Feedback after a 10 days of beta

Short Summary

A game with great potential that could fill an empty niche in the Warhammer 40k franchise. Definitely worth checking out again after its official release.

What is Good:

• Solid stability: Good application stability overall (especially for a beta).

• Game scale: Starting from just a few provinces, you expand to hundreds. You quickly come to understand how vital logistics are.

• Delayed order execution: The postponed execution of commands gives you the real feel of being a Commander-in-Chief whose orders take time to be relayed and implemented.

Space for Improvement:

• Lack of content: Mirrored factions and a minimal unit roster (though this might just be a restriction of the beta phase).

• Counter-intuitive combat: Certain battle mechanics feel unnatural compared to standard strategy game logic.

Additional Details

Application Stability

Throughout a week of play, I experienced only non-critical bugs—mostly related to the UI:

1. Travel time doesn't auto-update: Travel time isn't recalculated if slower units are removed from a moving army.

   • Example: Create an army with tanks, scouts, and infantry, then issue a move order to an outpost. Split the infantry off to another location. The original army’s estimated travel time remains unchanged unless you reassign the move order to force an update.

2. Production summary glitches: Total price and production time occasionally revert to showing values for just a single unit. Toggling the production quantity up or down forces the summary to refresh correctly.

3. UI freezes: Occurred twice after issuing several rapid "split & move" orders in a row. Resolved by restarting the app.

4. Zone sort order resets: The sort order resets to "By Name." While not strictly a bug, fixing this would be a great UX improvement.

   • Scenario: I want to build a Manufactorum in a safe zone far from the frontlines that is rich in fuel.

   • I open the zones list and sort by resource income.

   • I locate a good zone and tap the geolocation icon to view it on the map.

   • I open the construction menu and start the Manufactorum build.

   • I exit construction and tap "Zones Register" again.

   • The list has reset to sorting "By Name."

Note: Sort order IS preserved if you build directly within the Zones Register UI. However, players frequently want to view the zone's visual location on the map first before committing to a build. So, saving sort order might be a UX improvement for a frequent in-game action.

Mirrored Factions

The 40k universe is famous for its rich, distinct factions with unique mechanics. In the beta, all factions share identical units and buildings. The minor doctrine differences aren't impactful enough to drive distinct strategic choices.

Minimal Unit Roster

Currently, there is only one unit available per combat role, removing any real decision-making or dilemma when producing troops. This stands in sharp contrast to the deep, varied unit lists typical of 40k strategy games. Fans coming into this with set expectations will likely be disappointed by the sparse roster.

Flanking & Surrounding Mechanics

In most strategy games, flanking and surrounding an opponent are rewarding tactical plays. In this game, however, attacking from multiple angles simply grants the defender additional retaliatory attacks (one per incoming vector). As a result, the game accidentally encourages a blunt "Orkish" playstyle: gather one massive deathball and steamroll the enemy. This feels counter-intuitive and isn't obvious unless you dig through the FAQ.

Conclusion

This beta is well worth playing right now, if only to help the developers stress-test the servers. However, I’ll personally be holding off for major content updates before giving it another spin.