Damn bastard, strutting around like a he was a cock-a-whoop, Polonia-210 grumbled under her breath as she patched up the severely bleeding Teknomat. His combo flamer lay next to him, still searing hot to the touch. It was just bad luck he’d been hit just as the Tek Hunters were withdrawing after accomplishing their mission: to check out both the data stacks on this first entry level in the abandoned Tek Hunter’s Camp. He’d miss the next battle for sure. The good news was he’d recover in time for the follow up.
The damned Spyre Hunter from House Ulanti clanked by, Brood Scum blood still dripping down his power fists. I suppose he has a reason to be so cocky. He took down 5 Brood Scum all by himself while the rest of the Tek Hunters were still scrambling to adjust to the perpetual darkness of Hive Secundus. No wonder they call it the Underhells…
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Thus went my first actual battle for Necromunda Hive Secundus after a learning game where I got a lot of rules wrong.
The game is a very limited Necromunda-themed dungeon crawl. Out of the box, there are 2 factions: the Van Saar Tek Hunters and the Malstrain Genestealers. The campaign has the Tek Hunters under the leadership of a Spyre Hunter (technically another faction) in place of a regular Van Saar leader. The fluff is they need the experienced Spyre Hunter who makes a life out of hunting and killing foes in the Underhells as their sole raison d'être. The Malstrain Genestealers on the other hand consist of a force of endless hordes of Brood Scum (Genestealer Cultists by any other name) and some mutated fat flying ticks led by a group of Malstrain Genestealers. Mutated Genestealers that according to the fluff have been rejected by the main Tyranid Genestealer Hive due to their impure (mutated) nature. Apparently this is reflected in their stats as they are less scary than normal Genestealers. But it’s still bad enough and one charging Malstrain Genestealer can tear a normal Tek Hunter to shreds.
You do get to build up your Incursion Gang (what they call the mad people who foolishly venture into the Underhells of Hive Secundus) the normal way using credits to spend. The Malstrain just get Malstrain points to spend on their forces. Very odd. BUT… it actually works for a solo game which this particular campaign was easy to do: just use AI cards similar to Blackstone Fortress or Darktide Minis Game. Also, the Malstrain (in this specific campaign) do not level up. At all. Or get new stuff. What you start with is what you get throughout the entire campaign.
The minis themselves: you can see plenty of unboxing videos and review videos on YouTube. The long and short of it is: the Van Saar Tek Hunters have extremely specific builds that lack the variety you can get from a normal Necromunda gang. They are also UNNECESSARILY fiddly to build! (And this isn't just my opinion). The Brood Scum have more variety and you can build anything you want (to the limit of their equipment list) and provided you have the bit parts that aren’t in the provided sprues. The Malstrain Genestealers - like the Van Saar - have very limited, specific builds. Not much in terms of variety here.
Core game play rules are supposedly simple but there are so many unclear rules that I really need to dig deep into Reddit and Yaktribe to ask for clarifications. You can play one off games (skirmish) but the game shines in campaign mode where you can level up and improve your gang members.
The 2-player Underhells dungeon crawl campaign is divided into phases:
Incursion Phase : 2 battles, with rest and recover and some post-battle actions after each battle.
Downtime Phase : rest and recover and do some post-battle actions.
Exploration Phase: 2 battles, with rest and recover and some post-battle actions after each battle.
Downtime Phase : rest and recover and do some post-battle actions.
Confrontation Phase : 2 battles, with the final battle being control for the Brood Throne.
So no matter how well you do as the Incursion Gang in the earlier battles, you can win all your early battles but lose the entire campaign if you lose the final battle. Be warned!
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In my first game of the Underhells campaign* I started in the Abandoned Tek Hunter’s Camp territory (you gain boon if you win the game) with the Into the Underhells scenario. Victory condition is: harvest at least 1 data crystal each from the 2 data stacks terrain on the map and the Orrus Hunter has to achieve 4 kills and you win. The game lasts for 6 rounds.
I managed to win even with some rules errors: the Spyre Hunter cannot harvest data crystals because they have NO interest in data crystals. All they want are to KILL ENEMIES. This allows them to unlock upgrades to their Hunting Rigs to improve their stats and gear. They can NEVER gain extra gear throughout the entire campaign so what they start with is what they get. My Spyre Hunter cost 400 credits out of the initial 1250 allowed to build my gang. Although they are the nominal leaders of the gang, they also don’t care about the other members of the Incursion gang so the Tek Hunters are left to their own devices throughout the entire campaign. This differs from the gang leaders in other campaign games in Necromunda.
Post battle, the Orrus Spyre Hunter unlocked the Thickened Armour Upgrade, making his armour save now 3+ instead of 4+.
The Gunntek fabricated a Las Carbine to replace the normal Lasguns the other Tek Hunters carried.
The wounded Teknomat couldn’t craft anything. Too busy convalescing. (Photo was the exact moment the Teknomat went down.) That 'dead' icon doesn't necessarily mean dead. You have a very very slim chance of actually dying, by rolling a 6,6 on 2d6. Most of the time you're severely wounded and have to spend time convalescing, with an associated penalty (long term injury) like lowered speed (permanent leg injury) or lowered shoot skill (permanent eye injury) although for the Van Saar faction, once these guys come out of the Underhells, that makes them eligible for a cybernetic implants... apparently.
The 2 Augurteks collected 2 Archeotech items from the data crystals harvested: a Hunting Beacon that allows the Tek Hunters to not have to make a Fear roll when activating more than 6” from another Tek Hunter. This extends the range to 12” from a specific Tek Hunter that’s equipped with this item. I made it one of the Augurteks because he had to stay roughly in the middle of the gang to benefit from an item called an Augurspex he carried: basically no foes can spawn within 12” of this guy as long as he’s on the board. This is a big thing because otherwise foes can spawn within 6” of the Tek Hunters, allowing them to make an immediate charge when they activate. The other was a one use Nano-Med that allows you to heal wounds.
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In my second game, the mission was Data Crystal Harvest during the First Descent into the Underhells via the Ancient Conveyor Territory. The boon if I control this territory was I can re-roll the next mission if I don’t like it.
So here the Tek Hunters have 6 rounds to harvest 6 data crystals (minimum) with the catch being the data stacks on this level are severely degraded and accusing them more than once per round will cause a shut down, so the Tek Hunters can’t harvest data crystals the next round. There are 2 data stacks per level but with the ever present threat of Malstrain Genestealers spawning in the mid to late stage of the game… very risky. Concentrate on one data stack: slow and steady) or be adventurous and harvest from 2 data stacks, risking certain death or injury when the Malstrain Genestealer spawns? (Photo below shows how the Malstrain side kept missing this game. Should have hit on 3+ from 2 dice but... when you keep rolling 1's and 2's... what can you do?)
The Orrus Spyre Hunter had to achieve a minimum of 6 kills. Each 4 kills will unlock one Hunting Rig suit upgrade.
Long and short: the Tek Hunters managed the win (thanks to some rules misunderstandings on my part). To be fair to me though, I watched YouTube game play video that
- Showed you win as soon as you accomplish the scenario’s victory conditions
- Showed even if you achieve the Victory conditions you either stay on the map till the bitter end (the full 6 rounds) or attempt to leave the map voluntarily. (Welcome to Necromunda!)
Thankfully no one was severely injured this battle (due to extremely poor rolls on the Malstrain side), so there were lots of upgrades to go round.
POST BATTLE:
The Spyre Hunter unlocked:
Combat Neuroware, improving his fight skill to 2+
Thickened Armour (again!) improving his Save to 2+
He also used his plentiful XP to unlock some stat improvements. More Toughness, More Wounds etc.
These 2 have been maxed out so next time I roll on the table for the same upgrade, I upgrade the suit weapons instead.
Another Las Carbine was fabricated by the Gunntek and the Teknomat (fresh out of Recovery) fabricated some Mesh Armour for the medic.
The 2 Augurteks managed to get
- Ablative Energy Shield (one off “get out of jail free” card when taking a hit that will kill you)
- Displacement Harness (teleport 2d6 inches!!!)
And here’s where I’ll stop for my first report session.
Am enjoying the short, self-contained campaign for now. I stopped so I could finish assembling the minis and to paint the Malstrain Genestealers, Brood Scum and Tyramites.
Here they are in all their painted glory:
NEXT: The Exploration Phase where things get tougher the deeper the Incursion Gang descends into the Underhells!
* To make things extremely confusing, there’s an Underhells campaign in the 2-player starter box that’s extremely specific to the models contained in the starter box… and there’s an Underhells campaign that’s contained in the Book of Desolation add on that’s similar yet different to the one in the starter set. Confused yet? Welcome to Necromunda!
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