UPDATE JULY 22: Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector has now launched on PC.
Publisher Slitherine and Battlestar Galactica Deadlock developer Black Lab Games have announced Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector as their next turn-based strategy game revolving “around army sized turn-based strategical battles on grid-based maps.” Exploring the days after the Devastation of Baal, its campaign follows 8th Company’s Sergeant Carleon and his efforts to clear Baal Secundus of Tyranids while testing the “skills and stability of the new Primaris Space Marines.”
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector’s campaign will feature voice acting, cutscenes, and objectives like “activating relays, protecting units, collecting sacred items, or straight up wiping out all opposition.” While you won’t be able to control them in the campaign, the Tyranids are playable in both skirmish and multiplayer.
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector Gameplay and Multiplayer
As far as multiplayer goes, players can expect both online and hotseat modes. If you plan on picking the game up on PC, you’ll also have access to an exclusive Play by E-mail mode. That’s a bit of a blast from the past. LIke skirmish, multiplayer will initially only feature one objective: eradicating your opponents.
Armies in Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector range from 10 to 25 units, the number of models depending on the types of recruited units. While heroes and Dreadnoughts feature just one model, other numbers vary. A unit of Primaris Intercessors, for example, comes with five models while Hormagaunts are recruited in packs of 8.
The game will launch with 60 abilities and 50 weapons that units can wield, players having the option of customizing both their army composition and unit loadouts. “Most units” will have access to several weapons to choose from, providing flexibility, as well as their own strengths and weaknesses.
“Stats like squad size, health, movement points, action points, armor, evasion, unique abilities, weapon strength, status effects and more ensure that players will need to learn how to best employ a specific unit if they hope to succeed,” reads an emailed press release. The Predator tank, Sanguinary Priest, Primaris Aggressors and Hellblasters, Termagants, Tyrannofex, and Hive Tyrant also count among the units that you’ll have to master.
Both environmental objects and other units count as cover in Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector. Overwatch also allows you to guard areas and surprise enemies entering their line of sight with a hail of bullets. Battles will inevitably end up pushing your units into melee combat, which it’s why you’ll want to know that each attack gives the enemy a chance to retaliate.
Trying to retreat from melee or moving across adjacent tiles also triggers an attack of opportunity from your opponent. Charges are the sole way of avoiding a retaliatory attack in these situations and also getting a chance to push them back by one tile. Performing them, however, requires a straight uninterrupted line between your units and their target.
Players can call in additional air support through the HQ Command system. When fighting for the Imperium, you can bring a Stormraven in to decimate your foes or reinforce your army with Assault Marines. The Tyranids can also call in Harpies to damage the Blood Angels or deploy spore mines across the battlefield.
Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector also uses a Momentum system that “lets units surge on the battlefield, allowing them to perform superhuman chains of actions, or upgrade their abilities.” Blood Angels earn it by “killing their enemies up close.” Doing so triggers the faction’s unique Red Thirst ability, increasing the likelihood of scoring critical hits. Using all of a unit’s Momentum allows it to “either gain more action points or upgrade an ability.”
The title also includes from a Photo Mode that was showcased on the Slitherine Twitch channel back in May, as part of the Home of Wargamers 2021 Live+ event.
As of today, July 22, Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector has now launched on PC. Its Xbox One and PS4 versions are said to “follow soon.”
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