Dawn of War II Beta Thread

Okay. For those in or out of the know - as has been pointed out already; this is not a true sequel. This isa different game to DoW1. If you like mass armies base building, blobbing and out blobbing your opponent then you will be disappointed. This is more like CoH than DoW1. So if you like using tactics and combined arms to have the sublime satisfaction of beating and enemy blob of 1500 man power points with your 800 then you will love this.

Personally I love this more than DoW1 which, while I like, I prefer CoH to it. Which is in turn why I love the direction they have taken on DoW2.

There are more tactical options to play with - essentially there are 12 different armies. So first you choose your race, then you choose your commander. unlike the first, there are tactical options before the game has even started. Then when in the field - what do I upgrade units with? What do I upgrade my commander with?

the zeal points lead to the availability of powers so not only is the battle forced for control and power points, but also beacuse you want zeal to spend. All units level up and so you want to keep them alive -this leads to the switching of units and controlled retreats so you can maintain the frontline.

Then there is the cover and garrison of buildings.

Essentially there is a lot more to it than DoW1 imo. However both games are different enough to warrant space on your harddrive at the same time. Want mass army blob rush in 40K verse = fire up DoW1. want something a bit more cerebral fire up DoW2. Both are valid and great fun. I personally will not be uninstalling DoW1 anyway.
 
The multiplayer is beta, DoW2 itself has gone gold. I find the maps to be too small and the unit sizees too small. I can understand why the unit sizes are, to have a full squad of SM means to have a full squad of nid's which means they can't manouvre on these tiny maps so well. I like it, but it's not what I was hoping for. Something has been lost in the translation. I liked CoH but I had a real short attention span for it. I'm not a fan of the dynamic capture and hold objectives unless it's in an fps like UT3. At least in the first one you could fortify the req. points, which I consider to be a sound piece of strategy.
 
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I don't think I'll bother with this. it's not DOW2, it's some other game set in the same universe.
 
W40K isn't about small 3 man space marine squads - it's about huge battles with several squads and predator tanks and powerful commanders. Having just a few piddly units with a vastly limited wargear selection just is not on. They're blatantly just trying to spin money out of dlc.

It would probably make more sense if they made an W40k Epic game, fitting somewhere between the scales of supreme commander and dawn of war.
 
Some of you people are looking at this all wrong, rts's have evolved a lot since the original dow ..... this is a completly different game more akin to their previous game company of heroes, which i think ull find won many goty awards and for good reason... It is a more tactical game, yes its more slow paced than your cnc's and ur starcrafts but then thats what its aiming to be... You cant blame a game for suceeding at doing what it set out to be just because thats not what you wanted

As for the squad sizes there are maybe a million space marines in a galaxy of a million planets, thats 1 space marine per planet .... so to have more than a couple of squads in a single place at a time is a big deal, yes i would like to see a mixup of dow and supcom, but thats a totally different type of game, this is dow meets coh, which some people may not care for, but some might love
 
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You cant blame a game for suceeding at doing what it set out to be just because thats not what you wanted

Yes you can, if I wanted CoH style gameplay then I'd have waited for CoH2

As for the squad sizes there are maybe a million space marines in a galaxy of a million planets, thats 1 space marine per planet


Do you know anything about 40k? That comment makes no sense.
 
I think the people that were expecting DoW with better graphics were always going to be disappointed. The videos out prior clearly showed an emphasis on the tactical use of squads.

This game is definitely a bigger learning curve, and requires you to think harder about your strategies.

Im not entirely sure if I will buy immediately, but I am finding a craving to play it each night despite its issues.

NB. Anyone that has read the W40K fiction knows that the universe isnt all about huge battles.
 
No it isn't but the option would be nice, and 3 man space marine squads is just ridiculous. It just seems like they've removed everything, there is probably half the unit options, half the army choices, about a fifth the number of maps, can only play one army in career, only two gameplay modes (unless there will be more in the full game)
 
The thing I don't like mostly is the base building part, for me this has always been part of RTS. I like COH a lot, and you have base building. This is more like COH more tactical less zerg attack, but why stop base building?

I know this will require more tactical gameplay an much improved micro management, but I don't see the need to remove base building. It involves managing your resources to get to the powerful units quickly and in the most economic way. It's another part of RTS that should be required aswell as the tactical side to actual battle.

Plus I like to build huge bases with defence incase my army takes a pounding and I have something to fall back to.
 
Sounds like its a real warhammer 40k game, not just an rts with 40k skins on the units lol.

Do you get to pick wargear along with commander/troops pre-battle?
 
No, I have no idea why people are saying its more like 40k, it's further away from the source material, the wargear options are probably halved from the first game and its all done in battle. There is barely any option for customizing squads.
 
I played a couple of quick games as tyranids, gotta say its actually a lot closer to tabletop 40k than dow1, especially with the myriad of upgrades and stuff.
 
If anyone is looking for games with OcUKers, if you could add me to your GFWL thinger..

g0rd is my tag on that, or my steam ID is gord, possibly [OcUK] gord.. I only have Andy and Reppy at the mo.
 
As for the squad sizes there are maybe a million space marines in a galaxy of a million planets, thats 1 space marine per planet .... so to have more than a couple of squads in a single place at a time is a big deal

Oh come on! Talk about making excuses for a game :rolleyes:
 
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