This is Page Two of our Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War AAR, covering Turns 45–106. To navigate you can use the page buttons at the bottom of this post, or you can head back to the main page here.
Turn 45:
The above plan went very well. As it turns out, Psychneuein prefer the lure of minds over metal. Finally, some peace and quiet.
During the previous turns, we received our next mission: construct the building that builds special units — heros, if such a term can be used in Warhammer — and get a Librarian out into the fray.
Within a few turns, we had the Librarian technology researched, I once again had a second squad of marines and the Fortress of Dorn was up to seven tiles in size. Things were looking good.
I sent my ‘veteran’ squad to the south west, as the only direction where immediate death wasn’t guaranteed, and the new squad to the west to try to finish off the Devil lair there. Despite this great plan, a further swarm of Psychneuein dragged my veterans up towards the lair, so I gave in to the idea and moved them and a new squad closer towards it while the others healed.
Turn 58:
I took a picture of this, the AI half of turn fifty-eight, because it was the most organised I had looked in the entire game up until that point.
Turn 62:
Posted without comment.
Turn 64:
Okay, so. Lesson learned. Imperial Watchtowers are tough, shredding most of my first squad, with the remains consumed by Enslavers before they mind-controlled the second and consumed the third (my veterans) after they’ve been softened up by their former colleagues.
It kind of puts Civilization’s Barbarians to shame, really.
I decided I’d had enough of watching little armoured men get torn to pieces, impaled, stung to death and mind controlled, so I switched my research to the Predator tanks before sending a fresh squad along to fight the Enslavers, which had been lured towards one of my fortresses.
At that point my Librarian spawned and I was prompted with my next story objective. Head to the South East and destroy the — corrupted — Astra Imperium camp which was now there. Ah, the South East. Where I’d diverted troops from in turn fifteen due to two Devils and a cluster of Enslavers showing up. Wonderful.
Turn 68:
Librarians are extremely squishy and easy to kill; I was a fool for sending my first one off on their own. However, look at how cool their shockwave attack is!
As you can tell by now, most of my early experiences of Gladius yo-yoed between moments of extreme clarity, luck and competence and a series of idiotic and rash decisions.
Turn sixty-eight taught me a lot of things. For a start, as the last Enslaver burst and fell to the floor flaccid, I regained my mind-controlled squad from earlier who were now far off to the south west. Secondly, I was made aware that enemies attack in droves and throw everything they’ve got at you. Those four pictured enemies had friends in the misty ruins although, to my good luck, they were being torn apart by Enslavers and Devils.
The Librarian didn’t make it back to the tower, although did survive about ten attacks from his eight-or-so attackers. Lesson learned.
Turn 72:
Following my series of stupid decisions, the Astra Imperium were at the gates of Dorn. While this looks like a bit of a predicament… and I believe it was at the time, having the devil at their back didn’t have quite the same effect as the turn of phrase. In fact, they were sandwiched between two towers and being closed down by approaching marines.
By turn seventy-five they were all dead, with the final kill a Scout Sentinel, blown up by the previously brainwashed Tactical Marines who had only just made it back into the fight. We had suffered zero losses in our defence, and the first in a long string of only winning meaningful battles when the enemy was at my door.
We finished the Predator research, finally, and started researching tougher armour. Despite my initial plan of replacing troops with mechanised tanks, it turns out you can build one of each type simultaneously, so I shoved both on their respective production lines and knuckled down for a few turns.
On turn seventy-nine the Astra Imperium target was destroyed. My squads were in the general area, but we couldn’t see the target tile. The next mission would last for the next hundred turns: simply, visit three locations on the map with a Librarian unit. The first was near the Imperial Watchtower to the west, the next to the not-so-distant south west, and the third and furthest was to the distant south.
I sent some units off to secure the western point and the rest off to kill off the Enslavers and Devils which had been around the previous target. Most importantly, this would give me a wide area to my East to manoeuvre troops through, and would clear the area for future forays if there were any land-bridges there.
Once the improved armour research completed, I decided to get a second type of infantry — the melee-based Assault Marines. Their cool-sounding jetpacks seemed useful, what with all the craggy ground.
The Enslavers in the East fell in turn 84. However, it turned out that there were no fewer than four Devils over there, which quickly killed off my Captain hero (who was doing great until he died, thank you) and wiped out my first predator tank. A collection of concentrated fire from various assembled Tactical Marines put them down, a heavy resource drain, but a victory nonetheless. Unimpressed with the predator, I opted to research the mech Dreadnoughts next.
The Librarian arrived at the first target in turn 104, after a bit of a fight against some hounds. Two turns later, the lair in the East finally fell. By this point, very aware of all of the slow travelling I’d had to do to get to that point, I made a few conscious decisions about research.
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