Dawn of War: Winter Assault is the first expansion to the first Dawn of War and despite its quality, the game is often overlooked, thanks to being the "middle child". For me that is a shame as the game is really good. It not just introduces one of my favorite armies, the Imperial Guard, but the campaign is very interesting especially as it allows us to play with forces of disorder, Orks and Chaos Space Marines. I especially avoided to say forces of chaos, as the word has a different meaning in the universe of Warhammer 40k. This game is also unusual in a way that it does not give us the opportunity to play as the Space Marines, the poster boys of Warhammer 40k, I have respect for Relic in this regard, as this was a brave decision.
There are two campaigns, Order and Chaos. Forces of Order are the Imperial Guard and the Eldar. As the Imperial Guard we follow General Sturnn, one of the best Imperial Guard generals in all of Dawn of War, if not the best. An old, grizzled veteran, even his Commissars respect and revere him. Their goal is to recover an ancient Imperial Titan, lost long ago. I might explain more about what Imperial TItans are in some later post, suffice to say, Titans are massive, building sized machines that can reduce entire armies to rubble. He leads Cadian 412 regiment and I have to say that they have one of my favorite color scheme, for any Imperial Guard armies, that came later on.
The second character is one of the most important Eldar characters in all of Dawn of War series, Farseer Taldeer. I hope that you will not mind me spoiling a decade old game, but the Eldar are there to stop their ancient enemy from overtaking the planet, the Necrons. I will talk more about them in one of the later posts. This is the first, and in my opinion the only Eldar campaign that show how they operate, closest to the lore. They are sneaky, attack unprovoked and disappear as soon as the enemy discovers them.
The side of Chaos has, the Chaos Space Marines. They are lead by Lord Crull, one of my favorite Chaos lords, at least those that are in Dawn of War series. I'm well aware that he is a terrible Khornite lord, that he uses psykers, that his threats are weak and silly sometimes, that he is a failure in almost all ways possible, but I like his voice and I like how hammy he is! That may not be a good justification, but it brought me joy every time he was present. I still had fun seeing him butchered by a much better character.
Speaking of which, Warboss Gorgutz 'Ead 'Unter, one of the best characters in all of Dawn of War. Winter Assault is worth playing just to experience his first appearance. And it really is an experience. Gorgutz is one of the most charismatic Orks out there and has made an appearance in all of the later Dawn of War expansions. Sadly we were unfortunate not to see him in Dawn of War 2, but that is a review for some other day. He starts by uniting all of the clans on Lorn V and proceeds to stomp Lord Crull and take his head. Almost every line he says is pure gold.
The gameplay has not changed much. Players still construct buildings and capture strategic points. There is a new faction added, older factions got new units. There are however some balancing changes, slight, but noticeable, if you plan to play multiplayer games.
New winter maps look amazing and are a welcome sight after the first game. I remember the first time I played Winter Assault, it was one of the first thing that caught my eye, along with the grit of General Sturnn that emanated thru the screen.
Images links: image 1, image 2
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