I didn't mean to allow so many days to pass after my last post, but I got sidetracked by Dawn of War. Dawn of War is a/an RTS (Real-Time Strategy) game taking its elements from Games Workshop's WarHammer universe. The game has a campaign, skirmish mode (where you fight against AI), and multiplayer is supported (though I haven't tried it yet).

The WarHammer universe is big, and its different races are always at war with each other. The campaign puts you behind the reins of the Space Marines, Blood Ravens Chapter. They're pretty much your run-of-the-mill people in power suits that have high-tech weapons and gear, except that they have cybernetic implants. Space Marines have no sense of humor - you might get bored of hearing the same old "For the Emperor!" "The enemies of the Emperor will be crushed!" lines. I was wondering idly if there's a chapter (kinda like monks, their organization is) that has white power armor, and only its commanders wear black. The Space Marines have the nasty habits of hardwiring their crippled/maimed/disabled soldiers into humanoid weapons platforms (read: SUPAA ROBOTTO!), binding a protective spirit in each one of their super tanks, and dropping firepower, troopers, and aforementioned robots from their orbiting battleships. Crazy humans.

The first race you meet and massacre in the campaign are the Orks. Yes folks, that's Orks, not orcs, due to some wish to not be identified with Tolkien perhaps. Green-skinned people with a love of battle, no I'm not talking about the Hulk. Orks do not possess high levels of technology, preferring weapons that go bang, chop, boom, or burn. Only the smartest of them get the stuff that go zap and blink. Still, when it comes to close combat, they are a match with Space Marines and their strength-increasing armor. Their accuracy has a lot to be improved on, but when a full gang of Orks outnumbers a Space Marine squad 2:1, well, now... Their nasty habits include equipping every gang in the field with explosives of all sorts, strapping some huge guns on a big, BIG lizard, and using goblins as spies and workers. The Ork side is full of laughs - one of their heroes says "Where's my trukk? Why am I WALKING?!!!" The other hero says upon entering the field "I'ze the biggest, so I'ze DA BOSS!"

Next up on your plate are the fast yet frail Eldar. For those not in the know, 'Eldar' is WarHammer-speak for 'Elves.' They look tame and lame compared to Orks - none of them have siege capable infantry, i.e. soldiers that can deal significant damage to structures oustside of hand-to-hand combat. They make up for it with their vehicles - three are highly maneuverable hovertanks, and the other one is a humanoid weapon similar to what the Space Marines use. What Eldar infantry are best at is appearing suddenly and disappearing quickly - they run really fast, and they have teleportation gates. Did I mention that some Eldar structures also teleport? Talk about cheating. In fact, they so need to cheat badly, they can summon their war god to fight on the ground with them.

The last race / faction included in the game are the Chaos Marines. They're basically D3V1L W0RSH1PP1NG Space Marines, and its reflected in their structures' and units' look. Their version of the Space Marines' SUPAA ROBOTTO has four legs, two arms ending in pincers, and a horned helemet complete with glowing eyes perched on top of its hull. They can also summon daemons - in fact, one of their big plays is to sneak a squad in, undetected, to your HQ, then transform the squad leader into a Bloodthirster, one of Baphomet's meaner cousins. Oh yeah, summoning the big horned, winged guy doesn't kill the other members of the squad, so they can stick around and provide fire support for the big, strong and ugly guy. They're funny that way.

There is a 5th group, the Imperial Guard, who are in the campaign - you can't play as them in the skirmish and multiplayer modes. They're plot devices, literally. All they have going for them are their 15-man squads armed with grenade launchers, laser rifles, and plasma guns, and their cute tanks.

Graphics-wise and game-wise, Dawm of War has been described as a Warcraft killer. It's so easy to learn - the Space Marines that is, as the in-game tutorial puts you in command once again of a Space Marine force. It has camera controls that allow a player to zoom in and pan the view as they wish to really get up close to the action.

I'll discuss units in-depth on my next post.