Games Workshop recently held their Warhammer Skulls livestream event. We got to see new looks at upcoming games in the Warhammer universe like Space Marine 2. One of the more interesting announcements at the event, however, was the reveal of a brand new digital card game set in the 40K universe titled Warhammer 40,000: Warpforge.
Not a whole lot is known about the game right now, as it is currently set for release in 2023. However, we can parse out some information from screenshots and what the developers themselves have said. The developer for Warpforge is Everguild, who fans of the franchise may know as the developers behind Warhammer Horus Heresy: Legions. It appears that all the big name factions from the series will be represented as we see the Imperium, Chaos, Xenos, and Orks all showing up to battle.
The press release from Everguild confirms that there will be single player content for the game, as well as draft and constructed versus modes. That’s standard for a card game, but there will also be timed-exclusive modes with unique rulesets. Which is always a fun way to keep gameplay fresh and players invested, much like Labs in Legends of Runeterra. There will also be a mode called “Alliance Wars,” which sounds like your standard guild wars that competing guilds can take place in.
It’s time to d-d-d-destroy!
We get to see a few cards in the game’s trailer, which highlight the awesome art that Games Workshop is already well known for. The cards themselves don’t have much information on them, only two stats and a row of five skulls at the bottom. This is all speculation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the skulls represent different levels of cards, each more powerful the more skulls they have. The number on the left in red feels like an attack number, and the number on the right in green feels like a card’s health. Which, depending on if these numbers are standard for most cards, might mean that individual battle could go on for quite a while without some way to massively increase attack power.
Based on another screenshot in the trailer, it seems that these 2/30 cards are more than likely the “leader” of your deck. Similar to Commanders in Magic: The Gathering or leaders in Dragon Ball Super. The cards next to them seem more like standard “units,” with more evened out attack and health like 1/4 and 6/6. We can also see some of the cards in the player’s hand, each of which have a number in a blue circle on their right. This is most likely their energy cost.
Bringing the (War)hammer down
We don’t know what resource system the game will use, but I imagine a “one energy per turn plus one” system similar to Legends of Runeterra and Marvel SNAP will be implemented. Considering this, the cards in the player’s hands will all be fairly high cost and represent bigger threats on the board. As we can tell by the identical artwork of the cards between the board and the hand, Goff Ard’Boy and Snakebite Nobz (gotta love Ork names) are 5/5 and 4/7 respectively.
Even though it is very early, you can still wishlist the game on Steam, as we wait for more news throughout the year. The game will release first on PC, followed by other platforms, including a mobile client. Thankfully, Everguild has already confirmed that there will be full cross-platform support for all versions. Which is a must-have in the current digital card game space. I am personally very excited to see what Warhammer 40,000: Warpforge has in store. We also don’t know if the game will be free to play, but based on other competitors in the marketplace, I feel like that’s a safe bet to make. Now is a very good time to be a fan of digital card games, and the more the merrier.
