkness...

The gangs I’ve seen are well-optimized, follow the prevailing meta for each faction.  Clearly, I need to be playing a little harder…

The Outsiders fought fair… and died for it.
The Dark City Dogs?  They play to win!

I’ll be sharing more about The Dark City Dogs and how they fare in the rest of the campaign soon. For now, thanks for reading! If you’re curious about how the new (giant) Necromunda rulebook impacts gameplay, or if you’d like to see my new gang in action, join the conversation on Discord.

Until next time!