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 Grand Strategy Cold War 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
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
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
Total War: WARHAMMER III
**Pre-purchase to get an additional free Race Pack for Total War: WARHAMMER III.
More details coming soon.**
Far beyond the world and its petty wars there exists a dimension of pure, malevolent magic: The Realm of Chaos. It is a terrible place, incomprehensible to the mortal mind. It whispers promises of power, but to behold it is to be seduced by it. To relinquish your soul to it. To become it.
The four Ruinous Powers rule over this place, ever seeking to slip their bonds and engulf the world in a tide of daemonic corruption. Nurgle, the plague god; Slaanesh, the lord of excess; Tzeentch, the changer of ways; and Khorne, the god of blood and slaughter.
On the border between the worlds, two mighty kingdoms stand sentinel: the stern warriors of Kislev and the vast empire of Grand Cathay. But each is beset by its own trials, and now both have cause to cross the threshold and send their armies into the Realm of Chaos.
The world stands on a precipice. A single push will plunge it into cataclysm.
And there is one who schemes to achieve just that, an ancient figure who desires nothing less than to wield supreme power. But to succeed, he will need a champion…
The coming conflict will engulf all. Will you conquer your daemons? Or command them?
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Atmospheric Games.
Warhammer 40,000: Regicide
‘The King is Dead. Long Live the King’
‘Warhammer: Regicide’ is a gloriously bloody reimagining of one of the world’s oldest turn-based strategy games - Chess - set against the violent backdrop of the Warhammer:40K universe. Gorgeous visuals, tactically diverse gameplay and unapologetic violence elevate a classic board game to quite something else entirely.
Campaign: Act 1 - consisting of 10 playable missions - is currently active in Early Access. Act’s 2 and 3 are to follow shortly. (This section will continue to be updated)
– Real player with 162.9 hrs in game
I bought Warhammer 40,000: Regicide last Summer when I was on a Games Workshop kick. It was my intention to go for a complete collection of all the Games Workshop licensed games, and Regicide had the added benefit of me having seen some coverage on it from TotalBiscuit. It looked more of an oddity than anything else, but I managed to see it through to the end.
The game is essentially Chess set in the 40K universe, using the Space Marines and Orks as chess pieces to simulate the battles. How Regicide differs from Chess is that once you have moved, you can use abilities of your pieces on an Initiative Points system to attack your opponent. This works on a percentile mechanic, and usually amounts to shooting them, or attacking them in close combat if you’re in an adjacent square. It takes longer to eliminate a piece using this method, but if you focus enough attacks in one place, you can take out entire armies without having to capture anything; the usual method for Chess. This is augmented by additional abilities from the various pieces: Devastators (Bishops) have the ability to focus their attacks to do more damage at the expense of being able to move, Assault Marines (Knights) have increased attack power after they move and can also throw Krak (anti-armour) grenades, and so on. This creates an additional strategic layer to the game and sets it apart from either Chess or 40K in a way that, for the most part, works reasonably well.
– Real player with 68.0 hrs in game
Warhammer Underworlds: Online
Disclaimer: I got this game for free like the rest of you all this week. I am only writing this review because I see so many uniformed reviews. You’re welcome to dislike this game and find it boring, but leaving a negative review because it is exactly what it claims to be seems petty.
Summary:
This is a pretty close clone of the Age of Sigmar tabletop game by the same name. Tabletop combat can be clunky, time consuming, and even boring if your army has been wiped out or you’re waiting on your opponent to make a tough decision. So just like the tabletop game, this game has similar quirks.
– Real player with 31.6 hrs in game
I have mixed feelings about the current situation of the game. I am hoping that by the time this game goes past early access I will have only positive reviews!
I’ll start with the good stuff:
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This game is implementing the mechanics of the table top version of Underworlds - Shadespire perfectly and I have faith that the developers will do the same justice to Nightvault and Beastgrave.
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The game looks great for early access. the Visuals are great and the models look fantastic. I would like to see the background change from game to game and make it feel more like a changing city but it should not be a deal breaker in my opinion.
– Real player with 31.5 hrs in game
Total War: WARHAMMER II
As you can see I have a TON of hours in this game. Absolutely fantastic, best 4X game I’ve ever played with unparalleled battles in a setting that can’t be beat. Simply the best strategy game out there bar none.
– Real player with 2201.7 hrs in game
Graphics/animations: 9/10 (zoom in for awesome animations)
Fidelity to the franchise: 9/10
Replayability: 8/10
AI: 3/10
Depth: 10/10
There are only four negatives. One you feel nickel and dimed for all the expansions, but it’s worth it. Two the AI and seige battles are very problematic. The AI…is…well…stupid…compare the AI to games like Starcraft 2 and you’ll quickly find yourself wanting human opponents. Online ladder needs a rework and the loading time for the campaign map is long. But other than that it’s a fantastic game. 7.6/10 Over 1300 hours played.
– Real player with 1414.4 hrs in game
Total War: WARHAMMER
I’ve played total war games since Rome and I have to say that yes, it’s BS that you have to pay another 60 bucks (easy) to get the “full experience” and even MORE SO to pay 4 flippin dollars for BLOOD EFFECTS in a TOTAL WAR game; yet with that being said, this is probably the most epic, amazing, awesome game that I have in my library thus far- can’t tell you how many times I banged my head against inanimate objects before taking a step back and appreciating the algorithmic-type cunning that the AI uses against you; as well as the deep and engaging gameplay aspects- morale has always been a thing but steamrolling an entire Orc Waaaaagh by concentrating fire and having nearby units re-charge the lines, close to routing, themselves- is fantastic.
– Real player with 408.1 hrs in game
It’s worth the money and a little more
– Real player with 289.8 hrs in game