Help me like this. My game box is sitting here taunting me. I love 40K, and I like strategy games, but something just felt off with it. I think its in the controls, but really cant pinpoint it. I never feel I can get into good positions, I never feel I am getting the most out of each units unique powers. It didnt help the story didnt grab me from the start. So I moved to multiplayer, uhg its like a different game, vehicles felt underpowered, could never get them in positions that helped my team.
I used to play tabletop regularly, maybe thats where my hangup is. What works for the units in tabletop doesnt translate well to the game maybe? I dunno, but I really want to like this.
I don't have a ton of time, but I wanted to at least give you a response:
The base game and Retribution's story lines are quite fun. It's relatively simple in design but there's a ton of customization in the single player as well. It's not, like, the greatest story ever told but I enjoyed it quite a lot. For 40k, it's hard to find anything better. I, admittedly, love all things space elf so maybe I'm a bit biased. I just love watching those big dumb space marines fuck up.
For multiplayer, a few things:
1) It wasn't always the most balanced, but the general rule is this: Never lose a unit, never move a vehicle without support. Vehicles MUST be escorted and protected. They can get overwhelmed or cornered quite easily, and anti-tank is easy to research and field (though it's expensive).
2) Retreat BEFORE you have a problem. You get some pretty heavy debuffs if running from melee combat, for instance so don't show your back to the enemy.
3) This game is quite tactical and positioning is very, very important. I'll assume you already know, but you have to utilize cover and the map's blindspots effectively to succeed.
As for parity with the tabletop: there isn't much as far as 1 to 1 conversions here. It's till fun, but in reality it stands on the shoulders of COH. The game is very, very tactical and units can be vaporized after only a single bad roll of the RNG. I played eldar, fyi, so my vehicles were glass cannons. With proper micro, I could keep them in the backfield and support them from behind, but a single melee unit could completely decimate any fireprism. The little battles were where this game shined, though, and the fun of outmaneuvering a dug in defense can't be replicated in similar games.
