Games Workshop is well known for handing out its licenses like candy, regardless of the quality of the finished product. Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus is no exception; a free-to-play gacha game that is, at best, a mildly interesting diversion from other, better Android games. Set in the titular Warhammer 40,000 universe, you'll gather groups of characters from various factions and engage in quick turn-based battles across multiple game modes. While I was pleasantly surprised by the tactical gameplay, the ridiculous monetization makes it bloated and hard to recommend.

While some gacha games are predictable in their attempts to turn franchise interest into cash, Warhammer 40,000 Tacticus' strategy borders on the bizarre. Inexpensive and unnecessary purchases are paired with expansions that cost as much as complete PC games. There's little reason to purchase anything in this title unless you're desperate to play six campaigns at once. On the other side of the coin, the gameplay of Tacticus is surprisingly good. While the campaign missions are a doddle, the other game modes offer engaging missions that often require serious thinking to complete.

I recorded the above video after a few hours of gameplay. The tutorial melds smoothly into the primary campaign, and a concise explanation of the various menus gets you into the game in no time. The gameplay was smooth, and I did not encounter any bugs.

The multitude of menus and tabs is incredibly annoying. The concise tutorial might have gotten me into the game fast, but it left me scratching my head later on as I tried to redeem rewards, open chests, or upgrade characters. However, this confusing UI seems intentional; after each mission, the game cheerfully showers you with Coins, Raid tickets, Energy, Blackstone, character tokens, and other esoteric currencies. While this is standard gacha practice, I constantly had to flip between screens to figure out precisely what each one did; it was frustrating and made me want to put down my phone rather than pull out my wallet.

Of course, all these tactics are designed to confuse you into spending money, but Tacticus' monetization strategy is ridiculous. You can buy loot boxes with random rewards and purchase campaign extensions that include guaranteed characters for a frankly outrageous price. The thinking behind this might be the classic "people are willing to pay money for their favorite characters," but this is where Tacticus makes a strange decision.

Games like Disney Mirrorverse offer you the chance to play as your favorite character, something many people are happy to shell out a few extra dollars for. However, most of the playable characters in Tacticus are generic nobodys with no established lore or background. While notable characters are included from across the Warhammer 40,000 universe, I found myself baffled about the reasoning behind paying money for Generic Character #2798.

Tacticus' other monetization tactic is to encourage you to buy upgrades for your character. This would seem like a golden opportunity to delve into the lore to equip your characters with famous weapons and wargear from across the universe. However, once you've upgraded your character with your favorite tools, the game instructs you to discard them all to level up your character's stats, reducing it to its original blank slate but with slightly higher numbers. There's no sense of actual character progression. Being allowed to change the visuals and weapons of generic characters might have given them some life, but Tacticus squanders this opportunity. Upgrading your characters makes them better on the battlefield, but this doesn't make much sense either.

Tacticus offers many game modes, each with its in-game currency. Once you run out of that currency, you must wait to refill your allowance before playing again (or purchase more, of course). There are five modes in total, but you'll spend most of your time in the first three; Campaign, Arena (where a computer controls another player's team), and Survival. All follow the same broad pattern, defeat all the enemies on the battlefield to win.

Once I'd progressed through the tutorial, I found the gameplay far more rewarding than I expected. Each game mode offers a unique challenge that requires you to adapt your tactics or face defeat. While the campaign missions are relatively easy affairs, the survival mode had me carefully strategizing my moves, and the Arena mode inflicted some brutal losses on me. It's a straightforward turn-based affair, but the tiny maps mean there's not much room for mistakes. Each character has a distinct role, and ensuring your team works together is the key to success. It's simple to learn but hard to master.

Your skill directly influences success in Warhammer 40,000 Tacticus, so once you get the hang of it, you won't see much need to pay for upgrades. This is again why the microtransactions baffle me, as there simply isn't any point in paying to upgrade your characters. Each game mode offers enough rewards to keep you moving forwards, and once you start struggling in one, you can switch to another to level up before returning. I'm confident there is a brick wall that can only be knocked down with cash somewhere down the line, but it's much further off than I expected.

Warhammer 40,000: Tacticus is a game of contradictions. Greedy monetization is made redundant by how superfluous it is; the only reason to spend money is to get more content, which, while overpriced, isn't an unreasonable offer. The gameplay is difficult in parts but offers simple ways to circumvent the challenges. Overall, it's an acceptable experience. It's better than other gacha games, but it certainly won't be finding a place in our roundup of the best Android strategy games.