While there are countless PC games set in the Warhammer fantasy and Warhammer 40K universes, we’ve had precious few opportunities to explore the world of Games Workshop’s newer Warhammer Age of Sigmar setting, which debuted on tabletop in 2015. Rumblings of an Age of Sigmar RTS game by Frontier Development started up in 2020, and now the company has officially revealed Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, which will be coming to PC and consoles later this year.
Officially announced during today’s Warhammer Skulls event, Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is a tactics-focused real-time strategy game in which players command armies from four Age of Sigmar factions. So far, the developer has only revealed two of the factions that will feature in Realms of Ruin: There are the gold-domed Stormcast Eternals and the grubby Orruk Kruleboyz, both of which use units drawn directly from the tabletop miniatures ruleset.
Because Realms of Ruin is designed to work naturally on consoles, the systems for unit management and command are streamlined. In a press preview hosted by Frontier, we watched as squads of golden Stormcast Liberators and Vanguard-Hunters moved out from a starting spawn location to establish a muster point and capture nodes called Arcane Conduits arranged on the map.
These conduits function similarly to supply points in Company of Heroes or Dawn of War II, providing resources as long as the player who holds them is able to maintain their connection to their base. As the key points of control on the map, they make for natural locations for defenses and ambushes – they’re where the bulk of the fighting is likely to take place in each match.
The Kruleboyz’ second-in-command, Murkfang, taunted the Eternals and drew them into a fight, which illustrated the per-match tech trees both sides had available. The Eternals’ basic melee infantry unit, the Liberator squad, are joined by Vanguards who can tech up into Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows or Hurricane Crossbows, as well as Prosecutors, Annihilators, and Stormdrake Guards.
The Kruleboyz, meanwhile, start out with basic Gutrippaz but can add Man-Skewer Boltboyz for range and the hit-and-run Hobgrot Slittaz, which function as grenadiers and skirmishers. Also available is the giant Marshcrawla Sloggoth, a horned beast that carries a wooden parapet on its back, where three evil little grots ride as passengers.
Frontier says the campaign will feature all four factions, which can also be played in online multiplayer modes. Ranked play will be available, and Realms of Ruin will also support cross-platform play between Steam, Epic Games Store, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions.
The Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin release date has not yet been announced, but Frontier says it’s “coming soon,” and open multiplayer betas are planned between now and launch, so stay tuned for more details.
If you can’t wait until then, though, we have a rundown of some of the best Warhammer games out there, as well as some of the best Warhammer 40k games if you prefer the spinoff universe.