Hopefully there’ll be a third expansion for Relic’s largely (but not solely) fantastigood Dawn of War II, and the usual clutch of new factions and units, but in the meantime a lone Tau unit has snuck into the current version of the game. Specifically, into the Last Stand survival co-op mode, wherein you pick a suitably 40Kian hero and attempt to survive as long as you can.
Controlling the suitably battlesuited Tau Commander in Last Stand will require a small payment of additional money – someone should totally invent a word to describe that – but is available in both the full version of DOW2: Retribution (but not just the base game, as far as I can ascertain) and the cheapy Last Standalone spin-off. Due out at the end of October, and in-action in moving pixel-based form below.
Oh – and the update will also involve purchasable “Imperial Guard Death Korps of Krieg multiplayer chapter pack, and a Chaos Word Bearers multiplayer chapter pack.” Man, that has been canny way of convincing the not insubstantial 40K fanbase to pony up a little more cash.
By Jonny Ebbert, Lead Designer
Today we'll be talking about Tau Stealth Teams, and the revamped infiltration system in Dark Crusade. After you're finished reading, be sure to check out the video vignette in the video section.
For those of you tuning in late, the Tau are one of the two new races we're featuring in Dark Crusade. The Tau are a race of do-gooders who use superior range and superior technology to deal with the less enlightened races of the galaxy. Their message of harmony and equality is a welcome change in a universe dominated by evil warlords, crazed barbarians and mass genocide.
The Stealth Suit is the main scout unit for the Tau, and the first unit available to them in the game. But Stealth Suits are extremely useful for an opening unit because they start off with infiltration. Infiltrated units are invisible to the enemy, and cannot be fired on unless the enemy brings in detector units to spot them.
This means that Stealth Teams can scout, capture points and even fire on enemy units in complete safety so long as no detector units are around to reveal them. Experienced Dawn of War players will immediately see the change in the system, since infiltrated units used to be revealed when they opened fire. This change to the infiltration system will add a whole new strategic dynamic to the game.
Stealth Suits also have another useful ability called Mark Target. When a Stealth Suit marks a target, the target takes twice the ranged damage they normally would. This allows Stealth Teams to be extremely useful late in the tech tree.
If you watch the video at the bottom of the page, you'll get to see some Stealth Teams in action. The video opens with a large group of Nobz running up to capture a strategic point. What they don't realize, though, is that they're being followed by a Stealth Team.
You'll see more Stealth Teams closing in while the Nobz capture the strategic point, and you'll be able to feel the tension rise as they seal off all of the escape routes. From the Nobz' point of view the first sign of danger is the large targeting reticule lighting up their chests (the Mark Target ability in action). That's when all hell breaks loose and the Nobz are gunned down like the no-good dogs they are.
Good times (unless of course, you're the Nobz).
That's all we have for this week. Next week we'll be talking more about the Necrons.
This stand-alone expansion will add two new races and a turn-based strategy layer to the popular Dawn of War formula.
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While Relic's superb Company of Heroes is currently the talk of the strategy genre, the company hasn't forgotten about its acclaimed Warhammer: 40,000 series, either. Relic is currently putting the finishing touches on Warhammer: 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade, the second expansion to the hit 2004 real-time strategy game set in the brutal Warhammer 40,000 sci-fi universe. Dark Crusade packs a lot of content for an expansion pack, and it introduces a number of new features, not the least of which is a turn-based strategic layer to the campaign game. We played around with a work-in-progress version of Dark Crusade to see just how these new features are coming together.
Dawn of War's success can be attributed to the fact that it captured the violent nature of Warhammer 40,000 combat and set it in a challenging real-time strategy environment where capturing territory was just as important as base and unit building. The game featured four playable races in the form of the space marines, the orks, the eldar, and the chaos space marines, while the Winter Assault expansion introduced the Imperial Guard. Dark Crusade introduces two new races, boosting the total to seven. If you don't own Winter Assault or even Dawn of War, don't worry--the expansion packs all seven races in it. New here are the necrons, an undead army, and the tau, an almost mechanized race that uses seemingly anime-inspired battle suits. However, all the existing races get new units, as well, so there's something for everyone in Dark Crusade.
The significant new addition in Dark Crusade, though, is certainly the strategic campaign. Turn-based campaign layers in real-time strategy games are becoming more and more popular, since the strategic layer can make the real-time battles more meaningful, as there's something at stake besides simply crushing the other guy on a battlefield. The ultimate goal in Dark Crusade's campaign is to conquer the planet Kronus, and you begin with just a single territory, which is home to your stronghold. Every turn, you must decide where you want your army to attack next. Win and you seize that territory, but lose and you'll be rebuffed that turn. If you ever lose your stronghold territory, you lose the campaign. On the flip side, that also means that you don't have to conquer every territory. By fighting to capture enemy strongholds, the gameplay focus will be on these strategic locations, so the game shouldn't get bogged down in a long campaign to conquer the entire map.
There's a lot more to the campaign than just worrying about strongholds, though, as there are plenty of strategic implications on the map that may affect your war. Territories are rated by military strength, so it's wise to avoid heavily defended territories until you can build up your military forces and your strength. Meanwhile, some territories convey strategic advantages to whichever faction owns them. Possessing the Eres Badlands, for instance, gives you control of the chaos god's relic, which lets you launch two attacks per turn, where before you were limited to only one. Or, gaining Pavonis gives you control of the planet's space port, letting you use transports to leapfrog and attack any territory, even those that aren't adjacent to your borders, though you can't use it to attack strongholds. These bonuses can make non-stronghold territories a tempting target.
Other territories will let you recruit honor guard, which are elite units that can accompany your commander from battle to battle, ensuring that you don't have to start from scratch and build up an army every time you invade a territory. You're only allowed one army on the map, as well, since armies are centered around your unique commanders, so the makeup of this army becomes even more important. The challenge is that all units use up planetary requisition points, so you have a population cap that limits the size of your honor guard, as well as the units that you use to garrison territory. Do you spend requisition points on defending an important territory or to bulk up your commander's army? It's your call.
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Your commander is a powerful unit in the campaign, and you can outfit him with a variety of war gear, which consist of weapons and equipment that you earn through conquest. Whenever you're rewarded for your performance, you can purchase a piece of war gear that's unique to that commander's faction. So the necron lord can earn a reinforced body of living metal, making him tougher in combat, or a death shroud, which increases his speed and reduces damage from attacks. On the other hand, the tau commander can be equipped with missile pods, a jetpack, or even a shield drone that draws enemy fire away from him. Each commander has up to 10 potential unlockables, so you can tailor the war gear selections to your style of play, be it offensive or defensive. These selections also change your commander's appearance, so the more war gear you unlock, the more powerful the commander looks on the battlefield.
The battles remain as visceral and fast-paced as ever, and the focus remains on capturing and holding strategic points that are dotted across the map. Possessing a strategic point generates requisition points, which is one of the two primary resources in the game, and this means that, once again, you can't afford to 'turtle up' in a base and build up an army. If you do so, you'll be crushed by the other team. Instead, you must venture out early and capture and defend as many strategic points as possible, shifting forces around the map, since you can't build a large enough army to defend every point equally. The artificial intelligence looks like it'll keep you on your toes, though, as we saw the computer adapt to our tactics quickly. After trying to attack us with a large force, it switched tactics and employed hit-and-run attacks and stealth units to try and whittle us down. It's rare to see an AI actually respond correctly to what you're doing to it.
Since Dawn of War's release two years ago, Relic has diligently balanced the gameplay through patches and updates, and the payoff is that the core gameplay is sharper than ever at this point. Still, whenever you introduce two new armies and new units, there's always a risk of unbalancing the sides, but from what we've seen so far, both the tau and the necron feel like solid additions to the game. The tau are the mechanical faction, from the mechanized battle suits to the way tau structures are bolted into the ground. The necron, on the other hand, display an appropriately morbid look for an undead faction. The necron structures rise out of the ground and appear as sinister memorials, almost like tombstones.
Aside from the new turn-based campaign, the familiar skirmish and multiplayer options remain about the same, though there are a dizzying number of skirmish and multiplayer maps at this point. We lost count at more than 60, but that should provide plenty of replay fodder whether you battle the AI or other players in multiplayer. The rules are fairly customizable, and you can play to assassinate one another's commanders, destroy each other's headquarters, play for an economic victory, and more.
There's simply an impressive amount of content in Dark Crusade, and this is almost a whole new game. The turn-based campaign changes the way you play Dawn of War. No longer will you have to go from mission to mission in a scripted, linear campaign, but you will be able to decide your own fate, and that should appeal to the many Dawn of War fans out there. The fact that the expansion is stand-alone should also make it accessible to newcomers, as they won't need to worry about owning the original Dawn of War to play it. Relic looks like it has another promising strategy game on its hands, and coming on the heels of Company of Heroes, the studio could very well be on a hot streak. Dark Crusade will ship in October.
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While talk of Dawn of War 3 remains but a murmur for now, the Necron will soon invade Dawn of War II – Retribution [official site]. A Necron Overlord will join Retribution’s co-op survival mode, The Last Stand, in celebration of the Retribution’s fifth birthday – the eighth playable character in its roster. As a present, you can get your hands on the new star free-of-charge between March 10 and March 15.
Developers Relic and newish publisher Sega – who grabbed the reins when THQ went under – have kept the Warhammer 40,000 strategy series busy in recent times, releasing new maps for original Dawn of War last September, and a bloody Retribution DLC for Halloween. Sega say the latest addition serves not only to celebrate Retribution’s fifth anniversary, but also to acknowledge the “unwavering dedication” of the game’s community.
To this end, the Necron Overlord will be free to download for five days following its introduction. After that, it’ll be sold for $9.99. As well as coming to Retribution, the Overlord will of course be available for The Last Standalone, the standalone release of that mode. Here’s Sega on what the Overlord is all about:
“The Overlords of the Necrons, armed with crackling warscythes, turn any battlefield into carnage as they dispatch foes in flares of blinding energy and even summon the powerful Nightbringer Shard to devastate foes. The new hero boasts a fresh combat style, playable as both a long-ranged, fast-firing battlecruiser, or as an area-of-effect melee expert.”
Also, a new patch will launch alongside the Overlord, which will address “the most prominent community-reported bugs” and add new achievement. Full patch notes for that can be found over here.
Both The Necron Overlord and the latest bug patch update are heading to Dawn of War II – Retribution on March 10. Remember, you can grab the Overlord for free between then and March 15.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War – Dark Crusade is the second expansion to the Real-time strategy video game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War developed by Relic Entertainment and published by THQ. Based on Games Workshop's tabletop wargame, Warhammer 40,000, Dark Crusade was released on October 9, 2006.[1] The expansion features two new races, the Tau Empire and the Necrons. Including the Imperial Guard from Dawn of War's first expansion pack Winter Assault, a total of seven playable races in this expansion.[2]
Unlike Winter Assault, Dark Crusade is a standalone expansion that does not require prior installation of Dawn of War or Winter Assault to play, allowing the user to play as all seven factions in both single player Skirmish and Campaign modes.[3]
Parallel to the release of Dark Crusade, THQ also released a triple pack of Dawn of War, Winter Assault, and Dark Crusade, dubbed Dawn of War Anthology. The case is embossed with images of all the faction leaders of the campaign dressed in their respective wargear.
Gameplay[edit]
Khorne Berzerkers attacking an Imperial Guard listening post.
As with previous Dawn of War titles, Dark Crusade is focused on the conflict part of gameplay; in order to obtain more resources players must fight over them.[4] Each player starts off with a base and wins by fulfilling mission objectives. There are multiple tiers of technology, with each allowing for more powerful units and upgrades.
The Tau fighting the Necrons for a Control Point.
Units[edit]
The number of units a player may field at one time is determined by population and vehicle 'squad caps'; these limit the number of infantry troops and vehicles a player may have on the battlefield. Squad caps may be increased using methods differing between races. Most units have a melee attack and a ranged attack. Units are often specialized to be better using one attack type. All units also have stances; these affect how the units respond to enemies. There are six types of units: commanders, infantry, heavy infantry, daemons, vehicles, and Titans.
Commanders are hero units, and can usually only be built once. If they perish, they may be rebuilt. A sub-class is the semi-commander unit, which has many abilities like the commander unit but may be built multiple times. Infantry are foot soldiers, and may either be regular or heavy, with heavy infantry being much tougher than normal infantry. Vehicles are heavy weaponry and transports, and include tanks, artillery, troop carriers and walkers. Titans are end-game units, which usually require the highest tech level and a captured relic. Titans appear as all the other unit types depending on Factions. like Commanders they can only be built once and may be rebuilt.
All units, aside from titans and most heroes, builders and vehicles, come in squads. These are groups of infantry that are commanded as a single entity. They may be reinforced with additional members, equipped with special weapons, or be attached to hero units. Some squads have special abilities, such as grenades, teleportation, and stealth, unlocked with research or leader units. Unit longevity is determined by their health and morale points, which govern a squad's fighting effectiveness. Both are reduced by weaponry; morale recharges independently or due to unit abilities, while health is increased by healer units or repair, with some units also able to heal themselves. The Necrons have the ability to reassemble themselves and spawn again.
Multiplayer[edit]
Players may either connect directly by IP connection, or play on their LAN.[5] There are eight game modes available for online skirmish play, such as Annihilate, which requires the player to destroy every enemy buildings capable of unit production or Sudden Death, which causes a player to be eliminated if another captures one of their strategic points. Multiple game modes may be enabled, calling for multiple winning conditions. Due to its nature as a standalone expansion pack, the player may only play as the Tau or Necrons in multiplayer. They may enter their original Dawn of War CD key to gain access to the original four races. Likewise, a Winter Assault CD key is needed to access the Imperial Guard.
Campaign[edit]
The expansion features a 'Risk-based strategic layer',[6] a campaign including a 'meta-map', similar to that in Westwood Studios's Dune games as opposed to the programmed, linear storylines of previous versions. Due to this lack of linearity, there is no plot aside from the opening cinematic; rather, as the player conquers various opposing factions the game provides a narrative specific to whom the player has conquered. If the player wins the campaign, a cinematic is played that depends on which faction the player was controlling.
The player may pick a faction to play as, and then engages in turn-based combat with the other A.I.-controlled factions. There are multiple provinces, which are conquered by fighting a regular skirmish match over them. These may either give a special bonus or supply special 'honour guard' units, which are powerful, non-trainable versions of regular units. They may only be made on the main battlefield overview screen, and, like provincial reinforcements, cost planetary requisition, a resource gained on a per-turn basis based on how many provinces the player controls. Honour guard units transfer over provinces and may be used repeatedly. There are also seven 'Stronghold' provinces that function as bases for respective factions; these are made like more traditional campaign games, with multiple secondary and primary objectives that vary from faction to faction.
The Tau commander, equipped with a majority of wargear upgrades.
Also, a race's commander unit may be upgraded with special 'wargear', unique, customizable upgrades that vary by race. These are awarded at battle milestones, ranging from a certain amount of kills to conquering many provinces.
Campaign scenarios are persistent, meaning that all player structures are 'saved' when a game is won. For example, if a player builds a base and conquers a province, only to have a neighbouring faction attack aforementioned province, the player will start out with his previous base, with the exception of having no technology researched. Also, the CPU always starts out in the same spot, rather than being random. If you build a defense around the CPU's starting point and it's too close, it will be removed at the beginning of the defense match. Players may also choose to garrison provinces with units that are instantly available should the province be attacked. These are bought with planetary requisition.
Setting[edit]Races[edit]
All five of the pre-existing factions gain new units, and two new playable races are available.
Tau Empire[edit]
One of the two newer races, the Tau are unique in multiple ways. Tau warriors and vehicles are powerful in ranged battles, but lack melee prowess; their commander even lacks a melee attack entirely. Many Tau units tend to be relatively fragile, few in number, and expensive. To compensate, they fight alongside the alien Kroot, using these primal warriors as auxiliaries. Also, they are the only race with a 'choice' in their final technology choices; two final tier buildings are presented, which provide different end-game units and technologies. Only one may be chosen. The Tau also do not have any standalone defensive structures or minefields. However one of their Heavy Infantry; the Broadside Battlesuit, can be entrenched and use its shoulder mounted railguns, effectively making them into turrets.
Necrons[edit]
The Necrons are unique, as they do not require requisition to build their army. All units are in and of themselves free of requisition point cost. Power is the only resource Necrons need, in order to perform research, construct buildings and to construct and reinforce squads. However, capturing Strategic Points and building Obelisks (the Necrons listening post) on them will increase the speed of research and building, and will also expand the population cap. The Necron Monolith, their home base, is restored as more buildings are built, while also unlocking new units, and functions as the only vehicle- and troop-producing building. When fully restored it becomes mobile (albeit very slow, though it can teleport) and is armed with powerful weaponry. Many Necron units have the ability to resurrect, and most will leave persistent corpses on the battlefield that may either self-resurrect after they die or be restored by specialized Necron units (this resurrection can actually allow the Necrons to go over their population cap).
Necrons were previously seen in Winter Assault at the end of the single-player campaign, but noticeably stronger.
Notable characters[edit]
Dark Crusade features some reappearances by characters in past games, such as Farseer Taldeer and Warboss Gorgutz 'Ead 'Unter, who were featured in Winter Assault and Shas'la Tau Kais who featured in the first person shooter game Fire Warrior now as Shas'O Tau Kais the Commander of the Tau involved in the Dark Crusade.
Campaign[edit]
The events of Dark Crusade take place on the planet of Kronus, a world on the eastern fringe of the Imperium, where the local human population un-easily co-exists with the nearby Tau Empire. An ancient Titan Hellstorm Cannon firmly entrenched in Victory Bay and the need to aid the local human population are the very reasons the Imperial Guard arrive on Kronus to 'liberate' them from Tau rule. It is also an ancient Necron tomb world, whose inhabitants are starting to awaken. Eldar from Craftworld Ulthwé soon arrive to stop the Necron threat from growing. In addition, Kronus happens to be a world with hidden relics, left behind from the Horus Heresy, that are significant to the Blood Ravens and the Word Bearers Legion. There is also a local Ork population in the southern jungles who quickly mobilizes against the new threats after becoming united under a new warboss. Faced with such opposition against the thriving colony, The Tau Ethereal Aun'el, knowing the world must be kept, orders the Fire Warriors into battle against the other factions.
Canonical Ending[edit]Warhammer 40k Tau Units
The fate of the Kronus System depends on the actions taken by the various factions fighting over it, but the only known details on the canonical ending come from dialogue in the sequel, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II that the Blood Ravens won the Dark Crusade. Captain Davian Thule lost his left eye after his battle with the Necron Lord of Kronus.
Development[edit]
Dark Crusade uses the same engine as the original Dawn of War game, which allowed game developerRelic to focus most efforts on revamping the single-player campaign and balancing out the two new races.[7] By E3 2006, the two new races were demonstrated through an in-engine feature, though no playable version was showcased.[8] New units were unveiled regularly after August 11.[9] The first available playable build was released on September 18 to GameSpot.[10] Dark Crusade exited the development stage on September 21, and was expected to be shipped worldwide by October 9.[11]
Reception[edit]
The expansion was praised as an 'excellent real-time strategy game',[6] with its non-linear single-player campaign, stabilized multiplayer and additional features, and was selected by IGN[16] and GameSpot[17] as the best expansion pack of 2006. Most were quite surprised by the quality and size of the expansion,[12] stating that the large amount of new content '[breathed] new life into the game'.[6] Critics cited the excellent balancing between races, saying it had a positive effect on both single-player and multiplayer.[18] Aside from new units and races, changes to the gameplay mechanics, such as reworking of the elite unit system, were well-received, as critics felt that the changes 'forced players to actually think about using real combined arms tactics in multiplayer and contributed to more games decided by genuine strategy and skill rather than just who can spec out the proper build order.'[18]
Some critics stated that the game's weak points included its complexity; some reviewers disliked how much micromanagement was required to effectively field one race against another, saying that this complexity was detrimental to the game. As one reviewer mentioned, '..when I stop having fun, I stop playing.'[15] The learning curve was also stated as being very steep for an RTS, due to each race being different.[19] Another thing critics disliked was the player's inability to 'zoom out' with the in-game camera; this sometimes got in the way of large battles, and was especially noticeable when playing as or against the Tau, as their long-range weapons often resulted in them engaging their targets off-screen.[20] While general consensus on the revamped single-player campaign was positive, some critics felt that it was not particularly challenging; they found that the AI was strategically weak, and there were no random elements in most skirmish missions that would enhance replayability.[21] The usage of a random auto-resolve feature to determine which races won which territories was seen as a downside; also, one critic found that the AI attacked his homebase very rarely, and that they would attack insignificant zones regardless of the opportunity to capture more significant ones.[22]In terms of new additions, some critics felt that the races, in particular the Necrons, were overpowered.[15]
Dark Crusade won Computer Games Magazine's 2006 'Expansion of the Year' award. The editors wrote, 'With this expansion, Dawn of War has become the ultimate Warhammer game.'[23]
References[edit]
External links[edit]
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