Necromunda 2.0: The Incarnation that passed me by...

I confess to having been cautious about the new version of Necromunda that's currently being chewed over by the gaming community (mostly it seems with positive reactions), probably because I've never been a Goliath fanboy and on account of some of the changes that they've made ("Boards?!? What madness is this???").

But then I saw the previews of the new Orlock models, and all was forgiven.

This new interest in gang-based skirmish games was also one of the reasons that I was inspired to return to painting miniatures after almost ten years away from the hobby, and after looking out my own odds and sods Rogue Trader/40K stuff, I inevitably took to Ebay to find more interesting things to paint as well.

I recognised most stuff, but then I came across a couple of miniatures being sold as Orlocks that I didn't - not unusual, as many sellers list proxies as Necromunda models. But these clearly had Necromunda stamped on their tabs, so they looked to be the genuine article.

I knew that the rules had been reworked and published long after the original boxed game.

Specialist Games Edition of the Necromunda rules

But I had no idea there was a second incarnation of the miniatures associated with the game as well, so I did a little digging and turned up proof in the form of shots featuring them painted up.

2nd Edition Orlock Gangers - L to R: Leader, Ganger x2 & Heavy

Gone are the characteristic Orlock headbands and tabbard-thingies (never liked the latter anyway), to be replaced by bandanas alone - which, to me at least, robs them of their character and makes them very generic indeed.

I mean, these could easily be generic underhive scum or even Imperial Guard troopers.

2nd Edition Goliath Gangers - L to R: Leader, Heavy, Ganger x4 & Juve x2

Searching also turned up some Goliath miniatures that were likewise new to me, and even though I've already admitted that I was never a massive fan, they seem to have fared a little better in the process of being re-imagined. 

They've lost muscle mass though, and that was always one of the big sellers of the Goliath, that they were ridiculously pumped up (whilst amusingly having no additional strength whatsoever in the original rules).

In addition, putting vests on the Juves feels to me like they were trying to make them more punk in aesthetic, and while they may have Mohawks, I never felt that the Goliath were actually supposed to be rooted that deeply in the subculture, more like they were influenced by it, but that was just one element of many.

So to sum up: I'm not that impressed.

It's nice to see that there are "official" alternatives to the aging original sculpts from way back at the start of the nineties, but they seem to have suffered from that awful "meh" period that GW went through around the turn of the millennium.

If I come across some for a steal, I might make an offer - or not.

I'm still having far too much fun painting stuff from the original range and before to be all that bothered.