Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War is a science fiction real-time strategy game set in the violent, post-apocalyptic universe of the 41st Millennium. Needless to say, the game is based on the ultra-violent futuristic table-top game. For those who aren't familiar with the 40k universe, here is a bit of info. It's set 40,000 years in the future, in a grim and terrible time where mankind is at constant war with various horrific enemies across the universe. This universe is the setting for a tabletop war game where players paint up miniature figures and fight fantastic battles. Would you like to know how Relic (Homeworld 1/2, Impossible Creatures makers) did turn a turn-based tabletop game into a real-time one? Keep reading to find out!

Dawn of War puts you in command of Space Marine Force Commander Gabriel Angelos, of the Blood Ravens. as he tries to repel an Ork invasion. The campaign follows the course of this war as Gabriel makes decisions on how to deal with the Ork threat. The planet Tartarus is being completely overrun, and without your help the population will be destroyed. Of course, through the course of the story he discovers that there is 'a lot more going on.

There are 4 playable races in the game - the Space Marines, the Eldar, the Orks, and the forces of Chaos. The Space Marines are an extremely elite force of hardened and genetically modified warriors. The forces of Chaos, who are opposite to the Space Marines, fielding a few similar units, but relying heavily on cultists, daemons, etc.. The savage green-skinned Orks are very close combat focused and their tough forces can vastly outnumber and overwhelm their enemies. And the last is the Eldar, a technologically advanced alien race that are on the decline. Their powerful psychics and specialized warriors can dissect an army with their fast, skilled strikes. The Eldar require a bit more micromanagement than some of the other races, because they are very ability heavy. The Eldar focuses on light infantry and lightly armored vehicles, and specialist units. Eldar's primary strength is ranged combat. Each race has dozen base units, which may seem like too few, however, units can be customized by adding different equipment. The races are pretty well balanced - each race can stomp the others, if played properly.

Resources are handled differently as well. They are earned by capturing Strategic Points on the battlefield (placing a "Listening Post" structure on a captured point) and holding them with increased fortifications - the more strategic locations you control, the faster your Requisition counter ticks up. So there are no harvesters or crap like that. You still need some electricity to power up your structures, though. Power is required to maintain certain units, vehicles, and structures.

The combat is fast-paced and almost brutally chaotic at times :) The basic unit in the game is a squad of five men, which can be expanded to include Sergeants and special weapons troops. As mentioned above, the squads can also be upgraded and customized. For instance, The Space Marine unit can be equipped with a machine gun, flamer, plasma gun, or missile launcher. Each of the weapons upgrades is particularly effective against a certain type of enemy, so you have to customize your squads according to how you intend to use them. Needless to say the squad-centric nature of the game enables you to easily coordinate complex tactical plays that would be nearly impossible in other RTS games (you probably also hate to hunt lost units on the map right?). Squads, as they take damage, don't die as a big bunch - they simply lose members. As they die, you can choose to reinforce them and regrow the squad again. In addition to health, each squad also has a morale value. That's why there are leaders who can boost morale, but if it bottoms out, your unit actually runs away from the battle. Each race has its own particular leader units - Force Commander (Space Marine), the Warboss (Ork), the Farseer (Eldar), and the Chaos Lord (Chaos). Leaders are much more powerful than standard units, have unique weapons, special abilities. They are exist as individuals and can be attached to squads, which typically lends the squad certain offensive and defensive bonuses. There're also some vehicles and robots, including Whirlwind and Predator tanks from the Space Marines, Grav tanks armed with mini-nuke-firing weapons from the Eldar, and a terrifying spider-like Chaos Defiler from the evil Chaos Marines, Space Marine Dreadnoughts armed with half-a-dozen meaty weapons, Eldar Wraith Lords (basically huge walking robots ) and the home-made Ork Big Mech. Of course, battlefield reinforcements, requesting vehicles or structures, researching an upgrading will cost you already mentioned Requisition points.

All 4 races are playable in multiplayer or skirmish modes against the AI, but with the single player game you only play as Space Marines. The single player campaign consists from 11 missions with an original Space Marine chapter, the Blood Ravens. Here you control the Blood Ravens through Brother-Captain Gabriel Angelos, and his trusted sub-commander, the powerful psychic Librarian Isador Akios. Over the course of the single-player campaign, Gabriel and Isador encounter the barbaric Orks, the mysterious Eldar, and the malevolent Chaos. The single player missions are enjoyable and well-paced, throwing increasingly heavy challenges at you.

The multiplayer aspect of the game is what I have found to be most fun. The races are different enough to require different strategies, but not so different as to be unbalanced in any way that is obvious to me. Of course, Dawn of War also supports LAN and Online Play via GameSpy (up to 8 players ~ 21maps), and its online player-matching service optionally lets you easily get into a game quickly using your set of parameters using automatch feature. There are many various win conditions the player can enable, like Annihilate, Commander Assassination, HQ Destruction, Sudden Death, Take and Hold, and Economic Victories.

One of the coolest (bonus) features is the Army Painter editor which lets you create your own custom color schemes and insignia for your factions. There's no doubt that this feature will make happy many Warhammer 40k hardcore fans. The game does not come with a map editor, but the game's developers plan to release one later in the year.

Overall, If you like real-time strategy games, buy this! If you like Warhammer 40k, buy this! Even if you don't buy the game, download the demo just to watch the movie. If you are a Warhammer 40k fan, it's absolutely imperative you do so, you will not be disappointed.

Related links: demo, mission unlocker, trainer+3, patch#1

System requirements:
Minimum: Pentium III 1.4 GHz or equivalent AMD Athlon XP processor, 256MB RAM (512 MB required for 8-player multiplayer games), 32MB DirectX 9.0b compatible video card with Hardware T&L, 1.8 GB free hard drive space, 4xCD-ROM, Keyboard, Mouse
Recommended: Intel Pentium 4 2.2 GHz or equivalent, 512 MB System RAM (required for 8-player multiplayer games), nVidia GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon 8500 or equivalent with 64 MB of Video RAM
Required for multiplayer: 1 disc/player per computer, Internet: Broadband, or 56k connection for online multiplayer play, Network: TCP/IP compliant network