Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Dark Crusade

11/10

This was where i got hooked on the DoW series when i was younger. A massive improvement from the base game, even though it can be played without it. Campaign mode is fairly simple but a lot of fun. Instead of a story style campaign its more of a Risk or Total War style. Capturing providences allows for extra special units or conditions to help you're armies along with reinforcing captured locations. Also, unique equipment for your leader from certain achievements throughout the campaign. Along with two new factions, Tau and Necron, all other factions have new units and bunch of balances compared to last expansion. The balances help highlight each factions style of combat, but also allows the creativity of countering and covering weakness a faction might have. Overall, a must have expansion to experience the original DoW series.

Very possibly the best RTS experience for any game ever made. Yes, it lacks a lot of the mechanical depth and prestige of Starcraft, but playing Craftworld Eldar and Tau in the conquest mode is one of the most pleasant memories I will ever have with a game, ever, under any circumstance. A legendary feat for its time. Even with the terrible pathfinding, I have so many iconic memories of cloaking everything as Eldar and sending the Avatar of Khaine to solo other bases. Fighting desperately with Soviet meat wave assaults against Necrons as the Guard, watching helplessly as Tau sharpshooters ambushed me from destroyed buildings. During the real life battle of Mariupol in the post 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a Ukrainian Azov soldier cited his doctrine of fortifying several key parts of the city on the way to the Azovsteel works facility, based on how the Tau prepared their urban defense in Dawn of War - Dark Crusade.

I know people love this game but I can't dig the base rushing style of RTS. Hardly any story to speak of. If you like skirmish I guess you'll enjoy it.

I hate: - Robots - Xenoses - Communism - Bugs - Antisanitary bloodbaths Thanks to the Emperor, now I can destroy them all. (Commissar, please give me ammo for lasgun)

Play the unification mod, the base game is good but the unification adds replayability.

been playing this game for over 18 years, still playing until 4 comes out

"he warhammered across the room 40'000ly"- John Warhammer 40,000