Games Workshop has announced Combat Arena: Lair of the Beast, a new edition of one of the best Warhammer 40k board games, complete with amazing miniatures last seen in the Warhammer 40k dungeon crawler Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress. GW announced the new edition on Monday, which will be available “later this month at Barnes and Noble in North America, and Müller, Thalia, Elbenwald, and GameStop in Germany”.
Combat Arena is a lightweight, anarchic beat-em-up full of chaos and carnage. The rules were first printed in Gorechosen, a game of bloody pit-fights between Khorne worshippers in the Age of Sigmar setting. GW followed that up with Combat Arena, which swapped out the fantasy minis for champions from various Warhammer 40k factions, and then Combat Arena: Clash of Champions.
Lair of the Beast adds in a suite of nine character miniatures previously only available in Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress, plus an obligatory Space Marine. It also includes the long out of print Ambull miniature, which was only available in a limited run Blackstone Fortress expansion. It looks like the Ambull is an antagonist, rather than a playable character.
You can read our Warhammer 40k: Clash of Champions review to see what staff writer Matt Bassil thought of the game (hint – he liked it). GW hasn’t revealed a price point yet, but this line of board games tends to have “entry” price points, so Lair of the Beast may well be a cost effective way to get the Blackstone Fortress characters if you just love painting miniatures.
One last note for UK residents: GW doesn’t list a stockist for the UK, but videogame retailer Game tends to carry these board games.