A mobile game based on Warhammer 40k

We are continuing our look at Warhammer 40k Tacticus, a turn based strategy game that I’ve been recently playing on mobile.

You can check out our Introduction, Character & Resources articles from previous Tacticus Tuesdays. Last week I also showed what a 10 Requisition Drop looked like and whilst I wasn’t as fortunate as I could have been it was a good haul. This week I’ll look at Campaign Battles which is what you’ll spend most of your game time interacting with.

Campaign Battles

Campaign Battles are where you can gain most of the character shards and upgrades, and where you spend energy. All of these concepts will be dealt with in a later article, but for now the Campaign Battles.

At time of writing there are 6 Campaigns in Tacticus and you’ll characters to unlock 5 of them – we start in the Indomitus Campaign (I assume there’ll be a tie in to Leviathan later in the year). The other Campaigns are:

• Fall of Cadia (playing as Chaos)
• Octarius (playing as Orks)
• Indomitus Mirror (playing as Necrons)
• Fall of Cadia Mirror (playing as Astra Militarum)
• Octarius Mirror (playing as Black Templars)

These are unlocked when you obtain 3 specific characters in the allegiance that is leading the campaign. For this article, we’ll just look at Indomitus which is the first campaign and forms part of the Tutorial.

Where to find Campaign Battles

In the Battles section (bottom of the screen, 4th icon) you’ll be brought to this. If there are events ongoing they’ll appear first and then the three campaigns and 3 mirror campaigns. The number in the bottom left is the number of stars unlocked – see later.

Click on the Campaign you want to play – I’ll do Indomitus.

Selecting your battle

Each campaign has 75 missions and you initially play them in order, but once you have done them once (on any number of stars) you can replay them in Campaign battle mode to improve your stars, get coins and experience, or to (maybe) get an upgrade.

Each Campaign has 5 parts, of 15 battles and the last battle will help unlock a character. Once completed, you can come back and get character shards from these. (In the above example I’ve completed all the battles at 3 stars). The green plus signs against some of the battles means that at least one of your characters needs these items.

Click on the mission you want to play.

Mission Information

The introduction sheet will show you the difficulty of the mission the enemies you will be fighting an what rewards are available. The dice above the Purity Seal means that this is not guaranteed – click on the dice to see the odds. The number in the laurel leaves (10) shows how many times you can play the mission in the day. The Battle button shows how much Energy is needed to play the mision – it will either be 5 or 6.

Click the Battle button to continue.

Deployment

Before starting you get to pick the characters you’d like to use in the battle – these are limited by the Campaign you are playing. Indomitus requires Imperial troops so there’s loads of options.

Deploy your chosen characters in the blue hexagons, check the blue number (right) against the red number (left) to see the power of your troops and the power of the enemies’. [6358 – 197 means I should be winning this.]

Turn 1

In Campaign battles you will always get the first turn, but the Lightning requirement (top right) will encourage you to go for the quick kills and win. In my first turn I have moved my characters as far as possible. Only Belator (blue chap on the left) can reach the enemy as he can fly – so he kills a Necron.

Turn 2

I can now attack the enemy. I have killed some of the enemy, but my Librarian is not able to reach the enemy due to the barbed wire under Ulf (the Space Wolf). My last character to move is the scout so I’ve selected him and you’ll see that he can move 2 hexes in a turn. He normally attacks with his Bolt weapon, but does have the ability once a game to get a better kill.

You will also see that the Necrons all have yellow damage bars and skulls – this means I can attack any of the three, and should kill the one I attack.

Turn 3 & Victory

In turn 3, I finish off the remain 2 Necrons and the game tells me how well I did:

At the very top it shows any achievements I have advanced, the number of stars (based on how many characters you lose in a game (none lost = 3 stars, 1 loss = 2 stars, 2 losses+ = 3 stars)).

It also says if you’ve done it quickly (Lightning) which will get you a small bonus. In this case the amount of coins is doubled. Each character who participated will get XP based on their appearance and kills.

Finally you will see what you have won – 13 coins, a purity seal and some progress towards the current event. I can fight this campaign battle another 9 times today if I need more Purity seals.

Press continue!

Progressing the Campaign

Before you have achieved 3 stars for a campaign battle you can win additional items – an these are not random. In the example above from the Indomitus Mirror Campaign I win an upgrade for each star and was also lucky enough to get the additional upgrade as well. There is no lightning bonus here though as I progressed a little more carefully through this battle.

And that’s Campaign Battles. They’re good fun if – like me – you like turn based combats, and they can be done quickly – perfect for that short gap or whilst waiting for the train to arrive.

Woehammer Articles

I’ll be bringing you regular articles on the game as I progress and learn more; with the first articles being about some of the concepts of the game including the large number of resources available. I hope you’ll join me; and let us know if there’s anything in particular you would like me to cover.

Let me know what you think of this reveal article… I may repeat it the next time I’ve got 10 Requisition Orders to see if I can be more lucky next time. In the mean time, if you are playing Tacticus good luck and see you next week.

Linking up

If you think this game may interest you, follow along this series of articles. I have been playing for a while already so some of it will based on what I know from further down the process. Woehammer isn’t receiving any sponsorship for this article (it’s just Declan and Eeyore – and Peter – having fun), but if you want to support me on my Tacticus exploration then please use my referral code: LIT-20-RAP

Thank you to the 3 players who have used the referral code already. It’s great fun to get occasional updates on your progress and thanks for the Blackstone.

See you all next week!

— Declan and Eeyore