Part of Games Workshop’s grand experiment to license 40K out to 40,000 studios simultaneously, Regicide is… *shuffles notes* the chess one.
So far, so familiar. But here are a few things chess didn’t have upon its original release in the olden days: 50 story-driven missions; off-board airstrikes; or a foreboding opening cinematic starring a man and his furrowed brow.
Lots of Warhammer games are tabletop adaptations, but Regicide’s an odd one – it’s based on a fictional game described in 40K lore as “similar to the ancient Terran game of chess”.
Sydney-based indies Hammerfall Publishing have used that conceit as the starting point for something that blends boardgame-like mechanics with “dynamic tactical abilities”: they’ve introduced varied objectives, the ability to call in strikes from off-board, and different races with attendant skillsets.
The single player campaign centres on the Blood Angels, who are sent to investigate the source of a transmission on Hethgar Prime. This is how it begins:
Hammerfall plan to update the game every few weeks in early access. Early adopters will get access to the Angels of Blood campaign as it unfolds across the updates – and new Space Marine chapters and Ork clans will be added as development goes on.
1.0 is planned for later this year, with a cross-play mobile version to follow next year. Might it be your sort of thing?