Beat on Hard. I initially tried this during a free trial on xbox and enjoyed it well enough. I beat the tutorial with only 1 priest surviving the last mission. I set up my 2 starting priests as a healer and a sniper, both armed with a basic energy pistol and acid physical damage pistol. I did not get very far before decided to buy the game, and it was much cheaper on steam, so I restarted. At first I was disappointed that there was no longer a physical damage pistol to equip at the beginning. I realized the Heretic dlc was included on xbox but was separate on PC. It was still overall cheaper on PC, but I decided not to buy the dlc because it was only 50% off; they can do better. The first mission I completed rewarded a physical damage pistol, so there was little change. In fact I think the game without the dlc was better because the dlc weapons were better than the base weapons without needing to be unlocked.
I had my priests dual wielding energy pistols for the first mission, then swapped 1 out for a physical pistol. I proceeded through the game by focusing on short term goals; which mission had the most useful rewards. Again I had 1 guy a sniper and the other a healer, though that range increase first ability in the sniper tree was important for everyone. The third priest maxed out the leader tree, and the ability to call in reinforcements anywhere on the map proved to be incredibly useful; I knew that instantly just from reading the description. Then I had him go into the melee tree to be a tank. Priest 4 I made into sniper with a bit of healer. I got priest 5 at the very end of the game and had focus on physical damage, since both snipers went pure energy. I used servitor minions for all missions except boss fights (because better units cost resources), where I brought in a mix of melee and ranged elite units, though I never unlocked the best units. The most difficult battle was around when the sword and shield guards were introduced and the team was surrounded by about 6 of them, and a few immortals. I did not think I would win this battle, but I managed to scrape by with only all minions dying. Had to kill the immortals first while I tried to hold a line against the closest enemies. That line did not last long as more guards closed in from behind. The only way I won was because 1 sniper hid on an L shaped peninsula near the start with the leader priest blocking access. This meant the guards could not reach him for counterattacks. The other 2 priests ran away to the rear, then I had them all attack from both directions to keep the guards running back and forth so they never got close enough to attack. I killed 3 bosses. The diseased guy was pretty much soloed by reinforcements that I summoned on top of him, while the priests slowly made their way up. I had to change some weapons around after this fight because I had too many CP requiring ones, and this battle was light on CP. The admiral from the start of the game was absolutely wrecked by my snipers and never even got to attack. The astronomer was a tougher fight because of how his minions would take hits for him, but he only got a single attack off. By then the timer was at 91% and I went for the final boss. There were architect and vizier bosses that I wrecked without trouble. I rushed the architect with my 3 axe users while destroying some of his shield generators along the way. The axes shredded his armor. I summoned a melee minion to distract the vizier, and he went down very quickly after the architect. The final boss went down in 2 turns and he got 2 attacks off. He went and crit 1 of the snipers and probably would have killed him with a second attack, but instead did an area attack against the 3 axe users I had rush him.
I found the highest threats to be the snipers and flying melee, so they had to be killed as soon as possible. The snipers were very annoying with their teleporting around and overwatch, but they often put themselves in places where they could not hit anyone. The overwatch could be countered with my tank and his damage reduction generator. They were also vulnerable to summoning a melee unit on top of them. The air guys needed the melee knockback rods to avoid attacks of opportunity, but the plus was that by them foolishly rushing ahead of their allies, they were easy to focus down. All other enemies I killed as they got into range. The healers and scarabs could be annoying with their healing, and the immortals could do significant damage at range. The warriors and flayed ones were not a big threat, and the guards were slow and easily exploited. I loved how each unit could perform multiple attacks and abilities all on their turn, so they could attack with 2 guns, melee axe, and the melee rod while still using other support gadgets and special abilities. I also loved how CP could be spent to increase the movement range of the priests. I did not like the multiple choice nature of events during the missions because it was impossible to tell which choice was correct. All that did was encourage save scumming, though I only did that for the boss fights. It would have been better if these choices were meaningful with pros and cons for each choice that would affect your overall strategy. I never used any of the big weapons because I did not see the value in focusing so much CP on a single character, and tried to prioritize gathering currency to level up my priests.
My team:
Brother Jeremiah: Rank 16, maxed sniper, enough healer for auto repair, 1 point into mechanic for +1 CP if there is no CP, and 1 point into tech for the -2CP for a weapon attack ability. His gear was 2 basic +energy damage boosters (free use for sniper), 2CP arc rifle, 2CP energy pistol, full sniper armor with legs swapped for healer (for a total of 3 energy armor), 3 physical damage rod, and 2 hp healing rod. I loved the combo of the tech ability for a free weapon attack combined with both energy damage boosters for big damage with both weapons. He was a killer with his very high energy damage, but required a lot of CP to attack.
Father Manarius: Rank 17, maxed healer, 2 point into sniper for range and +energy damage gloves, 5 points into mechanic for +CP on kills and allowing the skull to gather more than 1 CP (which was amazingly useful). His gear was level 3 healing claw, basic scanner (occasionally useful to get 1 CP), basic physical pistol, basic energy pistol, mechanic head, healing torso and legs, 3 physical damage rod, 2 healing rod, level 3 axe. He had 3 energy armor and 1 physical. This character was more for tanking and support than outright damage, often preferring to go gather CP than fight. His low CP and free attacks made him useful all the time, and the prayer to fully restore all priest hp was amazing.
Inquisitor Leonardus: Rank 18, maxed leader, 2 points into sniper (but it was a waste to get those energy damage gauntlets), 3 points into mechanic for that sweet gather all CP with the skull, 3 points into melee for avoiding opportunity attacks. His gear was the 8 damage reduction generator, level 3 healing claw, 2 gamma pistols (which did free armor ignoring damage and could destroy energy armor when in spirit mode), mechanic head, melee torso, leader gloves and legs, 2 healing rod, level 3 melee range CP jabber, level 3 axe. He had 2 physical armor and 1 energy. This was an odd character but he was highly effective. I found it incredibly useful to have attacks that did not cost CP, so he could whittle anything down. I often had him run into melee with that shield on, use the jabber and attack with axe so that I came out with a net profit of 1 CP. His reinforcements ability came in handy too.
Alchemist Oriocus: Rank 16, maxed sniper, 4 points in healer for auto repair and distant heal, 1 point in tech for the –CP weapon attack. His gear setup was the same as Jeremiah, but I swapped the arc rifle for a basic energy pistol because I wanted more free attacks. He had 3 energy armor and 3 unused augment slots, and was used the same as the other sniper. I really liked this build.
Noob Tauth: Rank 10, 5 points into melee for bonus spirit damage, 2 points into mechanic for that sweet CP skull collection, 1 point into sniper. His gear was gamma pistol, 2 CP flamethrower, mechanic head, melee torso and gloves, 1 physical damage rod, 2 healing rod, level 3 axe. He had 2 physical armor, 1 energy armor, and no pants. Unfortunately I did not have enough resources to fully equip him. I wanted him to be a physical damage specialist to offset my 2 energy damage specialists, and he did ok. If I could get him higher rank he would get the damage reduction generator, better physical rod, CP jabber and probably a healing claw.
I had 5 out of 6 priest slots, 9 of 12 deployment slots and +4 max CP unlocked. My minions were servitor level 3, ranger alpha level 2, ranger level 3, vanguard level 2, and vanguard alpha level 1. I used + damage canticles, at the end having +8 raw damage, +9 physical damage and +9 energy damage. I used those to burst down key targets. I am not very familiar with the Warhammer universe, so this game was both interesting and annoying. I had little idea about the outside lore, but the plot was interesting enough. There was way too much technobabble with made up nonsense words, including the names of the classes and most items. It was stupid how the good guys spoke in gibberish machine language or something while the bad guys spoke normal English. Why bother hiring voice actors to speak nonsense? I really liked the difficulty options because it allowed you to fine tune many mechanics independently for a custom experience, though I decided not to mess with it. On top of that were the iron man and permadeath options; not things I would be into but vastly increases the replayability of the game. This was an enjoyable solid game that I will definitely play again on the hardest difficulty. Maybe with a mod to speed up animations because that was getting on my nerves a bit.
7.7/10
