This is Page Two of our Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War AAR, covering Turns 107–176. 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 107:
The second objective was surrounded by five groups of Ambulls, heavily armoured thugs who don’t take no for an answer and can pummel a Librarian into the pages of history. I had dropped a fortress in there as a side thought; this was a massive waste of resources. It lasted two turns.
Turn 111:
I did the shockwave thing again. A great moment.
The Librarian died in a single hit on the next turn.
Turn 117:
Warhammer continued being Warhammer as I killed off the last of the Ambulls, but my bulk assault troops were reduced down to a lone Captain by the sudden emergence of three Devils. I’d say that I rushed forward, but Gladius was simply doing what every Warhammer game does by introducing a new threat as the last wanes. Besides, I’d now built up the Fortress of Dorn to a point where I always had two or three units moving towards the hottest points on the map.
My plan then was to finish the Orbital Deployment technology and then build some fast, expendable scout units so I could simply smash the Librarians (and any entourage) into the objectives until I hit my next spark of genius. Despite some concerns, Gladius gives you more than enough tools to face down most situations — and in good time — even if you have to bleed to the last man to roll them out at a speed appropriate to your playstyle.
The Captain died before turn 118 was out. Two turns later there was a new front line: Predators accompanied by Tactical and Assault Marines. Another Librarian — a very dangerous career, and a job role with a high turnover — was en route to the site.
Oh, remember that thing I said about Warhammer introducing a new threat whenever the last undefeatable foe falls to your vigilance?
Turn 120:
The Orc Battlewagon was a bit of a surprise, although it shouldn’t have been. We managed to break it down, but there was clearly a large force behind it. My stream of marines and the Predator tank only needed to hold the line for a few turns, as the Librarian was only a couple of tiles behind them.
I gained my first Dreadnaut as the Orc planes and DeffKoptas burst from the fog. We had no anti-air weapons.
Orbital Deployment research completed in turn 125 — missile launchers onto my fortresses definitely sounded like a good choice for the next move. The Librarian was the only unit left on the front line, so I slammed a new fortress into the ground a few tiles back from them, near the next-nearest unit, with a hope to create a new defensive line.
Librarian number three did a super-cool shockwave attack before being pummelled to death by a dozen Orc units.
I was very optimistic that my chain of fortresses and stream of assault squads and dreadnaught units would be enough to delay the Orc wave until reinforcements got me into a position where I could push back.
Turn 144:
The Fortress of Dorn looked absolutely magnificent at this point. It was also especially combat ready, as I had recently learned that you could still drop the defensive fortresses into it to bolster the city tiles.
Despite having lost every last soldier, including another Captain, one of the towers and a mass of Dreadnauts, the city held. I now had the technology to deploy Terminators and was working on researching the ominous-sounding Vindicator.
Turn 147 dawned and I slammed another fortress into a city tile to replace a lost one. A Librarian and my first Terminator squad emerged from the citadel. I resisted using the shockwave, instead using the Librarian’s power to shut down a target enemy’s weapon. The Terminators shredded an enemy, the fortress towers centre fired on a flier and enemies began to fall.
In the next turn, fire continued, my Librarian killed a Warboss with a shockwave and the Terminators cleared the west facing of the city. Research finished on the Vindicator and I shifted research to the speedy little scout-bikes. Once the Orcs were dead, I decided, we’d run suicide missions with the bikes scouting ahead for orbital drops so we could push through the current mission objective. When the Orcs appeared, we hadn’t secured the second marker, let alone the third one in the south. The research for the Scout Bikers was so dated by this point that it only took a turn.
The enemies were all dead by turn 152. We’d gained three Terminator units, which I felt were unstoppable, and a scout had just spawned.
Turn 154:
Space Marines.
I secured objective two in the most ridiculous feat I’ve ever done in a 4X game. Orbital dropping my librarian straight onto the objective after scouting it out with a fast-moving vehicle.
As a result of the capture, we opened up a new battleground to the west of the objective. It was gruesome and rapidly consumed the life of my Librarian and a few other units. Meanwhile, however, within five turns I’d already started dropping units in and around the third objective in an attempt to hold it for when the next Librarian showed up.
Turn 162:
Naturally, the third objective was also right next to the base of the Astra Imperium. The campaign structure is impeccable — each of my playthroughs have resulted in this leapfrogging from enemy to enemy with each objective. While it may not be a full ‘conquest’ victory, it certainly drags you close.
With the end of turn 163, all of my units in the south were dead… meaning we’d expect a wave of enemies appearing at the citadel’s door in a half-dozen turns.
Turn 166:
The western front didn’t cool off, either.
Turn 169:
I took some time to remind myself of how amazing the citadel looks. The enemies had’t shown up yet and they’d had six whole turns, so there was a slim chance they’d just attack one another and I’d be safe. That was unlikely, though, and I knew it, opting to hide terminators in the walkways of the city rather than marching them out to their death.
A few turns later I grew impatient of waiting for death and sent a Vindicator out in the direction of the Astra Imperium’s base. As it turned out, they hadn’t moved, and the objective was clear. That called for my favourite tactic.
Turn 176:
I was becoming consciously aware that I was approaching the two-hundred turn mark. If this were a Civilization game, I would be halfway through the campaign, but my technology was excelling, even if my combat skills were lacking. Another noticeably lacking thing was my progress through the Space Marine campaign; while I didn’t know the number of chapters which comprised it, it obviously wasn’t three.
As the new objective, Chapter Three, rolled around, I finally felt as though I had an objective I could quickly manage: send a handful of marine units into the tile. All I would need to do would be defend the marker while the three units reached the tile and explored the tombs underneath. I quickly (and probably idiotically) orbital dropped all of my units around the marker, leaving my base defended only by towers — a conscious, risky choice which I knew might expose my city to an angry Orc army.
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