Anyone who has wandered into a tabletop gaming store has likely seen some variation of miniatures game. There are so many of them out there: Warlord Miniatures, Star Wars Miniatures, Dungeons and Dragons miniatures, Blood Bowl and more - it can easily get confusing. There is one miniature game that pretty much every tabletop gamer has heard of - Warhammer.
The Warhammer games come in two flavors: Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40k. Fantasy is just that - your standard high fantasy races fighting in squad-based combat. Warhammer 40k, however, takes a different route to the miniature game, and is set in the distant future. Instead of elves, you'll have Space Marines. Instead of bow-wielding warriors, you'll command an army of gun-toting super-soldiers.
Warhammer: Dawn of War, a highly popular strategy game last year, was one of the first successful adaptations of this tabletop franchise. The game was met with praise from fans of the tabletop game and seasoned RTS gamers alike. You retained the ability to "paint" your army, and had the option to command a few of the more popular armies from the 40k universe. After the wide success the game had, Relic obviously wanted to see a sequel released.
Enter Dawn of War: Winter Assault, the newly released expansion pack to Dawn of War. Bringing you new units, new missions and, probably the most popular change, the Imperial Guard, Winter Assault manages to ad enough to the game to make things fun again for those that enjoyed the original. Also, those that may not have liked the factions included the first time around could end up enjoying the Imperial Guard.
See, the Imperial Guard differ from the previous factions in one big area: they're incredibly defensively minded. While the Space Marines may be more like the US Navy Seals, the Imperial Guard is like the Army. Sure, they have some technology on their side, but they're also going to have incredible numbers of infantry to throw at you. This different playstyle for the faction fits far better with me than the others did - I'm definitely a defensively-minded player.
Of course, you won't play as just the Imperial Guard through the 10 missions added to the game with the expansion pack. You'll actually play as part of a team with the Eldar - a mystic, alien-type race. There will be missions where control switches over at pre-set points, and even one where you can manually switch control between the factions. This is where the first issue I found with the game arises - when you switch, your other group of troops becomes virtually useless, doing nothing for you. While this does fit in with the story at this point in the game, it throws an unneeded obstacle into the gameplay. Choosing to frustrate gamers is always the wrong choice when it comes down to deciding between frustration and story continuity.
You'll play as the Imperial Guard and Eldar team for half of the missions. The other team are the bad guys, of sorts - the Chaos and the Space Orks. The Chaos are, pretty much, evil Space Marines. They look really, really cool. The Orks (yes, spelled with a 'k') are a swarming-type army, though they have a few big things to throw at you. Each of these races will play differently (as they do in the tabletop game) and that is a huge plus for the game. You'll be able to use different tactics with the Imperial Guard as opposed to the Chaos, along with seeing different weapons, vehicles and units.
Everything felt really balanced, too - one single faction didn't seem to overpower any of the others. Introducing a new faction into an RTS can always be difficult for balance reasons, but Relic did a good job of maintaining the balance. Sure, some players will claim that X race is better because of Y, but Z player will call them wrong. Just ignore all the complicated letters being flung around and pick the race you like the look of.
Other than the single fault I mentioned with the mid-battle troop switching, there was one other thing that really annoyed me - the pathfinding. Now, when you only have a few units, the pathfinding works out pretty well. However, when using the Imperial Guard, you're not going to have just a few units. You'll definitely run into some issues with pathfinding here. These issues are manageable, though, and don't distract too terribly much from the overall game.
Overall, I find Winter Assault to be a worthy expansion to what many felt was last year's best RTS. The successful introduction of the Imperial Guard, along with 10 new missions to play through, gives fans of the original Dawn of War something new to be happy about. For the price of $20 - $30, you'll get a ton of fun.
Hi. My name is Brian. I am a video game addict.
Of course, I actually do things other than game. Currently, I’m a full time college student at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke where I am majoring in Mass Communications with a Journalism focus.
I’ve served as Managing Editor on my school’s paper and also written various editorials. I pride myself on my academics and work hard towards earning good grades – a few years of hard work will be worth it in the long run.
I’ve been gaming ever since my parents bought me an NES in 1985 (I was born in 1981). My favorite game of all time is probably the original Legend of Zelda but my currently played favorite game is a tossup between Madden 2005 and MVP 2005.
While I play a lot of sports games (which happens when you live with two baseball players), I also enjoy RPGs and RTSes. The first I’m actually good at and the second I’m not. I am also known to play the occasional FPS but will rarely make it all the way through one.
I’m also not a competitive gamer. I definitely prefer games that include co-op modes along with the normal competitive modes. Some of my favorite games in that regard are Legend of Zelda: Four Swords for the Game Cube and Fianl Fantasy Crystal Chronicles.
