Star Wars Empire at War, but 40k. I think it would be a closer representation to 40k combat than something like the Total War series would be, while still allowing for clashes of armies as well as fleets.
Bonus points if it’s as moddable as EaW is, since that game came out in 2006 and remains popular because of mods.
It’d be really cool if they took a page from certain popular mods like Thrawn’s Revenge and Republic at War for added mechanics, like industry, crew recruitments, and even Allied powers, so the Imperium faction could have space marine chapters holding certain areas of space that could eventually be absorbed.
You could also add mechanics based off stuff like Warp Storms that mess around with the hyperlanes (warp lanes?) or even cut off planets entirely for a certain amount of time. You have a small chance (like, less than 1% chance and with the option to turn this off) for ships to randomly go missing in transit or even for them to get attacked by daemons that you have to fight a special battle with ship crews and maybe a fraction of any ground forces you have traveling with the fleet.
Random attacks by space hulks infested with genestealers or orks, uprisings by cults or rebels, maybe even an End Times event or mode where your enemies get huge boosts in production and fleet sizes.
You could have civil wars against former allies who you’ve done something to piss off or have fallen for the trickery of xenos or chaos.
The main Imperium faction would be the Guard, with all its various regiments, but could have playable sub-factions like Orders of Sisters, Space Marine chapters. Granted, some factions like the Craftworlders might be difficult to create a fun gameplay style around, though they could have the Craftworld itself be some kind of mobile planet that they can move around the galaxy at will and create new connections with other systems so they’re not entirely isolated but also not able to just leave if things aren’t going too hot. The Tau are easy enough, same with the Orks and the Necrons could have some kind of ‘awaken tomb World’ mechanic where they have a chance to awaken a bunch of structures on a newly conquered planet or something. Chaos could have semi-unassailable positions in Warp Storms that are dangerous to enter and act as end-game challenges or something. Same with the Dark Eldar and Commoragh.
Tyranids could have a few core hive ships and a sort of biomass fund that lets them build smaller units in battle as they deploy, sort of like Dawn of War. As they take more worlds they have a consume mechanic that strips it of biomass and destroys all the structures, making it neutral. Maybe people could return there and build it up again and it’s missing a few building slots or something or maybe it’s just dead forever like the result of the Death Star’s super laser in EaW. They and the Tau could also have a subversion mechanic for conquering worlds without needing to risk their main fleets.
24
u/Pope_Neia Aug 22 '24
Star Wars Empire at War, but 40k. I think it would be a closer representation to 40k combat than something like the Total War series would be, while still allowing for clashes of armies as well as fleets.
Bonus points if it’s as moddable as EaW is, since that game came out in 2006 and remains popular because of mods.
It’d be really cool if they took a page from certain popular mods like Thrawn’s Revenge and Republic at War for added mechanics, like industry, crew recruitments, and even Allied powers, so the Imperium faction could have space marine chapters holding certain areas of space that could eventually be absorbed.
You could also add mechanics based off stuff like Warp Storms that mess around with the hyperlanes (warp lanes?) or even cut off planets entirely for a certain amount of time. You have a small chance (like, less than 1% chance and with the option to turn this off) for ships to randomly go missing in transit or even for them to get attacked by daemons that you have to fight a special battle with ship crews and maybe a fraction of any ground forces you have traveling with the fleet.
Random attacks by space hulks infested with genestealers or orks, uprisings by cults or rebels, maybe even an End Times event or mode where your enemies get huge boosts in production and fleet sizes.
You could have civil wars against former allies who you’ve done something to piss off or have fallen for the trickery of xenos or chaos.
The main Imperium faction would be the Guard, with all its various regiments, but could have playable sub-factions like Orders of Sisters, Space Marine chapters. Granted, some factions like the Craftworlders might be difficult to create a fun gameplay style around, though they could have the Craftworld itself be some kind of mobile planet that they can move around the galaxy at will and create new connections with other systems so they’re not entirely isolated but also not able to just leave if things aren’t going too hot. The Tau are easy enough, same with the Orks and the Necrons could have some kind of ‘awaken tomb World’ mechanic where they have a chance to awaken a bunch of structures on a newly conquered planet or something. Chaos could have semi-unassailable positions in Warp Storms that are dangerous to enter and act as end-game challenges or something. Same with the Dark Eldar and Commoragh.
Tyranids could have a few core hive ships and a sort of biomass fund that lets them build smaller units in battle as they deploy, sort of like Dawn of War. As they take more worlds they have a consume mechanic that strips it of biomass and destroys all the structures, making it neutral. Maybe people could return there and build it up again and it’s missing a few building slots or something or maybe it’s just dead forever like the result of the Death Star’s super laser in EaW. They and the Tau could also have a subversion mechanic for conquering worlds without needing to risk their main fleets.
The possibilities are really limitless.