Disclaimer: All ridicule, sarcasm and general mockery of gamers is not intended to convey contempt or condescension. In fact, I kinda dig these gamers and their fabulous obsessions.
Warhammer 40K is a popular tabletop game with a comprehensive universe complete with lore, history, mythos and, of course, expansion packs. On a typical Saturday in the mall game store, you can witness lonely men of all ages hovered over vast expanses of terrain populated by Space Marines, Space Heretics, Space Elves, Space Zombies, Space Orcs and Space Demons all locked in combat. They play by a complex set of rules to maneuver their armies to victory over the entire green felt battlefield.
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Saying the Warhammer 40K universe is dark is like calling World War II “a real mess.” It’s dark. Darker than dark. No light can escape dark. I’m certainly no expert in the universe, and no doubt I will offend those who are, but I’ll try to give its description my best shot. [Clears Throat]
Tens of thousands of years from now, humanity emerges from a long period of savagery with the arrival of the Emperor. He’s the central figure in this universe except for one catch: he may be dead. Let me elaborate. He was a highly psychic figure who brought unity and order to mankind. He had twelve “sons” who administered and ruled with him. Humanity enjoyed a golden era with tremendous technological advances and spanned the galaxy.
Long story short, one of The Twelve betrayed the Emperor and maybe killed him. Whoa, that sounds religious and not science fiction-y at all you say! Yes! That sets us up for the current setting.
Humanity then descends into a futuristic extra-super Dark Ages. Technological knowledge is lost–machines that build machines are the only thing keeping mankind among the stars. The Emperor is now worshiped as a man-god. The military resembles Crusaders engaged in Holy War. Spaceships resemble cathedrals, etc.
There are vast resources if you want the complete backstory.
Even though the official game slogan is “there is only war” it could be “life sucks and then you die.” In typical British bleakness probably inspired by fun moments in European history like the Black Plague, Inquisitions and Henry VIII, life is cheap. The lore creators at Games Workshop paint a grim vision of people executed for the most minor of heresies and people dying by the billions.
Are you still with me? Whew. Take the steak knife off your wrists and join me in the good part.
Though once an avid Dungeons and Dragons gamer with a small but respectable army of miniatures, I got busy with having a wife and family. Since about age 30, I lost the drive to spend an entire Saturday at the mall or spend many hundreds of dollars on miniatures. But I do love PC games. I took a few years hiatus after my kids were born but one fateful walk-in at a GameStop in 1999 brought me back with StarCraft–an amazing real time strategy PC game. After playing that game to death for 20 years, I finally found a worthy successor: Warhammer 40K Battlesector.
Unlike real-time strategy, Battlesector is turn based and plays much like the tabletop game would except for the experience of grown men playing with battle-dolls and the smell of Doritos.
Gameplay
You start as Sergeant Carleon, a hero-character in the configuration of an assault marine. These are the units that specialize in melee combat, which considering their weapon of choice is a chainsword, is pretty badass. You and your small army are trying to reclaim your homeworld’s moon, which was overrun by a race of alien xenomorph type monstrosities called Tyranids.
The campaign, which I am still working through, takes our small army all over the moon accomplishing ever-increasingly difficult missions. With each battle, you earn upgrades in the form of new upgrades for your heroes and new unit types.
The graphics are breathtaking and the gameplay, though less complicated than the physical game, has nuances you will need to master. Concepts like zone of control (enemy passing through your space) and pistol reaction attacks (a random gift that allows you a defensive move if you’re properly facing your foe) can give you bonus attacks. Each unit has strengths and weaknesses so you get to learn these as you go along. For example, the tough Aggressor units which do crushing melee damage are nearly worthless in a ranged attack against heavily armored beasts. The Landspeeder does more damage the further away it is from the target–to a point.
Each unit has a number of movement points and one or two action points. Movement points are self-explanatory. Action points are used to fire but can also be spent on one more movement or kept as “overwatch”–a nice way to save your shot until the Tyranid’s turn and then used defensively if a unit wanders into range.
By about the third mission, you meet some of the boss Tyranid units: Razorback, Exocrine and Tyranofex. These tongue-in-cheek named units can quickly reduce your squad to beautifully rendered blood spots on the battlefield. The silly named Exocrine can hawk a lethal loogie from across the battlefield and wipe out a squad in one shot.
I play on my laptop rather than a proper gaming PC so it is a bit laggy for me. So sometimes navigation and issuing commands doesn’t work properly.
Some missions are frustrating because you need to wait until each enemy unit makes its move. On a big map where you have a small window of visibility, you can spend a while waiting for unseen units to make moves.
One thing I like about the gameplay is that you can move one unit, then another unit and then return to the first unit to make its attack. This is helpful when you have hero units which have casting abilities (a special ability to affect surrounding units). So, for example, you can get your melee units up against an enemy then use Sergeant Carleon’s ability to increase attack strength to add punch to your unit’s attack.
After a while the hazy desert landscape begins to get old though it doesn’t diminish the gameplay.
Story
Like all good tales, it’s not about the campaign, it’s about the friends you make along the way. Carleon soon meets up with Brother Arturo–he’s great because he is a healer unit. When you encounter the Tyranid Warrior unit, it can inflict 50% damage on your hero character, who you must keep alive.
We are soon joined by a heavily armored, lethal dreadnaught-librarian character named Brother Quindar and comes with his zany sidekick Techmarine Crogenax who can heal armored units. What is a dreadnaught-librarian? It’s a heavily armored tank unit that dishes out punishing damage and the librarian part means he has magic powers and talks like a dorm-room Yoda.
In a move sure to aggrieve the perpetually aggrieved feminist gamer, we meet the Sisters of Battle and their leader Sister Verity. They are tough female units. But in the first three missions involving them, we have to rescue them using lethal doses of Toxic Masculinity.
In keeping with the dreary, bleak universe, we get dialog from each of these characters. They’re not noble, they have the grim work of the Emperor to do.
But to me, it comes across as a futuristic bitch session. Carleon doesn’t like his neophyte warriors, Arturo thinks Carleon is an ignorant dick. The dreadnaught has a secret and Sister Verity in her fanatical dedication to the Emperor, doesn’t trust anybody.
The dialogue, which is intended to keep in the spirit of this universe, just ends up sounding bitchy as they all grumble about each other. Other dialogue in the neo-medieval style is cryptic and sometimes makes all the sense of psychedelic poetry. Maybe those who are well-versed in the game lore can make sense of it, but to me it’s just the garnish on the side of the plate.
Conclusion
Battlesector is a enjoyable evening of gaming and requires real strategy to accomplish the objectives. I hope that Slitherine games continues to produce Battlesector expansions. It would be fun to play a campaign against the other nasty enemies of Humanity.
