If you’ve spent any time in the 41st Millennium, you know the drill. Peace is a myth. Hope is a lie. There is only war. Most strategy games try to soften this by giving you diplomacy buttons or trade routes, but Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War doesn't care about your trade agreements. It’s a 4X game that stripped out the "Diplomacy" pillar of the genre and replaced it with more ways to purge your neighbors. Honestly, it’s refreshing.
Proxy Studios made a bold call here. Usually, 4X means Explore, Expand, Exploit, and Exterminate. In Gladius, it’s basically just Exterminate, four times over. You land on Gladius Prime, a world that seemed nice enough until the Necrons started waking up and the Orks decided it was a great place for a scrap. Now, every faction in the game is locked in a cage match. You can't talk to the AI. You can't bribe them. You just build, tech up, and kill.
Why Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War Feels Different
Most people coming from Civilization or Humankind get a bit of a shock when they realize there’s no "Peace Treaty" button. You see an Astra Militarum city? You shoot it. You run into a Tyranid swarm? You shoot it. It captures the grimdark atmosphere better than almost any other strategy title because it acknowledges the fundamental truth of the lore: these factions hate each other. Like, really hate each other.
The game world itself—Gladius Prime—is a nightmare. It’s not just the other players you have to worry about. The local wildlife is actively trying to end your run in the first ten turns. Psychneuein will tear your infantry apart, and Enslavers will literally mind-control your high-value units and turn them against you. It's brutal. It’s unfair. It’s perfect.
The Learning Curve is a Vertical Cliff
Don't expect the game to hold your hand. You’ll probably lose your first three matches because you expanded too fast and couldn't handle the upkeep costs. Every building you place and every unit you train consumes resources every single turn. If you go into the red, your production stalls, and your units lose morale. It’s a delicate balancing act. You need Ore for buildings and units, Energy for maintenance, and Food for your biological troops. If you’re playing Necrons? Forget food. You need specialized resources. This mechanical asymmetry is where the game really shines.
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Faction Mechanics That Actually Matter
In a lot of strategy games, factions feel like the same thing with a different coat of paint. Not here. Playing the Space Marines in Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War is a completely different experience from playing the Orks or the T'au.
Space Marines only get one city. Just one. You can’t settle more. Instead, you drop "Fortresses of Redemption" onto the map to claim territory and resources. It forces you to play tall, focusing on a few elite units rather than a massive meat-grinder army. On the flip side, the Tyranids don't even use Ore. They consume everything—including the ground itself—to turn it into biomass. If you play as the Orks, your units get stronger the more you fight. If you’re not in a war, your influence drops. You are literally incentivized to be a nuisance to everyone at all times.
The DLC has expanded this significantly since launch. Adding the Chaos Space Marines, the Drukhari, and the Sisters of Battle changed the meta entirely. The Adeptus Mechanicus, for instance, have this weird "Power Grid" mechanic where buildings need to be adjacent to work efficiently. It’s a spatial puzzle that most other factions don't have to solve.
The Problem With the AI and Late Game Grind
Let’s be real for a second. The AI in Gladius is... aggressive. Sometimes it’s smart, but mostly it just cheats by knowing where you are and having more resources. On higher difficulties, it’s less about outsmarting the computer and more about surviving the sheer volume of units it throws at you.
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And the late game? It can get tedious. Once you’ve effectively won, actually cleaning up the remaining factions on a large map can take hours. Moving fifty units one by one across a hex grid is a chore. This is where the game shows its age. There’s no "auto-resolve" for the mop-up phase. You have to click through every single shot, every single move. It’s the price you pay for the tactical depth, I guess.
Modding and Longevity
The community has saved the game in a lot of ways. There are mods that add dozens of new units, tweak the research speeds, and even introduce entirely new factions. If you find the vanilla game too fast or too slow, there’s probably a mod on the Steam Workshop that fixes it. Most veterans recommend the "Timmy's Additions" or various balance patches that make the Imperial Guard actually feel like a combined arms force rather than just cannon fodder.
What Most Players Miss About Research
Research isn't just a linear path to better guns. In Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War, the tech tree is tiered. You have to pick a certain number of technologies in Tier 1 before you can even see Tier 2. This creates a massive opportunity cost. Do you grab the grenade upgrade for your basic infantry, or do you rush the building that lets you produce Hero units?
Heroes are the lynchpin of your army. They have RPG-like level-up systems, items you can find in the world (the actual "Relics of War"), and abilities that can turn a losing battle around. A high-level Chaos Lord or a Hive Tyrant is a terrifying thing to see on the horizon. If you ignore your hero units, you’re going to get steamrolled by an AI that didn't.
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Resource Management Tips
- Don't over-settle. Each new city increases the cost of your research and makes it harder to maintain your empire. Only settle if the tile has a specific resource you’re dying for.
- Focus your economy. If you're playing Astra Militarum, you need an absurd amount of Food and Ore. If you're Necrons, dump everything into Ore and Energy.
- Clear the neutrals early. Those Kroot Hounds and Vespid Stingwings aren't just flavor. They are blocking your expansion. Kill them before they grow into a swarm that you can't handle.
The Verdict on Gladius Prime
Is it a perfect game? No. The graphics are a bit dated, and the UI can be clunky. But for a 40k fan, it’s arguably the most "accurate" representation of the setting's warfare. It doesn't pretend that the Eldar and the Orks would ever sit down for a chat. It assumes that if two things move on the map, they should probably be trying to kill each other.
It’s a game about logistics as much as it is about tactics. You aren't just a general; you're a governor trying to keep a dying world from shaking your people off like fleas. Whether you’re calling down orbital strikes or spawning a literal mountain of Tyranid flesh, the game feels heavy. It feels significant.
Actionable Next Steps for New Players
If you're jumping in for the first time, start with the Space Marines. Their one-city mechanic makes the economic side of the game much easier to manage while you learn how combat works. Set the world difficulty to "Low" for the neutral wildlife, because the "Normal" setting will genuinely end your game before you see an enemy player. Focus on reaching Tier 3 research as fast as possible to unlock your first Hero unit. Once you have a Captain or a Warboss, you can start exploring the ruins scattered around the map to find the Relics that give your army passive buffs. Avoid the "Very Large" maps for your first few runs—stick to a Small or Medium map to keep the game from turning into a 10-hour slog.
Check the Steam sales frequently, as the base game is often deeply discounted or even free, but the DLC factions are where the real variety lives. Grab the "Specialist Pack" or the "Fortification Pack" if you want to add more tactical layers to the existing armies without buying a whole new faction.