The Secundan Strain
When the Hive Mind beheld the mutated forms of the Malstrain, corrupted and perverted by the contaminants, biohazards and rad-clouds left in the wake of Secundus’ annihilation, it gazed in horror. These aberrations were no true Genestealers, a mockery of the Hive Mind’s perfected template. It, and it alone, controls the genetic destiny of the Tyranids and these creatures were an insult to its exacting designs – one which it would not tolerate. These twisted monsters were rejected by the greater Tyranid consciousness, excised from the Hive Mind, and so turned to Secundus itself for survival. Some chose to hunt alone, stalking the ruined arcologies of the hive for whatever meagre scraps of biomass they could consume; some continued the pattern their Purestrain forebears had, implanting and infecting the desperate and desolate humans left in the hive to create clades of brood-aligned fodder; often they would form symbiotic relationships with curious organisms which were dubbed ‘Tyramites’, not true Tyranid forms but local insectile ticks which grew bloated through feasting on the transformed fauna and tainted corpses of the Malstrain’s lairs. All fall under the command of the Malstrain Broodmind.
But the sentries on the Dust Wall and the Ferrymen who gain gangers passage to the exclusion zone speak in hushed tones of the shadows that lurk in Secundus. Grave warnings of Malstrain Alpha specimens that dwarf the typical Genestealers. Whispered tones speaking of the dark heart beating throughout the Underhells, its veins and arteries carrying its message throughout the Abyss, its capillaries reaching into the minds of anyone weak or desperate enough to open themselves up to its entreaties. Calling to those wretches whose souls have been eroded by constant terror, who seek only death and release from the fear, it offers that release. Honeyed words injected directly into the subconscious of the broken, promising tranquillity, promising comfort, promising an end to the loneliness that haunts the Underhells. It speaks, and the weak and weary listen. They seek their salvation in it and join the Broodmind, at last at peace in the embrace of the Malstrain Patriarch.
Roaming Horrors
The Malstrain Patriarch’s awareness encompasses the entirety of the Dead Zone, such is its psychic might. When it feels a disturbance in its mind, an anomaly in its weave, it directs its brood to hunt and remove the interlopers from its domain. With Secundus’ depopulation and routes to other hives sealed, the Malstrain are particularly ravenous, desperate for organic matter to grow their brood. They descend upon the unfortunate with rancorous, animalistic ferocity, driven near-feral by their mutated minds and their sheer all-encompassing hunger.
All our non-downtime scenarios use Roaming Horrors, the player with Priority rolls on one of the tables that follow before the Ready Gang step.
Which table is rolled on is determined by the current region the gangs are exploring. When a Horror is generated, they are placed as detailed below.
Dead Zone – Phase 1
The hunters have drawn the notice of the Malstrain Patriarch and it is searching the darkness for them.
D66 | Adversaries |
---|---|
11-36 | D3 Malstrain Tyramites |
41-46 | D3 Brood Scum |
51-56 | D3 Brood Scum and 1 Brood Scum Leader |
61-65 | 61-65 Malstrain Genestealer |
66 | Malstrain Genestealer Alpha |
Secundan Abyss – Phase 3
The Malstrain Patriarch dispatches deadlier minions to find the intruders who have trespassed upon its domain.
D66 | Adversaries |
---|---|
11-26 | D3 Malstrain Tyramites |
31-36 | D3 Brood Scum |
41-46 | D3 Brood Scum and 1 Brood Scum Leader |
51-56 | 61-65 Malstrain Genestealer |
66 | Malstrain Genestealer Alpha |
Underhells – Phase 5
The hunters have invoked the fury of the Malstrain Patriarch and must act quickly to escape its gathering servants.
D66 | Adversaries |
---|---|
11-16 | D3 Malstrain Tyramites |
21-26 | D3 Brood Scum |
31-36 | D3 Brood Scum and 1 Brood Scum Leader |
41-56 | 61-65 Malstrain Genestealer |
61-66 | Malstrain Genestealer Alpha |
Placing Roaming Horrors
Each scenario will include a number of Spawn Points. At the start of each round (unless noted by the scenario) Horrors will begin to appear, their type determined by the result on the tables. Roll randomly for the Horrors appearing and where they are placed. Once placed, Horrors will then follow their Nature as detailed below.
Activating Roaming Horrors
Each time a player completes an activation with one of their fighters, a Horror will activate before their opponent(s) activate a fighter. Horrors are controlled by the player who just completed their activation, though they must follow their Nature. Each Horror may only activate once in each round.
Horror Nature
The nature of the Horror determines how it will act. Unless otherwise noted, Horrors always move toward the nearest non-Roaming Horror fighter.
Cautious (Brood Scum): The Horror will move to within weapon range and attack if possible, sticking to cover. They will not expose themselves unless they can take a shot. If they are already in cover with a potential target, they will aim and shoot. If engaged, they will fight.
Aggressive (Malstrain Genestealers and Tyramites): The Horror will move so as to get within charge range or charge when possible. If engaged, they will fight.
Killing Horrors
Unless otherwise noted, Horrors do not follow the normal rules for resolving hits and are removed if an Injury dice would be rolled and applied to them. Models can earn XP and Kill points for killing Horrors. Primes and Leaders count as Champions and all other Horrors count as Gangers for this purpose.
Horrors And Ammo
Horrors do not need to make Ammo rolls and their weapons never run out of ammo.
Malstrain Brood Scum Weapons
The details of how the Malstrain Brood Scum and their leaders are equipped will be detailed later in this document.
Horrors And Malstrain Corrupted, Or Malstrain Gangs
Roaming Horrors are worked up to a killing frenzy, as such they do not recognise Malstrain Corrupted or Malstrain gangs as being on the same side and will attack them as enemies.
Data Crystal Stacks
Truly ancient pieces of technology, these crystalline forms are threaded with silica-veins carrying the vast knowledge of eons past within. Hooked up to machines designed by the formerly scholarly city to extract and decode the scrambled and secretive information inside, these data crystal stacks can still be found littering Secundus. The possibilities for what they contain are endless – ancient weapon patterns, lost star charts, even potentially blueprints for forgotten STCs – and all are sure to be extremely lucrative. But they are of little worth in the Dead Zone itself, their true value being to the people on the civilised side of the Dust Wall. The tricky part is getting them out of the Underhells, as the fragile crystals are brittle and easy to break – something very likely to happen in the fierce firefights that are sure to erupt when a rival gang comes looking to take them from you.
During battles taking place in the Underhells, each player deploys a Data Crystal Stack outside of their deployment zone before setting up their starting crew. In addition to following the standard rules for terrain from the Necromunda Core Rulebook, such as cover and blocking line of sight, Data Crystal Stacks have a number of unique features as described below:
Fragile Structure
Although capable of holding a wealth of information, the crystalline nature of data crystals makes them susceptible to thermal damage. If a Data Crystal Stack is hit by a weapon with the Blaze trait, roll a D6 and consult the following table:
D6 | Result |
---|---|
1 She’s Gonna Blow! | The data crystals contained within the stack destabilise, leading to an explosive chain reaction! All models within D3+3″ are automatically hit by a S5, D1, AP -1 attack and all fighters hit change their status to Prone and Pinned. No more Data Crystals may be harvested from this Data Crystal Stack. |
2-3 Limited Explosion | A couple of the data crystals within the stack destabilise and explode, however the majority of the data crystal stack remains intact. All fighters within 3″ are automatically hit by a S3, D1, AP – attack and all fighters hit change their status to Prone and Pinned. Any future attempts to perform the Harvest Data Crystal (Basic) action suffer a -1 modifier to the Intelligence test. |
4-6 Lucky Escape | Although several of the data crystals start to glow from the heat, they remain stable. |
Harvesting Data Crystal Stacks
Any fighter within 1″ of a Data Crystal Stack can perform the Harvest Data Crystal (Basic) action:
Harvest Data Crystal (Basic): The fighter makes an Intelligence test, if passed they gain a Data Crystal. If the test is failed, they have instead roused the Malstrain – add 1 to the roll to generate Roaming Horrors at the start of the next round.
Carrying Data Crystals
Each fighter may only carry one Data Crystal at a time. If a fighter is taken Out of Action whilst holding a Data Crystal, their controlling player places a marker on the battlefield in base contact with the fighter before removing them from the battlefield.
Any fighter who ends their activation in base contact with a Data Crystal may pick it up, as long as they are not already carrying a Data Crystal.
When the battle ends, any Data Crystals that were held by a fighter still on the battlefield or a fighter that fled are added to the gang’s Stash.
Using Data Crystals
During the Receive Rewards step of the post-battle sequence, each player may either sell any Data Crystals in their Stash for D3x10 credits or attempt to unlock them by rolling on the table below:
D6 | Result |
---|---|
1 | A fighter of your choice earns D3 XP |
2-3 | A fighter of your choice gains a random skill from one of their Primary skill sets. |
4-5 | A fighter of your choice gains a random skill from one of their Secondary skill sets. |
6 | A fighter of your choice gains a random skill from any skill set. |
Roaming Horrors – Stats
Malstrain Tyramite

Skills: Dodge
Equipment: A Malstrain Tyramite is armed with a stinger and equipped with flak armour and a bio-booster.
Special Rule: Flight
Dodge: If wounded from an attack, roll a D6. On a 6, the attack is dodged. Against Blast/Flame weapons, a 6 allows the fighter to move up to 2″ before checking for hits.
Flak Armour: 6+ save roll. Against weapons that use a Blast marker or Flame template, this is increased to a 5+ save roll.
Bio-Booster: The first time in each battle that an Injury roll is made for a fighter with a bio-booster, one less Injury dice is rolled. If only one dice was being rolled, two dice are rolled and the player controlling the fighter with the bio-booster can discard one of them.
Flight: A Malstrain Tyramite ignores all terrain, may move freely between levels without restriction, and can never fall. It may not, however, ignore impassable terrain and may not end its movement with its base overlapping an obstacle or another fighter’s base.
Brood Scum

Equipment: Each Brood Scum is equipped with an Autogun, Autopistol, Fighting Knife and a Hazard Suit.



Hazard Suit: Grants a 6+ save. Additionally, when a Hazard Suit is combined with a Respirator, the fighter’s Toughness is increased by 3 against Gas attacks, rather than the usual 2. Finally, a fighter wearing a Hazard Suit is immune to the Blaze and Rad-phage traits.
Brood Scum Leader
The brood scum leader has the same stats as the Brood Scum but with one more attack and one more wound – they also count as a champion for the purposes of xp.
The Brood Scum Leader is equipped with a shotgun with solid & scatter ammo, an autopistol, a fighting knife and has mesh armour.

Mesh Armour: Mesh Armour grants a 5+ save roll.
Malstrain Genestealer

Dodge: If wounded from an attack, roll a D6. On a 6, the attack is dodged. Against Blast/Flame weapons, a 6 allows the fighter to move up to 2″ before checking for hits.
Evade: If targeted by a ranged attack, and Standing and Active, this fighter applies an additional -1 modifier to the hit roll, or -2 if the attack is at Long range.
Nerves of Steel: When the fighter is hit by a ranged attack, make a Cool test for them. If it is passed, they may choose not to become Prone and Pinned.
Rain of Blows: This fighter treats the Fight action as Fight (Simple) rather than Fight (Basic). In other words, this fighter may make two Fight (Simple) actions when activated.
Mesh Armour: Mesh armour grants a 5+ save roll.
Bio-Booster: The first time in each battle that an Injury roll is made for a fighter with a bio-booster, one less Injury dice is rolled. If only one dice was being rolled, two dice are rolled and the player controlling the fighter with the bio-booster can discard one of them.
Malstrain Alpha

See above for skills and wargear details.
Next Release
In the next release about the campaign we will look at the following:
- Underhells Campaign House Rules
- Missions for Phase 1
- Week 1 Trading Post

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