Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War

The least diplomatic 4X we’ve ever played.

- Ian Evenden

The Warhammer 40,000 universe seems like a good fit for a 4X game. There’s lots of traveling across dangerous distances in enormous ships, plenty of deploying troops, loads of diplomacy.... Actually, there’s no diplomacy. 40K is all about the war, and filling the alien menace full of holes, so the four Xs in this game are explore, expand, exterminate, and exterminate some more.

The planet on which our four factions (Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Orks, and Necrons) find themselves is a hostile place, divided into hexagonal parcels of land. Dangerous creatures roam the landscape, which has dangerous plants, Necron tombs, and the artifacts of previous colonization attempts scattered about. Everything is out to kill you, so you hit back in the only way the setting knows: massed ranks and laser fire.