by Peter Robbins, 12 June 2025
The latest expansion for one of the Slitherine Warhammer 40K titles, the Onslaught Pack for Gladius: Relics of War puts a variety of new units on the screen for the player, and new dangers as well.
Core Game Reminders
For those that have not played Gladius before here is a simple description from the STEAM site.
It’s a pretty solid 4X RTS. The UI is good, the offerings of the Core game will keep you busy for some time, and then the DLC are good additions. I recommend you take things slowly, and only buy what you know you’ll finish out and get use out of; but so far, from what I’ve seen of this rather simple but nice DLC, it’s worth its pricing. I appreciate seeing longer term products of worth like this getting DLC support years later. This is nice to see overall. It makes me appreciate the efforts of the Developer and I will keep my eye out for future products from them.
In-Game Onslaught DLC Units In Action
click images to enlarge
The quoted information on each faction is from the Steam page on the pack.
Necron – Canoptek Reanimator
Support walker unit that regenerates friendly Necrons units.
Like its Canoptek peers, the looming Reanimator’s core role is not destruction but maintenance of a Necron Tomb World. Its remit is to repair damage caused during combat, which it does with streams of nano-scarabs, rebuilding nearby Necrons while they still stand.
Drukhari – Mandrakes
Light skirmish infantry that causes fear and teleports to disrupt enemy formations.
Feared even by their Drukhari kin, the origins of the unnatural Mandrakes of Aelindrach are lost in time. They appear like the void incarnate, with their midnight skin, bone-white hair and freezing presence. In battle, they literally slip between shadows, emerging only to plunge their sickle blades into the living or sear their flesh with the cold-fire known as Baleblasts.
Craftworld Aeldari – Vyper
Fast reconnaissance skimmer unit with a multipurpose missile launcher.
Following a Saim-Hann craftworld design, the Vyper sits somewhere between a jetbike and weapons platform. Despite its lightweight build and speed, these two-Aeldari vehicles can carry a variety of heavy weapons – though on Gladius Prime, they are known for using only versatile missile launchers.
Astra Militarum – Attilan Rough Riders
Fast melee cavalry unit.
Horsemen may seem primitive in a galaxy filled with millennia-old horrors, but the Rough Riders of Attila long ago proved their worth to the Astra Militarum. The hunting lances they carry are their concession to modern tactics, with their melta-tipped variants even capable of punching through power armour.
The Rough Riders can use frag or melta lances in-game.
Adeptus Mechanicus – Sicarian Ruststalker
Elite melee infantry which excels in prolonged battles.
The Sicarians are warrior-clades repurposed from the remains of grievously wounded Skitarii. Unlike their Infiltrator kin, Ruststalkers act as assassins, their transonic blades and claws fused permanently into their bionic appendages and pallid, puckered flesh.
Chaos Space Marines – Rubric Marines
Elite infernal infantry unit.
These ornate suits of power armour are filled only with dust – the remnants of the proud Space Marines whose spirits are sealed within and animate them still.
Orks – Squighog Boys
Heavy cavalry unit that excels at taking down large prey.
Riding four-legged Squigs into battle, these Beast Snagga boyz are nomadic Orks, predominantly from the traditionalist Snakebites Clan. Their goal is always to take down the biggest enemy on the battlefield – be that Tyranid, Necron or Ogryn.
Tyranids – Norn Emissary
Elite Synapse monstrous creatures bred to annihilate strategic enemy targets.
Each Norn Emissary is spawned for a specific purpose, be it predating on a strategically gifted commander, abducting a knowledgeable prey-being at the behest of its Norn Queen, or some other ineffable task. Melding terrifying psionic potential with speed, agility and awful strength, the Norn Emissary is more than equal to its mission.
First Impressions
It’s set at a decent price point. It’s a solid addition of a new unique unit for every faction. None of the added units are just carbon copies of existing units, nor of each other.
The temptation for the developer could have been, just give each faction a similar thing but re-painted. Not the case here. Each unit is unique and interesting. No brainer here. If you enjoy the core, I think it’s a good purchase. Now here’s the kick in the gut, you will only be able to play with the units for the factions you own as DLC. For example, if you don’t own the Drukhari DLC, you aren’t ever going to get to play with the Drukhari Madrakes. It’s a lovely spider of a payout system.
Now, for an older game like Gladius, at this point, you very likely do own all the faction DLCs, but not everyone bought all of the darn DLCs. Only Richy Rich and The Silver Spoons band bought them all. With that said, wishlist them all, eventually they’ll all go on sale or there will be a package eventually with everything and the kitchen sink for a reasonable price.
The alternative is to go buy and paint up all the miniatures needed to do the same game on the tabletop… yeah, you may want to just wait for the DLCs to be on sale 😊 unless you are Henry Cavill. Warhammer miniatures are great products, but you get what you pay for — with great products comes high prices. Hey, they are still in production and keeping the industry churning, so more power to folks that can afford to play in the universe. I’ll stick to the core computer games, and a couple DLCs here and there for my cheap arse. That choice is only based upon my own need to play many many too many games all around. If you really like 40K, get all the DLCs.
If you only own the Core game, like I do, then you will only get 4 unique units when buying this DLC. So, you do the math. Again, at $6.99 , still a reasonably ok deal to get a new unique unit for each of the factions you do own for the game.
Yes, there is supposedly a Warhammer 40K tv series in the making.
With all this DLC pricing shade sent, I will say the core game is very well done all around. Bravo to Proxy Studios as the developers and Slitherine as the producers of a very solid 4X RTS game. It’s a nice little game. Easy to drop into, fun to play, bravo, good combo. All items are explained very well. Interfacing is nice.
- Title: Gladius Relics Of War, Onslaught Pack
- Genre: 4 X RTS in the Warhammer Universe
- Producer: Slitherine Productions, LLC
- Developer: Proxy Studios
- Price: Onslaught Pack DLC is $6.99 US.
Thank you for visiting the Regiment of Strategy Gaming and riding with The Armchair Dragoons.
Rather than list a bunch of social media links, the easiest thing to do is to check out our LinkTree, which connects you to all of our various locales around the web.
You can also support The Armchair Dragoons through our Patreon, and find us at a variety of conventions and other events.
Feel free to talk back to us either in our discussion forum, or in the comments below.
