Realms of Ruin won me over with its big Dawn of War 2 vibes

Pretty soon after my squad of Stormcast Eternals started trudging through an orruk-infested swamp I started to feel at home. The Age of Sigmar setting might not be as familiar to me as the original Warhammer fantasy universe, or Warhammer 40,000, a game that has gobbled up all of my money over the last few years, but Realms of Ruin doesn’t feel like a stranger. It feels more like returning to one of the best Warhammer RTS romps: Dawn of War 2. 

Like Relic’s sequel, Frontier Developments has put the focus on its eclectic squads of warriors, encouraging you to get into the thick of things instead of slowly building up a base. There are nodes—Arcane Conduits—that you can capture dotted around the maps that allow you to build structures—Bastions—that generate resources, keep an eye on the area, or damage enemies with ranged attacks. But these encourage expansion rather than turtling. The conflict depicted in Realms of Ruin is not a defensive war. 

My first foray into these battle-torn realms put me in charge of a single squad of Vanguard Hunters. This early campaign mission serves as an effective tutorial, revealing that you can do quite a lot with just a small number of troops. We hacked our way through the swamp, cutting down plenty of orruk squads, and then used magic to slip into the shadows to avoid a large, angry troggoth. Another ability cleared the fog of war at a location of my choice, reflecting the squad’s role as scouts. 

Run away