Unleash your inner Flyboy in Dakka Squadron, a Warhammer 40K Ork flight sim

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There are a lot of Warhammer games out there, especially if you take Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40K as one great lump of grimdark, as I generally do. There are shooters and strategy and space combat and even sports, but one thing we haven't seen yet (as far as I know, anyway) is a flight sim.

You can now consider that niche filled, courtesy of Dakka Squadron, announced today by developer Phosphor Games. Somewhat improbably, to non-Warhammer fans at least, the game will focus on the Orks, the green-skinned lunatics who make up Warhammer 40K's most wildly warlike (and funniest) faction. (That's also where the name comes from.)

Players will choose from one of five Ork Clans—Blood Axes, Goffs, Bad Moons, Death Skullz, and Evil Sunz—each with their own unique traits and abilities, and then take to the skies in Dakkajets, Burna-Bommas, and Blitza-Bommas. Starting off as a lowly Flyboy, you'll fight through a campaign of more than 20 missions, unlocking new weapons and upgrades, and ultimately climbing the ranks to become a feared Ork Warboss.

(This is all legit WH40K lore, by the way: Flyboyz are a semi-outcast branch of the Ork Speed Freeks, whose aircraft "are the ultimate expression of a particular mania that can seize an Ork's mind." They really feel the need for speed, basically.)

Dakka Squadron pretty obviously isn't going to be a DCS production, and even the website bills it as a "fast-paced aerial shooter" rather than a flight sim. Even so, I'm actually kind of optimistic about this one. It's a ridiculous premise built around Warhammer's most ridiculous faction, and if Phosphor can serve up appropriately ridiculous levels of gunfire and explosions in an interesting, vertical world, I think I could have a lot of fun yanking and banking and blowing things up in it.

Dakka Squadron is expected to be out later this year.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.