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Feb 27, 2009
A transition guide for Dawn of War players who missed the Company of Heroes games.
Dawn of War II has surprising changes that are far more radical than the measured evolution of the three expansion packs that followed the original game. We detail all the major differences that can throw you for a loop and get you prepared to jump into Dawn of War II with supreme confidence.
The game starts with a fairly straightforward mission, which is good since it doesn't hold your hand with the traditional tutorial objectives to ease you in. All the hints are provided in optional folders that only reveal their contents if you click on them. This doesn't freeze the action, so you might want to hit the menu bar to read without getting torn to pieces. Another huge departure is the lack of saving during a mission. You've got to start over if you mess up half-way through or in some missions you just have to accept a defeat and move on. There are play mechanics that make that concept far less intimidating than it sounds, but we'll get to that later.
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Luckily, one of the largest twists is also the easiest to get used to - no resource management or units to constantly manufacture. You get a set number of squads to start a mission and that's it. Squads can get reinforced during a mission by returning to the pod you started at or a captured communication center to replace the fallen. The method you capture these points is the same as before, but the usefulness of these centers is far greater. You'll always want to remember where the nearest one was in order to regroup from a bad skirmish. Tactical retreats are your best friend in avoiding a failed mission.
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Mission structure is reminiscent of what players saw in the Dark Crusade and Soulstorm expansions, but with much more tweaks. You can often choose which missions to tackle first as well as side missions to grind for experience. Mission briefings can be previewed to decide if the potential reward given for success can help in a different, more hazardous mission. At this time, you also decide which particular squads you want to take and which to sit out.
A big time saver possible with limited squad numbers is that each group automatically is assigned a hotkey. You can still create custom groups of squads that override the default hotkeys as well as simply reassigning existing squads to a different number. You'll be using shortcuts often to take advantage of each commander's abilities. With limited resources, proper and repeated use of abilities is critical.
Last, but not least is keeping an eye out for loot drops. Many times these are just supplies usable only during a given mission, but once in a while some very important armor or ability is on the field and easily missed if you're not paying attention.
There are certainly more interesting twists and turns in Dawn of War II, but grasping the above will prepare you for everything else to come.