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Given how fertile the Warhammer 40,000 universe is when it comes to epic warfare, its crop of turn-based video games has been stupefyingly infrequent. Yes, Dawn Of War looked the part and was an immensely enjoyable take on capture-and-hold real-time strategy, but for all its bombastic violence and blister pack expansioneering, it was about as authentic a mirror of the tabletop wargame as its first-person shooter stablemate, Space Marine. Remarkably, if you want to go back to when the last proper 40k wargame appeared on PC, you'd need to set your time machine for last century. Needless to say that tor a core subset of 40k grognards, the wait for Armageddon has been just as lengthy and frustrating as that which X-Com fans were forced to endure. Of course with publisher Slitherine at the helm, Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon was never going to be an Enemy Unknown-style reboot - not that one was ever called for. Its 1999 predecessor, SSI's Rites of War, based on the illustrious Panzer General 2 engine, was seen by many as a gateway game, designed to help bolster declining mainstream interest in PC wargaming rather than an all-out effort to capture the genuine 40k experience. Likewise with Slitherine's Panzer Corps at the heart of Armageddon (itself seen as the natural successor to Panzer General 2), there's more than a sense of deja vu circulating around Armageddon; that by effectively reskinning a previous game - even a very good one like Panzer Corps - some measure of authenticity is lost by default.
Thankfully Armageddon's strategy foundations are solid enough to make up for any indifference shown to the look-up tables of the 40k source material. In line with innumerable tile-based wargames, units are able to move and fight once per turn - subject of course to terrain and weapon range restrictions - with combat resolution dependant on the Attack Strength and Armor Piercing value of each weapon versus a unit's Defense rating. While there are plenty of stats to pore over, the key to unlocking a winning strategy isn't so much about developing a solid and sustainable front line, but in considering the range and mobility of the firepower you can project each turn. As a result there's more than a hint of chess inherent in the game, with infantry acting as pawns and armour as your bishops, rooks and knights (and the vastly overpowered Titans as queens), as you work towards each victory location, hopefully to ensure your limited spread of units lives to fight another turn. Without the need to protect lines of supply, as is typical in most wargames, Armageddon manages to be both fluid and accessible, considerably less intimidating that many of its contemporaries and fundamentally no more complex than your favourite iteration of Advance Wars or Battle Isle - although it's worth pointing out that with only spartan effects to accompany each attack and a complete absence of any unit animations, exchanges are considerably less entertaining to sit through.
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