Necromunda was released in 1995 as a specialist game by Games Workshop while I was still in college. My circle of friends immediately found a passion for this wonderful skirmish game that was set in the seedy Underhive of the Warhammer 40K universe. There has always been a special place in my heart for Necromunda. It was both approachable and had depth to make it long-lasting to play. The small number of miniatures needed to field a gang created a low barrier to entry, especially for cash-strapped college students. The rules system was pretty easy to digest and there were not any gaping rules differences or power imbalances between the rival houses. But, where it really shined for me was in playing a campaign. The ability for gang members to gain experience and new skills or be wounded from session to session gave me a wonderful affinity for my gang and created a cohesion to the campaign story arc that I never received from battles in 40K. Having a close-knit group of friends and playing a semester long Necromunda campaign is definitely one of my fondest gaming memories of all time.
This trip down memory lane was courtesy of a handful of photographs that I found in a shoebox a couple of weeks ago. These photos are from 1997 and were taken at a house that my friends and I lived in while working on our degrees. The miniatures are my House Cawdor gang shot against the Underhive that consumed our kitchen table for the better part of a year.
Ah man! I LOVED the Necromunda rules, but never got to play!
ReplyDeleteI've heard similar from other people too, that they enjoyed the rules and the way the game looked but didn't have the community of people around them to play. I feel very fortunate that I had the perfect situation with my friends when it launched and was able to play it. Similarly, I never had a chance to play Blood Bowl until last year. In general, finding people to play with seems to be a problem with a lot of the GW specialist games. I guess that's true for any of the smaller distributed/marketed games regardless of publisher.
ReplyDeleteI always thought the terrain was intimidating, especially the stuff that was in the rulebook. But, check this out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wargames-Warhammer-40K-Necromunda-Scenery-Masive-Terrain-Set-/350837274515?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item51af87f793
Up until Necromunda, my friends and I never really worried about how terrain looked. We played many 40K games just using CD jewel cases to create hills. Once we started Necromunda though, a whole new modeling and hobby world opened for us. The cool thing about Necromunda is that everything is meant to look kind of industrial and used so often times it's a way to recycle something you're just going to toss. I think the green and red feature that you see in the pictures was just a repainted motor housing from an old blender or something. The ladders were made from model railroad track. It's amazing how simply repainting some things that you have around and then sticking them together can create a great looking Underhive.
ReplyDeleteThat die-cut scenery that you linked to on eBay is really neat. I would've loved to have had that!
Ah!!! The days of Necromunda! I fielded a House Escher gang (Mostly cuz I thought the chick with the big plasma cannon was sooooo cool!); if you check my blog, you will see a "Mad Donna Ulanti" mini I recently sold that I never got to use. There were only three of us that played as the game never really got any traction being released at a time GW was going through some internal stuff... but a great game none-the-less! Love the carry-over roster aspect from Necro and BB! Such fun!
ReplyDeleteHey I played Necromunda!!! I had Delaque, and Ratskins. My brother had Cawdor which I have now inherited, and my pal in College had Goliath and Orlock which I've also inherited. ha ha I really liked the game. Mordheim could have been so much better!!!
ReplyDeleteI never played Mordheim. It seemed neat too, but having come from playing a lot of 40K the theme in Necromunda resonated with me much more. On the surface it seemed like one was fantasy and the other sci-fi, but I understand that there are some significant differences to the way the games play.
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