Any recommendations on the turn-based WH40K games for a WH newbie who's looking to get into WH? I know I want Mechanicus as i've heard it's good. Kinda on the fence about Armageddon as i've seen a few mixed opinions on it, though i've seen some mods that might make it better and closer to the original table top? Mind that I have no experience with the original.

Thanks in advance.

May I ask, when was WH40K: Space Wolf released on GOG?

Just today I think.

Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War

It’s a wargame with encyclopedia-like snippets for a lot of things, so a good way in my opinion to slowly learn about the Warhammer 40k universe.

• $1.49 • -75% • Final Liberation: Warhammer Epic 40,000
• $1.49 • -75% • Warhammer 40,000: Rites of War
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• $2.49 • -75% • Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate
• $2.99 • -85% • Mordheim: City of the Damned
• $3.99 • -80% • Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon - Da Orks
• $4.49 • -70% • Battlefleet Gothic: Armada
• $4.49 • -75% • Warhammer Quest Deluxe
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• $7.49 • -75% • Space Hulk: Deathwing - Enhanced Edition
• $7.49 • -75% • Warhammer 40,000: Sanctus Reach
• $7.99 • -80% • Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon
• $8.99 • -70% • Warhammer: Chaosbane
• $9.29 • -69% • Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus
• $9.59 • -76% • Warhammer 40,000: Gladius - Relics of War
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• $35.99 • -10% • Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector

Oh, thanks, that is a nice surprise!

i enjoyed Armageddon for its panzer general style, a persistent army that follows you over the course of several missions, how close the mechanics lie as compared to the tabletop is a decision i can't make since my only experience are the watch of some battles shown on youtube in various variants.

the dlc are of sufficient difficulty, that much i can tell you.

I belief that sanctus reach lies closer to the tabletop, again based on comments of others but i do feel that it fails as a single player game since the single player maps hold nothing but skirmished without any real motivations based on story or experience

mechanicus does hold a nice story to it though the maps lack variation in my opinion

Gladius seems to be an excellent try at a 4x game in the 4k universe and is as of yet the warhammer game i pumped most hours in ( that is, if i don't count the 2 fantasy warhammer games released under the total war banner )

The base game is already quite good on its own, I would suggest waiting until you’ve played several times with all provided factions before considering buying the extra factions expansions. And probably only one at a time.

For the units packs, I only buy them after I already bought all the factions they add units for.

Battlesector, it's as close to TT original, as you can get. Sanctus Reach is similar, but with worse narrative and graphics. Though the battles are much larger with knight size units.

Unfortunately, the absolute best WH40K game (though not turn-based) is not on GOG. The first Dawn of War is still a great game and it teaches you quite a lot about the universe, you can witness the conflict from 9 different perspectives if you have all the expansions (Space Marines/Chaos Space Marines/Orks/Imperial Guard/Eldar/Tau/Necrons/Sisters of Battle/Dark Eldar). The campaign's are very engaging and finishing them all will take you a while. Each faction has vastly different mechanics to them.
It's fine that GOG has so many Warhammer games, but in my honest opinion, it still doesn't make up for the absence of this single one.

Another interesting one, that GOG also dosen't have, is Space Hulk: Tactics. There has been a lot of Space Hulk games, but this is the only one that you can still buy that's faithful to the original concept of the boardgame (forget about Space Hulk: Deathwing - it only uses the name and has nothing in common with it). The rest has, since recently, become abandonware. I'd say it's a decent turn-based game, with a very cool premise, although it is difficult and even frustrating. Also it's not showing you much of the WH40K universe - it's very chamber/low-key (but of course, that's the idea).

As much as I'd love to see them both here on GOG, your only option is Steam. Out of the ones on sale on GOG right now, the only really decent one for me is Mechanicus (planning on getting it finally myself), but you already know about that one.
There's also Chaos Gate, but it's very archaic (gameplay influenced by the original X-Com) and some people seem to have problems with it on Win10, though I didn't experience any...

As someone who's played the tabletop game for just over 20 years now, I would not say that Sanctus Reach is anything like the tabletop game. It is good though.

There is the map campaign that mixes story missions and randomly generated ones. So it's not just skirmish maps. If you've played Panzer Corps then you'll have a good idea about how Armageddon works. I think it's a good game, though scale sometimes gets a bit wonky. The DLC for it is a bit of a mixed bag, the Space Marine themed ones are quite tough but levels can feel spammy. The Ork Hunters one is probably the highlight of the game though. Not played Golgotha, but that one does not seem to have been very well received.

Battlesector is probably the best entry point into 40k, although the discount on that one is pretty small.

Gladius takes some liberties with the setting in order to work as a 4X game, but it is a good 4X game, as long as your preferred win condition in these kinds of games is military victories.

Sanctus Reach fails in the story department, but it's a really fun game, and pretty easy to get into.


As for the older games, Chaos Gate has the best soundtrack of any Warhammer game, and it's an enjoyable, if buggy, experience. The game came out during 40k's 2nd edition (it's up to 9th now), so expect some things to be different. Final Liberation has great cutscenes, but the game itself is kind of humdrum. Rites of War is a good but not outstanding Panzer General 2 conversion, that gets bonus points for not just focusing on the Imperium of Man (in it you play as the silly space elves, Eldar). It gets quite tough later on, and the story is no the best.

What i meant with skirmish maps, even in the story is about the goals you have to achieve in every scenario. So lackluster with almost no scripted events what so ever. Of course, if the game had the complexity of a 4x game then yes, such oversights can easily be overlooked but in such a small scaled game. hold x amount of victory hexes or defeat the enemy before turn x can become quite the turn down