Fall of Helmawr - Week 1

The Setup

Week 1 paired against K, who I know from Mordheim and was dipping his toes into Necromunda for the first time. We decided to do a game without vehicles as K did not have any vehicles built yet, and they also add a lot of rules overhead to the game and we wanted to focus on nailing the core mechanics.

We flipped a Jack of Spades from the territory deck - so we were fighting in Promethium Refineries of Hive Nox.

I won the pregame rolls and chose the Sweep and Clear scenario from the Campaign pack - it was near the top of the list and it looked like a good fit for a learning game.

The Game

The turmoil on Necromunda has kicked the old order into the sump, splintering alliances—between Houses and within them.

The Dross Drongos made an early commitment to House Aranthus, and with the Succession looming they were prepared to make an example of any members of the House of Chains who hadn’t fallen into line.

Under cover of night, they slipped into the promethium refineries of Hive Nox to conduct a Sweep & Clear—move room to room, flush out the holdouts, and leave the Martyrs’ Kiln too broken (and too scared) to shelter anyone again.

The first two groups blundered into each other in the dark. A scattershot blast thundered through the pipes and gantries, leaving two Drongos pinned but otherwise unscathed. The muzzle flash painted the Kiln-Tyrant in stark light—just long enough for Dakk to pivot and unload a sustained burst of bolt rounds into the source of the noise.

The shots found their mark. Despite taking enough punishment to cripple a Ridgerunner, the Tyrant was not done yet. He thundered forward and took out his pain on Kudgo before finally succumbing to his wounds.

But Goliaths adapt fast—and it seems what doesn’t kill them only makes them stronger...

Forge-boss Hamm pushed up to clear a section of gantry, flanking two of the Martyrs’. A controlled burst from his boltgun dropped one out of action.

The response was immediate. The moment Hamm revealed himself, a krak grenade hit him square in the chest. He went down hard and would need urgent medical attention if he was going to walk away from this.

That rapid exchange of casualties left the two juves alone, facing each other across the refinery’s shadowed deck — a fight of brawn and steel to establish dominance. Cleaver on cleaver, they hacked at one another, neither able to land a disabling blow.

Then Kudgo saw an opening: one clean strike to the temple. The enemy juve dropped, and Kudgo moved fast — chains out, prisoner bound, ready to be dragged home.

After the initial violence, the gloom settled in and the fight turned into a game of manoeuvre — tracking footsteps and echoes on and off the catwalks, trying to catch movement before it vanished into steam and darkness.

Eventually a Stimmer caught up with Kudgo and pulverised him. Whether his broken form can be mended is… unclear.

Around then Dakk began to stare the enemy gang down from the walkway. In quick succession — faced with the prospect of point-blank heavy bolter fire — they chose discretion over glory and fled the field.

How It Played

This was a really fun scenario and a fresh take on the classic kill-each-other format. The game being Goliath vs Goliath meant we were evenly matched and both quite threatening within the visibility range.

I was worried the game was going to be a repeat of our first Mordheim outing, but a 'Lesson Learned' on Tyrant really took the sting out of me landing that heavy bolter shot.

The MVP was K's Stimmer, who has been Genesmithed to have 5" of movement. In the land of the squat, the long-legged man is king.

I did win the scenario with 3 OOA vs 2 when the gang finally bottled, but with 2 critical injuries I feel like I did come away the worse of the exchange.

K had one lesson learned, an out cold on a Bruiser and captured on his Bully. So we have a good narrative hook and a rescue mission in our future.

Post-Game

• +170 Credits

Territory income was already 6d6 x10 from the territories I drew - so this capped me at 120. I got 30 credits from the scenario and 20 from my fixer.

• -80 Credits - Medical Escort

We are running with a 50% reduction on medical escort cost, so I took both the Forge Boss and the Bully to see the doctor. The Forge Boss got patched up without issue, but after spending the credits, the Bully Kudgo ran into complications and died on the table. RIP.

Hiring and Trading Post

• -75 credits

I managed to roll a 6 on my recruitment check from the Clan Enclave, so Kudgo's vat brother Ludgo was ready to join the gang free of charge. I also picked up a second Bruiser with a Stubcannon as I was running very light on numbers to be able to afford the starting heavy bolter.

What's Next

I ended this week with +15 credits in the stash, with dreams of one day buying my Tyrant a suspensor and a backup weapon for when the heavy bolter inevitably gets ...Clicked