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Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War (series)
Key points
- Expansions are highly modifiable and several high quality mods are available.
- Dawn of War and its expansion, Winter Assault, share game files.
- Dawn of War previously used Gamespy, support for which was discontinued at the end of 2012 due to their takeover.
- Multiplayer is still possible using LAN VPN services such as GameRanger or Hamachi.
General information
- Steam Community Discussions
- Steam Users' Forums for Dawn of War series
Availability
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Version Differences
- Some copies of the Original Dawn of War may not be "Game of the Year" editions, however this is now the only version sold.
- "Game of the Year" editions of Dawn of War are patched to the latest version, and contain a few additional maps.
- Without a doubt, the best version to purchase the "Dawn of War: The Complete Collection" or similar. This will give you all the content and expansions, at the best possible price.
- Steam's "Dawn of War Collection" also includes the excellent sequel, Dawn of War 2, and much of its downloadable content, making it the most cost-efficient purchase (should all the games be desired).
Single Player
- Dawn of War has a base game and multiple expansions. Much debate is had over which is the "superior" version, but it comes down to player preference, such as desired race (Space Marines) or campaign format (Scripted missions or multiple skirmish battles).
- Each game has its own, unique campaign, with varying lengths and complexity.
- Dawn of War has a story driven campaign, focused on the Space Marine race.
- Winter Assault has a two sided narrative, with one "Order" (Imperial Guard, Eldar) and one "Disorder" (Chaos, Orks). Missions switch between races, with the final mission being determined by your choice of race in the pen-ultimate mission.
- Dark Crusade and Soulstorm have a "Meta-map" style campaign (like Total War) where you pick your race then battle across either a planet or system respectively. Ultimately, a majority of these battles are skirmish games with interesting quirks (such as your customised commander and his honour guard being present, or pre-built structures) but there are several unique and scripted "Stronghold" missions where you attempt to crush another race and remove them from the fight.
- For the ultimate Single-player fan, it's strongly recommended to purchase Dawn of War: The Complete Collection. This gives you access to all the titles and their campaigns.
Multi-player
- Multiplayer is typically played on the Soulstorm Expansion, the latest and "most balanced" version of the game. Most game modifications are also made for this Expansion.
- Multiplayer can now be considered "Defunct" do to the ceasing of Gamespy support.
- Dawn of War uses a complicated "Race Unlocking" mechanic for Multiplayer; purchasing and playing Soulstorm will only grant access to the Sisters of Battle and Dark Eldar races. As such, for access to all races in Multiplayer, one must purchase all the Dawn of War games. If you want to play Space Marines, you only need the base game Dawn Of War. Because Winter Assault is dependant on Dawn of War, if you want to play Imperial Guard, you need both Dawn of War and Winter Assault, etc.
Improvements
Higher resolution models
- These enhancements are significantly more performance intensive. Ensure your PC is significantly more powerful than the recommended system specifications to ensure there is no loss of performance.
Game data
Save game location
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- Game uses Steam Cloud.
Video settings
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- This fix works only for versions 1.2 and 1.3. This will NOT work for Steam version because it is patched to 1.51. You can still use this fix and get game run in your native resolution, but game will be in 4:3 with black bars on sides.
- This fix will greatly enhance zoom capabilities.
- Forcing AA will render fonts blurry and harder to read.
- Forcing AA via graphics driver will result in greater AA. INI fix is probably only 2x AA.
Input settings
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System requirements
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