For too long have the hive dwellers been treating the surface of Necromunda as their own personal racetrack – but their time is at an end. The Ash Waste Nomads are now gathering in greater numbers, so strap on your spikiest Arthromite leathers and get ready to learn how the Tribes of the Wasteland tick.
Since they first threw off their ash cloaks and let rip with blast carbines in the Book of the Outlands, the core of an Ash Waste Nomads gang has remained stable – Leaders, Champions, Specialists and Prospects all make use of the unique Wasteland skill tree to strike from safety before fading into the background.
Their spartan forces are now further augmented with nominally tame wasteland beasts, from the vicious, biting Arthromite Spinewyrms they keep as pets to the flying Ashwing Helamites. Their excellent agility across the board makes them valuable scouts for Nomad Hunting Parties, though the elite Sha’dar Hunters are the only ones brave enough to tame the Spinewyrms, who back them up in combat with their barbed fangs. Crucially, these Hunters and their pets are Wasteland Ambushers who can be deployed last, literally anywhere on the board so long as they are 9” from an enemy, while the Spinewyrms are Small Targets applying a -1 to hit penalty on ranged attacks.
Most notable of their Hangers-on are the Arthromite Herders, returning heroes from the Book of the Outcast who have the unenviable job of raising the feared Arthromite Duneskuttlers from birth and directing them in battle – each a roiling mass of teeth and chitin that ambush their prey from seemingly empty dunes before slipping away safely.
HARD TO KILL
Arthromite Duneskuttlers are notoriously hard to kill; when rolling on the Lasting Injury table for an Arthromite Duneskuttler, roll twice and apply whichever result the controlling player wishes.
There are several Hired Guns: the Nomad Outcast, the Nomad Harrier and the Nomad House Agent. At 30 credits plus gear, the first of these is the ash wastes equivalent of Hive Scum, but the second is an 80-credit Bounty Hunter analogue who can take up to three skills on a variety of statlines, and who generates additional income for the gang via their Dead, Not Alive and Claiming Salvage abilities. Of course, they will want their cut…
Ashwing Helamites, meanwhile, are smaller relatives of the Dustback Helamite. They have Flight and can operate on a Long Leash from their operator – and with an 8” move and toxic mandibles, they pack a deadly punch to almost any adversary.
The Warrior Spirits allow you to power up your best and brightest by invoking strange powers in the midst of battle. We’d already had a taste of their power in a past edition of the Apocrypha Necromunda, but now there are four groups of six spirits you may beseech according to where your gang hails from. The Leadsky Seekers channel their worship of storms into spirits that heighten their speed and ferocity, for example – and each Leader or Champion will call upon one at random before battle is joined.
The results of these invocations are many and varied, from sudden storms of loose debris and coruscating energy arcs emitting from the ganger to biblical plagues of insects and surges of healing energy. The random way you generate your spirits means you can never quite plan for the right ones to be available, but the powerful effects they offer make up for their caprice.
URH’NAG WARRIOR SPIRITS
Cha’nag (Insect Spirit): Drawing upon the Spirit of Insects, the fighter is surrounded by a maelstrom of insects clogging nearby engine intakes and restricting other fighters’ movement. Until this round’s End phase, any enemy vehicle that moves within 3" of this fighter must make a Handling test; if the test is failed they change their status to Stationary and Stalled. In addition, all enemy fighters treat the area within 3" of this fighter as difficult terrain.
TSUN’GHAR WARRIOR SPIRITS
Char’ghar (Electro Spirit): Coruscating energy surrounds the fighter, as if static from the storm were drawn to them, which they direct into theirweapon attacks. For the duration of the fighter’s activation, all attacks made by the fighter gain the Shock trait. If they are using a weapon that already has the Shock trait then its effects will trigger on any successful hit roll rather than just a 6.
Finally, the Nomad Trading Post is a useful post-battle locale for aspiring Chieftains. Because Nomads are barred from pretty much every store in the underhive, they can pick up their chain lances, electrostatic ammo and heavy blasters here, along with other crucial gear required for survival out in the wastes.
With powerful allies and abilities, and an esoteric selection of weapons that favour aggressive movement and careful placement behind suitable cover, combined with capricious spirits and the ability to make the battlefield itself harm your adversaries, the Ash Wastes Nomads are a gang that reward forethought and adaptability in combat. You can throw your lot in with the Nomads when Tribes of the Wastelands goes up for pre-order this weekend.
