Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
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Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War (christ that's a mouthful) is a 4X Strategy game published by Slitherine, the same guys who published Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon and the Sanctus Reach video game, and made by Proxy Studios. Essentially, it plays like a glorified Civilization Warhammer mod, which isn't a bad thing as civilization practically nailed 4X games.
Setting
The resource rich and strategically important planet of Gladius Prime is under attack from Orks, and the Space Marine Chapter (no name ever given to the chapter), unable to defeat the greenskins by themselves, call the Imperial Guard for aid. As the guardsmen arrive, a warp storm hits the planet and screws everything for everyone. This allows Chaos to gain a foothold and drags a Tau flagship into the system for good measure. And as all this shit is going down, the Tyranid specimen held by the Adeptus Mechanicus escaped from its containment, and then, from beneath the earth, Necrons awaken from their slumber. (Oh, and the Eldar are there too.) Now the various factions are fighting for the domination of the planet and/or for their own survival.
The Factions
- Imperial Guard: Lots of cheap guardsmen and other specialist infantry with low morale, compensated by long-range artillery, durable tanks with various upgrades, and aircraft. They can also build Imperial Bastions and Void Shield Generators to help hold chokepoints and can issue a variety of edicts to boost their cities output, either to speed up unit production of certain buildings or to increase the amount of certain resources or research that is produced for 10 turns. It's difficult to get a foothold at the start, but if they can survive the early game it'll be pure hell swimming through a sea of bastions and baneblades to get to their capital.
- Space Marines: Limited to only one city, their Fortress-Monastery, but can build Fortresses of Redemption to gather resources outside the reach of the Fortress-monastery and they treat food and ore as the same resource named Requisition. They've also got a single Battle Barge in orbit, from which they scan unexplored areas and deploy orbital strikes, and they can choose a chapter tactic that gives temporary buffs either to all or certain types of units. While simple on paper you can fuck yourself by putting your Fortress City in a bad spot and losing your deployed Fortresses of Redemption means you're losing defenses and resources at once. Having some of the best infantry in the game can only take you so far since if Space Marines start going into the negative on supplies it can snowball hard without other cities to fall back to.
- Necrons: Necrons can only build their cities on top of Necron tombs and need energy to produce units and ore for upkeep and population growth. Influence can be used to repair units on the field, let infantry and heroes use Eternity Gates to teleport to cities or monoliths, and rush/speed up production of units. Tend to shred through armored units like butter and can stay in fights longer than most units. However their economy is so slow and Necron tombs aren't guaranteed to be near any valuable resources, let alone spawning anywhere safe. Hence why you need to rely on repairing your units in the field, as losing even basic units can cost a lot of time and money if you've been unlucky with where the tombs spawn.
- Orks: Ork infantry deal more melee damage when attacking and lose less morale, at the cost of taking damage when losing morale. The units have a high regeneration rate, gain ore when they kill enemy units, and increase influence by doing damage, but have an influence upkeep with the units doing more damage with high influence and having lower damage with low influence. Their cities have a higher growth rate than others, and can build fungus fields that heal units. Can steamroll both economically and in terms of manpower in the early game since Boyz will basically pay for themselves. However, this naturally means if you lose your streak by getting curbstomped or just by not fighting anything for a while you're going to have a tough time competing with what later-tier units from other factions can put out.
- Tyranids: Constantly makes new units. They consume biomass instead of ore and energy which allows them to make units. All tyranid units are disposable and can be recycled into biomass when they have outlived their usefulness. Most basic units slowly go feral when not in range of a synapse unit, and revert back to their original instincts which either weaken or kill them and eventually lose control all together. Even harder to get rolling than the Imperial Guard, but if you survive by mid-game you can start winning battles through attrition alone, and while they usually still remain squishy little things on the roster can survive Tyranids endgame units getting close. Tyranids can also make entire swathes of the map useless even after they've been killed off, so it's an almost paradoxical faction where people want to kill them off before they ruin half the map, but if you do your reward will usually just be a bunch of useless bedrock barring a few scant strategic resources.
- Chaos Space Marines: As per usual, a lot of how good they are comes down to luck. Cultists and Space Marines can turn into anything from Chaos Spawn to Daemon Princes, and performing rites will give you bonuses depending on what God you dedicate them too.
- Tau: Tau are probably the closest thing to a 'diplomatic' faction in the game, heavily relying on influence because of this. As in they can diplomatically hire neutral Kroot and Vespid units to fight for them, diplomatically insult other factions to hurt their feelings (morale) and put communist propaganda in their heads, and diplomatically just straight up buy resources instead of making them like everyone else. They can also spawn various types of drones ranging from gun drones to shield drones as essentially free temporary units to support their troops, all while continuing the time-honored Tau tradition of shooting the shit out of everyone else and hoping they die before they can get close enough to hit you in melee.
- Craftworld Aeldari/Eldar: Characterized by slippery but agile infantry that can move after shooting, slow population growth, and the ability to remote-capture neutral Webway-gates, with the caveats that they can only build cities on said gates, and that the aforementioned gates are continually being destroyed by neutrals, other players, or your own idle misclicks, their units are deadly against soft targets, but die like they're made of tinfoil and goodwill, their psyker heroes are versatile, with abilities that have inverted effects on friends or enemies, the Avatar of Khaine is their premier early beatstick available at tech-tier 4, and with correct support will level a city in maybe three turns. Their vehicles (with the exception of war walkers and wraithknights) are all fast skimmers which means you can quickly move them where you need them to be while being able to ignore all sorts of rough terrain. The fire prism is arguably the most versatile tank in the game as it can switch between three firing modes freely which means it can deal effectively with any conceivable target. Finally you can also travel/teleport between webway gates (whether they're activated or not) with ANY unit, but it costs a fair amount of influence to do so and consumes the unit's action point. With an ample amount of influence this means you are the most mobile faction in the game.
- Adeptus Mechanicus: The new kids on the block, they have global powers that scale with the number of units of a certain type. They boost Skitarii units with Doctrine Imperiatives that boost one stat while reducing another, and then there are Canticles of the Omnissiah that scale with techpriest and robot units, which debuff and damage enemies. Skitarii units are irradiated and passively damage enemies who end their turn near them. Their builder unit, the Cybernetic Datasmith, can hijack control of the neutral Kastelan Battle robots which can lead to a midgame snowball for AdMech players. Lastly they have special "optimization" mechanics with their cities, buildings in a district gain buffs for every building of the same type in that district, and are debuffed for every building that is different, Ad Mech can also get an extra slot for buildings in some of their districts.
- Neutral: The various hostiles and native creatures that attack everyone. Comprised of Kroot Hounds, ambulls, enslavers, psychneuein, rogue Cybernetica Datasmiths and kastelans, Neophyte Hybrids (Reinforcement Pack DLC), Vespid Stingwings (Tau DLC), Umbras (Eldar DLC), Lords of Skulls (Acts as a special event boss mob), and motherfucking Catachan Devils.
Artefacts
One of the features that sets Gladius apart from Civ. Artefacts are hovering, rhombus shaped relics believed to be creations of the now presumably extinct Old Ones. Artefacts are scattered around Gladius Prime, and will give a certain boon or bonus to your faction/race and/or all units under your control. Artefact buffs stack on top of each other, so controlling artefacts is very important to your survival. It takes one action for one of your units to seize control of an artefact, but units won’t be able to capture them if there are units of the currently controlling faction next to the artefact. Artefacts can apply a number of different effects depending on their type, the ones currently in the vanilla game are as follows: increase the maximum hit points of all your units, give movement buffs, give loyalty buffs, increase sight radius, increase regeneration speed, or increase damage. It is also important to note that units may not occupy the same tile as an artefact! Enslavers can usually be found defending these ancient creations, so be wary and make sure you have the firepower to wipe them out.
strategy guide
a guide on how to play the various factions, do note, multiplayer will not be included this is mostly meant from single player, but one can take what I mention to multiplayer for those who play it. overall strategy: a general collection of strategy's that can be applied regardless of what faction you are,
- Securing land: choosing where you should settle your first city the moment you start can be tricky, generally look for lands that offers bonuses to food and ore (requestion in the case of marines), bonuses to research, if possible, do note that settling near a resource (like grox pastures) will permanently secure it (unless the city is destroyed) and will offer even greater bonuses and depending on what resource it is will effect surrounding tiles giving them bonus to ore, food and other handy stuff.
- neutrals: contrary to the name they will attack any faction no matter what, you think neophyte hybrids would be chums if your tyranids but that's a bloody no, only if you're playing tau or as of late admech can you use neutrals but only if there kroot hounds and vespid stingwings for tau and if you have a cybernetic datasmith one of his ability's is to seize control of kastellan robots, its niche but handy, said units will still attack you though, if you see one unit of say vespids and attack it, expect a horde of them to manifest in the blink of an eye so come prepared, always try to kill neutrals if you can as they will attack your units regardless and will decap your outposts and artifacts, so a word of advice is to always have at least one unit to stand guard of your outpost and/or artifacts till you can eliminate all remaining neutrals, neutrals that spawn from quest are largely the same but if you want to win by completing the story then you must kill them.
imperial guard/astra milliatarum: despite being listed as a "hard" faction if you know what you're doing and depending on what neighbors you get in the early game, then guard can be pretty easy, but don't get cocky as one mistake can lead to your doom very quickly. infantry units:
- Guardsmen: ah the humble guardsmen, guardsmen truly live up to their name in this game and with the right upgrades can be a shockingly tanky unit that make enemy's waste much more effort on trying to kill them than they would have otherwise, with med kits, a somewhat high healthpool and the armor upgrade, guardsmen will not kill things very quickly and are better at softening the foe up and acting as, well, guards, whether it be defending other units like ratlings and weapon teams but they outlast there expiration date with these upgrades, combined with being cheap to make and to upkeep with a relatively short training time, they won't kill fast but as said before they make a deceptively tanky unit that will outlast the expiration date. (Note: I advice getting grenades for them in order to rapidly kill kroot hounds in one go, grenades a very handy for them as it allows to do far greater damage than otherwise)
- ratlings(DLC): a bit of an odd unit but a very good unit for defending areas and making both loyal and chaos marines weep, ratlings fill a role similar to the heavy weapon team but in a different way, with infiltrate and the ability to move after firing, when not defending locations, they make decent scouts and paired with a sentinel bodyguard makes for a pretty good recon unit to harass the enemy advance before your army of guardsmen and tanks meet them, there weapon being a sniper rifle with the heavy trait, means when sitting in one spot, they'll deal more damage than if they moved, sniper rifles have both anti-infantry and anti-monster but will do jack shit to vehicles (except scout bikes), with these traits makes them good MEQ hunters while your guardsmen deal with the peanut gallery, however keep them as far from danger as you can, they have less health than guardsmen units and the armor number is a lie and they don't get med kits, so they are not durable in the slightest, you need the specialist pack if you want to use them.
- heavy weapon teams: a very useful unit that when paired with a commissar for his buffs makes them excellent anti-large units (monsters and vehicles), they also have an option to fire frag rockets instead, though when compared to ratlings the frag rockets are rather limited infantry hunters only good against poorly armored foes, as said earlier when paired with a commissar they are excellent for killing almost anything that looks at them funny, give them some guardsmen to bodyguard them and you got a pretty infantry army that will serve you well till you can get your really good vehicles going.
- tempestus scions (DLC): one would think there a direct upgrade to guardsmen which while not entirely wrong, guardsmen are much cheaper to both maintain and recruit, said guardsmen also train faster, but tempestus scions are still handy and good for attacking when you need a decent unit to use when you launch an airborne flanking assault, you need the reinforcement pack if you want to use them.
- bullgryns: a rather odd unit being the true melee unit in your army when's its mostly a shooting one, but they're decent bodyguards and handy when fighting orks or to keep eldar at a distance, also useful for defending your backline in case of assault marines, warp talons or warlocks, a nice but not to useful ability they have if you researched grenades, they can throw said grenades 3 times instead of once every 10 turns like other guard units.
- Tech priest engiseers: a very useful unit able to heal and buff your vehicles, there also the only unit able to build new cities, bastions and void shield generators, making them important for any guard player looking to hold the line or have mobile repairs.
- Wyrdvane Psykers: a bit of an odd unit, I admittedly can speak to much of them as I admittedly never used them when I had the primaris psyker instead, they seem ok though as a supporting unit such as increasing the damage your units do to an enemy and have witchfire attack in order to harm said enemy's.
- lord commissar: your first hero unit that you don't need to research, a great unit that allows your infantry to punch far above their weight, really useful when paired with heavy weapon squads with his ability's such as bring it down and aura of discipline, one is a passive that increases accuracy which in turn improves damage and the other is an ability that has to be activated that lets your infantry fair better against armor, his other abilities are handy in a pinch such summary execution when your guardsmen are near to many spooky units and his ultimate ability iron will lets your commissar have a chance of coming back to life! all in all a very handy unit that is great when leading vast swaths of infantry.
- primaris psyker: your second hero unit and when compared to the librarian is vastly superior, with 3 ability's that deal massive damage that increases when he levels up, hes a great unit to injure and kill tough units or destroy buildings, with molten beam and if he gets injured, he can use life leech to heal himself, his other ability is sciers gaze, a handy option so your artillery can see and then destroy what there shooting, his ultimate ability is a physic maelstrom that deals massive damage to one unit and can be used farther away as it has the barrage trait.
vehicles:
Recommended Workshop Mods
- Too Many Voices (TMV): A highly popular and respected mod which aims to add original voices to every single unit currently featured in the game. This also includes voice announcements for when a tech tree upgrade has been fully researched and quest line dialogue, only the Orks so far has been given the latter treatment and it is a delight to listen to. The voices are of high-quality since they're done by professional voice actors, such as George_VA who has notably done voice work for various DoW mods. This is considered by many to be a must-have mod as it enhances the immersion of the game and makes each unit feel alive.
- Gladius+: A popular mod that rescales everything (including units, terrain, and World UI) to tabletop proportions. This means tanks are bigger, infantry are smaller, and the terrain looks more realistic etc. It also adds in new HD terrain + environment textures, as well as additional team colours based on citadel paint colour schemes. All of the changes are visual-only, but the enhanced textures may put a strain on older computers, so only use this if your computer or laptop can handle it, or otherwise consider lowering your graphics.
- Red Lasguns: A simple, but beloved re-texture mod which makes all Imperial and Chaos lasers present in the game (including lasguns, multi-lasers, lascannons etc.) fire red-coloured beams instead of the regular yellow or blue. With this change it does look a lot more pleasing to the eyes.
- Locknot's Expanded Setup: A useful mod which adds many more options to be able to further customize the game setup than what is already offered by the base game. This includes new World Sizes, 12 new player colors from the official Citadel Paints list, new game paces, new difficulties, new wildlife density options, and more. It's worth checking out.
- More Artefact Types: A fun mod which adds in cut artefact types as well as adds back artefacts that existed in earlier versions. On top of that it also adds a few new ones. This encourages the player to further explore the entire map, which in the base game they had little reason too unless you set artefact density on high.