It was After the Fire.
I watched a bit of Tom’s stream, and the game looks fine. But as it was brought up earlier in this thread, I don’t see why I’d play this over Warlock.
I watched a bit of the stream too…I agree with left empty…there’s a host of other games i’d rather play
and when Tom said the ‘A.I.’ difficulty level was just adding resources, meh, we’ve seen that movie so many times before, they better stop calling it A.I…the year is 2018, NOT 1985
NEXT!
A positive review from Strategy Gamer: https://www.strategygamer.com/reviews/warhammer-40000-gladius-relics-of-war/
A mixed review from PartyElite: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3dC3vIlRRs
I’ve been enjoying myself! The AI seems competent- if nothing else, it retreats units when wounded, targets damaged units and attacks en masse, which goes a long ways towards giving you a fight. The factions definitely feel quite different, my Guard force seems very distinct from the Necrons.
I am happy about the lack of diplomacy. I don’t miss it a bit. I like watching the AI fight against itself, too.
I see it as a strong iteration on the Warlock formula- better than those games, in my opinion- with a solid 40k theme. Recommended.
To elaborate on the AI theme:
Best stuff it’s done: Attack in a wave of mixed units, targeting vulnerable units on the periphery. Fell back when damaged.
Worst stuff it’s done: Sometimes trades poorly- kills my unit at a risk of losing a more valuable one.
Ugliest stuff it’s done: There is an ability called “Bring it Down” that relies on the commissar using it being surrounded by friendly units. I’ve seen it use it twice while all alone, very inefficient. Now, most abilities seem to target either themselves individually or enemy units and have been used fine by the AI, but this one seems beyond its understanding.
You know, people are saying it’s like Warlock but 40k.
Oddly enough that makes me want to play it.
Warlock was fun, but it got tedious as he’ll moving more than 10 units, especially to new planes, which had choke points etc.
The comparison to Warlock is definitely an apt one. I just see it as a step up from there.
Pcgamer says you should play endless legends instead.
😕
I love Endless Legend, but it is absolutely not a replacement for this. Endless Legend is really about city building and civilization management. Most folks hated the combat, and often just set it on auto. Even if you liked it, you generally only had a couple different units to manage. You could build a more diverse crew, but it was not generally worth it in my opinion.
This game is all about the combat, and you have many different types of units. There are fewer technologies, and they feel more individually significant than the ones in EL tended to. It’s just a different experience to me.
I’m playing a Space Marine game now and I’m really caving in a group of enemy Space Marines. I’m not sure, but I think they have been simultaneously fighting Necrons, and that has hurt them badly.
I’ve heard a criticism that the hero units are just way too powerful. Any thoughts on that from those who play it?
In my all of two games they have not seemed too powerful at all. I’ve faced a Necron hero that took very little damage from my basic guardsmen, but 1. That’s sort of to be expected and 2. Focused fire did compel him to retreat. When I bagged one later, it felt like an accomplishment. I dunno, they feel important because of their cool little abilities but I have not found them to dominate.
It might be, though, that rushing to heroes gives a significant 1v1 advantage over a player who doesn’t. Like any TBS I think what works against the AI is going to end up being very different from what works against another person.
Preliminary thoughts with 7 hours of play in, both an initial 100+ turn run as Space Marines, which looked like it was ending with getting overrun by the Necrons, and a second run as the Necrons in progress with about 1/3rd of the map conquered.
I’m really enjoying this. It is a “beer-and-pretzels” level game, with some complexity, but not on the order of Civilization or Endless Legends, and certainly not on the order of EU4 or HOI.
The units all feel different and interesting, and combined arms is very important. Good combinations of anti-infantry, anti-armor, fast-scouting units. Some units have good capabilities, but are vulnerable, others are better at holding ground. I love the Scout Bikes, for example, and in the right situation they are devastating with their shotgun attacks. But they go down pretty quickly. Lots of interesting abilities that you’d an get, some with some pretty major timers, so you have to think about when to use them. For example, Melta Bombs (which take a fair bit of research) do very good damage against armor, but have a 10 turn cooldown. Do you use them against that mid-tier Necrons Guard, because it will take him off the map, or do you save it for the really heavy unit that’s coming up in the back (that you might never actually get a shot at, because you’ll be dead in the Guard isn’t taken out).
I like that the units level up and get better, and I like having heroes with special abilities too.
The comparison to Warlock is relevant as they are roughly on the same level of complexity. However, my biggest problem with Warlock (which I did enjoy Steam says 54 hours played) is that IIRC the Warlock AI was brain dead. The Gladius AI seems much better. As @Mark_L says, it’s quite good at pulling back injured units to heal them up. I also saw it pull back a bunch of Ork units when confronted with my much stronger force of Necrons. Didn’t bother trying to hold the front, just pulled them straight back. Also the AI seems to understand how to prioritize targeting. Devastator Space Marines are very good anti-armor units (but need setup for maximum accuracy), so the AI is very good at prioritizing them — they don’t last long, I think probably the best way to use them is to set them up as a defensive line and then try to draw the enemy back on to them.
I saw some complaints that the tech tree wasn’t complex enough, but it seems comparable to the Endless Legend tree. I don’t see always picking the exact same tech each game, and I think the games would play quite differently depending on what you prioritized.
If you want a fun, light-weight but generally well designed strategy game, this fits the bill quite well. Double bonus if you like WH40K.
And I’ll keep it on the wishlist.
I haven’t found that at all with the heroes I’ve used. I’ve played with the Space Marine Captains, Librarians, and Chaplains. I’ve also used the Necrons Lords. I have a Necrons Cryptek, but he hasn’t gotten into battle yet so I can’t evalute.
The Captain, even when upgraded close to full (I think I’ve gotten on to about level 7 out of a maximum of 10) does reasonable damage, but he’s not great. Similarly for the Necrons Lord. The Librarian does have a very nice Shockwave Attack that can take out a bunch of low tier units simultaneously. I haven’t found the Chaplain to be all that effective yet, but I didn’t get him past the lowest levels.
All of the Space Marine heroes are fairly fragile. They don’t have that many hit points, so you really need to be careful what you do with them. Particularly as they only have range 1 attacks, so they need to be on the front line to be effective. The Space Marine Captain, for example, starts with 9 hit points, which can go extremely quickly if he gets focus fired on, and the AI does seem to know how to focus fire. The Necron Lord seems to be a bit more robust (he has more health and less armor, but Necrons automatically heal a bit every turn).
I would say based on my limited experience, heroes are useful and fun. But they need to be used thoughtfully. They are not crazy powerful like say Total War Warhammer heroes are. In Gladius they are somewhat fragile units that have interesting utility abilities that can make a difference when used correctly.
One critical thing that is worth mentioning is that the terrain has various resource spots that enhance you economically and relics that buff your entire army. The latter in particular have been natural locations for remote fortresses and have been the cause of many battles. You absolutely cannot sit back and rely on defense to win the day, that means giving all that stuff to the bad guys.
In the game I’ve been playing, the Marines have been pushed to the wall by the necrons and I, but I needed to withdraw my army to stop from being caught in a pincer between them. The third AI, the Orks, have just made their appearance at long last and I am diverting more and more forces to meet them. I’m afraid their holdings may be enormous… I thought I was the big dog up til now, but that is a lot of green heading my way.
One of the things I really like about the AI is that it seems to know this. It will absolutely move to take special resources and artifacts. And I definitely agree with the other assessments of the AI being competent. So far – and I’m still on the “fun” side of the Chick Parabola – Gladius shows that a one unit per tile game doesn’t have to be braindead.
-Tom
Yes, agreed. Having finished my first game, by the end of it there was perhaps a single artifact unclaimed in a corner, that was it. They definitely use artifacts and resource patches as focal points for their attacks. In that way the game design was probably an aid to the AI design, which seems elegant to me.
Also- and I am NOT sure about this- but I think it is possible that the AI actually plays by the rules for fog of war, which would actually explain how sometimes it seemed to make bad trades: it didn’t realize they were trades. Now, I would not be surprised if the AI had no object permanence and thus did not realize that your tank was still there when you retreated it into the FoW, but even if that is so it’s still pretty impressive that it plays fair. That is, if I’m right.
Oh, I should add the logic behind my reasoning: I have frequently managed to ambush assault forces that the AI sent by hiding troops in ruins or in forests. If it was omniscient and regarded the hiding troops like any other troops, I do not think some of the traps I set would have worked as well as they did- they easily could have been attacked piecemeal or from a different hex, etc. It’s easiest to believe that the hiding troops were, well, hiding, and that the AI indeed could not see them.