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"Warhammer 40K Dawn of War Demo"

Just released, the demo for the Games workshop RTS game that unlike other games workshop computer game outings, actually looks, and sounds (around the 90% mark in PCG) pretty darn good.

The full game is an RTS utilizing four races from the popular (and very bloody expensive) desktop board game. Space Marines, Orcs, Eldar and Chaos Marines I think are the playable factions and the action is spread out through a variety of worlds torn apart by war. It looks good, with some super smooth graphics while the Strategy elements aren’t overly bogged down with resource management options with reinforcements having to be acquired by pleasing the head honcho sat in a spaceship overlooking each war zone.

Even in if you don’t like Game Workshop, it at least has rich source material that should translate into an interesting game, more so than the recent Firewarrior bore fest. Still not convinced? Well, Dawn of War was developed by Relic, most noted for their recent efforts of Homeworld 2, so at least GW have actually managed to get on board a developer who seem to know what they are doing.

Anyway the demo. It’s 319.2MB bit and comes with a tutorial, a full scenario and two skirmish maps. I’m not sure which race you play as, I’ve still not played it yet, but I’m hoping for good things. A bit of a mistake releasing it alongside Rome: Total War, but still, it’s been quiet on the Strategy gaming front for a bit, and despite not knowing how to play the board game, I always had a thing for Games Workshop when I was younger.

Download Links:

Fileplanet: [URL]http://www.fileplanet.com/contests/sept04/dawnofwar/[/URL]

Fileshack: [URL]http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=5401[/URL]

Gamershell: [URL]http://www.gamershell.com/download_6943.shtml[/URL]

SemajaI wrote:
> Who playes the tabletop version of 40k? :p

I played it once instead of going to a maths lesson. Does that count?

Downloading the demo anyway.

The eldar are the hardest to play with. Space marines have good all round strength, good at ranged combat, good in close quarters and they have strong armour. Similar with chaos. Orks rely on strength of numbers to batter down their foes. Eldar use advanced technology so the key to playing with them is avoid close quarter battle, use their ranged weapons ont he enemy then bring in their close combat specialists, such as the Wraithlord (giant robot) or the Avatar (eldar war god)

I think the Eldar are the weakest race in the game. That's what I've read anyway.

Eldar Prism Tank

Pwn

Who playes the tabletop version of 40k? :p

Dreadnaughts have an Assult cannon. Though id like to see twin linked heavy bolters. The ork 'elephant' is a squiggoth i believe (not sure on spelling)

Crikey, the Orc elephant thing crushed my first squad of marines and dreadnoughts, though it caught me unprepared so I got a right pummelling for it. It'll be fun to use when you play as the Orcs though.

The dreadnoughts are the ultimate unit from what I've seen, I just get 6 or so of them, arm them with machine guns and send them off in a squad, they can pretty much wipe out everything on the level. EXCEPT, when you get to that massive orc dinosoar monster thing, that wiped out all my dreanoughts so I got about 30 marines with flamethrowers and rocketlaunchers to sort it out.

The Dreadnoughts 'Ownz' I like how they just charge into groups of Orc's and send them flying, or just pick them up and crush them. I completed the demo level yesterday, admittedly by using the old tank rush strategy, but it was still fun seeing my huge group of Space Marines tear down the Orc base.

Yeh, Orcs are the hardest unit to fight against, although Dreadnoughts soon take care of that problem.

I've downloaded the demo because it's apparently been changed a fair bit since the beta. I've yet to look at it though.

Played the demo and yeah, it's pretty good. Nice graphics, a seemingly interesting story (from what I saw) though I was a little disheartened to find the resource options weren’t as toned down as I'd been lead to believe, and the constant attacks by Orcs left me little time to build proper defences.

Other than that, enjoyable stuff, will be looking to get the full game. Also, love the pain editor thing, just like painting the lead models only with a wider colour pallet and without the ridiculous price tags.