warhammer 40000 : Dawn of War

[MasterFlash]

Well I know what ill be doing all this weekend

Still lots to learn - Im only really familar with the Space Marines

[Apex]

I've played all the other races and still like the sm's over any other........ i just carn't do without my bombarment

[Flibb]

Yep SM's currently my fav as well. Hot dropping them in the middle of a battle is a great way of buggering somebodys defences

[Apex]

Theres that too ....so much fun to see the pods wreak the place

[Silence]

I just got this yesterday, played through the first few missions, and have just done the mission where you first get the assault marines. OMG, this game is amazing! Currently, dreadnaughts are my fave playthings, i made a squad of 5, and they decimated everything except that bloody big squiggoth thing.

Hmm, i have to be up early tomorrow, but i guess i could play it until am rolls around...

[RVF500]

Campaign complete. Speed and violence is the key, Inquistor gets orbital strike too So team him up with the force commander and let rip.

I like the SMs, still a lot to learn about using them more effectively though so it's on to skirmish. The end of the campaign leaves an opening to continue the story with an expansion pack so I hope that's not too long in the coming.

[Apex]

another night without sleap due to this game.........

[Flibb]

This game is odd, it brings very little that hasnt been done before, but is so bloody addictive. Quick question on skermish can you assign start locations on the map? I wanted to start one end of the map and the PC the other but no matter which slot I allocated to the PC it allways started next to me.

[Apex]

yes...it should be possible.

you need to set Player sets teams

then pick the team number that you want from the map

[myth]

So what is the best race to be? I just got this game....

[Grey M@a]

Orks if you want huge numbers of units, Space Marines if you want all out close combat fire power, Eldar if you want to pee someone off as you can teleport your structures and bases if they are being attacked, Choas for all out, well Choas, they have marines included in their armies so you can have the best of both worlds.

[Steve]

Well guys I got DOW yesterday and have installed it... however I don't have the time to play it! Maybe in a week or so I'll have a gap in my schedule

[[GSV]Trig]

Make sure its a proper gap, this games a bit of a life stealer...

[MAS]

Thankfully Kez it doesnt take long to pick it up, it's just a case of learning the units and the resource model. It's one of those games where it's easy to play but hard to master. Well, I'm probably just saying that cos I suck, heh.

[MAS]

This game is odd, it brings very little that hasnt been done before, but is so bloody addictive

I totally agree with that. Aside from a few small things, it's not that revolutionary, and yet it works really well. I think it's because they actually got the balancing of units right (on the whole). So many RTSes I've played before claim they utilise the rock, scissors, stone model, and never pull it off. In practice there's always X uber unit that you're just in a race to build. I'm not saying you cant do that in DoW, but you have a lot more options open to you.

[Nick]

Well, I've just played it through to the end of the SP game and it was a bit of a disappointment. The missions, with the exception of one, were all along the lines of build a base, hold your ground until you've collected enough units then head off and kill everything.

The last level Demon Prince thing was a pushover against 4 Predators and 4 Dreadnoughts. I lost two squads and two Dreadnoughts and, other than losing turrets during assaults on my base and a few marines here and there, they were the only units to be completely destroyed in the whole game.

Also, I had a few bug problems with the sound no matter what settings I was using and the zoom in/out was next to useless. It never came out far enough to give you a decent view.

The whole 'fog of war' thing, though good if you hadn't explored that part of the map, was made fairly useless as you couldn't see enough of where you actually were! Then halfway through the game the zoom packed up completely leaving me stranded with a 3/4 zoomed out view... still finished it even with this handicap.

The pathfiniding of the units is questionable, with that old chestnut of units trapping themselves against each other and the scenery again. And those tank and dreadnought drivers... just how WIDE do they think their vehicles are? I lost count fo the number of times I had to move troops way out of the way, just to get a tank through.

There are obvious triggers too, so build somewhere and the AI comes pouring out to kill you. Retreat and they don't bother you at all. A classic example of this is one the last level. Build a listening post on the left hand spot nearest your starting base (the one next to the cliff). As soon as the AI can he attacks it, you reinforce it and so on. Let him destroy it though, just the listening station, not any turrets around it, and he leaves it alone. That lets you worry about just one attack point which is far easier to defend anyway and now you can go off and build a powerful army before heading off to roam the map and kill everything on it.

Some sort of queing system for builder units would have been nice too, and speaking of queing/automation... did anyone manage to get the 'Overview' function to work?

Have to say that this is an enjoyable game but its not a great game.... a good game, just not a great one. More of an update to TA or C+C Generals than something new and improved.

What we really need is some seriously expensive but hard as nails defensive units in game. That'd stop the whole "build up an army and rush 'em" tactic which has stood me in very good stead for every RTS I've played.

Or an IMBALANCE in units, something that forces you to think about your strengths and weaknesses as well as your opponent's. Perhaps you have better more powerful tanks, but he has better long range infantry weapons, or maybe he has a higher unit cap than you forsing you to reinforce ground you take instead off maruading all over the map at will.

Ah well, only one month to HL2.