Dawn of War

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is a Real Time Strategy game for the PC developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ. Based on Games Workshop's popular tabletop wargame, Warhammer 40,000, Dawn of War was released in 2004. Since then two expansion packs have been released: Winter Assault in 2005 and Dark Crusade in 2006.

Dawn of War features four armies:
 * Space Marines; the campaign features the Blood Ravens, and leading them are Captain Gabriel Angelos and Librarian Isador Akios. Space Marines rely on high morale, tough and versatile but expensive infantry and superior vehicles.
 * Orks; several clans are featured in the campaign, and leading them is Ork Warboss Orkamungus. Orks in Dawn of War rely on a tremendous amount of infantry, with the typical "Wave of Green" removing the need to micromanage an army. The tech tree for Orks is a bit different than the one for the other races. It relies on the amount of orks currently in your army (the more the better) and the number of erected WAAAGH! banners.
 * Eldar; the campaign features the craftworld of Biel-Tan, and their leader, Farseer Macha. Eldar in DoW are fast and have highly specialized troops, which are superior when used correctly by micromanaging. They are also able to move quickly across the map via webway gates.
 * Chaos Space Marines or simply, Chaos; the campaign features the Alpha Legion, with their leaders, Sindri Myr and Lord Bale. The Chaos Space Marines in Dawn of War use heavy and skilled close combat troops, morale-draining daemons and powerful psychic powers.

Dawn of War introduces the Blood Ravens, an original chapter of Space Marines created by Games Workshop. The Blood Ravens' history, organization, and other background information about them are described in the magazine White Dwarf (White Dwarf, 2004) as well as the novel Dawn of War (Goto, 2004).

The Single Player campaign deals with the Blood Ravens 3rd Company who are called to assist against an Ork invasion on the planet Tartarus. This eventually pulls them into conflict with the Eldar and finally the forces of Chaos.

Notable features
Dawn of War has very different gameplay to most modern RTS games, because of its squad-based units, close combat options, morale, and point-based resourcing system. These could be found to some extent in certain games (such as Sid Meier's Gettysburg!, Kohan, and Ground Control) but were not frequently featured in its contemporary RTS peers.


 * The squad system is innovative and had rarely been explored in other modern RTS games, though some older RTS' had a system that was comparable. Squads can be reinforced by adding additional members, equipped with additional special weaponry, attached leaders or special units, also mostly unexplored in modern RTS games. For example, a Space Marine squad starts with 4 marines, but can be expanded up to 8 standard marines and a sergeant, and equipped with up to 4 (5 after a patch update) heavy weapons with an upgrade, or two without. These heavy weapons include: Heavy Bolters, Plasma Guns, Flamers (flamethrowers) or Missile Launchers, each of which has their own characteristics. It is also possible to attach a hero or other special units to the squad. The ability to reinforce even during battle creates interesting situations with armies being reinforced on the spot rather than new units being made in a player's base. The winner can usually expect little defense if he defeats the enemy army completely, since base fortifications are not as prominent as in most other RTS games.


 * The close combat units differ from other contemporary and modern RTS games as well. While the idea of close combat units dates back to Warcraft, one of the first "modern" real-time-strategy games, Dawn of War implements it more realistically. Most infantry units have both ranged and melee weapons rather than strictly one or the other, as is the case in most other modern strategy games. Any ranged unit engaged in close combat cannot fire and must engage its attacker in close combat in return. This makes tying-up enemy ranged squads with melee attacks, preventing them from firing, a tactical option and often a priority. Some units are better at melee attacks or ranged attacks than others. Some squad Leaders, Heroes, and Walkers also have additional close combat attacks that may send one or more attackers flying, temporarily removing them from combat and making them vulnerable to fire from supporting units. In addition, when a unit is defeated in close combat, the victorious unit will often kill it off with a special (and often bloody) finishing move - such as unleashing a flurry of strikes on a stunned opponent before stabbing his blade through his enemy's heart, or executing the enemy with a few bullets through the head. Units are invulnerable to damage while in their killing animations, which some players use to their advantage if the unit is taking fire while in combat; this is sometimes seen as a bug, although it should be noted that the invulnerable unit is also incapable of doing any damage to its attackers whilst engaged in the sync-kill.


 * An addition to the typical hitpoint system is morale. While units in a squad take damage individually, morale damage is applied to a squad as a whole. When morale drops to zero the squad breaks and its combat ability is greatly reduced. The player retains control of the unit and may decide whether to retreat and regain morale or stay and fight. Different weapons deal different amounts of damage to health and morale. Flamers and artillery, for example, are highly effective in depleting enemy morale.


 * The game uses two kinds of resources: "requisition" and "power". Requisition is generated by the army headquarters and by controlling certain points on the battlefield. Only infantry squads can capture these points and it takes a certain amount of time for them to do so (individual characters, however, cannot capture points). Points can be de-captured and then captured by the enemy. There are three kinds of points:


 * Strategic Points are most common, quick to capture, and have an average line of sight. After capturing, a listening post may be built on them to protect them from de-capture; this also increases the amount of requisition generated. The listening post can be upgraded with defenses, which also further increases amount of requisition generated. If enabled, a player holding two-thirds of map's Strategic Points for 7 minutes can win a multiplayer or skirmish game through the Control Area Victory Condition.
 * Critical Locations are almost always in uneven number on the map. These take longer to capture and have a bigger line of sight, but cannot have listening posts built on them, thus making them harder to hold. A player or team can trigger a Take and Hold victory in a multiplayer or skirmish game by holding half the critical locations on the map for 8 minutes.
 * Relics take the longest to capture and have a small line of sight. However, holding a relic gives access to the race's most advanced and powerful units. Relics may have listening posts built on them.
 * Slag Deposits Allow players to build advanced generators on them. Advanced generators produce more power than normal generators. Apart from generating power, an advanced generator can also create a decent control area around itself. Unlike others, the Slag Deposit does not have to be "captured" by infantry squads. One simply has to build something on it to obtain control (Thermoplasma Generators in the case of the Eldar, Chaos Space Marines, and Space Marines, or Bigga Generators in the case of Orks).

Note: Strategic Points, Relics, and Critical Locations can be depleted (they produce less requisition permanently) after a certain period of time has passed since their capture.

The power resource can be generated by building generators: up to six generators can be built per headquarters. Additionally, some maps have special points called "slag deposits", at which special generators can be constructed. These are more expensive but produce power at much higher rate, as well as allowing buildings to be built nearby. As the player progresses up the tech tree reliance on power increases.

Other features include heroes, four completely different races, and clear distinction between infantry and vehicles, with vehicles being almost impervious to the attacks of non-upgraded infantry units, while being able to destroy many of them themselves. The engine allows for full 3D camera movement.

Unlike Starcraft and Warcraft III, and their respective expansion packs, which contain different consecutive episodes, or "campaigns", where the player takes turns controlling each race, this game only has one campaign featuring the Space Marines. Players familiar with these other two games may be disappointed after beating the Space Marine campaign and finding out that the game ends here without any Chaos, Ork, or Eldar campaigns (however, the expansion packs revive the traditional multiple campaign system)

Gameplay
With the addition of a squad system and more realistic ranged-close combat dynamics (see above section), Dawn of War is different from the majority of strategy games. Troops have morale, which, when drained completely, causes the squad to "break" and rout, severely decreasing firepower but granting a movement bonus. Squads can be reinforced on the spot rather than forcing the player to create new units at their base. The game contains many breaks from the norm of the genre, and introduced several new concepts.

The game is, overall, very micromanagement-oriented. With the reinforcement system, extra armament for troopers, and special skills, the player is often forced to switch back and forth between different squads and vehicles quickly, making fast decisions to keep their combat effectiveness. The strategic-point system favors aggressive gameplay; early in the game, skirmishes and battles within the first few minutes are common. The extra gameplay dynamics open up many new options for players - such as the strategy of sending in several well equipped squads against a stronger enemy force and reinforcing them as they lose their numbers, prolonging the life of the squad hopefully long enough for them to accomplish their objective (usually defense of an area until reinforcements can arrive).

Infantry units in the game more accurately reflect actual warfare; each individual squad is made up of many troopers, which act independently as individuals yet fight and move as a group. If a missile blast hits the squad, the troopers are blown away. If they survive, they get to their feet and resume firing from their position, leaving the squad scattered, as it likely would be in real life. The player could order the squad to move, thereby regrouping them, or leave them as they are, which might put them at a disadvantage, or indeed, in rare cases, an advantage (against artillery barrages, for instance). Troopers fire as they move rather than being forced to stop before they fire (though this is still the case with some heavy weaponry), unlike many other strategy games. When the squad is broken and ordered to retreat, the squad tends to act less cohesively, with troopers straying from the group more easily and not moving as tightly, reflecting their panicked and demoralized state.

The scope of the squad mechanics means that strategy plays an even bigger part in the game, especially with infantry warfare. Holding of strategic avenues (not necessarily Strategic Points) - such as those with valuable heavy cover near a bottleneck leading to a player's base - with infantry becomes a worthwhile task, unlike in others, where the strategic value of a location without a building or resource on it is usually next to nil and not worth defending.

In other strategy games, retreat and "pulling one's losses" are not effective; unless infantry are retreating to a place where they can find more units to help them fight or to take shelter in turrets or buildings, the squad will fight as well in any other location as it does at the point at which it is already fighting. Strategic retreat is thus an ineffective tactic in most circumstances. In Dawn of War, however, with the added scope of squad-based infantry combat and reinforcements, withdrawing a squad can allow it to replenish and regain its morale at the next set of fortifications or the player's base, allowing it to perhaps drive off its attackers once they attack again - this is almost unique in the field of real-time strategy gaming.

Squads regain health out of combat, and special troops (Such as the Apothecary) can be attached to the squads to replenish health faster.

Space Marines
Gabriel Angelos

In the game, Brother-Captain Gabriel Angelos is the commander of the Blood Ravens' 3rd Company.

He carries a guilty conscience for destroying his homeworld Cyrene and agonizes over this continuously, though he does not often speak of it. Only his battle-brothers of the Blood Ravens truly understand his feelings on the matter. Gabriel himself, like most Imperial Soldiers, distrusts aliens immensely; it is for this reason he shows incredible disdain for the Eldar in his encounters with their leader, Farseer Macha (though in the novels, his disdain for them gradually lessens). He has also grown up with Librarian Isador Akios, whom he trusts immensely. Captain Gabriel Angelos was armed with a Power Sword and Bolt Pistol, but was given a Daemon-Hammer by Inquisitor Mordecai Toth. His Bolt Pistol was also upgradeable to a Plasma Pistol.

Librarian Isador Akios Brother-Librarian Isador Akios was the present Librarian of the Blood Ravens 3rd Company, and a secondary character in Dawn of War.

Much like Captain Angelos, Isador was born and raised on Cyrene, and became a Blood Raven around the same time as Gabriel because they were brought up together. Isador met Gabriel 30 years before the events on Tartarus when Gabriel was still a battle brother. Although his homeworld was destroyed, Isador did not blame Gabriel for his actions on Cyrene, since it had to be done. While the Blood Ravens 3rd company was on the doomed planet of Tartarus, Isador slowly succumbed to the powers of Chaos, tempted by the traitorous Sorcerer of the Alpha Legion named Sindri Myr, telling him of the "Key", and tempting him to use it. When Inquisitor Mordecai Toth arrived, he detected a Chaotic taint and came up with the assumption that it originated in Gabriel. Because of this, they were blinded to Isador's corruption and thus could not stop Isador before he finally seized the Maledictum and turned to Chaos, bringing Gabriel's trust in his old friend crumbling to the ground.

Isador was killed in a duel between himself and Gabriel, and Gabriel used his death as an example of the fate of Space Marines who fell to Chaos. Isador was armed with a Force Weapon and Bolt Pistol. He was able to be upgraded with a Plasma Pistol later on in the campaign.

Inquisitor Toth Mordecai Toth is a member of the Ordo Malleus, having been sent on assignment with some knowledge of Tartarus's dark past and a powerful daemonic artifact sleeping there. Toth's mere presence indicates something dark afoot on Tartarus, and none dare cross Toth directly. Toth, upon landing, immediately suspects Gabriel, the Blood Raven Force Commander, of being tainted by Chaos, citing that Gabriel willingly put his own world to the torch. As an Inquisitor, Toth has authority to seize command of almost any Imperial force, including the Imperial Guard. Toth realizes later, to his horror, that it was in fact Isador, not Gabriel, who had contracted the taint of Chaos. When the truth is known, Toth apologizes, and to steel Gabriel against the battles ahead, bestows upon Gabriel his holy Daemonhammer, Godsplitter, a weapon of the Inquisition imbued to crush the sorcerer-turned-Daemon Prince Sindri Myr - and those who would associate with Chaos.

In the prologue for the novel Dawn of War by CS Goto, Toth was involved in an Ordo Xenos mission on Tartarus in the year 999.M38 where he and a Deathwatch Kill-Team secured a piece of the Wailing Doom sword of the Biel-Tan Avatar following its duel with the Daemon Prince (which was entombed in the Maledictum stone after its defeat). It is revealed that this fragment of the sword was forged into the Godsplitter to use against Chaos. It is also worth noting that a member of his Kill-Team was Captain Trythos of the Blood Ravens (who would later serve on as a Dreadnought of the 3rd Company by the time of "Dawn of War").

In the epilogue of the book, it appears that Toth was either in league with the Daemon and was possessed by it (or possibly this was merely the Daemon taking Toth's form). If this is correct, then the reasons that Toth wanted Gabriel to break the Maledictum Stone entombing the Daemon and why he became involved on Tartarus on both occasions become clear.

Toth was equipped with a Daemon-Hammer (God-Splitter) and a Plasma Pistol. In the campaign, after giving Gabriel his Daemon-Hammer, Toth was equipped with Gabriel's Power Sword.

In Dark Crusade, once the player has finished the campaign as the Blood Ravens, Toth is seen in the ending video questioning Captain Thule, accompanied by a first company veteran and numerous squads of Space Marines.

Imperial Guard
Colonel Brom

Carus Brom is an Imperial Colonel tasked with overseeing the 37th Tartarus Planetary Defense Force Regiment, or PDF. Brom accepts commands from Gabriel with little hesitation, having a deep respect for the commander; however the mere presence of Toth is enough to make the veteran Colonel break out in hives. It is believed Brom escapes off-planet with his remaining troops during the later missions in Dawn of War's single-player campaign.

In the events of the novelized version of Dawn of War by C.S. Goto, Colonel Brom instead turned to Chaos and attacked Captain Gabriel Angelos during his attack/push to the summit where the Maledictum was located. According to the novel, Colonel Brom was not satisfied being put down on occasion by Gabriel's orders, resulting in Chaos finding its way into his heart. Colonel Brom was nevertheless killed along with the corrupted PDF and Imperial Guard who had turned traitor. Only a handful of Loyal Imperial Guards survived and joined up with the Forces of Order (Space Marines and Eldar) in the battle to the Summit.

Brom was armed with a Power Sword and Bolt Pistol. He is also able to use the "Rally Squad" ability that Space Marine Sergeants were equipped with.

Eldar
Farseer Macha A Farseer of the Eldar Craftworld of Biel-Tan. Macha was the one who sealed the Daemon in the Maledictum, and seeks to prevent its release. Later events seem to show that her destiny is rapidly becoming intertwined with that of Captain Angelos.

Macha is armed with a witchblade and Shuriken pistol.

Chaos
Lord Bale is the Chaos Lord who brought the ruinous powers of Chaos, namely the Alpha Legion, to Tartarus. He was pursuing the Maledictum for himself, and the Chaos gods. He believed he was in control; however, Sindri Myr was actually making all the important decisions. Eventually Sindri left Bale to fight Gabriel Angelos alone so that when Bale was killed in the duel, his "Sacrifice" added to the deaths needed to obtain the Maledictum. Bale was armed with a Manreaper Scythe and a Bolt Pistol.

Sindri Myr

Sindri was a sorcerer of Alpha Legion who came to the Imperial planet Tartarus seeking a powerful Chaos artifact known as the Maledictum, a stone imprisoning a greater daemon of Khorne. Sindri was able to extract "The Key", which was the artifact that allowed him to use the Maledictum to be able to ascend as a Daemon Prince. With the Imperial forces on the planet distracted by the concurrent Ork invasion, Sindri and his nominal master, Chaos Lord Bale, had little trouble reaching the artifact, but they were detected and pursued by a company of Space Marines from the Blood Ravens chapter. Sacrificing the unwitting Bale to the Space Marines' onslaught, Sindri released the stone's power, ascending to daemonhood in the process. Though his daemon form was immensely powerful, he was eventually destroyed by the Third Company of the Blood Ravens, led by Brother-Captain Gabriel Angelos, wielding the daemonhammer, God-Splitter.

Orks
Warboss Orkamungus The Ork warboss in charge of the invading Ork clans on Tartarus. He is bribed by Lord Bale and Sindri to mount the invasion that will distract the Imperials from their search for the Maledictum. He was not completely loyal, however, and planned to destroy Bale and the remaining "humies" after the Blood Raven's fall. He was unable to do this as he was killed by Blood Ravens' forces shortly after his introduction.

Voice cast

 * Brian Dobson - Space Marine, Assault Marines, Terminators, Apothecary, Slugga/Shoota Boyz, Tankbustas, Stormboyz, Killa Kan
 * Mark Oliver - Librarian, Aspiring Champion, Imperial Colonel Carus Brom
 * Michael Dobson - Space Marine Scouts, Big Mek, Imperial Guardsman (Singleplayer Campaign), Imperial Citizen, Imperial Leman Russ (Singleplayer Campaign), Inquisitor Toth
 * Nicole Oliver - Farseer Macha, Howling Banshees
 * Paul Dobson - Force Commander Gabriel Angelos, Chaos Space Marines, Raptors, Obliterators, Processed Chaos Marines, Chaos Rhino, Chaos Predator, Warboss Orkamungus, Grots
 * Peter New - Mad Dok, Nobz, Wartrukk, Wartrak, Looted Leman Russ
 * Richard Cox - Cultist, Heretic, Guardians, Warp Spiders, Avatar, Wraithlord, Falcon Grav Tank, Fire Prism, Vyper, Rangers, Dark Reapers, Warlock, Bonesinger
 * Scott McNeil - Space Marine Sergeant, Servitor, Chaos Lord Bale, Chaos Sorcerer Sindri Myr, Daemon Prince
 * Tony Gronick - Dreadnought, Land Speeder, Rhino, Whirlwind, Predator, Land Raider

Winter Assault
The first expansion pack for the game was Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Winter Assault. Released in 2005, this expansion pack added a new army, the Imperial Guard, as well as a new unit for each army, and a new single-player campaign, where the player could play as the Forces of Order (Eldar and Guard) or Disorder (Chaos and Orks) as they battle over the planet of Lorn V.

Dark Crusade
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is a stand alone game as the game mechanics have been revised. Dawn of War and Winter Assault are not required to run Dark Crusade. In addition to the races from the previous games, two new playable races are available: the Tau and the Necrons. The single player campaign mode has been re-worked as well, each having their own race and fighting for control of the planet Kronus. The player can attack and defend provinces, collect planet resources from units when starting to forward bases, similar to the board game Risk, and as various challenges are completed, wargear can be obtained to upgrade the commander unit.

Dark Crusade is sold as a 'stand alone expansion pack'. If only Dark Crusade is installed then users will have access to all of the factions in the campaign mode and skirmish but will be limited to the the new races, Tau and Necron, in multi-player mode. All seven factions are only available in multi-player mode if all games are installed.

Dawn of War 2 Speculation
An Internet rumor has been sparked due to the fact that there is a video at the end of Dark Crusade showing the battle still raging on three separate planets. Possible improvements could include space battles, a completely new graphics engine, and a first person perspective.

Novels
In December 2004, Black Library released a novelization of Dawn of War by Cassern S. Goto (Goto, 2004). The book expands on the story found in the Single Player campaign, with additional characters and in more detail. A follow-up novel, Dawn of War: Ascension (Goto, 2005) was released in November 2005, continuing the story of Captain Angelos and the Blood Ravens. A third book titled Dawn of War: Tempest, again by Goto, was released 2006; telling the story of Blood Ravens Librarian Rhamah and his struggle to save his chapter's gene-seed in the Eye of Terror, as well as continue the story of Angelos following the events of Ascension.

Miscellaneous

 * Dawn of War has an active modding community. Relic Entertainment released official modding tools for the community to use.
 * Dawn of War is also the name of a cancelled Real Time Strategy game set in prehistoric times by SouthPeak Interactive.
 * Captian Gabriel appears to have been inspired by the blood Ravens captain showcased in the back of Codex: Space Marines.

Awards

 * GameSpot's Award for Best Expansion Pack of 2006