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Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach - 3D turn-based strategy from Slitherine

DramaticPopcorn

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Ehhhhhhhhhhhh
 

Galdred

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Slitherine_Iain said:
The entire combat model and all stats can be altered. You can change it to fire Gretchin out of your tanks if you want. Pretty much anything you can imagine.
If that is true, it would be awesome.
I'd love to eventually have a version of Final Liberation where Space Marines and tanks don't die to paper cuts.
 

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Some internal interview that showed up on SLitherine forum:
Warhammer 40,000 has an enormous range of background materials - what made you select 'Sanctus Reach' as the setting for your game?

We were given permission by Games Workshop to choose any source from the Black Library. We spent a solid month researching the different materials. We documented the different armies, what enemies there were and what the general plots were. Generally we found most of the stories progressed in literal “Grim Dark” fashion before finally clinching a victory at the end (though sometimes not...), which we felt might not be the right feeling we wanted from our game. Then we found Sanctus Reach and it had pretty much everything we were looking for. Epic battles, legendary heroes and some brand new characters recently introduced to the Space Wolves and Orks. We simply could not pass up the opportunity to have the major leaders of the Space Wolves in our game - and the challenge of creating them!



What has been the driving idea behind the game design for this game?

It boils down to wanting to make a game that we would have loved to have as 14 year olds 'back in the day'. We wanted to replicate some of the “feelings” one might get from the tabletop experience., so we put a lot of effort into the unit roles and their weapons personalities while giving players a new way to experience 40k. The art style was inspired by Duncan Rhodes.. he’s our hero. (do you want to take a look at some Sanctus Reach Space Wolves models? Look no further!)



Sanctus Reach has been designed to appeal to both long standing fans and new players, what was the most challenging aspect of this from a game design point of view?

The most challenging thing was definitely just trying to find a balance between these two audiences. To a new player the 40k universe can seem a bit overwhelming. Games Workshop has been developing and changing the universe for longer than some of our team members have been alive. There’s so many different units with different roles that it can easily be confusing if we didn’t present the information correctly. The 40k veterans on the other hand know all the units like the back of their hand and have certain expectations. At one point our Gretchen were a bit overpowered and taking out half a squad of Grey Hunters in a round of firing, to a new player this wouldn’t mean anything but to a veteran this is pure heresy. This is why we chose to keep the unit roles familiar but produce the experience in a new way that both new and veteran players could learn and enjoy together.



There are a lot of very impressive unit models in Sanctus Reach - which one was the most challenging to get into the game - and which one is your favourite?

They were all uniquely challenging in their own way, but the most challenging units by far were the Imperial Knights and the Gorkanaut. Literal blood sweat and tears went into those guys. They have so many parts to model and they were so time consuming that there was no room for error. The Knights model on it’s own was pretty bare so the trims, vents, studs and decals were all added on in texture later by hand and baked before painting. All of the vehicles were done in this way, but I think the Gorkanaut has the most studs, it was quite painful but definitely worth the effort!



Sanctus Reach uses the new Archon engine - how did you find using it?

The Archon Engine is brilliant. For anyone starting out and wanting to make a strategy game we would highly recommend it. It’s easy to use and has great support. It’s been ideal really.



Do you play the tabletop game? What is your favourite army and unit?

Most of us have played the tabletop in the past and remain firmly attached to our original armies. Gordon and Mark prefer Eldar, me (Kim) and Alex are heretics and both enjoy Chaos.



How would this game differ from other 40k games in your opinion?

The vast majority of 40k games offer very unique experiences that are not turn based. I think there are a lot of people out there (ourselves included) that crave more turn based games which have a lot of content and depth. I feel like we’ve covered that.



Did you choose a turn-based system instead of real time to be closer to the tabletop experience?

Yes and no. We wanted to replicate a familiar feeling to the tabletop without duplicating the experience directly and we as a team just prefer turn based strategy games in general. We wanted to make an immersive game that you can really sit and contemplate what you’re going to do without the need for rushing or stressing, I think we all have enough of that in our lives!



Are there any previous games that influenced you in developing Sanctus Reach?

Chaos Gate and X-Com are probably the biggest influencers. Gordon and Mark played a lot of Chaos Gate back in the day.
 

DramaticPopcorn

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Some internal interview that showed up on SLitherine forum:
Are there any previous games that influenced you in developing Sanctus Reach?

Chaos Gate and X-Com are probably the biggest influencers. Gordon and Mark played a lot of Chaos Gate back in the day.
That was exactly what I felt when I saw it. Poor man's Chaos Gate.
 

Galdred

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Some internal interview that showed up on SLitherine forum:
Are there any previous games that influenced you in developing Sanctus Reach?

Chaos Gate and X-Com are probably the biggest influencers. Gordon and Mark played a lot of Chaos Gate back in the day.
That was exactly what I felt when I saw it. Poor man's Chaos Gate.
Actually, it looks a lot more like another Final Liberation:
Chaos Gate was very X-Comy, while this game (and FL) are squad and vehicle based.
 

vonAchdorf

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Only $28 for a Slitherine game? That's cheaper than Armageddon - does this mean not much content?
 

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So basically, as you have guessed, it is more or less Final Liberation mk2, with procedural battles mixed with scripted ones (3 procedural for 1 scripted). I am not sure the terrain is really procedural. It is possible only the deployment sides and units available are.
It is zoomed out Final Liberation (The squads go from 1 character to 5 gretchins or ork Boyz). Tactical Marines are in squads of 3.
Unlike Armageddon, it is not a big problem as they don't get unlimited counter attacks, and units have a maximum number of figures that can hit in melee (usually 3, so it doesn't look like Space Marines got the rules of warfare compltely wrong there).

It is based on the Battle Academy 2 engine(aka Archon), by the new Straylight Studio,
I have not played the release build, but overall, so the comments are based on whatever build I played during the beta:

So how does it compare to Final Liberation?

Graphics: Sanctus Reach is much prettier than its ancestor. Animations are better too, and 3D instead of sprites makes it more likely we'll get some added units to play with.

Rules: Flib was rather abstracted, and was based on Space Marines (aka precursor to epic 40K), so anything could kill a MBT easily (in epic, bolter infantry can destroy a Land Raider, but it is OK, as the heavy weapons were abstracted in the unit profile). Sanctus Reach, for some reason, feels less abstract, maybe because it goes out of its way to represent units with their loadout (ie it makes a difference between lascannon and missile launcher where Final Liberation lumped them together into the support squad). But then, it makes it harder to accept some strange results (like big shootas being the ultimate anti tank weapon), even though it was pretty similar in Final Liberation (I was very stressed every time a squad of bad moonz opened fire on one of my Leman Russ).
One exemple is melee combat: in Final Liberation, each unit had a melee rating, that could represent short range weapons, grenades, chainswords, whatever made sense. In SR, only the units with dedicated close combat weapons can attack and retaliate in melee. So a squad of boyz will hit a squad of Tactical Marines without retaliation (and if the tactical Marines open fire at point blank range, the boyz won't be able to retaliate as it does not count as a melee attack). I think some abstraction could have helped, there, especially since non melee units are forced to flee when attacked in melee (good luck keeping an objective with Tactical Marines!).

Unlike in Final Liberation, most unit can shoot twice, and reaction fire once (some units have one extra action, and other have no reaction), regardless of their move, so you can move all your movement allowance, and fire with all your weapon, and you will still get reaction fire. I don't really have a problem with it (it was more or less the case in Epic: the only advantage of staying in position was that you would open fire earlier. and I think epic Armageddon removed the first fire phase anyway). It makes units less static than in Flib, but I wish it didn't apply to heavy weapons, because it feels cheesy to have your lascannon team run and gun.

Note that buildings are not garrisonable there, unlike in Battle Academy 2 unless they don't have a roof(wtf happened?). Infantry is not handled as in BA 2 either (where it would be undetectable by tanks if static until they are at range 1, but I can understand that it would not really go well with either the Space Marines or the Orks).

Morale is mostly based on the shots taken by the unit: each weapon has a suppression factor (ie suppression caused by a shot) and losing people or hitpoints make units more suppressed. It works overall, but units don't seem to care much about their neighbours.

What I like over Final Liberation is that we don't have square ranges anymore: diagonals cost more then going straight, which makes all weapon and movement ranges less cheesy.

Unlike Final Liberation, every unit has HitPoints (but also 2 armor values, one for ballistic and one for AT weapons, but the current damage formula is a bit weird).

Scale: Final Liberation: 5 men squad allowed larger armies on the field, and multi tile units allowed us to play with Titans, Gargants and superheavies, which are missing there. The scale there would be "half final Liberation": Squads of 3 marines, no titans with Land Raiders and Knights being the largest units. At least, it makes one balance problem less (because Titans in FLib were much stronger than their points in anything else, except possibly deathstrike missiles). It is also a consequence of the lack of multi tile units (Titans in Flib took 4 tiles iirc).
One of the benefits of the smaller scale is that you get to melee much more often than you used to in Final Liberation (and you had Imperial Guard, so melee was not really something you wanted to do against orks, while there, Assault Terminators are one of your strongest units).
The problem with melee is that most units have a single attack, so it will take your dreadnought quite a long time to get rid of a squad of Gretchins (I think it could be modded, given that there is a script to give one extra attack against cornered opponents).

Unit variety: Final Liberation: FLib had mostly Imperial Guard with supporting space Marine units. There was less variety in Space Marines roster, but having lots of guard units made up for it. Here, we have around 30 units per side, which seems less than in Final Liberation, but the Orks are definitely more playable.

Campaign structure: Actually, it is closer from the campaign structure of Chaos Gate, with scripted set missions that alternate with random skirmishes (about 3 random skirmished for 1 scripted mission). So no real "strategic" level where you would choose which territory to attack.

Mission structure: Reinforcements and some scripted stuff like drop pods breeze some fresh air in SR missions. I wish there were much more opportunities do drop pod units and use orbital strikes. It is a pity that there are not more missions like the one where you escort rhinos out. More varied objectives (like killing unit X) also would really help make the game stand out.
Objectives that unlock awesome stuff, like wargear after the mission, or the drop pod of the dreadnought should be more common. But the scripting system is pretty flexible, so it could very well happen either in mods, patches or expansions.

Customization: Sanctus Reach has an underdeveloped progression system, where units get random benefits on level up. It is not much, but definitely better than Final Liberation, as it makes sure your force will be unique.
Balance: As I hinted in the rule part, balance is the Achilles heels of Sanctus Reach. Some units are way undercosted (if playing MP, make sure to take as many Gorkanaut, flash gitz and to a lesser extent, warbikes and supa nobz as you can. If playing Space Wolves, take as many dreadnoughts and hammer termies as you can find in your random unit selection, and add as many tanks as possible. The Knight is OK, but nowhere as good as its Orkish counterpart. Oh, and take as much artillery as you can). It is not a big problem in the campaign (even though I really hate seeing my dreadnoughts die to Big Shootas = machine guns, that adds some challenge). The worst offender is artillery, that can inflict lots of damage and morale damage without LoS very quickly for a bargain price.
But I am confident all of this can be fixed, either by the devs, or by modders.

UI and polish: Sanctus Reach has bad camera problems, but I hope it will be patched. It also has some weird LoS bugs. I also wish animation speed could be changed at times (ie when facing hordes of greenskin).
It is a near criminal offense that we don't have a page to review our core troops: there are 2 carryover campaigns, but it is impossible to know which units are throw away, and which ones are core units.
We alson don't know what happens when an unit dies: is it gone for good? Do its XP reset ? (well it might be possible to track it, but it does not make it easy at all).

Multiplayer: Sanctus Reach uses Slitherine PBEM. It is pretty convenient, as you don't really have to setup games on a forum, so it works almost like a lobby (ie you look for a game that suits you, or create your own).

Modding: I have tinkered with the game files, and it is pretty easy to mod actually: all the unit stats (except the number of shots/attacks) can be changed in a single csv file. You can also change most scripts : in 2 days, I was able to change the damage model so that low penetration weapon would be unable to damage heavily armored targets, make it so vehicles ignore Zone of Control when moving, add an option to drop pod marines on some missions, and tweak the value of most units (including the number of marines in a squad). It is definitely easier to modify than Final Liberation, but it is impossible to add new models :(

Lifetime: There are 2 campaigns. Skirmish missions are pretty quick, but scripted campaign missions can take quite long. I haven't finished either campaign during my time in the beta (I spent about 40 hours playing, but a good part was playing skirmishes or multiplayer or trying my own modifications).

TLDR: I am really torn over this one: It has potential, and its high modability might help it get there, but it lacks polish and balancing, so it is not there yet.
If you want more of Final Liberation, it has the potential to be a good successor, even though it is more flawed than Final Liberation was at the beginning, I think the underlying systems and the ease of use might make it better if it gets good support from Slitherine and/or a modding community.
The team was reactive during the beta so I am cautiously optimistic it will get there.
 
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https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/01/20/warhammer-40k-sanctus-reach-review/

Wot I Think – Warhammer 40K: Sanctus Reach

sanctus1.jpg


The never-ending conflict between Warhammer 40K’s Orks and the greatest warriors of the Imperium of Man, the Space Marines, is an ouroboros that’s already trapped us all inside it. An infinite war, spawning an infinite number of smaller digital wars on our PCs, making sure we can never, ever escape.


Warhammer 40K: Sanctus Reach [official site] is the latest snapshot of the war, a turn-based strategy affair that, of course, pits Space Marine against Ork over a planet that nobody in their right mind would want to live on anyway. Here’s wot I think.

This is of course well-trodden ground, and only recently served as the premise of the similarly turn-based Warhammer 40K: Armageddon. However! This time the Space Marines are Space Wolves. Think Space Marines, but Vikings, and you’ve probably already got a vivid picture in your mind. Some of them ride wolves. They’re even more silly than their Roman fanboy equivalents, like the Ultramarines or the Blood Ravens, and using my questionable rating system, much better.

sanctus2.jpg


Alongside more recognisable units like Dreadnoughts and Rhinos are Space Wolf-specific ones like the eager neophytes, the Blood Claws, who charge into battle with bolters and chainswords; the aforementioned bikers, Swiftclaws, undoubtedly wearing shades underneath those helmets; and hammer-wielding Wolf Priests, capable of healing allies as well as smashing in Ork skulls. Sanctus Reach boasts an impressive roster of units on both sides, perhaps the largest selection in a 40K game, and rarely will you find one that doesn’t fit into the puzzle of creating an effective army.

Both campaigns see the Space Wolves don their bearskin cloaks, fill up their bikes and head to the titular system to protect its last world from the green tide. And with that sentence I’ve given you about as much detail as the game ever gave me. It’s unusually reserved for Warhammer, lacking characters, plot or any real hint of the universe it resides in. Even mission briefings hold back. At best they’re a paragraph long, vague, and have nothing to do with the actual battle.


sanctus3.jpg


Mostly linear and absent much of a plot, the two campaigns don’t really serve a clear purpose. The vast majority of missions are actually random skirmish fights, though without the myriad customisation options found in the proper skirmish mode. There are three for every main mission, recycling the same objective over and over again. Hopefully you like capturing victory points. The game limits both your roster and the amount you can spend on units depending on the size of the map, so the battles do always have a chance to play out differently, though not often enough to stop these skirmishes from turning into a chore.

The main missions let you field a larger army – sometimes chosen yourself, sometimes not – to face off against a much larger Ork horde. Reinforcements can appear too, turning these battles into gigantic brawls that play out across the entire map. Thankfully, these missions also come with proper objectives, like escorting Rhino transports or taking out high value targets. Annoyingly, however, Sanctus Reach just can’t let go of that obsession with victory points. Once you achieve your goals, the battle continues, with victory going to the side controlling the most points by the turn limit.

sanctus4.jpg


I got so tired of capturing those bloody points, and it started to feel like the game was taunting me. My fears were vindicated when I started getting two-part missions where the first objective and the second tasked me with capturing and holding the same points. I started laughing in the way that a person laughs when they are either about to do something terribly evil or are going quite mad. For me, it was the latter. I was far too tired to do anything terribly evil.


The main problem with Sanctus Reach’s over reliance on victory points is that it doesn’t come with any of the tension you normally get when desperately fighting over important locations or racing to get that final point. See, the Orks clearly aren’t playing the same game. They could be standing right next to a point and they’d still ignore it entirely. I recall one battle where I had to retreat from an area rich in points that I controlled, leaving an absolutely ginormous enemy horde to set up shop there. They didn’t bother capturing a single one. I essentially won the fight because Orks are lazy.

sanctus5.jpg


Even when they do remember that there’s an objective beyond wanton slaughter, they have such an unbreakable single-mindedness that they can sometimes forget all other concerns. It does seem like the sort of trait you’d expect an Ork to have, but it doesn’t make them a particularly effective opponent.

The first time I witnessed the green tide making a concerted effort to win a battle strategically, we were duking it out over the ruins of a sprawling industrial complex. I’d made some pretty terrible mistakes and was down to one commander unit and two badly injured Blood Claws, the Space Wolves’ basic infantry. Two turns were left, and I honestly wasn’t sure if my chaps would see the end. I put them in cover, took a deep breath and pressed End Turn. The Orks didn’t fire. Instead, they turned around and marched on the closest victory point. There was absolutely no logic to this ‘strategy’. They weren’t close enough to get to the point in time, and even if they had been, I controlled five out of five, so one wouldn’t have made a single difference. Literally the only option they had for stealing a win, they willfully ignored.

sanctus6.jpg


It’s a wonder that the Orks conquered the whole Sanctus Reach system before the Space Wolves arrived, because it seems like they couldn’t conquer a playground. Time and time again I watched as they ignored cover, picked fights they could never win and gleefully charged at me head on, not a care in the world. Instead of tactical prowess, the Orks have numbers and unrelenting aggression. And you know what? In the absence of competent AI, it’s a strategy that sometimes works and, more importantly, creates exciting battles.


Sanctus Reach’s main missions are overflowing with angry green xenos. To the point of absurdity. Whole maps painted in green, like every Ork ever born has decided to murder this one group of Space Wolves. From start to finish, they offer one brutal fight after another as you chip away at this seemingly endless supply of savage aliens. It’s exhausting, sure, but it’s also the source of some intense journeys across battle-scarred maps, constantly trying to stay in formation and protect the most powerful units as suicidal monsters surround you. And with each unit being able to move a fair distance and take two actions per turn, there’s decent momentum and the ability to quickly make battle-changing assaults.

sanctus7.jpg


What really makes Sanctus Reach’s bloody brawls satisfying, though, is the joy of watching Terminators standing up to a tank that dwarfs them, or rows of shouting Blood Claws charging at Orks, chainswords hungry, or the sheer pleasure of seeing Whirlwinds turning everything into a red mist with one volley. The game’s full off dramatic standoffs and ridiculous violence, and while I might not recall a single thing about the barely present story, battles gave me plenty of memorable moments. It’s pretty good propaganda for the Imperium, making Space Marines seem utterly unstoppable, even when facing a whole world full of enemies.

sanctus8.jpg


And yet I could have stopped playing by the end of the first campaign and never looked back. There was little to be invested in, and a person can only kill so many Orks and capture so many victory points before they begin to question their life choices. I try to avoid that sort of introspection when I can. Sanctus Reach’s unit and faction design and flexible mechanics deserve a much better campaign and fewer constantly recycled objectives.

Warhammer 40K: Sanctus Reach is out now on Windows via Steam for £23/$30/€28.
 

Galdred

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Some mission variety would have been great, but I don't think holding objectives is really a problem by itself:
All Final Liberation battles had 2 objectives you had to hold too, and it was also the case in Steel Panthers, and in countless other wargames.
Of all the issues, I find it weird that RPS focuses on this one(it is relevant indeed, but I don't think it is the main issue).
The AI is a problem indeed (mostly when it seems to hesitate to go in melee, and when it chooses to fire HE missiles at tanks, or use the Gorkanaut flamer instead of its minigun), and it is a pity that they have not chosen a more ranged opponent (Imperial Guard AI would have been much easier to code: dig in, and bombard the crap out of the player).
But overall, the review conveys more or less the same criticism: they have laid the foundations for a great game, but the content itself is barebones (not in term of actual hours, but in how they did not leverage the possibilities of their engine).
 
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Galdred

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btw, they have a nice wiki documentation:
http://archonwiki.slitherine.com/index.php/Main_Page
This game is definitely worth it as a 40K campaign construction kit (it only features Orks and Space Wolves, but it should be remedied soon. I don't know why they would want to include Demons next, as it is one of the least interesting factions in 40K, but they also talk about IG).
 

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It's barebones so they can hang a bunch of DLC on the skeleton.
 

Galdred

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I don't know the specifics but I would not be surprised by hearing they had to release at a set date because of a deal with GW, but I am pretty sure they realized more work would was needed to release the game.
And most of the bareboness can be fixed by modders, as the system is really open (but said modders would need to use a ton of scripts, though, so it would not be easy).
They will surely sell lots of DLC, but showcasing the power of their engine with a strong campaign would have been much easier than with the frankenstein campaigns they delivered (some weird hybrid between linear campaign with set troops and open campaign with unit carryover).
Selling DLC with new faction (aka paintjob for the marines) is easy, but selling DLC with "QoL features you expected in the campaign" is not.
 

vonAchdorf

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Most Slitherine games come with several DLC, and iirc Armageddon wasn't very polished on release either.
 

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After completing one of the campaigns, two main things stand out for me:

1) They managed to capture the tabletop experience quite well, it has a lot of potential. I can imagine going through a few more campaign if new races are added. It's turn based warhammer after all.
2) It desperately needs more polish. Rhinos get stuck in melee. Wolf priest runs around without a weapon. Units sometimes appear with negative experience or lose levels. Like they released it a month earlier than they should have.
 

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I can't remember necrons and tau ever appearing in a turn based game, they should do them next.
 

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Here is a review from Game Debate where the reviewer more or less feels the way I did (he gave it 7/10):

Like a sentient species that has newly acquired interstellar travel, the various guises of the Warhammer universe have undergone a scattering in the last few years. Morphing from the rigorously-curated Games Workshop property that only the now-fallen giant THQ was allowed to touch, Warhammer is now a (still rigorously-curated) plethora of titles spanning pretty much every genre short of football management. Oh, wait, no, there's actually one of those as well. Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach is yet another of these titles, arriving with existential inevitability just as the furor around CA's Warhammer Fantasy Total War title has calmed a little.



And it's back to the grim darkness of the far future where there is only war. Once again, developer Slitherine return to this sunny setting to bring more Space Marine-on-ork violence, as they did in their previous outing, Armageddon. This time around though, things are on a slightly more intimate scale, with units representing squads or one larger unit such as a tank. Therefore the 'epic scale' mass warfare feel of Armageddon is replaced with something much more intimate.

warhammer-40-000-sanctus-reach.jpg


And you know with gaming, when you really boil it down, it comes to quality of life. How much fun are you having? A little lack of polish can be forgiven if the game is so much fun you barely notice the technical shortcomings. Sanctus Reach? It's most of the way there. But if you had a storm bolter to my head and I was forced to be completely honest, I'd have to admit that for the price point there are a few too many areas that are rough. Overlooked features and bad UI can take away from some of the fun.



So you're leading your intrepid Space Wolves in an assault on orkish positions. You've taken the time to position your Whirlwind armoured artillery on raised ground overlooking the battlefield, and your airships are spotting for you, allowing you to rain devastation down on the enemy. Sensing a sea change in the flow of battle, you seize the initiative and storm the enemy lines with Rhino Infantry Fighting Vehicles packed with squads of brave Space Marines. Reaching a suitable front you unload your troops... and then get bogged down in shuffling through the embarked units in order to find the ones you want to unload. Basically, this is done by disembarking everyone and then re-embarking the ones you didn't want to disembark in the first place. If you're getting fed up with me saying 'embark' and 'disembark' over and over, imagine how it feels when you're actually trying to do it in the heat of combat.



warhammer-40-000-sanctus-reach3.jpg


But this little annoyance doesnt put you off and you are back at it, working out how your handful of Space Marine units can possibly withstand the continuous spew of the greenskin plague. You bring your powerful dreadnaught to the flank to protect your vulnerable side. It shreds and rips their units apart. It really feels powerful, but then you know these orks are many. But you know in your gut, there are too many of them even for the brave immortal that resides within the mighty machine. But then you see your 2 bike units have still got their turn left, and they are fast enough to reach the area this turn. You speed them over to lend support, but make sure they do not get too close, yet, lest they get pulled from their metal steeds.



Meanwhile across the other side of your line you see the daft orks are piling up their wrecked machines, which is forming a barricade that you can use against their masses. You channel the enemy between their own wreckage and a hill, forcing them into a shooting gallery, where your Space Marine infantry and Multi Melta units sit waiting. Your hero with his power glove engages them in melee, blocking their primary route forcing all their units to sit and wait to get past him. They are orks though, and they shoot into their own front lines to get an occasional hit against the hero. But you know this can last a while and it will buy you all the time you need. But then your heart sinks. From the fog of war you see the huge metal monstrosity lurching forward towards this bottleneck. Gargant!



This is the sort of thing that can happen and you get a real sense of unit purpose. Put the right unit against the correct enemy and the formula works. You turn the tide like the elite Space Marines should.



warhammer-40-000-sanctus-reach4.jpg




The campaign modes are, frankly, unfinished. There are blank screens where mission background text should be, and trying to navigate the menus for the campaign (including a bemusing troop levelling system) can often be more of a challenge than the battles themselves. This is by no means a deal-breaker, you understand. Once again, it feels like its just a matter of a couple more man-hours needed in the dev studio. As it stands at the moment, Sanctus Reach teeters on an unsteady precipice between Alpha build, Early Access and full release, without tidily falling into any one camp. No doubt many of these concerns can be fixed after release (and hopefully will be), but we're once again back at the question that defines this era in PC gaming: should we be buying unfinished games?



So you're probably worrying. But don't panic too much! The love that the studio feels for the setting is apparent in every design decision. Tactical options abound, and while I moaned about it a moment ago, the ability to move troops around in Rhinos is a great tactical perk in game, despite its poor user experience implementation. While the enemy AI is less than stellar, it simulates orkish tactics well. They'll swarm your positions, and cause you all manner of problems as they engage with your recon units, pinning them down in melee combat until you can spare the reinforcements needed to free them up and limp them back to your lines. Unit variety is decent, ranging from small four-man trooper squads (occasionally led by special commanders with your usual Warhammer 40K loadouts) to Titans and Gargants. Units can move and fight, or fight and move, with niche-use fight-move-fight orders (with dramatically-reduced movement range after the attack) allowing for set-piece drive-by attacks and fighting withdrawals that favour units designed for that, like fast bike units.



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Despite the clear love of the setting that the designers have implemented, there is a decided lack of background fluff on where you are and what you're doing. This seems strange - Warhammer 40,000 started life as a straightforward sci-fi miniature wargame with a Tolkien-like attention to detail, and to focus on the game and brush over the fluff doesn't sit right at all. In fact, it feels very much like the storyline and background detail are still to be implemented. Yet another place where it maybe feels like Slitherine ran out of time.



There is still polish to be done by the devs before it's this is a refined experience, but a lot of the issues can be overlooked once you get an hour or two into the core game and you are working out how to hold a line against the waves of greenskin. Much of the central gameplay is there, and there are loads of great ideas and units to extend tactical range. I feel more patches are in bound, with a new one out today to accompany Sanctus Reache's release date.



With Sanctus Reach, Slitherine are just now starting to show what they are really capable of in the sci-fi strategy arena and I look forward to seeing how this Warhammer 40K partnership turns out over the coming years.



Ultimately, this is the thing - Sanctus Reach is a cool and fun turn-based 3D wargame that fans of Warhammer 40K will no doubt lap up. I had a lot of fun with it and I'm certainly going to be stepping back into our dark human future for more.
 

*-*/\--/\~

Cipher
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For all their professed love of the franchise, they could stay at least somewhat faithful to it... instead of having land raiders with the same rear armour as rhinos and dreadnoughts that stink at melee and die to big shootas.

Also, they tried so hard to have nordic sounding names that it sometimes looks like someone let a cat on the keyboard... with names like Hlkk and Kljuf. :D

Still, I kind of like it, will soon finish the second campaign.
 

Galdred

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For all their professed love of the franchise, they could stay at least somewhat faithful to it... instead of having land raiders with the same rear armour as rhinos and dreadnoughts that stink at melee and die to big shootas.

Also, they tried so hard to have nordic sounding names that it sometimes looks like someone let a cat on the keyboard... with names like Hlkk and Kljuf. :D

Still, I kind of like it, will soon finish the second campaign.
Land Raiders exploded to Bolter Fire in Final Liberation (you had like 2/6 chance of hitting the track, which had a very high chance of destroying the tank, even with a squad of bolter infantry), so the rear armour of the Rhino is a step in the right direction!
 

Galdred

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btw, here is the checklist for my mod:
- extra drop pod options (Blood blaws, Tacs with melta gun, Wolf Guard Terminators) : done
- vehicles no longer tied in melee: done
- characters and walkers get extra attacks in melee: done
- melee squads have a chance to use Krak grenades in melee : done
- Ranged units don't flee melee combat anymore. Only broken units do (regardless of their melee capabilities): done
- Reworked armor model: Heavy Armor either completely deflect a shot, or graze it, or is penetrated. It is no longer a DR thing. The chance to penetrate depends on Heavy Armor - Penetration. It is roughly 50% when Heavy Armor = Penetration. It drops to 0 for Heavy Armor > Penetration + 40 : 50% done
- Firing a heavy weapons (AT weapons or artillery) ends the action: Planned.
- Larger squads and reworked stats: 50% done
- Scenario rebalance: Planned
- Some extra advantages, like orbital bombardment: planned
- Ork rokkits become AT weapons (no AoE): planned

What do you think I should consider adding?
 

*-*/\--/\~

Cipher
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909
btw, here is the checklist for my mod:

What do you think I should consider adding?

How about giving squads some small bonus to stats on level up? And possibly the ability to pick the levelup perk instead of randomly giving you something useless? :D
 

Galdred

Studio Draconis
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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
btw, here is the checklist for my mod:

What do you think I should consider adding?

How about giving squads some small bonus to stats on level up? And possibly the ability to pick the levelup perk instead of randomly giving you something useless? :D
Stats on level up sounds good, but I will have to see wheter it is possible (or whether stats are always read from the squads.csv file, in which case, I would have to add some extra abilities for that).
I could also check the squad level to add a level bonus to aim, melee or ballistic defense (I turned ballistic defense is now the ability to duck for cover, so it is very low for vehicles, and very high for infantry), but I would also have to make it appear in the UI.
I would love the ability to pick skills on level up (or pick among skill), but I hate doing UI stuff, so I probably will have to let them do it first :)
That said, I saw a skeleton of unit roster panel in their script files, so maybe there will be something to salvage there.

I will try to release the first version shortly during the winter holidays in 2-3 weeks.
 
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Galdred

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Future plans for Sanctus Reach
Sanctus Reach released less than two weeks ago and it has been extremely well received. We’re really glad we received such a marvelous reception and we’re grateful for all the support the fans are showing.

When we started development, we knew this would be an ambitious project. We worked very hard to reach our goals: to capture the true Warhammer 40,000 tabletop fans interest with a turn-based game that would catch their imagination. We humbly think that Sanctus Reach was a really good first step in that direction.

We have many plans to improve upon this foundation and though we can’t reveal many details yet (we will soon!), for now let’s focus on what is directly ahead of us.

What are we currently working on? Besides the obvious bug fixing and balancing, we’re focusing on a number of areas.


Force Selection – our goal is to improve the usability of this screen to make it easier to navigate
Unit Carry over – we’d like to give more control over what units the player can bring to battle
Pre-Battle Flow – we want to improve the flow and reduce the number of screens the player has to go through to start a battle
Map Generator – we want to improve the variety of victory conditions and force compositions in random maps to make them more interesting
Level Up – we aim at giving the player more control over the skills their units receive when they level up
Difficulty Levels – introducing different difficulty levels
More Story – we will give a bit more background story to players as they play through the campaigns
Unit Introductions – similar to above but introducing the player to the units somehow so we can explain their strengths and weaknesses for both player and enemy units
Morale System – we’re looking forward to bringing improvements to this
Melee system – as above
AI Improvements – we will always improve the AI!


These are the current plans: they are sizeable changes and we don’t know when we’ll manage to implement all of them, but we’ll do our best.

The changes we are working on will specifically target those issues raised by you, the players. We are always listening to all kinds of feedback and always reading the forum, and your feedback, suggestions and criticism have been extremely useful! We have a lot on the table right now and we can promise well-rounded improvements to make Sanctus Reach better and better.

That isn’t all, of course. We have ambitious plans for the future and for new content.

Stay tuned for further news – we’ve only just begun.
The level up, unit carry over and map generator would really make things a lot better (and the AI too, but it is a bit vague...).
 

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