arhammer 40,000: Regicide is battle chess meets Warhammer 40k, what more could you want? Well Regicide, is a clever evolution of the classic (battle) chess formula. In short there’s a movement phase and initiative phase. Movement acts like classic chess and you can take a piece completely. While the initiative phase factors in the various stats, health, and abilities of each unit as you defend your pieces and whittle down the enemy with pot shots and various abilities. For example, the Devastator (Bishop) can lock into position and do more damage with its snapshot. The assault marine (Knight) can do a high damage attack after jumping next to an enemy. The Psyker (Queen) can send out shockwaves or lifesteal from enemies. The terminator (Rook) can shield itself with it’s crux. The abilities might seem small, but throw in the various stats, RNG rolls and squad abilities (can be used by anyone) and you have 4D chess. This feels like the natural evolution of the chess formula that would have occurred across 40 millennia. I can just imagine Guardsman sitting around the trench playing this game, or an Inquisitor challenging his acolytes. And that just makes it so much more real. The backdrops are fantastic and feel very 40k based on Dawn of War – gritty bunkers, deserts and snowy bombarded cities. Some of the sound effects are so on point like the chainsword or bolt guns. OMG. Perfect. But others like the Psyker’s lightning attacks sound like an electric eel’s wet fart. I don’t know how else to describe it, it’s pathetic. Every time I use this ability I expected to hear something badass but here anything but. Beyond that, the voices, the terminator stomping, explosives triggering, the assault cannon firing all cylinders, all sound on point.
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| Psykers have some cool animations, audio design is lacking however. |
Animations make this game. Seeing a Terminator bulldoze a pawn and splatter it into a gory red puddle with its power fist is gorious the first time you see it is just as amazing as the last time you see it. Tactical marines are actually tactical, dropping grenades to stagger large foes before moving in to strike the critical point. But a picture paints a thousand words so here's twelve:
The campaign is mostly forgettable and just one long tutorial for Regicide skirmishes, with a bunch of different scenarios that are fun to play. Baldessar the Librarian is cool. I always preferred my Librarian with the helmet on, but I am biased and love the mark VII power armour (fucking Primaris Mark X armour) which is iconic and the symbol of 40k. The other marines act as expected. But Dracomedes seems like an idiot. They’re Orks and all he wants to do is charge them in battle. Isn’t that what the Codex says to never do? Shouldn’t tactics be employed here? Gabriel Angelos, chapter master of the Blood Ravens certainly thinks so as mentioned in Dawn of War 1. However the Blood Angels are known to be bloodthirsty. So stupidity might be their nature, as seen when they were almost wiped out by the entire chapter charging Tyrranids. How did they even survive the Horus Heresy?
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| This isn't looking good... |
The dialogue is pretty cool but the campaign story is mostly forgettable Blood Angel fan fair and “burn the orks”. I had three or four issues early on where it would freeze up on the enemy turn but beyond that nothing. My interest in the campaign definitely tapered off, loved the first act. In the second act the optional objectives become very tedious, I avoided almost all of them as they were not enjoyable. I’m yet to finish the third act because I’ve lost interest. Maybe I'll return to it, but for now I still enjoy the skirmishes for classic and regicide.
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| Classic battle chess is great too. |
To sum it up Regicide has managed to capture my imagination
as a fun lore compliant board game played in the 40k universe and has also
become my new favourite battle-chess game to boot. I’ll be returning to
this one for a while.
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