First impressions, this book is quite impressive. Compared to the biggest of the gang war supplements, this book is worthy of its hardback status as an expansion. I’ve been excited about this book, and cautious, because of how much key info wasn’t explicitly laid out prior to its release. Now I know, and it is *awesome*.

Keep reading?

I’ll start with the least impressive: Venators

oops I guess there are new bounty hunters too, but the first real pull is the build-your-own-faction rules. They are intended to be a gang made up of bounty hunters, but if you’ve got a group of anybodies looking to do anything in the hives of Necromunda, you could make them into a venator gang.

We already had venators, as per a white dwarf article that laid out how they played in a “normal” campaign for its time. It was a tough gang to play, missing its own tactic cards, its flexibility came at the cost of it being a terribly inefficient gang in terms of credits costs, that was seriously limited by income (lack of taking turf).

The updated venators make it really clear how the gang works, you lose some of the quantity of weapon slots for fighters, in exchange for the ability to gain turf. Fighters with a gang heritage can take pets from their house now (yaaaay) and can even benefit from special territories if the leader has a house legacy. Still really inefficient, but now we have a clear idea of how they play in a dominion campaign.

New equipment

There isn’t much to say about the equipment options. Some of these are meant specifically for the new bad zone rules or more niche scenarios, but they are still nifty. I really dig that we get a new faction non-specific pet in the form of the GIANT RAT! (yeah snoots!). Some of the misc gear is worth checking out!

Next up: Bad Zones. Yikes!

Bad zones are pretty neat. They are a way to take a sector mechanicus board and change the nature of how the whole table works. I consider these to be a nice addition to the game, and honestly 2 of these zones were something our group had been house-ruling up until this point (and I like the book’s versions better). The main draw to me for badzones is that for a Dominion campaign, I can designate certain territories as badzones, and every game played there would have to use the badzone rules (unless its an underhive territory).

Bad Zone Events

This is where the bad zones really make a huge difference. Bade zone rules by themselves can be pretty easy to avoid. We all have a player or two that just plays it super safe when it comes to hazards. Staying away from cliffs or ledges, staying away from the killer fan, staying away from the industrial smelter, etc. Bad zone events are much harder to avoid, and can unpredictably up the danger of the bad zones themselves. Each card behaves a bit differently with 3 of the different bad zones, most of which make things even more dangerous. Sometimes the safe place is now unsafe, sometimes the dangerous place is even more deadly, occasionally you’ll get an incentive to tread someplace on the edge! The badzone cards make this even more worth while, since you have an easier way of keeping track of what effect is at play at any given time.

Guilds

Holeee sheeit. This is what I came for, and they TOTALLY delivered on Guild Alliances. For one, guild alliances are a great comeback mechanic. If your rep is high they are less likely to help out, and you are more likely to make them mad. Making them mad can make them less useful or make them straight-up leave you. This means that a struggling player is going to make the most use of these friendlies, and they’ll help with the most important thing that struggling players need in Dominion: to win their games.

For one, each guild offers some innate bonuses to your gang. They are not symmetrical, and just when I thought there was a pattern (the first couple guilds want a cut of winnings), they caught me WAY off guard with the drawbacks of some of the guilds.

The real winner for me is the guild agents. Now I was hoping, not counting on being able to use guild agents in a gang as actual fighters in an actual battle, and we got it. Even wilder, you don’t always get to choose. You can ask them for help (easier if your rep is lower) or they can FORCE you to take them if you are on the defense (which makes them mad if your rep is higher). Each guild sents a retinue that is 1 leader equivalent, 1 champion equivalent, and *usually* 2 ganger equivalents. Most of them are fixed loadouts, sometimes you get a choice between a couple. With 5 guilds offering unique retinues, and most of them consisting of 4 models, you end up with 19 guild characters that any gang potentially has access to (the water guild offers a heavy instead of 2 grunts). Then there’s always the iron guild… XD

The different guild retinues bear some similarities, but they all play a bit differently. Some prefer ranged, some melee, some are a legitimate threat where others are clearly more of a support cast. The fact that any guild can ally with any faction means that you can either play to your strengths, or cover one of your weaknesses with a guild ally retinue. Its a really clever way to go about it!

So considerate of them to make it so that gangs that have a guild alliance can’t use sub-plots or house favors. That way, if someone hasn’t converted their guilders yet, don’t have the book, or just don’t want to, they aren’t at a huge disadvantage if they stick with other options.

TLDR

This is a book full of possibilities and opportunities. Nothing so bland or simple as a new faction. Instead, this book is a tool box to add a ton of potential play to an existing campaign or define a new one all together. Guilds are total game-changers, expect to see them tilting tables any day now!