Games Workshop is bringing out more worthwhile board games set in the Warhammer universe with the latest instalment – Warhammer 40,000: Combat Arena: Lair of the Beast. The game is set to be released into Barnes & Noble in July 2023 and it follows the logic of skirmish games that the publisher has been designing for a while now.
The most notable of those games has been Warhammer Underworlds, set in the Age of Sigmar universe, with now Combat Arena joining the ranks of titles designed to appeal to traditional board games more so than hardcore Warhammer fans.
Players will pick a character, select equipment and skills, and venture into the lair of an Ambull, a deadly alien. Among the available characters are Space Marine Sergeant Vennaro and UR-025, a self-aware robot.
Choose Your Champion and Survive the Crucible of Combat Arena
Although there will be up to four players entering, each player will be on their own trying to survive the crucible and emerge victorious. The game features 13 push-fit minis, a set of stat cards, a game board, cards, tokens, and of course – dice.
Combat Arena will play in 20 minutes, which is a notch faster than Underworlds at least on paper. Combat Arena is not an entirely foreign concept for Games Workshop either. The company first published this format in 2019 and once again had it set up for 2-4 players.
Another game was introduced in 2022, Combat Arena: Clash of Champions. The upcoming title is set to improve even further on the experience. Many of the minis featured in the new box have been inspired or directly lifted from the classic Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress game.