This is Page Two of our Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War AAR, covering Turns 177 to the bitter end. 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 177:
The imperial forces may be (mostly) weak and flimsy, but as, like every other faction in the game, they can have more than one city, they create at a vastly faster pace than I can — and numbers do count.
My next few turns were spent powering down buildings to try to manage my dwindling energy supply, as well as launching more and more units into the fray to hold the tomb, juggling fighting necrons and the Astra Imperium. Sadly they were putting on a lot of pressure and even though we managed to destroy one of their cities, Paradisus Macharius, they had whittled my terminators down in number massively.
However, turn 183 brought some interesting developments. As I dropped some more units from orbit to hold the defensive point, some old friends showed up.
Turn 183:
Despite the tough, crunchy armour, my terminators and friends were set to become the main filling in a Space Marine sandwich.
A slow, tactical push back against the hulking Orc machines which overran the objective was only achieved with help of the Imperial force, who were probably just targeting the stronger force. Meanwhile, the Orcs managed to destroy most of the Imperials. Where I’d thought I would be wiped out, I instead benefitted as a scavenger in what should have been a three-way fight, picking off the nigh-dead of the battles.
Turn 188:
Good riddance to bad news, albeit interesting distractions.
Turn 189, after the AI had done my work for me in the previous turn, saw me dropship in the remaining units to complete the mission. With that done, I got my next mission: to generate a hundred units in research. Considering I was, as I said, infrastructurally (but not militarily) ahead, and was making forty-three research a turn, this didn’t take long to finish at all. The next mission was a similarly easy one. I was required to scan some terrain — a task my excess of influence easily completed.
I arranged a tactical retreat for my remaining captain, terminator squad, and Vindicator tank, although by turn 191 they were all dead in the dust.
Turn 193:
The next mission was another interesting one. Yet another Astra Imperium camp had sprung up to my eastern side, this time protecting a strange artifact. Unfortunately for them, I had been constructing extra buildings to expedite unit creation and my ten-turn amnesty from violence had resulted in half a dozen new units ready to be dropped in.
A few turns passed and the enemy fortress fell.
In turn 197 I claimed the strange device, and — as it could be moved — started moving it back to my base. The next mission required me to build deep-rooted vaults to store the genetics of the Space Marine chapters, as their goal now was to ensure that the evil of the planet could never leave, even if it meant that they couldn’t.
Against all odds, I had managed to survive two hundred turns and somehow turn around a lot of my misfortune. I won’t talk too much on my next few turns, but I was required to defend the city to the death again — something I managed quite well.
My time with the Space Marines was extremely enjoyable, if tense. I’ve no doubt that the Astra Imperium would be the more traditional group to play as, however it is only right to start off as the Marines.
Keep your eyes peeled on the site for our review of Warhammer 40,000: Gladius — Relics of War, later in the year. You can preorder the game over on GOG or on Steam.
The final game will contain four factions at launch, however the developers, Proxy Studios, have made it clear that there is definitely more room for other playable factions.
