Dive Back into the Hive City: A Review
Necromunda is heading back into the Underhive with a new edition, updated rules, a brand-new Core Set, refreshed gang bundles, and a healthy collection of accessories. While Games Workshop is presenting this as a major new era for the game, the overall release feels less like a sweeping expansion and more like a cleaner starting point for players looking to dive into the iconic hive city for the first time.
That is not necessarily a bad thing. Necromunda has accumulated years of books, expansions, gang supplements, and scattered rules, making it increasingly difficult for a new player to know where to begin. This release appears designed to reset that entry point, consolidate the most important material, and make the game considerably easier to approach.
For established players, however, the amount of genuinely new content may feel somewhat limited.
Necromunda Skirmish: Core Set
The centerpiece of the release is the new Necromunda Skirmish Core Set, featuring eight House Escher gangers battling eight House Goliath bruisers. Both gangs receive brand-new miniatures, accompanied by a game board and a selection of broken pipe terrain designed for close-quarters fighting in the Underhive.
The box also includes the complete Core Rulebook, Gang Tactics cards, Campaign Scenario cards, a starter guide, construction instructions, dice, templates, a folding range ruler, and 54 condition and status markers.
For someone who has always been interested in Necromunda but found the existing range intimidating, this is likely the strongest part of the release. It provides two complete gangs, the rules, terrain, and the accessories needed to begin playing without immediately navigating years of additional books.
Veteran players may find less reason to purchase the entire set unless they particularly want the new Escher and Goliath miniatures. The real value here is clearly aimed at newcomers rather than players who already own established gangs and terrain collections.
Updated Core Rules and Gang Books
Existing Necromunda miniatures remain compatible with the new edition, so current players will not need to rebuild their collections. They will, however, need the new Core Rulebook and the appropriate updated gang book.
Gangs of the Underhive covers the six major Houses alongside Palanite Enforcers, Venator Gangs, Corpse Grinder Cults, Justicar Courts, Hired Guns, Brutes, Hangers-on, and Pets.
Gangs of the Outlands gathers many of the game’s more unusual factions, including Outcast Gangs, Free Ogryn Gangs, Genestealer Cults, Chaos Helot Cults, Malstrain forces, Spyre Hunting Parties, Ironhead Squat Prospectors, and Ash Waste Nomads.
Bringing so many factions together into two central books should make the game easier to manage, although established players may understandably be less enthusiastic about purchasing another round of rules for gangs they already own.
Gang Tactics and Campaign Cards
Two additional card packs support the updated edition.
The Core Gang Tactics pack includes 18 broadly usable tactics cards and eight blank Gang Fighter cards for tracking important members of your crew.
The Campaign and Scenario pack includes 22 Territory cards, 24 Scenario cards, and six rules reference cards. This should be particularly useful for groups running longer narrative campaigns, where tracking territories, scenarios, gang development, and ongoing effects can quickly become complicated.
Neither pack is essential in the same way as the rulebooks, but both offer a convenient way to keep frequently referenced information on the table rather than constantly searching through a book.
Underhive Crew Boxes
New Underhive Crew boxes are arriving for Houses Cawdor, Orlock, Goliath, Escher, Delaque, and Van Saar. Each contains approximately 16 to 20 miniatures assembled from existing kits, along with a House-specific Weapons and Upgrades Set.
These are useful bundles for new players who want to build a larger gang immediately, but it is worth being honest about what they are. These are not entirely new gang releases. They are primarily repackaged collections of existing miniatures with an additional upgrade sprue included.
That reinforces the overall feeling of this release. It is less about expanding Necromunda with a major wave of new gangs and more about reorganizing the existing range into better starting points.
For someone entering the game, these boxes may provide a convenient and flexible roster in one purchase. For experienced players who already own the underlying kits, there may be considerably less here to get excited about beyond the weapon and upgrade options.
Zone Mortalis Factoria Pipes
The new Zone Mortalis Factoria Pipes expand the industrial terrain range with rusted pipelines, machinery, connectors, and larger construction options than those included in the Core Set.
Necromunda benefits enormously from dense, atmospheric terrain, and this kit should work well for anyone building a claustrophobic Underhive board. It should also blend naturally with existing Zone Mortalis collections and could easily find a home on Warhammer 40,000 industrial battlefields.
This may not be the flashiest release in the wave, but it is one of the more broadly useful additions.
Condition and Status Markers
Necromunda games can involve a large number of injuries, conditions, and ongoing effects, so a dedicated set of 64 double-sided plastic markers should make battlefield tracking much easier.
These are functional rather than exciting, but players running larger gangs or campaign games may appreciate having clear, durable markers instead of relying on improvised tokens.
Necromunda Bases
New Necromunda-themed bases are also arriving in 28.5mm and 50mm sizes.
The 28.5mm bases come in packs of 10, randomly divided between four designs, while the larger 50mm bases come in packs of three. They are an easy way to give a gang a consistent industrial appearance without building every base from scratch.
The Wicked and the Warped May Be the Real Headliner
Although Necromunda is leading the release, the biggest attraction this week may actually be the new Black Library novel.
The Wicked and the Warped is the long-awaited sequel to Robert Rath’s The Infinite and the Divine, once again following Trazyn the Infinite and Orikan the Diviner. This time, the pair are attempting to repair their already complicated relationship while pursuing a lost expedition and investigating a relic dating back to the War in Heaven.
The original novel became one of the most popular modern Black Library releases, attracting readers well beyond dedicated Necron fans. Because of that demand, we expect the regular edition of The Wicked and the Warped to receive a very tight retail allocation.
Anyone hoping to secure the standard hardback should keep that possibility in mind. Demand for this release is likely to be significant, and available quantities may not come close to matching the number of readers looking for a copy.
A limited special edition is also coming, although that version will only be available directly from Games Workshop while supplies last.
The Infinite and the Divine Returns
To accompany the sequel, the hardback edition of The Infinite and the Divine is returning to print. For those that missed out on the recently released Annotated and Illustrated release of this classic, this may be your last chance to snag a hardback of this particular book for a long time.
This is excellent news for readers who missed the earlier printing or only discovered the novel after it became difficult to find. Anyone interested in The Wicked and the Warped should strongly consider reading the original first, both for the story and for the wonderfully petty rivalry between its two immortal Necron leads.
Final Thoughts
This Necromunda release is best viewed as a relaunch and consolidation rather than a major expansion.
The new Core Set appears to be a genuinely strong entry point, giving new players the rules, miniatures, terrain, and accessories needed to enter the Underhive without sorting through years of releases. The reorganized gang books should also make the wider game easier to understand and manage.
For existing players, the offering is less substantial. Many of the gang boxes are repackaged existing miniatures with new upgrade sprues, and much of the release is focused on updated rules, reference materials, and convenience products.
The surprise headliner may ultimately be The Wicked and the Warped. Given the popularity of The Infinite and the Divine, we expect demand to be extremely high and retail allocations to be especially tight.
Necromunda may own the marquee this week, but Trazyn and Orikan could very easily steal the entire show.
