Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War:
Dark Crusade

Developers
	Relic Entertainment
GOG.com	General Arcade
Publishers
2006-2013	THQ
2013-present	Sega
Release dates
Windows	October 9, 2006
Reception
Metacritic	87
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time, Turn-based
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS, TBS
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War
Subseries of Warhammer 40,000
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War	2004
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade	2006
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Soulstorm	2008
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II	2009
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Chaos Rising	2010
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution	2011
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War III	2017

Warnings

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War: Dark Crusade is the second expansion pack for the 2004 real-time strategy game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and the first one which is standalone. It includes a turn-based campaign on a strategic map, as well as two new playable factions - the Necrons and the Tau.

Despite the main content being standalone, in order to play as the original playable factions (Space Marines, Chaos Space Marines, Eldar, Orks) in multiplayer, the base game needs to be installed on the same machine (if using retail versions) or owned on the same Steam account. The same is valid for playing the Imperial Guard - the Winter Assault needs to be additionally owned.

The game received two patches in its original support cycle.

On May 22, 2014, Dawn of War and its expansions were migrated from GameSpy to Steamworks-based multiplayer servers, but lost LAN functionality in the process. The GOG.com release from May 25, 2023 uses GOG Galaxy for multiplayer, but is not cross-compatible with Steam users.

Modifications and saved games can be used across the fully patched retail, Steam and GOG.com versions.

General information

Lexicanum - A huge wiki for the Warhammer 40,000 series

Dawn of War Wiki

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series

GOG.com Support Page

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM 7 DRM. Removed as of patch 1.2 retaining only CD key requirement.
		Master Collection.
GOG.com		Master Collection; bundled with Game of the Year Edition, Winter Assault, and Soulstorm.
Humble Store		Master Collection also available.
Steam		Master Collection also available.
Games for Windows Marketplace (unavailable)

Owners of retail copies can no longer request a Steam key from SEGA support as of an unknown date prior to March 29, 2024.

To unlock the original races for multiplayer, Dawn of War (and Winter Assault if desired) must be installed (retail version) or merely owned on the same Steam account (Steam version) to prompt unlocking.

In the GOG.com version, all races are unlocked in multiplayer by default.

Demo

A free demo version is available from GameFront.

Essential improvements

Patches

• Patch 1.20 is the latest official patch for the retail version of the game, and requires patch 1.11 to be installed first.
• The Steam and GOG.com versions are on version 1.30, which is equivalent to 1.20 in terms of balance and gameplay - the only difference being Steamworks/Galaxy multiplayer used instead of GameSpy and LAN options.

Skip intro videos

Use the -nomovies command line argument

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Local.ini
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/4580/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Profiles\Profile*\dxp2\Singleplayer\SaveGames\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/4580/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video

In-game video settings.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			Native Vert- support was added with this expansion. HUD will stretch.
Multi-monitor			Not recommended despite function. If forced, HUD and main view are divided across screens.
Ultra-widescreen			HUD will stretch.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Use external graphics settings application, or see Windowed.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See Anti-aliasing (AA).
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See Vertical sync (Vsync) to disable it.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Windowed

Cursor may sometimes be unlocked to the game. Switch tasks to resolve.

Edit configuration file
Run the game at least once to generate required .ini file. Open <path-to-game>\Local.ini with a text editor. Change screenwindowed=0 to screenwindowed=1. Save the file.

Vertical sync (Vsync)

Disabling vertical sync (Vsync) in configuration file
Run the game at least once to generate required .ini file. Open <path-to-game>\Local.ini with a text editor. Change screennovsync=0 to screennovsync=1. Save the file.

Anti-aliasing (AA)

Forcing AA via graphics driver will result in greater AA. INI fix is probably only 2x AA.

Forcing AA will render fonts blurry and harder to read.

Edit configuration file
Run the game at least once to generate required .ini file. Open <path-to-game>\Local.ini. Change screenantialias=0 to screenantialias=1. Save the file.

Input

In-game control settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity		Can adjust scroll speed.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion		Cursor-based game. Can invert pan when holding mouse button, but also affects x-axis.
Controller
Controller support

Controller types

Audio

In-game audio settings.

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Ambient, effects, voice, music
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Retail only - 1
French
German				Intro video is censored; this version of the intro was later brought to the Steam and GOG.com versions internationally.
Hungarian				Fan translation.
Italian
Japanese				Fan translation.
Polish				Local retail version only, download
Russian				Local retail version only.
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		8	Versus Removed from the Steam and GOG.com versions.
Online play		8	Versus The official GameSpy service has been shut down; Steam version has been updated with Steamworks support, while GOG.com uses Galaxy multiplayer. Steam and GOG Galaxy users can see each other, but not join each other's games.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP		Removed from the Steam and GOG.com versions.

Issues fixed

Spooge Driver Not Found

Edit configuration file
Go into <path-to-game>\Drivers Open spdx9_config.txt Scroll down to the used video card. Find the allowdevice 0 lines. Change the 0 to 1 on all the allowdevice 0 lines. Save the changes and run the game.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0b

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	GameSpy, Steamworks, GOG Galaxy	GameSpy in non-Steam versions only.

Mods

Dawn of War has a "Game Manager", enabling switching between mods very easy.

In general, mods work for both the patched retail (1.2) and Steam (1.3) versions of the game.

It is possible to run multiple modifications at once. For instructions, see here.

Dawn of War Professional

ModDB page

Gameplay and balance mod which significantly changes the game

Restores upgrades that were removed in expansions and includes additional content created by the community. All units are designed to play a role until late game.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, 2000, ME, XP
Processor (CPU)	1.4 GHz Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon XP processor	2.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	4.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	32 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0b compatible	Nvidia GeForce 3 ATI Radeon 8500 64 MB of VRAM