Warhammer 40000: Gladius – Relics of War

This game is basically a turn-based version of a traditional RTS. There is no diplomatic, trade, technology or other alternatives in gameplay; just straight up combat. Build a city or cities, capture resource points, build an army and kill the enemy. Basic gameplay but its WH40k and turn-based, if you like both of those things then you may want to snag it when its on a big sale, otherwise I'd pass.

The 4X genre has been languishing in mediocrity of late...pushing out unrefined titles with a mess of unconnected ideas piled on top of each other, incompetent AI, and unreadable presentations (looking at you Civ VII).
Galdius is none of the above. It is a stripped down 4X that is laser focused on War and Combat. Where some 4X weirdos may criticize the lack of 4X staples/conventions I think Gladius' focused and Spartan approach allows it to excel. The AI is leagues ahead of most of its peers. Combat is high stakes, brutal, and deadly...fortunes of a battle may reverse in 1 to 2 turns as my initial advantage dissolves into a panicked retreat. There is something special here.
The graphical presentation is modest, but that works in my favor as I find everything quite readable at a simple glance. The super detailed and complex models/textures of more recent strategy games have become a confusing mess of unreadability as pretty as they may be. I have found the Civilization V, Age of Wonders 3, and Gladius era to exist in that Goldilocks sweet spot balancing detail with visual legibility.
If more recent 4X titles are not landing for you give Gladius a try and bask in the superiority of a design with pinpoint focus and designers that have taken a scalpel to the burdensome conventions of 4X.

It isn't a bad strategy game, but it isn't excellent. It has a foundation, the core mechanics of the game are fun but a lot of the factions are locked behind 16 euros paywalls each.
The normal factions are fun, the Space Marines and the necrons are very powerful with the necrons being able to build other cities while the SMa can't. The played content isn't that fantastic , the Chaos SMs have a MISERABLE early game.
I got this when it was free so I don't have to think about the 40 euros that is spend on a digital game that I can't thouch and therefore I am at the mercy of Gabe .
If you really want this game I think that you should by it and test it for 2 hours.

DLC philosophy is a discussion for later- this is solely about the quality of the game itself. On that merit, all the starting factions are very strong in their own rights. Basic, maybe, but complex doesn't mean good- Tau are a shining example of that. You aren't screwed out of the game for playing one faction over another, because all of them have their advantages.

...alright let's talk the DLC. More than likely the Developers are not at fault for the DLC philosophy. This is a pattern in all Warhammer games- seems to be GW's business model: sell the game cheap, reap the money from DLC and microtransactions, Pick up whatever interests you during a sale- never at full price.

Now please, if you play this game and hate the DLC setup...
DO NOT REVIEW THE GAME NEGATIVELY FOR THIS!!
You should put your negative reviews on the DLC themselves for being so greedy! This tells people that "The game is good, but the DLC is bad", which is the actual message here!

TLDR- Besides all the DLC It's a really fun game that is like Civ without all the extra governance and is all out constant war

I got this game when it was free during the WH:SKULLS event. It's almost like Civilization made a WH40k game. It is turned base, has resource management, tile building, a research tree, and a ton of fighting. It does not go as far as Civ does with government, trading, alliances, unit upgrades, and age progression. You land on Gladius Prime with a few units and and do your best to survive against nature and the opposing factions, found a home base, build a few buildings inside of it, start pumping out units and get ready for constant war. Each faction plays differently, some are easier to play than others, but everyone is deadly in their own way. You start off with Space Marines(Adeptus Astartes), Imperial Guard(Astra Militarum), Orks(Greenskin Boyz), and Necrons(Soulless Xenos). A lot of content is locked behind DLC and I dont agree with it, but I am more willing to buying some of them on sale since i got the game for free. Adeptus Mechanicus is a good choice if you can learn to use then correctly, the Adeptus Astartes have a DLC specifically for them that has some pretty overpowered units, but there is a way too much locked behind paywalls. I guess that's just how GW works.

Gladius taught me that I don't hate strategy games, I just hate micromanaging 40 different things in strategy games.
It's minimal approach, with little to micromanage and a focus making your little dudes fight makes this a game I wish I picked up sooner.
Pull off the 40k coat of paint, and it stands up as a really good straight forward strategy game at it's core, and that's what's great about it.

After 700 hours with it yeah, I'd say I recommend it.
Find it on sale if you can unless you are a die hard Warhammer fan or something.
You don't need the dlcs neccesarily but they add a lot.
But if you play multiplayer and someone else owns the extra units dlcs then you can use them too.
Not the faction ones though. If you want a specific faction you got to own it on your account.

If you do decide to get on it, be patient, take some time to learn the game and its mechanics.
Multiplayer community can be hit or miss after so many years but you can find decent people to play with. Stay away from the toxic ones.

Cheers.