Caltrops - Reviews - Warhamer Armageddon first impressions

Forum Overview :: Reviews

by Mischief Maker 01/03/2016, 8:50am PST

I picked this up on winter sale.

I'm... not sure how I feel about this game so far. It's Essentially a modern version of Panzer General in the Warhammer 40K universe. On one hand, aside from the HD, the graphics could have come out of the mid-90s, units don't even animate when they move! On the other hand, they've rendered over 300 WH40K units in the game, none of which have identical stats, and their icons are accurate down to the shape of the gun barrels.

The whole game you have a core group of soldiers that gain XP and veterancy and carry over from mission to mission (including the tutorial). Between every mission you can spend requisition points to swap between different weapon setups of the same class (infantry can only become a different kind of infantry, tanks can only become different types of tanks) so you can mix and match to meet the needs of any mission. Big thumbs down to the manual and tutorial for not explaining the math of the rules which is kind of essential when trying to decide which model of tank (out of hundreds) to pick.

I do appreciate how instead of going full-bore goofball like the Dawn of War games, they take the same approach as the Dredd movie of putting the grimdark front and center (you can't even finish basic training without someone getting shot in the head for insubordination) with all the satire and silliness as an aftertaste.

Still, buying this game you're paying BOTH a grognard tax for a Slitherine game AND a grognard tax for the 40K setting.