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The most important addition is a whole new single player campaign which I was promised would be longer. Not only will the single player campaign be longer, it will in fact be two campaigns, one playing the as the forces of chaos and disorder and the other as the forces of order. This should add some variety to the game as many players were disappointed that Dawn of War's original single player campaign was all about the Space Marines.

One of the added features that I liked the most, was the addition of a sort of a waypoints to game's campaign mode that when reached with a specific unit - usually a command unit - will start a short cinematic to be shown that gives some more story to the game. The demo that was shown on the show floor showed the forces of Chaos taking on some Eldar. The forces of Chaos were bogged down at a choke point and slowly being ground down, at that point though the demo moved to the Chaos Lord who was approaching a doorway marked with a red glow; when reached, a short cinematic was shown of the Chaos Lord taking some tunnels to get far behind enemy lines. This enabled him to reach his objective. While this seems like it could make a huge difference in the game and it will, I was told by the developers that it will not be instantaneous and would take some time to reach and find these points.

In addition the game is adding one new playable race in the Imperial Guard; and four new units, one for each of the current armies. The Imperial guard is the game's newest race, and for a game set in the 41st century the guard could seem somewhat mundane, especially when compared to the armies currently in the game. However this is not true as the Imperial Guard has long had a lot of flavor and while they can be a tougher race to play, they have both a lot of striking power through their vehicles and through sheer numbers they also have a lot of defensive capabilities. The guard is going to be ideal for players who enjoy defending locations and striking with massive amounts of fire power while being supported by vehicles. The guard brings with them several outstanding units including the Baneblade, a massive tank mounting 11 weapons and mountains of armor; and the Basilisk, a heavy artillery platform with its earthshaker cannon making it can be devastating on the battlefield.

My favorite unit showcased was the Techpriest Enginseers. These are the builder units for the Imperial Guard and look fantastic. Commanding the Imperial Guard are the Imperial Generals, these units that look to be designed along the lines of the Lord Castellan Ursarkar Creed (one of my favorite miniatures done by GW recently) and are armed with lightning claws and Storm Bolters and have the ability to call in devastating air strikes on the enemy. With these and their other units the Imperial Guard will be devastating in the hands of the right player.

In addition to the Imperial guard the game will add four new units for each of the existing armies; Chaos will get the Khorne Berserkers warriors sworn in to the service of the blood god armed with their massive chain axes and bolt guns they are on a mission to deliver as many skulls to their god as they can; Space Marines will get the Chaplain armed with a Crozius Arcanum who can provide a morale boost to the troops; Orks get the Mega Armored Nobz are tougher then regular Nobz and can carry more weaponry; and finally Eldar get Fire Dragons Bombs armed with Fusion Guns and Melta they should help the Eldar taking down vehicles something they had a tough time doing in the original game.

I am pleased to say this is the game that many players have been waiting for there is a lot of promise here and as long as Relic stays on the current track this expansion should be well worth the purchase. In fact the only disappointing thing to come out of all this is that I wont be able to pick this up to play until the fall.