WARHAMMER 40K: CHAOS GATE-DAEMON HUNTERS

XCOM vibes, but with cosmic plagues and almost no RNG

- Fraser Brown

Turn-based tactics games have been cursed with comparisons to Firaxis' indomitable XCOM for almost a decade, which the Grey Knights of Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate-Daemonhunters are about to learn. Sorry, lads, but Warhammer 40,000: XCOM is just easier to remember.

The Grey Knights, if you’re not au fait with 40K’s many Space Marine chapters, get their rocks off by hunting daemons, which they also happen to be very good at. These special boys were engineered from the gene-seed of the Emperor, and while they’re designed to be the ultimate weapon against the forces of Chaos, most people don’t know they exist. So they’re black-ops super soldiers with an important daddy.

Like XCOM, you’ll be putting together squads of these Grey Knights, customizing them with equipment suited to the task at hand, and then dropping them into maps full of enemies and cover. The Grey Knights also have an HQ from which they can plan their next move, exploring a holographic representation of the space sector. But while the foundations cry XCOM, everything has been reconfigured for a universe of infinite war, where humanity faces down dark gods and cosmic plagues.

This specific set of Grey Knights have just finished a campaign, and with their resources low and their ship worse for wear, they’re about to head home. Nobody gets time off in the grimdark future, though, so of course, an Inquisitor appears and tasks them with investigating a new plague conjured up by the pestilent god Nurgle: The Bloom.

KNIGHT SCHOOL