Yeah DoW1 was played for hundreds of hours by my friends and myself via lan on many occasions, especially when Dark Crusade came out. It was by -far- the best DoW game/expac imo. 2 always felt more like a slightly expanded Necromunda, or a tiny ass War40k table top battle. Though the Diablo loot system was pretty fun, and the story was alright-good. Conquest Mode, as others have said, was absolutely the best and most interesting part, though the honor guards eventually become simply a map-rush tactic, esp. for Tau. It had a very... Rise of Nations with a few starting "card" units, such as the Japanese early tier melee that did siege damage. They could literally just run up to a level 1 base at the start of the game and put it in capture mode in seconds, even if unaided. Getting the the Hammerhead (I think that's the rail gun tank) on Tau just meant you sprant towards the enemy base on every single map that wasn't occupied by an enemy army for an easy insta-win. And if they did have an army, your tank would kill almost everything before it was moderately damaged, not including any of your other honor guard helping out.
Had I not so much on my plate, I would definitely run back through Dark Crusade again. Much win and awesome.