Hive War, Core Rules, Ash Wastes - help a beginner

[Valkyrion]

There's a lot of books for Necromunda. It's only my knowledge of 40k that allows me to ignore the books I don't need in that system, but here starting from scratch I don't know what is safe to avoid. So starting with the main rule books or boxed sets;

 

1) Are the standard rules of play the same in all three tomes?

2) Do all three books contain the same injury/experience/campaign rules? Or if not identical then at least similar enough?

3a) I have zero interest in either vehicles or ash waste nomads as a gang - is Ash Wastes still worth getting? (e.g tokens and dice)

3b) I have only minor interest in Zone Mortalis type missions - is Hive War still worth getting? (e.g tokens and dice)

4) Do the books contain the actual M/WS/BS etc of each gang, or do I need to buy Codex Goliath, for instance?

 

My primary Necromunda objective is to play an above ground growth campaign, using my 40k table to have two normal gangs evolve from game 1 to game 100.

I'm not interested in corpse grinders or ambots or kal jericho. Just straight up gang warfare like it's 1995, so I'm leaning towards just the core rules, because it's a bigger book so would therefore likely tick more boxes, but if enough people say 'Zone Mortalis is the definitive way', or 'I'll only play Ash Wastes campaigns from now on' then I'm willing to trade nostalgia for a better experience.

 

 

[Lord_Ikka]

There was a recently released core rulebook here, also known as the Core Rules 2023. It consolidates and updates most of the previous rules so that a player only really needs the core rulebook and then you add on based on what you want to do. Unfortunately that core rulebook does completely invalidate the rules in each of the box sets (which were mainly starter rules rather than the full rulebook- the box sets are still a good value if you like the gangs/terrain and/or need tokens or templates). It covers all the basic core rules, including gang creation, campaign creation, an updated Trading Post, and all rules for gameplay (including vehicle rules). It does not contain the specific stats for the gangs, those are contained in each of the gang's books.

 

Books that will be needed, dependent on the gang you want to run. Each book also contains gang-specific scenarios that can be adapted without too much trouble to any gang.

House of Chains/Blades/Shadows/Faith/Artifice/Iron

The Book of Judgement- Enforcers and additional rules for including law/outlaw gangs in campaigns

The Book of Ruin- Corpse Grinder/Chaos Helot/Genestealer cults and rules for an uprising campaign

The Book of Perils- For Venator gangs (Bounty Hunters and/or any sort of weirdo custom gang you want)

The Book of the Outcast- Outcast gangs (similar to Venators but outlaws)

The Book of the Outlands- Ash Waste Nomad/Squad Prospectors (also includes rules for making custom vehicles and Orlock Quad/Ridgerunner/Rockgrinder/Ridgehauler rules)

 

The two newer Aranthian Succession campaign books contain scenarios for the ongoing current storyline, plus the rules for the Escher/Goliath/Cawdor Ash Wastes specific vehicles as well as the Palanite Enfocer Sanctioner bot. I would avoid them unless you specifically want to play the Aranthian Succession storyline, as they are mainly lore books with a few rules for Dramatis Personae (named characters) and the Ash Wastes stuff in the last sentence. They are fun to read, and interesting to see the current story of Necromunda, but not necessary for play at all.