Chaos in the Old World returns without Warhammer as Restoration rebuilds three classics

Restoration Games and Games Workshop are bringing three out-of-print designs into Gravemarch, a new Talisman Realm setting. The first is Devastation in the Dread World, a reimagining of Chaos in the Old World that keeps asymmetric area control but replaces random events with scenario-based play.

Three restorations, one new setting

The companies announced their multi-year licensing agreement on 5 November 2026. Devastation in the Dread World, Dungeons of Gravemarch: The Card Game and Warrior Knights will all take place in Gravemarch, a dark-fantasy setting that Restoration is developing for Games Workshop’s broader Talisman Realm.

That common setting is the headline change. The original Chaos in the Old World was rooted in Warhammer Fantasy, while Space Hulk: Death Angel - The Card Game used the science-fiction world of Warhammer 40,000. Their successors are not conventional reprints with refreshed art: the Warhammer identities are being replaced by a shared world of hostile factions, scattered human strongholds and ruined places.

What remains of Chaos in the Old World?

Restoration says Devastation in the Dread World will preserve area control, asymmetric factions and the original game’s combative politics. Original designer Eric Lang is working with Restoration’s design team on the new version.

The clearest confirmed mechanical change is the move from random events to scenario-based play. That could be more consequential than a component upgrade. Scenarios can give individual sessions a stronger structure and let designers tune how factions, objectives and board conditions interact. Restoration has not yet explained how many scenarios there will be, how they are selected or whether the original victory structure will remain intact, so anything beyond the announced change is still interpretation rather than a confirmed rule.

The shift also changes the game’s fiction. TableTopFinder’s existing record describes the 2009 game as a struggle between Chaos gods who corrupt and conquer the Old World, with distinctive powers, followers and several routes to victory. Devastation instead places its asymmetric conflict inside Gravemarch. The design’s central rivalry may therefore remain recognisable even when its gods, regions and narrative vocabulary do not.

Death Angel and Warrior Knights follow

Dungeons of Gravemarch: The Card Game is Restoration’s new version of Space Hulk: Death Angel – The Card Game. Its small group of human heroes will search ruined places for artefacts that can be used against the world’s hostile forces. The announcement gives a thematic outline but not enough rules detail to judge how closely it will follow the original cooperative card game.

Warrior Knights is also returning. Games Workshop first published the design in 1985, and Fantasy Flight Games produced a revised edition in 2006. Restoration’s version moves the contest into a later point in Gravemarch’s history, when humans have regained control and begun fighting one another for power.

Devastation in the Dread World is planned for crowdfunding in early 2027, with a retail release to follow; BoardGameWire reports a first-quarter target. Dungeons of Gravemarch and Warrior Knights are only tentatively scheduled for 2028. That distinction matters: the first campaign has a near-term launch window, while the other two dates remain provisional.

For now, the most interesting question is not whether Chaos in the Old World can return without its Warhammer name, but how much of its identity resides in its asymmetric system. Scenario play and a new shared setting make Devastation a genuine redesign to watch, not merely a long-awaited box brought back into print.

Posted on 12 Nov 2026 by Jerodev | source