Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Winter Assault PC

Winter Assault is the first official expansion for the excellent real-time strategy game Dawn of War which takes place in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. The developers greatly expanded the singleplayer mode of the game and added many new features that should satisfy fans of the original product.

Plot

The story of the expansion concentrates on an Emperor Class Titan, a war machine of great power that is hidden in the ruins of a many-floor city. Whoever controls the vehicle will have power that will allow him to destroy or save the world. The Empire forces will use it to defeat evil, armies of Chaos will use it for their own purposes, the bloodthirsty Orcs will simply destroy the world and the arrogant Eldars will disregard its power.

Mechanics

One novelty introduced in Winter Assault is a new playable faction called Imperial Guard. It was added to the game mostly as a response to fan suggestions. The Imperial Guard, also known as the “hammer of the Emperor”, bases its success mostly on outnumbering the opponents and on strong defense bonuses. The tactics of Imperial Guard soldiers focuses on defenses and ranged fighting. In addition to the infantry units, there are also vehicles: tanks, mechs and artillery. But the main attraction of the Imperial Guard is the so-called Baneblade, a machine that has 11 heavy weapons, including one cannon controlled by two soldiers. Among the Imperial Guards there are commissars who, similar to their Russian archetypes from World War II, “motivate” the soldiers to fight by shooting the back of retreating units. There are also mad lightning mages and Imperial Captains in the Imperial army. The latter are considered as “half general Patton, half Wolverine”.

The factions that were previously available in the game received new units, such as a “skull-headed” chaplain that is very effective on long range, Khorne the berserker, Firedragon and Mega-armored nod. In addition to that, the strength of all four factions was balanced and tested for the multiplayer modes – Dawn of War was selected by World Cyber Games as an official online tournaments game.

Technical aspects

The graphics of the game were improved as well. In addition to increasing the amount of details of the world, units and buildings, there are also more dramatic duels, camera zooms and animated confrontations between units. There are also many spectacular, bloody and violent scenes. As a response to critics of the original campaign of Dawn of War which was said to be too short and lineal, in Winter Assault there are two separate campaigns available (one for Imperial Guard, Space Marines and Eldar, another for Chaos and Orcs), each of which consists of more than 10 missions and has intertwining plots.

Last updated on 10 December 2007