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Instead of just voting and saying "I like that the best", state your opinion for:

-Singleplayer
-Multiplayer
-Units
-Balance
-Gameplay and
-Graphic
-Overall rating

I will start first:

Singleplayer: DoW I Campaign was interesting, Dark Crusade and Soultrom made it more interesting with territory conquest, wargear and army build. DoW II Singleplayer was better IMHO, simply because all the wargear you could acquire and all the ponts and abilities you could unlock on the way.

Multiplayer: DoW I is better in my opinion. DoW II have some more realistic things like Heavy Weapon suppress or mods Last Stand. But DoW with his modding support enable player to wield army's from all races on big scale ( seriously, Apocalypse mod: new races have ALL codex races in it ) and have larger army's then then DoW II.

Units: DoW II is better in this field, because of the better graphic the Units look very nice. Even if DoW had more units per race them DoW II.

Balance: I am undecided here, both games have great balance in one thing and great unbalance in other. Tau Empire was seriously overpowered in DoW, build 6 Fire Warrior teams, get Kauyon, give them armor and range and see as they shoot everything from half of the map, TROUGH THE MOUNTAINS even. Basic team of Fire Warriors have better armor in the beginning even from Space Marines ( they take less damage even in close combat even from Assault Marines ). Only army who could beat them is Guard ( Basilisks, Leman Russ, Baneblade ) while all others had to use something from their race specialty to defeat them ( Marines had to deep strike, Chaos to use Daemons, Orks to use Maddoc to get in melee etc... ). And close combat units were useless in DoW, they always suffered heavy losses since everyone could shoot at them while they are in melee with some other unit. And not to mention the old trick were you chase the unit down while other is targeting you from the side... ( Grey Knights are elite troops and still die like Guardsman when charging at enemy ).
DoW II bring balance to some things ( like damn mountain shooting ) , it brought cover, suppression and many weapons that were not included in first game ( Power Axe, Cyclone missile launcher ). But some units were boosted a lot ( like my Guardsman squad taking out 3/4 of Chaos Lord health before he get to them ) while some were weakened in some areas ( however, that same squad of Guardsman almost died while engaging in melee with Eldar weapons teams, Eldar Guardians beat them with hands while Guardsman had bayonets. Also, Heretic squad beating Space Marines in cc ). But balance is well, much better then in original DoW.

Gameplay: DoW II is winner here. It offered much more with one squad then first one. The ability to use cover and line of fire most notably. As for game play overall, DoW II just lacked base build, but everything else was better then DoW.

Graphic: DoW I iis the winner here to, being from 2009 while DoW was from 2004. Still, DoW Graphic is awesome even for 2011.

Overall rating: DoW II wins in several elements but my opinion is that DoW was better simply because size of army you were leading into battle.
Just take Imperial Guard for example:
DoW, my standard Guard army: 4 teams of Guardsman with 3x commissars and 1 psyker attached ( all squads have Plasma Guns ), Kasrkin squad with Priest attached ( Plasma guns for all), 4x Heavy Weapon teams ( 2xLasscanons and 2x Autocannons ), Assassin, Chimera, 2xBasilisk, 2xLeman Russ and Baneblade. That's 76 infantry units with 6 Tanks.
DoW II: 3 teams of Gaurdsman, Heavy Weapons team, Lord General, Baneblade, Chimera. That's 47 infantry units with 2 vehicles.
And also becasue they have much more races ( I miss Tau and Sisters ) and because it have great modding support ( bringing us great mods like Inquisition Daemonhunt or TT mod ).
And to add to this. Last night I played Last Stand and one player took Tau Commander. He had XV8 Battle suit for armor and he was smaller then Space Marine Captain. you tought that they would be bigger then Astartes in that armor no?

DOW2 was a piss-take. You could have what, 5 squads in total?
And it annoys me when people insist it's more "tactical". These are people who think that moving into cover when you're being shot at is some kind of Manstein-esque act of initiative.
And the campaign mode of Dark Crusade/Soulstorm was just kickass, customising your army and the AI was never a pushover.
Major problem with it was Pathfinding AI. Moving around large armies could be unwieldy.

DoW2 had better art and it is a fine , fun game. I really like the Eldar and other alien faction campaigns.

DoW1+ was also good, and I agree that where it really shined was in the campaign modes.

What I would like to see from DoW next is a customizable multiplayer campaign mode that is scaled to play more like Epic Armageddon.
Back in the day I really liked Final Liberation and would love to see something like that come out in all its modern tech lushness.

-Singleplayer - DoW1---The story was amazing and I loved every second of it.
-Multiplayer - DoW: Dark crusade --- Plenty of races to choose from, and more balanced than Soulstorm
-Units - DoW: soulstorm --- Plenty of units for every army, and all of them had a place.
-Balance - DoW: Dark crusade
-Gameplay - DoW 2 --- I like the focus on individual units
-Graphic - DoW 2
-Overall rating - DoW: Dark crusade --- it's the best DoW game made so far, it's ridiculously fun, and it never gets old

-Singleplayer
The campaign in Dow 2 is amazing. All the more because you can play coop with a friend. I loved DoW2 and CR, but was not so much a fan of retribution.
-Multiplayer
DoW 1 has better multiplayer. Dark Crusade was probably when it was at it's best.
-Units and Gameplay
DoW 1 had more variety and was on a bigger scale. DoW2 has it's own charm, with smaller units led by characters with the focus on using terrain and abilities to your advantage. This is especially nice in campaign mode, but is probably why it feels lacking in multiplayer.
-Overall rating
I think it's really hard to pick a winner out of the two games. I guess I would say for campaign and coop, DoW 2 (and Chaos Rising) are the best, but for general multiplayer I preferred DoW1.

-Singleplayer = Story was strongest in DoW2, but only if you liked Space Marines.
-Multiplayer = Best balanced. DoW2 wins this.
-Units = Barely any compared to DoW1
-Balance = Best in DoW2.
-Gameplay = Gameplay may not be as complex in DoW1, But DoW1 felt like warhammer.
-Graphic = DoW2
-Overall rating = Unless your race managed to be in DoW2, Then DoW1 is the best for sheer fairness to players of all races. Sucks being so limited in DoW2.

DoW: Dark Crusade and DoW: Soulstorm hands down for the best of the entire 1-2 series.

Just for me because of the fact the Imperial Guard is actually some what good in the original Dawn of Wars.

In multi-player in DoW 2: Retribution I feel like a punching bag for all the "good" races, with the exception of when I go against all Orks.

Dawn of War 2 is a better game. It's quicker, smoother, more intuitive and more exciting. Destructible environments, occupiable buildings, and vehicles as cover make a big difference in a firefight. It's more tactical and requires more thought in the average game, as your unit choices really matter, and just spamming a horde of X unit will only work for so long before a smart opponent develops a counter. From a strategic point of view, there's actually reason to fall back and regroup to recoup your losses. Pinning is also huge. The multiplayer, while not perfect, is well balanced and you stand a chance with any race if you're fairly skilled.

The campaign in DoW2 and Chaos Rising is the best in the series, but Retribution diluted it too much and made it very bland.

Single player skirmish will have to go to Dark Crusade though. The AI, while not terribly good, is head and shoulders better than DoW2s. The AI in DoW2 will usually run from a fight which is really not fun for the player. The AI in DoW1 will bum rush you or at least build a big army and keep it around base.

The modding community also made DoW1 a great game. Firestorm over Kronus turns the game into something closer to the tabletop, which is awesome. There's mods for anything and everything really. I wish DoW2 had the same modding community.

So if I were to break down my really disorganized thoughts:
- DoW 2 is a great game as long as you're paying a lot of attention, as you need to think on your feet, react quickly with retreats, cover, and counters, and is best in multiplayer, and for the most part, the best campaign.

- DoW 1 is a great game if you want to build a horde of army men and throw them at the other guy's army men. It's not as good a game, but it's a fun spectacle, and is more relaxing to play. It definitely has the best single player skirmish experience, and being able to pause and give orders is a great feature I use a lot. Also, persistent corpses is cool.

I've played plenty of both and I will say DoW2 is the better game, but I still play DoW1 just as often.