My heart is not cold. It’s broken.
Peter has some strong opinions about the new Necromunda: Skirmish boxed set!
Necromunda is a game that’s dear to my heart, having played and enjoyed it since the first boxed set way back in 1995. So I’ve had mixed feelings about the direction Games Workshop has pushed it in since the re-release (Necromunda: Underhive) back in 2017. That boxed set wasn’t very exciting and missed the mark by presenting the game in a 2D form, but subsequent sets (Dark Uprising, Ash Wastes), while extremely expensive, at least featured a good amount of terrain, which is what this game is all about.
Since then it’s been hardcover book after hardcover book – a new one every time a new model was released, it seemed,, and I get the feeling that the folks at GW just don’t know what to to with Necromunda (or, I should say, how to monetise it effectively). This new set underscores that impression. There’s been a little bit of rules cleanup, but not enough to upset anyone. We’re back to the 2D format that doesn’t really give a good impression of the game at all, with a stingy single sprue of pipes for cover. And worst of all, the model count per gang has dropped from 10 to 8, for no reason whatsever.
At first I was pleased to hear that all the gang stats would be released in 2 subsequent books (though I wish they’d all been squeezed into one) – but now we discover there’s a series of softcover ‘journals’, one for each gang, coming down the pipe. Is this just a whole lot of recycling? An attempt to get fans of the game to buy the same stuff all over again with just a few tweaks? Only time will tell. Personally, I wish GW had been brave enough to do something new with the game – but I guess that’s a risk they’re not willing to take.
Check out my video for all my thoughts on the new release!