The disaffected scions of the noble houses have been stalking Necromunda for generations,* sowing terror in armoured suits of alien origin and ratcheting up their kill counts with arcane weapons available only to the very richest residents of the entire Imperium of Mankind. And now they’re back with a menacing redesign and a new mission: hunting the most dangerous game of all in the desolate Underhells of Hive Secundus.
In the second of our series of interviews with the Necromunda design team, we’re talking Spyre Hunters.
Rob: In many ways, Spyrers are exactly how players from back in the day will remember them: psychopathic young nobles venturing down from the top layers of the hive with the most advanced weaponry available to civilians in the entire Imperium, to hunt for sport and make a name for themselves with their killing prowess.
However, when we first sat down to work on them, we realised we wanted to make a few refinements to that core concept. Spyrers were originally conceived as the sons and daughters of all the noble houses, and their main goal was to descend into the underhive to prove themselves worthy by killing gangers. But most gangers aren’t really a threat, and you’re not really proving anything by taking them out with such advanced weapons systems. Killing Genestealers on the other hand – that’s proving something. Spyrer hunting parties can and do still visit the regular underhive – but it’s in the crucible of Hive Secundus where they test their mettle in the eyes of the Imperial House.
Our other major change was to restrict them to the Imperial House – they are now only the scions of Lord Helmawr. This gives them a stronger identity and explains how the house has remained in power for so long. The other houses have power, but they don’t have legions of ex-Spyrers to call upon! The top leaders of the ruling house are merciless killers inured to death and suffering by witnessing entire gangs killed around them, simply so they can bag one more Genestealer.
Otherwise they still work in the same way. Their suit levels up as they rack up kills, and each weapons system grows in power as your campaign progresses. If they are taken Out of Action, they have a unique Glitch table to roll on.
These are not just Gerontius’ direct children, however, the Imperial House is massive. In the Book of Judgement, where we discuss imperial imposters, we find that even members of the same branch must carry records proving their lineage. The noble houses are large enough that fourth, sixth, or 11th cousins may never have met – and there are Helmawr branches in every hive across the planet. They may not always be in charge, but they’re there, and there’s a pyramid of majordomos, servants, and guards propping them up. Lord Helmwar is the head of the house, but by no means is it only him and his immediate family.
Alex: From a miniatures design perspective, reshaping the old Spyrers to the Imperial House allowed us to reimagine those four classic suits in a more unified way. We placed them into light and heavy classifications, defined by their weapons, and every suit shares a very similar core design language. For example, they all now have a coffin shape on their chest plates, which is a way for House Helmawr to stamp the armour.
We know that a former Lord Helmawr retrieved those suits from somewhere offworld, but we don’t know where. This unknown nature allowed us to explore new concepts: to be able to fit into this armour, the body has to be adapted. Limbs are stretched, broken, and reknitted to fit into it, while the spine is twisted and reinforced. There’s amputation too. That allowed us two things: to highlight the inhuman – perhaps even insectoid – nature of the suits, and to make the mutilations and augmentations a badge of honour. If you spend time in those suits, you retain the augmentics once you are removed and you have scars particular to each suit.
We stepped away from anything that could look Imperial in terms of shape. Imperial shapes are rigid: simple curves and straight lines. We left that gothic hardness behind and used a lot of fluidity and contoured curves to break the rules.
Miguel: It wasn’t an easy shape to draw…
Alex: The people who usually use these suits are not common humans, and the intense body modifications the hunters undergo reinforce the horror aspects of Hive Secundus. Everyone who goes there suffers.
Miguel: There’s a Warhammer 40,000 version of being ultra-rich and Spyrers are it – but Necromunda is still a horrible place to live, even for them.
Rob: In terms of rules, the very first thing we did when we started on the Spyrers was go straight back to the Outlanders supplement from the original ‘90s Necromunda. We took a long look at what an original Spyrer gang actually was, including what had made them feel oppressive to play against. We wanted to make them feel as cool and impactful as ever, but they had a reputation – deserved or not – as being hard to face. We played a few games using the original rules and found that this wasn’t due to their abilities or wargear, it was because back then every gang eventually ended up outlawed. At that point, a gang started to starve – you were fighting to keep your fighters fed, but Spyrers were immune to starvation. That core mechanic was what seemed to lead to that feeling, and it’s not in modern Necromunda.
The other main issue was hurting them! Back then you had one Specialist and one Heavy, but otherwise, it was basic guns throughout a gang. Heavy-hitting weapons are now far more prevalent so there are a lot more answers to Spyrers. But don’t worry – they are still absolutely terrifying to face, not least because they have two Activations each.
Being so few in number we found that Spyrers would struggle if we made them incredibly powerful but only gave them one Activation each. We found that sweet spot by toning their individual power level down a little – they are all equivalent to a Gang Champion level – but they’re not better than a Leader. Couple this bonus Activation with some mitigation for being Pinned (they can’t be pinned as long as they’re not actually wounded), and they’re in a very interesting place. Even against eight fighters, your four Spyrers have the same number of Activations, but it is very easy to overextend and end up exposed. You really do have to play them as stalking hunters – you can’t just run down the middle and take the enemy all on at the same time, otherwise you will lose every single time.
They have major weaknesses though – webguns and flamers are really effective against them, for instance. All this means that a Spyrer player has to be careful, pace themself, and pick off stragglers. All of this really feeds into the whole stalking hunter aspect – these are not Goliaths.
What’s more, Spyrers are an exciting modelling project – there are now weapon options for each of the four main varieties of suit, which allows for a little more flexibility and variety. Each suit is unique, and this is a great opportunity for players to modify their loadouts to make each one look different.
Alex: The new weapons bring freshness. On a planet as vast as Necromunda, there’s going to be plenty of variety even in such a small subset of the population.
Rob: In theory, these are the most privileged people on the entire planet, lucky enough to be born into positions of authority in the house that controls Necromunda. But they must go to huge lengths – almost giving up their humanity – to prove themselves worthy of that position. It really underlines the grim darkness of Necromunda. It’s really not a planet you would want to live on at any level.
* Since 1996…