Tabletop war game scene with green orc figures attacking armored tanks on a dusty battlefield.

Armoured Gauntlet Rules Bring Carnage, Underhive Racing, and Alpha Legion Secrets Return

Games Workshop’s latest news drop covers three very different corners of the hobby. So, you get crunchy 40k vehicle rules, a wild Necromunda side game, and fresh Horus Heresy lore.

That mix works surprisingly well, because each piece scratches a different hobby itch. Meanwhile, the tank rules carry the most weight, so they deserve the biggest slice here.

Massive vehicles now fight like proper armored monsters with the Armoured Gauntlet Rules

Warhammer battle scene with green orc troops and armored tanks clashing inside a gothic ruins setting, banners flying overhead.

Armoured Gauntlet looks like a love letter to players who think regular tank duels are still too polite. At its core is the new SPEARHEAD keyword, which covers VEHICLE or MONSTER units with 10 or more Wounds, while excluding AIRCRAFT, FORTIFICATIONS, and Hover units.

Armoured Gauntlet  damage table

So, the focus lands squarely on big tanks and big stompies. Instead of simply dying on their last unsaved Wound, these units roll on damage tables, and Damage Tokens make worse outcomes more likely.

Ork warboss and clashing figures in a dense tabletop battle among ruined industrial ruins; hordes of warriors fight across multiple levels with sci‑fi weaponry and banners.

That already feels more cinematic, because crippled war machines can stagger onward before finally going sky high. Meanwhile, Transports, Monsters, and other Vehicles each get different tables, which is a smart touch. Factions also gain custom quirks, so Tank Commanders can be injured, Pain Engines can lose their stimulants, and Broadsides can end up nursing one surviving gun.

Armoured Gauntlet mission

Then there are Ace-style upgrades. Each faction gets three options, and selected SPEARHEAD units can become nastier specialists before the game even begins. The examples are great fun, from Venerable Ancients forcing nastier damage rolls to Ork kustom jobs adding random boosts.

Infographic flowchart showing three campaign trees—Rolling Thunder, Armoured Clash, and Fire and Steel—with stages, bonuses, and arrows between boxes to show progress.

Finally, the book packs in 12 missions, including nine balanced battles, three asymmetrical Challenge missions, and short campaigns with branching trees. Altogether, it reads like the kind of expansion that turns armored battles from a side theme into the whole event.

Necromunda racing turns Hive Primus into a death trap speed circuit

Warhammer battle scene: a yellow armored walker clashes with a teal tank amid rubble in a ruined industrial setting; Warhammer Community logo top-right.

The Necromunda update is much shorter, but it absolutely nails the setting’s filthy charm. This Apocrypha release adds free rules for underhive racing, which already sounds like a terrible idea in exactly the right way. However, the best part is how grounded it feels in the world. Gangs are not just using ash wastes vehicles anymore. Instead, they are building their own lethal race tracks inside Hive Primus and daring rivals to survive them.

The piece calls out tracks like the Bonedry Run in Rust Town, the Delta-7 Badzone Spiral, and the Sump City Spider Circuit. So, the whole thing instantly feels like a campaign hook waiting to happen. You also get guidelines for creating custom racers with the vehicle design rules from Necromunda: Book of the Outlands.

Meanwhile, players can build their own tracks and scenarios with hazards like flooded levels, hostile fungi, and blazing auto turrets. That means this is not just a cute side mode. It is a toolbox for full-blooded underhive nonsense, and Necromunda usually shines brightest when it gets this reckless.

Alpha Legion lore returns with all the old lies and misdirection intact

Triptych banner: left panel with silver serpent motif on black leather, center panel a blue tank firing in rugged mountains, right panel a blue armored Warhammer figure beneath the Warhammer Community logo.

The Horus Heresy piece is also brief, but it has a very different appeal. Instead of new rules, it offers a return to classic material from The Horus Heresy Book Three: Extermination from 2014. So, this one is aimed straight at lore hounds. The focus is the Alpha Legion, and the download covers the creation of the XX Legion, their early operations, and the famously contradictory accounts of Alpharius’s discovery.

Meanwhile, it also revisits their heraldry and unusual organisation, which helped them excel at espionage, sabotage, infiltration, and assassination. That is exactly what you want from Alpha Legion background. Nothing is clean, everything feels layered, and even the official story seems to be smirking at you. As a result, this update works less like a huge reveal and more like a welcome archive pull. Taken together, these three pieces show Warhammer at its best when it offers variety. You get deep campaign crunch, hobby-fuelled side chaos, and old lore worth revisiting.

author avatar
Sam
The resident Flames of War, Historical, and narrative gaming expert. I have been playing tabletop games for 20 years with armies for 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Horus Heresy, Age of Sigmar, Flames of War, Legions Imperialis, Battlefleet Gothic, and even Titanicus. I love narrative campaigns above all and dabble in customs missions too.

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