Not a day goes by that some sector of the underhive doesn’t erupt with the rattle of gunfire and the hollers of combat as gangs tussle over territory, make resource grabs, and generally continue the internecine battles that punctuate the drudgery of life on Necromunda.
Thanks to a limitless supply of dreamers, schemers, rogues, and tin-pot despots, there are many gangs vying for supremacy on Necromunda. With the all-new revised Necromunda: Core Rulebook and various cards available for pre-order tomorrow, making your own gang of nobodies and taking them to the top is going to be easier than ever. We put out a rallying call at Warhammer HQ to take a look at what gangs the crew here have waiting in the wings for their chance at success.
You might recognise Gadge’s Van Saar gang, the Night Stingers, from the pages of White Dwarf issue 486, where they took part in the Battle for Sump City. Gadge painted them with brass metalwork inspired by the fittings he saw on an old Victorian pumping station, which worked well alongside orange and black, providing a venomous, spidery aesthetic that is perfect for Van Saar.
Dubbed the Sector H8 Flying Squad, Tom’s Badzone Enforcers are made up of a cornucopia of bits from a wide range of kits. Frequently found diving into his colleagues' bits boxes like a sticky-fingered raccoon, and taking inspiration from the amazing Badzone Enforcers in the original White Dwarf article, Tom planned his gang out in advance and made a few big-ticket purchases, supplemented with all sorts of wild gubbins. The bodies are primarily from Enforcers and Subjugators but we’ll leave you to guess where the rest of the bits come from, because we need to rescue him from beneath a big pile of sprues.
If you want to take control of Necromunda you need more than one iron in the fire. Darcy, whose work has been featured on Warhammer Community a bunch in the past, is a meticulous painter. His Van Saar Cobalt Corps have seen years of active duty (read: dying a lot). The Order of the Shining Enlightened fail spectacularly even more regularly, though it's always worth it for the look on his opponent’s face when something does go right for them…
There are a lot of Warhammer games to play, and it’s always handy to have a force for each one just in case. That’s what Luke said when he grabbed a Delaque Gang, and then added the Nacht-Ghul, Psy-Gheists, Piscean Spektor, and an Ambot to the project. Is this a legal gang? He has no idea. The lure of painting a crew of furtive trenchcoat-wearing baldies who may or may not take orders from a subterrestrial psychic fish was simply too great. With the new rulebook, he promises he’ll get a game with them.
Jon has been in the hobby for a very long time, and that means that his Escher gang is older than many of you reading this article. Nevertheless, this is a wonderfully painted gang that still holds up in a modern context. The unusually muted scheme is based on the urban camo used on the cityfight astra militarum army that was in the book and in a White Dwarf battle report. What’s next, perhaps a top up with some new plastic Escher?
Michael's Orlock gang are the Leadsmen, who like to rapidly deliver high quantities of ammunition to the gangs of other houses. They judge each other's worth in the weight of slugs, blades, and shrapnel the rogue docs have retrieved from their bodies. Michael's currently working on adding a Ridgerunner and a pair of Orlock Outrider Quads to take them out into the Ash Wastes.
When the call went out for gangs for this article, it stirred up the animosity between our little WarCom team and the vagabonds over in Warhammer World. We met in the car park on a rain-slicked night, muttering things about territory and credits, before agreeing to take a few of their gangs back to photograph. For a price.*
Made up of myriad bits scrounged from the depths of Daniel’s bits box, the Hunters of Elysian are a gang that has spent more of their life in the dank depths of the underhive than in their home. Genestealer Cults bodies provide an industrial flak armour look for veteran gang members, they’re always on the look out for new gear and augmentations to help prolong their bleak existence. Luckily they have some mechanical pals to cheer them up – their trusty Cyberachnids and the Ambot AB-40.9.
Needing a reprieve from painting just so many Ork Boyz, and getting warm fuzzy feelings about the OG 90s Necromunda, Pete decided to grab a Cultists of the Abyss box. What Started as a Bounty Hunter gang evolved to assimilate some Eschers with Kria the Huntress.
When the new Necromunda Core Rulebook arrives, we’re sure everyone will be swotting up on the rules, and making sure their gangs are optimally outfitted. Share your own gangs with us on the official Warhammer and Twitter pages.
* This petty rivalry has been invented just for some set dressing in this article. They’re naturally a lovely bunch of people.