Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2

good game relay fun however modern hard where will crash because of a issue with the engine. the dev fix didnt work but put this in your launch options and till work fine. took me ages to find it so heres it for anyone who wants it
cmd /c "set OPENSSL_ia32cap=:~0x20000000 && %command%" -NoEAC

Step 1. Open "Control Panel" by searching for it in Windows search bar, by pressing the Windows button or key.
Step 2. Go to "System & Security"
Step 3. Go to "System"
Step 3. Press "Advanced system settings"
Step 4. Press "Environmental Variables"
Step 5. Create a new "System Variable" (NOT USER VARIABLE)
Step 6. Enter the following into the Variable name box: OPENSSL_ia32cap
Step 7. Enter the following into the Variable value box: ~0x20000000
Step 8. Now press OK.
Step 9. Restart
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As much as I hate having to adjust my latest gaming setup to a game that came out in 2019, Battlefleet Gothic Armada 2 is one of my favorite strategy games. The campaign can be unforgivably long if you customize the fleet sizes and economy beforehand, but its clear a lot of love and effort went into its development to make it worthwhile. If I had to choose between playing this or Gladius, BFGA2 wins easily. Its a very niche RTS, but one I'll occasionally come back to.

The game uses an older version of Unreal Engine, which contains an old (bugged) version of OpenSSL, which can cause the game to crash shortly after launch. A more in-depth description can be found on Intel's website:
Luckily, there exist some workarounds that prevents the game from crashing (at least on my system). If the game crashes shortly after launch, try to set an environment variable as described here:
If the game still crashes, try to deactivate Easy AntiCheat:
Note that you cannot play multiplayer if you deactivate Easy AntiCheat. On the other side, you have to deactivate Easy Anticheat anyways if you want to use mods.

Solid 40k. Don't know a lot about Navy-focus RTS, but this one is pretty straight forward with an easy learning curve. It isn't the most in depth in terms of faction management, and in battle micro can get tedious, but the campaign difficulty has a customization that allows for practically every level of player, outside maybe the most plugged in no-life's. Solid fun for any RTS fan and a must play for any casual 40k fan. (Also buy the full collection on sale, there's no more content coming out for this game).

BIGGEST DRAWBACK IS THAT THE GAME REQUIRES ONLINE CONNECTION AND ANTI-CHEAT EVEN IN SINGLE PLAYER CAMPAIGN, but you can play it offline if you yank your internet out of your house and mail it to the studio with a note saying "F*** YOU!". I really detest this modernism in gaming where everything requires a nanny-state connection to a server and now 3rd party software to run hand-in-hand with your stand alone purchase.

how to fix the game crashing constantly:
Step 1. Open "Control Panel" by searching for it in Windows search bar, by pressing the Windows button or key.
Step 2. Go to "System & Security"
Step 3. Go to "System"
Step 3. Press "Advanced system settings"
Step 4. Press "Environmental Variables"
Step 5. Create a new "System Variable" (NOT USER VARIABLE)
Step 6. Enter the following into the Variable name box: OPENSSL_ia32cap
Step 7. Enter the following into the Variable value box: ~0x20000000
Step 8. Now press OK.
Step 9. Restart
you played star wars empire at wars ? yeah, it's similar to that, excep less focus on hard points and any ships smaller than a corvette, but instead you get to ram ships into each others.
the in game cutscenes are really hype as well, plus cool to look at.

Bought in Oct 2024. Great game. Runs smoothly on my ancient laptop. Tutorial's slightly too long but once you're past it, game opens up and is really fun. They've nailed the 40k aesthetic and vibe. Different factions feel noticeably different in playstyle as well as just visuals.

This game is a real gem, especially if you let yourself play It at the "slow" speed. At normal speed, these vast cathedral ships are wheeling and careening more like fighters, but at slow, you can admire the vast clash of leviathans, line up torpedo shots, or just enjoy the visuals.
Now, if you are looking for an accurate 3d space combat game, this isn't it. It's not tactically realistic to space combat, and pretends that space combat would be on a plane. But when you have flying space cathedrals in a game, I don't think the developers are exactly shooting for realism. This is basically a naval dreadnought combat game in space. And it works.
The strategy is varied and can be as complex as you want it to be. The factions have significant variety, leading to vastly different play styles across the different campaigns. You can optimize fleet composition to fit your play style, whether through focusing on maximizing boarding operations to crit your enemy ships to death, torpedoes if you are feeling lucky and want to take down their capital ships quickly, lances if you want long distance accuracy to ship down enemies while they can't even see you, macro batteries if you want to grapple at broadside difference, etc. etc. This has all the fundamentals you would want in a tactical game, such as:
-The orientation of ships matters, both for the angle at which your ship can fire broadsides, and because some ships have far more armor in some places than others.
-Ship movement varies considerably across the factions, but in each case you need to be thoughtful about when you are moving fast and when you are moving slowly.
-You can focus fire on a particular part of the enemy ship, so it's not just a matter of beating down an HP bar. Combo this focus of fire with a couple boarding parties, and you can make an enemy ship worthless, even if it has full health.
This game is even better with the Skalgrim mod, which lets you scale up the battles by about a factor of five, making the fleet combat even better.
-Aesthetic: 10/10
-Tactical Gameplay: 9/10
-Grand Strategy Gameplay: 4/10 (really just an interface for setting up battles, to be honest)