Necromunda Reinforcements Arrive for Goliath and Escher
The new edition of Necromunda is barely out the door, and Games Workshop is already moving quickly to flesh out the two gangs featured in the new core set.
This week belongs almost entirely to House Goliath and House Escher, with both gangs receiving their specialist units, new character kits, Underhive Journals, cards, and dice. Black Library rounds things out with two new novels, including the next chapter in Huron Blackheart’s story.
Pre-orders for this wave go live during The After Dark at Midnight EST on 09/05.
One important availability note before we get into everything: the Special Edition of Blackheart: Claws of the Maelstrom is a Games Workshop direct-only release and will not be available through Wargame Portal or other third-party retailers. The regular hardback edition will be available normally.
Necromunda Takes the Next Step
When we looked at the new Necromunda edition previously, our biggest takeaway was that it felt less like a dramatic reinvention of the game and more like Games Workshop establishing a cleaner starting point for new players entering the Underhive.
This week's release reinforces that impression.
Rather than immediately expanding outward into entirely new gangs, GW is taking the Goliath and Escher forces included in the core set and giving players the rest of the pieces needed to turn those starter gangs into something substantially more developed.
For anyone who picked up the new core box, this is probably the release wave that makes that purchase start to feel like the beginning of a proper gang rather than simply a self-contained starter experience.
House Goliath Gets More Muscle
Goliath players are getting a fairly substantial reinforcement wave.
The Goliath Forge Smelters bring eight additional specialists to the gang, giving players another infantry option beyond the basic bruisers that typically define House Goliath.
They are joined by the much more visually interesting Forge Bosses and Sumpkrocs set, which includes six champions and two Sumpkrocs.
And yes, giant angry sump creatures remain one of the reasons Necromunda is allowed to be considerably weirder than Warhammer 40,000 proper.
From a hobby perspective, this is probably the standout Goliath kit of the wave. Character-heavy kits tend to be where Necromunda's designers get to stretch their legs, and adding a pair of barely domesticated monsters gives the box considerably more personality than another collection of conventional gang fighters would have.
Underhive Journal: Goliath – The House of Chains
The other major piece of the release is Underhive Journal: Goliath – The House of Chains.
This 48-page paperback adds variant rules, additional background material, and expanded gene-smithing mechanics for House Goliath.
This is where we suspect the new edition's release structure will become clearer.
Rather than immediately replacing the older gang books with another large hardcover cycle, Games Workshop appears to be using these smaller Underhive Journals to update and expand the individual houses alongside the new edition.
For established players, the value here is obviously going to depend heavily on how much of the material is genuinely new versus reorganized or updated from previous publications. For newer players coming in through the core set, however, this looks like the natural next purchase once you decide Goliath is your gang.
Goliath also receive their expected reference cards and themed dice, rounding out what is essentially a complete faction support wave.
The cards are probably the more practically useful of the two, particularly in a game like Necromunda where keeping track of fighters, territories, tactics, and various campaign mechanics can become its own little side job.
The dice, meanwhile, are dice. If you're a Goliath player, you'll probably want them anyway.
House Escher Answers in Kind
House Escher receives an almost mirrored release.
The Blades of the Matriarch specialists from the new Necromunda core set arrive separately, giving existing Escher players a way to add those miniatures without having to buy the entire starter box.
This is something we are generally happy to see.
Starter-set exclusivity is understandable during a launch window, but getting those miniatures into standalone boxes quickly is much healthier for established players who already own terrain, rules, and full gangs.
The more interesting kit is the new Matriarchs and Phyrr Cats set, containing six Matriarchs and two of Escher's rather unpleasant feline companions.
Like the Goliath Forge Bosses box, this is where the release starts feeling distinctly Necromunda rather than simply "more infantry."
Necromunda is at its best when its factions are exaggerated, strange, and full of character, and packs like this do considerably more for the identity of a gang than another basic squad ever could.
Underhive Journal: Escher – The House of Blades
Escher players also receive their own 48-page expansion with Underhive Journal: Escher – The House of Blades.
The book adds rules for Wyld Hunt gangs and Chymist Cults, alongside expanded chem-alchemy options and additional House Escher lore.
Of the two journals, the Escher book may be the slightly more interesting proposition simply because those alternate gang concepts sound like they could substantially change how an Escher force is constructed and played.
Wyld Hunts leaning further into dangerous animals feels particularly appropriate for the gang, while expanded chem-alchemy has always been one of the more thematic mechanics attached to House Escher.
As with Goliath, players can also pick up a new set of reference cards and House Escher dice, this time in translucent yellow with purple pips.
A Sensible Second Wave for the New Edition
Taken together, the Goliath and Escher releases aren't especially surprising, but they make sense.
Games Workshop has effectively taken the two gangs introduced in the new core set and immediately given players a clear upgrade path:
Core gang → specialist fighters → characters → faction journal → accessories.
For someone completely new to Necromunda, that's considerably easier to understand than being dropped into years of campaign books, supplements, gang expansions, and miscellaneous releases and being expected to figure out what is actually relevant.
Existing players may find the wave less exciting, particularly if portions of the new journals overlap heavily with material they already own, but the new miniatures themselves are doing most of the heavy lifting here.
The character packs in particular are exactly the kind of kits Necromunda should keep producing.
White Dwarf Issue 528
Away from the Underhive, White Dwarf Issue 528 turns its attention toward the considerably larger inhabitants of the Mortal Realms.
The Ogor Mawtribes headline the issue with a battle report against the Ossiarch Bonereapers, accompanied by a Paint Splatter painting guide.
There is also a hobby feature covering customisation for the increasingly ridiculous and wonderful Cogforts, while Warhammer 40,000 gets some Ork attention with lore surrounding Snikrot's Red Skull Kommandos.
Players with a Gorkanaut or Morkanaut can also find rules for bringing them into White Dwarf's Titanic Duel minigame.
As usual with White Dwarf, whether this is an essential pickup will depend almost entirely on which armies and hobby projects you're currently interested in.
For Ogor players, though, this is a particularly relevant issue.
Blackheart: Claws of the Maelstrom
The more eye-catching Black Library release this week is Blackheart: Claws of the Maelstrom by Marc Collins.
Huron Blackheart's campaign continues following his retreat from Chogoris, with the Tyrant of Badab continuing his war against the White Scars throughout the Yasan Sector.
Unfortunately for Huron, attracting the attention of the sons of Jaghatai is suddenly the smaller problem.
The Tyranids are pouring out of the Cicatrix Maledictum and into his territory, threatening both his current war and the empire Huron has spent years building following the fall of Badab.
Huron remains one of Chaos Space Marines' more interesting characters precisely because he exists somewhere between pirate king, warlord, empire builder, and opportunistic monster. Throwing the Great Devourer into his domain gives Marc Collins plenty of room to explore what happens when someone as calculating as Huron encounters an enemy that fundamentally cannot be negotiated with, intimidated, or bribed.
The novel will receive both a regular hardback edition and a Special Edition.
However, the Special Edition is direct only through Games Workshop and will not be available from Wargame Portal or other third-party retailers.
If you're looking to pick the novel up from us during The After Dark, it will be the standard hardback edition.
Voice of Command
The second Black Library release is Voice of Command by Richard Swan.
This one shifts away from superhuman warlords and galactic monsters and back toward the considerably less forgiving perspective of the Astra Militarum.
The Cadian 2002nd Mechanised Regiment has spent two years grinding its way across a shrine world and appears to finally be approaching the end of the campaign.
Naturally, this being the Imperial Guard, everything begins going wrong just before victory.
Political interference, Inquisition inspections, difficult commanders, and an ominous blue star hanging overhead are all complicating Colonel Gabriel "Venom" Velterson's final assault on Saint Stanislava's Adoration.
Richard Swan is an interesting choice for an Imperial Guard novel, and the setup has the potential to deliver exactly the sort of military pressure cooker that works well for Astra Militarum fiction.
Of the two Black Library books this week, Blackheart has the bigger marquee character, but Voice of Command may end up being the sleeper release.
Our Take
This isn't a massive release week, but it is a much more coherent Necromunda wave than the launch itself.
The new edition established a starting point. This release begins filling it out.
For existing players, the strongest products are probably the new Forge Bosses and Sumpkrocs and Escher Matriarchs and Phyrr Cats, where we're getting the strange character-driven miniature design that makes Necromunda stand apart from Games Workshop's larger systems.
For anyone who entered the game through the new core set, the Underhive Journals become considerably more important. They provide an obvious next layer of rules and faction identity without immediately asking a new player to navigate Necromunda's famously sprawling library of supplements.
And on the Black Library side, Huron Blackheart facing down a Tyranid invasion is a strong enough premise that Claws of the Maelstrom may end up being one of the more popular books in the wave.
Pre-orders for the available releases go live during The After Dark at Midnight EST on 09/05.
