--- title: "Wartales Community Update 7: The Lair Criminal Hub and Prisoner Rework Land September 7" description: "Wartales CU7 brings The Lair permanent criminal hub, prisoner skill trees, End Round combat, and 6 new battle maps. Free update — open beta live, full release September 7, 2026." url: https://after-strategy.com/en/wartales-community-update-7-lair-prisoner-rework-september-2026/ lang: en published: 2026-08-29 updated: 2026-10-26 author: "Simon Dougnac" author_url: https://after-strategy.com/en/auteur/simon/ game: "Wartales" game_url: https://after-strategy.com/en/jeux/wartales/ categories: [tour-par-tour] tags: [wartales, shiro-games, community-update, turn-based] translations: fr: https://after-strategy.com/fr/wartales-community-update-7-repaire-criminel-prisonniers-2026/ es: https://after-strategy.com/es/wartales-community-update-7-guarida-criminal-prisioneros-2026/ publisher: "After Strategy" --- # Wartales Community Update 7: The Lair Criminal Hub and Prisoner Rework Land September 7 > Wartales CU7 brings The Lair permanent criminal hub, prisoner skill trees, End Round combat, and 6 new battle maps. Free update — open beta live, full release September 7, 2026. Community Update 7 for Wartales does more than add maps. It grafts a layer of criminal economy onto Shiro Games' tactical RPG. The Lair, the new location in CU7, gives your company a hideout to offload loot and manage its outlaw reputation, alongside its mercenary contracts. The open beta has been available since August 5, 2026. The full release is planned for September 7, and the update is free for all players. > **Update, October 26, 2026:** CU7 launched on September 7, 2026 as planned, free of charge. It also ships personal quests for mercenaries and a new post-battle report panel. A hotfix followed as early as September 8. ## The Lair: A Hideout for Illegal Activities The Lair is an underground location for those who operate outside the law. It is accessible from the start of the adventure, provided your troop has built up enough Suspicion to earn an invitation. Inside, you can reduce that Suspicion, sell stolen items, buy weapons and armor you cannot find at regular merchants, accept contracts suited to criminal bands, and rest. The place has five characters. The contract broker offers a quest board reserved for criminals: catch and deliver, attack, assassinate. The black-market merchant buys with no questions asked. The Suspicion specialist eases the pressure from the guards. The tavern keeper offers shelter, and the doorkeeper controls the entrance. So this is not just an extra map. The Lair plugs into the economic loop: loot and criminal contracts feed the company, while Suspicion becomes a resource to manage. The open question is how deep that integration stays over time. ![Turn-based tactics in Wartales, a mercenary group on the combat grid](https://after-strategy.com/images/articles/wartales-community-update-7-repaire-criminel-prisonniers-2026/screenshot-1.webp) ### Prisoners Gain Depth Shiro Games reworks the prisoner system. Each prisoner who joins your troop keeps skills tied to their past and gets a dedicated **skill tree**. Their needs are clearer, which makes trust easier to read, and hidden objectives influence their behavior. Escapes now have 3 possible outcomes. An escapee can come back with reinforcements to ambush you, attack your camp while you rest, or end up behind bars. You can also hunt wealthy merchants: a new capture-and-deliver-to-prison bounty exists for that. With skill trees of their own, some prisoners can become useful members of the company if you meet their needs. ![Tavern interior in Wartales, a candlelit room](https://after-strategy.com/images/articles/wartales-community-update-7-repaire-criminel-prisonniers-2026/screenshot-2.webp) ### End Round and Smoother Combat CU7 introduces an **End Round** option that automatically skips your units' remaining turns. You can switch back at any time to a more deliberate pace and position your units exactly as you like. For players running large companies, that is a real time saver in long fights. The update also improves AI calculations and camera transitions. The content is rounded out by 6 new battle maps spread across several regions and 3 new armor sets that can be stolen from wandering merchants. ### What to Check on September 7 The big question for CU7 is this: does The Lair really fit into the flow of the game over time, or is it a place you visit once and forget? If Shiro Games has managed to tie the criminal economy to the rest of the loop, with resources, Suspicion and contracts, CU7 could give Wartales a dimension it did not have yet. If The Lair works in a silo, interest will fade fast. ![Character sheet and inventory of a mercenary in Wartales](https://after-strategy.com/images/articles/wartales-community-update-7-repaire-criminel-prisonniers-2026/screenshot-3.webp) The [Fires in the Capital update](https://after-strategy.com/en/wartales-fires-in-the-capital-dlc-urban-combat-2026/) showed that Shiro Games knows how to densify its game without overloading it. CU7 tests whether the team can do the same with a permanent economic location. To try the beta: right-click Wartales in Steam, open Properties and then the Betas tab, and choose the Open Beta branch. Back up your save before you start. ## Going further - [Wartales: the Fires in the Capital DLC](https://after-strategy.com/en/wartales-fires-in-the-capital-dlc-urban-combat-2026/) - [All our Wartales articles](https://after-strategy.com/en/jeux/wartales/) ## Sources - - - - - Source : [Wartales Community Update 7: The Lair Criminal Hub and Prisoner Rework Land September 7](https://after-strategy.com/en/wartales-community-update-7-lair-prisoner-rework-september-2026/) — After Strategy