Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector - Space Marines vs Tyranids turn-based strategy

[Infinitron]

 

[Mefi]

Streamers are picking up that they had access to the intro cinematic in their beta previews of the first 6 missions. Chosen this for not mucking about in showing it but there's a few up on youtube.



From what I've seen of feedback of the preview it's been pretty positive again. It is a pretty intuitive game to pick up. Do have some concerns about some of the less capable players in beta persuading the devs to keep using the nerf bat on difficulty levels which should be challenging with their cryarsing about how unfair it is to lose units. Game is in a weird place where it would be nice to see more 'my guys' and customisation/progression of individual units while it's clear that the intention is for it to be much more TT in throwing units at a problem.

 

[Mefi]

It's why the previews so far have cut off at the mission they do as SoB get introduced after. Only three units that I've seen (leader, squads, and seraphim) so far though but they make an interesting sideline to how you customise your army. I'd love the full roster in there to be quite honest.

edit: another little thing, if you look at the video carefully you'll see the sisters are fighting genestealers. Sadly just the one unit part of the Nid roster. Black Labs have said precisely the square sum of zero about exact intentions after this game is out but it would be odd to have little parts of army lists without following up with more.

 

[UnHerd]

How close are the rules of this implemented to 40k? as Sanctus Reach felt a lot like the table top version. would be nice if this was at least somewhat close to it!

 

[Mefi]

How close are the rules of this implemented to 40k? as Sanctus Reach felt a lot like the table top version. would be nice if this was at least somewhat close to it!

You'll recognise the TT rules behind some things (eg models having their own hit points and number of models impacting on damage output) but the implementation is often different, and there are things which are wholly to do with the game's own systems (eg overcharging plasma does risk doing high damage to the hellblaster but currently can only be used every so many turns - mainly cos some of us were abusing the fuck out of it given you get a healer who can tag along...). To be quite honest, if you took away the IP then it's my belief this would stand up as a decent TTB for this scale of combat on its merits. If you've anything specific to ask about the mechanics then I'm comfortable answering as best I can given how much is already been put up for preview by streamers. Do be aware though that revisions and refinements across builds are still ongoing so don't burn me as a heretic if I say something and it's altered on release.

----

One little interesting thing let slip by Slitherine today was that Battlesector, [assuming no refunds heh], is already one of their top selling Warhammer games a month out from release. They seem really pleased with how the reveal of Sisters of Battle went and was received on the GW Skulls event.

 

[Hobo Elf]

I'm really feeling the hype for this game.

 

[Galdred]

So, DLC factions milking confirmed.
Yeah, the gameplay (from what they've shown so far) is very simplistic, looks like mobile tier +, but that might not be too bad if you you're not expecting anything more than beer & pretzels turn based tactics game.

I don't know. They have some weird deals with Games Workshop:
In Sanctus Reach and Armageddon they could only add faction that were present on these planets in the lore. In Gladius, they could add whatever they wanted. I wonder whether Battlesector is a "generic license " or another planetary theater one.
They won't have a tyranid campaign?

 

[razvedchiki]

hope its more like armaggedon than sanctus reach.

 

[LESS T_T]

Demo is live on Steam.

 

[razvedchiki]

lol the demo is 9gb!

 

[Mefi]

Must be a pre-optimisation build, full game went from 20gb to 6gb on the last pass although may go up from there again.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Emperor be praised, I was just wondering what to do.

 

[Endemic]

Must be a pre-optimisation build, full game went from 20gb to 6gb on the last pass although may go up from there again.

Steam says it downloaded 5.8GB, but the installation folder is 8.45GB on disk.

 

[Mefi]

Steam says it downloaded 5.8GB, but the installation folder is 8.45GB on disk.

That's a bit mad that the demo is now bigger than the full game. I've just checked and, for me on latest beta build, it's 6.41gb in the steam folders, although that's not counting a few hundred screenshots nor all the saves and logs which would probably add another gig to that.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Alright - finished the demo on the highest difficulty.


Gotta say that I like this a lot more than I liked Sanctus Reach, the game plays like a very polished Sanctus Reach sequel. AI is not braindead (at least on the highest difficulty), not particularly great, mind you, but it plays in a respectable fashion.


The “strategic” layer between the mission is very light, but it is there (you can select squads to deploy within the point limit of the mission, there are upgrades to unlock that give various bonuses and skills to the main character), which certainly improves the game too in my book.


The in-game movies are also done very nicely, the general atmosphere is good, certainly this seems to be one of the better 40K releases in the last few years. Honestly, I am still not convinced that the game is necessarily worth the 33 € price tag, but I will get, its not like I will take all that money to the grave…


So yeah, unlike Necromunda: Hired Gun, this game looks like it is going to deliver.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Finished the demo. Overall I'd say it's really good. At least gameplay wise I have nothing to complain, it's as good as I had hoped. The presentation (art, sound, music) is really nice as well. My only gripe is how between missions when you can manage your army loadout I dismissed some marines who had some kind of veterancy tag after completing the first mission and instead of them going into a reserve you just lose that squad forever it seems. So if you want a veteran squad you just have to hoard them in your loadout, I guess. I'd want maybe some more stuff in between missions as well. The lack of equippable wargear is kinda lame.

 

[razvedchiki]

i didnt noticed what happened with injured units? do they get autohealed after missions end?

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Yeah, they seem to autoheal. There are no resources that could be used to pay for healing, so if just one guy from a squad survives, the squad will get back to full strength for the next mission.

 

[Mefi]

Finished the demo. Overall I'd say it's really good. At least gameplay wise I have nothing to complain, it's as good as I had hoped. The presentation (art, sound, music) is really nice as well. My only gripe is how between missions when you can manage your army loadout I dismissed some marines who had some kind of veterancy tag after completing the first mission and instead of them going into a reserve you just lose that squad forever it seems. So if you want a veteran squad you just have to hoard them in your loadout, I guess. I'd want maybe some more stuff in between missions as well. The lack of equippable wargear is kinda lame.

It's possible to transfer direct to the reserve if you click on the unit rather than dismissing it directly. (Or should be, I haven't got demo.) There's rough edges still to making some things more visible or obvious. I dislike the save system intensely for another but out of scope to overhaul UI before release.

On wargear and progression type stuff, they deliberately don't want players to feel attachment to units by being able to bling them out. One of the things which became very obvious from the press previews is how risk averse many players are in a TTB from their experiences with X-Com. Corner camping maps with overwatch on, that sort of stuff. So they dialled what progression there was back even further. Not sure I agree with it but I can see the point to not wanting players to feel gimped at mission 20 if they didn't find X or have unit Y along from the start in a game. The veterancy tags are an attempt to placate those of us who argued the reverse, but they're solely cosmetic.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Finished the demo. Overall I'd say it's really good. At least gameplay wise I have nothing to complain, it's as good as I had hoped. The presentation (art, sound, music) is really nice as well. My only gripe is how between missions when you can manage your army loadout I dismissed some marines who had some kind of veterancy tag after completing the first mission and instead of them going into a reserve you just lose that squad forever it seems. So if you want a veteran squad you just have to hoard them in your loadout, I guess. I'd want maybe some more stuff in between missions as well. The lack of equippable wargear is kinda lame.

It's possible to transfer direct to the reserve if you click on the unit rather than dismissing it directly. (Or should be, I haven't got demo.) There's rough edges still to making some things more visible or obvious. I dislike the save system intensely for another but out of scope to overhaul UI before release.

On wargear and progression type stuff, they deliberately don't want players to feel attachment to units by being able to bling them out. One of the things which became very obvious from the press previews is how risk averse many players are in a TTB from their experiences with X-Com. Corner camping maps with overwatch on, that sort of stuff. So they dialled what progression there was back even further. Not sure I agree with it but I can see the point to not wanting players to feel gimped at mission 20 if they didn't find X or have unit Y along from the start in a game. The veterancy tags are an attempt to placate those of us who argued the reverse, but they're solely cosmetic.

Thanks. I'm pretty sure I did click the transfer button or whatever but nothing came out of it. I was unsure if it was a bug or intended.

I was also afraid that the veterancy tag was cosmetic as it didn't indicate any kind of bonus. I can understand why the devs made units more disposable, but it's a choice I don't agree with. It feels like a fix to a problem that fans of this genre never really asked for. I'm not sure who this change is supposed to appeal to as from my experience people who play these games like the feeling of attachment you get from taking your troops from mission to mission and witnessing their growth from weak and green recruits to battle hardened veterans. It is an unfortunate thing that the devs have gone this route. Like I said the gameplay I played was nice, but this is something that could end up being a dealbreaker for me. I just really need that feel of army persistency. A polished game will be cool for a couple of skirmishes, but I require more depth for a longer campaign. Especially if they want to add more campaigns with different factions.

 

[Alpharius]

Huh, a strange decision. Though i guess its easier for the devs because they don't have to balance each mission so that it would be sufficiently dificult for both the players who suffered no losses during the pervious missions and not impossible for the ones who have. (Assuming this game has a non - game journalist difficulty that is).

 

[Mefi]

Thanks. I'm pretty sure I did click the transfer button or whatever but nothing came out of it. I was unsure if it was a bug or intended.

I was also afraid that the veterancy tag was cosmetic as it didn't indicate any kind of bonus. I can understand why the devs made units more disposable, but it's a choice I don't agree with. It feels like a fix to a problem that fans of this genre never really asked for. I'm not sure who this change is supposed to appeal to as from my experience people who play these games like the feeling of attachment you get from taking your troops from mission to mission and witnessing their growth from weak and green recruits to battle hardened veterans. It is an unfortunate thing that the devs have gone this route. Like I said the gameplay I played was nice, but this is something that could end up being a dealbreaker for me.

Just checked and it's working in the current beta build at the pre-mission stage I'm at. Could be a bug in the demo.

Hear you on the veterancy side of it. I think it would have added rather than detracted, especially with the Primaris narrative, and there's other ways to get corner campers moving even if they'll whine about them too ("I failed the timed mission because I didn't check the map or mission conditions and that's your fault devs"). What I would say in the design's defence is that combat can get very brutal, very quickly as swarm effects start to stack up and so trying to avoid losing a unit ends up being less important than seeing a mission through. Think Death Company with the Blood Angels on the narrative side for one example. At least that's true if you're not facerolling the difficulty level. Is a real shame though as you can see the loadouts changing the models, and even the odd story line moment doing it too.

 

[Alpharius]

Finished the demo, i wouldn't be so sure that its going to be much better than Sanctus Reach.

AI seems very hesitant. Like i've had 5 squads with two heroes vs 14 squads of hormagaunts and termagants in the last mission, but AI was constantly running backwards and forwards, never attacking with more than a few squads. Finished it with only two casaulties in two asm squads, if the AI attacked with all its squads at once it would have easily wiped me.

Also ASM are kinda meh, expected them to slaughter termagants in melee but they dealt less damage than tactical squads at range (intercessors?). Same shit as in Sanctus Reach, because asm with chainsword get one attack per model in TT apparently.

MP could be good, but it could have been good in Sanctus Reach too, and turned out shit. Will likely have this shitty PBEM too that Slitherine slaps on all their games even when it doesnt make any sense.

 

[Galdred]

Finished the demo. Overall I'd say it's really good. At least gameplay wise I have nothing to complain, it's as good as I had hoped. The presentation (art, sound, music) is really nice as well. My only gripe is how between missions when you can manage your army loadout I dismissed some marines who had some kind of veterancy tag after completing the first mission and instead of them going into a reserve you just lose that squad forever it seems. So if you want a veteran squad you just have to hoard them in your loadout, I guess. I'd want maybe some more stuff in between missions as well. The lack of equippable wargear is kinda lame.

It's possible to transfer direct to the reserve if you click on the unit rather than dismissing it directly. (Or should be, I haven't got demo.) There's rough edges still to making some things more visible or obvious. I dislike the save system intensely for another but out of scope to overhaul UI before release.

On wargear and progression type stuff, they deliberately don't want players to feel attachment to units by being able to bling them out. One of the things which became very obvious from the press previews is how risk averse many players are in a TTB from their experiences with X-Com. Corner camping maps with overwatch on, that sort of stuff. So they dialled what progression there was back even further. Not sure I agree with it but I can see the point to not wanting players to feel gimped at mission 20 if they didn't find X or have unit Y along from the start in a game. The veterancy tags are an attempt to placate those of us who argued the reverse, but they're solely cosmetic.

That is still a very weird decision:

1. It would make sense for any commander to be risk averse when it comes to the lives of the soldiers of his battlegroup. The ones who are usually not risk adverses would usually be much higher on the command chain.
2. The attchment for your squads is one of the key elements in this kind of games, and for the "super elite of mankind, that takes years to train, and require use of very rare resources, and recovery of the fallen genetic material", it would doubly make sense.

Actually, the casualties in Dawn of War 2 campaign felt totally off, with infinitely respawning marines reinforcements. I don't think a game about Spess Mehreens should make casualties not a big deal, given the ridiculously low numbers each chapter can field in the lore.

That said, it also makes it closer to the TT I guess. I have already lost entire Space Marines companies go down in a single battle (but it was in Epic, not in 40k!) :D

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

Well, it's a problem with pretty much every 40k game I've played. The fluff makes them superhuman turbocommandos high on krokodil and loss of even a single one is a tragedy, and in the games they're like +1 or +2 stats here and there compared to an average joe. The very definition of a "buffed dog, crying dog" meme.