My brother and I played our first game today and we really enjoyed it! We come to this edition having both struggled a bit with the rules overhead of N17/23 and felt we spent more time looking in the books for fiddly rules than we spent enjoying the game.
Things I enjoyed-
The game felt a lot more dynamic; one of my observations in N17/23 was models would often ‘castle’ in a good spot and spend the rest of the game ensconced, aiming and shooting at whatever moved in front on them. This game of N26 had a lot more movement and fighting for position, and I hope that will be a continuing feature of the other starting setups.
The game felt faster; yes there was still some looking up of rules, but I feel the nips and tucks have generally been made in good places. Reduced activation options focus the mind on gameplay more, weapon traits are easier to parse, and the (x+) traits make things like toxin very easy to understand. It just feels more natural and better thought out.
Being able to engage as a single action; being able to get into combat with a close model by using a single action is awesome. It makes pinning less destructive to a combat fighter, and we both reaped the rewards of this action, especially my brother who managed to shoot one of my guys, and then engage another to prevent me disputing an objective and giving him the win. It feels like it opens up some nice tactical options and is a welcome addition.
Gang creation felt fun; yes there are some strange omissions like Goliath not having access to a heavy stubber (I think every gang should access to a heavy stubber!), but knowing you can happily plod off to the trading post and buy pretty much whatever you want and give it to anyone partially makes up for it. N95 had similar rules and we used to ignore them, so it’s not like it’s a big deal or anything.
I really enjoyed the specialist gangers getting a starting skill and they came in handy throughout the game; I’ve had a twin bolt pistol Goliath model sitting around unused for ages, so I was pleased to bring him in as a gun fighter and he took someone out his first turn, blasting away an Escher with glee! Felt good to see the model on the table and I think it’s a fun addition. My brother had a sprinting Escher with flamethrower who promised to be a pain in the backside until she met the bolt pistol rounds!
Side missions add some fun flavour without too much cognitive load; easy to track, and easy to remember as you aren’t dedicating so much mental bandwidth to rules minutiae.
Things I’m still waiting to form an opinion on-
No trade post until post-cycle actions; rare trade was one of the most fun things about the campaign for me so having less of it doesn’t immediately trigger joy. I prefer a slick table top game and a detailed and crunchy post-game, with meaningful things to do and find that influence the direction your gang takes. In N23 I used the randomised rare trade table and I’d love to have something similar here, but it’s not a deal breaker.
Fighters don’t recover until after a cycle; I’m torn on this really. Going into recovery means a fighter doesn’t come back until the end of the POST CYCLE phase, meaning a fighter injured in game 1 of a three-game cycle won’t be seen again until game 1 of the second cycle of games, and even then only AFTER the post cycle action wraps up. On the one hand I prefer to get fighters back into action relatively quickly, and having them out until post cycle is a real blow, but on the other hand it adds some real jeopardy to hanging around the battle too long. The more of your fighters you have taken OOA the more chance you have of losing them for the whole cycle, meaning your force will drop off quite considerably as the cycle wears on. I’m generally in favour of this kind of balancing dynamic, so I’ll wait and see if it succeeds.
Ammo rolls; most weapons not having an ammo stat and a weapon requiring an ammo roll having it listed as a trait is fine I suppose. I just love the janky Underhive weapons vibe. I don’t think it’s too much of a trouble to port over the ‘unreliable weapons’ rule, where a 6 to hit forces a weapon without the ‘ammo (x)’ trait to require a reload. Don’t know if that’s a bit much though. I don’t hate it though, and it’s little tucks like this that probably free up my brain to concentrate on other game mechanics and not feel overwhelmed.
Other things I was fine about were the changes to cover, which I felt flowed quite well, the initiative order to combat, and reaction attacks only getting 1 combat dice.
I also liked the streamlining of blaze, and the rapid fire blast templates rule is hilarious; I nearly took my own stimmer out when one of the rapid fire shots from his grenade launcher scattered straight back onto himself!
Overall I’m really pleased with the game and can’t wait to play more games. I’m excited about playing it after one game in a way I don’t think I ever was for N17/23. I’m definitely biased as I simply love Necromunda and though I
wanted to love N17/23 I just couldn’t get to the game hiding beneath all that cognitive load. I already feel this game is more intuitive and retains enough of the good things about N17/23, and brings back some of the spirit of N95 that was probably missing from the earlier edition, and was perhaps the reason I just couldn’t gel with it.
If the only things I get for this edition are the rulebook and the Gangs Of… books I’ll be in possession of more than enough game to keep me going for years. I hope the game continues to entertain after what I’d consider to be an excellent start. We’re already having ideas for campaigns, and looking forwards to trying the new rules with other campaigns like Secundus or Dark Uprising. Neither my brother or I have been this excited to play Necromunda for years and that’s the best endorsement I can give it.
