they always seemed a very... i dunno, expendable faction... in the sense that you'd happily send your soldiers off to die while waiting to build your leman russ or baneblade tanks... their infantry, even those trollish things, just didnt seem that useful...
Following a gameplay preview in London I think a full unit list is pretty much available now actually- I'll go look for it.
No IG at release, no- no Chaos either. But Chaos are so popular (including with the lead game designer!), and IG so suited to the kind of small arms actions this game deals with (digging in, using cover, having the odd big tank around), that their later release seems inevitable. They have said it will have downloadable content created for it.
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Last edited by Ushgarak on Jan 9th, 2009 at 08:16 PM
oh, well thats a relief... i dunno, i never got what the big deal was with chaos... i mean, sure, some of their high end guys are great, but i never felt particularly drawn to them...
Btw, some early reviews are coming in now. Two points of criticism are:
1. Single player campaign missions are apparently somewhat repetitive
2. Rather strangely... multiplayer is apparently either 1 vs 1 or 3 vs 3. Now, I knew they were going for 3 vs 3 as the default, but... not having 2 v 2 at all just seems weird.
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Last edited by Ushgarak on Jan 9th, 2009 at 08:20 PM
hmm so far my only quibs are no chaos (my fave faction), and overall, the reduction of the number of factions.
however i have vaslty more good points to say about it such as how theyve seemed ot make it more realistic and true to life for Warhammer, for example Space marines being small in number but extremely powerful and well trained soldiers....i didnt like seeing space marines defeated by a group or two of Guardsmen in the previous games.
The leveling system and the feeling that your increasing the power of your marines while playing the campaign (and otherise if theres a similiar form in multiplayer).
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So then I'm assuming then that the mutliplayer is like a form of matchmaking, as in, you can't make your own servers? because if there's "slots" like in Starcraft and Battle for Middle Earth then they can't really force that on you.
Found the unit list. This is from someone who played the London preivew- I dunno how much this will differ from release.
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At the beginning of a game you start with your commander and a basic unit.
Space marines: Your commander + 3 scouts
Tyranids: your commander + 8 hormagaunts
Eldar: Your commander + 8 guardians
Orks: Your commander + 8 SLUGGA BOYZ
Tyranids
The tyranids are odd fish. Unlike every other faction only their synapse units gain vet - the liddle hormagaunts and termagants don't have XP bars. This to me suggests a British-style "synapse units give out stronger synapse" style deal, but I have no objective evidence for this assertion. They are extremely cheap - 270 req per early game unit - and here are your tiers and possible build options.
The hive Tyrant is noticably slow in comparison to the other two heroes. He does have a lot of health, however, and seems to kick the crap out of anything he gets next to. I'll make a note about how his wargear works in another section, as the system is a little confusing, but suffice to say he has stuff you'd expect - extended carapace, psychic scream, bioplasma etc. He seems a strong melee tank commander with decent support powers, including a pheromone cloud that automatically heals and reinforces tyranid units inside.
Ravener;
He's very nasty. He's most analogous to the warp spider, but he can lay tunnels. And these tunnels can be used by your allies. I'll describe how wide the range of allied behaviour is later on, but suffice to say the teamwork opportunities here are amazing. He has a ranged attack which can be upgraded to ravage vehicles, and a melee splash attack if you feel like it. He seems like a high damage hit and run commander with some nice utility worked in.
The Lictor;
An odd fish, even more so than the other two. He obviously has the glorious flesh hooks (which to me feel a little cheesy, as you can simply yank an enemy commander over to your assembled forces and compel a retreat. If they don't retreat the commander will simply be torn to shreds. I think it might be nerfed a lil'), but he also possesses infiltration (which drains his energy while in use, unless you get the chameleon scales wargear). He has a bizarre option called Loner which gives him increased damage when he's not near any of your units, making him quite an enjoyably vicious commander killer. His description as "Ambush" seems to be pretty fair, as in a sustained fight he seems to suffer a little. Shares many support powers with the other two.
ORKZ
I will put my cards on the table. The orkz are by far the most flavoursome army in the game at the moment. Everything about them is funny, from the evil grot eyes staring out of their base turrets to your gretching battle announcer imparting pearls of wisdom such as "Boss! Dey've blown the... the... FING up!!!!". They are also gleefully fun to play with.
Their tiers + units:
Tier 1: Shoota boyz (270 req), slugga boyz (270 req), Stikkbommaz (310 req, 10 power - enough to make them a slightly delayed unit) and STORMBOYZ (300-400 req, 20-40 power)
Tier 2: Trukk (not sure on req, 45-90 power) and Loota Boyz
Tier 3: Nob Squad (400 req 110 power) and LOOTED TANK (310 req, 100-150 power)
The three heroes were:
The Kommando
The Kommando is a strong ranged infiltrator. He had a selection of amusing grenades, some unlocked by upgrading and stun grenades by default. The stun grenades seem especially insane early game, guaranteeing total annihilation of weak squads like guardians by your trusty boyz. He can summon kommandoz onto the battlefield at the cost of waagh and can be upgrade to a speshul knife, a close-combat shotgun or a (and i'm not making this up) a triple-barrelled scatter rokkit-launcher. The last one seemed to kill infantry as easily as it killed buildings and vehicles - very orky!
The Warboss
I didn't get to try him, but he has abilities such as allowing the units around him to reinforce and heal, summon extra boyz, that kind of thing. He's apparently a strong melee tank type hero in the vein of the hive tyrant.
The Mek
He's somehwat like the kommando in that he's ranged (one of his upgrades is the ingeniously named "deff gun", which we are informed is strong against infantry due to killing them) but he can drop turrets and healing/reinforcement points. Turrets are strong, and reinforcement points are extremely useful as both you and your allies can use them as retreat points. The teamplay element is very very strong in this game!
Eldar
And now we come to the Pointy-eared naughties, the Eldar. Just like in the original Dow, they seem a faction that rewards micro over and above the others. They are fragile and fast, and seem to do very decent damage.
Units and Tiers
Tier 1: Guardians (270 req), Howling Banshees (400-odd req, small power requirement), Shuriken cannon teams (240 req maybe?) and Warp Spiders (400 req, 45-100 power)
Tier 3: Avatar (500 req, 200 power), D-cannon platforms (240-300 req, some power) and Fire Prisms (400 req, 200 power maybe?)
Eldar Heroes;
Warlock:
I didn't get to play with him much, but he feels like a combat farseer. He shares eldritch storm with her, but also possesses conceal (an ability cast on a friendly unit) and seems to have a reasonably strong ranged attack.
Warp Spider:
Now this fellow is nasty. He has some nifty togglable wargear, including some energy-draining heavy guage spinner fibre that does extra damage, and his most important ability; to teleport other squads with him when he jumps, including allied units. This means that you can use your commander to teleport your allied tyranids' carnifex right into somebody's big blob of ranged units or what have you.
Farseer:
Didn't play her, but she seemed a reasonably strong melee character with very disruptive psychic abilities. Quite vulnerable though.
[He notes, btw, that the Avatar is 'absolutely ****ing insane']
Space Marines
The emperor's finest are indeed pretty fine in multiplayer; hard to kill, damaging and pretty simple to use.
Tier 1: Tactical Squad (500 req), Devastator heavy bolter squad (370 req, spawns what is effectively a "weapons team" from what I remember - has to be setup), scouts (270-350 req), assault marines (500 req + 45 power I think, could be very wrong on cost)
Melee tank hero, no surprises here. Didn't use him myself, can't really comment beyond that.
Tech Marine
Quite damaging ranged support hero. He can be upgraded with several different weapons depending on role (a plasma gun and 2 different master-crafted bolters), the bolters either giving him a suppressing shot or boosting the ranged damage of nearby infantry when the ability is activated. The turrets take up 5 pop cap, cost 200 req and 30 power and absolutely ravage infantry. They have a limited arc of fire that cannot be changed, but if you can get people in front of them they will pay for themselves and more. His healing and reinforcing structure also acts as a retreat point, has a similar cost, and fully affects your allies. It is so good I almost thought it encroached on the apothecary's territory.
Apothecary
Didn't use him, so can't really say
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Last edited by Ushgarak on Jan 9th, 2009 at 08:29 PM
The fact Terminators were not on the unit list makes it obvious that there is more units still not 100% known or used
also Ush when you said "dreadnought gets called in " is that free (no cost by it) and is it chosen by the player, the way you typed it, makes me wonder if it simply comes in as a special super unit kind of thing.
This is true. The dreadnought was not on the list either, and I know that gets drop-podded in; other races may have equivalents.
As far as I know, each race has a unique resource in addition to Req and Power. The Space Marine one is called 'Zeal' and is gained by killing units or taking casualties. It is used to buy dreadnoughts and I vaguely remember hearing that maybe it does Terminators too.
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hm intreiging, I like the drop pods idea, it sounds like the fact youve got a single base may not actually reduce the speed of acquiring units since you can drop them in.
That sounds alright to me. Small scale battles actually increase the strategy involved, as it makes it not ridiculous to try and micromanage each unit and use special abilities one at a time rather than freaking out and clicking all the marines and having them all use their ability at one time thus wasting it for all but one.
I'm glad that the space marines are powerful, they should be, they look badass.
And I agree, BF, I quite like the smaller scale idea. it might be a bit of an all or nothing affair with the Marines though- if you cock up and lose a squad you could lose the game all in one go, I fear.
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Jan 9th, 2009 07:57 PM
