Dawn of War: Dark Crusade – Skulls for the Skull Throne!

Although this blog’s focus is less on current releases but rather on timeless milestones, I could not help but rejoice as I heard the news: Dawn of War 3 is coming – and large armies and base-building are back! I tried its predecessor, Dawn of War 2, but the focus on small squads of heroes just isn't my cup of tea. Instead, I present to you my favourite Add-On of the series. The real-time stragegy game series Dawn of War is based on Games Workshop’s giant science fiction tabletop-franchise Warhammer 40,000, a grimdark future where there can only be war between aliens, religious fanatics and demons.

Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War – The Dark Crusade, released in 2006, is the second Add-On of the first Dawn of War from 2004. It adds two new factions (Necrons and Tau), a new unit to each existing race, and a wholly new campaign, which will be the focus of this article (Notice that for multiplayer matches playing as one of the “old” races, you need the predecessors; for the campaign and everything else, having Dark Crusade installed will suffice).

 Intro.

A unique feature about the Dawn of War games is that instead of collecting natural resources, the player has to conquer requisition points and maintain a good energy supply by building power plants. But what really makes this game stand out among nearly every other real time strategy game ever is that you can play a total of 7 (!) different races, each with its own carefully crafted campaign and viewpoint on the overall setting – the conquest of planet Kronus. 

 

Kronus is genuinely inhabited by the Necrons, robots reminiscent of those seen in The Terminator-series of movies, but they don't bother hiding their mechanical bodies. The planet is also inhabited by  the Imperial Guard, whose soldiers and tanks are reminiscent of 21^st century military, but with some laserguns, medieval inquisition and technology worshipping priests thrown in. Also, there are the Eldar (space elves) and some Orks (green hooligan aliens with a fetish for scrap metal).

Among the invaders are the Space Marines (genetically modified superhuman monks), the Chaos Space Marines (genetically modified superhuman sectarians) and the Tau (blue aliens with high tech stuff and primitive allies). Each race has standard and special troops, tanks and a super unit that can be unlocked by collecting enough resources and conquering a relic. These super units are demigods, demons or giant tanks – loads of fun! 

Ingame-screenshot of Necrons fighting against Chaos Space Marines. Source.

The voice acting adds a lot to the atmosphere: While some races sound very proud and determined such as the Space Marines and the Eldar, the Chaos Space Marines sound just as insane as they are, Necrons are silent for the most part and Orks prattle as much gibberish as you would expect from space hooligans ("Dakka dakka dakka!"). Fortunately, too, Relic has managed to make each of the forces play differently and added some unique gameplay mechanics to each race: While Necrons don’t need requisition points to make units unlike every other race but solely rely on energy, Orks need an extra resource to control their rowdy minions, and differences in upgrades, abilities etc. offer various tactical options making an actual difference between the races. However, it has been argued that the races are not perfectly balanced in Multiplayer, which players who have fought the Eldar in the campaign probably already know.

The campaign screen. Source.

The campaign setup is not a linear follow-up of missions, but instead presents you with a map where you can choose which of the neighbouring provinces to visit first. Depending on whether you own that province or not, you can choose what to do: Move to or conquer a province or planetary fortress of one of the other factions or just stay where you are and skip a round. If you choose to fight, the game switches into real time strategy gameplay. As you finish your turn on the campaign map, the computer takes over and shows how the other 6 factions move and fight on the map. This means that the player not only gets to conquer, but also defend provinces, which is made easier by the fact that the computer memorizes what you built in each province, so you won’t have to start from scrap again, and you may add to it each time you defend it.

Each province you own earns you control points on the campaign map (independent from those in RTS mode), which can be invested in stationary forces to make defending your provinces even easier. Also, conquering certain provinces not only comes with special goals other than killing the enemy’s base, but unlocks additional benefits, such as the opportunity to move twice (instead of once) during your turn or to buy an honour guard for your general. The leader himself gets weapon and armour upgrades that make him more powerful in battle. These RPG elements definitely enhance the gaming experience, since they reward your efforts appropriately (without making the game too easy).

Each race's leader can be upgraded during the campaign, for example the Necron Lord. Source.

If you leave an area of the campaign map untouched for a long time and leave its destiny to your enemies, there is a chance that your decision will backfire sometime. Playing as Chaos Space Marines I once had to face an Imperial enemy who had gathered an honour guard consisting of 9 units, including a tank. Ultimately, I had to give up several provinces because the AI general would just overrun each colony with his honour guard. Playing on difficulty level “hard”, it really felt like an achievement when I finally destroyed his planetary fortress with my Chaos Space Marines, lead by my general who had turned into a Demon Prince by the time I had reconquered everything. Another great moment was beating the Tau, because those blue faced bastards have, very much like in the tabletop version, a reputation for using big, nasty guns, while Chaos Space Marines prefer melee weapons (in the 41^st century, melee combat is still pretty viable). 

Dark Crusade's successor Soulstorm, is alright, too, but having to travel from planet to planet felt like less fun than just having all the factions squeezed together on one big map. Also, rebuilding your bases when defending is not fun – it forces you to play the same map under the same conditions over and over again. These are the reasons why Soulstorm, although it added another two races – Dark Eldar (evil space elves) and Adeptus Sororitas (female Space Marines) – was not an improvement to the series but just a mediocre addition. 

Dark Crusade, however, is a milestone in the series, as it masterfully captures the grimdark feeling of the Warhammer 40,000 franchise. The different factions with their unique gameplay and story and the random interactions of the AI generals in the campaign provide enough replay-value for weeks. Of course, there are some bugs and the Eldar are a bit imbalanced, but the game is fun, nevertheless. Whether you are hyped for DoW 3 or not familiar with the franchise at all: I seriously recommend playing Dark Crusade.