New Batch of Bacon Arrives for Lardcore!

They're finally here, the new pigs models have arrived!

After many months of waiting, the community can finally gaze upon the splendour that is the updated pig models. Now it must be noted that, as with everything currently in development, these are not the final product, but they are the first of many major steps in getting the pigs where they need to be. Certain class details from the original game could never be ignored, for instances team hats & helmets, the Sniper's glasses, the Commando's black ski mask and the Legend's awesome trench coat. However, as the same character model was often reused between ranks and modes - it has left plenty up to interpretation when designing new ones.

And that story starts with the humble Scout. As the lowest rank within the Espionage Class, defining how this pig should look drew inspiration from the Runners of WW1. At first the sight of shorts, socks and a short sleeve tunic may look odd within the trenches, but tie that up with his cape and satchel and you quickly realise that this class is meant to go fast! Scouting ahead to observe and pick pocket the enemy, before throwing a trusty poison gas for good measure. He's just one of many classes we hope to sprinkle a unique flavour of design upon. You will also notice that the facial animations have also been updated, helping to bring to life these hogs and provide a greater blueprint for the emotion being portrayed. While they still need work, we're happy with how they're coming along.

Now as the middle guy, the Sniper had to remain the one who kept the OG glasses. We've doubled down on the associated details here, camouflaging both his headwear and backpack, while giving him a darker gilet. Colour schemes are always something we're coming back to, as the aim is to stick to some of the original tones for certain teams, for instance earthier browns for the Tommys Trotters, Piggystroika, Uncle Hams Hogs and Sushi Swine, while the more metallic colouring will go to the Sow-A-Krauts and Garlic Grunts. Accessories across all classes will appear in abundance in Hogs of War Lardcore, which will always attempt to remain true to the game's original themes and detail.

The Spy was always a cool dude, but as we mentioned in the video above - do you feel he needs a hat or not? (lets us know what you think in the comments of the vid!). Now I know what you are thinking, those sunglasses look a little.. different? And you'd be right! One tricky area of 3D modelling is ensuring that the additional assets you create are sculpted to fit, in our case the pigs face. Because of the shape and size of the nose - we've had to play around with the style. While it isn't finalised, it does match our original concept art, so works as a strong start! We've prioritised the tertiary tones for his coat and hat, as both the strap around the hat, tunic and trousers still match the chosen team colours.

But what about the maps? Well soldier, I've got some more good news for you. Before the year is up we'll have two more videos coming out, one in November and one in December. Up next you'll be given a much deeper look at our scenery and some of the new systems and effects we have for them, as well as a sneak preview at our menus (finally!). The war rages on for Lardcore, will it ever be over by Christmas? Yes. Which one? That's classified... for now.

Hogs of War League Season 6 is Live!

An update for the Hogs of War League ISOs for the upcoming season have been released:

Hogs of War League ISO File 2 has been updated, changes and patch notes include:

Hedgerow Warfare

• P1's spawns switched to opposite corner of map, so match P2 always starting away from Artillery

Hogs of War League ISO File 3 has been updated, changes and patch notes include:

Dam Busters

• Additional jetpack crate added per side

Field Hospital

• All Shelter HP reduced to 50

• x2 Health crates removed with the rest reduced to 10HP

• Medical crates changed to Jetpack & Mine

Daybreak

• x2 Pillboxes removed and replaced with 50HP Artilleries

• x2 weapon crates changed position

• Minor spawn adjustments to move some pigs away from new artilleries

Good luck to everyone playing this season, I'll be seeing you on the battlefield! For now, check out this awesome article below, written by the wonderful adb95!

We are about to dive into the sixth season of Hogs of War League. It is crazy that we have come this far despite the game turning 25 years old, and how the amazing community of players and collaborators we created over all this time keeps being the main attraction that makes us come back for more. After all, this just boils down to shooting cartoon pigs in a slightly cleverer way, wouldn’t be the same without the great people doing it.

The biggest news of this year will be the new weapon sets, implemented thanks to a sudden, yet incredibly awaited discovery in modding by an unknown hero called insertusernameb4, which will shake a game that was definitely starting to feel stale and open up infinite possibilities for future tournaments, but today we’re here to focus on the stories of the 14 players that will be competing, maybe helping whoever reads this to pick a favourite to root for. So without further ado, let's meet the Hogs from Season 6.

Hogs of War is a simple game. 10 pigs kill each other for about 20 minutes and at the end, a German (probably named Niclas) is in the final.

That may not be exactly how Gary Lineker's famous football quote went, but as of 2025, there are little to no arguments against Niclas being the current best competitive Hogs player. Three finals in three League seasons, culminating in the title won last year made that crystal clear to all the other contenders. Even though he always tends to keep his best shots for the Playoffs, (he somehow never finished first in a Group Stage) when it really counts he becomes an almost perfect machine running on the ability to think multiple turns ahead and the pristine map knowledge that made him famous for his “Niclas Skips”. He's the hog to beat, and it is unlikely that any new weapon set will change the hierarchy on this one.

The last two HoWL finals featured the same two players, and the other constant factor besides Niclas was the ukrainian player Revan. After climbing to the top starting from Grunt League, and suffering the most heart-breaking elimination in League history in his debut season, the title he won in 2023 was sort of a competitive Nirvana for him, reaching a level where he's a great mixture of every style of play, from unexpected tactical ideas to technical gimmicks and experienced decision-making. The frankly unbelievable streak of 16 maps won in a row last year, from week 2 all the way to the 3-0 win in the semifinal vs Angurio, stands as proof. By his own admission, his approach is now super chill towards the game,and this did not lower at all his effectiveness on the battlefield, which says something about the way he turned experience into strength in a much faster way than most of the other top players. In the current state, nobody can claim to be able to beat Revan without playing his absolute best game.

(It is pretty awkward to talk about oneself in this format. But I promised I'd present everyone, so here goes.)

As adb95, I've been playing League since the very beginning in 2020, and since my thing is doing pretty well in Group Stage (one pretty cool stat to brag about is that I have lost exactly one Group Stage match since the end of 2020) someone always considers me a title contender. But so far, luck was not on my side. To be fair, in every single one of the matches that knocked me out over the years, I never felt robbed, my opponent thoroughly deserved the win every time. The true turning point for me was the beginning of the 2023 Season, where after two pretty bad eliminations in a row I was actually considering that being my last League. But then two great seasons happened, in 2023 ending with the semifinal with Revan, a.k.a the day where I had the most fun losing in my life, and in 2024 losing again in a ridiculously tense semifinal to Niclas after an almost spotless run up to it. So now I’m back to being the same hyped up guy as Day 1, with my unusual tactical choices and borderline wacky lineups, more than eager to try my hand at the new weapon update.

 Someone else who is definitely happy to have something new in the game is the other italian player wearing a red uniform, Angurio. The mortar boy is considered to be among the greatest players, but his enthusiasm has dwindled a bit since the first seasons, where he earned the fame of "the guy who redeemed gunners". His 2024 League, for one, was honestly paradoxical, reaching the semifinal (his best result since his debut in 2021) with little to no effort while claiming that "matches were rarely feeling fun". His participation this year was in serious jeopardy, in fact, until weapon modding was discovered. And now hopefully his almost unmatched long range skills, incredible shrapnel consistency, and solid late game nerves can reach new peaks in his journey to prove that gunners will one day rule over Saustralasia.

Multiply what I said about Angurio by 10 for Mascettino. The italian jetpack enthusiast, also known as the silent ninja assassin, reached his peak performance in the 2021-2022 span when his style of maximizing damage in an asphyxiating way was simply unmatched. Not being very lucky in decisive moments, he first lost a League final in a way that would frankly make you lose sleep, (so much that I need two clips to show it) and then being denied another one in the very last turn of the semifinal the next year. Then something broke, with some IRL issues thrown in the mix all of a sudden Masce found himself narrowly avoiding a relegation in 2023 while promising that it would be his last League. 2024 had him make a roaring comeback, but the strain of having to keep up to be competitive was still there, and although his results were improving (made it to Playoffs by a hair) he once again claimed that he'd be launching his last paratrooper into space that year. Then came 2025, and with it some new members of the italian crew, new will to cheer for them in Middle and Grunt League, but most importantly, the defribillator shock that kicked Masce back in the game: the new weapon sets. I was honestly not expecting him to come back just because of that but his response to the news was a simple "I'm in". And who am I to contradict a ninja?

I doubt anything I could write here could be a surprise to anybody when talking about Pinstripe, the only stable british presence in HoWL, and the true no-filters-on face of the Hogs of War Community, from the beginnings to the upcoming Lardcore. Some of the things he's known to be are: the original long range player, the chill yet laser-focused commentator, and also the person who had the ability to fix so many of the maps we enjoy today in our matches. In competitive, his catchphrase (besides "My Body is Ready", can't omit that one) is "I'm fine as long as I reach Playoffs". And he's definitely kept his promise so far, minus the 2021 Season where famously his PC broke two days befofe the start of the competition, forcing him to withdraw. But then there's the other side of the coin: Counting just Playoffs matches, his last and so far only win is dated 2020. So maybe this is the year when he manages to finally break the curse? Well, what's for sure is that his reply would be "Maybe, but I gotta qualify first".

Castor, the legendary 2020 and 2021 champion, will be taking a break in this season, so we’ll complete the list of Playoffs qualifiers from last year with Seifer. A misterious, yet participating figure in the community, the russian player was a unique case in his debut season, 2024. The first, and so far only player deemed to be too good to play Grunt League, which resulted in him making his debut directly in Middle League of that year. As weird as that may sound, the decision proved to be correct, because after a few matches to get used to the rhythm, Seifer emerged victorious in Middle League’s first ever season, and immediately gained access to the "Big Players Club". Seifer inaugurated a play style that is becoming a pattern for eastern european players: being extremely efficient in early game exploits, to gain an instant edge and surprise the opponent in any map that allows it, almost giving off vibes of a glitch hunter. After reaching an excellent third place in the "Group of Death 2024", ranking just behind Revan and Niclas, he was eliminated in Quarter Finals in a fantastic match against Angurio, and is approaching 2025 with a concrete chance to aim higher than his first result.

On the contrary, Irn Fox has no intention to try too hard to top his best result, simply because that would be impossible. 2022 was THE year for the finnish player, first winning the now discontinued RankUp event, then claiming the Hogs of War League title beating Niclas in a repeat of the RankUp final. His win might have been written off by some as “an upset", but he's always been there with the greatest, playing in all six seasons and only missing Playoffs last year for the first time (by one map). The master of safety plays and pragmaticity might not be incredibly consistent in his results, but at this point too many of the other players have at least one story about how a defeat against him still stings, to not put him in the list of the best players. In the end, he'll just keep doing his thing without trying too hard, as he himself says this has always been his way, and it seems to work pretty well after all.

Speaking of chill, what's not to love about Herpderp? The first player from USA to have the guts to play competitive Hogs against a bunch of europeans who had a 200 ping advantage back in the Parsec days. And I can assure you, his bazooka shots did not show any ping back then. Thankfully, Netplay has since solved that issue, but ironically his best results, two Playoffs qualifications, are still from the Parsec era. In 2024, after coming back from a relegation the previous year, he came painfully close to reaching the Playoffs once again, as he needed to win one map in the last match but lost 2-0 to Castor. And this year he aims to finally get another shot at the knockout stage. He's kind of the constant jolly presence in the League, always being a good sport about everything, game-related or not. When you play him, you know you'll be having fun, regardless of whether he might kick your arse in the process, which is likelier to happen than you sometimes might think.

Another pleasant collateral effect of the introduction of Netplay was discovering great players from places we simply didn’t think they existed in. But Hogs of War is worldwide baby, and Kazakhstan has given us not one, but two juggernauts. Mefisto debuted in 2023, absolutely dominating the entire year-long season with 16 wins out of 18 total matches. In the only year where we had two Grunt Leagues, he was knocked out the semifinal of the first one by a great upset from KB, but then showed everyone that it was just a fluke by winning the second one without losing a single map. And then he wrecked everybody in HoWL too, only stopping at the wall called Niclas, again in a semifinal. The 2024 season however, was unfortunately a big step back, where he only managed to get one win, enough to stay in the top division, but certainly surprising for a player who fought for a League final the year before. We'll see what the new season and format will bring for him and his quick play and high damage style.

Komori was brought into competitive by his brother Mefisto, obviously, and the two had a surprisingly similar path in reaching Hogs of War League. Joining in Grunt League Summer 2023, he also came up just short of the final in his debut season, after one of the most heart-stopping maps played in the history of Grunt League against the ukrainian player Agr. And second time was the charm for him too, when he reached the final of the newborn Middle League in 2024, losing to Seifer but gaining access to HoWL. His first top flight season had started pretty well with a win with Herpderp, but then a couple of defeats cut him off of the Playoffs race, in a Group that lost Agr mid-season to a sudden withdraw, which took away Komori’s chance for a rematch but at least saved him from relegation. This year, he's determined to ride with the big waves, by perfecting his very technical movement with a heavy use of the time-stop technique, and by keeping himself trained by facing new players, like Amne7ia, who's been his sparring partner for this summer, and definitely the most likely player to join the top tier in 2026. I don't know about you, but Komori gives me dark horse vibes this year. Or... dark hog, I guess.

AxBy94 has been representing San Marino for all of the six seasons so far, and he's come a long way, reaching Playoffs twice, but also facing relegation last year, forcing him to earn his spot back through Middle League 2025. And what a way to come back it was: He first won his group, and then faced two excruciatingly tense best of 5 matches that both reached the very last map. First one was the defeat against Borealis in the semifinal, the first ever Playoffs match played in person, in the Austria community gathering, while the second one was another nailbiter against Amne7ia in the third place match, a crucial 3-2 win to earn the last available League spot, despite a technical mistake during the setup that almost made it necessary to repeat the entire match. In terms of his play style he’s a tactically experienced and sharp player, a bit finnicky in execution sometimes, but also a master in the art of shrapnels, which made his sappers a constant threat. Also, he’s the one who invented the pig pool, the system which forces us to have a certain number of classes we can use in each match to make each combination of maps truly unique, which is just a fun fact that I felt like throwing in.

It has become a bit of a theme in Grunt League to have one player that is incredibly good from the get go, and to give him the title of a “Will-Be-In-League-Soon” player, but sometimes, champions emerge with time. Borealis from Germany, debuted in 2024 in one of the toughest groups in the history of Grunt League, and match after match, he gained experience, skill and went on to win the whole tournament while always beating opponents that, at the time, had the odd’s favour. In the same year, he came really close to getting a second promotion right away, losing the decisive match for a League spot to Herpderp. He did get it the second time around earlier this summer, claiming another title on the way through Middle League. And now, not only hardly anyone considers him an underdog anymore, but he’s also a big supporting member of the competitive community, as the “official Grunt tester”. He bases a good chunk of his strength on his clean and thorough match preparation, which makes him very hard to surprise on the battlefield. Can his growth get him to become the first ever player in competitive to get all three titles for himself?

Last but not least, we have the eclectic Warco. The sixth different italian to take part in Hogs of War League (most represented nation in the top tier) confirms how hog meat goes very well with pappardelle pasta. When Warco started his journey in 2024, we celebrated his in-house derby (literally) with his brother Aswein as the pinnacle of two bros’ 20-years long passion for the game, brought to the stage in an actual tournament. But we couldn’ imagine how his peak was yet to come. His debut season, however, ended on a cursed bazooka mistake that kickstarted his opponent Borealis’ comeback and costed him a qualification to Middle League that was well within grasp. In 2025, a fresh start brought him to be the first player to get two promotions in the same year, albeit always one or two matches short of winning a title, in a flurry of incredible twist and turns that just seem to constantly happen in his matches, so much so that he’s gained himself a name as an artist of comebacks. His genuine admiration for the community, for competing in it and for what we have built make him someone a lot of people look forward playing against, and that is something to cheer on.

And that is it! I hope it was a fun read, and that this will be a fantastic Hogs of War League. Now if you excuse me, I have a grill to fire up. See ya!

-adb95 (Credit to Revan for some of the pig pictures)

Hogs of War Lardcore - HUGE Community Efforts Achieved!

As the middle of the year looms ahead, we wanted to take the time to give you all an update on the project, as well as a shout-out to our beloved community and the work they have produced in assisting the remaster!

Over the last 6 months we have endeavoured to work alongside the Hogs community in bringing the original game up to scratch, specifically within the realm of localisation! You'll remember in our last article that was posted back in January, we mentioned that this area of development is indeed one of the biggest, so we've had to call on specialist members of the existing community in lending a hand!

Origin text such as mission briefings, newspaper headlines and in game elements have all needed checking (and in some cases correcting!) in all original languages of French, German, Spanish and Italian. We know how proud each localised section of the community are regarding their version of the game, so it's been a great experience in gaining the insights of the players here.

Not only that, but these troops have also been involved in creating newly written content for the remaster! As promised at the early stages of the project - we are currently looking at adding in a new Italian Team for the English, French, Spanish and German versions of Lardcore, while the Italian version will receive a new Japanese team. As explained in our most recent Devlog episode, this was due to the original Italian localisation team deciding to swap out the existing Japanese team in their version for an Italian one! As such, we have to level the playing field in regards to the number of teams available in each version (so that everybody gets the same!).

The Community Team were hand picked based on their contributions to hogs and, most importantly, speaking the required language! Each were tasked with writing up new dialogue for their respective team, including choosing the team & pig names. Given that our development team are UK based, we felt it best to hand such a task over to those who best understand how the humour of hogs is portrayed in their mother tongue, so you can be sure that this new content has been hand crafted by the best of the best!

Elsewhere in development, we are pleased to announce that the promotion point bug on Mission 17 has officially been fixed in Lardcore! Many a veteran player will of course be familiar with this confusing issue involving the destruction of medical tents in a specific order in combination with Major Grimly yelling at you for apparently doing the wrong thing. Given the missing promotion point, it's always been a bug that contributed to the player's inability to reach the max available promotion point total, but no more shall you be penalised for following orders! You'll now be receiving two medal drops as standard!

Meanwhile, our lead artist has been cooking up a storm in the menu department! We'll be saving the main bulk of work for our next devlog episode, but you can check out the sneak preview below!

It is once again time for us to take cover, back into our development dugouts while the troops continue to defend this position. We're very excited to show you all what's coming up for Lardcore, including those ever awaited new pig models. We'll be sure to have the next devlog episode uploaded real soon, until then - thank you all once again for the continued support, it won't be long before Hogs is spread across the world, bringing folks new and old to the most classic turn based shooter! Bye for now!