Time for some thread "Necronmancy" (har har har)
Picked this (+Heretek expansion) up at the recent Steam sale and, uncharacteristically, blew all the way through it.
The first attempt, I actually had to restart. I was doing (I thought) well, so I tried the first Heretek mission too early (it says "easy" for difficulty) and got overrun by swarms of Xenarite tech priests (melee version) and servitors. Got the 'game over' cutscene and everything. Defeated by traitors, how appropriate.
Second attempt, I plowed all the way through. A solid Warhammer: X-Com type game overall.
The basic mechanics are, you get a free move and also any number of attacks that cost between 0 and 6 (I think? depends on the weapon used) "cognition points" (CP). You can also use CP to make an unlimited number of extra moves on your turn (as long as you've got the CP). You get CP via some abilities on your tech priests, by killing Necrons and by scanning Necron obelisks (remotely once in a while or by standing next to them any time).
Initially, it's a little tough, because you don't have a way of quickly racking up "cognition points" (CP), so you're stuck doing one move and one or two weak little attacks. It's enough for the first few levels, but then the number of Necrons per fight starts going up while your tech priests aren't quite there with the upgrades yet. Eventually, you get abilities that a) expand the max number of CP you can hold at a time and b) generate CP rapidly. At which point your tech priests can sprint all the way across the map and make 3-4 attacks, while the Necrons are still putzing around with their one move and one attack.
By the end, I had five fully upgraded tech priests (you can have up to six but that seems like overkill) and had unlocked all but one type of mook (expendable troops that you can take with you on missions). Including a "Castellan Robot", which is a 2x2 giant motherfucker with a flamethrower and the ability to punch things. Each guy had at least one discipline maxed out and a bunch of other upgrades besides.
I completed all of this "Scaevola" character's missions and I'm not terribly sure I'm happy about how it turned out. I might go back and beat the game a couple more times once I've "cooled off" a little.
A couple of pro tips:
- Initially, you have to waste regular attacks finishing Necrons off (otherwise they get back up in a few turns and start shooting at you again). Later on, you can get "Infestus Dendrites", which let you whack the bastards for free as you walk by.
Non-story spoiler:
- There are some disciplines which are worth the investment even if you aren't going to go all the way up the tree. Examples include the +4 weapon range upgrade, the +1 CP at the start of your turn if your CP gauge is empty, the +1 HP/turn from the Xenarite tree. The Explorer tree also has an ability that gets you +3 movement and the ability to not trigger "opportunity" attacks (when you walk away from a melee-capable unit, it'll whack you normally).
- Don't dally too long when you go into a Necron tomb. That alertness gauge doesn't just increase the number of bad guys and how fast they regenerate, it also goes into the global alertness gauge after the mission, which limits how many missions you can run in a campaign. Once you're up to 100% awakening, you're fighting the final boss whether you want to or not.
- That being said, don't just beeline for the boss, you'll miss out on (potential) blackstone (which you use to upgrade your tech priests) and CP. Try to keep the awakening rating at 3% or so per mission.
- If you've got Heretek, hold off on starting those missions until you rack up 3-4 tech priests and have some solid healing capability in addition to being able to negate armor somehow. There's a lot of bad guys in them and they come running at you one at a time. But the good part is they don't advance the awakening meter, so you can do them all for a "free" power boost.
- If you see terminals, scan *then* destroy. Scanning gives you blackstone. Destroying reduces the awakening meter a bit. You do have to run up to them to scan, but it's worth it. You don't get to do it after completing the objectives, either, so get it done before escaping/killing the last necron/whatever.
- On the tomb map, sometimes you'll see a group of Necrons in a particular chamber. Unless your squad is on the verge of death, take them down. It automatically lowers the awakening rating quite a bit, so unless you take twenty turns, it's a net benefit.
- You can bring as many of a type of mook as you want/have blackstone for. If they survive, you get most of the blackstone back. If your priests get shot up, they use up a lot of blackstone to repair, more so than the mooks, so try to have the mooks take the damage for you if you can.