I love this game. The basic version with the 1999 patch is what is sold here. You can add the Reality mod on top of the game to improve the experience as a sort of 40K Dune hybrid. If you like Total War's Warhammer, but wish you could also have an excellent grand strategy game for Warhammer 40k as well, this is as close as you can get to it with the atmosphere their galaxy's "know world's" basic Civilization like planets. It's got 4X space and Civ planets. Perfect for the space marine trying to purge the galaxy of xenos and help their house rule over all as the new Emperor of man. Very cool dark age in space feel with inquisitions, ruling houses, guilds, and forbidden techs by edicts from the ruling patriarch on holy Terra! It's so damn good and tied altogether with ancient jump gates. No warp here, but this a monstrous alien race consuming worlds while the houses compete for leadership (votes are held every ten turns). So good. However, it was made in 1997 and is heavily glitchy and flawed as it stands. As I said, the Reality mod cleans it up and their is another solid mod called Emperor Wars that adds all the flavor a die hard fan could ask for, but it's a bit overwhelming to start already in control of multiple planets with perhaps a hundred different and new units to micro manage from turn one. Reality is more of a slow burn crawling out of the dark ages that addresses some of the flaws and glitches in the original game. Highly recommend just starting with the Reality mod and ignoring the vanilla for the best experience. Buy it here for the in game videos and excellent music. This is also the model game that a real 40k grand strategy should be based on. Regardless, the lore of Emperor of the Fading Suns stands alone as most excellent scifi dark age lore to compete with both the Dune and Warhammer 40k universes.
