Restoration Games, known for remastering out-of-print ‘holy grail’ board games, has revealed a new licensing deal with Games Workshop. That means three vintage Warhammer board games are making a comeback! However, they’ve had quite a significant makeover.
The one game that has the internet most excited is Chaos in the Old World. Designed by the esteemed Eric Lang (Blood Rage, Cthulhu: Death May Die) in 2009, this asymmetric area control game was loved for its blend of storytelling and strategy.
I’ve not played it myself, but our in-house Warhammer 40k expert Tim Linward tells me the game was “fucking mint”. Lang himself says in a Restoration Games press release: “I think Chaos in the Old World is my most requested reprint from the most dedicated fans”.
It was a unique asymmetric game, with interesting decks designed around the modus operandi of the Chaos gods you played. The Old World theme did serious heavy lifting for some fans – and for them, I have bad news.
Devastation in the Dread World, as it’s now called, is no longer set in Warhammer’s Old World. All mention of Chaos Gods and their servants seems to have been stripped. Instead, a Restoration Games says it takes place in the ‘Talisman Realm’. “Games Workshop’s new, expanded brand” is a multiverse-style setting that covers worlds outside the Warhammer universe.
Restoration Games explains on Reddit that this multiverse includes the worlds of board games like Talisman and Fury of Dracula, as well as Gravemarch, the original setting of Devastation in the Dread World. Gravemarch is “a place of high fantasy, teeming with malevolent factions, vying for control over the few pockets of humanity that remain”.
It’s also the setting for the other remasters announced. While Devastation in the Dread World heads to crowdfunding early next year, Restoration Games plans to release Dungeons of Gravemarch: The Card Game and Warrior Knights in 2028. The first is a restoration of 2010’s Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game, designed by Corey Konieczka (Battlestar Galactica, Star Wars: Rebellion, Mansions of Madness). The latter is a remaster of the 1985 title of the same name.
If you’re not familiar with Restoration Games, there’s a reason I’m calling these games ‘restorations’, not ‘reprints’. Restoration Games brings loved games from decades past into the hobby’s modern era, and that often means updating the gameplay.
As the publisher says in a Reddit comment: “There are definitely some revisions of the gameplay” in Devastation in the Dread World, “things Eric has been noodling on for over a decade”. “For example, we’ve got some new factions that do some cool things, and we’ve got some more scenario-based play as opposed to the rather random event deck system.”
“We’re stoked to be working with Games Workshop as a partner in general and to help them build out the whole concept of the Talisman Realm in particular”, the publisher adds in another comment. “They have some cool stuff planned. This is just the first wave of stuff. There are other worlds and other games in the pipeline as well.”
Want even more Warhammer? We can recommend some digital Warhammer 40k games in our linked guide. Or, you can head to our official Wargamer Discord for a chat with fellow fans.
Source: Wargamer
