Warhammer Epic 40,000: Final Liberation

This is a /v/ related article, which we tolerate because it's relevant and/or popular on /tg/... or we just can't be bothered to delete it.

This article or section is about something oldschool - and awesome. Make sure your rose-tinted glasses are on nice and tight, and prepare for a lovely walk down nostalgia lane.

There is a reason they use the Epic cover image for the game as well.

An old video game that is revered by oldfags and neckbeards - some writefag even made a wiki for it - it is the most parallel game to tabletop Warhammer 40000 ever. It's basically Epic 40,000, to the point where you need your opponent in the same room, since it doesn't have network multiplayer of any kind, meaning you both have to use Hot Seat function.

The game is about liberating a planet called Volistad from Orks under the command of Commissar Holt, who is somehow directing the whole operations, even ordering whole Titan and Space Marine legion around.

Therefore, Holt is extremely manly.

Now available on Good Old Games.

Backstory

Warboss Skroll, a "shrewed and intellectual Ork" (don't ask me, I am quoting the manual) of Bad Moonz clan captured an Imperial Ship, and ate 5 Astropaths that were on it. As anyone dealing with Psykers, Skroll found them unsettling. A few terrible hours on a Looted Toilet and bad Warp-induced trips later, Skroll came up with an idea of starting a WAAAGHHHH! to call his own. So he shot a naviagtion map and told his boyz to go there. And so they did, and after the Ork Rok hit the ground, Skroll alongside Evil Sunz, Goffs, and Speed Freaks have defeated the local (Valhallan-esque) PDF and captured all but a few territories.

This is where the player and Commissar Holt come in. Oh, and as an excuse to add Titans into the game, Adeptus Mechanicus have their ancient Titan Legion buried on the planet, for some reason.

Any excuse to use Titans is a good one!

Gameplay

The game works through a risk style map, where you journey around conquering territories, freeing the peasants, having your way with their women, etc. Once you have decided on what place you want to abuse next, you zoom in to a battle with the forces you have to hand. Staying faithful to the original game, this is a turn based strategy game, which may leave you foaming at the mouth when you realise you've moved your Titan into a vulnerable position and you have no choice but to click the button and helplessly watch it crash and burn to pieces.

The game is mostly faithful to the Space Marine/Titan Legions gameplay of old, so some things take some using to and/or can be grossly abused. for instance, any artillery (even a lowly Thudd Gun) can be fired at a building and collapse it, killing all infantry sheltering within. Transport vehicles very soon turn into deathtraps, overwatch (the abilty to fire during the opponent's turn at the first unit moving in LoS) can be hilarious. Surprisingly, Titans aren't the ungodly rape-machines they are in modern 40k but powerful if sometimes hit-and-miss units. (You will rage at your Warhound struggling to shoot a unit of five measly boyz or your Warlord pathetically missing the broadside of a barn Gargant (that is the size of twenty barns) with its four weapons. But when it hits, no god will save their asses from making the good old roll). Even better, the game has Deathstrike missile batteries, as well as other fuckhuge Storm/Bane/Blade/Whatevername tanks that open up 6 pack cans of pure RAPE to fuck titans with from good old Apocalypse games. Of course, same goes for orks; you do NOT want to face a Gutbursta from a Gargant shlong unloading on your Titan, or have your precious Stormblade being Lifta-Droppa'd into a river, or being rained on by a Kannon Speedsta launching armor-piercing automatic cannon fire. Long story short, single player after a few turns says goodbye to melee and urban combat with melee charges amongst embattled streets, and gets ready for "who has the biggest dick compensating ballistic arsenal" contest with orks.

This game needs a remake badly.

If you are lucky you might trip over some of the awesome live-action footage that makes this game such a treat before or after the battle.(Or just youtube it)

Second Edition Note

Since the game was created during the glory days of the Second Edition of Warhammer 40k, it means that the Orks still had the background of being a Brainboy slave race, were closer to being the Space Germans they were established as in Rogue Trader, and still had a respectable vehicle pool.

On the other hand, the Imperial Guard regiments that are featured are Catachan Jungle Fighters, Mordian Iron Guard, and Tallarn Desert Raiders. A good break from the endless stream of Cadians that is present in the tabletop.

Alas, the game was created long after the Squats were removed, so the Imperium sadly loses in terms of cool units.

Trivia

Fun Fact: this 40k Game is the opposite when compared to Dawn of War II at least in some ways: this game is basically a Command and Conquer: Tiberian Dawn mod while Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight is a Dawn of War II mod.

The game could be unforgiving at times and if you had not prepared yourself adequately before a battle you might find your curb stomped under the approaching green tide. After one or two earliest urban combats around taking the first spaceport, forget melee combat(Except Titan vs Stompa), forget combined arms with APC's and riders except for very niche few hive territory fights(even then you will use very few "narrow" units for urban traversing). After that, it's time to rain titan killer vortex missiles, manticores, whirlwinds, mortars and basilisks while praying that the Orks' Kustom Kannon shitstorm of 10(!!!) salvos don't tear your precious tanks apart in one shot. And don't forget advancing on a single firing line and overlap every square as Orks need only win once, but you need to win all the time.

As you can see from some screenshots of the in-game unit viewer, the developers had plans to bring the Space Marines, Chaos, Eldar, and Tyranids into the game through expansion packs. But sadly, the game was discontinued before those plans could be realized. And what a great tragedy it is to know that a good game filled with potential ended up being left behind as an unfinished work.

Gallery

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  Holt. COMMISSAR HOLT!

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  Are you a comfortable enough dude to save the Volistad for the Emperor?

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  Genghis Khan giving his best "Waddya lookin' at?".

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  Best mustache in the Imperium.

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  Anybody else think there should be an aesthetic dlc for Dawn of War 2 with the Volistad marines