I've just had this head's up from Slitherine...
Warhammer 40,000 Gladius: Relics of War
Meet the Necrons!
WH40K Gladius: Relics of War is the new strategy game from Slitherine/Proxy Studios, set for release for PC on July 12th. It is now available to preorder on Steam and GoG.com, with a special discount on the glorious Deluxe edition (at only $34).
WH40K Gladius is the first ever 4X set in the dark Warhammer 40,000 universe: you will be able to eXplore and eXpand on the newly rediscovered Gladius Prime planet, to eXploit its immense richness of ancient and forsaken artefacts, but you will need to eXterminate all living creatures that you meet. On Gladius there is no space for diplomacy, as the only good Xenos are dead Xenos!
You can choose to lead the mighty Space Marines, the immense power of the Astra Militarum or the untamed green tide of the Orks. But if you want an unusual and challenging fight, choose the Necrons.
The Necrons are a weird mystery even by the twisted standards of the dark and deadly Warhammer 40,000 universe: robotic warriors who have slept for 60 million years in their tomb-cages.
The Necrons have been on Gladius Prime since time immemorial, sleeping deep beneath the planet in their ancient tomb cities, but recent events have awoken them. In ancient times they were flesh and blood but today they are a soulless race of relentless machines driven to exterminate all life from the galaxy.
Tactically, Necrons can only build their bases on the sites of their ancient tomb-cities, which means that a Necron player has to fight for control of their
required locations for expansion.
Beyond that, their troops display few limitations. Not only are Necron armies extremely resilient, but they can rapidly repair their own units out on the battlefield. If you’re fighting against them, make sure you finish them off quickly. If you are playing as the Necrons you can turn this to your advantage and drag your enemies into a war of attrition.
Necron infantry might seem slow but they can make use of dimensional corridors to teleport across vast distances, granting their armies exceptional manoeuvrability. To maintain their metal warriors, the Necrons rely on ore supplies for upkeep, while they use energy for raising their troops from hibernation. By expending extra resources, they can rush the production of units to overcome any enemy with their greater numbers.
Given how resource-intensive Necron armies are, a wise enemy will hinder their access to raw materials (save for food, which they simply don’t use, as machines don’t eat). Cut off their ore supplies and you’ll see their warriors crumble and fall apart - if you live that long!
Necron units have the Necrodermis Repair trait: if they are mildly damaged, their living metal body will heal itself.
Let’s see some units from the Necron roster!
Monolith
The Monolith is an ancient war monument of unimaginable destructive potential. When its massive silhouette looms over a battlefield, it will lay waste to entire armies with strobing torrents of gauss fire and deafening crack of its particle whip.
Night Scythe
The Night Scythe is the Necron’s favoured tool of invasion, a sickle-winged herald of woe that possesses the ability to beam Necrons directly into battle. Manoeuvrable enough to evade orbital defences and interceptors, and swift enough to outpace mustering foes, Night Scythes can ghost through a defence perimeter to deploy invasion forces well behind enemy lines.
Tesseract Vault
Only a race as ruthless and self-serving as the Necrons would think of unleashing a Tesseract Vault to further their aims – though each Vault is a potent weapon of war, the beings held within these floating prisons pose an almost incalculable threat.
If you want to preorder or wishlist WH40K Gladius, you can do it now on Steam (and you will also fine a special sale for the Deluxe Edition)!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/489630/Warhammer_40000_Gladius__Relics_of_War/
Apologies ... I missed some pics for you....
Anyone? Anyone?
Watched a video review of this. It looks like a re-skin of Pandora: First Contact.
That isn't helping me feel any better. I can't put my finger on why, but I was palpably disappointed with Pandora (having bought it on release).
I guess the thing that annoys me most is that this is marketed as "4x" and it is clearly not. It is more like a "2x", with only the expand and exterminate aspects present in the game. I had my concerns from the get go when it was revealed that the entire game takes place on a single planet. No fleets, and no space exploration, combat, or colonization component.
I think I will definitely get this eventually, but it will have to be at a steep discount.
Would be interested if the armies were more to scale and had a proper TO&E. Not a fan of these one dimensional unit representations. Look at that marine howitzer. Is that thing supposed to cover an entire hex with no supporting units or guards of any kind?
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on July 13, 2018, 08:59:55 AM
I guess the thing that annoys me most is that this is marketed as "4x" and it is clearly not. It is more like a "2x", with only the expand and exterminate aspects present in the game. I had my concerns from the get go when it was revealed that the entire game takes place on a single planet. No fleets, and no space exploration, combat, or colonization component.
I think I will definitely get this eventually, but it will have to be at a steep discount.
The diplomacy in Pandora was a horrible mess. It looks like for this game they just pulled it out entirely.
Not a fan of Pandora, however I think there maybe just enough here to purchase.... but maybe not at the price point that is being asked of:
^What the hell is going on in your avatar?
Quote from: Gusington on July 13, 2018, 10:10:08 AM
^What the hell is going on in your avatar?
Its clearly a Quarian from Mass Effect playing the drums. Duh. :2funny:
Quote from: Gusington on July 13, 2018, 10:10:08 AM
^What the hell is going on in your avatar?
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.6am-group.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F02%2Fdaft-punk.jpg&hash=6483bbe606588cee8ac6a7c0642963624596ecaa)
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/da/Daft_Punk_Logo_RAM_2013_by_Alvaranstrong.png/220px-Daft_Punk_Logo_RAM_2013_by_Alvaranstrong.png)
Avatar is from Get Lucky...
While the codebase definitely shares a lot with Pandora (seeing as it comes from the same developer), calling it a reskin does it a major disservice. The gameplay is almost entirely different.
Cheers
Pip
Someone listed the differences with Pandora on Steam (https://steamcommunity.com/app/489630/discussions/0/1727575977578265427/#c1727575977578631220). After watching the videos and reading those listed differences I don't really see any huge changes. It still just seems like a really big mod for Pandora. I like Pandora and will probably get this at some point but the price will have to be much, much lower.
Thanks PanzersEast...I love it!
This guy at Strategy Gamer likes it: https://www.strategygamer.com/reviews/warhammer-40000-gladius-relics-of-war/
And if, like me, you'd choose a colonoscopy over watching Angry Joe, here's James Allen's review. He does a good job of explaining the differences between Pandora and Gladius. He also liked the game.
What d'ya think JH? Any good?
Quote from: JudgeDredd on July 19, 2018, 04:36:39 PM
What d'ya think JH? Any good?
Its certainly addictive, but it is very simple overall and definitely a missed opportunity. Its really just about growing your city, or cities, researching and constructing new buildings, and then making more units to go fight. That is all there really is to it. Again, there is an allure to exploring the map, expanding your territory and unlocking new weapons, vehicles and units, but beyond that there just isn't much there. I do feel like DLC and mods might be able to rescue it, or improve its longevity. I can see why a lot of people are happy with it, but for me, its just lost potential for now.
I would hold off on spending $40 quid if you can. I think $19.99 would have been the fairest price point.
I picked this up with my Matrix coupon[have every other damn game there] and have played a bit. Played the tutorial turns then restarted a new game as the space marines, which is rated as easy. I'm not a warhammer fanboy so couldn't tell you about the lore at all. So far i like it, i'm about 60 turns into a campaign. Not having diplomacy is no big deal to me as i've never played a game that did it well, mostly it just seemed canned. It is pretty much a war game focus, which is fine by me. The game plays quick, research advances quickly, building goes quick, so you advance to better units and tech for your units pretty quickly, probably quicker if you focus on getting your research up. Resources don't seem in short supply, at least i haven't reached a bottleneck yet. The space marines only get one base, but there doesn't seem to be a limit on how far you can expand it, probably as much as you can defend. You can build multiple things/buildings on one tile, each tile is rated for how many things you build on the tile and resources you get from the tile.I'm about turn 60 and i've researched about 8-9 things, unit upgrades, new buildings, new units. The UI is fine and there are tool tips for everything, so its easy to understand how things fit. The AI hasn't done anything really stupid that i've noticed, a couple of times i thought it should of followed up and finished off one of my units but it backed off. The game isn't complex but easy to get into and understand, the turns fly by....just one more turn. The map terrain may get repetitive, not sure yet, have more exploring to do.
I'd like to see a research option to have a telescope or something to build to see other planets and options to build a ship to send a landing party to colonize another planet with different terrain and different species and other warhammer races. A lot of that could be abstracted. You could have an icon and switch between making moves on each different planets, or maybe random space hulks to explore or something. There are a lot of options going forward, we'll see how inventive they can be. I don't think just introducing more warhammer races as DLC will do it.
Thanks both...I'll hold off for the moment. I'm in no rush
It certainly has that one more turn appeal. Up to turn 90, at war with the green skins. It's been a back and forth affair, but I'm finally at their city gates. Fun game.
I haven't really given this one the time it probably deserves.
Now, Tyranids will be added to the list of combatants. Perhaps this will give me the incentive I need to jump back in!?
http://grogheads.com/whatever/19750#more-19750 (http://grogheads.com/whatever/19750#more-19750)
only 24h left till the Tyranids DLC release :D
what i have read so far how the developers implemented them looks promising.
http://www.slitherine.com/news/2765/Warhammer.40,000.Gladius.-.Tyranids.Gameplay.Mechanics
cant wait to send Space Marines or Guardsmen against them also
- heads-up -
just have read: with the DLC release there will be a patch - and old saved games are not compatible!
(so if you have an ongoing game - switch of autoupdate at Steam)
Additional heads up for those on Steam. We have created a legacy branch that people can opt into if they wish to continue their existing save game :)
I only recently picked up this game but I'm loving it very much. I can see it getting stale in the long run, however the novelty hasn't worn off yet after about 26 hours of gameplay for me.
The Tyranid DLC sounds great but I dread having to fight them. The Necrons which come with the base game are hard enough! LOL
Quote from: W8taminute on January 15, 2019, 02:46:04 PM
The Tyranid DLC sounds great but I dread having to fight them. The Necrons which come with the base game are hard enough! LOL
If you can't beat them, join them...I'm running through a game as the horde.
It's weird...there is nothing wrong with this game on its face, but there is just something about it that doesn't grab me. It certainly has that "just one more turn" appeal, but I'm not sure to what end.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 15, 2019, 02:57:46 PM
Quote from: W8taminute on January 15, 2019, 02:46:04 PM
The Tyranid DLC sounds great but I dread having to fight them. The Necrons which come with the base game are hard enough! LOL
If you can't beat them, join them...I'm running through a game as the horde.
It's weird...there is nothing wrong with this game on its face, but there is just something about it that doesn't grab me. It certainly has that "just one more turn" appeal, but I'm not sure to what end.
Yes, I agree. The game definitely has that 'just one more turn' feeling to it. There is however something missing like a hook to keep you interested in the long run.
I picked the base game up yesterday and played a couple of hours last night. So far, I like it. I've seen several complaints online about the lack of diplomatic options, but in a universe where all the factions are constantly at war with each other, what purpose would an elaborate diplomacy scheme serve?
One feature that I really like is the fact that you're not just at war with another faction, you're at war with the planet itself.
I agree with Jarhead's earlier comment, it definitely has that "one-more-turn" aspect to it.
Clearly if people are complaining that there is a lack of diplomatic options in this game are ignorant of the WH40K universe. Don't they know that "in the future, there is only war"?
Perhaps they need to be elucidated on the subject by brother Kor Phaeron?
Piddling around with it last night, I noticed that despite not having the new Tyrannid expansion, Tyrannids do spawn on the map as independent maneuver squad enemies. I haven't noticed them making bases (or starting with a base) yet, nor do I get the option to make an AI Tyrannid team, but they may exist as enemy bases without much guidance in development. Sort of like how in other such games, let's say Master of Magic and its successors, you may not have one of the opponents governing orcs to start with, but there might easily be orc bases on the map growing from outposts or villages into cities, as well as orc freelance groups wandering the map from the beginning, and possibly being spawned by map areas.
Quote from: W8taminute on January 17, 2019, 03:58:09 PM
Clearly if people are complaining that there is a lack of diplomatic options in this game are ignorant of the WH40K universe. Don't they know that "in the future, there is only war"?
Perhaps they need to be elucidated on the subject by brother Kor Phaeron?
Honestly I think that's why the developer set the game in this universe. Their Pandora: First Contact game was also know for having almost no diplomacy. All fighting and no diplomatic options make for an easy AI to program.
Quote from: W8taminute on January 17, 2019, 03:58:09 PM
Clearly if people are complaining that there is a lack of diplomatic options in this game are ignorant of the WH40K universe. Don't they know that "in the future, there is only war"?
Perhaps they need to be elucidated on the subject by brother Kor Phaeron?
True, but this is a rather simplistic view of the universe and lore. With a little creativity they could make a fantastic 4x with interesting diplomacy set in the 40K universe. There is certainly diplomacy among the planetary governors and imperial authorities. What about the intricacies that take place between various groups within the Imperium? There are always dealings among the various Ordos of the Inquisition, Mechanicus groups, etc. Furthermore, while you won't find humanity negotiating terms with Orks or Tyranid, there are times when various deals will be brokered with races like the Eldar, in order to accomplish or further mysterious or common goals.
The opportunity for a universe spanning detailed 4X game based in the 40K universe is there...they just need to eXploit it...see what I did there?
^You cad!!
^^Saw what you did there!
Yes you are right but maybe the type of diplomacy you mention would fit a game that spanned the galaxy. I'm not so sure you need it when dealing with just a single planet as in this game.
Or the developer took the easy route and excluded diplomacy in Gladius for the sake of making an easier game to create.
Quote from: W8taminute on January 30, 2019, 11:35:53 AM
^^Saw what you did there!
Yes you are right but maybe the type of diplomacy you mention would fit a game that spanned the galaxy. I'm not so sure you need it when dealing with just a single planet as in this game.
Or the developer took the easy route and excluded diplomacy in Gladius for the sake of making an easier game to create.
Absolutely. When I found out that Gladius was being billed as a 4x, yet took place only on a single planet, I was dumbfounded. What a totally missed opportunity.
The Imperium shouldn't be fighting each other anyway, so if things have gone so wrong that ImpyGuards and Smurfmarines are shooting at each other then "diplomacy" might be pointless at a game-level. (Similar to the Dawn of War games which go out of their way to explain why on grand campaigns of the "Dark Crusade" and the "Soulstorm", the Imperial factions are fighting each other: at that point diplomacy has broken down and can't be reestablished without major oversight from central command.)
The Imperium wouldn't be negotiating with Nids, Necs, and Orks, in any case. (Nor would Nids and Necs; nor Necs and Orks; nor probably Nids and Orks except in the sense of Nids infiltrating the Orks via genestealer acolytes.)
But the game does allow teams, which breaks the lore pretty hard at that point. So... really, aside from having a campaign storyline, diplomacy either makes no sense or is unneeded, or can be considered established before the game by (crazy unloreish) team settings.
In short:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.reactiongifs.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F05%2Fdo-not-care.gif&hash=de6a111bc4d3bc80e0f8cc06ad1c75e6def2e273)
(https://media1.tenor.com/images/533548a266992cfd52aea35c6372f7e8/tenor.gif?itemid=4192709)
^Disagree completely. There are so many different factions within the Imperium alone and they are in so many ways completely distinct and foreign to one another that some form of diplomacy entirely makes sense and would be great within the context of a complex 4x game. To put it into terms of a very simple example...even various Federal bureaus and agencies engage in negotiations with one another...the FBI, ATF, DEA, ICE. They also engage in negotiations with State and local agencies, as well. They enter contracts, work out deals, etc.
I'm not sure why anyone would discourage this possibility from a gaming standpoint.
And they shoot each other to death if they don't work out deals or have conflicting orders! :D
...oh, wait, they don't.
Of course "some form of diplomacy entirely makes sense" for Imperium groups, but only the teamwork diplomacy variety. If they're starting with that, it isn't likely to break down in the short term of the game. If they're starting at hostility to one another, enough to be shooting, then diplomacy per se between the groups has already catastrophically broken down, and must be sorted out at much higher levels which can order both sides to stand down.
If the Imperium groups, or the Necs groups, or the Ork groups, or the Nid groups, start out on each other's side (Team A being Nids and Nids, etc.), then I agree there ought to be some useful diplomacy options between them. Other 4x games have them: I'm pseudo-hot-seating a 2 v 6 player Age of Wonders game right now, where the two 'real' players send each other things to help each other out. If the local groups are hostile, then I don't see the point of diplomacy between them: they're either inherently hostile, or in the case of the Imperium their hostility indicates such a catastrophic breakdown (between zealots eager or paranoid to see other people as existential enemies anyway) that local diplomacy is pointless.
It would seem that intra-faction diplomacy would, for the most part make more sense, than would inter-faction diplomacy. In other words...Imperial factions can engage in diplomacy with other Imperial factions. Ork warbands engage in diplomacy with other Ork warbands. Eldar craftworlds engage in diplomacy with other eldar craftworlds, etc. etc. Meanwhile, diplomacy between Eldar and Imperial forces would be much more limited and diplomacy between Imperial forces and a race such as the Tyranid would be entirely impossible.
Once again, creativity would really pay-off here...of course, with the 40K license, creativity and risk taking is something we rarely see.
Quote from: Jarhead0331 on January 30, 2019, 03:06:08 PM
...
Once again, creativity would really pay-off here...of course, with the 40K license, creativity and risk taking is something we rarely see.
And the end result for us, the consumer, is a product that entertains us for a while and then gets shelved never to be played again because of the lack of creativity. There is nothing about Gladius that makes it stand out from all the other civ type games other than it's set in the WH40K universe.
Which isn't nothing, but so far I have to agree.
I like the lack of a big fancy pantsy diplomacy tree in this game. let's say in comparison to a Civ 6
Setting up factions as a team stranded on the isolated by Warp Storm planet in the game is enuf, IMHO
well, maybe the experience of the warp storm or drifting through it had even made some in charge of a stranded faction go real nuts
but i would like to read a Disclaimer-box with a wink so when a player set up an impossible alliance like this
"We don't know what experiment you are up for. This setup might be considered outside the lore of the WH40k universe by most fans of the franchise and may trigger unwanted feedback if public . Heh, but its your game you paid for in hard currency so your sandbox mode house rules. We refrained to block any options. Enjoy your play"[/font]
JH, I think you're talking about intra-faction politics, more than diplomacy per se. A few games take a swipe at that (e.g., Stellaris), but most games eschew that sort of complexity for the monolithic "faction" first established in the original Civilization more than a quarter-century ago.
It is interesting how little innovation there truly has been in the 4x space. Diplomacy is an even more pointed example than research, I think.
For once I'm staying out of this one.
The Emperor protects.
Quote from: SirAndrewD on February 01, 2019, 02:19:07 AM
For once I'm staying out of this one.
The Emperor protects.
Discretion? On this board?
Surely you're not serious? ;D
Quote from: FarAway Sooner on February 01, 2019, 10:55:09 AM
Quote from: SirAndrewD on February 01, 2019, 02:19:07 AM
For once I'm staying out of this one.
The Emperor protects.
Discretion? On this board?
Surely you're not serious? ;D
He is...and don't call him Shirley.
JarHead, I'm so glad somebody caught that reference and was able to channel some Lloyd Bridges back my way quickly!
It would've been real awkward if people thought I was actually chastising him...
FWIW I am also fluent in jive.
Looks like I picked a bad week to quit amphetamines.
I should have never stopped sniffing that glue.
only hours left till the Chaos Space Marines DLC release :D
i am not sooo into Chaos, but i like to have a new faction in the mix to fight against
http://www.slitherine.com/news/2891/Warhammer.40,000.Gladius.-.A.look.at.the.new.Chaos.Space.Marines.units
cant wait to send Space Marines or Guardsmen against them
The Chaos DLC was going to be a day one purchase for me. However I am still having that Vuikan crash error after about 10-15 minutes. Until that is resolved I will be using legacy builds of the game which won't be able to use the new DLC.
I keep trying to get into this game every time there is a new DLC released, but something holds me back? I can't figure out if its the UI, the disappointment of not being able to colonize and fight on different worlds, or a combination of both.
I'm pretty happy with it as a Warhammer 40,000 game with random maps and several factions to play as and against. A step up from Armageddon.
I also wish the Space Marines weren't so generic. Add some flavor. Let the player pick from different chapters, each of which have different perks and rules. Is this there, and I am just missing it?
I am not terribly knowledgeable of the lore but as far as I can tell the Space Marines in Gladius are generic.
Quote from: mbar on July 18, 2019, 07:50:20 AM
The Chaos DLC was going to be a day one purchase for me. However I am still having that Vuikan crash error after about 10-15 minutes. Until that is resolved I will be using legacy builds of the game which won't be able to use the new DLC.
The Gladius devs have extended OpenGL support until they can squash the Vulkan crash bug. Chaos Marines it is then!
https://steamcommunity.com/app/489630/discussions/0/1642043096905230144/
Uninstalled Gladius. I want to like this game so much. Vulkan has killed it for me though. I have a Geforce 780m that has had updates stopped on April 2019. The devs are hell bent on sticking with Vulkan despite the forums repeatedly posting that each new update is breaking the game. Why switch from OpenGL to Vulkan a year after release? So uninstalled and never bought the Chaos DLC. Oh well.
Gladius current version 1.3.4.6 is running well. I have been able to complete several games with this version. So, yeah, I did reinstall.
I've been vaguely aware of a universe called Warhammer 40K for some time but this game has ignited my interest in the lore and universe of late. I'm currently reading 'The Talon of Horus.'
[casts Lesser Thread Resurrection]The Tau are coming! I'm excited. :D
I jumped on that fast!
This was a game that could easily have been abandoned, but I give the devs props for not only keeping up work on additional content, but also on not always taking the obvious choice (i.e. Eldar when?)
Quote from: JasonPratt on February 27, 2020, 07:42:57 PM
(i.e. Eldar when?)
Apparently they're the next DLC faction.
Knowing that, I think I may wait until it comes out, then grab all the DLC I haven't picked up yet. With Slitherine's pricing policies, I should be able to get a modest discount on all of it (including the Tau).