Resolve Hits
Source: Necromunda Core Rulebook (2023)
Whenever a successful Hit roll is made against a model, there is a good chance that hit will cause that model to suffer a degree of damage. Determining how badly damaged a model is and what the effects of that damage are differs between fighters and vehicles.
Resolving Hits Against Fighters
When a fighter suffers a Hit, follow this sequence:
- Make Wound Roll
- Make a Save Roll
- Inflict Damage
1. Make Wound Roll
Whenever a Wound roll is made against a fighter, it is always the opposing player that makes it. Cross reference the weapon’s Strength with the hit fighter’s Toughness and roll a D6 on the table below to determine if the fighter is wounded by the attack:
| Strength vs Toughness | D6 Roll Required |
|---|---|
| Is the Strength TWICE the Toughness or greater? | 2+ |
| Is the Strength GREATER than the Toughness? | 3+ |
| Is the Strength EQUAL to the Toughness? | 4+ |
| Is the Strength LOWER than the Toughness? | 5+ |
| Is the Strength HALF the Toughness or lower? | 6+ |
2. Make A Save Roll
If a hit results in a successful Wound roll, or leads to an Injury roll being made against the fighter for any reason, the fighter may be able to make a Save roll.
Only one Save roll may be made for each hit that successfully wounds, or leads to an Injury roll being made, regardless of how many different Save rolls a fighter may have. For example, if a fighter wears both mesh armour and a refractor field, they may only attempt a Save roll against a successful Wound roll with one of those items.
Save rolls are made either:
- After the Wound roll is made but before the Wound is removed from the fighter, in which case the Wound is ‘saved’ and not removed.
- If the attack has a Damage ‘-’ characteristic and causes an Injury dice to be rolled against the fighter for any reason, a Save roll is made before any Injury dice are rolled.
Players should note that some weapon traits will disallow Save rolls. For example, the Gas Weapon trait states that no Save roll can be made. In such cases, regardless of any modifiers, no Save roll can be made.
Armour Penetration: It may happen that the Armour Penetration (AP) characteristic of a weapon is greater than the Save roll granted by the armour a fighter wears, thus cancelling out the Save roll. For example, a fighter wearing mesh armour has a Save roll of 5+, but if they are hit by a weapon with AP -3, no Save roll would be possible.
Positive Save Modifiers: In some situations, such as a fighter benefitting from partial or full cover against an attack that uses a Blast marker, a fighter’s Save roll may be improved. In such situations, this positive modifier may be added to a fighter’s normal Save roll, but may not be added to Field armour. For example, if a fighter wearing mesh armour (5+ save) and a displacer field (4+ save) gains a +1 modifier to their Save roll, they may improve their mesh armour save to 4+ but may not improve their displacer field save to 3+.
If a fighter not wearing armour benefits from a positive save modifier, treat their save as 7+ for the purposes of modification. For example, if a fighter wearing no armour gains a +2 save modifier, they will be able to make a Save roll of 5+.
Rolls of a Natural 1: A roll of a natural 1 when making a Save roll is always an automatic failure, regardless of any modifiers that may apply.
3. Inflict Damage
If a successful Wound roll is not saved, damage is inflicted as follows:
- Each point of Damage caused by a weapon removes one Wound from a fighter.
- When a fighter is reduced to 0 Wounds by Damage from an attack, immediately roll one Injury dice and apply the result to the fighter (as follows).
- If the weapon has additional points of Damage to cause after the last Wound has been removed, immediately roll an additional Injury dice for each and apply the result to the fighter.
For example, if a fighter with two Wounds is hit by a weapon that causes three points of Damage, two Injury dice will be rolled. The first point of Damage removes a Wound, the second reduces the fighter to 0 Wounds and one Injury dice is rolled, and the third and final point of Damage will cause another Injury dice to be rolled.
Injury Dice
When any number of Injury dice are rolled against a fighter for any reason, apply the results of each individual dice against that fighter as follows:
Out of Action: The fighter succumbs to their injuries and is immediately removed from play and will take no further part in this battle.
Serious Injury: If a Standing or Prone and Pinned fighter suffers a Serious Injury result, they become Prone and Seriously Injured. If they suffer more than 1 Serious Injury result, each additional result after the first causes them to suffer a Flesh Wound. If this injury was inflicted in close combat, the fighter may be vulnerable to a Coup De Grace (Simple) action.
Should a Prone and Seriously Injured fighter suffer one or more Serious Injury results, they suffer an additional Flesh Wound for each.
Flesh Wound: The fighter suffers a Flesh Wound, reducing their Toughness characteristic by 1. If a fighter is reduced to Toughness 0, they go Out of Action.
Damage ‘ - ’ Weapons
A weapon with a Damage characteristic of ‘-’ does not cause Damage in the usual way and will not cause a fighter to lose a Wound. Such weapons cause injuries through the use of deadly toxins, venoms or gas.
Consequently, if any Injury dice are rolled against a fighter as the result of an attack made by a Damage ‘-’ weapon, the result(s) of the Injury dice are applied as normal. No Wounds are removed from the fighter.
The fighter may suffer a Flesh Wound, indicating they have been weakened by the attack, may suffer a Serious Injury, representing their struggle to shake off the effects of the attack, or may be taken Out of Action as they succumb to the effects of the weapon.
Lasting Injuries
Whenever a fighter goes Out of Action, the opposing player immediately rolls two D6, one after the other (a D66 roll) and looks up the result on the Lasting Injuries table (see opposite). During Campaign play, the result is applied against the fighter and a note of the Lasting Injury made on the Gang Roster.
If an Injury roll results in more than one Out of Action result, a separate roll for each is made on the Lasting Injuries table and each result is applied.
Rolling for Lasting Injuries must be done during Campaign play. Should players wish, they can forgo this step during Skirmish play, though making the roll and noting the result can add greatly to the narrative of the battle.
When a fighter goes Out of Action, only make one Lasting Injury roll, regardless of the number of Out of Action dice.
Going Into Convalescence
Some results will cause a fighter to go into Convalescence. During Campaign play, this means that the fighter cannot perform any post-battle actions or work any Territories. However, unlike going into Recovery, they will be available to fight in the gang’s next battle.
Going Into Recovery
Some results will cause a fighter to go into Recovery. During Campaign play, this means that the fighter cannot take part in their gang’s next battle, as they are recovering from their injuries.
The fighter’s In Recovery box on the gang roster is checked, and the fighter must miss both the post- battle sequence of the current battle and their gang’s next battle. This means that a fighter with the Gang Hierarchy (X) special rule that has gone into Recovery may not perform post-battle actions at this time. During the Wrap-up of the gang’s next battle, the fighter’s In Recovery box will be cleared, the fighter becomes available once again and Leaders and Champions may perform post-battle actions.
Note that no matter how many Lasting Injury rolls are made, a fighter that goes into Recovery will only miss one battle rather than multiple battles.
Falling
As described in Terrain: Falling, should a model ever fall 3" or more, they will suffer an automatic hit. The Strength, AP and Damage of this hit is determined by how far the model fell, rounded up to the nearest inch:
| Distance Fallen | Strength | AP | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3"-5" | 3 | - | 1 |
| 6"-7" | 5 | -1 | 1 |
| 8"-9" | 7 | -2 | 2 |
| 10"+ | 9 | -3 | 3 |
Characteristic Reductions
Some results on the Lasting Injury table cause a permanent reduction to a fighter’s characteristics. Their Fighter card must be amended immediately and a note of the injury suffered made in the Captured By/Lasting Injury box of the gang roster for the injured fighter – note that their Credits value does not change. No characteristic may ever be reduced below the minimum shown on the table. Should a Lasting Injury cause a characteristic to be reduced below the minimum, the characteristic is not reduced.
Lasting Injury Table
| D66 | Lasting Injury |
|---|---|
| 11 | Lesson Learned: The fighter goes into Convalescence but gains D3 Experience. |
| 12 | Impressive Scars: The fighter gains a set of impressive scars as testament to their bravery. Increase the fighter’s Cool by 1. This bonus only applies once, treat all further results as Out Cold. |
| 13 | Horrid Scars: The fighter has been horrifically disfigured, leaving them with a fearsome visage. The fighter gains the Fearsome skill. If they already have the Fearsome skill, treat this result as Out Cold. |
| 14 | Bitter Enmity: The fighter bears a bitter grudge against the gang that inflicted this injury. When fighting a battle against the gang that inflicted this injury, the fighter gains the Berserker skill. If they already have the Berserker skill or roll this result a second time, treat it as Out Cold. |
| 15-26 | Out Cold: The fighter misses the rest of the battle, but avoids any long term injuries. The fighter recovers in time to perform post-battle actions. |
| 31-36 | Convalescence: The fighter goes into Convalescence. |
| 41 | Old Battle Wound: At the end of each battle this fighter participates in roll a D6, on a 1 the fighter goes into Convalescence. |
| 42 | Partially Deafened: The fighter suffers no penalty if they are partially deafened, however, suffering this injury again reduces their Leadership by 1. |
| 43 | Humiliated: The fighter goes into Convalescence and their Leadership and Cool characteristics are each decreased by 1. |
| 44 | Eye Injury: The fighter goes into Recovery and their Ballistic Skill characteristic is decreased by 1. |
| 45 | Hand Injury: The fighter goes into Recovery and their Weapon Skill characteristic is decreased by 1. |
| 46 | Hobbled: The fighter goes into Recovery and their Movement characteristic is decreased by 1. |
| 51 | Spinal Injury: The fighter goes into Recovery and their Strength characteristic is decreased by 1. |
| 52 | Enfeebled: The fighter goes into Recovery and their Toughness characteristic is decreased by 1. |
| 53 | Head Injury: The fighter goes into Recovery and their Intelligence and Willpower characteristics are each decreased by 1. |
| 54 | Multiple Injuries: The fighter is not dead but has suffered many serious wounds. Roll a further D3 times on this table re-rolling any results of Captured, Multiple Injuries, Memorable Death, Critical Injury or Out Cold. |
| 55-56 | Captured: The fighter might be Captured. |
| 61-65 | Critical Injury: The fighter is in a critical condition – if their injuries are not successfully treated by a visit to the Doc (see Medical Escort) in the post-battle sequence, they will die. |
| 66 | Memorable Death: The fighter is killed instantly – not even the most talented Doc can save them. If the injury was caused by an Attack action, the attacker gains 1 additional XP. |
Nerve Tests
Seeing friends and comrades suffering serious injury can have quite a profound effect upon even the most hardened of underhive gangers. Therefore, fighters have to take a Nerve test when a friendly fighter is Prone and Seriously Injured or taken Out of Action within 3" of them, or a friendly vehicle is Wrecked within 6" of them.
All fighters must test regardless of their Status and Secondary Status, though it should be noted that some fighters may be subject to a special rule that makes them immune to Nerve tests.
No Nerve test is required when a Juve/Prospect is taken Out of Action, except by other Juves/Prospects.
To make a Nerve test, make a Cool test for the fighter, applying a +1 modifier for each friendly fighter within 3" of them that is not Broken and is not Prone and Seriously Injured:
- If the test is passed, nothing happens.
- If the test is failed, the fighter becomes Broken. Place a Broken marker on their Fighter card to
indicate that the fighter is subject to the Broken
condition:
- As soon as a fighter becomes Broken, they will immediately activate (even if they have already been activated this round) and make a Running for Cover (Double) action.
- If the fighter is Ready, they lose their Ready marker.
- Broken fighters may be rallied in the End phase, as described in Rally Tests.
- When a Broken fighter activates in a subsequent round, they may not make any actions other than Running for Cover (Double).
- If a Broken fighter is engaged by an enemy fighter, they may only make Reaction attacks with a -2 modifier.
Vehicles And Nerve Tests
Whilst seeing fighters taken out does not faze the average vehicle driver (after all, they are protected inside their vehicle), they may become panicked upon seeing other vehicles destroyed. Therefore, vehicles have to take a Nerve test whenever a friendly vehicle is Wrecked with 6" of them. All vehicles must test regardless of their Status and Secondary Status, though some vehicles may be subject to a special rule that makes them immune to Nerve tests.
To make a Nerve test, make a Cool test for the vehicle, applying a +1 modifier for each friendly vehicle within 6" of them that is not Broken and is not Stationary and Wrecked:
- If the test is passed, nothing happens.
- If the test is failed, the vehicle becomes Broken. Place a Broken marker on their Vehicle card to
indicate that the vehicle is subject to the Broken
condition:
- As soon as a vehicle becomes Broken, they will immediately activate (even if they have already been activated this round) and if mobile will make a Break For Air (Double) action, or if Stationary and Stalled make a Burn Out (Double) action.
- If the vehicle is Ready, they lose their Ready marker.
- Broken vehicles may be rallied in the End phase, as described in Rally Tests.
- When a Broken vehicle activates in a subsequent round, they may not make any actions other than Break For Air (Double) if Mobile or Burn Out (Double) if Stationary and Stalled.