Overwhelmed by neutral monsters. How to play?

[Vexorg]

Ok, i started a game on easy, but constantly overwhelmed by neutral monsters? The catcham scorpions kicks may ass. About three hours into the game, have yet to see the enemy (Small Map). Turn 94. Suggestions? Not seeing much of a point in the game so far.

[Godwin]

Which faction? Answer kind of depends on it.

In general:
send scouting units out in groups and do not advance too far chasing after them.
They'll either return or, yes, heal up slowly. But that's way better than you aggro-ing 3 more.

There's a setting for wildlife. Turn it down if you wish.
I personally like it medium (might even try turning it up higher) as it reduces the rate at which you explore the map, so it is still interesting later in the game what the other half of the map looks like.

Also look at the units and their strength/weaknesses and use those. The Cathecan Devils spawn from lairs you can destroy to prevent them from coming back.

Always put scouts in trees if you can, if you encounter ranged hostiles, they'll have a 50% damage penalty (some units don't have this: tanks, flying units etc.).

[Nitroglycerine]

What units/faction are you using?

- Early game you really just hunt kroot hounds, which are easy as long as they're not in forest or ruins (which give 50% ranged damage protection).
- Also, shooting at a target beside them (rather than 1 tile away) doubles your number of attacks.

- You should never attack Kastelan Robots until you have someone with high damage attack that does armour penetration.
Devastators for Marines, Warboss for Orks, necrons 4 warriors with guass rifles can actually do the trick (damage scales based on HP of target). Add a 1 lord and cryptek to make it easier.
Actually not sure about the guard - they're the one faction I haven't played enough yet.

- Catachan devils are easier to kill than Kastelan Robots. So if you can handle robots, you can handle catachan devils. Generally, a leader can tank the hits and such.

I have a few videos of me playing Orks on youtube, and it's generally fairly easy to go through the neutrals.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKCHFdeQyLeTC2G8sCLTEmQ

I'll be putting up a video with 2 space marines matches later today.

[LordOfPants]

This isn't like civ where you send a few weak units out alone to scout, sending single units around isn't a good idea. Keep your guys together in groups, research better units and 'booster' abilities like frag grenades for your infantry, have your units heal up when they get damaged. Most units can't fight one on one with Catachan devils, but several units together breeze right through them. Also don't be afraid to pull back next to your city and have its guns help out if your guys are getting beaten on too badly.

[Vexorg]

tx for info. playing space marines on Very Easy to get my feet wet.

[Vexorg]

How do i scroll to the right on the tech tree? The > is not clickable. Or click and hold to drag it.

Playing space marines

[postpaleo]

I don't think Space Marines are easy, at least at first. They may get better but I'm thinkin they need help. Necros, The Guards (artillary is fun), and Orks, they could be good, dunno yet. Turn off the quests, the quests are worse then the enemys you'll meet, but don't get complacent. Level your troops up, stay on the edge of material needs and have more troops then you think you need, because you will. I keep my infantry in a triangle, at first, they cover each other. Enslavers need to be toned down a bit, but we can argue that point. Good luck.

[Vexorg]

I can only see tiers 1,2,3 and half of tier 4.

TX.

[gwackmung]

the tech tree is a bit non intuative with those arrows, i tried clicking on them for 2 mins lol there is a super thin slider bar at the bottom (that really should be a different color from the frame to pop it out a bit.)

[postpaleo]

Still learning the trees, city build order and in not being a spoiler, play out the quests, it gets rude. And I will gaurantee, the first time, you'll be in the middle of something when they pull the quest sh*t. :)

[We Are All Sick]

SM are fine once you find out how the game works,also try tweaking the settings to find what u like best

[Blackrage]

2 games 1x sm 1x am both on medium

I played large maps, so far sop good

I lost both game because i got overwhelmed by Astra Militarum forces who are slaved by enslavers. THe attacked me with 10-15 units after 400 turns. No chance here

[Zinkaghost]

sm was the first faction I played. drop pods are a must.l but they are so far into the tech tree.

[princeps]

I have to agree. In my first few playthroughs I had a massive war against neutrals, only to completely smash the actual enemies without much efford never seeing more than their starting units. In my second play, I had an enslaver right inside my base, it enslaved my first unit, I tried to kill it with my second to get it back, only for them to get enslaved too. I hadn't even finished my first building yet, and I was already besieged by my own starting units. And yes, wildlife was at minimum.
Even in the tutorial space marine game, it took several Predators and Devestators to get rid of those ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ group of mechs with the Admech priest constantly healing them right between me and the Necron base. The actual Necron enemy send nothing more than 1 of the most basic unit and its base could be defeated by a single Predator without any resistance.
If this was just a question of "get good", I don't get why the actual enemies are so weak. They themselves are being slaughtered by neutrals, I think. That's why they have nothing once you actually get to their bases.
I played Space Marines, Eldar, & Necrons. Easiest, to an extend, were the Necrons, since at least they heal up a little, and you don't spend 3/4 of the time just rebuilding from the constant neutral attacks, even behind already cleared lines, just 1/2 of it. Still it took >150 turns to see the first non-neutral enemy. That can't be the desired way to play this game.
And I don't get the comment, just fight the weaker neutrals, like the dogs. It's not like you get to choose. You get attacked by whatever randomly spawns next to your base. Maybe that is managable, maybe it can't even be killed without researching for 40 turns.

[Grotzel]

This thread you responded to is ANCIENT. Better create a new thread. Or search for the topic. There are a thousand threads on the subject, brimming with excellent advice. There is solid advice in this thread, too. Or read a guide.

To summarize:
Don't worry - this is not as much of a problem in Gladius as you think.
Neutrals are often perceived as a huge barrier especially by less experienced players. They are - on normal settings- not usually that big of a threat. although you can run into the occassional tough situation.
Do NOT engage Enslavers with just a few basic units (although in open terrain, three guardsmen squads with frag grenades CAN eliminate a single Enslaver group ... I think in two turns and - with luck - without losses).
Scout carefully, avoid tougher enemies until you can deal with them. Only engage when you are ready - and not multiple different types of neutrals at once. Remember to retreat & heal in dangerous situations. Heroes, especially combat heroes with good equipment, can help.

AI factions on higher difficulty settings do far better against neutrals - so if you found only weak opponents, that's one of the reasons.

A bit counter-intuitive: Wildlife at minimum is not the only relevant setting for neutrals. Enslavers are tied to artefact frequency & making regions larger also means less neutrals (as neutrals are spawned for every region). If you absolutely do not want any neutrals, use one of the mods that allow more map setting options (e.g. Timmeh's World Parameters, Locknot's Expanded Setup etc.).

P.S.: I'm bad at summaries. Always write too much. In any case this thread will probably get locked by mods.