Neurogaunts scuttle forward in seething masses, driven on by the parasitic neurocytes that cling to their backs. Their primary purpose is to protect the synaptic node-beasts coordinating invasion swarms, while projecting their command signals throughout the wider swarm. It is a task they go about with single-minded savagery, slashing, biting, and dying with mindless vigour.
Von Ryan’s Leapers are swift, agile Tyranid bioforms, cunning hunters and stealth ambushers that are especially lethal when fighting in dense terrain. Packs of Leapers lie in wait like living mines, lurking at the optimum locations to cause as much damage as possible. When they sense the perfect time to strike, they burst forth to butcher all around in a murderous frenzy.
A Psychophage stampedes into battle at a frightening speed. They devour any prey organism in their paths, but especially favour those victims with psychic abilities. How they metabolise such esoteric powers is unclear, but doing so allows them to project surges of psychocorrosive ash that deflagrate their victims’ minds and souls.
The Tauros Venator is an all-terrain vehicle, favoured by the Palanite Enforcers as a rapid interceptor ideal for policing the vital ridgeways that criss-cross Necromunda's ash wastes. The Enforcers only have a limited presence beyond the hive cities, so these swift but well-armed vehicles are vital for traversing the outlands at speed and bringing brutal justice to those who would threaten wealthy guild convoys or respectable hiver travellers.
Few things are simple on Necromunda. Gangers thought lost in battle sometimes resurface later, seemingly back from the dead. Mysterious figures rise to plague an area, taunting the local gangs and working towards their own agenda. Settlements grow, falter, or change as the tides of fate shift. One thing is certain in the underhive – there’s never a dull moment.
The Adeptus Mechanicus march to war as a disturbing fusion of flesh and machine, ruling Tech-Priests and fanatical cyborg followers raising modified voices in binharic praise of the Machine God. Purge Corps Deltic-9 are equipped to scour the contamination of enemy presence from locations of strategic or exploratory importance, employing cybernetic speed and terrifying weapons. Cavalry and winged Pteraxii unleash gouts of purging flame, before radioactive Skitarii bring up the rear to reclaim whatever remains.
A Sydonian Skatros is a sinister cybernetic sentinel, stoic and unmoving until the moment an enemy strays into range of their huge rifle. Mechanical, stilt-like limbs allow them to traverse hazardous terrain and survey the environment, shrouded by a smog of incense-exhaust. With protocol-driven precision and an advanced scanner known as the achillan eye, they lock on to their foes’ weakpoints and unleash pinpoint fire that sows panic and agony – all the better for eroding enemy morale.
The Adeptus Mechanicus are the fanatical worshippers of the Machine God of Mars. For thousands of years the robed priests of the Machine Cult have presided over the fabrication, maintenance, and preservation of Humanity’s surviving technological wonders with reverence and ritual. Led by Tech-Priests whose weak organic flesh has been replaced with metallic augmentations, their armies fight to defend forge worlds and strike out across the galaxy in search of ancient archeotech.
The Tech-Priests of Mars march forth at the head of cybernetic legions, protected by barely understood relics of a bygone era, and wielding devastating and bizarre weapons to obliterate their foes.
The Tyranids are alien predators invading the galaxy from the vast intergalactic void beyond its edges. Like swarming insects falling upon precious crops, they devour all before them – consuming life upon each world in their path, and leaving nothing but airless rocks in their wake. They are a threat to every sentient species in the galaxy, and their numbers are growing.
Ash Wastes Arachni-rigs – known to House Van Saar as Arachnika Ash-jumpers – are armoured exoskeletons designed to traverse Necromunda’s rugged surface. Jump jets allow them to boost over obstacles, leap free of trouble, or unexpectedly drop in amongst their foes. Heavy weapons and surprising mobility make Ash-jumpers a match for rival vehicles and Nomad war parties, as they carve through Cargo-8 trains with laser and plasma blasts, clear rough terrain with flamers and rad guns, and snag targets with harpoons.
House Helmawr has fallen! As a living god takes the throne of Necromunda, Lady Haera fights her way to the Dust Wall and the loyal Enforcers stationed there. As the Ash Waste Nomad tribes gather for a massive assault on the Ironhead Squat holds, gangs rush to win favour with House Aranthus, capture the last Helmawr heir, or simply survive the darkness rising from below Hive Secundus.