Warhammer 40k

Dawn of War 1 is fun but a -huge- slog through the first campaign (Space Marines in the vanilla game) and it doesn't really hit its stride until Dark Crusade. The reason for the slog feeling is that you will eventually just need sheer numbers and maxed research stuff to really destroy the various enemy bases in the campaign. Doesn't make it less fun, but it is way more "procedural" in the first campaign. Winter Assault (My assumption would be you have that, since I haven't seen a non-gold version of DoW1 in almost a decade) wasn't even remotely interesting to me because I don't like Imperial Guard play, but you might like it. I stopped very quickly into the campaign and instead played lots of multiplayer. Dark Crusade, however, has probably the best gameplay in the series and might be the best pure Warhammer 40k game ever, including Space Marine (totally different genres, but I enjoyed Dark Crusade more) so hey, if you have that kudos.

I haven't done much/any modding, but I remember there being a big Tau push before Dark Crusade was announced and Relic just went "Oh yeah, Tau are here now. And they are awesome." After that, I didn't pay attention anymore. There was also the issue of the mods not being compatible with anyone (online play) who wasn't running the same mod versions and running the specific xpacs it was enabled for, if I remember right.

DoW2 is a completely different beast and has substantially more in common with Company of Heroes (minus unit generation) compared to DoW1. It's still fun through the xpacs, but definitely not a "real" warhammer experience. DoW1 does it much better. Unless you have a massive hard-on for Tyranids, that is. If you do, DoW2 is better on that level alone.

Get the camera mod for the original DoW or you're going to lose your mind 5 minutes in.

Space Marine is generally regarded as fairly enjoyable (also made by Relic), but it is a First Person Shooter as opposed to a Real Time Strategy.

Also Battle Fleet Gothic came out recently, Real Time Tactics (closer to Dawn of War 2, or something like Ground Control). The setting is space battles in 40k during a Black Crusade by Abbadon the Despoiler. Game could probably use another years worth of race expansions, but still fun and the campaign has some good lore bits.

I believe they are doing a modernized Space Hulk as well (or maybe it came out already?).

I would skip to DOW 2 though the campaign is more a super squad rather than mass units. I did like the multiplayer online because it was micro focused enough it felt like playing vanilla Company of heroes again a little bit.

If you like lore/feels. Get a cheap copy of SPACE MARINE, over shoulder first person chain swording shit.
And strangely, I liked even though it wasnt a good game, the old PS2 Tau Firewarrior, was very thematic being stuck in a imperial ship and an individual space marine is like a boss.

Resist the urge to do the models unless you just get a couple cool ones for a shelf. A lot of the fans are pretty burnt on GW itself.

^ I'd second the recommendations for Space Marine, it's surprisingly fun.

DoW1 of course - I'd make sure you try before you buy on DoW 2 though, since it's a very different game (personally I didn't enjoy it).

It's fantasy and not 40k, but they have a pretty similar vibe, so you might enjoy the recent Total War: Warhammer.


Has anyone here played the beta/early access/whatever the fuck for Eternal Crusade? The gameplay videos look kind of fun.

Different opinions is all, but I'd hazard you need to like total war some to enjoy TW warhammer. I almost got it, but after enough research I decided to save my money. (Enough backlog anyways)

That and for me, while fantasy 40k certainly isnt bad. (I like the mohawked dwarves and some other more exotic stuff compared to other fantasy), but 40k has just it's own incredibly one in a million unique vibe that makes it so fucking awesome. If it wasn't for that universe/art style/theming, that shitty tabletop game would have never survived until today and started spawning all these games.


I still breakdown and browse the GW site to look at new models. (Some getting kinda retarded but love me some Knights. Titans were always awkward except in stories due to gross difference in size from anything else, knights keep an amazing look while still being kinda relatable to the rest of the units.

Yeah I agree fantasy just isn't as compelling as 40k is, which is funny because I'm pretty sure 40k started as a bit of a joke offshoot from Fantasy, but the TW game really is great if you like the genre.

DoW 1 (Dark Crusade especially) is still my favourite RTS of all time.

DoW1 has some really fun mods that add other races and change the game play in many different ways..

I suggested this on the old board too. But the titanium wars mod is my personal favorite, it adds tons of upgrade options, new units, higher unit cap, improved AI.

There is also the Ultimate Apocalypse mod that adds even more stuff, but I prefer titanium because you can play the campaign(s) with it, and with apocalypse you can not.

Titanium wars has separate versions for dark crusade and soulstorm expacs, But there was some big issue over at modDB and I guess they got banned? or something. So unless you speak Russian it may be a pain in the ass to get the most recent version of titanium wars.

Titanium Wars Mod for Dawn of War

Ultimate Apocalypse Mod (DOW SS) for Dawn of War

I also heard good things about DoWPro mod for Dawn of War
But I have never tried it.