40K 4X Gladius – Relics of War is free to keep for a limited time

A Lord Commissar commands soldiers of the Astra Militarum
(Image credit: Slitherine)

The annual Warhammer Skulls event is always a fiesta of good news for Warhammer tragics, whether that's announcements of whole new games like Mechanicus 2, expansions like Forges of Corruption for Boltgun, or additional details like the separate co-op campaign for Space Marine 2. But there's usually a freebie to go along with it, and this year it's Warhammer 40,000: Gladius – Relics of War, which will be free to keep on Steam and Epic for the next week.

I wasn't too hot on Gladius when it first launched in 2018, but the combat-focused Civ-like has seen a string of updates and expansions since then, and that's done a lot for its scope and variety. These days it's sitting on a respectable Mostly Positive user rating on Steam, and there's DLC to let you play as factions like the t'au, tyranids, and Chaos space marines, as well as smaller packs that add units to those factions. The newly released Demolition Pack adds 11 more, including arco-flagellants, wraithlords, and burna boyz. (That last one is for the orks, if the name didn't give it away.)

This year's other freebies are a digital goodies bag at GOG that contains wallpapers and discount codes, a set of dice for Blood Bowl 3 you can claim from its in-game store this week, and the announcement of a new legendary hero coming to Total War: Warhammer 3. That's Karanak the Endless Hunter, a three-headed daemon dog who serves the Chaos god Khorne, and will be part of a future update for all players.

Jody Macgregor
Weekend/AU Editor

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.

Read more
Company of Heroes 3
Company of Heroes 3 is free to try and 50% off, so it's the best time to check out the beefy 2.0 overhaul
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s getting a new roguelite wave defense mode that sounds a whole lot like a souped-up take on Killing Floor
The Biovore, a beetle-like alien with an artillery cannon on its back, in a desert environment.
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2's latest update leads with a fancy datavault for your battle-barge, but I'm far more interested in the new tyranid unit with a cannon on its back
helldivers 2 urban legends
Arrowhead CEO says Games Workshop 'would love' a 40K Helldivers 2 crossover, 'but time and resources are finite and we've got our hands busy'
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 promo art - three Space Marines standing in formation
Space Marine 2 dev acknowledges its FOMO events are 'a source of frustration and stress for everyone', says it'll fix things and isn't trying to make 'a full live service game' by stealth
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 celebrates 7 years of rat bashing with a new versus map and double XP for all players, but its hotly anticipated weapon pack 'won't be coming out this year'
Latest in Strategy
Tzarina Katarin Bokha, the Ice Queen of Kislev
Total War: Warhammer 3 rolls out a cool Kislev overhaul, changes befitting Tzeench’s magic, new projectile units and creakier skeletal horses
Civilization 7 Great Britain - Modern Civ art (via YouTube)
As Civilization 7 struggles to keep up with Civ 5 player counts, a new patch is coming tomorrow with still more UI changes and gameplay tweaks
Battle Brothers
Nearly 2 years after its last update, the excellent Battle Brothers gets 'a bucket load of fixes' and free new content
King wielding his axe against would-be assassins in Norland.
Medieval colony sim Norland is getting a 'damn big update' that completely overhauls the game's mechanics: 'We're rolling out some radical changes to the core gameplay'
Age of Empires 2
Former Age of Empires 2 dev claims Microsoft demanded its first expansion should have a Korean faction, because 'StarCraft sold 3 million copies in Korea'
Endless Legend 2 Kin faction reveal
It's turtle time: Endless Legend 2's first faction is the fortification-loving Kin of Sheredyn
Latest in News
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'