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Amen Lord Russ!

Damm you Americans for getting it early we don't get it in England till the 27th.... and we invented 40k ¬.¬ i reckon we should get it early for that fact

How much is it? I might try to oder a copy if it's under 40 bucks.

CK

It's $30.

Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is $30 (US)

Key:

DoW: Original DoW game
WA: 1st Expansion, "Winter Assault"
DC: 2nd Expansion, "Dark Crusade

This is kind of a unique 'expansion' pack.  Here's how it works:

• DC is a stand alone game.  You don't need the previous releases (DoW & WA) to play. 
• If you JUST have DC, then you can play any of the 7 races in the single player map campaign, but against other players online you'll only be able to choose from Tau and Necrons.  (Note: Your opponents can still play other races, if they qualify, see below)
• When you first load DC, it will ask you if you have the codes from DoW and WA.  If you do, you then unlock the ability to play any of the 7 races online.

If you do get DC, and fall in love, and wish you had the original games, no worries, there is now a combo deal out: DoW: Gold which includes both DoW and WA for $30 (US). 

But DC really is a great game by itself, the new single player map campaign is well worth the $30, and with 7 races you'll get plenty of game time.

I must also agree with Russ on this, Dark Crusade ROCKS!!! I'm playing the campaign as eldar, just cause using Harlequins to OWN an enemy squad is so much fun!

BTW I got it at my local Best Buy for $25.00 yesterday(same price on their website too)... I think they're having a sale cause its just been released.

Hi Russ. I've been waiting for someone to play and review this game aside from the typical online reviewers (gamespot, IGN, etc.). This way I can ask questions.

Does the game get any upgrades to its existing AI or mechanics? Doesn't sound like it since you said it was a standalone that could be played with DOW and thus it probably won't. However, the same company that made this game just came out with "Company of Heroes" as well. It uses the basic mechanics but has vastly improved AI, territory mechanics, and squad control...anything good there?

Company of Heros takes the great foundation that Relic built with DoW and expands on it in really cool ways. But Company of Heros is a whole new engine.

DC doesn't feel any different than the original DoW. AI and pathfinding are better and improved, infact the enemy AI is VERY good. But this is not Company of Heros. Territory control is exactly the same, and squad control is also the same.

Map design is very impressive, especially when attacking enemy HQ's. They do set up some really neat challenges. Such as how do you assault an IG base when the valley you must travel in is at the end of the barrel of a working Titan weapon?

Posted By Sgt.Roadkill on 10/11/2006 12:06 PM
Damm you Americans for getting it early we don't get it in England till the 27th.... and we invented 40k ¬.¬ i reckon we should get it early for that fact

well we have the bigger video game market  than the UK

I wasnt a fan of winter assault. I finished it all the way but the voice acting and artwork was a far cry from the original DoW. The portraits were done by a 3 year old. The upgrades were also dumbed down.

Please tell me I will be happy with Dark Crusade. I hope and pray I will be because I loved DoW so much. I ended up uninstalling winter assault and installing the Dawn of Steel mod that had a nice rendition of the imperial guard.

Posted By RussWakelin on 10/11/2006 12:36 PM

Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is $30 (US)

Key:

DoW: Original DoW game
WA: 1st Expansion, "Winter Assault"
DC: 2nd Expansion, "Dark Crusade

This is kind of a unique 'expansion' pack.  Here's how it works:

• DC is a stand alone game.  You don't need the previous releases (DoW & WA) to play. 
• If you JUST have DC, then you can play any of the 7 races in the single player map campaign, but against other players online you'll only be able to choose from Tau and Necrons.  (Note: Your opponents can still play other races, if they qualify, see below)
• When you first load DC, it will ask you if you have the codes from DoW and WA.  If you do, you then unlock the ability to play any of the 7 races online.

If you do get DC, and fall in love, and wish you had the original games, no worries, there is now a combo deal out: DoW: Gold which includes both DoW and WA for $30 (US). 

But DC really is a great game by itself, the new single player map campaign is well worth the $30, and with 7 races you'll get plenty of game time.

Now that is cool.
I already own the previous two, but it is nice that it is both an expansion and a stand alone game.

I am hooked thanks for the review.

i also own both games but I know many who do not and were planning on by all when it was released which should cheer them up a bit

which is good

Got a little time to play it and I have to agree Russ on pretty much all of it. The new campaign is just fantastic. I messed around with Necrons a bit in skirmish and they certainly take some getting used to.

For those who have played the originals, Necrons only build using Energy Points and Strategic Points increase thier build times on troops, vehicles, and buildings. One of the main strategies it seems is getting your monolith up and moving (it's your HQ building). I won on a take and hold while the last generator was being built so I have not gotten to see it in action.

Playing the Campaign with Tau and I like them so far. I like the Hero upgrades (wargear) and bonus's you can get. I got my leaders XV22 Suit a jump pack so he can finally keep up with the Crisis battlesuits.

For $30 it's a fantastic purchase. I'd like to try Company of Heroes but I'm holding out till I upgrade the computer a bit and this runs just fine and should hold me over for quite some time, and for $20 less.

Dark Crusade is for the win! I've got about 5-6 hours of game play into it and The Campaign is pretty sweet. Necrons and Tau are also very cool.

The Necron's play totally different for the other races as your not trying to build a base, your trying to awaken a Monolith and your slumbering minions. Necrons are tough and the Lord is very customisable as you can tech him up, with three Artifacts but there are eight or nine choices of Artifacts. Just figuring out what artifacts you want to use each game it fun. Also the lord is one of the funner figure to micromange IMHO. You can teleport around and have alsorts of nasty abilities you can use then teleport out of combat.

The Tau are very sweet, they have immense firepower but are fragile. Kroot are fast brutal hand to hand units that can hold there own aginst most armies, while FIre Warriors are a terror if they can get a stable firing line. Player online are upset over the broadside, as you lose control of them when they are emplaced, but there fire power is so High, I think they would be broken if they could focus fire. The Greater Knarloc is a beatstick and a half.

I need to get more time with the campiagn, but it looks increably promising. Some Online poster have said that other games have done this type of map based campaign better, so if you a big fan of Total War, don't expect anything super new.  I however am amazed at the coolness of the upgrades you earn for your characters. I expect to play the single player game quite a lot. My only gripe with the campaign is that you can;t us your custom paint scheme, as your playing a scripted character.

The Extra units all the other races get also look pretty sweet. I've only tryed the Harliquin and while she is powerful, I was supprised at how fragile she was. I NEEDS to get my Flash Gits on! Next game I guess.

I'm all set to buy this when it hits Australia in a fortnight.

By the sounds of it, it is as good as the reviews say.

Any 'broken' units or characters that are just too OTT?

Well I feel back in the times when all the other kids got their cool computer games and I visit them just to watch them play. But America is a little far away... *cry*. I hope I see some of you guys online in November...

I haven't played enough 'online' to be sure. The Necrons do rock, but they are very hard to get going with, and very expensive in terms of energy.

The monolith itself is probably the most powerful single thing in the game, but is a huge amount of work to get out of the ground, and EXTREMELY slow (although it can teleport short distances). You are also limited to one 'active' monolith at a time.

Played last night and only messed around with the new guys in Skirmish mode so I could see the units. Necrons look really fun, as do the Tau. Was slightly dissapointed with the way the Railgun looks, it's nice but not as awe-inspiring as I had hoped when it fires.

I thought the Flash Gitz weren't that great but the Grey Knights were pretty cool units.

I never played online, only in Single Player and Skirmish stuff with friends, so I dont' have all the skillz that I'm sure online players have but this looks to be like a really fun game.

The only really OTT stuff I'd say so far is the Monolith and Necrons in general once you get them up and going. It's probably a fair trade off I suppose, just go for the throat as fast as possible. Once they get enough upgrades and energy, they are insanely tough.

Did we mention you can summon "Night Bringer".

<h5>Gamepro does a good job summing things up:</h5> <h5> </h5> <h5></h5> <h5>Campaign Trail</h5>

New races and units aside, the unexpectedly impressive campaign mode is perhaps the best surprise put forward by Relic. Distancing themselves from the linear structure of the previous campaigns, Relic has instead outdone itself once again, putting together a turn-based strategic level campaign that brings to mind the dynamic feel of Rise of Legends. With a mix of scripted and skirmish missions, the campaign never feels like it's stuck on rails. Each turn players can move their army, headed by a customizable hero, into an adjacent territory, with the aim of taking sections of the map away from the enemy. All in all, the decision to move away from the linear series of scripted missions has done wonders not only for the single-player experience, but also for the replayability factor, which is much higher than in any other previous Relic game.

While it only offers as many options as you might see in a simplistic boardgames such as Risk, there are plenty of additional little quirks. For instance, a level of hero customization has been added, letting users to outfit their commanders with items that can increase, among other things, health, speed, and damage. Likewise, the capture of territory allows you to add special persistent units to your army, these will stay with your army until they are destroyed, and they are particularly helpful in holding your base against early attacks.

<h5>Expansive Expansion</h5>

Dark Crusade is an excellent addition to the Warhammer canon and feels more like a full-fledged product as opposed to a thrown together expansion. Fans of the original Dawn of War would be insane not to rush out and add it to their arsenal. Those who've neglected the series thus far would be wise to do so as well--after all, an expansion pack of this quality only comes around every couple years.

Monolith is Good, but teleporting it in front of 9 entrenched broadsides is bad I did this last night Stupid Tau

Was that single player or online? Did the computer set up that defense?

I've noticed the AI is much better at coordinating assaults. The IG was doing a great job of bring Ogryn into combat supported by tanks and infantry fire, until I managed to gain control of the titan weapon. >

I just finished the Necron campaign, and I have to say, it was extremely fun. The assaults against a race's stronghold is always fun, though I thought the Chaos one was a little lacking compared to the other ones. The Space marine and the Tau bases were the hardest, but also the best.

Looks like I got to play it at a friend's house for a few hours. Here's what I got out of it:

I played DOW a few years back. However, it seemed a lot slower paced than this game. I played DC on normal but it seems like every single skirmish/battle is a typical zerg rush for resources like in starcraft. Perhaps it is because the campaign mode doesn't have story-based maps and leaves the player to do his thing, the same map used for every battle in one area, but I don't remember it being as rushed in the original DOW.

That said, I played Tau. While you can spend some time upgrading buildings later, the 7-8 battles I went through had the same routine of capping nearby resources, sending drones to make listening posts, then making 3-5 full units of firewarriors or kroot (depending on who I was fighting) and crushing most of the enemy opposition and allowing you time to build up. I noticed that after you get some vet honor guard units it really isn't necessary to tech up at all, even if you're playing against armies that supposedly started with elite rather than basic units.  Stealth units are especially useful since you can quickly get the jetpack upgrade then cap half the resource points.  You won't be needing listening posts on them since you'll have about +110 for requisitions.

I haven't played against a stronghold yet but the regular battles all went through a similar routine.

Defensive battles are OK, but since you get little reinforcement points I saw little use to spending them. It looks like all you need to do is ensure the opponent has little to no vet squads, then save up your reinforcement points since you won't be needing them otherwise.

Posted By RussWakelin on 10/12/2006 10:56 AM

Monolith is Good, but teleporting it in front of 9 entrenched broadsides is bad I did this last night Stupid Tau

Was that single player or online? Did the computer set up that defense?

<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" class="Normal"> </td> <td>
</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> @Russ: That was in a single player slirmish. I saw a listening post under attack and Ported my Monolith over. Once the Monolith arrived, the Fog of war lifted and I saw to my suprise many many glowing blue railguns aimed at it.







<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td valign="top" class="Normal"> </td> <td>
</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

Welll railguns are imo the best anti monollth weapon in tt as well sooo not surprising it explodiated rather quickly
dammit i can't wait
Ahhh custom AI ftw, can't wait to merge the Space Marine armoury and steel legion mods with DC,

*gets all giddy, like school girl at generic boy band concert*

For every one that has beat a campaign, did you catch the set up for further expansions? If you didn't, or some one who hasn't beat it yet would like to see it, then look below. (Spoiler warning...kinda)











Spoiler warning...
The screen depicts the same image of Kronus that it showed throughout the game's loading sceen and Intro movie to the actual campaign. You see several large explosions across Kronus, possibly the explosions from when the enemy bases exploded. The screen then pans out further into the star system that Kronus is in. Two other planets are shown near Kronus with similar explosions... then the screen goes black and the number 2007 shows up in huge white letters.

Go get yerself some stronghold smackdown love! That's where all the cool level design is in the game.