Review after finishing game

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Rmarsden
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Review after finishing game

Post by Rmarsden »

And Armageddon is free (well as free as anyone is in the Imperium), and my chatty com officer wished me well in ways I wish she wouldn't have.
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"Morning."
"Morning."

The Good
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I love my job!

I've been playing Warhammer since 2nd edition. I remember the first Armageddon game, and after the RTS games from THQ came out and Space Marine, I thought the chances of a strategic, turn-based game sent in 40k was slim. And along comes Slitherine! The game takes from some past ideas, but it has a huge amount of details when it comes to unit selection.

Others have complained about a lack of 'special' units, but this game doesn't need to be turned into hero-hammer. It's fine as it is, and if anything, many selections go unused as the game advances. The amount of detail in the units is amazing. Variations upon variations!

Music is limited, but fine for what it is.

Cut-scenes are basic, but not bad. They hired voice-actors and not the mail-room guy.

The campaign has some very challenging missions and some are built beautifully. In particular, the arrival of the Space Marines into the game is epic and thrilling- something a turn-based game might not be thought of as capable of. Some scenarios allow for clever movement, and the use of terrain does affect the game as there are a great deal of many orks to deal with, and taking use of cover is a must!

The AI isn't terrible, though at times it seemed rather passive. Eager to move units forward, but not always eager to have them shoot at anything.

Better yet- if Slitherine gets to expand on their license, then the game can easily be opened up for more fun. I try not to get my hopes up too high, but perhaps one day the pitter-patter of a bagillion claws will be heard on the Ultramarine Homeworld, or a Black Cruasde will come spilling out of the Eye of Terror, or maybe the Tau will set up a resort town somewhere.

And, for those not aware of the Slitherine, they do a good job making patches, updating, tinkering and communicating with their players.

Overall, it's quite fun and laden with potential for more. I eagerly give them my money.

The Bad

With unit-slots limited, and an ever-increasing better supply of units, the Steel Legion infantry I started with quickly become a Space Marine/Titan/Steel Legion mega-tank force as the game progressed. Due to many missions with strict and tight time-limits, I found myself having to forego many interesting units and selecting the most efficient tank and infantry killers. This is a shame because the game has so many units to choose from, but I had to shy away from them. Perhaps on future playthroughs I'll discover differently.

Some scenarios were well designed, others became slog-fests. With small maps, limited deployment zones, and small time-limits. In such situations strategy was more akin to WWI. Mobile units were 'so-so', because they had nowhere really to go. Aerial units in particular were difficult to use, lacking durability and range.

I found in many scenarios my force was designed to be a slow, steady, moving wave of elite units that would pulverize everything in front of it. Rinse-repeat, until by the last turn of the scenario I had taken the last objective. Sometimes with a turn or two to spare- often not.

The most tactical I got was choosing which Ork heavy-armor was going to get hit by 3 deathstrike missiles, who needed to fall back to refit and repair, and what units were the most efficient. And... that's about it. Forward, slog. Forward, slog. Good for some missions, but so many of them turned out this way with a few notable exceptions. An easy fix for this would be scenarios with larger maps and more time so maneuvering had value.

The plot seemed to be missing some cut scenes. The actual Ork invasion itself was something I felt I may have missed. The rest follows the 40k lore, and I was quite alright with that.

Overall
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Here I come to wreck your day!

Good! This game can be great with some work, and expanded upon, which is even better. There is love worked into it and with luck we'll see more updates and future titles!

I purchased mine through steam!
Kerensky
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by Kerensky »

A very well written piece. Thanks for sharing your feedback on 40k Armageddon. A few items you've brought up, such as timid AI, are definitely items we're aware of and working towards re-tuning.

I can't really say what's in store for the future, but I do hope you will continue to enjoy the game as we deploy improvements and future content for it! :D
Rmarsden
Corporal - 5 cm Pak 38
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by Rmarsden »

See. See? They listen and respond.

I hope you make money and that Games Workshop say, "We like money. Make more things that make money."
Kerensky
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by Kerensky »

I can only speak for myself, but trying to respond to feedback seems like the least I can do. :)
JeffSkyrunner
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by JeffSkyrunner »

I can nothing but agree with this feedback.
It's like I've written it, just better!
Shrike
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by Shrike »

If you missed the Orc invasion, then you probably won the last training scenario too rapidly. Or didn't bother with the training scenario's altogether of course :-)
Rmarsden
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by Rmarsden »

@Jeff
Thanks. One of my many hats I wear is writer, so I'm glad it was entertaining.

@Kerensy
Thanks! Keep it up.

@Shrike
Ah! I did play the training missions, I may have rocked n' rolled too well on the last one.
nexusno2000
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by nexusno2000 »

Shrike wrote:If you missed the Orc invasion, then you probably won the last training scenario too rapidly. Or didn't bother with the training scenario's altogether of course :-)
The orks appear on turn 9 our so on the 5th tutorial mission.
Green Knight
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Curator
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by Curator »

Totally agree with TS.
nexusno2000
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by nexusno2000 »

I agree with much of this.

CORE SLOTS: I wish there were more slots available overall. So that there was a real choice of making a smaller elite force, a large low-quality one - or something in between. As is you've so few slots - and enough Req - so that you'll almost always go Elite. On VH difficulty it's much the same, though you can't afford ALL elite units. Instead you end up with an Elite CORE-CORE and a small number of soak units that gets replaced regularly.

AI IS A COWARD: Fighting Orks I would think they would attack en masse, and unrelenting wave of green flesh and guns. Alas that's not the case. The AI is very timid when faced with situations where loss/win ration is bad for it. So instead of heaping attacks on your units until massed fire takes it toll, it does NOTHING. So a very viable tactic is putting hvy armor units in front, as this will prevent the ork from firing at you at all.

AI CAN'T SCOUT: Combination high spot/long range on your units enable you to just pummel the enemy from afar. Since he's naturally timid he'll just sit there and take it. Combine with the point above to completely lock down any AI offensives.

CONSTRICTING TERRAIN: Most of the maps have very constricted terrain. Which seems to hamper the AI no end. The maps with bridges are especially bad, compounding the two points above, but most maps are rather bad.

There are other, minor points as well, such as fliers being utterly stupid, but for me the BAD boils down to a lack for ability for use different army setups and bad/timid AI.

There's lots of GOOD as well. Lots of fun.
Green Knight
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Shrike
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by Shrike »

Yeah, more polish still needed for the base game. Playing on Challenging and using up the allotted requisition points per scenario. After the hunt for Von Straub I have a few units with minor damage, but otherwise intact core force with full available slots allocation. Lo and behold: with the next scenario plenty of upgrades become available, but my units aren't even fully repaired and 3 extra available slots can't be filled without disbanding some higher cost experienced units because zero requisition points are available. I don't see the reasoning behind that, as that's hardly a "reward" for successfully completing the previous scenario.
BrianDavion
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by BrianDavion »

nexusno2000 wrote:
Shrike wrote:If you missed the Orc invasion, then you probably won the last training scenario too rapidly. Or didn't bother with the training scenario's altogether of course :-)
The orks appear on turn 9 our so on the 5th tutorial mission.

yeah I missed it too. I've got a very blitzkreig approuch to how I run my army
nexusno2000
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Re: Review after finishing game

Post by nexusno2000 »

BrianDavion wrote:
nexusno2000 wrote:
Shrike wrote:If you missed the Orc invasion, then you probably won the last training scenario too rapidly. Or didn't bother with the training scenario's altogether of course :-)
The orks appear on turn 9 our so on the 5th tutorial mission.

yeah I missed it too. I've got a very blitzkreig approuch to how I run my army
IMO the orks should trigger when you reach a certain point on the map; that way they could put some pressure on you to complete the mission before they overrun the auxiliary defenders.
Green Knight
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