The campaigns in Gladius are an interesting addition to the standard 4X formula. They can often be a source of frustration rather than enjoyment due to large amounts of hostile forces attacking you. There’s nothing quite like losing a long game just as you were on the cusp of victory because of an event time limit or a massive invasion force.

There are three main campaign mission types:

Explore.
Produce.
Battle.

During Explore and Produce missions, it’s frequently possible to put your campaign progress on hold while you deal with AI enemy factions or build up your forces, but you rarely know what the campaign will ask of you next.

In this guide, we’ll take a quick look at the Ork campaign chapters to make it easier for you to decide when to march forward through the campaign and when to hold back.

Keep in mind you can simply complete your quest after winning a game the normal way, and get the achievement if that is all you care about.

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Also, check out my guides for the other races! https://steamproxy.net/id/1N54N3/myworkshopfiles/?section=guides

Produce

Producing 100 Influence is a trivial mission for any faction, but the Orks gain bonus Influence from fighting. That makes for one quick mission.


Produce

The other Chapter 1 mission isn’t any harder. It simply requires you to build 1 Orkoid Fungus. Considering that they’re such an important boon to your cities and food production tiles, you’ll probably do this ASAP anyway.

Explore

Chapter 2 won't activate until a certain turn counter in addition to completing the previous mission. It seems to activate around 3 turns after completing Chapter 1, which gives you time to scout and build up your forces.

If desired, you can also stop right here in terms of campaign progress. Chapter 3 will require building a new city on a certain tile, which is easy to avoid if you want to halt further quest progress at that point. It’s probably worth grabbing the 100 Research now as soon as you feel it would be practical to do so.

Note that, unlike some “secure the perimeter” missions, no additional enemies spawn when you visit the last location. You simply need to clear the immediate area of neutral enemies like you would normally.

Explore

This is the best place in the campaign to pause your progress, fight some AI enemies, learn some new technologies, and build up a decent army. Note that you’ll need to found a new city within the specific area to progress further in the campaign, so you may want to wait before founding multiple new cities. The Loyalty tax of too many cities will hinder your progress rather than aid it.

Important Note: It is highly likely depending on how far you are in your Technology that you can be thrown into repeated battle/victory/battle cycles until Chapter 6 starts which you want to be VERY ready for.
Make sure you've either: Not produced a Squiggoth yet.
Or: Have a large army of advanced units to survive the later campaign battles.


Battle

This will be your first actual battle mission and at the end of chapter 3, you’ll certainly get a fight. Though this is far from the hardest battle mission out there, it features a big enough opposing army that you’ll want a decent force of your own before it begins.

For me, the first wave consisted of the following units: 3 Tactical Marines, 3 Assault Marines, 2 Devastator Marines, 3 Predators, 2 Hunters. This is followed by additional waves that spawn every other turn until 9 of the 10 turns required for the defense. Each wave had 6-8 units including a mix of any low-mid tier Space Marine units. Be aware that in my game, I had 4 cities that were quite spread out, and the units spawned around and attacked all of my cities, not just the new one required for the quest. You may have something similar.

Surviving for 10 turns or eliminating all the enemies will complete the mission and take you into Chapter 4.

Explore

Conditional: If you’ve already done a decent chunk of exploring, you might have completed this mission before it even starts, making this one of the shortest chapters in Gladius. Otherwise, head to the tile. If your quest doesn't auto-complete, make sure your units are near your cities and ready for lots of battle coming in Chapters 5 & 6.

Battle

This will start a siege style battle with the Astra Militarum (IG). If you auto-completed Chapter 4, you'll be here whether you want to be or not.

In addition to the city itself, you'll likely be facing the following units: 16 Guardsmen Squads, 4 Heavy Weapon Squads, 6 Scout Sentinels, 8 Hydras, 4 Basilisks, 5 Leman Russ Battle Tanks, and 5 Commissars. Be aware that at least one of the Commissars can be over level 6, and will therefore take Iron Will, forcing you to kill them twice.

You’ve probably got a decent army by this point, but if you don’t have it in the right place, you’ll find yourself scrambling for a few turns to take out this force that’s almost equivalent to an additional AI faction. Be sure your boys are 'ard.

Important: if you've already produced a Squiggoth or just aren't ready to start the final chapter which involves one of the biggest final sequences of any race, leave the city alive until you're ready to proceed. There will be no going back after this. It is also worth noting that destroying the city will leave any remaining IG forces you haven't killed to continue fighting you. It may be more prudent to kill all the units before triggering Chapter 6 if you already have the Squiggoth.

Produce

If you already produced a Squiggoth (and you probably did because they’re such a powerful unit), then you’re heading straight into another big and final battle.


Battle

This is an Invasion style battle which means units will be spawning spread out around your cities. This will include waves of enemies that appear every other turn after the first. Waves usually consist of 6-8 units. In similar fashion to the Chapter 3 battle, you can survive for 20 turns or can destroy all the enemies and finish a little early. This battle will also be more diverse than some of the epic Gladius fights, because it features a broad range of enemies from all three other base-game factions.

During the battle, the Imperial Guard forces included Guardsmen Squads, Heavy Weapon Squads, Tempestus Scions, Hydras, Basilisks, Baneblades, Thunderbolts, and Marauder Bombers. The Space Marines brought Tactical Marines, Assault Marines, Devastator Marines, Terminators, Predators, Vindicators, Land Raiders, Stormtalon Gunships, and Stormraven Gunships. The Necrons had Necron Warriors, Triarch Praetorians, Immortals, Heavy Destroyers, Transcendent C’Tans, Annihilation Barges, Doomsday Arks, Doom Scythes, and Monoliths.

It's entirely possible that you'll face every base game unit by the end which will make this battle feel more dynamic and epic than any other Quest's smaller selection of foes. Once you take them all down (or survive 20 turns), congratulations, you’ve defeated the Ork campaign and secured yourself a campaign victory.