Warhammer 40k's co-op shooter Darktide returns to the land of plastic and resin in a brand new shooter.

The militarized sci-fi and fantasy worlds of Warhammer have been ported to dozens of different video games over the past decade, resulting in both dubious flops and smash hits like Total War: Warhammer and the Vermintide series. But it’s extremely rare for video games to make their way back to tabletop gaming, which makes the upcoming Warhammer 40,000: Darktide miniatures skirmish box all the more surprising.

Announced on the Warhammer Community page on April 22, Darktide: The Miniatures Game transmutes the setting, plot and characters of Fatshark’s co-operative action-shooter into a mission-based tabletop experience for up to four players as they annihilate hordes of Chaos and hunt down the traitors who resist in the hive city of Tertium.

If you haven't played the game, the premise is simple enough: Tertium's guards have gone rogue, and the Empire has sent four expendable prisoners to bring them to justice. Players take control of either the Veteran, the Zealot, the Ogryn, or the Psyker and fight their way through hordes of enemies to accomplish the impossible.

Darktide: The Miniatures Game will use existing models to represent the four heroes, the corrupted soldiers now working for Chaos, and the guardsmen of the 6th Moebian Regiment at the other end – no new sculpts will be included in the core set. Rules for skirmishes have been adapted from Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team and will involve close quarters combat, often seeing the quartet take on both Poxwalkers and heavily armoured human opponents at the same time.

The box will contain 20 miniatures in total and several interconnected missions that tie into an overarching story about cleansing Tertium and turning the Imperial traitors into red stripes against the hive city’s walls. Games Workshop explicitly wants this standalone boxed game to introduce new players to the hobby without immediately throwing them into the deep end of collecting, assembling, and painting a full army.

The hope seems to be that Darktide will appeal to fans of Warhammer video games, show them how skirmish titles work, and then introduce them to Kill Team and other smaller-scale miniature wargames. Several other companies have followed a similar emphasis on digestible sizes, from the new Fallout: Factions to Free League’s first foray into skirmish territory with Mutant Year Zero: Zone Wars.