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Dawn of War games

Monocause

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So I've been thinking about getting into the DoW series. Wiki says the first one's a more traditional base-builder while the second focuses on squad tactics. Both are fine with me in concept, the question is - are they any good? Which of the games and expansions I should get, and which of them should I skip?

One of the things I hope to get to know is if the AI's so braindead as some reviewers claim. I mean, I want to kill stuff for the emperor but killing braindead stuff that never poses a challenge unless it outnumbers you 3:1 gets old rather quickly.

Also, tell me which of the games/expansions has the best SPACE MARINES and has the best corny WH40k plot action of them all. I want to participate in:
  • A needless slaughter of civilians because they might be 'impure'
  • A necessary slaughter of some Tyranids
  • A space marine power-armored brofist
  • Watching cutscenes with big-ass spaceships with huge-ass guns blowing everything up.
 
Self-Ejected

Ulminati

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So I've been thinking about getting into the DoW series. Wiki says the first one's a more traditional base-builder while the second focuses on squad tactics. Both are fine with me in concept, the question is - are they any good? Which of the games and expansions I should get, and which of them should I skip?

DoW = good
Winter assault = better
Dark crusade = repetitive
Soulstorm = shit

DoW2 = Good
DoW2: Chaos rising = MAJESTIC!
DoW2: Retribution kind of repetitive, but less so than dark crusade
One of the things I hope to get to know is if the AI's so braindead as some reviewers claim. I mean, I want to kill stuff for the emperor but killing braindead stuff that never poses a challenge unless it outnumbers you 3:1 gets old rather quickly.
AI is kind of shite. But the MP community for all the games is still quite active and should be the main draw.


Also, tell me which of the games/expansions has the best SPACE MARINES and has the best corny WH40k plot action of them all. I want to participate in:
  • A needless slaughter of civilians because they might be 'impure'
Chaos Rising, dark crusade

A necessary slaughter of some Tyranids

Dawn of war 2

A space marine power-armored brofist
Dawn of war

  • Watching cutscenes with big-ass spaceships with huge-ass guns blowing everything up.

Dawn of war 2: Retribution



The "dynamic campaign" in Dark Crusade and Soul Storm is essenially just regular skirmish games on multiplayer maps ad nauseam, with only the stronghold missions being different. Retributions campaign for every race is also pretty much the exact same missions with a few lines of dialogue replaced.

For storyfaggotry, chaos rising is the least atrociously written of the campaigns (plus DEVOUR SOUL corruption points). For mission design, Winter Assault has the most entertaining missions, with imperial guard doing trench warfare and eldar being evasive dicks.



The steamtard group still engages in semiregular DoW circlejerking afaik. Might be an idea to get whichever version they play and play with them. Also, last stand for DoW2 is good for what it is in small doses.
 

Infinitron

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Don't play original DoW on Normal difficulty. It's laughably easy.
 

Hellraiser

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Skip Soulstorm, that one got outsourced to the Titan's Quest guys as a "your last chance to earn us money or we fire the shit out of you" deal by THQ. It added Sisters of Battle and Dark Eldar though which you may or may not be a fan of. Either way it was pretty shitty. Also METAL BOXES. The shittiness of Soulstorm was acknowledged by the devs in making references to the Kaurava campaign as being a disaster for the Blood Ravens in DOW2 with Boreale himself getting killed.

No direct civilian slaughter by your hands in any of them although it does happen here and there. Well unless you count the chaos cultists as former locals who embraced the ruinous powers. That's what the Dawn of War and Chaos Rising campaigns are mostly about.

As for tyranids there's plenty of them in Dawn of War 2 (and none in the first Dawn of War), Chaos Rising even features a Space Hulk infested with those (what else it would be infested with?).

Exterminatus is mentioned a lot but it becomes a major plot point in Retribution, considering this was made by Homeworld devs there's a surprising lack of SPESS BATTLES though. Retribution also gets bonus points for having this guy lead the IG:

Lord_General_Castor.jpg


:salute:

Some notes about the campaigns:

DOW - fairly standard linear RTS romp, only for SPESS MEHREENS though.
Winter Assault - linear order (IG and Eldar)/disorder (orks and chaos) campaigns where you switch between the two during missions until the penultimate one where you pick one of the pari to finish it with. It has a nice twist in the final mission.
Dark Crusade - risk style for all 7 armies, most are standard skirmish matches apart from a few special territories (granting strategic map bonuses) and the "capitals", no tech tree unlocking so you have everything from the start. Gets a bit repetitive after the first time.
Soulstorm - like Dark Crusade just obviously outsourced and thus of lower quality.

DOW2 - more of a real time squad tactics somewhat nonlinear romp with colored random loot drops for your squad and light RPG elements. Gets a bit repetitive later on and the "boss" battles can get fucking tedious on Primarch difficulty. Only for SPESS MEHREENS. Abundant amount of hivemind xenos that need purging.
Chaos Rising - similar style to DOW2 vanilla but more linear, however mission design is better as in less repetitive which makes it more enjoyable. Also you can corrupt your Spess Mehreens with chaos. Direct continuation of the first one so it imports your squad with all its gear if you want to, which means more SPESS MEHREENS.
Retribution - You can actually not play SPESS MEHREENS in this one. However the missions themselves vary little between the armies. On the other hand you get to build other units than just controlling your squad which you can still upgrade (although that bit got somewhat simplified). ALSO CONTAINS LORD GENERAL CASTOR.
 
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Ulminati

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This is the kind of sophisticated writing you can expect from Derp Crusade btw:

 

spectre

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Soulstorm's only high point is that is has Battle Bitches... which are basically spees mahrines with teats. That said, mission design is fucking atrocious, not to mention repetitive. Dark Crusade is the one I had the most fun with. The only con is that it uses skirmish maps for single player campaign, which is ok, but the balance feels seriously off when you have two players on a 4 player map.
That said, it just feels "right", you get some customization options for your main guy and the number of races and units also feels spot on, without unnecessary bloat.

When it comes to DOW2, I'm not a big fan. It has one good thing going for it, squad customization through random gear drops and allocating skill points. The campaign feels boring and tedious, unfortunately. Chałos Rising was probably the best in the series, but I never got too far in it. Retribution's main selling point is that it features more than one faction.
 
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Ulminati

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One thing I paticularily enjoyed many years ago wa splaing an 8-player map in the original DoW, allied with a bro, against 6 ork AIs on the highest difficulty. Holding back the green tide was majestic, with each of us losing half a chapter worth of Spehss mehreens to kill ~50k orks in a brutal 4-hour war of attrition. Granted, half of the reason the game took so long was because we were noobs. But it felt suitably epic.
 

asongforsimeon

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why the hate for soulstorm? Granted, campaign was pure boredom, but come on, Battle Nuns. One of the most lore-interesting and visually pleasing armies of 40K. Beside that, I don't think ss plays any worse than previous DOW games, nothing really unbalanced or out of place. For DOW II, i found the first a snorefest weird diablo rts ripoff with ridicolous boss battles. The other two, not much so. I could say they're even good.
 
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Ulminati

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All are good except Soulstorm which is Dark Crusade without half of Special Missions, cool Intro movie and with only added bonus Bolter Bitches and Space Sado-Maso Elves.
Did they ever release a nude mod for SoB? I'd like to get extra-heretical with st. Celestine
 

Monocause

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Cheers guys. I think I'll demo the ones you recommend from TPB first and then take a look for the copies. God bless, I'll begin the purge tomorrow.

philosopope.jpg
 

spectre

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Cheers guys. I think I'll demo the ones you recommend from TPB first and then take a look for the copies. God bless, I'll begin the purge tomorrow.
You should be able to get the full set of Dawn of War 1 for peanuts. DOW2 should be available as a classic compilation or somesuch, but IMO is not worth the asking price, whatever it may be.
 

Jaedar

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Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Which of them has the Khornate Sorcerers? It's been some time since I've played them.
Winter assault and retribution.


As for the games, if you want mp, soulstorm is the only way to go. For singleplayer, it's as has been stated in this thread, you should probably avoid dark crusade, soulstorm, and the vanilla dow2 unless you find that you really like the gameplay.

Dow2 multiplayer might be nice if you're looking for some rts style popamole with fancy exploshuns.
 

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