The Game
The missions themselves usually start with your commander and a few troops securing an area and this is where the resource management and building aspects of the game come in. From these meagre beginnings you have to establish a base, collect resource points and build an army capable of taking on your enemies and defeating them. The actual resource side of things is kept pretty simple with various points on the map needing to be held to get the points needed to build your army. Added into this is a need for power for particular troops, buildings or vehicles. Luckily, you can build power generators pretty much anywhere you like, but again, these come at a resource point cost.The focal point of your game will be the resource points which you’ll want to take, hold and fortify early on in each mission. Play the game on normal difficulty though and just two resource points are enough to win any map as the enemy rarely attacks in numbers large enough to overwhelm any but the weakest of the defences. In addition to resource and strategic points, there are also relic sites. These are site of religious importance and are needed to be able to access the most powerful units you can build. One mission sees you needing to capture all the relic sites on the map as well as destroy the enemy, though this is one of the few times that the relic sites play any major role.
In addition to building troops and vehicles, there is a comprehensive collection of buildings you will need to have to access the more powerful weapons in the game. Many of these are inter-dependant on other buildings such as a relic building (not to be confused with a relic site) cannot be built until you have upgraded or built other structures first.
Once you have established your base you can get on with building your army and upgrading their weapons, and a simplistic but effective research tree is on offer here to do this. The dilemma you’ll face here is with what to do first. Do you go for armour enhancement to give you marines better protection and hit points, or should you upgrade their weapons for greater hitting power and accuracy? The same applies to the buildings. Do you use what resource points you have to build a vehicle producing building, or save up a few more points and upgrade your outposts to collect more resources and defend it better? You’ll have to think quickly and make the right decisions as all the while you’ll be defending yourself from attacking Orks, Eldar and Chaos marines.