Necromunday: 2021 In Review – The Releases

Howdy scummers! We’re back with another edition of Necromunday! This week we are talking about Necro releases in 2021! For an absolute trashfire of a year, there sure were a hell of a lot of new books and models! 

extremely Legend of Zelda voice:

WE GOT SOME STUFF

Winter 2020 was pretty rough, and GW’s release schedule went thin for quite a while. Considering that, we’ve gotten a bonkers amount of stuff since then:

Q1

Escher Phyrr Cats
Orlock Champions & Gangers
Cawdor Rattus Tatterskin

Q2

Hive War
House of Faith
Redemptionists / Cawdor Champs
Escher Plastic Upgrade Sprue
Goliath Plastic Upgrade Sprue

Q3

House of Shadow
Delaque Nachtgul & Spektor kit
House Orlock Plastic Upgrade Sprue
Rebel Lord Lady Credo
Van Saar Plastic Upgrade Sprue
House Greim Military Attache
Nautican Siphoning Delegation

Q4

Book of the Outcast
Outcast Gang
Necromunda Market Stalls
Escher Khimerix
Van Saar Champions
Van Saar Archni-rig
Van Saar Champion with Cyberachnids
Cawdor Plastic Upgrade Sprue
Klovis the Redeemer
Cawdor Stig-Shambler
Cawdor Sheen Birds

Whew! Let’s break it down.

House Gang Goodies

Credit: Dylon

House Cawdor (and their Redemptionist buddies) made off like bandits this year, with a book and five new kits – including 9 unique models. What better complement to a Redemptionist release round than a brand new Klovis model! It was also a huge year for House Delaque. The sneaky bois got some potent new toys in House of Shadow, and got a spot in the new Hive War boxed set alongside House Escher. Speaking of Hive War – this starter set still has us psyched! While we poured one out for the dearly departed cardboard zone mortalis tiles, an intro box with plastic terrain and an updated rulebook is a great way to start. We just wish there was a way to buy the new book on its own!

Orlocks only got one kit outside their upgrade sprue, but what a kit it was! Three absolute badass ladies – sporting some great weaponry, understated but solid poses, and a seriousness that underscores how awful the underhive truly is. 

Orlock Gang Upgrades. Credit: Games Workshop

We saw upgrade kits for 5 of the 6 House Gangs this year. Getting this stuff in plastic rules! However… all of the kits contain two of the same sprue, so you end up with a lot of duplicated gear that you’re just never going to use. The Goliath kit comes with 2 flamers and 2 meltaguns… but no other heavy options. Thankfully, you do get some new heads and a sweet cigar-toting arm. Smoking is still cool in the underhive.

Necromunda Goliaths. Credit: SRM

The Escher kit comes with great hair, but so many special weapons. The Orlock kit is overflowing with heavy flamers! Same goes for the Cawdor kit, and why does the Van Saar kit come with FOUR flamers? Those gripes aside, they all have great head options, and plastic is welcome after working with many of the the resin upgrades. For the longevity and variety of the game, these kits are an excellent resource and provide access to many of the useful weapons that are missing in the core boxes. We can hope that maybe, just maybe, they’ll release further upgrade kits with more options eventually. It’s fair to say that we should expect the upgrade kit for Delaque to come next year – and we can all hope that the Outcast gang will eventually get one too.

“Murder Hornets” Van Saar Gang. Credit: Kevin Genson

The Van Saar got a late year release, along with the aforementioned upgrade kit as well. This year saw the drop of the long-awaited Arachni-rig, a pair of very cool champs, and a champion with a… twin barrel Lascannon? Sure, why not! If you really need an Ogryn or vat-nonsense Goliath dead it’ll come in handy. The Arachni-rig is very cool, but it likely took everyone 30 minutes of staring at it to figure out the arm in front was not actually a leg. We’re interested to see if folks will opt to re-pose their top-heavy mechs to something a bit safer for transport and play.

A Great Year for Weirdos

Outcast Gang. Credit: Games Workshop

Can we gush about the Outcast gang kit some more? Compatibility with Orlock and Genestealer Cult kits lend this set loads of flexibility. With some ingenuity, I’m sure you could bash plenty of other kits in too. The icing on the cake here is that the gang rules are excellent as well! While the flexibility of Venators is certainly cool, Outcasts are able to use basically ANY statline as a leader. There are a whole lot of bounty hunters and other ne’er do wells that might not make sense to hire for one game, but would be a great pick to head up a crew! One option we’re a big fan of is Rebel Lord, Lady Credo. Few models have truly captured uphive excess, and a servitor tying a bow in an updo is exactly that. Pictured above, the Mercator Nautica Syphoning Delegation brings a completely different design aesthetic to Necro. We’re always psyched for more random weirdos – especially ones that bring something new to the table. Conversely, the House Greim duo dipping into Arbites aesthetics is a bit of the old we are more than happy to see return.

Underhive Market. Credit: Games Workshop

Any time GW makes terrain for Necromunda it is a good day. It also lets us know that the game is being supported well! Highlights of the kit have to be the random exotic weapons and the MUNG VASE. The rest of the sprues have very cool components; most are integral to how the kits are intended to be built, but also some that could be used anywhere to add new details. Dylan is very excited that he didn’t finish his own trading post that he started building earlier this year. Now he has a source for even more grimdark bits and bobs!

In Conclusion

None of us thought that Necromunda would have gotten a mountain of new models this year. We certainly expected two House of books, a new kit for each of those gangs, and some dramatis personae… but not the rather immense selection we ended up getting! We saw the return of the Redemptionists (& Klovis!), a multipart Hive Scum kit, stacks of plastic house gang upgrade sprues, and a damn mung vase! It’s a good time to be a Necro fan and we are pumped to see what they have up next!

Next week we’ll be back with a wrap-up of our hobby progress, games played, and what we hope to see from Necro in the next year! What were your favorite releases of 2021? Drop us a line at contact@goonhammer.com.