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Does anyone have a list of all the Dawn of War 2 pre-order bonus items? I've not been able to find the Ultramarines as a pre-order yet.

Foda_Bett wrote:Does anyone have a list of all the Dawn of War 2 pre-order bonus items? I've not been able to find the Ultramarines as a pre-order yet.

Depends on the country, but each tin-case has a certain amount of special ingame items. The US gets Sternguard armour, special bolters for their Tactical marines and the Sons of Medusa skin while the European version gets a special sniper rifle for Cyrus and the Angels of Redemption skin.

Does anyone have a list of all the Dawn of War 2 pre-order bonus items? I've not been able to find the Ultramarines as a pre-order yet.

You don't need to look anymore as the Ultramarines are already a skin in the game.

There are actually quite a few skins for each race it's pretty impressive

I'll do a run down of them

SM
Black Templars
Blood Angels
Blood Ravens
Dark Angels
Imperial Fists
Iron Hands
Raven Guard
Salamanders
Space Wolves
UltraMarines
White Scars

Orks
Bad moon clan
Bigchoppaz warband
Blood axes
Deathskulls
Evil Suns
Git Wrenchas Ladz
Goff Clan
Goldtoof Clan
SnakeBites Clan
Speed Freaks Cult

All these amount to though is different skins not any different units or abilities.

Got it played it got my ass kicked. I'll have a go against the computer now.

Runs like a brick on my machine :(

BrookM wrote:

Foda_Bett wrote:Does anyone have a list of all the Dawn of War 2 pre-order bonus items? I've not been able to find the Ultramarines as a pre-order yet.

Depends on the country, but each tin-case has a certain amount of special ingame items. The US gets Sternguard armour, special bolters for their Tactical marines and the Sons of Medusa skin while the European version gets a special sniper rifle for Cyrus and the Angels of Redemption skin.

I wish that were true, it seems that in the US and UK you get certain items depending on the store you pre-order from. In the US we have a few options.
If you pre-order from gamestop you get:
* “Cuirass of Azariah” Armor
* “Pistol of Baal” Bolt Pistol
* “Gauntlet of Blood” Power Fist
* “Mantle of the Great Father” Armor
* “Fearsome Light of Faith” Plasma Gun
* “Laurels of Hadrian” Iron Halo
* 2 unique Chapters: “Revilers” and “Angels Sanguine”
* 8 exclusive metallic colors to customize your units (Shining Gold, Mithril Silver, Abyss Purple, Insect Green, Iron, Abyss Orange, Brazen Brass, Metallic Blue)
Too bad they've stopped doing pre-orders

If you pre-order from Fry's:
Sniper Wargear Set
"Grim Silence" Armor
"Initiate's Lesson of Strength" Shotgun
"Deathtouch of the Angel" Sniper Rifle
"Angels of Redemption" armor pattern (chapter)
Four exclusive metallic colors: Abyss Yellow, Chainmail, Abyss Green, Rotting Flesh

Bestbuy had another set of options but I can't find pre-order info for DoW2 on their site.

Hahaha, I'm gonna get Sternguard wargear after all!

I didn't like the game play much last night, but when I gave it a try today, I liked it much better. It's not DOW, but it's a fun game, so far. If DOW = Warcraft2 then DOW2 = Warcraft 3, in how the game changed to be about heroes and smaller raiding parties instead of mass mass battles and zerg rushes. I'm a little sad that it's not the DOW2 I imagined, but it's still looks like a fun game and I can't wait for it to release so I can try the campaign and army painter.

Yes, like others have said, this is CoH for 40k. It is squad based and you won't have huge armies like in DoW. Also this doesn't really support turtling as much...you need to be taking points and harassing the enemy. My favorite armies right now(in order)
1. Eldar
2. Tyranids
3. Orks

See how I didn't list marines? I don't play marines......

Seriously though Eldar are a lot of fun as are all of the armies. It's pretty fun but a big tip...do not forget to Flee!! Things die VERY fast so you need to flee to keep things alive if you run into a few turrets

I just hope they don't kill DoW outright. It's really the only RTS I like. ( I HATE SC) Seeing as how DoW2 isn't really an RTS, I REALLY want support for DoW, even if it IS farmed out like Soulstorm.

IMO DoW2 is a BAD BAD idea, not only is Relic not getting my money, but NONE of the video game industry is now. (the older I get, the less I want to play games which require good 'twitch' skills, which it seems you need to play anything now.) They may not have wanted to compete with Blizzard and SC2, but they would have gotten quite a bit of money JUST BECAUSE IT'S WH40K. Not to mention I know a LOT of people who were waiting specifically for 'Nids in the last format. I have a feeling that the company that realizes that not EVERY player is a video game genius who needs the newest shiniest format to have fun will make a lot of money.

I kinda feel sorry for Nid players who waited forever to see that army represented only to see their wonderful swarm army crammed into an elite, small-squad tactics game... It's an oxymoron. Tyranids were NOT done justice in terms of army size, unit size or unit biomorphs, imo. It would be cool to see Tyranids in the first DOW. I never bought all that "the DOW engine isn't good enough for Tyranids!" BS. If it could handle Orks, it can handle Tyranids.
I hope they continue to support DOWI as well, though I highly doubt they will cause they already have big plans laid out for DOWII. DOWII is an OK game. There's just something about it that feels empty and sparse and 40k battles should never feel empty and sparse.
I also wonder what Relic is thinking about this almost unanimous lukewarm-at-best response to the beta. Do they have developers shedding tears at the way their hard work is being called "Ok, but not as good as the first." and people canceling pre-orders? Yet the game has already gone gold. Relic is invested. Poor Relic. I know I've changed my mind about buying the game. In large part because of the SM-only campaign. I don't give a crap about SMs and I don't care to play them. (Haven't even tried them in beta.) If they come out with Dark Eldar, then maybe I'll buy it... after it's gone down in price.

Your in luck Archonate...there is actually a mod for the Tyranids for DoW and it is fantastic. Very well done...just have to look around for it

Lordhat wrote:I just hope they don't kill DoW outright. It's really the only RTS I like. ( I HATE SC) Seeing as how DoW2 isn't really an RTS, I REALLY want support for DoW, even if it IS farmed out like Soulstorm.

IMO DoW2 is a BAD BAD idea, not only is Relic not getting my money, but NONE of the video game industry is now. (the older I get, the less I want to play games which require good 'twitch' skills, which it seems you need to play anything now.) They may not have wanted to compete with Blizzard and SC2, but they would have gotten quite a bit of money JUST BECAUSE IT'S WH40K. Not to mention I know a LOT of people who were waiting specifically for 'Nids in the last format. I have a feeling that the company that realizes that not EVERY player is a video game genius who needs the newest shiniest format to have fun will make a lot of money.

Apparently there's been some talk in Relic about making Epic scale strategy for 40K, something like Supreme Commander 40K. They thought about upscaling CoH for that kind of play but decided it's staying as it is for the second installment, so something else would have to be introduced. I don't know how valid is that rumor, but it makes some sense to have three scales for three different games. Less overlap=more profit.

I gave it a try last night and really enjoyed it. I loved getting my squads in buildings, and working my way behind a falcon to see a lovely "Rear Armor Hit' with my heavy bolter.

I also loved that when the assault squads planted melta bombs on the grav tanks, little timers started to show how long the tank had until...BOOM!

Ooh, and watching a cyclon missle launcher fire from the back of a Termi... freak'n beautiful.

If you liked Company of Heroes, which was critically hailed as one of the best, most inovative RTS's in a LONG TIME, you will like DoWII because you will understand all the tactical options available to you.

If, however, your only RTS experience is from games that pre-date CoH, then you probably are not aware of all the things you can do. Of course, the full game of DoWII will have a tutorial to help you out.

My tip? Download the Company of Heroes demo (for free) and play the tutorial. THEN try out DoWII.

I think this game will be a big success.

This sounds hella fun. I like CoH, so a 40K version is just chock-ful of win. If only my blue-skinned battlesuiting friends were in the initial game. Guess I'll be waiting for an expansion.

I'd just like to clear this up, DoWII is not Company of Heroes 40k.

DoW II is much smaller than CoH, CoH suppots much larger armies, and lots more vehicles.

The easiest way to say this is that in CoH you build a company or a reinforced company, in DoW II you build a reinforced platon at best.

Yes both games utilize a cover system and small unit tactics like flanking and covering fire.
But CoH is still a tradional RTS in that you need to build bases, and defend your base.

IMO DoW II focuses to much on micromanagment and using special abilites.

After putting many hours into CoH and the DoW II beta, i can say that CoH is a much better game.

Iwould normally buy DoW II anyway but i don't know that in this economy i'm going to be buying DoW II.

To me one of the major differnences is in the late game, in DoW II when your enemy is storming your base it's pretty much over. In CoH I can't count the amount of times i've had enemies stomping all over my base only to build a key unit to push them back and end up winning the game.

Daggermaw wrote:I'd just like to clear this up, DoWII is not Company of Heroes 40k.

DoW II is much smaller than CoH, CoH suppots much larger armies, and lots more vehicles.

Perhaps, although I'm going to reserve making judgements like that until I've seen the full version of the game. We're only playing a Beta copy right now.

My only point with the CoH comparison is that if you play this game using the tactics you learned in CoH, you'll do fine. If you try to play the game with RTS tactics from the original DoW or older RTS titles, you may be confused and frustrated.

^ Ive had that problem before, I went from playing DOW right into COH.... *Storm that pioneer squad you maggots!* Blegh! Auggh! Im on fire! Augh! Im on fire!, three rifle squads later.... wasn't good times.

So far I like dawn of war 2. The one thing that has me worried is the "you only get this by preordering from X place" colors and wargear. It seems really stupid to not be able to paint your army a certain color because you bought your game from a different place.

I've played about 30 beta games so far...really liking it thus far.
Good graphics, very tactical gameplay.
I do miss the base building a bit, but its a different kind of game than DoW2.
The battles are a decent size once the game gets going..but yes for the first 10 mins or so its 3-4 squads vs 3-4 squads.
Is it better than DoW I or CoH? Don't know yet. Seems to be an evolution/fusion of both.

Map sizes do seem to be smaller than CoH..but battles end up being the same size or larger from what I have seen.

The game's a great mix of World in conflict and CoH. Pure RTT and no RTS BS. I love it. I'm surprised that Marines can be suppressed. Firefights are decisive quickly compared to CoH but I guess it keeps the pace up.

e: The only prob I have is that against melee units, the retreat option is a no-loss option. You can easily kite units this way. For casual players I'm guessing this won't be a prob cuz the chasing unit can then cap points on the way back to the enemy base but I can see poopsocking players abusing this by juggling units and such.

Lordhat wrote:I just hope they don't kill DoW outright. It's really the only RTS I like. ( I HATE SC) Seeing as how DoW2 isn't really an RTS, I REALLY want support for DoW, even if it IS farmed out like Soulstorm.

IMO DoW2 is a BAD BAD idea, not only is Relic not getting my money, but NONE of the video game industry is now. (the older I get, the less I want to play games which require good 'twitch' skills, which it seems you need to play anything now.) They may not have wanted to compete with Blizzard and SC2, but they would have gotten quite a bit of money JUST BECAUSE IT'S WH40K. Not to mention I know a LOT of people who were waiting specifically for 'Nids in the last format. I have a feeling that the company that realizes that not EVERY player is a video game genius who needs the newest shiniest format to have fun will make a lot of money.

Multitasking and being aware of unit positions is not twitch skill. Twitch skill doesn't get you a whole lot in this game.

DOW1 was a fun distraction, but as a game it was broken. It was just resource farming then rock paper scissor style giant army fights. Certain forces auto won against others (chaos vs orks being an autowin for chaos) and once your army broke you were basically done. Not to mention the utterly awful unit pathing. It was a pretty game, and it was fun to play if you're bad at RTS games because it was fairly simplistic and catered to the timmy crowd. DoW2 seems much more designed with the johnny crowd in mind, you play your army to your commanders theme, but it's not just turtle up to a big flashy army. You have to be there from the start.

this is actually like what a battle in 40k should be like seriously except the nids should have more and so should the orks but if you think about it 40k fluff thinks alot about humongous battles while in our time right now its guerrilla warfare. so i think theyre trying to capture that idea. it brings so much more than dow 1 in that 1 you just charge and usually win

The big hordes are reserved for the single player part of the game, multiplayer doesn't allow for really big hordes, especially not when squads take up a lot of pop-cap and resources to produce.

Except single player is going to be space marines only, and space marines aren't really a horde army.

Apparently, an apothecary tank with early shotgun scouts then assault marines is the combo used by the top-ranking players. Wonder how long it'll take Relic to fix.

Archonate wrote:Except single player is going to be space marines only, and space marines aren't really a horde army.

Marines won't but the enemy will field large hordes.

Sounds fun enough for me, I like the campaign of Dawn of War and Winter Assault much better than the whole di yourself of Dark Crusade and Soulstorm. (Plus aircraft in that game sucked ass...) If I wanted a sandbox RTS I would simply go and play Medieval II: Total War. Its a heck of a lot better in that department.

A game personally is only as good as its campaign mode. The multiplayer is nice but it always comes back to the campaign mode for me. It sets the tone and backstory of the game itself.

I just don't know how to play the game. Last RTS I played was DoW and the expansions. I loved those games, and while I find the initial games of DoW2 frustrating as hell, I'm open minded enough to realize it's because I have no idea what the hell I'm doing or how to play rather than it being a bad game.

I have learned that in DOW2 you have to keep your shooters in cover. Always. A squad of scouts in cover will murder a squad of marines out in the open. Also did anyone else notice how quickly marine squads die? Also fire support squads are hella good. You really have to play tactically. You advace squads from cover to cover, and only move up your support squads last, always keeping them toward the rear.