The first thing to understand about Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is that it is not a direct translation of the tabletop game. There's no turn-based, sedate grand-scale combat here. Dawn of War is all about fast and brutal RTS fighting between squads of bloodthirsty warriors. Most of the traditional RTS mechanics you'd expect to see in a game of this type are here. Each of the game's four races engages in base-building and resource allocation as well technology research and tactical deployment to destroy their opponents. What separates Dawn of War from the rest of the RTS pack is just how well Relic has taken the frighteningly bloodthirsty military philosophy of the Warhammer universe and translated that into a fast-paced game of squad-based maneuvering.

One of the biggest examples of this was Relic's determination to minimize the role of resource gathering and logistics. As RTS games have developed, one of the key strategies the best players always look for is an opportunity to slaughter their opponents "peon" units. These resource gatherers tend to be the weakest combat units in the game, but without them, it's impossible for a player to generate reinforcements. As such, they tend to become the player's strategic jugular vein and an inordinate amount of time goes into protecting them, forcing game strategy to devolve into closed-in and familiar patterns.