- 4 ore fa
45 minuti di gameplay con la razza Eldar per Warhammer 40.000: Dawn of War III.
Categoria
🎮️
VideogiochiTrascrizione
00:01Hey everyone, this is Philip Bull, the game director for Dawn of War 3.
00:05I'm here with Jeff Robinson, a.k.a. InControl, and we're talking Eldar.
00:10I am super stoked, just love what I've seen so far of them.
00:14You guys were kind of talking about the sound element even of them,
00:18and just really kind of capturing the elegance of Eldar,
00:21kind of the really cool interpretation of what would happen
00:25if in the distant future there were these guys.
00:28Yeah, well we definitely wanted to get a really nice feel for the Eldar.
00:34This mission in particular, this is the second mission you play as Eldar in the campaign.
00:40Is this the second mission?
00:41No, it's the sixth mission overall, but it's the second one you play as Eldar.
00:47So it's sort of the mission where we bring all the Elderness to life.
00:52So it's a mission that's about sneaking around.
00:55We have these alarm mechanisms here that you take out guys before they can raise the alarm.
01:01So there's a lot of sort of stealth or visibility gameplay, a lot of scouting involved.
01:07It really creates that sense of being the Eldar, playing to their strength,
01:13you know, sneaking through the space marine defenses.
01:16Yeah, I really like that. It, you know, the whole Eldar kind of lore is that they are on craft
01:22worlds.
01:23They don't really have, I mean they do have gigantic armies that of course they can field,
01:26but that's like the most desperate of times.
01:28Most of the time when Eldar are depicted, it's a lot like this.
01:31And I actually really like, I think we're coming up on the scouts or the rangers?
01:35Yes, you can see them in the middle of the screen there. They're a stealth unit.
01:40So they can go across the map. There's only a few units that will detect them.
01:45That's what I was going to say. Sometimes it got really close to a lot of people.
01:48Yeah.
01:48So it's only certain things they can see them I guess.
01:50Exactly. So our detector units are our builders.
01:52So for the space marines it's the servitors.
01:55So you'll see them patrolling around every once in a while.
01:58And that there's one in the middle there with the little servo arms.
02:03So the rangers have to avoid them or else they'll be revealed.
02:07But otherwise they're pretty free to move around.
02:10Unless they attack of course.
02:12Okay.
02:12Or use an ability.
02:13But that allows them to create sort of visibility.
02:16I'm going to put you in the spot a little bit.
02:18Sure.
02:18Because I also saw them, I saw even detectable Eldar units go into like high grasp.
02:23Is there a visibility thing in this game as well?
02:25Yeah. There's a concept we call stealth cover.
02:28Okay.
02:28So on this tile set it's contextualized as high grass.
02:33And it behaves as any unit that goes into it becomes concealed.
02:38Okay.
02:38The same thing like a servitor could see you but maybe...
02:41Anybody else who go, if an enemy goes into that tall grass they'll see you.
02:46It also blocks line of sight.
02:48You can sort of see that the fog of war extends as you go in.
02:54So again it plays into that visibility gameplay.
02:57I'm going to ask you a little bit of a loaded question.
03:00Sure.
03:00Does it provide other forms of cover as well?
03:03Do some shots miss?
03:05No.
03:05This is only...
03:07Stealth cover is only visibility based.
03:10Okay.
03:10We do have heavy cover which functions a lot like buildings did in Dawn of War 2.
03:15Okay.
03:16Or in Company of Heroes there are these fortified points that you have to take control of.
03:21And then they protect you from ranged fire.
03:23So there is a cover system, it's just different I guess.
03:25Yes, exactly.
03:26It's much more binary than we had in Dawn of War 2.
03:30Okay.
03:30And that's just because we're dealing with much larger armies and we wanted it to be a lot clearer.
03:36You know, when you're dealing with 20 squads at once.
03:38Yeah.
03:39It's pretty hard to sort of line them up behind walls and trees and so on.
03:44Yeah.
03:44Or the direction of gravity.
03:46Yeah, in everything I've seen so far I've been keeping my eye on kind of the supply there at the
03:50bottom left and how big an army can get.
03:52Yeah.
03:52It can get pretty darn massive.
03:54I've seen sizable forces and it hasn't even broached over a hundred supply.
03:59Yeah.
03:59You can get quite a bit.
04:00Yeah, you can get quite big.
04:02Which is awesome.
04:03I think that's very 40k.
04:04Yeah, exactly.
04:05Well we really wanted to hit that large army fantasy.
04:08Now this as an early mission starts with a smaller force as you can see.
04:13So there's resources will actually, you know, sort of limit how big an army you can generate.
04:20I like this scene here too.
04:22This is, there's like a scenario in front of this.
04:24Yeah.
04:24You know there's an alarm, you know there's patrols.
04:27You'll see a lot in the way of detection but kind of scoping out and deciding how you're going to
04:31approach and attack this.
04:32Yeah, exactly.
04:32And like you said with the low resources, I like too that it puts a little bit of the screws
04:36to you because it's not like you're like well, I've got 200 supply of just a giant army.
04:39Yeah.
04:40There's no decision here to make.
04:41I'm just going to walk through it.
04:42So this is a different approach.
04:44Instead of attacking the guys who raise the alarm, we attack the alarm itself generally.
04:49So that knocks them out and that's really taking advantage of that stealth grasp that allowed us to just get
04:57a great line of fire.
04:59Yeah, I like these elements too because one of the, if you want to call it like a problem that
05:04RTSs can fall into, especially in the campaign, is like everything is a nail and you are a hammer.
05:09Yes.
05:09So it's like every decision you're like well, I mean you could stealth it or you could just show up
05:14with a wraith knight I guess and then walk through it.
05:16Yeah, exactly.
05:17So you have some limits here.
05:18There's, the mission definitely escalates so you are going to get to these larger armies and stronger forces.
05:26But in the early points here you only have one elite, that's Maka, the hero we can see sort of
05:32center screen.
05:34She's quite, she can be quite effective against infantry but you also have to time her correctly because she does
05:40have, her most dangerous attacks have relatively long cooldowns.
05:46Yeah.
05:47Yeah I can see actually when you select her, it kind of describes her role as well.
05:52I think she was called like a area control and nuker or something along this line.
05:56Yeah.
05:57If she dedicates all her, so that's her throwing her spear.
06:00Stuns them for a little bit.
06:01Yeah, knocks out those snipers which is helpful because they have a setup time.
06:07And then she may recall her spear and that will do some additional damage.
06:13And then that's her area effect attack.
06:15Okay, okay.
06:15And you can see with the Eldar, they have that pink bar on top of their health bar.
06:22And that's their shield.
06:25Oh, okay.
06:26We call it battle focus.
06:27In context, it's the sort of war trance that Eldar warriors go into and it protects them.
06:34Mechanically, it serves as regenerating health.
06:38And as long as they don't dip.
06:40Find the Eldar base brothers.
06:42I'll let Jonah say his words.
06:44But as long as you don't dip into the blue health bar, you don't start losing troopers.
06:48So your firepower doesn't go down.
06:50So it really encourages a sort of hit and run gameplay.
06:54Because they compared to space marine units, they have much less actual health.
06:59But they do have those shields.
07:01So they can go in, take some damage, but then pull back to heal back.
07:06The other big mechanic they have is called fleet of foot.
07:11So at the top of the screen, there's a sort of portal that's hovering.
07:18And that's a webway gate.
07:19And it generates a big area effect which makes Eldar units move faster and regenerate their shield faster.
07:28Very cool.
07:29So it's really about staying in those areas, you get a really strong advantage.
07:35I like seeing these Dark Reapers, really iconic units from, you know, obviously the tabletop game.
07:40Absolutely.
07:41And how important, you know, I've heard you're a big lore guy.
07:44Oh, definitely.
07:45I've been playing 40k off and on for 30 years now, almost.
07:50Okay.
07:50You might have me beat.
07:52But not by much.
07:53No, no.
07:53I've been playing a very long time myself.
07:54But I like, you know, so I want to ask you, like, seeing a Dark Reaper, kind of in the
07:59game, they're more of like an anti-tank thing.
08:01How important was it for you to, and I'm not saying they're not here, but to kind of sync up
08:06that lore and the tabletop game that we're familiar with to the game?
08:10Well, it's definitely the starting point we take.
08:12But we also have to make sure we're fitting all the roles that we need in our particular ecosystem.
08:19So the Dark Reapers, for example, fit a more, they're a little better against infantry than they are against tanks.
08:28Okay.
08:29They do what we call true damage or real damage.
08:32So they'll, they do damage to any unit regardless of their armor type.
08:37So they, they can do damage to tanks.
08:39They'll do damage to infantry.
08:41Okay.
08:41They also actually have an area of effect on their, on their attacks.
08:45So that, that makes them especially effective against infantry.
08:49For dedicated anti-tank, we actually have a higher tier unit called the Shadow Spectres.
08:55Okay.
08:56So they're, on the mini side, they're a unit that was introduced by Forge World.
09:02So they're, they're a little rarer in the tabletop ecosystem, but they provide really dedicated anti-tank.
09:12Yeah.
09:13They're really cool.
09:14A lot of kind of kite ability.
09:16I think we'll see them later.
09:17Yeah, we will.
09:17They, they're actually hover units.
09:19They're infantry that float above the battlefield.
09:22So that gives them some really great mobility and also some protection against melee.
09:28And here's those stealth guys going ahead again.
09:31Just showing.
09:31I love the, the line of sight in this game as well.
09:34If you get to certain vantage points, you can see further ahead and allows you to kind of map
09:38for that, which is actually a really big deal because even in my own playthroughs as the Space Marines.
09:43Yeah.
09:45If you didn't see something coming, like for instance, one time I didn't see a Wraith Knight that was up
09:50ahead.
09:50And then I kind of went back, macroed a little bit at home, came back.
09:54And it turns out the Wraith Knight has like a black hole ability or some kind of, yeah, it killed
09:58the whole army.
09:59So it's important to see what's coming.
10:02Yeah. Well, especially as the Eldar who really rely on hit and run tactics.
10:08Knowing what's ahead so that you can direct your force appropriately is really important.
10:15Like you can see these Assault Marines here.
10:16Now they're outnumbered, so they're, they're going to get beaten, but they were doing exactly what they needed to do.
10:23They were starting to tie up those Dark Reapers and do some serious damage.
10:27And they too have kind of an initiation ability where they jump in and then they stun.
10:31And in this playthrough, I was, I was really excited to see there, there is actually pretty cool micro options.
10:36Like if you move out of the way of that, obviously you don't suffer that.
10:39Yeah.
10:39That sounds kind of, it's like, you know, it's all right, Jeff. Yeah. You can move out of the way
10:43of damage.
10:44Like, yeah, but not every game has that. It's really nice to see that in this game.
10:47Yeah, exactly. We definitely, especially with triggered abilities, we definitely wanted to give lots of counterplay.
10:56Yeah. Movement is an important part of counterplay.
10:58All right. I'll just call out the unit we just brought out. Now this is Jane Tsar and she's in
11:05the lore. She's essentially a goddess.
11:08Yep.
11:08She is the founder of the, the Howling Banshees.
11:12A Phoenix Lord, right?
11:13A Phoenix Lord, and she is extremely badass.
11:17She's a good example of, well, you can see she just threw her Triscale and murdered herself a bunch of
11:24Space Marines.
11:25So she's very effective against infantry. Compared to some of the sort of late game elites, she's relatively low health.
11:33So she can't take a lot of sustained damage, but she has a lot of damage potential and disruption potential
11:41and mobility.
11:42So we'll see her used to great effect on this, this playthrough.
11:46So cool seeing her. She's in all kinds of books. She's in, I believe, even the Codex. She's all over
11:52the lore.
11:52Exactly. And she's a class of character that we've never done in Dawn of War before is those, those sort
11:58of outright mythological characters from, from Eldar lore.
12:01And that's, that's really good to bring her into the, into the game.
12:05That's awesome.
12:06As a lore nerd, I was very happy to get her on the, uh, on the roster.
12:14And I can't, yeah. Okay. I had the, the super, um, fanciful mindset of like, yeah, maybe there's more in
12:24the future than we'll see.
12:25So obviously if one Phoenix Lord is possible. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see.
12:29Exactly. Gets me excited. Yeah.
12:32Uh, so now we're sort of building up some resources, putting down some listening posts to protect them.
12:38Um, stretching forward that fleet of foot.
12:40Yeah, exactly. So, um, because we've teched up a bit, we can now relocate those webway gates.
12:46So now I'm thinking I'm going to go attack one of my objectives, which is off to the left here.
12:52So I want a field of fleet of foot to help me regenerate.
12:55Okay.
12:57Um, just sort of get in my guys.
13:00Taking some time to recharge shields here too, obviously.
13:03Yes. Yes, exactly.
13:04Um, so I don't have enough power to buy the, the upgrade that will allow me to, um, to reinforce
13:12my squads.
13:13Okay.
13:13Near the webway gate, so I still need to do that back at the production buildings.
13:17So again, sending in my rangers, um, to check out the defenses.
13:22This is an especially well defended area.
13:25Moving on.
13:26Yeah. Even patrolling here.
13:28Yeah.
13:29I like that you can see like the shadow beyond that line of sight blocking terrain.
13:32So when they go there, you can't see them.
13:34When you take a look around the corner, you can.
13:36Yeah, exactly.
13:37That's a mechanic we inherited from, uh, Company of Heroes 2.
13:41And, uh, we've made great use of here now.
13:45Again, because we're dealing with very, with potentially large armies, we do have more open space than that game.
13:52So, uh, the visibility, uh, it's more particular situations that come into play and elevation changes.
14:00But, uh, it's, it creates some really fun gameplay.
14:05Kind of taking a look at, and I also noticed that units build relatively fast.
14:10They do.
14:11They don't take too long.
14:11So what's kind of nice is you do stockpile some resources, but it allows you to kind of stick to
14:16what you were talking about.
14:17The movement of the army and the decisions with the army itself.
14:20Yeah.
14:21Um, obviously, especially with multiplayer, as we see better players kind of come in, you're going to be getting a
14:27cool mix of both, I think.
14:28Yes.
14:28If you can optimize both.
14:29Exactly.
14:30Exactly.
14:30We really wanted to set it up so you have, um, at first when you're playing, there's a fairly straightforward
14:38choice of,
14:39Am I going to put my attention on my elites or am I going to put my attention on my
14:43line units?
14:45Um, and as players get more used to the game, as they pursue more advanced strategies, then a mix of
14:52those is going to, is going to evolve.
14:55Like in this playthrough, I'm using a lot of dark reapers.
14:59So I'm sort of massing firepower and then using the elites to back those up.
15:07And it seems to be effective, the range of them really good.
15:09And as you said, that true damage against, I think this was just space marine units.
15:12Yeah.
15:13Just kind of drops them pretty quick.
15:14Yeah, essentially, I mean, this is more advanced stuff, but under the hood, our damage system works that, um, sort
15:20of normal damage will do full damage to infantry and then reduce damage to vehicles.
15:25And anti-armor damage will sort of do the reverse.
15:29Uh, whereas true damage does full damage to everyone.
15:32Okay.
15:33So it makes them quite effective.
15:36And here we go.
15:36We get to see the Phoenix Lord in action.
15:38Yeah.
15:38That ability right there just clears lanes is the idea that kind of comes to mind.
15:42Yeah.
15:42So that's her try to feel the silent death.
15:45And, um, you actually can use it with some, some great mobility because it will return to wherever you are.
15:52So you can sort of guide it by moving the unit, which is very helpful.
15:57You can see, uh, Jane Tsar is going into cover there.
16:00So that's, that's the other thing about our cover system is it protects against ranged fire, but melee units become
16:07sort of storming units.
16:08Yeah.
16:08They're the ones who have to go in and take out the cover or take out the units in the
16:12cover.
16:13And it's a good thing she did.
16:14Those heavy bolters in there were doing a pretty heavy amount of damage actually.
16:17Yeah.
16:19And that is that, uh, kind of building cover you were talking about.
16:22Yeah.
16:22Like you said, you can't shoot them directly.
16:24You have to drop down the shield first.
16:25Exactly.
16:26Or storm in there as it was.
16:27Exactly.
16:28So it creates a really nice role for dedicated melee units.
16:31Um, in this particular build, Jane Tsar is my only melee unit right now because I haven't built a bunch
16:38of Howling Banshees.
16:39Uh, so I'm really sort of counting on her as my, my cover.
16:45Yeah.
16:46Um, cover counter as it were.
16:48And you can see she's taken a fair amount of damage in that.
16:50So I'm going to retreat her back to, um, back to the base.
16:56The base buildings have an aura that heals Elise.
16:59So she'll take care of that while, uh, Maka takes care of a few last units and captures this communications
17:08array, which is our current objective.
17:12Yeah, I like it a lot.
17:15And I, I actually like on the mini-map too that you can pretty clearly see the objectives.
17:19Yep.
17:19So it's nice knowing this is where you have to head towards doing that.
17:23Yeah, exactly.
17:25Here comes the retaliation.
17:27Yep.
17:27I also like that, uh, in the game too, there's, there's times where you hear them say like,
17:31Oh, they've taken this.
17:32So now we're going to attack them.
17:33And it kind of gives you a heads up.
17:36Yep.
17:36Yeah, exactly.
17:37Like we really wanted you to get that sense that the space Marines are actively defending this place.
17:44They're going to respond as you act.
17:46We really created a situation that played to both strengths.
17:50So the Eldar have a chance to use mobility, line of sight, hit and run tactics quite well.
17:57And that the space Marines have opportunities to dig in.
18:01They're quite strong at sort of sustained fights.
18:09And you'll see that'll peak towards the end of this mission.
18:15This part of the mission I would say plays to the Eldar strengths.
18:18Yeah.
18:19So, you know, you're able to, you have more mobility than the enemy does.
18:25You're, you know, you're, you're able, their positions are fortified, but not fully fortified.
18:32That's super great.
18:32They're sort of outposts.
18:35And then we'll, we'll get into the space Marine strength a little later on.
18:42And I love the animation of this land sphere here.
18:45Yeah, here we go.
18:49When it dies, it dies hard.
18:51Yes.
18:51As it should.
18:52The depth of speeder units is just one of those great pleasures in, uh, in Dawn Order 3.
19:01Even how they roll up though.
19:02Just the heavy boulder.
19:03You can hear it.
19:03Yeah.
19:05But again, I mean, you can see they're unsupported by themselves.
19:08Yeah, exactly.
19:09They're right now.
19:10They're just there to harass the player.
19:16Look at the range on the Dark Reapers.
19:17Yeah.
19:17I like the animation on that too.
19:18How they kind of like shoot out a little bit out of them and then propel forward.
19:21Yeah, exactly.
19:22It's a cool imagination of that.
19:24Yeah.
19:25I mean, that's a, a good example of whenever we take those sort of abilities or even massive fire and,
19:36you know, our animators, our effects artists, all looking for, okay, how can we make this a little unexpected?
19:43Yeah.
19:44Just, just enough that it feels fresh.
19:47And why do they have gray health there?
19:49What does that mean?
19:49The speeders on the ground.
19:50Oh, the speeders?
19:52Uh, so that's their wreck.
19:53You can actually destroy the wreck.
19:55Okay.
19:56Um, if you, if you choose to.
19:59All right.
19:59Not bad.
20:00Yeah.
20:00And one thing that I've got my eye on this entire time and I'm wondering why it's being held away
20:04from me.
20:05Yeah.
20:05Why can I not, not have a Wraith Lord right now?
20:09Well, give me Wraith Lord, please.
20:11So, um, Wraith Lord is your third elite here.
20:16And he is sort of a late game elite.
20:18So you have to build up the, the elite resource.
20:22So.
20:22And how do you do that?
20:23Um, it evolves over, it just builds up over time.
20:26Oh, it's time based.
20:27Okay.
20:27If I had chosen not to deploy Jane Tsar, um, which costs five elite points.
20:33Okay.
20:33Um, I could have waited a little longer and deployed the Wraith Lord.
20:38Okay.
20:38But then I wouldn't have Jane Tsar.
20:40Jane Tsar.
20:40Right.
20:41What's the fun of that?
20:43Yeah.
20:43And right now, since I'm dealing with mostly infantry units, Jane Tsar is the better choice.
20:48Yeah.
20:49So you can see I'm pulling back, reinforcing my army before I go on to the, the second objective
20:55on the right.
20:58I'm going to start building some of those shadow specters I was talking about.
21:02Yep.
21:02Just getting ready for.
21:04Alert command to deal with these trespassers.
21:07Oh, somebody triggered an alarm.
21:10And that's really unfortunate because now the army has to rush over here to deal with this.
21:13Yeah, exactly.
21:15Doesn't look like we're going to make it.
21:17You know.
21:17Gunned down those trespassers.
21:18Devastated.
21:21And here's some reinforcements.
21:22So this is like, this is an unideal fight because it was not planned.
21:26Yes, exactly.
21:27And you can see the space marines are bringing in drop pods, bringing in some extra forces.
21:32Now Jane Tsar is going to use her other ability, which is a jump.
21:36So she can soar around the battlefield and does damage where she starts to jump and where
21:43she ends it.
21:44I love that scream.
21:46Yeah.
21:50But you're able to kind of save the, I keep seeing grenades go forward.
21:53Obviously that's, that's from the guardian unit, right?
21:55It's the dire avengers actually.
21:57We don't have guardians.
21:58We have dire avengers.
21:59And yes, they have a plasma grenade, which does damage and knockback.
22:03So it's a...
22:04Is that cooldown based out of the squad as well?
22:07Okay.
22:07But it's, it's good for disruption in particular.
22:12Yeah.
22:13It's kind of one of the things I noticed is that utilizing the different abilities of
22:17each unit is actually super, super important.
22:20Yeah.
22:21It depends on your unit choice actually.
22:23There's things like the, the, the dark reapers don't have an active ability.
22:28Okay.
22:28Um, so their gameplay is a lot more about positioning, using their extended range, getting sight for
22:35them so they can lay down the fire.
22:37They have, uh, tear down times as well.
22:41Okay.
22:41Okay.
22:41Okay.
22:42So you have to be a bit more careful.
22:44Uh, whereas others have, uh, have active abilities.
22:48So here you can see we, we took the point, but then we started building and we left it undependent
22:53and they've come to harass.
22:55So Jane's are going to come back and make them feel bad about it.
22:59Make them feel bad about it.
23:00But they did get our power generator.
23:03Slowed it down a little bit.
23:04So we'll have to rebuild that.
23:07God, I just want to zoom in and see the, that's one of the coolest things about Donald
23:11War is the different death animations and just the cinematography of the battles is really fun.
23:15Um, yeah, we're, we're really proud of how, how spectacular we make battle, but, um, yeah.
23:24So, you know, back to abilities that the elites of course have more abilities typically.
23:31Um, but even there, there's a spectrum.
23:33There are units you'll see the, um, the wraith Lord when he comes out, he has some great abilities,
23:40but he's also tanky enough that you can just sort of let him do his thing.
23:44Uh, whereas Jane's are or Maka both need a bit more attention to really reach their full potential.
23:51Which is tough with Jane's are too.
23:52You really gotta, you kind of have to babysit her because, because that low health.
23:56Yeah.
23:56And her being a melee unit, she'll want to run forward.
23:58Absolutely.
23:59But without good support, she'll go down pretty quick.
24:01Yeah, absolutely.
24:03Which I think is right.
24:04I mean, that's, that's a really fun element to the Eldar play.
24:07Like they do have these mythical, like God-like characters, but it's always been that their abilities are more towards
24:13like the speed ability.
24:15Yeah.
24:15Like that's what their survivability is.
24:16Not necessarily that they weather the storm.
24:18Yeah, exactly.
24:20Exactly.
24:20As soon as they get into a sustained fight, they're gonna start, uh, taking losses.
24:25But in a duel or something like that, they're...
24:28Yeah, exactly.
24:29Exactly.
24:29If they can, if they can control the engagement, so they can come in, hit, pull back, hit again.
24:37And I mean, mechanically, that's even true of their weapons.
24:42Unlike the space marines that do sustain fire, most Eldar weapons are burst weapons.
24:47Yeah.
24:48So they'll do a bunch of damage up front.
24:52Here's your wraith lord.
24:54Um, he's ready to rumble.
24:57I love the animation direction of this too.
25:00I know.
25:00Like the kind of ethereal trailing off on the back of it.
25:04Yeah.
25:04Which is such a cool effect.
25:05Yeah, absolutely.
25:07He's been one of my favorite units since I started getting to know Eldar.
25:15Yeah.
25:1520 odd years ago.
25:16And, uh, I'm just so happy to see how he's come together here.
25:21And there, are there, there are wraith guard in this game as well?
25:24Yes, they're both wraith guard and wraith blades.
25:28Uh, so they're the smaller wraith units.
25:31Um, wraith guard are ranged and wraith blade are melee units.
25:35And they're sort of towards the top of the tech tree.
25:38Yeah.
25:39Uh, they're sort of the, the Eldar version of advanced infantry, heavy infantry.
25:43Um, yeah.
25:45So we have the full range of wraiths.
25:47We have wraith guard, wraith blades, wraith lords, and wraith knights.
25:52Thanks.
25:52Man.
25:53Um.
25:55Love it.
25:57Here's one of those servitors who's gonna ruin his.
26:02And this looks like a bigger fight.
26:03You can already see there's a dug in.
26:04Yeah.
26:05I think those are heavy bullets.
26:05Yeah, you can see there's a dreadnought as well.
26:08So, Jane Tsar is in maybe a little over her head here.
26:14Yeah, her shield's going down really quick as you can see.
26:16Yeah, but the wraith lord is gonna do his, his sweep.
26:20One of the coolest animations in the whole game.
26:22Yeah.
26:23It has to be.
26:23If there's anything cooler than that, you guys have done too much.
26:26Just like throwing the sword down, dragging it forward, and swiping.
26:29Yeah.
26:30He's pretty awesome.
26:31So yeah, Jane Tsar is in a bit of trouble, so she's gonna have to pull back.
26:38It's cool though, it's cool seeing the limitations of her.
26:40Like, that's what we're talking about.
26:41Yeah.
26:41She goes too far forward.
26:42I mean, she went down pretty quick.
26:44Yeah.
26:44If you would have left it there, she would have died.
26:45Yeah.
26:46But you can see.
26:46The wraith lord is not having any of it.
26:49Yeah.
26:49But, uh, because I had to pull Jane Tsar back, I couldn't go into that cover.
26:53So I had to destroy it with concentrated firepower.
26:55which means if I have to repel an attack here, I won't have that covered.
27:00Okay.
27:00So, it's a bit of a risk-reward situation.
27:03When it's destroyed, it's gone?
27:04It doesn't come back?
27:05Yeah, once it's destroyed, it's gone.
27:07You can repair it if it gets destroyed, if it gets damaged.
27:12But once it gets destroyed, you're out of luck.
27:20I'm gonna go back and take that objective here in a second.
27:22But we're getting pretty close, as you can see in the top left, it's just counting down.
27:25Actually, this is the last one of the objectives that are listed.
27:27Yeah.
27:28This is the last of the first part of the mission.
27:32And I'll then be the second part.
27:35We, uh, you know, we really wanted to give people big, hefty missions.
27:41Yeah.
27:41So, you know, this is a 45-minute playthrough or so.
27:46And, you know, that's fairly typical of our missions.
27:49So, you're gonna get a lot of gameplay.
27:52And there's a little bit of variety in it, too.
27:54Like you said, there's the stealth.
27:55And then there's just been some knock-em-down, drag-em-out fights as well.
27:58Yeah, absolutely.
27:58Absolutely.
27:59We showed a late Kane Space Marine mission at the summer conventions.
28:03And, you know, that's a much bigger, like, full pop-cap armies crashing into each other.
28:13Whereas this is built more around, especially this part, it's built around visibility.
28:18I think that's what I was able to play at PAX Prime.
28:21Yeah.
28:21Absolutely.
28:21It was so fun.
28:23Dreadnoughts are really, really cool.
28:25Yep.
28:27They're less cool when they're being used against you.
28:30Yeah.
28:31You'll see that soon enough.
28:34So, the Eldar can also relocate their base buildings.
28:38Yeah.
28:38So, here we're gonna move our base buildings into a forward staging area so that we can attack this Space
28:45Marine base that's to the north.
28:47That is pretty crazy.
28:50That's pretty ambitious, by the way.
28:53Multiplay.
28:53I'm gonna be really interested to see how that gets balanced out.
28:56Yeah.
28:56There's definitely times when an Eldar player will sneak something into your base.
29:02Oh, there's their whole base.
29:03Oh, okay.
29:06Yeah.
29:07You remember how I was saying earlier that the early part of the mission really played to the Eldar's strengths?
29:13Yeah.
29:13Well, the second part plays to the Space Marine strengths.
29:17Okay.
29:17They're well entrenched in a fortified base to the north here, and we've gotta, like, get to them, take out
29:25their base buildings, take out their HQ, and it's gonna be a challenge.
29:31This is kind of a little bit mundane, almost, but in base building, is there limitations to where the buildings
29:36could go?
29:37Not at all.
29:37Obviously, it's better to centralize so you can defend it, but otherwise, no.
29:40Well, it's, you know, forward base building is an important part of our game, actually, because it gives you reinforcement
29:47points, healing points for your elites, but there's always risk involved because you're more exposed to enemy fire, of course.
29:54So, yeah, there's no sort of control zone that you need to respect.
29:58You can build anywhere there's free space.
30:01It just, it's up to you to weigh the pros and cons of a particular area.
30:07And that's, in a multiplayer context especially, that creates some really nice emergent gameplay.
30:12Yeah.
30:12Where new strats come up as people discover places they can put bases or particular combinations.
30:20Something we, you know, an advanced Eldar mechanic that we don't really get into in this playthrough is you can
30:25also create portals between buildings.
30:28Oh.
30:28So you can warp your army from one building to another.
30:32Okay.
30:32So that whole, like, relocate a building into the back of the enemy's base.
30:36And then there's an army streaming through.
30:37And then there's an army streaming through.
30:39Hmm.
30:41Now, it's a, it's a, opening those gates is a sort of top tier ability that unlocks.
30:51So by that time you're, you're, yeah, it's a late game thing.
30:54So your enemy has tools to deal with it.
30:56Yeah.
30:56By the end.
30:58But it really adds to that sort of Eldar hit and run, appear out of a flank you weren't expecting.
31:04That'll be cool.
31:04A lot of fighting all over.
31:06Yeah.
31:06Exactly.
31:07I liked, uh, even like the Space Marines had drop paws.
31:11You could drop in defensive structures.
31:13You could just drop in straight up a Dreadnought or other Space Marines.
31:15Exactly.
31:16Exactly.
31:16You can have that on cooldown so you have it ready to go in case of a strategy like that.
31:19Yeah.
31:20Yeah.
31:20Exactly.
31:22You know, and conversely the Eldar have to be ready for that other shoe to drop.
31:25Yeah.
31:26You know, like, this is a problem when you're dealing with Space Marines is I scout out an
31:30area.
31:31Oh, three drop pods coming in and now I've got Dreadnoughts or tanks or things right on my
31:37doorstep.
31:38Just kind of scouting around here.
31:39This is the fortress.
31:41Yeah.
31:41Supposedly Angelus is in here.
31:43Indeed.
31:44Trying to track him down.
31:45Destroy their deployment structures and deny them reinforcements.
31:47You can see the servitor wobbling around to you.
31:49I love that animation even.
31:53Yeah.
31:54Oh, I think.
31:56Yeah.
31:56You can just see it at the top of the screen there.
31:59That servitor revealed those scouts up there and they are just getting hammered.
32:06What is that hitting them right now?
32:08That is fire from a whirlwind tank.
32:10Holy cow.
32:11An artillery tank.
32:12We'll see it a few more times here.
32:15I love that right there.
32:17Yeah.
32:18That is among the best things in the game.
32:20Yes.
32:21It just feels so good when you pull it off.
32:23It feels like it's very anime.
32:25Yeah.
32:25You know, we're talking about even like the sound direction of the game beforehand.
32:28Absolutely.
32:29Samurai-esque.
32:30Yeah.
32:30We really wanted to sort of blend the sort of space elf side with the sort of samurai sensibilities.
32:39Yeah.
32:39Just that like slightly more stoic warrior type of vibe.
32:44And it really came together, especially with the wraith units.
32:50Because they're bigger, you can really sell large animations.
32:55That's what I loved about even the lore of Eldar is, you know, one of the kind of funny themes
33:00about the game is that there's no real good guy except for maybe the Tau, I guess.
33:04But Eldar are like so good they're bad that they believe that they know better than everyone
33:08else.
33:09Yeah, exactly.
33:09They believe that they're the like highbrow race that has the best intentions and in order
33:14to achieve those intentions they have to kill everybody else.
33:16Yeah, exactly.
33:17So you can see here that, you know, we went in thinking we could take out these space marines
33:25with a show of force and they have already taken out our wraith lord.
33:30They took down Jane Tsar.
33:32Our army is shrinking because we're in a sustained fight.
33:38And now with no Jane Tsar you can't run into there.
33:40Yeah, exactly.
33:41I'm without Jane Tsar so I'm throwing grenades but that doesn't have an effect there.
33:45there's these whirlwind batteries coming in.
33:48You saw that warning so I was able to pull out.
33:51But, you know, I'm down to a fairly small force.
33:56Now fortunately my anti-tank units, the Shadow Specters, I've been able to keep most of them
34:03alive.
34:04They're a little more expensive so it's good to keep them alive.
34:07Yeah.
34:08But, like, you know, you'll remember earlier I had a whole force of Dark Reapers.
34:14I am down to one Dark Reaper.
34:17Not even one squad, just one dude.
34:20But you can reinforce so he can come back.
34:22Absolutely, he can come back and there is a benefit to reinforcing over building a squad.
34:26You do get a discount for that.
34:28So it is more efficient.
34:30But I really took some serious losses here.
34:33So here comes some drop pods.
34:35One goes into the river.
34:36Yes.
34:37Come on!
34:37One of them went into an in-development build.
34:42It looks like maybe there was one square passable space in there.
34:47But, you know.
34:48They're still shooting though.
34:49They're still shooting.
34:50Doing okay.
34:53Making the best of a bad situation.
34:55Yeah.
34:57I like too, one of the things I had to wrap my head around when I played through it at
34:59PAX
35:00was the drop pods are weapons.
35:02Drop them on stuff.
35:03Yes, absolutely.
35:04That's amazing.
35:05Of course they are.
35:06Yeah.
35:06It's a total risk-reward thing, right?
35:09Because you drop them on guys, they do knock back, they do damage, they're really,
35:14you know, they can be really effective.
35:15But the guys you deliver are then in the middle of the enemy.
35:19That can be a really good thing if it's the right unit.
35:22Right.
35:22Or it can be a terrible thing.
35:24Yeah.
35:24So, yeah, there's definitely a risk-reward there.
35:29All right.
35:30And now we see our first tank too.
35:31Yeah.
35:31So this is the Falcon grav tank.
35:35And let's see.
35:36We're going to try and poke here.
35:37Really mobile.
35:37Yeah.
35:38He can go over any obstacles.
35:40He's an outright flyer.
35:42There's that whirlwind I was talking about.
35:44So we're going to try and take him out.
35:47But the fight just kind of...
35:48And there's that vision thing we were talking about too.
35:50Yeah.
35:50Like all of a sudden there was more than we anticipated.
35:52Yeah, exactly.
35:52Look at the tank go down almost immediately.
35:54Yeah, exactly.
35:55He's pulling out.
35:55He got hit by some anti-air units.
35:58So the late tier anti-tank units.
36:04So Devastators with Blast Cannons or these Shadow Specters also do bonus damage against flyers.
36:10Okay.
36:11So that's a real problem for Eldar because all their tanks are flyers.
36:19Yeah.
36:19So they have to pay extra attention.
36:21But I was able to get out.
36:23His shield's already healed up.
36:25And I moved in a Bonesinger to heal him up.
36:27So that's actually a pretty good use of hit and run.
36:32And again, Janes are just a little bit unintended there and just take such a huge amount of damage.
36:39Yeah.
36:39And here comes the Wraith Lord.
36:43He's going to use this.
36:43Those last cannons are the most dangerous thing for him because he has tank armor or heavy armor.
36:50So...
36:50But then when he gets up in their face they're just gone.
36:52Yeah, exactly.
36:53Exactly.
36:56Love the voice on him too.
36:58Yeah.
37:01That charge he does with the sweep at the end, you can actually trigger the sweep early.
37:06Oh, you can.
37:06So you can sort of time it and when you get to where you want it, you just hit the...
37:10I think it's Q again and he'll sweep.
37:14Oh, that's awesome.
37:15So again, there's that sort of micro-timing player agency side.
37:20Is that true with Janes are his ability too?
37:21No, Janes doesn't have a secondary trigger, but she has some interactions.
37:26Okay.
37:27So her jump, she will run forward and then jump off the first enemy she runs into.
37:33Okay.
37:33Or she will also jump off her triskeel.
37:36So she can throw the triskeel, have it come back, then jump, jump off it, land in the enemy.
37:43She can create a lot of havoc that way.
37:45Well, that's awesome indeed.
37:46Yeah.
37:47It's not just a bland, like, this is just going to do that.
37:49No, exactly.
37:50All our elites have interesting interactions that way.
37:55We really wanted to create a system where we had simple ways to use them and then more advanced techniques.
38:04And they also interact with each other.
38:06So, you know, Maka can freeze people in stasis and then other units can do things to units that are
38:14in stasis and so on.
38:16So there's a lot of interesting interactions that I think will, you know, keep the game fresh and interesting for
38:22people for a long time.
38:25I was just marveling at the damage there.
38:27I mean, again, you can see the different elites and their different roles.
38:29Yeah.
38:29The Wraith Lord can take a lot of damage.
38:31He didn't wander too far forward.
38:33There seems to be a lot of guys up there.
38:35Yeah.
38:35He's like, okay, got to pull him back.
38:37Yeah.
38:38But you can just see, like you said, this is not the favorable situation for the Hildar.
38:42I mean, every time they go forward, they're like, okay, let's go rebuild.
38:45Yeah, so they got to pick forward.
38:46They've got to make sure they have those webway gates there so they get that fleet of foot and it
38:53also regenerates their shields and even their abilities a little faster.
39:00And any space marines bleed forward, that is a mistake?
39:04Yeah, exactly.
39:05So at this point, you're sort of in a stalemate, right?
39:08Like the space marines seem to be holding the line.
39:13We haven't been able, I think we took out one of their whirlwinds, but their base buildings are still there.
39:18So they're still getting reinforcements.
39:21Like you say, if they poke out, we're able to take them down.
39:25So you have to build up a slightly different force.
39:28Now we've got two tanks.
39:31What's the role of the tank, do you think?
39:33I mean, does it have that AP shell?
39:36Yeah, so the Falcon is...
39:38Oh, now see the space marines are poking at us with some drop pods.
39:43You had to move out of the way of that one.
39:45Yeah.
39:48Now, unfortunately...
39:48Hot landing zone, I would say.
39:50Yes.
39:52But it keeps us on our toes, which is good.
39:55If we hadn't been paying attention or had been in a push flanking, they could have done a fair amount
40:00of damage.
40:01Well, to be fair, every Warhammer book I've ever read, those 10 space marines would have killed this and probably
40:05100,000 more Eldar.
40:07They had the right idea, just the wrong depiction of the universe.
40:11Well, maybe, except if you read Eldar fiction, then...
40:14Fair point, fair point.
40:16Then they're dancing around them and lecturing them on their evil ways, too.
40:19Exactly.
40:20One Eldar is worth a thousand Monkai.
40:23That's true.
40:25Gonna poke forward again with the elites.
40:27That ability, that anti-troop, and I like, too, it tracks, right?
40:31So if you move to the right, you can drag it on a different path.
40:33Yeah, so there's a whole bunch of, like, gameplay that you can do there.
40:39Now we're trying to take out that reinforcement structure.
40:43There's the Last Cannon and Heavy Bolter over there.
40:45Yeah, exactly.
40:46The Heavy Bolter's not much of a problem for the Wraith Lord, other than the fact that the Heavy Bolter
40:53does a slow, so it keeps him in range for the Last Cannons longer than he might want to be.
40:59Well, that's really cool.
41:00It's got, like, stopping power to it.
41:02Yeah, exactly.
41:05This is starting to finally tip in your favor.
41:07Yeah, Genzar's moving into the cover.
41:15With Spectre support, but they just don't have anything for the Wraith Lord just yet at all.
41:18Yeah.
41:19Oh.
41:19Well, okay.
41:20Speak of the devil.
41:21There's that vision.
41:23Here comes the Dreadnought.
41:25But now we have gotten past what was really the hardest nugget for us was that position of cover and
41:32the last cannons there.
41:34And it, too, can weather a storm, if you see, but, I mean, it's just by itself taking all that
41:38Spectre damage.
41:40Yeah, exactly.
41:41Even Reapers.
41:43Okay.
41:43So they're flanking, they're doing their job, sort of disrupting our infantry.
41:50But those Spectres are the real danger for the Space Marines now.
41:56Because of the reserves?
41:58Yeah.
42:00So the Spectres have some, because they're floating units, they can't be tied up in melee.
42:06Yeah.
42:07So melee units are less effective against them, but not completely ineffective.
42:12You saw some disruption there.
42:14But just the constant, their concentrated firepower.
42:17Don't fight me, Eldar.
42:19Okay.
42:20So now, here comes, here comes Jonah Orion, the chief librarian for the Blood Ravens.
42:29And he's, he's going to lay some personal smack down.
42:33So he's a Space Marine elite.
42:36You know, as a Space Marine player, he's one of the elites who get to play.
42:39But as an Eldar, you will have to deal with him.
42:42And you can see he's...
42:43Holy cow.
42:44Yep.
42:47And just, he doesn't even have that much support, but they are laying waste.
42:51Yeah.
42:52Well, he's got...
42:53Pretty good support.
42:54Yeah.
42:54He's got a tank, and then he's going to start using his abilities here.
42:58Cool.
42:59This is so cool.
43:00Yeah.
43:00Locking in a bunch of guys behind his, his stone wall here, and then blinding them.
43:06That's pretty amazing.
43:07Anti-Eldar specifically, because they want to get away from a melee unit.
43:10Yeah.
43:10Exactly.
43:11Or you can't.
43:12Exactly.
43:14And the Wraith Lord's on the outside, like, I'll jump over there in a second.
43:17Yeah.
43:17Yeah, exactly.
43:18The Wraith Lord actually can't do anything to get in there.
43:20Jump units can do something.
43:23Here comes James Zara, and she's going to start doing a bit of...
43:31There's her jump.
43:32Doing a bunch of damage there.
43:35Jonah don't give a damn, though.
43:36Yeah.
43:37He doesn't care.
43:37He's pretty healthy.
43:42I mean, obviously, you've stacked up resources.
43:44You can rebuild what you did.
43:45Yeah, absolutely.
43:46But, you know, I've spent my focus here on my elites.
43:51Yeah.
43:51So, at this point, they're really unsupported.
43:54Because the space marines are doing it.
43:56So, we're sort of trying to do a duel of elites.
44:00So, here you'll see me do an early trigger, like I was saying.
44:03Knock him out.
44:04Sort of disrupt him.
44:06Ugh.
44:08Jane Zara needs to get out of there while she's got a sliver.
44:11It's a little bit of strategy to the idea of almost just letting her drop there too, right?
44:13Or can you replenish that health on the inside of the shield?
44:17Once she gets close to a base building, she will regenerate.
44:21So, if you look on the left, you can see her portrait.
44:23You can see the shield is just, like, visibly growing.
44:28Okay.
44:28Oh, that wraith lord.
44:32Okay.
44:33So, let's bring in Maka.
44:35See what we can do here.
44:37And you can see here, too, again, the tank's not facing anti-tank, like you said, the last 10.
44:40So, they're doing very well.
44:42Yep.
44:43Whereas when they were in the less favorable matchup, they died pretty immediately.
44:46Yep.
44:49They're good at shooting Jonah.
44:51There.
44:52She's getting some damage in.
44:54Tell me where Angelos is, and perhaps I'll spend.
44:59Leave him!
45:01I'm your opponent, Maka.
45:02What is that ability he's doing?
45:03He just hit that tank with something and it's almost dead.
45:06Yep.
45:06So, that's his linear attack.
45:09Okay.
45:10But now we've got him down.
45:13Jonah's making way for Gabriel.
45:15And you're going to leave us with that.
45:16And I'm going to leave you with that.
45:17He says, I'm coming out.
45:18You guys are like, that's it?
45:18All right.
45:20The tease is real.
45:21Yeah.
45:22Well, thanks so much for sitting down with us and playing some Eldar.
45:26Pleasure's all mine.
45:27This is awesome.
45:28Great.
Commenti