A question I have been asked on several occasions whilst playing Necromunda within that great gaming bastion, Warhammer World. Although many people come over to reminisce about the glorious game, or regale us with tales of their own ‘munda gaming, many seem to not quite understand why we are playing this and not 40K. So, in point format, let’s examine my reasons for favouring Necromunda:
1: BETTER NARRATIVE: It’s true! For the grim, dark world of 40k, things all seem rather sterile. Other than special characters, squads are nameless. Scenarios are a bit bland. The circumstances and events leading to these battles are quite tight and narrow. Not so in Necromunda! Your gangers have names, individual idiosyncrasies and abilities. Scenarios are well fleshed out and all very different (maybe not gang fight…).
Extraordinary events are far more memorable, you never hear “…remember when my terminators charged your tank and blew it up…” because it’s mundane. I have heard “…Remember when Mad McMad got dosed on icrotic slime, ran screaming into your gang, taking on 8 guys who had to try and desperately hold him down until your bounty hunter could run in and crack him in the face with the stock of his boltgun?...” Mad McMad was one of mine, and yes it was awesome.
2: LESS ‘CHEESY’: An annoying descriptor, but one that fits. 40K, certainly the tournament scene, is massively cheesy! People spend days dreaming up army lists, hell, they base their army choice purely on what a codex has in it and how likely it is the army will be ‘unstoppable’. From there it’s into the murky worlds of rules lawyering, list tinkering to the nth degree, before you know it you’re playing a bloke who is simply going through the motions because his list and associated tactics are so tight it runs itself.
Necromunda has the potential for cheese, certainly. Within the campaign setting though, it is far more difficult to pull off. 20 guys armed with lasguns? Nice, until 4 games in when your gang are starving and everyone sucks because your experience pool is so diluted. Uber-man armed with everything? Not bad, until he’s maimed by a lucky autopistol shot and croaks, leaving your gang in serious trouble. Because you have to think long term, tailoring up a gang for certain games is extremely difficult and often will leave you at a loss down the line. This leads into…
3 MORE TACTICAL: Now I’m not saying 40K isn’t tactical. It is. It is only one plane of tactics though, as in winning an immediate battle. 40K armies have throwaway units, bait units, units solely designed to soak up fire then die. Units are tailored to do one thing only, to fulfill their role within their army and within the battle.
Necromunda has elements of this, but you’ll have to go a long way to find someone who has ‘throwaway’ gangers. It just isn’t sustainable. In ‘munda, you have to think short term (winning the mission) mid-term (money, increases etc.) and long term (picking up injuries, gang ratings). Running a guy forward and grabbing some stash may win you a game, but it may also leave him eating through a tube if the game-winning move left him exposed! This then effects gathering income, his combat abilities and all the rest. On top of this, you can specialize gang members, but they need to retain a bit of versatility as who knows what you’ll have them doing in each game?
4 MORE ADULT: Yep, my final point. For all its killing, blood and war a game of 40K is not all that dark! You go into combat; fight and either win or lose. Lots of killing in between, but that isn’t the only adult theme out there.
Necromunda has drugs, torture, cannibalism, all manner of backstabbing, closed-door treaties, robbery, theft and even boozing it up! On top of this more personable violence. Space marines hacking people up is graphic, but it’s detached. Not at all as gritty or downright nasty as having Sneaky Pete walk up to a downed enemy and slit his throat, watch a juve on his agonized crawl for cover or sling Grund (who killed your heavy , the bastard!) into a Orb spiders web and watch him desperately try and fight it.
Those are my reasons for loving Necromunda over 40K. Not everyone may agree, but it’s the way I feel. I still play 40K and have gone to a fair few tournaments in my time, I still get enjoyment out of taking the Tau out for a spin. Though if it falls to the choice of playing some ‘seize ground’ or taking the Van Saar out to shoot up Poxbourne’s whorehouse because Ol’ Man Sutch hasn’t been paying his protection, well, you’ll find me with my lads hosing down a brothel with autogun fire….
The Arbite
