Oh, yeah. Finaly. A strategy game without tons of visual features (but still good-looking). Pure gameplay. And deep Setting, never forget about setting. I wish all new strategies use this approach....

Bottom line (on top): This game could definitely be better, but because it's 40k a lot is forgiven.

This is not a strategy game. Keep this in mind.
This is a game of crushing xenos (Orks) with the ceramite soles of your Astartes' boots (wait, you're still using infantry?).

I have completed the IG campaign twice - on the default difficulty and on "Hard". The latter actually presents a challenge, but only because the 60-pack of gremlins suddenly became 160, etc. But it is still more interesting.

There are a few issues: balance, and AI and level design.

Balance-wise, there's hardly any. For example, the Imperium is known for using their subjects as cannon fodder - that's their army's bread and butter. There's no need to play the game this way. You just replace everything with titans and borrow some dreadnoughts from the Marines.
The superheavies in the game is something you want your army to consist of exclusively, as opposed to powerful super units that still need support of infantry and lesser tanks. Not here.

Level design doesn't help. Because the AI is stupid to no end (I often had situations where they could obliterate my whole army in 1 turn, but they would just skip theirs), you just literally push through the map to meet the dreaded turn limit - this is more of a concern on higher difficulty levels, where you are really pressed for time.
You can't try different formations, diversions are useless, you just have to push through.
Or you have to defend a point for a set amount of turns, which makes much more sense. These missions are usually most challenging, and you actually have time to play with the positions of your units, because otherwise every turn you spend regrouping might cost you the game.

Overall, instead of letting you feel like you control an army of the 41st millennium, you have to be concerned about stupid ♥♥♥♥ all the time.

But

It still feels awesome to play as the Marines or IG, and if you enjoy turn-based strategy, you might still give this a go. It's not strategically challenging, but it is fun and has the spirit.

As is tradition, this wargame sports 2D graphics, but unlike so many others, the visuals don't really suck. Personally I think it would be nice if this game had better visuals. This game's selling point is immersion into the 40k universe for me, and that would really help. But here we are, it keeps the sprites and stuff.

Yeah, about the cost, I think it's proper unreasonable. It seems this game is a reskin of the developer's previous game, Panzer Corps. The mechanics are largely the same (which is hard to completely verify because the game is very vague about the way weapons work), so they had to draw new sprites, and make new stats for units. Maybe I'm missing something? Don't get me wrong, they've done a great job, but this game costs nearly as much as a proper AAA title with a much bigger budget (and then there's DLC).

---

Still, this is a game I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm still am going through some DLC campaigns, but feel like I've seen enough to say what I said.

And I feel like I'm missing a lot, but I'm still yet to play multiplayer. I hope I can convince my friends soon.

I got introduced to Warhammer 40k through Dawn of War 2 and really liked the setting. So I got up to speed lorewise by visiting Lexicanum and the Warhammer 40k pages on 1d♥♥♥♥♥. I don't play turn-based strategy games all that much, the last title being Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones all the way back in 2005 for the GBA. So yeah up front I don't have much experience with hex-based and turn based strategy games.

I have played through the main campaign, part of the free DLC "Untold Battles", all of the paid DLC. In terms of value, this game is AWESOME. I got the whole game and DLC 33% off.

Graphics wise... it's very simple and 2D. The artwork itself is richly detailed and authentic to the source material. Combat animations are pretty simplistic although there are a ton of them modelling a large variety of weapons from Warhammer 40k. Units simply turn to whatever they're attacking and attacked by and some audio cues. Numbers float over units that are attacked indicating damage.

Here's where the game initially gets confusing. Many of the units have strength and hp. After 50 hours or so I finally understood. Infantry tends to have only 1 HP, but with 30 strength. Units that constantly need their strength replenished lose veterancy at a rapid rate, thus the more durable or indirect fire units tend to accrue more experience. This and a few other mechanics could have been explained better.

Mission design can be described as bland and straight forward. Plain military stuff like form a perimeter, capture objectives, hold ground, escort, and the occasional rescue. The campaign structure has some replay value in the form of mission branching.

At the end of the main campaign I pretty much fielded the elite units. It's a little freaky to have so many terminator squads, dreadnaughts, super heavy tanks, and so few guardsmen on the field. Oh and Titans. So in terms of lore... probably not as authentic, but I suppose if I wanted to match the fluff with the grind I could have had some fragile guardsmen with their lasguns at the forefront.

Overall I am very happy with my purchase. Plus the voice acting and story were surprisingly well done. Unfortunately only the main campaign and none of the DLC feature voice acting.

TL;DR Lots of value. Very basic graphics. Some confusing gameplay elements. Campaign is really fun and follows the Armageddon setting faithfully save for all the elite, elite units, stomping around at the end of the campaign.

Space Marines? ..... check!
Dreadnoughts? ..... CHECK!
Warhound-Class Titans? ..... CHECK!!
Reaver-Class Titans? ..... CHECK!!!!!!!
Warlord-Class Titans? ..... *sigh* ..... nope :-(

would stomp on Orks again!

10/10

+++ Panzer Corps meets Warhammer 40k

- not as complex as pcorps

If you remember the old Warhammer hex-game "Final Liberation" -- I consider this game it's spiritual successor. Much like many games of it's ilk (just looking at screenshots should give you flashbacks to other games in the same vein) for those who enjoy the WH40k universe I call this a solid title. The game mechanics are fun, intuitive, and dare I say balanced (as balanced as any battle against an unending tide of Orks can be I suppose!) -- there is good voice acting and some real strategy to this strategy game -- for example I have needed to make choices such as bottlenecking weak enemy units to cause jams at choke points, where just mowing down enemies simply paves the way for more powerful units to break through -- I've seen keen initiative and calculated risk win through over a slogging sweep and clear (which often plays into the hands of enemies that are merely just getting stronger the longer you take your time) -- the atmosphere is right, and the mechanics are fun -- and CHALLENGING. Can you afford to groom experienced core units, or must you cast them aside to make room for the cannon-fodder you'll need to meet the enemy throng? Will there be air support? Can you afford it? placement and choices for troops matter and remain meaningful from turn to turn -- and that is the ACID-TEST for a good turn based strategy game.

The cons? : I haven't played the whole initial campaign yet, but it seems like a lot of content is day-1 DLC, especially relating to space marines, which lets face it are the reason many people love WH40k so much in the first place. Maybe they'll make an appearance at the end of the basic content... maybe... but making us pay extra to enjoy some of the best things about the game from day 1 is typical of many of GW's franchises slimy bilking tactics (like space hulk having 80% of it's day 1 content pay to unlock, but that roast is for another post, or most notably how TOTAL WAR: WARHAMMER has CHAOS as a pre-order playble faction only -- that's as slimy and manipulative as it gets.

So in short -- a great game like so many GW inspired titles are, and like so many of those, they similiarly have some slimy microtransaction crap to make you regret loving them to some degree.

Bottom line, most games would be verbally evicerated for pulling that kind of crap -- but I'm having too much fun holding trenches with my Ogryn long enough for my Basilisk Artillery to break the Greenskin hordes as I pray to the machine spirits that my Leman Russ' will endure long enough to hold the line down. For the Emperor!

This is a very solid panzer general type game. The strategy involved is quite deep and yet still easy to pick up and play. The voice overs and long campaign are also a nice touch.

The main people who would enjoy this are 40k fans as the attention to detail for selecting your army is incredible and that is much of the attraction to the actual table top game.

If you are the sort of person who can name at least three variations of Leman Russ AND care about the difference then you will probably enjoy this game.

The price is the main barrier to entry here - pay full price if funds are no issue but it is hard to recommend at full price otherwise. If it had a detailed skirmish mode like battlefleet gothic armada which added a lot to replay I would have paid full price but it does not.

However recommended highly for the gameplay.

Great mash-up of 40K and Panzer Corps, campaigns are a challenge, and unit variation is immense. For any fans of Final Liberation, Panzer Corps with a 40K twist, or Warhammer fans in general. Only negative for me is fighting only Orks gets a bit boring after a while. Hopefully future add-ons will bring more 40k races into the game.

I played this briefly on a friends account and I bought it for mobile and I have really enjoyed it. The AI is challenging and the objectives and turn limits add a sense of value to the decisions one makes.

One thing that I was surprised wasnt in the game was a map editor or skirmish mode, something that I think would add a ton more replay value to the game. Think about it, designing maps based on real hives, on or off of Armageddon and the freedom of making a terrain both challening and fun for yourself and others if an online playermade map database was created. I just want to have the freedom to make trench lines, put my guardsmen in them and face the ork onslaught.

Make an update for a map editor! (mobile too pls)

fun Game turn based gaming at its best