Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War

The monetization model for this game has been changed so that the base game is very cheap or sometimes even free, and they shake you down for more with the DLC. I purchased the incomplete base game for a significantly higher price earlier, before they switched to this model, AND now they're shaking me down with the DLC nonsense. Don't support despicable practices - don't buy this game.

I first tried playing this many aeons ago.... before Horus was a mere twinkle in the Emperor's eye (more or less) and the game didn't click. However, and this is a big caveat - after obtaining ALL the DLC via the Adeptus Mechanicus's help - the Omnissiah be praised - I returned to the field of battle and the game opened up. It takes several battles to get used to the mechanics of even one faction (the tutorial is several codex's behind) - but once you gain an understanding through trial by fire then the game had me thinking what I could have done better next time - better handling of resources, build order and units, etc. Also a pox on the Tau and their tech (I digress). I have yet to rise to the standard of Gulliman but by the Emperor my duty will not end. You most likely have the base game in your library - give it another chance and slowly pick up the DLC when it is on sale because the pricing is of Drukhari design. "Walk softly, and carry a big gun..."

john marine

this is not an easy game to learn the UI isn't intuitive at all, the terrain lighting is so dark that everything is bland and dull. i get you were going for the grim-dark setting but dawn of war 1 and 2 capture the setting just perfect and i can still til apart from each other in those 20+ year old games. i got the game on sale and I will suggest everyone does so as well. it's worth the $4 I wasted on it not the exuberant 40-50 dollars they are asking for it on the regular. Great on a sale high learning curve, and okay for a 4X and Warhammer fans

if you like old games like Rites of War then this is for you

im tired boss

As someone who has literally played thousands of hours of turn-based strategy games, I can honestly say that this is the one I keep coming back to. The games that got me started in the genre - classics like Panzer General - relied on pre-made maps with scripted events. Gladius generates an endless variety of maps and an equally endless array of new challenges. It also has decent AI that punishes carelessness with merciless abandon. All the core factions play quite differently, further adding to replayability. Most of the recent negative reviews seem to be about the number and cost of DLCs. There's a simple solution; don't buy them. Astra, space marines, Necrons and Orcs already offer many hours of gameplay and, unlike some other games (looking at you Paradox) there is no paywall for basic game functionality. If you enjoy the base game, get some dlc on sale - there are lots of sales - and try them out. I might add that in addition to making dlcs, the developers have been very ac...

4/10 The music is entirely inappropriate. Action music starts playing during periods of lull and sound effects in the soundtrack appear to be construction or enemy alerts. While the writing is good accessing the information library is a chore with no way to sort, filter, or directly access the object you're trying to look up by selecting it and although descriptive it's frankly boring. I think what bothers me the most is the combat; it's like if you took civilization hexagram combat and increased the number of troops by 5x. This format of strategy does not support 20 units on 6 tiles. Right now it says the game is 90% discounted which may be a fair price for some but otherwise I would not recommend this game at the current $40 pricetag.

It's not really bad, but also not great. It's like one of the older Civ-Games, despite you can't stack units and can't build infrastructure improvements (which I liked a lot in Civ, and used to extend, imagine you build another unit for 5 to 8 rounds, and then it needs another 10 rounds to walk to the place of the battle, which could be shortended a lot by railroads). Also, it's hard to distinguish from the graphics, wich tiles do have "Stahlkraut", which harms your units, it happened a few times I stepped accidently on those. It's also a bit boring, the grey enemies (wildlife?) are numerous and ennerving, while the enemy party doesn't do almost anything. From what I read, if you raise difficulty, the enemy doesn't get smarter, it just gets bigger advantage over you.

A 4X game that is heavily focused on combat and strategic usage of resources. Extremely fun and addictive. I highly recommend it, but not at full price. The reason? A large amount of unit packs. You should get all of them for the best experience and to avoid a unpleasant surprise. For example you buy the Chaos Space Marines faction DLC and want to use Chaos Terminators. Unfortunately you need to buy a separate unit pack for that. So wait for a sale get the base game (it's usually dirt cheap) and all of the units packs. The 4 base game races (SM, Astra Militarum, Necrons and Orks) should keep you occupied for a decent amount of time. After that you can get more armies