Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War

This is the game that ive been searching for. Got me into warhammer. Very well done game! No obnoxious 4x bullshit in this game, just cutting right to war and killing stuff. Super fun

Started playing the game with minimal interest, just wanting to get a feel for the game... 6 hours later I realised I had lost half a day and really enjoyed the time spent playing the game. Was not expected but highly appreciated.

I don't play many turn based games but this game really gives you "just one more turn" energy. You will have to buy DLCs to enjoy a more complete unit rosters an also play as and against the DLC factions.

Wait until March for the Skulls event to happen to get them all decntly cheap

Screw companies that slice their game up in million pieces and sell you overpriced crumbs of it.

It's a great RTS game, lore accurate. It's great.

Gladius wont play any more after i restarte it ?? what do y think. Somthing or i did or do i need to reinstail det game again and or just get my money back ?? it a Cool Game, love the Turnbase Combate plus the Extra DLC

Base game on Sale is not a bad pick. BUT the DLC policy is a hard no.

If you buy on sale the base game and never look at the DLCs and what they offer you will be okay and i recomend it.

But if you look into the DLCs you see a finished game how it should be. If you take the Base game on top you looking at a 200 Dollares pricetag. For a 7 Year old game not a good deal at all.

WHAT IS THIS GAME: Lots of people are comparing it to a 4x, Civ type game, but IMO this is more inspired by the kinds of the "Battle Isle" series of the 1990s. Concepts that have been distilled in all sorts of games including Advance Wars, to name a very different game in tone.

So IMO you should rather think of it as a turn-by-turn Command & Conquer. This is more what you would imagine getting out of that game. In a very well rendered 40K ambiance.

PRICE : as for the price of the game and dlc, I decided for the base game on sale with the Specialist Pack and Reinforcement Pack to have a very functional Space Marines faction to play with. It cost 20 euros. If I like the game enough, I might buy Faction Extensions when on sale. So, no reason to be VERY upset here.

RECOMMENDED : it will scratch a particular itch in a way no many other games will. I would compare it to Bloodbowl in that regard. Not many substitutes.

In Gladius, players choose from four initial factions—Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard), Space Marines, Orks, and Necrons—each with unique units, technologies, and playstyles. Unlike traditional 4X games, Gladius focuses exclusively on warfare, omitting diplomacy and trade elements. The gameplay involves exploring a randomly generated hex-grid map, expanding territory, exploiting resources, and exterminating rival factions.

The game offers both single-player and multiplayer modes, including hotseat play. Players can engage in battles against AI opponents or compete with others online.

Overall, Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War offers a combat-focused strategy experience that may appeal to fans of the Warhammer 40,000 universe, though it may not satisfy players seeking the full range of traditional 4X gameplay elements.

7/10

Best 4K game I've played over 50 years or so of gaming.

Great Civ-style forex strategy game with in the Warhammer 40k universe focusing on battle and engaing yr enemies rather than any diplomatic approaches like most other strategy games.

Luvvin it.. can't wait to try all the factions... DLCs bit pricey and numerous but for now enjoying the huge discounted deal on the vanilla version... Recommended

No diplomacy. No mercy. No friends.
Just war – glorious, turn-based, grimdark war.

Gladius is not your typical 4X game. There’s no trading. No peace talks. Only survival, steel, and bolter fire. Every faction plays wildly different, and the lore oozes from every tile.

It’s not perfect – the UI can get clunky, and the AI isn’t exactly a tactical genius. But damn… when your Space Marines hold the line while Necron death-beams light up the sky? You feel it. In your soul.

A game for Warhammer fans. And war fans. And fans of suffering. In a good way.

✅ Pure 40k atmosphere
✅ Satisfying combat mechanics
✅ Asymmetric factions
❌ Can get grindy late-game
❌ No diplomacy (that’s the point tho)

Final Verdict:
8/10 – One planet. Endless war. And I loved every miserable minute.

I got so much bored with this game. Nothing looks cool in this universe. Its bland music and sound also is making me sleepy. I am not even going into the problem of so many dlcs. Maybe if I had them it could be a bit better, but I am sure with this foundation of boredom, the result will be a bit fancier boredom. Don't be tempted by your love warhammer 40k as I did, keep away from this game.

Lovely game, very addictive. Each mission takes a substantial amount of time (8-9 hours if you are methodical like me). Extensive strategy throughout, many ways to play, multiple races, beautiful graphics and music, deep lore, what more could you ask for?

This isnt civilization. There is only war.

Pretty in depth combat. Could use more intro and campaigns though

A pretty solid 4x game. I think it should have not had most of its content split off into "dlc's" but oh well. I enjoy the variety of units and faction specialties. Some did feel like reskins but a majority of them felt new and unique. I can't say I would play it for hundreds of hours but I would play it to scratch that 4x itch mostly because its easy to hop into a game and they go quick. I think that the game does have balancing issues but those would only rear their head in multiplayer when someone can use them to their full potential. All in all I give it a 6.5/10

Enjoyable turned-based strategy still getting regular updates in the form of not unreasonably priced DLC. 1000+ hours of play, no complaints!

complex and cool W40k game

Not a perfect game, but a very good one. One that I plan on playing much more of.

Pros:
Tons of content
Depth of gameplay
Warhammer 40k
Graphics are good enough

Cons:
UI is very barebones and can be confusing
most of the cool stuff is paid dlc

Civ 5 mixed with 40k and tons of mods 10/10

Worth it on a sale

Absolutely fun with mods and friends (if you have any)

Good strategy game, love the troop variety

so far its a bada$$ game

This game's tutorial does a terrible job explaining the game to anyone who doesn't already know how to play it....

5/5; would recommend
This is a fun and faithful adaption of the talbletop to computer game for 40K.
In my opinion Games Workshop should work with Proxy Studios more and expand this game alongside the tabletop when it comes to new releases of races/factions within the universe of 40K.
My only downsides to this game is the lack of differing play spaces, while yes you can customize the board in the pregame options I do believe the game would benefit from having "premade" biome-maps and some more set pieces like the obvious Cadia map with a lot of Guard themed map objectives. The second one, and the biggest of the two for me, is the lack of unit voices. It is not the deal breaker for me but it does weigh it down, especially when you're playing for hours on end and your units are just standing there silent. I know voice acting costs extra money but should there be an update where they do add voices to units it would be welcomed if not, oh well, the game is still fun.

Cool game that charges so much for the DLC that it's not even worth trying, unless you're willing to spend over 100 dollars on a game that should never go over half that cost.

Simple game to get into, you can add depth and complexity, increase difficulty and try new methods of defeating your enemies

A large selection of factions to choose from

It reminds me somewhat of EU4, but with a whole lot less busy work.

Great game

it hits everything i would want fro ma 40k civ

A must have for 40K fans. It's a bit heavy on the DLCs, but then it's been around for quite a while now and in my opinion most of them are worth it.

Would be nice if the game didn't constantly crash, esp. with me running an update rig

Great soundtrack and very addictive game play in the 40K universe. I always have a hard time stopping when playing this game. Just one more turn....

It's like SMCiv-lite, with more of an emphasis on combat. Tight tactical gameplay, but really tough. AI are relentless. It's weird that Astartes can only have one city, and it's crap that you have to buy DLC for every single new faction, when there aren't that many factions to begin with. Still, I'll probably end up buying all of 'em. It's a pretty fun game.

i love it plz give Me Custodes

cozy game, very high replay value

great mash up between red alert 2 and civilization style play. great strategy game, praise the Emporer

This is one of the worst strategy games I've ever played and I genuinely think the devs made this game on bad purpose. It's probably an experiment to see how well a game can sell with the Warhammer 40k IP slapped on it. I've played free browser games with more strategy and better balance.

Furthermore, the fact that they're still churning out DLC for units that would take 1 person 1 day to make is very telling.

Check out Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War (the first one) if you're interested in the Warhammer 40k universe. It has all the same factions and units, and it's much cheaper and far more polished.

If you have ever played a game from the civilization series, this game is that but Warhammer 40k. It is incredibly fun but you only get 4 factions to play around with while atleast 7 other factions are each seperately locked behind a 15$ price tag which is buns. (They even sell "unit packs" which cost more money and will give you one unit for each faction that you also pay for, ew)

CATCH IT ON A SALE, especially if you are thinking about getting the DLC. I got the game for 5$ which was a heck of a deal and honestly I would have bought atleast some of the DLC as well if I knew the game was going to be this fun. Space Marines are a good starting faction.

Game can be a bit tough at first especially with the roaming neutral monsters on the map that can appear and attack you from the fog of war before you see them but once you play a match or two its not that difficult to get the hang of and learn to play a little defensive at the beginning.

A great strategy game, even in 2025.

great game for turned based so much detail and animations are spot on

great game but as some terrible balancing issue. i can't even enjoy a normal ai battle .i try many settings . the ai cheats beyond any ai i ever seen. its terrible. i would of enjoy this game if it wasn't the ai cheating and the wild life been op some time. like it makes it a frustrating experience . i really wanted to enjoy this game i try my best but now i am done with this mess.

Nothing is balanced and it should be kept that way. Fun game to play with friends. Pick it up on sale but not a full price kind of game.

Excellent turn based strategy game.

Steep learning curve but very immersive

Its just great, a little pricey with all the DLC though.
On the bright side, you can pick and choose.

I play it with my brother in coop campaigns and its quite enjoyable, more so if you are a Warhammer40k fan.
The only minus is, that the PCs cheat heavily, would be great if they also got smarter instead of just having endless units on the hardest difficulties.

It's fun, can be a little lacking but still fun

Great game but the launcher is terrible. It crashes for me about 40-50% of the time.

A fun little game, but I recommend getting this if it's 20$ or less