Necromunda has left the Hive and moved to the lawless lands beyond! Necromunda: Ash Wastes is the first Necromunda expansion to not take place in the alleys, tunnels and manufactoriums of the Hive itself, and it will be interesting how the community will take it! In essence they seemed to be after a Mad Max style aesthetic, but is that what they got? Time will tell, but the massive new box is certainly a standout. If you're just keen on the Nomads themselves, then you'll be happy to know that the Ash Waste Nomads War Party, the Ash Waste Nomads Dustback Helamites and the Ash Waste Nomads Gang Tactics Cards are also up for pre-order this week - a smart move by GW. Maybe not such a smart move is the inclusion of the Orlocks in the set. It absolutely goes with the background, but without fresh paintjobs, or alternative colour schemes, these minis look very out of place. Would be potentially be more interesting to have a new Gang or even a different type of Enforcer. Suffice to say, the Orlock Outrider Quads and Orlock Vehicle Gang Tactics Cards also come out this week if you want to add to your existing Orlock gang.
Australasia doesn't get all the books this week - but we do get Penitent – Bequin, Book 2 in paperback, and the Carta Galactica map, featuring the Western Hemisphere of Necromunda.

So what does the rest of the world get? The reissue of the Imperial Infantryman’s Handbook, the amazing looking Limited Edition Huron Blackheart: Master of the Maelstrom, and very oddly, the Forge World Orlock Upgrades. There's something very odd here. Forge World aren't in stores here - everything comes by mail - so why are these not released for Australasia? It's not like they have to be in the country...

The release of the Sisters of Battle forces hase been a bit of a weird one - the deluxe box followed by intermittent releases, but today it all comes to an end with the final miniatures previewed all those months ago. It's actually quite a good time to get in, as the Combat Patrol: Adepta Sororitas has the backbone of a force, plus the release next week of the Castigator to give them some extra hitting power. The Sisters also get a new character in the shape of Aestred Thurga, Reliquant at Arms, who not only has a great banner, but an offsider who reminds is of Baldrick from Blackadder!
Talking of staggered releases, the update to the Delaque gang is here, with the new Necromunda: House Of Shadow which gives background and new forces to the gang of assassins, including the new Delaque Nacht-Ghul, Psy-Gheists and Piscean Spektor minis - which are weird and kind of cool, but a pretty sizeable departure from the minis we have seen before. Of course what would a release be with the requisite House of Shadow Dice and Delaque Gang Tactics Cards. In other Necromunda news, there's a great new weapon upgrade set, the Orlock Weapons & Upgrades, which not only gives you upgrades for them, but arms with rolled up sleeves - converters go forth and buy!!
There's some reissue scenery coming next week in the Battlezone: Mechanicus – Charadon. If you want to get these bits indiviudually, you can pick them up as the Battlezone: Mechanicus – Battlefield, Battlezone: Mechanicus – Ferratonic Furnace, Battlezone: Mechanicus – Galvanic Magnavent, and Battlezone: Mechanicus – Transterranic Gantries. On their own they're a bit useless, so having them together is actually quite good. There's also the new Battlezone: Mechanicum – Terrain Datasheet Cards.
In merch news, we have the Siege of Terra: Lion’s Gate Space Port Map, which you can add to your existing Horus Heresy maps, and in books it's the paperback version of ​The First Wall The Horus Heresy: Siege of Terra Book 3, which I think is the third of fourth version of this book that's been released.

Back in 2017 - aaaaah, simpler times - I set about doing an Enforcer gang for the then-brand new incarnation of Necromunda. At the time there were no minis or rules for Enforcers, so I made them up!
Combining Imperial Guard and Genestealer Cult parts, they came up pretty well and suited how I saw a unit of private security forces tasked to the Merchant Guild, outside the formal law and order structure. 
Since then Games Workshop has been fleshed out the Merchant Guild and the Enforcers, but still this little unit of hardened private security operators are one of the favourite things I've painted.
When the new 'Jotunn' H-Grade Industrial Servitor Ogryns for Necromunda came out I saw the perfect opportunity to make a hulking brute to escort the Merchant Guild Emissary I'd made. With a tonne of both Green and Brown Stuff moulded to look like a larger version of the Imperial Guard armour I'd used on the Enforcers, he was set to go. I could have added more weapons, but unsure of the game loadout I settled on a fluffy power maul which seemed suited to smashing his way through almost anything.

When it came to painting the Brute. he sticks very closely to the Enforcers, but adds the bling to parts of his uniform that a bodyguard of such a rich Guild would have. I was concerned about the gold with the orange, being to warm tones, but the cold steel between seems to work. The cool greys and white also break it up a bit. The paint job isn't perfect, and I do wish I was an amazing painter, but he stands out on the field and overall I'm really happy with him. Orange is a bit of a pain to keep clean while painting, so I recommend a surgical glove to keep your hand oils from making the orange too dirty or dulling down the overall finish.

It's not until you put this guy next to the other minis you see how huge he actually is! He does look like he would take good care of his emissary though, and the Merchant Guild Enforcers would surely be happy to have their back.
Overall not the best shots - I'll work out this LED photobox thingy one day - but you get the idea. He looks much better in real life and away from the harsh lights and tight closeups!

It's quite a diverse week for pre-orders, and for a change, let's start with The Hobbit because they have a great new miniature in the form of Éomer, Marshal of the Riddermark. Not only does he come mounted and dismounted, but also comes with weapon options and four head options, meaning you can use him as other characters or even a great source of bitz for other minis. The Eomer release is backed by yet more Profile Cards with the Hobbit – Good Profile Card Pack, the Hobbit – Dwarves Profile Card Pack and the Hobbit - Evil Profile Card Pack giving you stats for your forces. There's also a cool book, the Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game: Best of White Dwarf Magazine which would be great for those who don't get the magazine, but would like some new content.
As you know, the Middle-earth miniatures are slightly smaller scale to the normal GW miniature, but if you want really small you have to go to Aeronautica, and this week we get some new planes - the venerable Imperial Navy Avenger Strike Fighters to give yet more firepower to the Imperium. 
A surprise release for Necromunda when first previewed, we finally get our hands on the Ogryn Gang, adding considerable brute force to the Necromunda game. Mostly lacking serious firepower, they make up for it in melee usage. Interestingly the release is the larger Slave Ogryn Gang set, and also the smaller 'Jotunn' H-Grade Industrial Servitor Ogryns. It's better value for money to get the larger set, as you basically get two for free. These will be kitbashed to Hell and back for every Imperial Guard force considering the current Ogryn models for the Imperial Guard are so poor. It's not just the big boys who get to play in Necromunda, it's also the deadly ladies as well, with Escher getting reinforcements via the Death-maidens and Wyld Runners which introduces some beastly companions and some great poses for the Escher gang. Both of these releases get cards with the Slave Ogryn Gang Tactics Cards and Escher Gang Tactics Cards out, plus there's the new Open Hive War Card Pack and Zone Mortalis Gang Tactics Cards. These releases are all off the back of the new Necromunda expansion, House of Blades which gives much more detail on the Escher gang and new units and rules. The book gets a House of Blades Dice and there's a House of Chains Dice too. 
If you're more of a sporting hobbyist, then maybe Blood Bowl gets your heart pounding. Something that's unlikely to meet with too much excitement is the new team though, the Crud Creek Nosepickers. Mainly there for entertainment value, there's also the Blood Bowl Snotling Team Dice, Blood Bowl Double-sided Snotling Pitch and Dugout and Spike! Journal Issue 10 which gives rules and tactics for the Snotlings in the game.
Books this week include the new Warhammer Crime anthology No Good Men, the paperback version of Farsight: Empire of Lies for some Tau goodness, the Warhammer Age of Sigmar anthology Oaths and Conquests and the paperback version of Watchers of the Throne: The Regent's Shadow.

Why is here a heap of plastic sprues to the left? Well it's not any heap of plastic - it's the birth of Zone Mortalis in plastic. If you've every played Horus Heresy, then you will know the importance of the Zone Mortalis missions, which have previously have needed the cumbersome Forge World tiles. Well with those being discontinued earlier this year, Games Workshop has remade them, in plastic and much more modular for their new Necromunda expansion, Dark Uprising! The Dark Uprising set is huge, with a new gang, new Enforcers, new plastic buildings and scenery. It's not cheap but probably well worth the value. The set comes with a cardboard mat, but if you prefer a plastic one, then there is the Zone Mortalis Floor Tile Set - 4 x 12" flat plastic tiles in the exact style of the Forge World ones. This is a huge advance - the Forge World ones were full of resin bubbles and often sunken in the middle. This is brilliant and sure to sell out. There's also a Zone Mortalis Bases Set, which looks suspiciously like the bass from the Necromunda game, which is a real shame because bases to match the new tiles would have been brilliant! There's also Necromunda Dice and the new Necomunda Book of Ruin expansion and the Underhive Graffiti Transfer Sheet. Now if you're a very good ganger and order the Dark Uprising set from the GW webstore, you will also get the Necromunda: Dark Uprising Keyring.
The Red Gobbo is up for pre-order on the GW site this morning, but interestingly a number of independent retailers had it up last week, so not sure what that's about. It's supposed to be available in store today...
There's more Middle-Earth this week with the new Evil Profile Card Pack, Good Profile Card Pack and Dwarves Profile Card Pack for The Hobbit as well as some Made To Order minis including Mirkwood Elf Captains, Young Thorin, Balin and Dwalin, Thranduil, King of Mirkwood (in all his guises), Legolas Greenleaf and Tauriel, Mirkwood Hunters and Narzug and Fimbul, Hunter Orc Captains.
An interesting one which seems oddly out of place this week, the Warcry Starter Collection has popped up.
In books we have some omnibus' - Myths & Revenants in paperback, the Warhammer Chronicles Thanquol and Boneripper in paperback, and the Blackstone Fortress anthology Vaults of Obsidian in hardback.
It's also time for White Dwarf November 2019. which includes a gallery of kitbashed Inquisitors and their retinues which could interest INQ28 and Blanchitsu hobbyists.  

With two exciting universes having new releases this week, it was a bit of a tough choice to see who went first - but with Warcry getting a lot of Community buzz (despite the ridiculous two week pre-order window), they won out.
The last three Warcry warbands are on offer this weekend, and what a delight they are - packed with detail and dynamically posed, they offer a lot in themselves and certainly a lot in terms of bitz for the bitz box! From the horrendous The Unmade, to the cunning Splintered Fang (those helmets!) to the swift strike of the Corvus Cabal, each of these warbands offers something new ion terms of the aspects of Chaos. Like last week, this week we also get another Ravaged Lands terrain piece, this time the Shattered Stormvault.
The other biggie this week are the Palanite Enforcers for Necromunda. Not to be confused with the Adeptus Arbites, these guys now slot somewhere under that piece of venerable fluff to take on the street level crims and hive scum. This set is basically two identical sprues with two main weapon options - a very cool human-sized bolter or a shotgun. Disappointingly there are only two shock batons, but in great news, this is an entirely multi-pose kit, so the torsos are free from the legs and you can go wild with posing options. A with other Necromunda releases we get the Enforcer Patrol Dice Set plus a new Necromunda expansion, the Book of Judgement giving you an overview of the seedy underbelly of the Necromunda hive. There's Enforcer Tactics Cards (which also include some gang tactics cards too), plus the Intrigues & Rackets Card Pack to bring the world of crime to your gang, the Underdog Card Pack for when your Juves have to face a load of Goliaths, and the Dramatis Personae Cards 1 to represent a bevvy of Hired Guns.
In books, we get Book 12 of the Primarch series with Konrad Curze: The Night Haunter. Written by Guy Haley, here's hoping he does this awesome Primarch justice. If he isn't vampire Batman that's a real shame!

With the potato camera working overtime last night, it seems GW have decided to drop the whole Blackstone Fortress reveal in one rather epic video. This boxed set will be highly prized we would think - with not only new Chaos Space Marines and Xenos characters, but Cultists, Ratlings, Beastmen and more.

The next gang in Necromunda also got a look in and these guys are spectacular - possibly the best yet! House Delaque. We have dynamic poses, some great head sculpts, new weapons and a look that can be transferred straight across to 40K for Mechanicum, assassins - whatever you like. These will be big on the bitz market for sure! A must buy for us! The rules also get an update with the new Necromunda Rulebook combining the rules found in the Necromunda: Underhive boxed set plus content from Gang War, FAQs and Errata. There is now also, thankfully, the Gangs of Necromunda supplement with rules for all six of the House Gangs, plus Hangers-on, Brutes, the trading post and more.

Wrath and Rapture turns out to be a boxed game of Khorne vs Slaanesh. Seems those nice Fiends of Slaanesh models are from this set plus there's also Flesh Hounds for Khorne and more on the way!

The next Age of $igmar Battletome will be Destruction and looks like the mushrooms are back! Not much in this video, but maybe we should expect to see more of the weirdness... 

Meanwhile Warhammer Underworlds sees additions to the Darkoath range with the Godsworn Hunt. These are basically the new Chaos Marauders, skirmishers for the Slave To Darkness

Necromunda keeps bubbling along, and this week sees the release of not only the disappointingly mono-pose Cawdor gang (looking a fair bit more bedraggled and more like a scavvy gang than they did in the old days) but also the new Gang War 4 book which introduces new Brutes, exotic beasts, and new campaign to replace Turf War called Dominion Campaign and more. There's a lot of work going into Necromunda, and it's a pity we don't see more of it. With the Cawdor gang release, we also get the Gang Cards, Cawdor Dice and a paint bundle. Also Necromunda related are the Dominion Campaign Territory Cards and an awesome resource for the serious player, Gang Leader’s Accessories Pack which comes with a tonne of reference material, tokens and new gang roster sheets.
Although we don't usually touch on the ongoing mess that is Forge World, the new Orlock Weapon Sets are out with some rather nice little additions for your gang.
Away from all things pow-pow and onto Age of $igmar V2 - and more brilliant miniatures are here, with the Liekeron the Executioner (who comes with an alternate hand) and the rather boring but very detailed Lord-Ordinator heading up the field. There's also some awesome new minis - the Nighthaunt get the incredibly dynamic Bladegheist Revenants (so tempted) and the Dreadscythe Harridans (who would make awesome Necron spare parts). The forces of Order don't miss out though, with possibly the best new mount kit for years - the Stormcast Eternals Evocators on Celestial Dracolines. Can't get enough of them.
In book land, it's an audio book this week with The Lords of Terra - three short stories based around Perturabo, Konrad Curze and Malcador the Sigillite.

Now today we noticed the Easy to Build: Chainrasp Hordes and the multi-part. Sequitors in the pre-order section, but it looks like they are available now. Not sure if or how we missed those before, but they're both amazing looking sets. Now the interesting thing about these releases is their price point - they are both incredibly high. The Chainrasps for example are almost the same price as multi-part kits but for Easy To Build models, leading us to believe that there may not be a multi-part version of this kit and the Sequitors, yes a set of 10, are also at the prices of the original Age of $igmar kits.

Not content to tempt us with just one set of releases, Games Workshop have thrown this week into wallet-ravaging chaos with a selection of things that pretty much everyone will want... NEED!
"Need" is a tad dramatic, but the the big boss and the line infantry now released for Idoneth Deepkin, it's time for some specialists!  The Isharann Soulrender (The Drukhari Incubi stand-in from Hell),  Isharann Soulscryers (Dark Elf magic user stand in) and the awesome Isharann Tidecaster (check out that Chinese influenced armour!) are all mono-pose single sprue models with unfortunately no weapons or head options, but none the less dynamically posed and intricately sculpted. This week also sees the third in the free Deepkin art card (left) if you order any of this week's products on line.
The next gang in the Necromunda universe are also here with the techno warriors of House Van Saar. There's a few interesting points about this kit - first the amount of extra options is great, with double the amount of heads and two dedicated weapons options for each model, the inclusion of the 'clear' shield and an interesting way to do the bodies (see our sprue breakdown below). At $15 AUD cheaper than the Namarti, this certainly seems to be a fairer price point for effectively only multi-part not multi-pose minis. There are of course the Dice to go along with it and the Van Saars Gang Cards. The release of the Van Saars coincides with the release of Gang War 3, with additional scenarios, a Trading Post and new rules and units including the Luther Pattern Excavation Automata and ‘Kratos’’ H-Grade Servitor Ogryn. You can now also buy the Blank Fighter Cards previously available in the Necromunda boxed game to make your own customised gangs/ units. 
Blood Bowl also gets some treat next week, with The Doom Lords Chaos Chosen team - and boy are they hot! Okay, they're not as dynamic as some of the other teams, but they are solid and stoic with some brooding that David Boreanaz would be jealous of! With some nice Beastmen minis included, this may need to find it's way to Beardy Hammer HQ! There are of course the requisite Chaos Dice and Chaos Team Card Pack too. In fact there are some other Blood Bowl products next week, the Blood Bowl Star Players Card Pack, Skaven Player Cards and Blood Bowl Underworld Denizens Dice plus a set of Chaos Renegade Dice. In other Blood Bowl news, Spike! is getting it's White Dwarf article turned into an actual magazine with star player profiles, tips and tricks and a look at the Doom Lords background. At only 36 pages, this is more a comic book, so be aware of the $20 AUD price tag.
Speaking of White Dwarf, it will be hitting the shelves next Friday with Deepkin Designer Notes, two Battle Reports and... well not a lot else by the sound of it!
In books, The Voice of Mars (HC) is a follow up to 'The Eye of Medusa' which chronicles the tales of corruption leaching into the Iron Hands Chapter - it also has a pretty rad cover!
.... BUT WAIT - THERE'S MORE ...

It's not just Games Workshop who are bringing you new Necromunda toys - Forge World have also joined the party with Slate Merdena & Macula, Belladonna the Bounty Hunter (a mini based on some old school artwork),  Grendl Grendlsen the Squat Bounty Hunter and Eyros Slagmyst the Bounty Hunter (who could be painted up to be a pretty cool Tau infiltrator in the Underhive).

The House Van Saars gang are an interesting evolution in Games Workshop design - it's not revolutionary, but worth a look at for sure.
The first thing about the House Van Saars kit is the inclusion of the Hrystrar pattern energy shield - the first non-canopy/ flight stand clear piece included in a GW kit. We don't see it on the sprue breakdown today, but it will be interesting to see how it comes in the kit.
Secondly is the body construction on the minis themselves. Traditionally we either see the torso, lowerbody/ legs and arms separate or the torso and legs together with pseudo-modular arms. Here we see something else - we see the torso and groin as one piece, with the legs separate, though obviously intended for certain bodies. It will be interesting to see how transferable these legs are to other bodies. The front of the torso also seems to be separate - not sure if this is for an opportunity to have variety to the look.
Like Age of $igmar, there are two dedicated weapons options for each model, though they are almost all ranged options, not a mixed mellee or ranged option like Ao$ kits generally do. In terms of options, this kit comes with 20 heads - giving you a helmet or please-don't-shoot-me-in-the-head option for each mini.
Finally, the price point - at $70 AUD this is $15 AUD less than the new Namarti Thralls who have less posing
options, and less customization options like extra heads and pouches. This price brings them inline with the rest of the Necromunda range, so that's logical, but it does once again go to prove that the "Age of $igmar" tag we use is well deserved!

Well this seems like a very strange coincidence - just days after the Regimental Standard announced that the lasgun very similar to the ones used by the Elysian Drop Troops (and manufactured by House Van Saar) is being withdrawn from active service, Forge World has added the entire range of Elysians to the Last Chance To Buy section of their website.
The announcement in Regimental Standard that the Nihilis Pattern Lasgun is being withdrawn from service is a sneak peak at the next gang in Necromunda, House Van Saar, and how they arm elements of the Imperial Guard - BUT it does seem interesting that we see the Imperial Guard unit with this weapon now being discontinued.
It's not the only thing being discontinued, with two Ryza and one Krieg Leman Russ variant also being discontinued. Curiously Forge World have shown other products being discontinued (below).
The Leman Russ could be explained in the rumoured new Leman Russ plastic boxed set coming soon, but the Elysians could just be shuffling off this mortal coil, which is a shame for a unit that is unique in looks and role - harking back to the days of jump pack assault units for Imperial Guard.
Other items turning up in Last Chance To Buy include the Elysian Venator and some Solar Auxilia items. ​

Games Workshop have unveiled their latest gang for Necromunda - and it's the formerly techno-enhanced House Van Saar. Having a look at these minis, you can see how these are going to be popular with customisers - especially people interested in making their own Assassins - those dynamic legs, unusual weapons and some techno heads that would be perfect. The legs and arms are also great for Guard or Security Teams for Necromunda or even the upcoming Kill Team! If you look closely you will also see the clear combat shield which will be very sought after for sure! Certainly a lot of potential and the chatter here today has been very much on conversions - and how we all wouldn't use the bare human heads! 
In the old Necromunda there were some very cyber-enhanced Van Saar - mainly the Heavies - so it will be interesting to see if we get those too.
Now the elephant in the room with these minis is how they are really quite similar to the Corvus Belli Infinity range - from the pipes and hoses to the tactical suits and poses that are a lot more modern military than sci-fi that GW usually produce. We contacted Corvus Belli today and will keep the correspondence to ourselves, but there certainly seemed to be some amusement from them at this release.

As we mentioned, Kill Team is coming back and it looks really great too. Not only did almost everyone get a nice new paint job for this video - except the Tau of course - but there is new large urban terrain! As you will see, it is multi-level and designed by the same team behind the current range of Sector Mechanicus kits. 
This certainly seems to have a more RPG sound to it, with squad progression and customisation, so almost like a twist on Necromunda, but maybe a little more involved. Maybe this is how GW will head with their games - have 40k for the large games and then have something like this with the RPG element like Rogue Stars or other games like that in the market.

With the popularity of Necromunda, Zone Mortalis in the Horus Heresy, Star Saga, and even Space Hulk, the need for some really good terrain that is modular and also not too expensive has been missing for some time. Where Forge World make their own resin tiles, they can be inflexible and are also very expensive if you want to make a large board, so there needs to be another way!
Thankfully, OverDose Terrain Studio have come up with a great MDF alternative which is cheap & quick to build!
We purchased a number of the corridor sets from Scorched Earth Store (who make these under license from the Israeli designers) on Etsy to test them out, and final product has to be the most straight forward build and quality product we've seen for a while.

We bought the Corridor Corner, the Corridor Straight with Door and the Corridor Junction.
They are all flat packed and who sheets of MDF per set. The instructions don't have pictures, and are really car guidelines rather than actual instructions.
From unpacking to the section being finished took about half an hour and was really easy.

The finished section is nicely detailed, with thin panel lines on the walls and hexagonal patterning on the floor. There are also holes in the supports in the corners for 1/8 magnets
The above pictures only have the wall panels dry-fitted in, and as you can see they are snug - a good sign this has been well designed. 

The first thing that impressed me about the finished section was the size of it. As you can see above, the walls are close to 3-men high which if you want to use dreadnoughts or even large Tyranid creatures, would be excellent. In comparison to the Forge World Zone Mortalis tiles, the walls are almost twice the height giving you a real feel of enclosure.  

As you can tell, we're impressed with these sets - really impressed!
Ideally this weekend we'll be able to give them a coat of Rustoleum (to seal the MDF or the paint just soaks into the wood) and then get some paint on them.
From what we have seen of the rest of the range, the ability of the OverDose Terrain Studios product is super flexible allowing you to add rooms behind doors, or corridors, basically whatever you like!
If you like your dungeon crawler games, or are part of the large Zone Mortalis community amongst the 30K crew, then these are well worth your while.
There may be other sellers in your area, but for us Scorched Earth did the trick nicely.

Necromunda has been taking up a lot of time here with the Merchant Guild Enforcers being only one model away from a gang - but of course distractions happen and this on in the form of a Goliath conversion. Not being a huge fan of the Goliaths, we realised that their bulk and spikes could be used for greater things, and nothing says spikes like Khorne!
Taking the body and one arm from the Goliath kit and then the head, chest plate and another arm from the Khorne Blood Warriors in the Age of SIgmar Starter Set, we were set!
Keeping the palette very restricted, it's metallics, black and red, with a touch of green for contrast!
It turns out that GW are coming out with a Khorne Cultist list, so look out for Forge World conversion kits next year some time on would think!

Necromunda initially didn't grab us too much back in the day, but then after seeing the new one it really did and it just wouldn't let go!! The scenery, the minis, the setting.... eeek!! Budget collapse.
So we grabbed the rule book from the game and had a read, and despite the amazingly cool Forge World Beastman model, and the fact Squats, Eldar and Beastmen were all mentioned as being GUESTS in the spire of the Imperial Governor of Necromunda (and doesn't that open up so interesting fluff), it raised an idea which quickly started to form and I just had to start it.
The Adeptus Arbites, the military police of the Imperium have always had a strong presence in the Necromunda world, so what about other paramilitary groups? Well the Merchant Guild are  a powerful group of organisations who sometimes hire the gangs of Necromunda (especially Orlocks) to transport their supplies, but surely they would have some kind of troops, and since they are hunting around in the Underhive for lost archeotech, then surely those forces would come into conflict with the more famous Houses we see depicted in the Necromunda game.
So the idea grew legs, and 5 days later the Merchant Guild Enforcers are really growing on me!
Yes, these don't exist in the canon, BUT they can be built using the PDF sheet we shared with you last week and they're fun! Have a few other ideas boiling away too...
-
There's more Troopers (Gangers) to come so the flamer guy can be included, plus it would be great to get to the 1500 points. Tell you what, you can have a fair few for that price.

Necromunda Underhive is now out and with all  the buzz around it, we thought we'd dive into the boxed set rule book and give you an overview of what you get. 
The rule book is actually quite extensive - it's 103 pages divided into eight main sections. Off the bat it's actually really great to see the amount of fluff in this rule book. In recent times GW have been moving away from fluff in rule books, but this book has a solid 30 pages or so of dedicated fluff and that doesn't include the gang backgrounds. You could see it as a much expanded version of the White Dwarf article from last month - we're taken through the Houses, the history of different Hives on Necromunda, the Spires, teased with some cool background on political machinations, get a tantalising glimpse of the Imperial Fists garrison on Necromunda, have Eldar, Squats and Beastmen all mentioned plus the gangs from the old game fleshed out in quite good detail. Overall this is a great part of the book and gives lots of ideas, pointing to possible Genestealer Cults, mutants and mentions Psykers quite a lot.
Speaking of gang backgrounds it does need to be said that there are only rules in the boxed set for making either Escher or Goliath gangs. if you're doing something fun like Dark Eldar slavers or even any of the legacy gangs, this rule book will not give you the answers you're after - there are clues though.
Basically you have 1500 points to form your gang. The gang members vary in price depending on the gang and their role (Leader/ Champion or Ganger) then you add the price of the weapons they carry. The more weapons or exotic load outs, the less gang members you can have. You are restricted to between 0-2 Champions and of course only one Leader, but the rest can be fleshed out as Gangers. In the old days people would have two tiers of Gangers, the well armed ones, and then Juves who would be less well armed but fill out the lower points you needed to have to get to 1500. 
As well as basic rules there is also an Underhive Armoury secton on the weapons of the Underhive (mainly for Escher and Goliaths) and then some missions, which are set out in a very similar style to the old Space Hulk missions.
As far as GW rule books go, this is a good one but it's areal shame that they didn't include a generic Gang Bulider system so all those people whop are busily hobbying in preparation, and I have to say that the majority of people we've talked to ARE making their own gangs, can't use them straight out of this box.
Now that being said, this morning there has been a PDF released for the Legacy Gangs of Necromunda - from House Orlock to Cawdor - which will give all of us a basis to make our gangs using the weapon profiles and points costs. This is a great service ot the Community and good to see that GW have seen the buzz and paid attention to it so the hobby element of this game isn't lost! (File attached below)

So with the addition of this PDF, it's now possible for this rule book to be fully functional for the Hobbyist as well as the player who wants to play it straight out of the box. 

With Necromunda the new "it" thing in the community at the moment, the voracious appetite of the fans knows know ends. Thankfully Games Workshop have left us some clues to the next gangs we may see in the Necromunda expansions. In these images (below) posted on the Necromunda Facebook, we have circled two named gangs - the Orlocks and the Van Saar.

Fluff changes (as we have seen in the Forge World Horus Heresy books) but the background for these two gangs is really quite varied and offers conversion potential for the hobbyists out there!
House Orlock - were one of the gangs in the original starter box (along with Goliaths) and have been traditional allies for House Escher. While not street scum or muties, Orlock are workers, the every man of the Necromunda world. In look they traditionally have a love for the bandanna and long loins clothes!
House Van Saar - are very different. They are the rich kids, with money to spend on augmentation and the best weapons money can buy, in fact other Houses prize Van Saar weaponry highly. The look of Van Saar is similar to the suits worn in the Dune movie - close fitting with thin piping, almost membrane-like!
-
Now things may have changed in the fluff from then to now, but we wouldn't be surprised to see a link between the Mechanicum and Van Saar and for Van Saar to potentially be a bit more techno-organic than their original incarnation. House Orlock could probably also do with a new look, so it will be interesting to see if they are still seen as the every-man House or if they will have a whole new back story.
Either way, Necromunda, if fed new releases often, could very well sky-rocket in popularity.