In the brutal world of the Warhammer universe, Games Workshop sends you into a turn-based strategy game to defeat the enemies of the Emperor.
Gladius gives you command over one of a total of 4 factions. The choice includes Space Marines, barbaric Orks, creepy Necrons and the troops of the Astra Militarum, all of which have extensive troops with unique abilities. Almost every unit falls into a clear and straightforward role in the fight, which in combination with other units allows powerful combos.
The playing field is divided into hexagonal fields, over which you move your troops round by round strategically. Unlike in the Civilization games, more than one unit per hexagon is possible here and fits the genre perfectly. For example, you can put the Space Marines tank next to it as support and prioritize targets accordingly during the attack. The game depth is increased and gives you more freedom when flankiing or similar maneuvers.
Compared to Civilization, there is no trade or diplomacy here, only fighting. The game focuses exclusively on the conflicts of the individual parties. This opens up new tactical possibilities for you to play your opponents against each other by retreating and, for example, luring Orks to the front of the Necrons. The enemy then does the work for you. Such skirmishes with more than two parties from the Warhammer universe are rarely seen, but in Gladius they are not unusual.
Between the fighting, a quest system drives the progress of the background story. This is well written and keeps players hooked throughout with the promise of uncovering the mysteries that surround this harsh world. The range of quests goes from sending a specific unit to defend a certain location to repelling multiple waves of attacks by the entire army.
Base-building is modeled after other games in the genre. Space Marines can only build one city and must secure resources through smaller, less defensible outposts that can't produce units or other structures. Necrons can only build cities on sparsely-located tombs. They use ore instead of food to sustain their units and regenerate a bit of health each turn. For Orks, everything revolves around influence. Once it exceeds a certain amount, they get a 25% damage bonus. Orks generate influence by causing damage and don't need to gather resources. To balance this out, their love of violence causes loyalty problems.
All factions have special units that are particularly effective against certain types of troops and level up over time, unlocking new abilities.
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