Over the past 30 years, there have been numerous Warhammer games of vastly different quality. Some are based on standalone tabletop games likeBlood Bowl, Space Hulk, and Necromunda, while most recent games are often set in theWarhammer 40,000universe. Now Frontier Developments is looking to blur the lines between the physical and digital sides of the hobby withWarhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin.
In a recent trip to Warhammer World I was able to see the progression of the hobby over the past 40 years, as well as speak to Daniel Saunders, game designer on Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin, about how the game seeks to bring unique elements of the tabletop experience into video games for the first time.
When I first played Warhammer, it was pretty much entirely a physical game. Except for HeroQuest for the ZX Spectrum, which we also had the original board game of, Warhammer was only played on a tabletop. A very large tabletop crammed with metal miniatures painted to a variety of differing standards, carefully crafted buildings, a ridiculous amount of cardboard tokens, some dice, and a tape measure. Games would take hours or even days, and we argued far too much about whether a Space Marine could peek around corners.
I believe that Space Marines are fully capable of peeking around corners, but are likely to get a pot shot aimed at their face if they do so.
In the years since, my relationship with the hobby has been fleeting and mostly confined to video games, where Warhammer 40,000 has recently dominated. This is set to change with Realms of Ruin. It’s not just based on Age of Sigmar, it’s a real-time strategy title that brings us digital versions of the miniatures and is “thematically linked with the third edition of Age of Sigmar,” Saunders tells me.
“Since we started working on Realms of Ruin, Games Workshop has been very good at collaborating with us,” he explains, “Working together to make sure that miniatures worked out the way that they wanted and that the narrative sort of tied into what they were trying to tell in their own stories.”
The story is so closely linked in fact that Frontier is working with Gav Thorpe, renowned Black Library author. “[The story concept] was designed by Sandy Sammarco, who’s our principal designer, and lead designer on Realms of Ruin,” Saunders tells me. “He outlined what we wanted to tell [in terms of] the story and then from there, we started collaborating with Gav Thorpe. Him and Sandy worked through the story, creating a full script and story treatment for the game and that is what players will be able to experience.”
Having such a well-known author brings a gravitas to the storyline, and combined with the idea of the characters being digital iterations of existing miniatures – as opposed to, say, Darktide, which uses generic characters based on 40k units and includes a variety of opponents not available in plastic form – we can already see the parallels between the two mediums. However, this isn’t where it ends. The game even touches on a previously ignored aspect of the hobby: miniature painting.
The first task I faced at Warhammer World was a painting class, something I was very anxious about. A couple of years ago I attempted to paint some Age of Sigmar Nighthaunt figures that caught my eye, but I didn’t get past the undercoat, scared to start lest I completely ruin the beautiful models. And so my Nighthaunt miniatures sit on the shelf, an ethereal reminder of my failure to finish the project.
However, the techniques taught to us gave me a confidence I didn’t expect, as I learned how to make my Space Marine and Stormcast Vindictor miniatures look far better than I dreamed, and in a very short space of time. Painting miniatures is a side of the hobby that is every bit as active as those who play and has been rarely explored in the digital realm. Saunders tells me that they added the ‘Army Livery Editor’ to Realms of Ruin to help “scratch that creative itch.”
“You get to customise your different armies and make them your own,” he says. “Either you may go with the inspirations the Games Workshop already provides or you can create your own wacky colours.” Saunders explains. “You pick colours and these align to different spots within the model.”
There’s nothing I can say that describes the feeling of setting eyes on a Warhammer battle that takes up the entire room. It’s so large that you walk around the top, circling a tall spire, and have to walk down a ramp several metres long to come eye to eye with the base of the enormous diorama.
It feels like a cinematic brought to life, a grand feel Frontier is also seeking in the game. “We’re very big fans of the RTS genre as a studio,” says Saunders. “And something that hasn’t been explored for quite some time is the concept of having a more cinematic RTS game in the market. My favourite bit of working on the campaign has definitely been being able to see a lot of the cinematics come to life and the merging of that. Getting to watch the cinematics and then jumping into the gameplay where suddenly the narrative is blurred, the lines are pushed together and everything fits, that has been really cool.”
Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin will be released on Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC on June 25, 2025.
Next:The Lore, The Tabletop, And Sean Bean: How AoS: Realms Of Ruin Is Revitalising The RTS Genre
