I have not played Necromunda in about 11-12 years and am currently getting interested in returning to the game.
Welcome back. It's got darker and more insanely crazy
I know that my old pewter miniatures are not legal for any official GW games but good to go for my local game store.
Good on your local store.
To be honest a fair amount of individual GW stores will also be fine with the old pewters as well, they are the official models just classic ones.
Personal I have migrated away from the core 40k and AOS ranges but the new Necromunda range is hands down excellent. As a skirmish game you don't need 100 Orlocks so the "high" GW price isn't really that bad. If you are into drilling and magnets the entire range (possibly not Corpse Grinders I haven't done them personally but probably can) have arm, elbow or hand joint that work with magnets so you can get away with a box of core gangers and swappable arms etc. (Cawdor is possible but very very finicky).
There are a lot more wacky options in the new Necromunda than the old which you will be drawn to.
I am wondering what the most recent ruleset is? I believe it is the Necromunda Core Rulebook. Is this correct? And what about the various Gang War books? Are those still being used? I have Gang War 1-3 but believe there are more and would love to purchase them.
Core rulebook yes.
The Gang War books (specifically with the name Gang War) are now defunct having been replaced with the various House of ... books. They use the previous edition (not 95) rules which kind of do work in the new Core rules but are definitely weaker gangs if ran against fully up to date ones. The Gang War ones will do for a reintroduction but they don't quite mesh with the new rules.
There is a ton more work and expansion in the newer books that really make the gangs unique.
Also I have a huge Ratskin Renegade gang but have been told they are no longer being used in the new edition.
I don't think Ratskins will ever be done as a unique identity gang again as themselves. The idea is not very PC and it would draw a lot of PR flack. GW is far to high profile now to risk it damaging the brand (they attracted a lot of unnecessary hate just for floating the idea of female Custodians). A smaller company could get something like Ratskins done under the internet troll radar.
However, the Ash Waste Nomads can take a lot of the Ratskin bits and run with them and the highly customisable Outcasts and Venator gangs can do a good job to game mechanically work as a gang for the models if you have them.
I otherwise have a Van Saar and Spyrer gang I can use. Are those still being used?
Armour is much more accessible for everyone compared to the old game.
Van Saar are one of the core House Gangs, the mainstream gangs, and are very much still a thing. As a theme they have kept true to the 95 game pretty well. Lasers and high tech shooting galore. They have even more space age guns to choose from now. And a much more accessable and Van Saar specific bionics access as well. If you Van Saared before you will find it simple to use them in the same way
Spyrers are a thing now but they are a later add on expansion to the available gangs roster and are not a "standard" play gang and quite different to the old version. They have numerous additional rules, representing space nepo baby money and ultra high tech noble gear and augmentations, that is quite a departure from the "normal" gang set up. They are a gang of champions with set armour and few weapons that are not diverse but powerful and you upgrade them as you play. There is a subset of Spyrer rules that you need to learn on top of the Core game rules but it does set you on specific advancement paths as you gain experience so you know where you are going. I would not recommend them as a first off starting gang and use one of the others to learn the basic rules first. Once you are comfortable with the basics by all means learn the mechanics and give them a go. They are doing in the Book of Desolation.
The Core Book has all the basics rules which everyone needs to play and it has the newer Ash wastes and vehicles rules integrated into it as well. You can skip that entirely to start off and just have underhive footsloggers and it works just fine and then later learn the vehicle side if you want.
