The news from the Warhammer 40,000 Open Day is in and we’ve got a new gang to ogle for Necromunda. To pretty much no-one’s surprise, the Orlock gang will be appearing next with a full plastic kit. There was one interesting surprise though. The Orlocks have gone… well, hipster.

In an earlier post, I joked a little about how the Orlock gang bore some resemblance to characters like John Rambo. Double denim and bandanas – that sort of look. Well, such assertions can’t be made of the new Orlock gang (though they might still be rocking double denim but in a slightly more interesting way) who look far more like the sort of folk you see hanging around Shoreditch or Brixton, drinking oat-milk flat whites while talking about bands you’re not cool enough to know about as they play with their beards. If you’re not from the UK, you’ll surely have your own havens for people who like to ride old-timey bicycles, wear clothes that are so uncool they’re cool, and have their millionaire daddies buy them grotty flats in communities that they ruin.

In a true stroke of originality from GW, this look has been blended with that of ‘industrial miner’. And I have to say that I really like it. The Orlocks now have much more of an identity than they ever did, just going by looks alone, and the House of Iron have some very fancy toys to play with (including perhaps the best looking powerfist I’ve ever seen). The harpoon gun is pretty darn sexy too, even if the guy carrying it bears a striking resemblance to myself. Good looking mini, that. In fact the other chap in the below picture looks very much like Henry South from 4gotowar.com which is also awesome (somewhat because I’ll be able to shoot him without going to prison – Sorry, Henry).

This is really showing off how far the designers and standards have come at GW HQ. That’s in no way a knock to the people who designed the original gangs (new designers are standing on their shoulders of course), but these guys no longer look like ‘just blokes’ and have some real personality and a lot of great details. And whereas the Goliaths and Eschers were updates to established cool identities, these Orlock chaps are a true reinvention. Based on these guys, I can’t wait to see more gangs appear throughout 2018.

These deep-down hipsters will be hitting the Underhive boards in early 2018, but for those of you either playing legacy gangs or already planning out how to field these mooks, I’ve got some name generators for you.

For your gang name, it’s the traditional initials game. First initial and Surname initial. That gives me The Jack-Hammer Apes which I rather like. There’s a general fist/miner/street-gang sort of theme to this. Think On The Waterfront meets The Warriors meets 40K. Even with their new look, I can’t shake the idea that these guys would say things like “Yous guys” while calling people “jabronies”. I know I would if I thought I could actually pull it off.

And now for your gang members. As with last time, you can use this however you like. I’ve been using the Name 1 columns to give me my basic ganger names (though with this one, sometimes I’ve just been using the first column, and sometimes both – the name length gives some nice variance), Name 1 and Name 2 columns for my champs, and the whole lot to give my leader a name. But you do you – make it work however you can or want to. D66 and there’s no worries about rerolling if you don’t like what you got.

And there you have it. Will I be buying these guys when they appear in early 2018? You better believe I will be. I’m currently working on my Goliath gang but I’m doing a starting-a-campaign sized gang (6 guys) so I should have some painted things to show off soon. Until then, happy painting. Onwards!