Warhammer Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War - turn-based 4X from Slitherine

[DoWhocares]

Good news for me is that's pretty much exactly how I figured it worked. I wasn't sure about per-model damage cap, but I had a suspicion that that was a thing. Which indirectly means that there are after all anti-tank unitz .

But what this breakdown also confirms is that with all the situational damage reduction bonuses, it's really not feasible to know at a glance how much damage something will do. Without being a math savant you just have to trust the previews. And that's clumsy and at least for me prone to causing misclicks. And a big one - the preview doesn't help for active skills like nades that you can't even activate without standing adjacent to your target. So in the end a lot of it boils down to just building units and upgrades that seem good and praying to the Emperor that they actually are.

x 5 Sisters = 10.02 total damage. The Fire Dragons are burnt to a crisp, as befits such loathesome xenos.

Another acolyte understands the treacherous danger of the Eldar. Good.

 

[Lacrymas]

Grenades are good. You wouldn't be able to know how much damage they'll do without researching them anyway.

 

[chuft]

But what this breakdown also confirms is that with all the situational damage reduction bonuses, it's really not feasible to know at a glance how much damage something will do. Without being a math savant you just have to trust the previews.

The preview IS the glance. It calculates it all for you and it is 100% accurate. I am explaining the formula but I certainly don't do the calculations myself. I let the preview do it. Note you can select a unit 30 hexes away from an enemy and right click on the enemy and hold down to get the preview, including with Alt, you don't have to be anywhere near it. The formula is just useful to understand why some units are effective against certain targets and others are not.

Note your units in cover are invisible to the enemy unless they move next to it or your unit fires. Hint: turn off Overwatch if you are sneaking around to gather intel, or you don't want to piss off wildlife wandering around. Enemy outposts and cities have a vision range of 1 hex, units 3 hexes. Terrain and elevation can block line of sight. Note the HQ hex of the city (which has weapons) counts as a unit. Forests and ruins provide concealment, but if you are adjacent to an enemy unit, city or outpost you will automatically be seen.

No you can't preview abilities but that is rarely a concern once you have a feel for the system. Frag Grenades are good against enemies with multiple models, and low/no armor, and in the open. Krak Grenades are good against things like Kastelan Robots and tanks. Most abilities are not attacks like grenades are, they are buffs or debuffs or heals, so you don't need a preview.


Speaking of wildlife (the grey neutral units), I think this is something that screws up new players, so let me copy some info from the Discord.

adozu the lobster — 06/24/2021 4:01 AM
Proper wildlife management is crucial to a good clear, the rules are roughly as follows:

Each enemy is part of a "pack".

Packs are comprised of a small number of enemies of the same type, except kastllan packs (always include exactly 1 priest) and catachan packs (always include exactly 1 nest).

Packs roam a definite area, you can get a feel for what area they roam by observing them over a few turns.

Packs start as non aggroed: in this state they will roam their area and only attack if a unit is directly in their way and sometimes if it is in range (this appears to be random) after they completed their move.

Any player inflicted damage will aggro a pack: once aggroed ("unleashed" in game files) all members of that pack will seek the weakest targets in their reach and attack it together. They do not distinguish between which player damaged them.

Once unleashed packs will chase you as long as they have vision, even far outside their roam area.

If not damaged for a few turns (usually about 3) packs will lose aggro and return to their roam area.

Overwatch damage will unleash packs so turn off ow around wildlife you cannot handle or don't want to yet.

What should be taken from that?

1) don't attack any enemy you don't want to aggro yet
2) expect more enemies of the same type to show up if you damage one
3) try to never aggro multiple packs at once early game

 

[DoWhocares]

The preview IS the glance. It calculates it all for you and it is 100% accurate. I am explaining the formula but I certainly don't do the calculations myself. I let the preview do it. Note you can select a unit 30 hexes away from an enemy and right click on the enemy and hold down to get the preview, including with Alt, you don't have to be anywhere near it. The formula is just useful to understand why some units are effective against certain targets and others are not.

See, the issue with the preview is that it only works on hover when you are in range of attacking an enemy. But if you have no idea what the enemy unit you're seeing even is and whether your units are any good against it, you want to preview damage from far away. To do so, you have to select your unit and right click the enemy. But don't let the button go. You have to hold it. Once you let it go, it executes the move and starts running towards the enemy. Pressing escape opens the menu. Pressing left click does nothing. And the only way I found of canceling this far-preview order is moving the cursor over the minimap and releasing the right button. When you do that, the unit gets stuck in a "where to move" limbo where you don't even have to hold right button to designate a new path. When you get there, you have to now move the camera to your unit and right click on exactly its model to cancel the preview move order. And if at any point you mess something up, like release the right button early or click on some other hex on accident, congratulations - your unit now moved to a random location, ruining whatever plan you've had.

Maybe I'm missing some obvious interaction here that would make all that easier. But in the current setup I really would've liked to know how much damage something will do without clicking things. But alas, the math is too much for me. As an aside, this, not being able to easily cancelt exploratory right clicks thing also caused me to found cities in places I didn't want to, and is perhaps the most annoying thing about the game's UI for me. Just let me press escape and cancel the move dammit.

 

[Lacrymas]

Hover over the unit you've selected and let go of right click.

 

[chuft]

Lacrymas is correct.

Also note the power of keeping the right mouse button held down. You can move the cursor around and in each hex you pause in, it will light up, with red outlines, all the hexes with known enemies your unit could hit from that hex.

This is incredibly useful if you are not sure if altitude or terrain would block your line of sight from a particular hex to a particular enemy, including the HQ building of a city.

 

[Darth Roxor]

turns out you can continue to use space marine globals even after you've been knocked out of the game

gud game highly recommended

Spoiler

actually it's shit and i'm glad to not have to play it anymore

 

[Lacrymas]

It's a great gaem.

 

[Jaedar]

It's a great gaem.

There's a lot frustrating with it, and I'd never play it against ai, but with other people it's pretty fun.

Balance feels perhaps a bit off. Necron monoliths feel about as good as the ork killbursta, but that's the orkz best tank, and the necrons 3rd best.

It really annoys me you have to look around in the compendium in like 3 different places to even stand a chance of telling what something does.

 

[Hydro]

Are there any Codex games going on? A tournament could be pretty fun.

 

[Lacrymas]

It's a great gaem.

There's a lot frustrating with it, and I'd never play it against ai, but with other people it's pretty fun.

Balance feels perhaps a bit off. Necron monoliths feel about as good as the ork killbursta, but that's the orkz best tank, and the necrons 3rd best.

It really annoys me you have to look around in the compendium in like 3 different places to even stand a chance of telling what something does.

The game is pretty balanced overall. The only factions which are currently op are Sisters and Dark Eldar, with a smattering of AdMech here and there, but the devs are currently working on a balance patch to address those.