Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin's Campaign Could Be a Modern Relic | gamescom 2023
It’s been a pretty great gamescom for Warhammer. A full showing of Space Marine 2 finally charged into the fray, Darktide got a long-awaited console release date, and Rogue Trader showed off its retinue of fantastic companion characters. But perhaps the most interesting Warhammer showing at the convention was Realms of Ruin, the strategy game set in Games Workshop’s lesser-explored Age of Sigmar fantasy universe. After an hour of hands-on time with its single-player, I’ve found myself excited by the prospect of a game that finally continues and potentially advances the legacy of the great Dawn of War cinematic campaigns.
Dawn of War was, of course, the touchpoint that we identified in our first preview of Realms of Ruin. The first of the two missions I played certainly felt like it owed a great debt to that series’ design, with my squads of tanky, hammer-swinging Stormcast Eternals marching from capture point to capture point. Once seized, I could build fortifications atop them to prevent my sneaky Orruk Kruleboyz enemies from reclaiming them and cutting off my resources. Fundamentally, this is Dawn of War’s Listening Post system in a fantasy skin – and I don’t say that as a complaint.
It was the second campaign mission I played that showed Realms of Ruin in a more interesting light. Here I was battling against the newly-revealed Nighthaunt, a faction of ghosts that fight in packs. Naturally that means there’s a certain amount of Zerg comparisons to be made, but unlike Starcraft’s horde army the Nighthaunt don’t aim to blanket an area with cheap expendable units. Realms of Ruin operates at a smaller scale, with a limited number of squads that can survive for longer durations than many RTS units. And so the gangs of
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