Necromunda: Underhive Wars

Underhive Wars is a 2020 tactics game from Rogue Factor, the studio behind Mordheim, set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Necromunda is a planet of enormous hive cities, and in the slums at the bottom, gangs fight for resources. You command a gang of up to five fighters.

Turns are taken one fighter at a time, and movement is in third person through a vertical world of walkways, ladders and ziplines. Fighters level up, are equipped, and suffer lasting injuries. Gangs are built and maintained over an operations mode where you manage the whole roster.

Its vertical maps are its strength: fights happen on many levels at once, and falling is a real risk. The gang management, inherited from Mordheim, gives fighters long histories.

Its story campaign is weak and its interface is cluttered. It is at its best in the gang-building mode.

Necromunda keeps Jagged Alliance 2's idea of a small band of individuals with lasting injuries and money to manage, without the strategic map. It is closest to Mordheim, its predecessor, and to Jagged Alliance 2's mercenaries in miniature.