thinking of going into the warhammer 40k dawn of war series

[Theo Rob]

im been thinking of going outside of my corfort zone of fighters and rpg's and the warhammer 40k games are have caught my attention. so i got a few questions.

1, do i need to know W40k backstory or does the game tell me?
2, are the dawn of war games good?
3, i dont know much about warhammer 40k, so is there more then just the space marines and orks?

 

[Dandark]

1. No, I would recommend starting with the first Dawn of war game. You don't need to know much backstory as it explains most things, you just need to know that there are humans and aliens.

2. They are still my favorite RTS games of all time. I came into them knowing nothing of the 40K universe so it's not just me being a fanboy, they are a lot of fun and simple enough to learn and play easily.

3. Mankind is an empire called the "Imperium of man". The Space marines are part of this, they are elite super soldiers.
There are much more than just the orks, they are but one alien race that mankind has to fight.
There are only 4 factions in the first Dawn of war game, The imperium/space marines, the orks and

Spoiler: Spoilers for the first game, You probably shouldn't read this

the Eldar who are an ancient and advanced race and finally Chaos who are heretical demon worshipers made up of demons and humans in the first game.

You don't need to worry about having much knowledge of either the game or the RTS genre to play it, I didn't when I started it. I would recommend it, play through the first one and see what you think, there are 3 expansions after that which add new races and units.

 

[Theo Rob]

good to know
guess ill start with dawn of war 1 then

 

[Smooth Operator]

Dawn of War has enough story to make sense, and then you will want to know everything about 40k.

And yes they are quite excellent RTS games with their own unique feel, so go for the Dawn of War plus expansions Winter Assault and Dark Crusade (do not touch Soulstorm), in Dark Crusade you actually get to play almost all the races.

 

[Hargrimm]

im been thinking of going outside of my corfort zone of fighters and rpg's and the warhammer 40k games are have caught my attention. so i got a few questions.

1, do i need to know W40k backstory or does the game tell me?
2, are the dawn of war games good?
3, i dont know much about warhammer 40k, so is there more then just the space marines and orks?

1: You'll figure all the important shit out on your own by just playing the games and paying attention.(at least I did)


2: The original campaign is ok.

Winter Assault is like the original but better and you have the option between four races.

Dark Crusade is a sort of risk style map with the battles being skirmish matches. Except for the enemy strongholds and special provinces that give you bonuses in the overworld strategy part. All around a pretty fun campaign for one or more playthroughs.

Soulstorm is shit.

Dawn of war 2 oc is a boring corridor grindfest.

Chaos Rising is DoW2 done right.

Retribution is pretty good, but the campaign missions are almost the same for every race, so playing it more than once or twice will get pretty boring.


3: You'll figure all the important shit out on your own by just playing the games and paying attention.

 

[Theo Rob]

Soulstorm is shit.

care to go a little in-depth about the bad points of it?

 

[Hargrimm]

If you are interested in other W40k games:

Chaos Gate: Turn based, squad tactical combat game sort of like Jagged Alliance 2(or FF: Tactics if that doesn't ring any bells). You play as the Ultramarines exclusively. Fun game, but can be a ***** to run on modern computers, unless you have VMware, virtual pc or similar. Also pretty hard to find nowadays, not on gog for example(TPB has it, if you are okay with that)

Final Liberation: Another TBS. I haven't played that one, but I heard some good things about it, definitely worth checking out. It's a DOS game, so you'll need DOSBOX. Abandonware iirc, so check abandonia or home of the underdogs.(TPB has it too)

Rites of War: Yet another TBS. This one is like Panzer General. You play as Eldar exclusively. This one is a little harder to find, I have only found torrents of this as of yet. (TPB again)

Soulstorm is shit.

care to go a little in-depth about the bad points of it?

The campaign is basically like the one in Dark Crusade, but the provinces that give you special bonuses have been removed, with the bonuses put into the strongholds instead.
The strongholds are the crux of the thing, because they are one of the most boring grindfests I ever had the displeasure of fighting through.
You always start in one corner of the map and the rest is absolutely plastered with enemy buildings.
Unlike Dark Crusade, where you usually have to fulfill a specific objective, you have to level the entire map, either because you literally have to or because the enemy respawns are so numerous and quick that there is no other way to get to the objective.
The enemy has basically no unit limit(but you do!) and often several of their usually-restricted-to-only-one-but-not-this-time units that basically end the game in any normal skirmish match. In some cases, like the sisters or dark eldar stronghold, they are also INVINCIBLE.

Also, the balance is fucked, with some races having really overpowered units (like the sisters) and the bullshit air units(with the sisters getting the op one of course).

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Soulstorm is shit.

care to go a little in-depth about the bad points of it?

Soulstorm is a bloated sequel to dark crusade that does everything the same except worse. The gameplay is the same, except that there are now new flyer vehicles that are pretty much overpowered, imbalanced flying tanks. The risk style map is the same as Dark Crusade, except stretched across more planets.

It also has some serious performance issues that can grind your game to a halt.

Really, the only thing you need to know about soulstorm is that it has some of the most hilariously awful voice acting ever put to a game. The following video's audio was taken directly from the game, no alterations.

EDIT
For the short *short* version of 40k Lore, watch this video.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

You don't need story or a 40K background at all to enjoy those games.
And yes, they kick ass. Just remember to get all the expansions up to Dark Crusade, and the Necrons and Imperial Guard are hilariously OP.

DO. NOT. GET. SOULSTORM.

 

[BlueberryMUNCH]

Soulstorm's alright! Honest!
Dark Crusade's the way to go though. You don't need to know anything else other than it's a brilliant game:].

 

[CannibalCorpses]

If you are interested in other W40k games:

Chaos Gate: Turn based, squad tactical combat game sort of like Jagged Alliance 2(or FF: Tactics if that doesn't ring any bells). You play as the Ultramarines exclusively. Fun game, but can be a ***** to run on modern computers, unless you have VMware, virtual pc or similar. Also pretty hard to find nowadays, not on gog for example(TPB has it, if you are okay with that)

Final Liberation: Another TBS. I haven't played that one, but I heard some good things about it, definitely worth checking out. It's a DOS game, so you'll need DOSBOX. Abandonware iirc, so check abandonia or home of the underdogs.(TPB has it too)

Rites of War: Yet another TBS. This one is like Panzer General. You play as Eldar exclusively. This one is a little harder to find, I have only found torrents of this as of yet. (TPB again)

Lol, you stole my thunder...i've got the Rites of War menu background as my backdrop!

Final Liberation sucks a bit (you end up using nothing but titans after a short time) but the other 2 are absolute classics. 'You die by the hand of chaos!' 'In the name of the emperor' 'blood for the blood god'. Damn, i haven't played it for absolutely ages and yet i can still quote lines from Chaos gate

Rites of war is damn hard to complete without losing a unit!

OP They are all good don't you worry. The universe is fairly complex but it's like most fantasy settings. It doesn't require you to know how the board game works either which makes life easier.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Why does everyone forget Dawn of War 2 and it's expansions? personally I like them more than the first series of games. it has some of the best tactical, visceral holy-shit-get that-gun-set-up-their-tanks-are-coming-ohshit-artillery-fucking-hell-firefirefire gameplay.

Who forgets them? The game is like a slightly smaller version of the first. It doesn't have the gigantic battles of the first game, but it still has vicious close combat. And it has The Last Stand.

Guela Fanatics!

 

[Soviet Heavy]

Why does everyone forget Dawn of War 2 and it's expansions? personally I like them more than the first series of games. it has some of the best tactical, visceral holy-shit-get that-gun-set-up-their-tanks-are-coming-ohshit-artillery-fucking-hell-firefirefire gameplay.

Who forgets them? The game is like a slightly smaller version of the first. It doesn't have the gigantic battles of the first game, but it still has vicious close combat. And it has The Last Stand.

Guela Fanatics!

Well maybe forget is the wrong word. I just only ever hear people talk about DoW as the DoW game. In this thread too.

Well really, Dawn of War 2 is a whole different beast from the first. The first game is really a high speed version of the traditional RTS, while DOW 2 is an evolution of the tactical combat of Company of Heroes. It is more a Real Time Tactics game than an RTS, given the entire focus on territory control and combat over base building.

They are both fantastic games, but aren't really comparable in anything but setting.

 

[rodneyy]

Soulstorm is shit.

care to go a little in-depth about the bad points of it?

tbh i dont think its so much a case of it being shit as opposed to it just not being as good as dark crusade and the rage that comes with the knowledge that it could have been as good or better than the pervious but it failed.

most of what is wrong has been said up there. ontop of that i found the campaign ai a bit hamstrung so had to be beefed up in other areas. as it is on differnt planets you need to hold certain areas to attack from one planet to the other, so wile its over a solar system instead of a planet like DC it feels smaller.

also the ai can take other ai bases, i played quite a few campaigns in DC and i think i remeber it doing that once, i played soulstorm twice and both times the orcs managed to take out the space marines base before i even got off my starting planet.

if you can pick them all up in a steam sale as a bundle or something then i think that helps lessen the sence of loss at it not being as good. for a few quid its worth a play through or two to try a new areas and races just as long as you know going into it that its not as good as DC.

 

[Scorched_Cascade]

Watch the lore video (40k lore in a minute) posted above for anything you really need to know to play DoW.

The series has some of the best voice acting I've heard.

(unit quotes from the DoW1 series set to Requim for a Dream to make a song)

Spoiler

Dawn of War 2 voice actors. (The Hivemind voice actor still scares the crap out of me)

Spoiler

Basic, basic, playable race overview:

Imperial Guard: Your basic human, given paper armour and a flashlight and sent out to fight nightmarish horrors with only their balls of steel and infinite numbers to protect them. Think ww2 era Russian army. (IG tactic? "If it doesn't work, throw more men at it")

Bolter bitches Adepta Sororitas. Games workshop's bullshit answer to the legitimate question "but why can't there be female space marines?". They're actually incredibly badass but they get screwed over in black library books near constantly. Unmodified human females in power armour. Think Nuns combined with the Spanish Inquisition

Spoiler: A song for them

Space Marines: Post-human killing machines created to be soldiers to fight for the Imperium of man. Originally there were 20 legions of them, 10 fell to chaos while 10 remained loyal. These have been broken up into smaller chapters. They are heavily implanted and have high tech gear available to them.

Chaos: MAIM. KILL. BURN. MAIM. KILL. BURN. Humans, space marines and assorted aliens corrupted by the warp (a mirror universe that exists alongside our own used for FTL travel made of strong emotions and feelings where demons and evil gods live). Either servants of malal, Khorne (god of blood, fighting and killing), Tzeentch (ambition, plots, scheming, sorcery, change), Nurgle (plague, sickness, decay, undeath), Slaanesh (Pleasure, pain, perversion) undivided (worship all four equally or undeclared). Tend to have crazy psyhic powers and mutations.

Weeboo space communists Tau. A naive race that a lot of people feel don't fit with the grimdark theme. Their goal is to have all races united under the concept of "the greater good" where everyone has their own place. GW responded to the complaints by grimdarking them up a bit, implying their Ethereal caste were actually mind controlling the other castes who are basically slaves.

Tyranids. Nightmarish creatures who want to devour the galaxy. They harvest all the consumed matter into biomas and use it to create more of themselves with a close to 0% waste ratio. Think xenomorph from aliens and add more teeth and more killy. Swarms of the little bastards eat through metal while the bigger ones shoot you or pounce and rip your face off. Not nice to be an Imperial Guardsman when these ugly gits show up.

Orks is the biggest and the strongest. sentient fungus race that is taller even than a space marine, stupidly strong and is made fer fightin' an' winnin' are warband like in nature. Orks iz neva beaten in battle It always needs more choppy, more killy and more dakka. Their tech is a bit basic but highly effective and works through a kind of group placebo effect; if the orks think that pile of scrap metal carved into the shape of a gun will fire, it will fire.

Spoiler: Ork technology

Necrons are terminator like beings that want to annihilate all organic life in the galaxy due to a tragic backstory. They are sleeping below the ground in tomb cities on some of their own homeworlds, some of which have been since repopulated in the milennia since they were last awake. Except they aren't because they were recently ruined by a retcon. DoW is before the retcon so they are still their awesome exterminating selves.

Eldar: space elves. An old, powerfully psychic race, that once ruled the galaxy till they were so hedonistic and perverse that they actually birthed a new Chaos god (Slaanesh) in the warp. Slaanesh's birth cry tore a fabric in reality, claiming the Eldar homeworlds for the warp and consuming the majority of Eldar's souls. Currently living eldar live on space ships and "walk" "paths" to keep their minds fully disciplined and occupied e.g the path of the Seer. Each carries a soul stone that captures their soul when they die to stop it returning to the warp and getting omnomed by Slaanesh.

Dark Eldar: Perverted, souless, Eldar who are basically space pirates that kidnap and brutally torture their victims for kicks. Needs more spikey bits.

Chaos are the best LET.THE.GALAXY.BUUUURRRRN!

If you find anything you need defining then it's best to search it either at lexicanum [http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Main_Page] which is basically a wiki of all the lore but is a bit addictive to read or if you can stand a bit of bad language, in jokes and slightly twisted humour 1d4chan [http://1d4chan.org/wiki] is a good wiki to use for laughs, strangely informative sometimes too.

 

[Frankster]

1) It helps i guess but if you play them from the start it should be ok (first dow does an effective job at setting things up, rest of dow1 expansions introduce their factions well enough, for dow2 onwards though it helps having knowledge of 40k as way more talky bits.)

2) Yes.

3)A lot more, space marines are the Imperium(the humans)' special forces/knightly orders but are a tiny part of their main armies (imperial guard, imperial navy,the titan legions, sisters of battle, inquisition and then you have stuff like the assassins and the inquisition).
Orks are but one of the many many threats the imperium fights.

I'd advise to go against the peeps saying you NOT to buy soulstorm as buying the dow edition with all the expansions will be cheaper for you then buying them individually to avoid 1 expansion. Also the hate that game receives is greatly exagerated due to lingering butthurt over multi issues (massive exploits that took ages to patch and competitive ss multi scene was broken). Get it if only to be able to install mods on soulstorm, the real negatives of soulstorm is that it has a crappy campaign and air units have crappy pathfinding, otherwise same deal as previous dow with 2 new races and new units.

 

[Zantos]

Spoiler: A song for them

Is it bad that I've listened to that song so much I can actually recite the fede imperialis? Which it turns out is quite useful for Dark Heresy.

But OT, the original somewhat longer post I've quoted is a little OTT but essentially right, that's a decent enough description. Though I'd like to see him call a Sister of Battle a bolter ***** to her face.

So yeah, play it! Especially Dark Crusade, it's fun! And remember, servo skulls can see invisible people, it took me ages to figure that out. And that the Grey Knights can and will kick seven shades out of everything that moves, everything that doesn't move and anything left in some weird quantum state of moving and not moving.