Warhammer 40,000 Gladius Relics of War – Tau Ignore Upkeep Guide for Beginners

In case you’re interested in producing a KV128 Stormsurge every two turns and seeking a solution for countering Utopia’s impact on your in-game economy, you’ve come to the right place. I’m CuddilyWuddily, and I’ve devised a strategy to dismantle Utopia’s hold and swiftly deploy KV128 Stormsurges, leveling the playing field with other factions.

Introduction

My passion for ultimate units drove me to this game, and when I realized that Utopia was hindering my ability to spam these powerful units with one of my favorite Warhammer 40k factions, it infuriated me. I vented my frustration in a frenzy, desperately trying to break free from Utopia’s constraints that had ensnared me for so long. After months of tumultuous emotions and relentless determination, I achieved the seemingly impossible – I broke free from Utopia’s grasp and obliterated it with my own efforts.

However, this intense pursuit has led me to develop a singular focus. If a topic doesn’t relate to annihilating Utopia and saturating the map with Stormsurges, it might as well be a mystery to me. I have no knowledge of how to play Tau in player versus player matches, no understanding of conventional Tau gameplay, and little awareness of most Tau units and their capabilities. My expertise is solely centered around eradicating Utopia, and I have no desire to diversify my knowledge. The mere thought of reviving Utopia or learning how to play Tau in a conventional manner nauseates me.

Consequently, I’ll never be able to provide a comprehensive Tau guide. If your goal is to gain a deep understanding of Tau as a faction, I recommend looking elsewhere. This guide serves as a concise and straightforward manual dedicated to the art of obliterating Utopia and dominating the game with KV128 Stormsurges.

So, if your objective aligns with flooding the map with KV128 Stormsurges, you’re in the right place, and I welcome you to explore this guide further!

Utopia and Why It Tortures Me

The primary limiting factor for economic growth in Gladius is the speed of population growth. This means that factors such as building construction time and the cost of each building are not as critical. To optimize your economy, the key is to ensure that each building you construct maximizes your gains, as population growth speed is the bottleneck of your economic development.

Let’s consider two types of buildings: resource buildings and loyalty buildings. Resource buildings increase your income by 6 but also have a cost of 1 (upkeep) and reduce population loyalty by 1%. Loyalty buildings, on the other hand, boost your income by 6% but come with a cost of 2 (upkeep) and decrease population loyalty by 1%.

Now, the question arises: when is it more advantageous to build a resource building, and when should you opt for a loyalty building?

To address this query, I’ve developed an equation to model a standard faction economy. This equation will help us determine the optimal choice between resource and loyalty buildings based on your specific circumstances.

I then used the aforementioned equation to create a spreadsheet that showed the ideal balance between loyalty and resource building for the growth of the economy.

And I carried out the same action with the Tau economy, including Utopia.

Your observation about the performance of the Tau economy in Gladius is quite interesting. It appears that for the first ten resource or loyalty buildings, the Utopia faction excels in economic terms. However, beyond this point, the Tau economy experiences a significant decline in its efficiency.

To illustrate this, let’s examine some key percentages:

• At 20 buildings, the Tau economy is only at 76.9% of what a regular economy would achieve.
• With 30 buildings, it further drops to 64.3% of a regular economy.
• By the time you reach 40 buildings, the Tau economy is operating at just 57.6% of a regular economy’s capacity.

Your findings are based on direct testing with three Tau cities, and it’s worth noting that this was intentionally done on grass terrain while avoiding outpost bonuses. Additionally, you did not use Cadre Fireblades in your testing. It’s possible that on volcanic terrain, with outpost bonuses, and the inclusion of Cadre Fireblades, the Tau economy might yield more favorable results.

Can you observe the data? By the 100th turn, the Tau economy, when optimized to its fullest extent, can only support 2 Ghostkeels and 4 Riptides! This is undeniably disheartening.

Furthermore, by the 150th turn, the most this strategy can achieve is producing 1 KV128 Stormsurge every 5 turns. A truly lamentable outcome.

This situation is profoundly disheartening. It becomes evident why Utopia is such a source of frustration for me. Utopia severely cripples the Tau economy to the extent that it can never, I repeat, NEVER, keep up with other factions. Despite having 21 resource buildings and 19 loyalty buildings, the Tau economy only operates at 57.6% of a regular faction’s economic capacity. As a result, in the mid-game, the Tau, with 3 cities, will find themselves outnumbered 2:1 when compared to all other factions.

The reason behind this discrepancy is quite clear. Every building in the Tau infrastructure incurs a loyalty cost, in addition to the loyalty cost from the population, necessitating the need for more than double the loyalty buildings compared to other factions just to break even. Furthermore, since loyalty buildings come with a substantial 2 energy upkeep, it compels the construction of twice as many energy buildings. Consequently, the loyalty penalty exacerbates exponentially, while the Tau economy can never enjoy the exponential growth that other factions’ economies experience.

The Solution? Ignoring Upkeep!

The solution to achieving success in the context you’ve described, particularly in terms of acquiring XV88 Broadside Battlesuits and KV128 Stormsurges despite facing resource deficits, primarily involves manipulating the concept of upkeep.

Ordinarily, a unit’s upkeep resource matches its purchase resource. For instance, a XV88 Broadside Battlesuit requires 40 food and 40 ore for purchase and has an upkeep of 4 food. In a typical scenario, if you’re experiencing a deficit of -100 food per turn, acquiring a XV88 Broadside Battlesuit would be an impossibility due to the inability to accumulate the required 40 food.

However, the Tau faction possesses the unique ability to procure resources using influence. This means that even when running a significant deficit of -100 food per turn, the Tau can use influence to obtain 40 food instantly, allowing them to purchase a XV88 Broadside Battlesuit despite being in a severe food deficit. Consequently, the Tau can saturate the map with XV88 Broadside Battlesuits while maintaining a stagnant economy.

This strategy does come with a trade-off. When operating with a negative food balance, population growth is reduced by half. Since population growth rate typically serves as a bottleneck for economic expansion, the economy’s growth rate is also halved. Consequently, the economy’s strength is approximately 34.7% compared to standard economies with 40 buildings.

Nevertheless, in exchange for this compromise, by generating 40 influence per turn and maintaining 4 barracks, the Tau can consistently produce a XV88 Broadside Battlesuit every two turns, even with zero population growth. This significantly narrows the economic gap, reaching a production rate of 65.3% compared to standard economies.

However, it’s essential to recognize that Broadside Battlesuits alone cannot secure victory in the game. To achieve success, you require KV128 Stormsurges, which have ore as their upkeep resource. The crucial question arises: can you afford to neglect ore upkeep? After extensive experimentation, the answer is affirmative.

When you disregard ore upkeep, your energy resources are halved. Consequently, loyalty, influence, and crisis centers are also reduced by half. To sustain the production of a KV128 Stormsurge, complete with three Battlesuit Support Systems, every two turns, you need 196 influence per turn and 10 Crisis centers. To generate this level of influence, you must construct 60 influence buildings and 60 loyalty buildings, requiring 120 population. Considering the reduced growth rate, this appears impractical.

However, by incorporating energy management into your strategy, you can reduce the required number of buildings. With this approach, you only need 30 influence buildings, 27 loyalty buildings, and 24 energy buildings, totaling 81 population. This is still a significant requirement, but it’s more manageable.

Furthermore, by leveraging the high influence upkeep, you can afford to deploy multiple Cadre Fireblades to fulfill 100% of your loyalty needs. Thus, to achieve the desired 196 influence per turn and construct a KV128 Stormsurge every two turns, you only require:

• 6 Cadre Fireblades
• 31 Influence buildings
• 12 energy buildings
• 3 Loyalty buildings
• 5 Xar’vesa Crisis Centres

It’s worth noting that the total number of buildings needed is less than 54, enabling three cities with only two shelters (18 maximum population) to accommodate all the necessary structures for building a KV128 Stormsurge every two turns. With an abundance of influence, you can employ Proselytize to maximize population in all 18 slots.

Please bear in mind that producing one KV128 Stormsurge every two turns represents the absolute maximum production speed because you are constrained by the ability to purchase only 40 ore per turn, making it impossible to build KV128 Stormsurges any faster.

Build Order

City Placement

To optimize your city placement and follow your build strategy, you have the luxury of positioning the Tau cities at the literal corners of the map and as close together as possible. Use the provided diagram to ensure adequate spacing for your first city, allowing for future city expansion.

1st City:

1. Research
2. Influence
3. Ore
4. Barracks
5. Barracks
6. Builder Drone
7. Builder Drone
8. Barracks
9. Energy
10. Barracks
11. Shelter
12. Loyalty

2nd City:

1. Energy
2. Research
3. Influence
4. Ore
5. Shelter
6. Loyalty
7. Builder Drone

3rd City:

1. Research
2. Influence
3. Energy
4. Ore
5. Shelter
6. Loyalty
7. Builder Drone

Research:

1. Wisdom Shared
   1. Fio’xar Arsenal
2. MV1 Gun Drones 2. Many Mouths
3. Builder Drones (Wisdom Shared) 3. Ta’aun Totem (Wisdom Shared)
4. XV8 Crisis Battlesuit
5. Extra Infantry Armor
6. XV25 Stealth Battlesuits 2. Tio’ur’m Pods
7. Equal Under the Sky 7. Vectored Retro-Thrusters
8. XV88 Broadside Battlesuits 8. Stimulant Injector
   1. Shan’ar’tol Stasis
9. Anthrazod Foundations 9. Advanced Targeting System
10. In Diversity, Unity
11. KV128 Stormsurge
12. A Shield For All 10. Shield Generator
13. Proselytize
14. Bonding Knife Ritual
15. Blast Phasing
16. Brachyuran Assembles
17. Mor’tonium Accelerators
18. Hammer of Wrath
19. Blacksun Filter

Objectives:

1. Build a total of 31 influence buildings.
2. Build a total of 12 energy buildings.
3. Build a Brachyuran’m Foundry in the first city only.
4. Build 5 Xar’vesa Crisis Centres in the first city only; immediately turn them off after they’re built.
5. Build a grand total of 6 Cadre Fireblades. The first 3 can be built just from stockpiled influence. The last three require you to stall production and save up.
6. Once the 2nd and 3rd cities have a total of 17 influence/energy buildings and 1 loyalty, shut down all other buildings, including the Brachyuran’m Foundry.
7. Use Proselytize to fill up all 18 pops on all 3 cities.

Cadre Fireblades Purchase Strategy:

When paying for Cadre Fireblades, save excess food via queuing up Fire Warriors.

1. Buy Cadre Fire Blade 1, Queue Fire Warrior 1.
2. Buy Cadre Fireblade 2.
3. Cancel Fire Warrior 1, buy Cadre Fireblade 3.
4. Buy Cadre Fireblade 4, Queue Fire Warrior 2.
5. Buy Cadre Fireblade 5.
6. Cancel Fire Warrior 2, buy Cadre Fireblade 3.

If you’re building infantry at this time, juggle the Fire Warriors by canceling them, queuing up the infantry, and then queuing up the Fire Warrior behind it.

KV128 Stormsurge Purchase:

To buy a KV128 Stormsurge with influence:

1. Queue up a Ghostkeel.
2. Next turn, cancel the Ghostkeel and build a KV128 Stormsurge.

Managing Ore Income:

Once your KV128 Stormsurges start affecting your ore income, buy 40 ore every single turn. If you reach negative ore income, store all your ore by queuing up units, buildings, and tile acquisitions and cancel them as necessary.

Optimal Battlesuit Support Systems for KV128 Stormsurges:

The best battlesuit support systems for your KV128 Stormsurges are Stimulant Injector, Shield Generator, and Vectored Retro-Thrusters. These defensive support systems significantly reduce damage inflicted on the Stormsurge, while offensive systems do not provide a noticeable increase in damage. Prioritize increased movement to enhance the Stormsurge’s mobility.

Following this build strategy, your army will be well-equipped to succeed. Please note that the data collected for this strategy was on grass terrain, intentionally avoiding all outpost bonuses.

At turn 125, I had my first Stormsurge, and by turn 173, when I had 12 total, I had reached a turn influence of 196. In other words, I was able to increase my economy to 196 influence and build a KV128 Stormsurge every 4 turns. The KV128 Stormsurge was really generated every three turns, but I had to stop them in order to construct my 4th, 5th, and 6th Cadre Fireblades.

That’s all, then! Enjoy repeatedly slamming Utopia in the face and saturating the map with KV128 Stormsurges to defeat AIs on the Impossible difficulty!