Escher Matriarchs & Phyrr Cats + Underhive Journal

[Lord Marshal]

Good (bad?) kitty.

 

 

Quote

The Escher Matriarchs & Phyrr Cats kit adds a selection of gang champions to your roster sporting an array of esoteric weaponry, plus a pair of vicious Phyrr Cats to give your leaders some extra protection and really put the bite on your opponents. The Gang Queen cuts a striking figure with a regal longcoat and power axe, flanked by five Gang Matriarchs, one of whom wears the skin of a Phyrr Cat – that should keep the rest in line.

They can be used as gang leaders, champions, and pets with the rules from the Gangs of the Underhive book or to represent the alternate options found in the new Underhive Journal: Escher – The House of Blades.

 

 

Quote

The House of Blades is the first of a new kind of supplement for Necromunda,* adding rules and background lore for factions in regular paperback journals. This book, for instance, gives House Escher two new kinds of gang lists to build around – Wyld Hunts who favour menageries of lethal creatures, and Chymist Cults who produce many of the virulent toxins used by their peers.  These alternate lists offer players a new spin on their faction, using more restricted rosters and equipment lists that allow a greater focus on their specialty.
 

The Underhive Journal also adds new gang-specific content for campaign play, so you can fight over Territories that reflect your gang, take appropriate side jobs for your skills, and draw from a whole new list of Gang Tactics. Each of the Great Houses will get their own, ensuring that even veteran players have a wealth of new options to try out in Necromunda: Skirmish.

 

 

Edited August 3 by Lord Marshal

[sitnam]

Pelt lady is so damn cool. I'm more of a Cawdor guy (for Chaos conversions) but she is peak.

[Timberley]

The introduction of the gang-specific books happened faster than I predicted!  I predicted six months after launch, not 48 hours! The models look really cool.  I'm intrigued to see what the new Van Saar look like now!

[Tymell]

If GW could maybe stop tempting me to attempt a collection of literally every Necromunda miniature because it's the most consistently quality range they've ever made, that'd be much appreciated.

[TheTrans]

And the book bloat begins.... 

The otherside is 'we have all the rules written and ready to go, but we'er gonna DLC you the entire time like we've done with Horus Heresy and TOW"...

[Arikel]

I just possibly might get the starter box, but definitely gonna pick up these chicas...my escher based imperial guard are up to 50ish warriors already and could use a few more officer types

[Felix Antipodes]

3 hours ago, TheTrans said:

And the book bloat begins.... 

The otherside is 'we have all the rules written and ready to go, but we'er gonna DLC you the entire time like we've done with Horus Heresy and TOW"...

 

Honestly, I hate this trend towards mini volumes that started with HH3.  They have nothing to offer besides the rules that should be included with the core rulebook.  The lore sections are laughablely small or phoned home reprints from past tomes.

I will probably pick this up, but if it more of the same (like with the HH and TOW books) it will be the last I get.

 

On the other hand, the new Escher models are top notch.  Looking forward to what they do for the other gangs.

[BeatTheBeat]

9 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

 

Honestly, I hate this trend towards mini volumes that started with HH3.  They have nothing to offer besides the rules that should be included with the core rulebook.  The lore sections are laughablely small or phoned home reprints from past tomes.

I will probably pick this up, but if it more of the same (like with the HH and TOW books) it will be the last I get.

 

On the other hand, the new Escher models are top notch.  Looking forward to what they do for the other gangs.

Vote with your wallet. All I'm seeing here is "I hate it [...] and I'll buy it".

[Xenith]

9 hours ago, Felix Antipodes said:

I hate this trend towards mini volumes that started with HH3.  

 

The journal format started with The Old World, but HH has seen the most put out for it. lots of stuff that should have been in the books from the start, or a yearly compendium. The ZM is the only one I picked up as it's genuinely new [old] content. 

[sarabando]

the only ones i really like are the rifle and plasma gun girls. 

Im not a big fan of the aesthetics they are moving towards with escher atm and necromunda in general really feels less like they are underhive gangers with shared equipment with everything now looking so bespoke. 

[Castigator]

Those are some sweet models! I do find it a bit odd that the Bolter and Power Axe aren't in the House Gang list though.

It looks like it's going to be an expensive year, my wallet has already changed its status from Plentiful to Scarce (6+) 

[Felix Antipodes]

14 hours ago, BeatTheBeat said:

Vote with your wallet. All I'm seeing here is "I hate it [...] and I'll buy it".

Funnily enough, I agree with you.  I have already stopped wasting money on the HH/TOW pamphlets (you can’t call them books).  The only reason I am looking at this one is because I like the Necromunda game/setting a lot.  Having said that, I will be guided by what I see in the new rulebook as to whether I continue to support/play the game.

[Evil Eye]

Very nice models, though the paintjobs on the faces specifically aren't doing them any favours. Not Sisters of Battle tier catastrophes but definitely not helping to sell what are probably good face sculpts. The one with the pelt is probably my favourite, though they're all good, and I quite like the plasma gunner especially.

[Gamiel]

18 hours ago, sarabando said:

Im not a big fan of the aesthetics they are moving towards with escher atm and necromunda in general really feels less like they are underhive gangers with shared equipment with everything now looking so bespoke. 

This have been the standard since at least last edition, and possibly the edition before that. Even if the house-gangs fight in the underhive are they still house-gangs with a clan-house behind them, and each house have their own arms-makers and "house-style/pattern" when it comes to what they make, and each clan-house's gangers mostly only use weapons from their own forges as a matter of house-pride and/or prefered fighting style (e.g. if you are an Orlock are Escher's and Delaque's weapon not sturdy enougth, Goliath's are to heavy, Van Saar are to complicated, and Cawdor's are just bad).

 

All that can you see and read about in last edition. So it's a bit late for that complain. 

 

 

[Antarius]

I think it's really nice that there's some aesthetic variation between houses and their gear (I really like the Escher lasguns for example), but I also think some "generic" weapons would be nice (some weapons might just realistically not be able to be made in every House or some weapons might just pretty much look the same no matter who makes them). Special weapons especially.
Whether the lore is "better" one way or the other is of course subjective, but from a game-perspective, I think it's quite important that the weapons don't look too different (and it's also important that they don't run out of design space; for example, some of the Orlock weapons are a little hard to tell apart, especially at a distance if it's not your gang). So I think that it's important that all weapon types have strong common characteristics, even if they have a couple of variants.

 

I know I sound like a broken record, but I really liked the old model where everyone picked from the same equipment list.
However, I can also see how there's a bit of worldbuilding and theming in saying that e.g. Orlocks don't really use Las weapons, because they prefer not to rely on the other Houses for their weapons and they don't have the capability themselves, hence they use solid slug weapons. But I think that kind of thing would work even better, if there were a bunch of more generic weapons (because if everyone makes their own it kinda takes away from a story like the above, and from the feeling that the Hive is interconnected).

 

As for the Matriarchs, I think their heads (not just their faces, I think) look a bit weird. But overall they are great models and I'll be very tempted to pick them up, even though I have tons of Eschers already. It looks like we might end up getting a lot of the different underhive critters in plastic and that's a great thing, no matter what else may be said about the new edition (tbh, I'm not super interested in it, but I also feel it'd be silly to pretend like I know it's bad, at this point).

[DanPesci]

3 hours ago, Antarius said:

 

I know I sound like a broken record, but I really liked the old model where everyone picked from the same equipment list.
However, I can also see how there's a bit of worldbuilding and theming in saying that e.g. Orlocks don't really use Las weapons, because they prefer not to rely on the other Houses for their weapons and they don't have the capability themselves, hence they use solid slug weapons. But I think that kind of thing would work even better, if there were a bunch of more generic weapons (because if everyone makes their own it kinda takes away from a story like the above, and from the feeling that the Hive is interconnected).

 

 

Its been a long while since Ive played Necromunda, but did the weapons available to buy not used to vary between gangs anyway once you started upgrading them. Ie most gangs started out on autopistols but then depending which gang you played, you had different upgrade options (ie van saar had more access to special/plasma weapons - but once you got to the 

 

I've been keeping a close eye on this edition release, as its a game I always wanted to get back into, but im not a huge fan of how gangs from the get-go now seem to have loads of specialist and special weapon options.  Where are the Juves? These underhive gangs seem to have more special weapon access than a space marine squad now does 

 

Also the drip feeding of books - yeah not great, sounds like they're already all written so should really just be a 'gangs compendium' style book. Not having to wait half an edition to get your specific gang. But then they wouldnt have a drip to feed you over the next year of WHC articles I guess. I get that you're only really going to have to buy the one leaflet for your gang (rather than splash out on a compendium that covers all gangs)...but doesnt feel great that Escher/Goliath will have 3 different ways of running their gangs from the get go, and other may have to wait well over a year for the same treatment.

[Castigator]

1 hour ago, DanPesci said:

 

 

I've been keeping a close eye on this edition release, as its a game I always wanted to get back into, but im not a huge fan of how gangs from the get-go now seem to have loads of specialist and special weapon options.  Where are the Juves? These underhive gangs seem to have more special weapon access than a space marine squad now does 

 

Also the drip feeding of books - yeah not great, sounds like they're already all written so should really just be a 'gangs compendium' style book. Not having to wait half an edition to get your specific gang. But then they wouldnt have a drip to feed you over the next year of WHC articles I guess. I get that you're only really going to have to buy the one leaflet for your gang (rather than splash out on a compendium that covers all gangs)...but doesnt feel great that Escher/Goliath will have 3 different ways of running their gangs from the get go, and other may have to wait well over a year for the same treatment.

 

Juves are still in Necromunda (Escher little sister, Orlock Greenhorn, ETC.) so I'm not sure where you've got that idea from?

 

While Special Weapons existed in the last edition of Necromunda the restrictions on who could take them depended on which House your gang belonged to or was restricted to Leaders, Champions or specialists. The new rules allow most gangers to take whatever they want but these Special weapons are no longer the military weapons that 40k/Kill Team are used to. The humble Bolter for example is much more likely to spend 50% of the battle unable to fire. Plasma & Melta are in a similar position.

While I like that this direction makes them feel battered and substandard compared to their 40k counterparts I don't like the mechanics of how they've achieved this. Shooting with these weapons is more convoluted and I wish they'd devised a better method.

Generally, the weapon list has been reduced pretty substantially and it's moved closer to the original game than the previous edition is/was.

 

I'm unsure about the Journals, mainly because the last time I bought a Journal was when Sisters of Battle or Harlequins were introduced to 40k, so around 2nd/3rd edition?

Even though Escher are my main gang, I'm disappointed that they appear to be dedicating each Journal to a particular gang. I was hoping for generic content that any gang could use like Scenarios, Psykers, Hangers on, specific settings, ETC. It's not a deal breaker for me but I can see how it could put some people off the game.

 

The one thing I hope that they don't do is introduce pack after pack of dedicated Tactic Cards that are impossible to get hold off because GW sell them all to the scalpers. The last edition we just stopped using them because of availability, how many there were and the feels-bad gotcha moments.

[Timberley]

5 hours ago, Castigator said:

I'm unsure about the Journals, mainly because the last time I bought a Journal was when Sisters of Battle or Harlequins were introduced to 40k, so around 2nd/3rd edition?

Even though Escher are my main gang, I'm disappointed that they appear to be dedicating each Journal to a particular gang. I was hoping for generic content that any gang could use like Scenarios, Psykers, Hangers on, specific settings, ETC. It's not a deal breaker for me but I can see how it could put some people off the game.

I collect Cathay for TOW, and have 3 Journals; Armies of Grand Cathay, Dawn of The Storm Dragon, and The Breaching of The Great Bastion.  They're essentially cut down 'House of...' books, but annoyingly for Cathay (as a new army), the army list is spread out across all three.  Established armies (like Empire and Bretonnia) have one Journal, which makes things a bit cheaper.  By contrast, the HH Journals are more about scenarios, with additional unit profiles and such that are designed to go with those scenarios, e.g. the Zone Mortalis Journal includes profiles for Breachers, which you might not need for a tank battle.

 

I think GW will do a mixture of both for Necromunda.  The Journals for our gangs as their own thing (including ways of making specialist gangs), like the TOW Journals, and expansion scenarios like the Ash Wastes and Secundus as their own Journals, a la HH Journals.

[lansalt]

I'm not really familiar with Necromunda lore, so I'd like to know how's possible that Escher Matriarchs are running around with those eye icons that look suspiciously like Black Legion/chaos eye icons.

Is not that the kind of thing that attracts the attention of inquisitors?

[Laurence]

22 minutes ago, lansalt said:

I'm not really familiar with Necromunda lore, so I'd like to know how's possible that Escher Matriarchs are running around with those eye icons that look suspiciously like Black Legion/chaos eye icons.

Is not that the kind of thing that attracts the attention of inquisitors?

Eh, lots of planets probably use eye iconography.  The astrotelepaths do, for one thing.

[Crimson Longinus]

1 hour ago, lansalt said:

I'm not really familiar with Necromunda lore, so I'd like to know how's possible that Escher Matriarchs are running around with those eye icons that look suspiciously like Black Legion/chaos eye icons.

Is not that the kind of thing that attracts the attention of inquisitors?

 

Sorry, they might try with their topknots, but Black Legion are not cool enough to be Escher and they cannot join as they're not girls!

[lansalt]

1 hour ago, Laurence said:

Eh, lots of planets probably use eye iconography.  The astrotelepaths do, for one thing.

But those do not have slit pupils, have they? 
 

3 minutes ago, Crimson Longinus said:

Sorry, they might try with their topknots, but Black Legion are not cool enough to be Escher and they cannot join as they're not girls!

What about a warband of gene enhaced women? The "Daughters of Cthonia"...
 

[Laurence]

17 minutes ago, lansalt said:

But those do not have slit pupils, have they? 

 

It's just a common Felinid symbol!  XD

[Nephaston]

Clearly these are Eye of Bastet icons.