New NECROMUNDA SKIRMISH - First Impressions & Ideas

Storyline / Setting (Overview)

• Necromunda: Warhammer Skirmish (2026) is set in the Hive City, governed by noble/clan houses.
• The rulebook explains how these houses are structured and presented.
• The rules emphasize campaign play, including:
  • Founding/creating a gang
  • Post-battle/post-cycle sequences
• Additional campaign detail is expected to be expanded in later materials.

Gameplay Highlights (What the Video Focuses On)

Contents & Components (First Impressions)

The core set includes:

• A range ruler (similar style to other Warhammer eras; not the older “whippy stick”).
• Templates (the same three as in prior editions).
• Miniatures, including:
  • Two identical sprues each for House Escher and House Goliath.
• Plastic status/injury tokens, such as:
  • Serious Injuries (e.g., Flesh Wounds)
  • Status markers like Panicked, Out of Ammo, and Activation markers
  • Suppressed-type status, with confirmation that Webbed still exists
• A terrain sprue, though only a small amount (the video suggests integrating parts onto tiles for a sparser look).
• Dice (black/yellow).
• Bases sized differently for different gangs:
  • Goliath larger
  • Escher smaller
• The box is positioned as being aimed at new players.

Rulebook Structure & Notable Changes

The presenter highlights that the new core rulebook includes:

• Skills
• Trading post
• Necromunda campaigns
• Gang creation/founding a gang
• A law section (mentioned, though the creator tends to skip it to get to the core rules)
• House information (from House Escher to House Vans)
• Core mechanics:
  • Measuring
  • Line of sight/cover
  • Model statuses
  • Shooting
  • Close combat
  • Weird powers
• References indicating Marlains and Spyruses (Spyr) are confirmed for later playability.

Cover Rules Simplified

Cover is streamlined into a binary rule:

• If the target is fully visible → not in cover
• If any part is obscured by terrain/models → in cover

Soft/Heavy cover distinctions are removed:

• Cover no longer has soft and heavy variants.

Suppressed Status Explained (Instead of Pinned Behavior)

Suppressed is a new/clarified condition:

• Models generally become suppressed from enemy fire.
• A suppressed model performs one less action during activation.
• If a suppressed model becomes engaged by an enemy model, it immediately changes to engaged.
• A model cannot be both suppressed and engaged at the same time.

Characteristics & Lethality

• Initiative appears to be standardized as a number, rather than a “+” modifier.
• Maximum characteristic values are described as very high, with example maxima cited as:
  • 10 wounds
  • 10 initiative
  • 10 attacks
  • 12 movement
• Lethality is explicitly equated to damage (treated as the same concept).

Action Economy & Turn Structure

• The game retains alternating activations (“go, I go”), rather than an all-activations-by-one-side approach.
• Actions are categorized as:
  • Single actions
  • Double actions
  • Free actions
• The presenter notes that the naming differs from some prior presentations (no “simple/basic/double” terminology).

Specific Action Examples

Treat Ally

• Choose one seriously injured friendly fighter within 1 inch.
• That fighter makes a recovery test immediately.

Dash

• Dash distance = movement characteristic + initiative characteristic (in inches).
• The presenter compares archetypes, noting higher initiative yields longer dashes.

Shooting Streamlining

• The hit roll happens before cover is determined.
• Cover modifies the armor save as a bonus.
• Firepower dice are used only for rapid fire weapons:
  • Ammo X / rapid-fire require ammo dice to determine if out of ammo.
  • Other “common” weapons are treated as more plentiful, reducing bookkeeping/time.

Close Combat

Close combat is presented as a major area of change, including:

• Differences related to reaction attacks
• Changes to initiative determination

The presenter explicitly defers deeper close-combat details to a later, more comprehensive video.

Key Strategies / Tips Mentioned (High Level)

• Plan for a new baseline: the creator intends to start fresh with House Goliath, then build/paint/kit and campaign through progression (framed as a potential “how to approach the new edition” series idea).
• Use the streamlined cover model to speed play and reduce ambiguity:
  • fully visible = no cover
  • any obscurity = cover
• Track Suppressed properly:
  • expect -1 action
  • remember it can flip to engaged when contact occurs
• Dash math favors high initiative gangs:
  • Escher-style gangs can dash farther than Goliath-style gangs in the presenter’s example.

Gamers / Sources Featured (End Mentions)

• Games Workshop (credited as supplying the review copy)
• Warhammer Community article (referenced as a source for seeing the Escher fighter/preview information)