Originally self published by Mike Hayes in 1974 as "The Warlord" - this edition came in a red box. It was reprinted by Mike in 1978 as "Warlord" and came in a blue box. It was released by Games Workshop in 1980 in a smaller version (only western half of the Warlord board) as "Apocalypse".

As of October 2012, the game is now available again as Classic Warlord, a limited edition in a gold box, with two sets of rules and an FAQ booklet, counters in pouches for up to seven players and a single large D6, along with the full eight-section mapboard. This version sees the game revert back to the original Warlord with new rules to reflect over thirty years of play.

Objective - to dominate the board and destroy opponents.

Mechanics - similar to Risk, you get more armies for the more territories you hold. Allocation is on basis of territory held: city, industrial or agricultural. Mountainous, waste, and sea spaces gain you no armies.

Gaining territories through combat is an elegant use of cunning and bluff. Instead of rolling dice, the attacker simply chooses with a single D6 how many pieces they wish to attack with (subject to restrictions based on terrain). The D6 is then concealed and the defender attempts to guess it. If they guess correctly the attacker loses that number of armies; if they guess wrongly one defender is lost, and if the territory is now left unoccupied the selected number of attacking pieces or greater are advanced into the territory to capture it.

Alliances are allowed (and can be broken at will).

A-bombs and the more devastating H-bombs are used in the game. A-bombs are a reward for successful combat, and H-bombs are gained as a result of launching an A-bomb. These can be placed to act as deterrents against other players, and can be launched to clear enemy territory prior to an advance. Nuclear damage however will render map spaces impassable for the remainder of the game.