Slitherine

I thoroughly enjoyed the time, I was optimistic after watching the game from Arch Warhemmer's video but still wanted to be cautious, but now I feel secure in the time and money I invested.

The war focus of this 4x game gives it a very unique position compared to others in the genre, and fits the 40k theme. Playing with maxed out wildlife makes the planet feel hostile and gives you more to think about in terms of defense and offensive strategies against encroaching AI and the neutral monsters. They were fun to play around like a next would impeded me expanding there just as much as the AI, so it becomes far more tactical in choosing the priority target.

I was a little sad that the unit customization from Pandora was missing tho, i thought it world work great in 40k with all the different weapon and unit types, and give the diversity of Armageddon's massive unit roster, but remove the redundancy of having them all be separate pre-established builds. (Here's hoping for some kind of customization update)

There's a nice foundation of content and plenty of hours can be spent here just playing in a very default sandbox, or the different options differing terrain would lend you. All in all this game is a solid and I cant wait to sink more hours into it and further expansion and content to come with it.

...and in retrospect I'll be posting this as a steam review too cause i accidentally wrote it like one lol.

EDIT: and by the way, the unique take on difficulty and the different names for the difficulty depending on the factions is a very nice touch.

Thanks for the feedback and glad you are enjoying it.

Playing Marines (boosted Tacticals mainly, then Predators):

. 1st game:
I had to reload for dlc surprised and destroyed my back center (infantry is long to fall back).
I had to quit the frontlines, letting other factions to take the map.
After this and long time, while doing quests, I won the game by destroying factions, I decided to continue finishing the quests.
Again, with actionning last quest, I had to reload for same reason than dlc.
Finally it said I won again, but it bugged, it didn't end the mission (always unfinished status).
This last mission (far thougher than dlc) would be impossible to succeed if I went war with other, if I didn't already won the game. I had 1st to fall back all my whole army to my center before using the pyramids.

. 2nd game:
The invasion mission began middle of big scorpions near my base: They allied, I could do nothing, they supported each other, protecting the two 'nests', launching infinite troops. End of game.
As if this scorpion nest was not enough powerfull...