Recommended reading

Three Warhammer games are free to keep as part of this year's Warhammer Skulls event

News
By published

Two strategy games and Malum Caedo Teaches Typing are all available for free.

A space marine with a boltgun stands in front of necron pyramids
(Image credit: Slitherine)

Warhammer Skulls, the annual celebration of Warhammer videogames, brings plenty of good news for aficionados of all things grim and perilous. There's a Dawn of War remaster in the works, and a Space Marine remaster too. Owclat's making another CRPG, this time based on the Inquisition, called Dark Heresy. And the space dwarfs of the Leagues of Votann will be making their videogame debut in Mechanicus 2.

But that's all upcoming stuff. If you want things you can play right now and your budget is zero dollars, you're in luck. Turn-based strategy game Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War is free on Steam until May 29. It's basically Civilization only all that cultural victory guff has been replaced with eternal war, and it's celebrating the release of its latest DLC, the Onslaught Pack, which adds eight new units.

If you want something even more old school, 1999's Warhammer 40,000: Rites of War is free on GOG this week. It's a rare 40K game that lets you play as the eldar, complete with jetbikes and a summonable embodiment of the god of murder. It was made in the Panzer General 2 engine, so expect a lot of tactical depth and a degree of fiddliness.

On the brand-new side of things, Auroch Digital is hyping its upcoming retro shooter Boltgun 2 by turning the first Boltgun into a Typing of the Dead clone. Boltgun – Words of Vengeance is free on Steam, and will give you three levels of typing-shooting that tests your ability to hammer out thematically appropriate phrases like PURGE THE UNCLEAN and NULN OIL SPILLAGE on the keyboard as you mow down the forces of Chaos. It's great.

Those are all games you can claim and keep forever, but you can also play turn-based tactics game Mechanicus for free on Steam for the next three days. GOG has a Warhammer Skulls 2025 digital goodies bag with some wallpapers and discounts you can use at Cubicle 7 and Warhammer Art, and if you log into Blood Bowl 3's in-game store, you can claim a coach for the Khorne team for free too. Free stuff for the free stuff god.

Best Warhammer games: Best Warhammer 40K games:Best Warhammer TTRPGs:Best Warhammer 40K books:

Best Warhammer games: Fantasy epics
Best Warhammer 40K games: The complete ranking
Best Warhammer TTRPGs: Across all three settings
Best Warhammer 40K books: Grimdark novels

Jody Macgregor
Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.