Arma 3's King of the Hill mod inspired the Battalion 1944 devs' new 100 player shooter, deploying in early access this year

Get in cover and 10/4 your sit reps, soldier! Battalion developers Bulkhead have revealed a new military sandbox shooter set to arrive in early access at some point this year. It’s called Wardogs and it’ll see matches featuring up to 100 mercenaries mercilessly murder each other in teams, with the reward being a stack of money to spend on upping the ante with their next loadout.

Our first thought upon seeing the player count per session was that the thing seems quite Battlefieldy, but Bulkhead say that – at least in terms of the game’s main mode – Arma 3 mod King of the Hill was the main inspiration. For clarity that’s a mod with three team sector control missions featuring lots of walkie-talkie enthusiasts rogering each other, not the TV show about a man with a very small bottom and his son who doesn’t know you, but knows that’s his purse.

So, each match’ll see you flown out to Eastern Europe’s famous derelict industrial mountains, assigned to one of three teams fighting for control of a randomised 2x2KM central control zone within a 256KM² map, and told to keep your bottom in the control zone until your squad rack up the 100 points needed to win.

Destructible environments designed to be shaped in fortified defence points, makeshift bases, or vicious deathtraps feed into the territorial struggles, and Bulkhead say tactical nous will be rewarded. In line with that, throughout each battle you earn cash through actions like “reviving squadmates, transporting friendlies to the zone, or controlling the objective”, encouraging folks to work together.

The contents of your cute camo wallet persist between matches, and are what you use to buy different bits of the loadout you take into each fight. Which weapons, gear, utility bobbins and vehicles you pick will influence how the action plays out, with stuff like whipping out your big tank or chopper at the exact right time having the potential to turn the tide drastically.

All in all, it looks like something the bit of my brain that quietly loves a bit of multiplayer shootering could dig, even if I’ll spend 90% of the time being told off by teammates for being too much of a coward to poke my head out of cover and heal them.

Wardogs is set to release in early access at some point in 2026, with Bulkhead planning to have this last “around 12 to 18 months” while they work on “expanding content, improving systems, refining balance, and responding to player feedback”. Until then, you can wishlist the shooter on Steam if you’re so inclined.