Necromunda: Underhive Wars – Game Modes Overview

With Rogue Factor and Focus Home Interactive’s tactical RPG Necromunda: Underhive Wars set to launch later this summer, we get this Steam announcement that talks about the game’s three main game modes. Namely its story campaign, the endless Operations mode, and the skirmish mode you can either play online or against the AI.

The announcement also goes over the reasons behind limiting the active party size to five members. Here’s something to get you started:

WELCOME!

Greetings, friends and fellow Necromunda fans.

We hope that this message finds you well, and that you’ve enjoyed our previous Gameplay Overview #1 DevBlog. As promised, we’re back today with a new exciting entry, in order to cover the multiple Game Modes that will be available to you in Necromunda: Underhive Wars.

And so, without further ado, let’s dive right in!

A NOTE ON THE COMMUNITY FEEDBACK REGARDING THE NUMBER OF FIGHTERS IN YOUR GANG’S ACTIVE CREW

Preamble

Before we begin covering today’s subject, we’d like to take a moment in order to address a topic from our previous DevBlog that generated a lot of feedback from community members and content creators alike over the past week – and that is the 5-member limit for Active Crews.

Many people have been comparing this number to the larger Gang sizes found in our previous title, Mordheim: City of the Damned, as well as the original Necromunda tabletop game.

While we understand this comparison, we feel it’s important for people to regard this information as part of a broader picture, and the result of an overall design orientation consisting of multiple moving pieces, all working together to provide you with a dynamic, original and engaging twist on the classic Necromunda mechanics.

Up to four Gangs in each Match, for a total of up to 20 Fighters per Map.

Each of Underhive Wars’ three main Game Modes, which we’ll be presenting in detail today, allows for up to 4 gangs (in various Team or Free-for-All configurations) to be facing-off simultaneously in the same battles.

This means that players will often find themselves in situations where anywhere between 15-20 gangers will be present in the same map, each with their own turns to play, movements to accomplish and numerous actions to perform.

Redefining the classic formula by adding different Objectives

Underhive Wars will bring lots of twists to the classic Necromunda tabletop recipe, and one of the major ones is through the addition of different Objective Scenarios – special victory conditions, mechanics and sub-goals added to each match, in order to provide players with incentives to accomplish other goals than simply eliminating the enemy force(s)… although going in guns blazing (or chainsword swinging) is still definitely an option.

These Objective Scenarios will also be present in all three of the title’s Game Modes, offering new and interesting sets of opportunities and challenges with each battle fought.

Certain Objectives will sometimes also be accompanied by limited (albeit generous) Turn timers and Round counters, in order to reduce the downtime and ensure that the moments you spend in the title are less about waiting, and more about playing, strategizing, fighting and managing your Gangs. We’ll be covering more details regarding these various Objective Scenarios in an upcoming update, along with the Environments (26 hand-crafted vertical Maps) you’ll find them in!

No “Bottle Test” Mechanic

Players who are familiar with the classic Necromunda tabletop game know that Gangs often see their numbers dwindle as battle rages on – something called the “Bottle Test” – a series of dice rolls (called “Cool Checks”) performed by Fighters of a Gang after seeing one of their own becoming Seriously Injured, or being put Out of Action. Failing these checks can lead the remaining Gangers (and sometimes, whole Gangs as a result) to immediately flee the battlefield.

Underhive Wars has no such Bottle mechanic. While you will be able to manually extract Fighters from the battlefield, at specific locations and for specific reasons (securing a captured Objective Item, for example), it will be entirely YOUR choice of when to do so.

In other words, each member of your Active Crew will be able to hold its own during combat, provided he or she remains alive – a system designed to make each battle a very engaging and tense affair until the very end.

Striking the right balance – both in and out of combat

Over the past few months, we’ve spent a lot of time putting all the game’s systems to the test – striving to achieve a right balance of gameplay momentum, pacing and strategic choices on different levels. One thing to keep in mind in this regard is that Necromunda: Underhive Wars has two main, complementary elements: Battles and Gang Management.

Instead of focusing on one-off engagements, we’re putting together a complex-yet-approachable formula that will allow you to witness and forge the evolution of your Gang, to get attached to its members, and see them evolve from one encounter to another.

Rather than making each engagement drag on, we want you to be able to partake in multiple explosive scenarios in every play session. Whether you’re managing injuries (something bionic limbs and implants can help with), swapping Fighters to take full advantage of synergies between different career compositions, or experimenting with the Stats, Skills and Equipment systems – we want to give you ample tools to upgrade and tweak your Gang and its members in a meaningful way between each battle.

All-in-all, we’re absolutely convinced that the 5-member limit for Active Crews will make perfect sense when you finally get your hands on the game – it’s something you’ll have to experience for yourself in order to truly understand how all the pieces fit together.