Beta 4 impression- Initial and Tutorial

[Paradoxical]

First off, I am a long time gamer that greatly enjoys turn based hex games. Some of the title that stand out for me are the Battle Isles series and Fantasy Wars (yes I have played Games Workshops Epic Final Liberation). I play table top Warhammer 40k and also Epic Armageddon (probably closest version of the 40k universe that might transfer to this scale of battle in the 40k universe). I also enjoy table top Battletech, which is a hex based game. On to the impressions of Warhammer 40,000 Armageddon Beta 4:

The install: clean and easy, no concerns except the link to the Manual does not work (was hoping to read before I dove into the game).

First Impressions on load up: Nice, simple, first impressions are not overwhelming but not underwhelming. Need more context/background of the 40k gothic dark future universe (either in intro or in extra area)
Dove into the Tutorial Campaign:
- No explanation of unit stats, capabilities, management, tactical synergies.... big miss here. I soldiered through but I am in the dark as to tactics and am guessing at abilities and stats. I think a big thing that needs to go into the tutorial or manual is an explanation on stats, how they interact, how damage in done/allocated and tips and tricks.
- Orks did next to nothing in tutorial and I felt that when I had finished it I really didn't learn anything. Orks just sat there. A player should come out of the tutorial knowing how to BEST use his units and movement, understand how the stats work and have an idea of how he wants to develop his army/strategy for the campaign.
- Found I was drawn to the tanks because of there armor and perceived superiority over infantry. Should be the other way around, infantry should be the focus. I think you will have a tough time pulling players away from using mostly tank armies. Some thoughts might be to make tanks very expensive and/or limit them to say 1 tank per 2 infantry taken?
- One of the things I did not like was having to remember the victory conditions of the scenario. There is no place to check on the victory conditions during the scenario itself, they are just presented at the beginning and then you have to remember them. Need to add a feature that shows the victory conditions for the scenario for reference.
- One thing I couldn't figure out was the way to maximize damage on units by attacking it with multiple units of mine. Aside from degrading moral with every hit, is there no modifier/multiplier when attacking one unit with multiple units in a round? If there isn't, I would suggest that there should be one incorporated (such as the second hit that round does X more in morale or gets +X in penetration/damage, third hit...) to represent being surrounded/suppressed/ganged up on. If there isn't a mechanism for this multiplier it makes the game very one dimensional in the attack phase and leaves out several factors that could make the game much more interesting.
- Last point was ammo, don't feel it really added anything to the game and force additional micro management. I would vote to remove it personally.

I am on to the first phase of the campaign now.

So far I like what I see but I feel that the following is missing or I am not seeing it:
- bonuses for ganging up on a unit during a round. Suggestion is to give a bonus that is cumulative for each extra attack that round directed at a specific unit (bonus might be penetration, damage, morale...)
- difference between shooting Anti Infantry Weapons and Anti Tank Weapons (tried Laser Destroyers and Las Cannons and Las Guns in different configurations). Tanks seem to be the superior unit right now due to the way Damage/Penetration and Armor work. A solution might be equipping all infantry with grenades for a boost to range 0 attacks against tanks? Or change the way Penetration/Damage interacts with Armor. I have lots more thoughts on this if you want to hear more.
- ammo seems like an unnecessary step in micro management. I think it should be removed.

The above three points would go a long way to making the gaming experience deeper and more enjoyable and streamlined.

Right now I feel like it goes as follows:
spot the enemy, stay outside there vision, shoot with tanks and artillery. If enemy attacks, they have to attack a wall of tanks (leman russ annihilator upgrade) and do minimal damage before being overwhelmed by superior tank fire. Am I wrong/doing something wrong?

Looking forward to getting through the Campaigns and providing feedback.

[zakblood]

welcome to the beta forum, i'm also new, not only to the game but unlike you, the whole universe concept of war hammer...

you have very good insights into the game so far and i'm sure your replies / impressions will be answered...

as time is running very short as you may already know, game is to be released very soon, in 8 more days...

so all comments are welcome, try and test act 2 and 3 if you can, then you may get a better understanding of the game, as act one has smaller maps, less units and also for me was harder... act 2 is for me hardest with act 3 so far the easiest, for a number of reasons, more money, more unit choices and better one to choose / select etc.... but everyone has to make there own mind up about that...

they have asked us to concentrate on these area and give as much info as possible, so good luck, enjoy and welcome again, have no idea how Orc's say hello so i'll grunt

[Paradoxical]

Thanks for the greeting.
I just today took a sneak peek at act 2 and 3 (the first missions) to see the different units involved. Played through about 3/4 of the first scenario of act 3 and found out I had made some big mistakes. Still having trouble coming to grips with the fact that terminators can't destroy (and have a tough time actually damaging) some of the ork super heavy tanks.
Will do more testing over the next 2 days and post more comments.

Good luck with the final sprint to release date.

[Kerensky]

What kind of Terminators were you using, out of curiosity. There are several variants, and some are much better at anti-tank duty than others.