Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
Cons: cost.
Pros: everything else. This is THE BEST 4X combat game. No diplomacy, simpler than in Civ city management, and huge variety of units and sides with real tactical options and paths. The combat mechanics is interesting and more complex than in any 4X game.
But! While the base game is good, the game shines with all the expansions. And it becomes costly to buy all of them. Therefore, we come back with the biggest drawback: Cost. But in some sense you get what you paid for. If they release one more DLC, I would buy it without thinking. I love this game that much.
– Real player with 270.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Strategy Games.
Recommended with caveats:
It’s a great game even from its humble beginnings with only Imperial Guard, Space Marines, Orks and Necrons. As the first and so far only 4X Warhammer 40K game that isn’t a mobile freemium, the game captures a lot of the spirit of 40K and even brings back elements from the 1st edition Rogue Trader such as all kinds of alien wildlife. Every faction is unique in its mechanics and technology. So I would recommend the game but…
I would have more highly recommend the game more in the past. These days if you have an older laptop like mine, the game crashes almost immediately due to some kind of renderer error. If Slitherine can come up with a solution to this problem, that would be fantastic. But as it currently stands, I’ll have to delete the game.
– Real player with 178.7 hrs in game
Stellar Monarch
If you are familiar with Eurogame style tabletop games, then the abstractions and economic focus (vice military control) will feel very familiar to you. The game’s pillars are not based on American-style wargames.
Many devs who make 4X games seem to have the souls of engineers; Aurora 4x being the archetype. In those games micromanagement focuses on design, production, and use of things like ships. Mastery of those concepts leads to victory.
This game requires micromanagement and is numerically obtuse as well, but it focuses on the qualitative values of game elements (i.e. cards) instead of design, production and use of things.
– Real player with 30.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best 4X Grand Strategy Games.
There’s a lot left to be desired in this game. The UI is clunky, the artwork is amateurish (think early D&D), and there are some strong biases (no female officers, everyone is Caucasian). Maybe there’s a button to change that - but if there is, I havent dug it out from the UI yet (oh, that tiny button on the map pulls up a list of worlds? Which cannot be ordered to tell me most populous, most rebellious, etc?).
For all that, however, the game does two things well. It lives up to what it says it is - you’re the Emperor, not a warehouse clerk. You dont deal with the minutae of the empire, you have People for that - who are, admittedly, often trying to kill you. Or skim off the top. Or are just idiots. But you’re the Emperor, you have People for those People too; people with sharp, pointy objects - my purges havent reached Stalinist levels, but every once in a while, I do feel the need to prune my court of the more corrupt or stupid couriers or officers (‘fire’ all corrupt governors except the loyal ones? Meh heh heh heh).
– Real player with 23.5 hrs in game