40k Regicide

[LongBlade]

and they sung...

This was never the way I planned
Not my intention
I got so brave, drink in hand
Lost my discretion
It's not what I'm used to
Just wanna try you on
I'm curious for you
Caught my attention

I kissed a heretic and I liked it
The taste of his cherry thick stick
I kissed a heretic just to try it
I hope the Emperor don't mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don't mean I'm in love tonight
I kissed a heretic and I liked it
I liked it

Heh. Nice :)

[JasonPratt]

Back on topic, the game seems to be only inspired by chess. A lot of extra fluff is being included. A pawn can throw a grenade which damages pieces in a radius, for example; there aren't one-hit kills (necessarily); etc.

If this is WH40K Chess Bowl, I may be on board.

[Tpek]

Game is now officially out of Early Access.

Soo... is it worth it? JH?

[JasonPratt]

I'm downloading right the hell now, but still needs another 15 minutes to cook. 

[JasonPratt]

Wow, this is gibbiest game I can ever recall playing...  :o Like, multiple stomachs left on the field to trample a piece over afterward. Do 40K Orkz even have stomachs?? (Come to think of it, are vanilla Warhammer orks primate fungi like the 40K orks?)

So, the "classic" mode is chess, and we all know what chess is, moving on.

The Regicide mode, and its fifty mission Dark Angels campaign  :o , gives off a strong Space Hulk: Ascension vibe, and I mean that as a compliment. Chess rules still apply, so you can still get instant kills that way, but there are a ton of other things happening on the board on any turn, too. Everyone has at least a minor ranged attack (I think? Maybe not everyone.) So a tactical marine pawn can trod forward two squares, then turn to shoot a Stormboy, then Go To Ground for defense -- frankly I'm surprised there isn't a kneeling animation in the game for that (maybe the devs will add it later?) Each player has extra points each turn to spend on special abilities, whether from the piece that just moved, for from some other piece. And there are terrain effects on the field, though I've only seen blocking ones so far.

There are some minor bugs to be hunted, but I only saw text descriptions with empty strings. The final coup de grace of beating an enemy king really should involve one of the pieces directly threatening it, since that actually happens on the field after the cinematic -- but obscured by the UI, so why bother exactly??

The opening cinematic gives off a strong Event Horizon vibe, which could be an intentional and appropriate homage (since EH often seems to be homaging 40K.) I can't figure out how what I saw there jibes with the main campaign setting yet, but then I haven't started the main campaign yet. Pieces earn experience across the campaign, again much as in SH:Asc. Apparently pieces are treated like figurines in multi-player, and their xp is also tracked. MP requires signing up with an account somewhere off-Steam, which I haven't done yet, and might not ever do.

[JasonPratt]

In other words, yes it's a legitimate 40K tactical turn-based game in Regicide mode.

[tgb]

I just got a lot more interested.  How is the A.I.?

[JasonPratt]

For Regicide mode? (Haven't played the mere chess yet.) Could be a lot better. Once subtle but important factor is that during the movement phase you MUST move one piece with a legal move. Naturally, as in chess, it's better not to move a piece somewhere it can be instantly taken by a move next turn -- this is more important in the campaign because you'll pick up extra XP for not losing any pieces (which by proportion discourages setting up traps, but those aren't important this early in the campaign with pawns vs pawns) -- but the AI in Regicide doesn't recognize this, so will move an ork up to where it can be easily taken by another pawn, even when it has another legitimate move it could make.

Also, it seems to randomly select targets for ability attacks, even when it could focus fire on a wounded piece and almost surely take it down. I've played two missions, and I've seen this happen at least twice, maybe three times.

It has been taught to pass a turn making no special abilities at all, so that it can accrue initiative points for a future turn; and it has been taught it ought to throw a grenade when seeing a cluster of enemies; but it hasn't been taught to blitz with its accrued points in order to take out an enemy more surely, and it hasn't been taught that grenades are really only useful for finishing off a near-dead enemy in a way that spreads a bit of incidental damage around at the same time. (Admittedly I didn't realize this either until after a couple of grenade tosses, but presumably the designers would know it already.)

I don't think I'm playing on some specially easy difficulty either.

But it's possible that this is a handicapped AI early in the campaign, and/or meant to simulate the tactical foolishness of mere line Boyz. I should probably play a skirmish and see if the same behaviors continue.


In other criticisms, either I don't understand the XP application after the battle at all, or the game automatically applies xp without an option to let me do it -- and is automatically applying the xp to piece types other than my Tac Marines (Pawns)! Because two other types of piece are gaining xp despite having played no missions, and my Tacs apparently are gaining no XP. I can't understand how that could possibly be anything other than a bug; or if it isn't then, again, I don't understand the application logic at all, and the game isn't explaining it.

[tgb]

If there are no difficulty levels to set, I would assume the earliest campaign missions are deliberately set at the "dummy" level. I'm going to go on the Steam forum and ask about the other issues.

[tgb]

Here's my post and the response from the developer on the Steam forum:

Me:

I'm strictly a single player kind of guy, so the quality of the AI is important to me. I'm hearing that AI isn't too great in the campaign in Regicide mode - namely moving pieces to locations where they can be captured, and not ganging up on a wounded piece to take it out. Is the AI hobbled in the early campaign missions, and does it improve as you go along?

I also heard a report that pieces not involved in a battle get experience. Is that a bug, or something the player just didn't understand?

Developer's Response:

As the Campign goes along, the A.I does ramp up. It's just one of the ways we've increased difficultly and challenge as the player progresses.

As for pieces getting experience, how it all actually works is the player gets XP for every game they play, and every primary and secondary objective they complete in the campaign. All units have 3 different tiers available, which all unlock at different times along the XP tree. So units don't actually acumlate XP but at the end of a mission or skirmish, it's actually showing how soon you unlock each new tier for each unit, does that clear things up?

[JasonPratt]

Thanks for checking, TGB! I verified a minute ago there are no difficulty settings in campaign, so that answer makes sense.

The answer about the xp makes sort of sense, except it makes no sense why I'd be unlocking heavy weapons tiers faster than tac marines (which apparently have more tiers? Heavies only have 5?) I'll try to take a screenshot after a mission to explain what I'm seeing.

[tgb]

I bought it, played the tutorial, and started the first campaign mission, which after a handful of turns ended as a "draw", because there was still one Ork left.

Is there a time limit I'm not aware of?

[tgb]

As I progress into the campaign I realize that this isn't a strategy game as much as it is a puzzle game.  In order to avoid the monotony of the standard chess setup in every mission, the designers have created a series of chess puzzles with some tactical combat on top - i.e. eliminate all the pawns in 5 moves (turns), get checkmate in 7 moves, etc.

All of which is OK, but know what you're buying.

[Tpek]

(Come to think of it, are vanilla Warhammer orks primate fungi like the 40K orks?)

TBH I always wondered that as well.
They never quite game the same amount of interesting fluff&info about Orcs (in the fantasy setting) as much as they did about Orks (in the 40K setting).

[JasonPratt]

Oddly, I don't recall any move-limit goals at all in the first two or three missions. (I can't recall if I've played the 3rd mission yet.)

I do know a stalemate will happen if no piece has a legal move remaining, which would be relatively easy to get for a pawn-only game where promotions are disabled (as in the first missions). Still, every move involves one pawn moving one square (or two depending on how far back they start), but with three or four attacks per turn (depending on whether someone walks into traditional pawn-attack range, which is an instant kill assuming the player takes it), so I don't know how anyone could get a draw in the first couple of missions unless they were intentionally spreading out damage as thinly as possible.