Yep, I played a coop game a while back. We had a lot of fun, I do seem to recall that getting the two computers talking to each other was a bit of a pain, but that was over 6 months ago. I don’t remember any issues once we figured out the connection issues.
It’s the tutorial, so it’s Space Marines on easy difficulty. It wouldn’t matter though, “enemy that mind controls all your troops” would be an inane difficulty spike regardless of race.
Near as I can tell I’d need what, 6 or 7 units to bring that thing down, and the whole time it would be stealing units from me as I went. 6 damn hexes from where I started. I like a challenge but this doesn’t read as that, it reads as “cheap bullshit.”
Hmm. In the past the Space Marines have been largely immune to the Enslaver’s mind control. Having my Imperial Guard unit enslaved when playing as IG was my first sign that IG was way tougher than Space Marines.
I’m playing a Space Marines vs. Tyranids game right now and haven’t noticed any issues with the Enslavers, although I’ve mostly been keeping them at a distance. I wonder if they messed up the balance in one of the patches. I don’t recall ever having had a Space Marine enslaved. Happens all the time with Imperial Guard and Orks.
Two space marine squads and a captain, that’s all I can tell you.
Were you shouting FOR THE EMPORAH! while engaging the enemy?
I’ve read it helps. :)
Second tutorial game - again, enslavers about six hexes away from my start and heading toward my base. This time I ran, of course, but I don’t see how I can reasonably assemble an adequate force to handle them given that it’s turn 5.
Ouch, that’s crazy. Not sure if you’re having bad luck or they messed up some of the numbers. Keep them at a distance (tough for the Captain though) and remember if you can take out the Enslaver the unit it took over reverts to your control. AI is pretty good at retreating though, so chasing down a wounded Enslaver can be difficult.
Also the wilderness areas in Gladius have some really tough stuff in them, including stuff that you won’t be able to take out easily until you have much better equipment. So I generally explore, find the tough enemies wandering the wilderness, pull back rather than taking them on, and expand in other directions until I have more tech, more units, and more resources.
This strategy also helps because units do level up and a level 10 unit is much, much more powerful than a level 1 unit. So gaining levels taking out Kroot Hounds and picking up resource sites when you can, then taking on the Enslavers later might be a good strategy.
Yeah those things are nasty. Best to run away from them at the start if you can.
Also not sure what you are playing on but this is a game best played on the lower difficulty, there is no extra fun to be had in this game by making it harder.
You are right of course, the game can throw you some nasty insurmountable challenges with some randomly generated worlds.
Ouch, for a strategy game that is some damning criticism.
For a large segment of players who like a challenge and like to see their skills rewarded I agree.
I dont play strategy games like that though, for me they are story generators. So if I see a whiff of a puzzle or challenge in a strategy game then I bail on the game.
But I am in the minority I recognise.
When I did the tutorial last night, I saw enslavers off in the distance and it warned me to avoid them until I had a force built up. The next time I saw some I think I was able to kill them with 2 marine squads and a land speeder squad. They were a bit further away than 6 hexes though.
I got that warning after I’d stumbled into them and they’d already enslaved one of my two starting squads, for the record.
Totally unrelated to the other stuff: is there actually no way to remap keys in this game?
I’m warming up to it on this second run but damn, that first experience left a bad taste in my mouth. That said…
About 4, it turns out, though having grenades helps a lot. Glad to see I was over-reacting. Thanks for the advice folks!
Enslavers mostly patrol a set area, so long as they are not in combat. So tactical retreating will often get you out of their target range.
Plus due to the retreat mechanics, you have to go in with full force and try to kill it in 1-2 turns. Otherwise it will run to a new area.
Finally I seem to recall it had a delay between enslave attempts. In your initial game were your units spread out exploring, and thus encountering in sequence rather than as a group?
At any rate scouting and concentration of force at the decisive point are both fundamental in this game.
Yup, and I agree that was the problem. Well, that and I had no idea what I was walking into. I can’t speak to enslavement attempt delays, but that would be extremely useful information. I killed the one in my second game in two turns, so it only momentarily grabbed one unit before it died.
Well, if nothing else this experience certainly made that point. I’d been neglecting that orbital survey research the first game, but I see now that it’s invaluable.
I’ve had my Space Marines kidnapped. IIRC it’s tied to the morale of the unit, only units with morale below a certain threshold can be enslaved.
(I am following this closely --I have 15 hours to get this on sale… what do you think overall?)
Having gotten past that initial hump I’m enjoying it quite a lot. Won my tutorial game and started a larger one with space marines again.
If you’re in the mood for a combat focused 4X game, this is pretty good. I only played a couple of games, both as the Space Marines and enjoyed it.
If I remember correctly, you bounced off of Age of Wonders 3 - but I think that is the best combat focused 4X. Gladius’ combat takes place on the main map, and like others said the AI is pretty good. It shouldn’t have you shaking your head is disbelief.
rob I wonder how I bounced off Age of Wonders 3? Everything in that game screams what I like. Nice memory.
I think I may bite but we’ll see. Vin’s trouble a few posts up made me worry.
In AoW3, do you remember if you played the campaign or a random map game? If it was the campaign I’d suggest trying a random map. The campaign can have time based triggers that can make the game a slog if you don’t stay on track. I have 300+ hours of AoW 3, so I definitely liked it. I’m sure others here have even more.
In Gladius, you just need to get a feel for where you can explore and what is dangerous. Like someone mentioned above, those mind control things aren’t bad if you meet them with force.