History VideoGame / Warhammer40000Gladius

** '''Drukhari''': ''Elitist/Guerrilla/Gimmick''. The resident [[SpaceElves Space Dark Elves]] share a lot of similarities with their Craftworld brethren, having even better map control, since not only can they use Webway Gates to move across the map, they can also create temporary Webway Portals anywhere on the map at the cost of some influence, allowing them to relocate wherever they're needed faster than any other faction. Their playstyle revolves heavily around fast raid/ambush attacks, since most of their vehicles are fast skimmer transports and infantry units can gain researchable bonuses when disembarking, which combined with the previously mentioned Webway Portals means they can swarm your cities out of the blue at any given time. Their units, however, are glass cannons, although some of them can boost their performance by using combat drugs and all of them can benefit from global Soul Hunger abilities. Like the Craftworld Aeldari, they can only found cities on Webway Gates, so destroying those will limit their expansion opportunities. Said cities also have slower population growth and suffer heavier loyalty penalties, making their economy harder to manage.

* MechanicallyUnusualClass: The Space Marines are built around a One-City, all-military research challenge run. They have no WorkerUnit (so no clearing obstacles in the field) or economic research. To compensate, they have a bevy of {{Support Power}}s, including Tactical Doctrines (10-round buffs for different kinds of units), and an upgradeable fort that instantly captures whatever Outpost it's placed next to. They also have the ability to Deep-Strike any ground unit as long as it's in their city. This helps to compensate for their lack of forward, military-dedicated cities.

** '''Chaos Space Marines''': ''Technical/Gimmick''. Unorthodox faction that relies on a huge amount of buffs and bonuses obtained through rites performed in the name of certain Chaos gods, and often sheer dumb luck. Cultists and Chaos Space Marine units have a chance to turn into [[BodyHorror Chaos Spawn]]... or a [[DiscOneNuke Daemon Prince]] if they kill anything.

* DownloadableContent: There are ones to add the Tyranid, Chaos Space Marines, Tau, Craftworlds, and Mechanicus factions. The Reinforcements, Assault and Firepower DLC's add new unit types for the original factions - for the most part it's just some elite infantry like Tempestus Scions to add a bit of flavour but for the Space Marines, they get the Land Raider!! Without this, the Space Marines got screwed when it comes to the final units.

** Chaos mines are noted to be ''miserable,'' as much as to ensure misery for the chaos gods as to obtain useful metals.

* DeadAllAlong: Despite being RoboticUndead. Early in the Necron questline, you find [[spoiler:a Necron who tells you a lot about the artifact you're looking for]]. Later you find [[spoiler:that same Necron's corpse in a sealed tomb]], just in time for the first to reveal himself as [[spoiler:the Deceiver]].

* SquishyWizard: Generally played straight, the spellcaster heroes tend to have lower armour values compared to other heroes and most spellcaster heroes only carry a single weapon of medium power, which limits their close combat ability. Averted to a degree with the Space Marine Librarian as his armour has a good rating and he carries a bolt pistol as well in close combat. Strongly averted with the Transcendant C'tan and especially the Tesseract Vault. A starting Tesseract Vault is even tougher than a Lord of Skulls and can use the C'tan's powers. One on one, the Vault could end up scaring the Lord of Skulls away especially if you have other units approaching the battle. And with the [[DownloadableContent DLCs]], there are additional [[MagicKnight hard-as-nails magic-users]] like the Tervigon and Daemon Prince.

** The Space Marines, being based around a [[LandOfOneCity One-City Challenge]], gain control of resource nodes in a similar way to ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar.'' They need to be Captured by first moving a squad onto them, then Secured by dropping an upgradeable fortification nearby with oneof their Support Powers.

** Space Marines and Adepta Sororitas combine their food and ore resources into the nebulous ''requisition'', which represents the ability of their companies to request access to the chapter or order's limited resources.

''Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War'' is a FourX game set in the universe of TabletopGame/Warhammer40000. The game was released for PC on July 12, 2018, and originally launched with four factions: the Astra Militarum, Space Marines, Orks and Necrons. DownloadableContent later added the Tyranids, Chaos Space Marines, T'au Empire, Craftworld Aeldari, Adeptus Mechanicus, Adeptus Sororitas and Drukhari.

** '''Drukhari''': ''Elitist/Guerrilla/Gimmick''. The resident [[SpaceElves Space Dark Elves]] share a lot of similarities with their Craftworld brethren, having even better map control, since not only they can also use Webway Gates to move across the map, they can also create temporary Webway Portals anywhere in the map at the cost of some influence, allowing them to relocate wherever they're needed faster than any other faction. Their playstyle revolves heavily around fast raid/ambush attacks, since most of their vehicles are fast skimmer transports and infantry units can gain researchable bonuses when disembarking, which combined with the previously mentioned Webway Portals means they can swarm your cities out of the blue at any given time. Their units, however, are glass cannons, although some of them can boost their performance by using combat drugs and all of them can benefit from global Soul Hunger abilities. Like the Craftworld Aeldari, they can only found cities on Webway Gates, so destroying those will limit their expansion opportunities. Said cities also have slower population growth and suffer heavier loyalty penalties, making their economy harder to manage.

* AttackAttackAttack: The playstyle of the Orks revolves around being as aggresive as possible. They get influence everytime they attack an enemy unit, and get ore for every unit they kill. Also, staying in the fight and generating influence increases their Waaagh! counter, which gives them a global damage bonus for each Waaagh! level. Conversely, not generating enough influence through fighting will cause your Waaagh! counter to fall into the negatives, which carries global damage penalties for each negative level.

** The Astra Militarum, if you have the Assault DLC, gain access to the trusty Chimera, which besides its default lascannon and heavy bolter, features lasgun arrays that can be used if any unit is being transported. Being a tier 1 unit, it gives the Imperial Guard a much needed boost in the early game. Once Voidports are available they can get air transport via Valkyrie Gunships.

** Chaos Space Marines, for their part, have access by default to the good ol' Rhino, which besides their combi bolter and a researchable havoc launcher is also covered with spikes to run over infantry and heals some hp each turn. If you have the Assault DLC, they get their own version of the Land Raider.

** The Drukhari ''love'' this trope. Not only almost all of their vehicles are transports (even the Venom, their most basic skimmer, has 1 slot of capacity), you can research buffs your units can gain upon disembarking. Also, unlike any other faction, Drukhari infantry do not consume their action or movement points when disembarking.

* BeamSpam: Necrons gauss weapons fire [[SicklyGreenGlow green]] energy beams. Monoliths and Doomsday Arks in particular fire wildly in all directions whenever they use their secondary gauss arrays. The Astra Militarum are also very fond of laser weaponry, ranging from the humble las-gun carried by their infantry to the las-cannons and multi-lasers mounted on vehicles.

* ColdSniper: Ratlings for the Astra Militarum, Deathmarks for the Necrons, Rangers for the Craftworld Aeldari, Pathfinders for the T'au, Skitarii Rangers for the Adeptus Mechanicus.

* DamageReduction: Some units take significantly less damage from range, melee or both after deductions are made from armor due to abilities or terrain. For example Castelan Robots originally took 30% less damage from ranged attack because of their defense grid passive ability, while the Space Marine Captain takes 50% less damage from everything because of his Iron Halo and the Hero passive trait.

* GameMod: Ranges from ''Dawn of War''-level graphics and adding the Citadel Miniatures color palette, to adding in voicework for unit quips, to swapping the colors of laser beams (yellow-white) and meltaguns (red), to letting Guardsmen dig trenches, to adding new factions, like specific Space Marine chapters, the Farsight Enclaves, and Genestealer Cults. The game features full Steam Workshop support, so installing/uninstalling mods is as easy as a touch of a button.

* GatheringSteam: Pox Walkers (a type of Creep) are already tough and hit like trucks, but their squads ''double in size'' every time they level up. If left too long, you end up with a quite literally legions of the things. At this stage, they're quite capable of ripping appart tanks.

** The Craftworld Aeldari have access to Wraithblades (axe-wielding Wraithlords) and Wraithknights, wraithbone constructs controlled by the souls of deceased Aeldari.
* HealingFactor: All Necron units can regenerate extra HP regardless of whether they acted that turn, though the game distinguishes between the healing for infantry (Reanimation Protocols) and vehicles/structures (Living Metal), with different technologies requires to increase the effectiveness of each. Malanthropes also have regeneration, while large Tyrannid creatures can regenerate with highest-tier research. Most of the Daemon Engines from the Chaos Space Marines DLC have a even stronger regeneration ability called "It will not die". Space Marine heroes have an active ability called "Healing Surge," which restores 20-40% (depending on skill level) of their HP upon use.

** The Tau have the Enlightment and Unity abilities that allow them to recruit some neutral units, demoralize enemy units and reduce enemy city loyalty, and buy resources using influence. They also have Support Modules that can be installed in Battlesuits that support them.

* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: Hostile Kastellan robots can be found wandering the wastes of Gladius and attacking anything that moves, including their former Astartes and Astra Militarum allies. Space Marines will say this more or less verbatim when in the presence of such a machine.

** Adeptus Mechanicus Cybernetica Datasmiths are heavily armed, and are able to tame wandering Castellan robots.
** Adeptas Sorroritas Hospitaliers act as {{Combat Medic}}s, and can automatically perform a ritual to gain extra Science when brought to Holy Ground.
** The Astra Militarum Techpreist Enginseer is a viable close-combat specialist thanks to their servo-arms (which have no cooldown or cost, and hit four times as hard as their power-axes), and is able to build fortifications (Bastions and Void-Shield Generators) once researched.

** Drukhari, much like their Craftworld cousins, build their cities in activated Webway Gates. Their only unit able to clear terrain are Wracks.

* AncientTomb: One drawback to the Necrons, they can only build a city on the site of a Necron tomb.

** Da Orks have the Battlewagon, which not only has a whopping 6 slots of capacity (most transports have 3 or 4), it also has two big shootas, a Zzap gun, a researchable rokkit launcha and a researchable grabbin' klaw to immobilize enemy vehicles. Until the Kill Burstas were added in the Specialist DLC, they doubled as the main tank unit for the Orks. In the late game, they also can get Gargantuan Squiggoths, huge monstrous creatures that are fitted with big shootas and a supa lobba and can quite literally stomp on the enemy.

* CherryTapping: One possible strategy as the Space Marines is to land a Fortress of Redemption 3 tiles away from an enemy city with only 2-tiles range, allowing it to fire with impunity. It'll take a while, but with enough turns (and enough units to defend the Fortress) the city will fall (particularly devastating in early-game where there are few AntiArmor units).

* CombinationAttack: Some units when paired with each other have their attacks improved.

* CutsceneIncompetence: The last SpaceMarine quest tells you that [[spoiler:just about the entire Chapter sacrificed itself to destroy a Necron force]]. Meanwhile, a prepared player will likely have ensure they have so many units and defenses the Necrons get one-shotted the moment they appear, let alone be overpowered. Even worse, you can keep playing afterwards with no difference in the map when [[spoiler:the planet is supposedly razed to bedrock]].

* DeathFromAbove: Jump troops are present and accounted for, it just wouldn't be Warhammer without them. Space Marines can drop down a Fortress of Redemption from orbit, surprising your foes with a pair of lascannons on the next turn (great for spooking neutral units). They also, as a mid-game upgrade, can launch units anywhere on the map via orbital drop pods.

* HoldTheLine: The final story mission for the Space Marines, which requires them to hold a specific relic against endless swarms of Necrons for twenty turns.

** Astra Militarum cities have Edicts, such as a recruitment drive and increased quotas for manufactorums, soylens viridian farms, etc.

* UnwinnableByMistake: Some MassMonsterSlaughter quest requirements can't be completed if you've already cleared out every neutral enemy, since they won't respawn.

** Necrons, being machines, have no use for food and instead sustain their infantry upkeep with ore. Conversely, most necron units are purchased primarily with energy, since necron units are not built but rather re-activated within their tombs.