All’s Swell in the Underhell – Release 2

Through the Dust Wall: Surviving Necromunda’s Underhells

After the Genestealer outbreak within Hive Secundus, the Planetary Governor’s initial response
was containment. Vast resources were spent erecting thousands of miles of barriers and
fortifications, cordoning off Hive Secundus. Hundreds, even thousands, of Planetary Defence
Force auxilia and Enforcers were trained in guardian protocols in anticipation of their duty in
manning these containment walls, ensuring nothing that could pose a risk to the delicate
equilibrium of the planet could escape from Secundus. As the project neared completion,
however, the Dust Wall as it had come to be known was abandoned. Missives from Adeptus
Mechanicus research stations and Inquisition-associated xenobiologists made the full scope of
the threat posed by the alien organisms clear, and it became apparent that thinking it could be
contained was a grave miscalculation. Indeed, local legend even has it that an ultimatum was
issued by the Ordo Xenos: destroy Secundus, or Necromunda in its entirety would be subject to
Exterminatus to ensure the threat would never spread. And so the decision was made. The
forces manning the Dust Wall, the labourers and construction servitors building it, and the
overseers guiding the project were withdrawn far from Secundus. Those fighting inside the hive
to contain the threat directly never received the order to retreat. A necessary cost to pay, it was
reasoned. As orbital weaponry scoured Secundus and the thousands of square miles
surrounding it, collapsing and destroying everything within the confines of the nearly-complete
Dust Wall, the subterranean transit thoroughfares and tunnels were simultaneously sealed,
thousands of feet of rock and earth burying them completely and cutting off Secundus from
contact with the other hives entirely.

Now the Dust Wall stands not just to keep the Malstrain threat in, but to keep the roving gangs
and opportunistic warbands of Necromunda out. But as is the way on Necromunda, the rules
are always relaxed for those with enough coin and the guts to try. A lucrative trade has formed,
full settlements growing along the outside of the Dust Wall, offering passage through the Wall to
anyone foolhardy enough to try – as long as they pay for the privilege, of course, and follow the
two most admantium-clad rules of delving Hive Secundus: do not venture too deep, and bring
nothing living back with you. These settlements thrive off of this economy, smuggling
Necromundans past the watchful eyes of the Dust Wall’s sentinels, though even those can be
averted politely elsewhere with enough coin. Despite their leniency, however, the Dust Wall’s
defenders retain the right to fire freely on anyone found in the no-man’s-land between the Wall
and the Hive, even if only for their own amusement – after all, entertainment is hard to come by
in a lonely, isolated posting thousands of miles away from civilisation, being flayed alive by dust
storms and ash winds atop an abandoned, incomplete, decaying fortress.

Once a gang makes it through the Dust Wall, their journey has only just begun. Ahead lies Hive
Secundus: broken, lethal, and full of potential. Between them and it, however, are thousands of
miles of destroyed terrain, warped and scarred by graviton bombardment and nuclear
warheads. The Malstrain prowl amongst the ash clouds, rival gangs look to cut off competition
before they can even reach the hive, and at any time the threat of a bullet in the back from the
Dust Wall behind looms large. But if a gang can weather these dangers, the entirety of Hive
Secundus and its buried riches will be open to them – if there are enough members left after the
journey to secure them, that is.

Crossing the Dust Wall

As your gang moves from the (relative) safety of outside the Dust Wall and begin their journey towards the remains of Hive Secundus, they will start to encounter the threat of the Malstrain and the difficulty in traversing the lands between. They are not the only ones looking for life-changing treasure – other gangs also hunger for the prizes within – and others have already fallen for the Malstrain and seek to defend the Broodmind.

There are three distinct phases within the Underhells, each with specific rules that apply to them and each is affected by Madness, Desolation and Darkness.

Madness

Ghosts Of The Dead – Phase 1

• Archeo-hunter affiliated fighters who fail to rally after gaining the Broken condition must pass a
  Willpower check or gain the Insane condition.
• Malstrain affiliated fighters apply a -1 modifier to all Nerve tests.

Echoes In The Abyss – Phase 3

• Archeo-hunter affiliated fighters who fail to rally after gaining the Broken condition gain the Insane
  condition.
• Malstrain affiliated fighters are unaffected.

Shadow Of The Broodmind – Phase 5

• Archeo-hunter affiliated fighters who would gain the Broken condition gain the Insane condition instead.
• Malstrain affiliated fighters apply a +1 modifier to all Nerve tests.
  If a fighter is inflicted with the insane condition, follow the rules for cautious roaming horrors rather than the previous rules (see below).

Desolation

Limited Trade – Phase 1

• Archeo-hunter affiliated gangs cannot access their Gang Equipment Lists or add additional models after creation and all items in the Trading Post increase their Rare and Illegal ratings by 2.
• Malstrain affiliated gangs cannot access their Gang Equipment Lists or add additional models after
  creation, and all items in the Trading Post increase their Rare and Illegal ratings by 6 with Common items gaining a Rare (12) rating.

Crane Cities – Phase 3

• All gangs cannot access their Gang Equipment Lists or add additional models after creation and all
  items in the Trading Post increase their Rare and Illegal ratings by 4, with Common items gaining a Rare (10) rating.

Cut Off From The World – Phase 5

• Archeo-hunter affiliated gangs cannot access their Gang Equipment Lists or add additional models after creation and all items in the Trading Post increase their Rare and Illegal ratings by 6, with Common items gaining a Rare (12) rating.
• Malstrain affiliated gangs cannot access their Gang Equipment Lists or add additional models after
  creation and all items in the Trading Post increase their Rare and Illegal ratings by 2.

Darkness

Heavy Skies – Phase 1

• The Visibility (X”) rule is in effect for all battles, and the maximum value of X is 18.

Toxic Deeps – Phase 3

• The Visibility (X”) rule is in effect for all battles, and the maximum value of X is 12.

Stygian Depths – Phase 5

• The Visibility (X”) rule is in effect for all battles, and the maximum value of X is 9.

Experience

Rather than the standard experience gains for Necromunda we have some bespoke ways to generate XP and try and get the most from the campaign.

• All fighters who take part in a mission gain 1xp.
• 1 XP if their action directly causes an enemy fighter to suffer one or more Serious Injuries.*
• 2 XP if their action directly causes an enemy fighter to go Out of Action.*
• If the enemy fighter is a Leader or a Champion, gain an extra 1 XP for taking them out of action
• 1 XP if they are Broken and successfully rally.
• 1 XP if they provide Assistance to another fighter making a Recovery test who becomes Prone and Pinned.
• Additional Experience will be detailed in the missions.
• D3 XP for the MVP of each playing team. This is nominated by your opponent(s) at the end of the match.
• D3 XP for each fully painted model (ONCE!). This is awarded at the start of the campaign (or when they join your gang). If a model is unpainted, it gains the D3 XP when it becomes painted – please roll for this on the Discord.
• +1 additional XP when taking a Brute Out of Action (normal Malstrain Genestealers count as Brutes)
• +3 additional XP for taking out a Genestealer Alpha (he will also count at 2 kills and 2 Genestealer kills for the various tallies)

The Full Story

At the start of the campaign you will begin with 1 Reputation – this is increased as you fight and win battles in the Underhells. If you write a backstory for your gang (with a DECENT amount of detail) you will
be rewarded with and additional 1 Rep. Additional stories, should they take the notice of the roving reporter, will garner an additional Rep at time of print.

Shooting House Rules

● Target Priority
You must target the closest visible enemy regardless of facing – please turn your fighter to face the appropriate direction. This avoids facing fighters in awkward directions to circumvent the cool check for
seeing the actual closest enemy.

● Shooting at a model
To be able to shoot a model your model must be able to draw line of sight to that model over its own base from any part of your own model over its base. Weapons are not included to be able to either aim from or aim at.

● Stray Shots
Stray shots only hit other fighters on a 6+. Except when shooting into combat then it becomes a 4+

● Blast and Flame Templates
Do not ignore step 1 of the shooting rules: Fighters must pass Priority test or the template must touch the
closest fighter (except when using Smoke!). If an Engaged fighter is hit, any other fighters Engaged with
the hit fighter are also hit on a 4+

● Firing Template Weapons/grenades beyond visibility
Can fire both template weapons and grenades beyond visibility range (this includes aiming at a point
beyond the fighter’s visibility). Must be able to draw line of sight to the location of the blast. But they will
automatically scatter. At short range they will scatter d6 and at long range they will scatter 2d6 – grenades
count as always at long range.

● Shooting Unwieldy Weapons
Regardless of equipment, if you are NOT shooting a Heavy weapon as part of a double action then the
weapon is at -1 to hit.

● Concealed with low visibility
When playing a mission with low visibility (like ALL of the missions in the Underhells) shooting a weapon
which does NOT have the silent trait will mean that a model will be visible for the rest of the round. This
also applies to using a melee weapon with the POWER trait. And obviously any target that is ablaze can
also be seen! And if a fighter is HIT by a grenade or other blast (excluding smoke and gas) the fighter will
be illuminated and can be targeted.

● Additional Visibility
Equipment that grants additional range in the darkness like infra-sites and photo goggles DOES NOT
stack, visibility can only be increased by 9” MAX.

Often Forgotten Rules:

● Charging out of line of sight
You can charge a model that you do not have line of sight for but when rolling to hit you will be at a -1 to
hit.

● Turn to Face
When making reaction attacks if you had to turn your fighter to face the threat then they are at -1 to hit.
This includes if they have to get up from prone as prone fighters have no facing.

Trading Post

The road to the Underhells is a long and perilous one. The normal trading post rules will NOT apply. Each
week we will create a new trading post with an assortment of items for your gangs to buy – these will
include gang-specific weapons that can be purchased by ANY gang. These will be advertised before
Thursday but can only be purchased between post-battle on one Thursday and pre-battle the next
Thursday. There will be a number of guaranteed weapons/wargear each phase – and this will change as
the phases change. It will also have the modified rarity for the archeo-hunters and the Malstrain-affiliates
(which again, will change with the phases).

Tactics Cards

• Tactics cards are not used in phase 1 of the campaign – they will be available from phase 3 but will be restricted to a selection curated by Crossfire to discourage uneven play.
• From Phase 3 you will randomly choose 2 gang tactics from your custom deck (you must have at least 12 cards in your custom deck).
• If during the pre-battle sequence the total credits value of fighters in one player’s starting crew is less than their opponent’s then they may randomly determine an additional gang tactic for each full 100 credits of difference.
• If you are REALLY at a disadvantage you can choose to spend some of the difference in credits on bounty hunters – a selection will be available at the club for you to use!

Winning the Underhells Campaign

There are a number of different ways to “win” the campaign – each player can only achieve ONE of these
victories regardless of the outcome of the campaign:

Explorator
The player’s gang with the most Exploration points earned at the end of
the campaign. (can only be won by an Archeo-Hunter gang)

Slayer of the Malstrain
The player’s gang which killed the most Malstrain Genestealers during
the campaign. (can only be won by an Archeo-Hunter gang)

Lord of Secundus
The player’s gang with the highest Reputation at the end of the
campaign. (can only be won by an Archeo-Hunter gang)

Warmonger
The player’s gang who fought the most battles across the campaign.
(can only be won by an Archeo-Hunter gang)

Champion of the Malstrain
The player’s gang who won the most scenarios for the Malstrain.
Conqueror of the Underhells The player’s gang who won the most scenarios for the Archeo-hunters

Next Release

In the next release about the campaign we will look at the following:

• The Phases of the Campaign
• Details about Territories
• Skill Rules