For The Emperwhaaa? Warhammer 40,000: Regicide Trailer

The announcement of Warhammer 40,000: Chess – Regicide last May left me bemused, bewildered, befuddled, and bedraggingthisout. Even with Games Workshop's recent lax approach to licensing, chess wot has Space Marines instead of chess men seemed a lazy cash-in. Well!

Developers Hammerfall Publishing have released Regicide's first "gameplay" trailer, and it looks chess-ish but not chess. It plonks different classes on Space Marines and Orks on chess boards, and they start moving like chess pieces but then oh! that pawn's tossing a frag grenade and wounding a whole load of orks several rows away! Oh!

Now named simply Warhammer 40,000: Regicide [official site], the game's evidently more than plain old chess. Units have multiple abilities and combat doesn't seem to be one-hit-kills chess rules. The board on show here has obstacles too. It's definitely built around a core of chess, but doing Warhammer-y combat on top of that. Curious.

I'm certainly not about to go pre-ordering it, but this soft spot I have for 40K is pleased to see it's more than Chess: 40K Edition.

Actually, speaking of pre-ordering for once, I am fascinated by how Regicide's pre-orders seem to be a sneaky way to sell 40K-branded t-shirts and hoodies. And certificates. You could have a certificate certifying that you pre-ordered a game. Just imagine. You could frame it and hang it on your wall.