Games Workshop Necromunda Hive War Board Game Box Set

Hive War is a set geared towards new players. This review keeps that in mind, and will hopefully answer questions potential purchasers might have.It's worth mentioning that I am also a war/skirmish gamer, but have not played Necromunda before recently, so I'm looking at the product from the perspective of whether this box prepares someone to play the game and start expanding their collection and hive-warring ambitions.Hive War is a starter set, through and through. Unlike some of the other big Games Workshop boxes, like Warhammer 40,000: Indomitus, this one doesn't have any exclusive contents; it's all stuff you can buy elsewhere. This is not necessarily a bad thing though, since it DOES include terrain, models, tools and rules that are compatible with the entire rest of the range. It's also a savings over buying all the parts individually. Just don't expect any crazy new models you can't find elsewhere. Speaking of parts, let's get into the contents:The models: Hive War includes one full box worth of each the two included gangs, House Escher and House Delaque. That's ten of each gang, each with an assortment of weapons and wargear to customize all your gangers individually. I'm personally a fan of both of the included factions, they have lots of personality, and are both well-suited to the small scale of the initial games you can play out of this box (more on that later). All 20 models are cool, and they'd cost $80 if you bought them retail (for anyone who's counting.The terrain: Hive War comes with five sprues of terrain, such as walls and columns, to customize your battlefield and create an interesting space to battle in. This is a good chunk of terrain to start out with. Thematically, Necromunda is all about slugging it out in the tunnels, ducts and catacombs of the Underhive, and this allows you to build the walls and corridors you need to make that happen right out of the box. If you want to start building vertically, or expanding to a larger map size (you'll probably want to do both if you enjoy the game), you will need to add more scale and variety to your collection; however this is plenty to get you going.The flavor sprue: In addition to the normal terrain, there's a sprue of miniatures in the box that has things like computer terminals, booby traps, cover and various other scatter and objectives. It's really neat, and adds a lot of atmosphere and value to your battlefield.The rulebook: This is the piece I actually see the most questions about. The Hive War rulebook is a condensed version of the core Necromunda rulebook. Some of the fluff has been trimmed down, and the rules are boiled down to the most basic version of the available gangs, mainly meaning weapons and other details only include choices available in the base box for each of the original 6 gangs (Delaque, Escher, Orlock, Goliath, Cawdor and Van Saar). This is fine starting out, and actually makes it very easy to pick up and play any of the base gangs. You'll want each gang's individual codex if you want to expand past their basic box. The biggest omission from the rules is the lack of a campaign. Campaigns are a big part of Necromunda's appeal, but you probably won't launch immediately into one right out of the box. Hive War's book DOES include several new scenarios designed for the map and terrain included, as well as rules for linking games together (which can be used in place of a campaign until you pick up a book with more robust campaign rules). Also, this new rulebook is the most up-to-date version of the core Necromunda rules, including FAQs/updates from the Warhammer website.The reference sheets: These are a big deal for me! GW games are complex, and have lots of rules. Relatively few include a good reference sheet...Hive War has two! They aren't ultra-comprehensive, but they'll absolutely get you through from turn-to-turn, and remind you about rules that might otherwise be easy to forget.The game mat: Necromunda is a pretty scalable game, and the Hive War box is designed to start you out with a faithful but small, skirmishy experience. For this end, the included game mat is not "exciting", but is "adequate". This is probably the least cool element of the box. The mat itself is small (I don't have it in front of me, but it's around 8x10 two-inch squares...Necromunda terrain is often at least 2'x2') and is on normal glossy paper. It's enough to get you started and probably fine for 5-on-5 gang violence in the far future, but if you wanna go bigger you'll need a new mat.Dice: Necromunda includes some standard D6 dice, as well as flavor dice with images on the faces, instead of just numbers. These can be replaced with regular D6 dice and are not mandatory, but I personally love flavor dice. These are used for things like checks to see if your K.O.'d characters are seriously injured (or dead), or to see if your guns run out of ammo.Cards: Hive War includes blank fighter cards, and two decks of generic tactics cards that any gang can use. These are pretty nice.Other stuff: Hive War includes the other basics you'd expect to find in a skirmish board game...punch-out tokens printed on cardboard, a vision template, and a transparent Necromunda-flavor 12" ruler. It also includes classic blast and flamer templates, transparent plastic pieces you can set on the battlefield to indicate who gets hit by grenades, jets of flame, or sticky webs. These are a cool component that everyone, for some intangible reason, loves.In short, Hive War is the total package, either for a brand new player who has zero 'Munda supplies already and is looking for an excellent entry point to the franchise, or who likes skirmish games and is content to play small, standalone games. From this perspective, Hive War is an absolute A+.However, Necromunda is a big game with lots of possibilities. If you are already a player and you have at least one gang and some terrain to play on, and/or a core rulebook, this set might not be right for you. I also imagine anyone who plays this and decides to get serious will want to upgrade from the small (and kinda crummy) paper mat ASAP. Fortunately there's lots of cheap and easy ways to get miniatures on the table.Overall: Awesome product, A-.

This is a great value for getting started in necromunda if you wish to play Escher or Delaque. Also, it includes a good starter set of Zone Mortalis terrain. The rulebook, however, is a waste of paper. This rulebook is a heavily condensed version of the core ruleset. Many things are missing. If you plan to play Necromunda, I suggest getting the Core Rulebook and toss this book in the trash.

I ordered this earlier this week expecting it to arrive next week but came within the same week ordered. Everything was in the box only one bracket had damage but was minor and was probably just shipping. Everything looks amazing and is very fun game.

A nice game system. Lots of terrain and two great "gangs" All kinds of supporting books and gang packs if you want to expand. Rule book included. Everything you need to play. Assembly could be a challenge for someone new to the hobby but the minis are impressive.

It arrived ahead of schedule in perfect condition. I wanted to try necromunda before investing too heavily into it. If you don't have the basics then with two gangs some terrain and basic rules this is a good place to start.

The figures are hard to put together but look amazing when done! Wish I had someone to play it with 😞