Warhammer 40K: Regicide is an upcoming strategy title from Hammerfall Publishing. Set in the conflict-ravaged 41st millenium, Regicide is essentially the game of chess, but with 40K units taking the place of traditional pieces. That’s not all that’s changed, however. A trailer released earlier today shows additional tactical options such as using frag grenades, ranged weapons and psychic abilities to destroy your opponents, as well as the traditionally brutal 40K finishers.
The presence of these additional abilities indicates that Regicide will be opting to mix turn-based strategy elements in with the centuries-old gameplay of chess itself. In combination with the new terrain options providing various bonuses and penalties, these changes should make for an interesting halfway-house between games like Warhammer 40K: Space Marine and the old-school tabletop game.
One somewhat telling detail, however, is the presence of sign-up bonuses. In exchange for signing up (for free) to the 40K: Regicide website, users are offered “a free in-game White Scar army skin”. While this might seem like an innocuous freebie, it indicates that micro-transactions are going to play at least some part in the game, most probably as additional army and unit skins available on a paid-for basis. This would also tie into the game’s cross-platform launch on mobile and tablet as well as PC.
However, this is unlikely to stray into the realms of ‘pay-to-win’, and I’ve personally got less of a problem with cosmetic DLC. 40K has always been about virtually infinite customisation options, and this is as good a way as any to support that. Besides, it’s hard to get too annoyed seeing as Games Workshop itself made microtransactions its core business model long before they were even a thing.
Overall, Warhammer 40,000: Regicide looks like it should be a fun mash up of 40K and ‘the game of kings’, and it’ll be interesting to see where this goes.
