HoMM Olden Era, Stellaris Season 10 and What’s In Store For Warhammer?
If 2026 has a theme, it’s this:
PC strategy games have collectively decided to kick down the door, flip the table, and declare a new golden age whether anyone asked for it or not. Heroes is staging a royal comeback, indie devs are cooking up magical chaos in their cauldrons, Stellaris is somehow still expanding like a cosmic yeast infection, and Warhammer is licensing games faster than Skaven reproduce. It’s a glorious, messy, over caffeinated moment for anyone who likes their worlds vast, their patch notes long, and their free time obliterated. Strap in — the strategy genre isn’t just alive, it’s doing laps around the throne room.
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era
Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era has stormed into Early Access like a long banished monarch reclaiming the throne — and Steam’s numbers are bending the knee. With 1.5 million wishlists and record breaking day one sales of over 250,000 copies, which at the time of writing has surpassed 500,000 copies, Olden Era didn’t just arrive, it detonated. It’s a triumphant moment for a franchise whose legacy is as dramatic as its spellbooks sitting at very positive on Steam with over 240,000 user reviews.
Heroes II earned early praise for its charm and depth, Heroes III became a genre defining masterpiece showered in critical acclaim, and later entries… well, let’s just say critics were less enchanted as the series wandered through uneven experiments and ownership changes. After years of silence, fans weren’t just hungry — they were starved — and Olden Era’s explosive debut shows just how ready the world was for a true revival.
Now that revival is taking shape with six factions, a campaign slice, skirmish modes, hotseat multiplayer, and a map editor already in the mix. Early Access impressions paint a promising picture: the classic “one more turn” heartbeat is intact, wrapped in modern UI polish and fresh mechanical twists. Veterans are calling it the first entry since the golden age that feels like Heroes again, while newcomers are discovering why this series once dominated strategy game rankings. With wishlist and sales records shattered, Olden Era isn’t just a comeback — it’s a coronation.
Wielders of the Essence
Wielders of the Essence is rapidly evolving, with the latest devblog revealing major balance changes, new progression systems, and a substantial demo update on the way. Recent news also confirms the demo’s strong reception, surpassing 25,000 wishlists following Steam Next Fest.
Lavapotion’s newest devblog highlights how the game’s identity has shifted thanks to internal experimentation. What began as “Patrik’s Remix”—a private test configuration—has now become the official balance model after the entire team gravitated toward it. This remix adjusts enemy speed, XP curves, and overall pacing, resulting in a smoother, more readable combat flow. The developers also implemented subtle but meaningful quality-of-life improvements, such as roads now granting a movement speed bonus, encouraging players to follow paths more intuitively. These changes reflect Lavapotion’s iterative design philosophy: if testers assume a feature exists, and it makes sense, the team often just builds it.
The devblog also details deeper structural updates. Enemy waves have been redesigned to ramp up gradually rather than overwhelming players instantly, and the kill threshold for clearing a wave has been reduced to 95%, eliminating the frustration of hunting down stragglers. A new “anti-swarm helper” system can dynamically carve escape gaps when players are surrounded, preventing unfair deaths. Meanwhile, meta progression has expanded with the introduction of the Egg, a mysterious new system that levels up using experience from runs and returns rewards—though the team is keeping its exact mechanics secret until the next demo update.
Beyond the devblog, recent news confirms that Wielders of the Essence continues to gain momentum. The Steam demo launched during Next Fest and has been met with strong enthusiasm, earning positive early impressions and rapidly growing its wishlist count. Lavapotion has also teased more Wielders, spells, synergy effects, and new maps, alongside a major upcoming trailer and a significantly expanded demo. With its blend of short-run horde survival, town-building progression, and a surprisingly chill gameplay loop, the game is shaping up to be one of the standout indie releases to watch.
Stellaris Season 10
Stellaris Season Ten is here, and Paradox has once again proven that they will support a game longer than some empires support their own ruling dynasties. If you thought Stellaris already had enough DLC to blot out a small star, Season Ten arrives like a fully armed megastructure to say, “No, friend. We’re just getting started.” And honestly? It’s glorious. This season is packed with nomadic megafleets, ideological overhauls, scenario challenges, and a species portrait made of literal space vapour. Paradox looked at the galaxy and said, “More.”
The first big drop is Nomads (Q2 2026) , letting you abandon planets entirely and live your best space gypsy life aboard giant Arkships. These aren’t just ships — they’re mobile cities, drifting through the galaxy like interstellar cruise liners with questionable safety regulations. You’ll take contracts, build Waystations, and leave a trail of “We were here” stickers across the stars. It’s Stellaris, but with the commitment issues of a rogue like and the swagger of a wandering megafleet.
Then comes Willpower, the ideological expansion that basically asks, “What if your ethics had ethics?” Empires now develop full Ideologies, complete with new civics, new origins, and megastructures dedicated to philosophical flexing. Want a cathedral the size of a moon? Done. Want to convert the galaxy through sheer vibes? Also done. And as a bonus, Season Ten includes Vipra the Vapor, a species portrait that looks like someone gave a nebula sentience and a gym membership.
Season Ten wraps with two Scenario Packs — bite sized, high intensity Stellaris adventures perfect for players who want chaos without committing to a 200 year campaign. Think roguelike runs, scripted invasions, and multiplayer races where friendships go to die. And with Paradox celebrating Stellaris’ 10th anniversary through patches, events, and discounts, one thing is clear: this game isn’t going anywhere. So if you’re waiting for Stellaris 2… don’t. Looks like Stellaris is here to stay for a while longer.
Warhammer – What’s Next?
The future of Warhammer video games from 2026 onward is shaping up to be a golden age for strategy fans — the kind of era where you can practically hear a million commanders shouting “For the Emperor!” while installing yet another massive campaign. Games Workshop’s licensing machine is in overdrive, and the strategy genre is getting the biggest slice of the pie, with several confirmed heavy hitters and a swarm of rumoured projects gathering in the Warp.
The crown jewel is the newly announced Total War: Warhammer 40,000, Creative Assembly’s long awaited leap into the grimdark future. Expect planetary invasions, orbital bombardments, and faction rosters that make the Immortal Empires map look modest. Space Marines, Orks, Tyranids, and Chaos are all confirmed, and insiders suggest CA is treating this as the start of a full multi game arc — meaning the 40K Total War era could dominate strategy gaming for years. Meanwhile, Total War: Warhammer III isn’t done yet either, with more DLC planned beyond Thrones of Decay, keeping the fantasy side alive while its sci fi sibling takes the spotlight.
Beyond Total War, strategy fans can look forward to Warhammer Survivors, a Vampire Survivors style horde game set in the Old World, and ongoing expansions for Rogue Trader, which continues to grow into a galaxy spanning CRPG empire of its own. Rumours also point to a new Warhammer Fantasy RTS in development — potentially tied to The Old World’s tabletop revival — and the inevitable release of Dawn of War IV around the corner. With the RTS genre experiencing a broader industry resurgence, Warhammer is perfectly positioned to ride the wave.
Other genres aren’t being left behind. The retro FPS sequel Boltgun 2 is blasting its way toward release, Darktide is finally hitting a stable content cadence, and a mysterious Unreal Engine 5 Warhammer MMO is officially in development, promising large scale faction conflict and a persistent world shaped by player actions. Add in the usual mix of indie experiments, mobile spin offs, and cinematic action titles, and it’s clear that Warhammer’s digital future is expanding faster than a Tyranid hive fleet spotting an all you can eat buffet.
From grand strategy to shooters to RPGs, the next era of Warhammer video games is looking massive, messy, and gloriously over the top. And with Games Workshop licensing games at a pace that would make even a Skaven engineer nervous, one thing is certain: the Waaagh isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
eXplorminate News & Discussion
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Releasing next week is our interview with Zeikko, about Astro Protocol, and soon after that our cozy chat with Vaaish and DasTactic, about the strategy game genre in 2026 so far.
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Questions to ponder:
- The paradox of Theseus’ ship, but applied to a game series. How much could you alter of the Heroes formula and still call it Heroes of Might and Magic?
- With HoMM: Olden Era dominating our collective attention, and the charts, won’t anyone spare a thought for the various other HoMM-likes?
Did we miss anything? Be sure to let us know in the comments below if we’ve missed an important news item!
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