Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate

Chaos Gate is a 1998 turn-based tactics game set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. You command an army of Ultramarines under Captain Kruger, sent to recover an ancient artefact from the forces of the Chaos Lord Zymran. Each mission puts squads of marines on an isometric map against Chaos Space Marines, cultists and daemons.

Between missions you choose whether to follow the story or take on random missions to give your marines experience. Marines who die stay dead, and losses are not replaced for free, so every random mission is a choice between getting stronger and risking the people you already have.

It is still one of the best regarded Warhammer games, and the reason is that it treats the setting as a squad game rather than a battle game. The marines are tough, the enemies are tougher, and the turn-based rules make each one of them count. The choice between the plot and the side missions adds a simple campaign that works.

It looks and plays its age, and its battles can be slow. It is sold on GOG. Its 2022 successor, Chaos Gate: Daemonhunters, is a different game with a shared name and is covered separately in this library.

Chaos Gate takes X-COM's turn-based fight and its permanent losses and replaces the global campaign with a lighter one built around a story. The marines are far stronger than X-COM's rookies, which changes the mood: you are not desperate, but every death is still a hole that does not close.