PC Gamer
Dawn of War II
THQ core games boss Danny Bilson has told Eurogamer that development on Dawn of War 3 is well underway at Relic. Eurogamer understand that the third game in the series will take elements from the first and second games and "add something new." Bilson previously told EG that Dawn of War 3 will "have a much larger strategic component to it, more of a global battle going on with little tactical things, sort of MMO-like."

Bilson gave a rough estimate for a release date, too, saying the game will likely ship sometime between August 2012 and February 2013. Yesterday, Bilson teased a big new Relic RTS announcement for this year's Gamescom. "This one's built to announce at that place," he said. "I feel like an ass saying it's fantastic, but it is. And we're going to do something with it you haven't seen before."

Bilson originally said that Dawn of War 3 might end up being "a more digital free-to-play experience," depending on the success of Company of Heroes Online. CoHO closed down earlier this year, suggesting the new Dawn of War game won't be free to play, but we could still see features cross over from Relic's Company of Heroes experiment.

CoHO featured persistent hero units that could be levelled up between multiplayer encounters, unlocking new battlefield abilities in the process. The game also featured a player avatar that could be upgraded to unlock powerful, limited use battlefield abilities like air-strikes. It will be interesting to see if Relic bring any of these multiplayer RPG elements into Dawn of War 3's multiplayer mode to make it a more "MMO-like" experience.

Relic might also be looking closely at the success of the Last Stand mode, which replaces Dawn of War's armies with a single hero. Last Stand was released as a standalone game on Steam earlier this year.

Either way, another Dawn of War game is cause for excitement. We'll know more when the reveal happens at Gamescom in August.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution - Valve
Dawn of War 2: Retribution - Last Stand DLCs are now available for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II: Retribution and Dawn of War II: Retribution – The Last Standalone on Steam!

Revamp your heroes and find new ways to play and compete in The Last Stand with these new Wargear pieces.

PC Gamer

The Last Stand has been one of the most enduring parts of Dawn of War 2 and Retribution has only expanded it with a new hero and map. The characters have completely new sets of wargear too, making it pretty daunting if you're not a Dawn Of War veteran.

We've combed through the community looking for the most efficient builds that the power gamers have been using to rack up the best scores. Follow our guide and you should break wave 20 in no time.

1. Space Marine Captain


The starting race for most Warhammer 40,000 players, the Space Marine is a tough but versatile hero, able to fight in melee or at range, call in minions, or maneuver with his jump pack.

Support Gunner

Weapon - Plasma Gun (armour piercing, grants hellfire grenades ability)
Armour - Armour of Resilience (immunity to knockback)
Accessory 1 - Oath of Merciless Rage/Jump Pack/Terror of Xenos (something to keep him out of melee)
Accessory 2 - Rite of Fortitude (+75 health)
Accessory 3 - Rite of the Tireless Crusader (ranged resurrection ability)
Commander - Larraman's Blessing (healing aura)

This selfless Marine sits back from the main battle and uses his healing aura and resurrection abilities to aid his allies. Never use the revive ability on Bloody Colosseum, your duplicates are tough enough without the ability to raise each other from the dead at will.


Assault Marine

Weapon - Power Axe & Plasma Pistol (armour Piercing, +30% damage)
Armour - Armour of Vengeance (damages attackers)
Accessory 1 - Jump Pack (can jump across map)
Accessory 2 - Parable of the Stalwart Brother (+1.5 health regeneration)
Accessory 3 - Rite of Fortitude (+75 health)
Commander - Dreadnought Drop Pod (grants dreadnought minion)

Simple but effective, this build is tough, does a lot of damage, and has a dreadnought for a pet. In battle his main concern is using his jump pack to stay mobile and harass ranged units.
2. Farseer:


Snooty space elf Eldar are quick and like to kill people with their brains, their lack of giant shoulder pads however makes them fragile.

Confuseer


Weapon - Witchblade of Isha & Pistol of the Warseer (+30% damage, increased speed, +0.3 energy regeneration, +25 energy)
Armour - Armour of Vaul (immunity to suppression)
Accessory 1 - Runes of the Harlequin (grants confuse ability)
Accessory 2 - Runes of Deception (grants conceal ability)
Accessory 3 - Runes of the Warp (grants group teleport ability)
Commander - Spirit Stone of Vigour (energy regeneration aura)

A classic Farseer build, this the emphasis here is on support. Speed, teleportation and a cloak keep you and your allies safe, while you uase confuse as much as possible. If you still find yourself low on energy switch to one of the other armours instead.

Warseer

Weapon - Witchblade of the Crone and Pistol of the Warseer  (+30% damage, increased speed)
Armour - Armour of Vaul (immunity to suppression)
Accessory 1 - Runes of War (+40% damage)
Accessory 2 - Runes of Wrath (makes a second, follow up, attack)
Accessory 3 - Runes of Fortune/Runes of Evasion (reduce damage)
Commander - Spirit Stone of Eldritch Might (large area attack)

It's a well kept secret that the Farseer can handle herself pretty well in battle. With combat expert, combat master and a bonus attack this build does a whole load of damage, while Fortune or Evasion helps keep her safe. In an emergency she can blanket an area with mind lightning.
3. Ork Mekboy:


Unpredictable and unreliable, Ork machines only work because Orks think they should, so if you think these builds are brilliant, they probably will be...

Teleshoota


Weapon - Big Shoota
Armour - Teleporta Pack (grants teleport ability)
Accessory 1 - Cybork Parts (+66 armour)
Accessory 2 - Sturdy Bitz (immunity to knockback)
Accessory 3 - Choose One
Commander - Trophy Rack/Boss Poll (reduces incoming damage/increases health)

Most people will start with something like this Mekboy. The cybork parts compensate for the terrible Teleporta Armour as he uses mobility to strafe his enemies. The final accessory slot affects the build very little, so it has been left open to choose from.

Rok Tank

Weapon - Big Choppa (+2.0 health regeneration, gain +5 energy per melee kill)
Armour - 'Eavy Armour (+75 health)
Accessory 1 - Cybork Parts (+66 armour)
Accessory 2 - Sturdy Bitz (immunity to knockback)
Accessory 3 - Dok's Tools (heals Mekboy and allies when he is hit)
Commander - Roks (large area attack)

An unorthodox yet popular build that uses the choppa to swiftly regain energy to fuel the devastating Roks attack. Counts on massive amounts of armour and health to stay alive.



Dakka Turret

Weapon - Dakka Deffgun (suppresses enemies, requires setup time)
Armour - 'Eavy Armour (+75 health)
Accessory 1 - Cybork Parts (+66 armour)
Accessory 2 - Sturdy Bitz (immunity to knockback)
Accessory 3 - Bubble Shield (gives the ability to knock enemies back if they try and attack the Mekboy)
Commander - Trophy Rack/Boss Poll (reduces damage/increases health)

This build is even tougher than the last, with a trophy rack or boss poll (both have merits) adding to the durability. The idea is to set up in one corner and lay down suppressive fire for your teammates, turning on the spot but rarely moving.

Bubble Burna

Weapon - Burna (area attack, ignores cover)
Armour - 'Eavy Armour (+75 health)
Accessory 1 - Cybork Parts (+66 Armour)
Accessory 2 - Sturdy Bitz (immunity to knockback)
Accessory 3 - Bubble Shield (gives the ability to knock enemies back if they try and attack the Mekboy)
Commander - Trophy Rack/Boss Poll (reduces damage/increases health)

Another tough Ork, this one cheekily uses a bubble shield to bounce enemies out of melee and into his flamer radius. Very strong against swarms of enemies.

4. Hive Tyrant:


The Hive Tyrant is one of the best of the Last Stand characters. It's as tough as a Space Marine, and comes complete with minions. Just try not to let the voice of the hive mind creep you out too much.

Minion Bomber

Weapon - Crushing Talons (+1 minion heath regeneration, minions attacks heal Tyrant)
Armour - Poison Cysts (+25 Health, immunity to knockback and suppression, can create toxic miasma cloud)
Accessory 1 - Explosive Decomposition (minions explode into miasma cloud when they die)
Accessory 2 - Bio Feedback (Tyrant becomes briefly invulnerable when minions die)
Accessory 3 - Genestealer Nest (grants Genestealer minions)
Commander - Synapse (50% reduction to all ability energy costs)

This is considered one of the most powerful builds in Last Stand. The secret is feedback invulnerability and explosive decomposition. Whenever your minions die they explode and you get a burst of invulnerability. This can be manually triggered by summoning new ones. Synapse means you can do this really often too.

Ravener Master

Weapon - Venom Cannon (armour piercing)
Armour - Bonded Exoskeleton (+75 health, +50 minion health, +2 minion health regeneration, immunity to knockback and suppression)
Accessory 1 - Ravener Nest (grants Ravener minion)
Accessory 2 - Toxin Sacs (+20 minion health, minions do damage over time)
Accessory 3 - Implant Attacks (+20 minion Health, +30% damage, +30% minion damage)
Commander - Evolution (+2 health regeneration, +20 minion Health, +2 minion Health regeneration, increased minion Speed, +25% minion damage)

Another strong Tyrant build, here the massive ranged damage of the Ravener minion is exploited, backed up by the handy armour piercing Venom Cannon.
5. Chaos Sorcerer:


The Chaos Sorcerer has two main modes, make nigh invincible clones of his allies, and set everything on fire while cackling with glee. When he was first released a party of three Sorcerers could clone each other infinitely until the game crashed from the strain.

Minion master

Weapon - Staff of Tzeentch (grants teleport ability)
Armour - Armour of Eternal War (+40% damage, +40% Minion damage, grants ability to clone enemies)
Accessory 1 - Demonic Gift of Retaliation (clones damage enemies who attack them)
Accessory 2 - Demonic Gift of Sustenance (clone gains +2 Energy per kill, Gains Health equal to damage caused)
Accessory 3 - Sigil of Greater Sorcery (improves Sorcerer abilities)
Commander - Icon of Greater Summoning (allows Sorcerer to clone heroic units)

This build is all about maximising the potential of the Sorcerer's duplicate ability, meanwhile Teleportation will keep you alive to cloneeven more. On Bloody Colosseum clone your toughest ally and kill your own doppleganger before he does the same (we recommend a sniper round to the head). Never clone yourself, it just gets confusing.

Guerrilla Doombolter

Weapon - Staff of Tzeentch (grants teleport ability)
Armour - Armour of Might Undivided (immunity to knockback and suppression, all clone bonuses apply to the Sorcerer instead)
Accessory 1 - Sigil of Greater Sorcery (improves Sorcerer abilities)
Accessory 2 - Daemonic Gift of Sustenance (Sorcerer gains +2 energy per kill, gains health equal to damage caused)
Accessory 3 - Tome of Doom (grants Doombolt ability)
Commander - Icon of Summoning (+125 health)

Built along the same lines as the Mekboy Teleporter, this Sorcerer moves quickly around the battlefield performing hit and run Doombolt attacks. Doombolt is inaccurate at long range but you can hit at short to medium range and use teleport to escape.

Galactic Burner

Weapon - Staff of Demonic Flame (grants let the galaxy burn ability)
Armour - Armour of Might Undivided (immunity to knockback and suppression, all clone bonuses apply to the Sorcerer instead)
Accessory 1 - Sigil of Greater Sorcery (improves Sorcerer abilities)
Accessory 2 - Sigil of Master Sorcery (improves Sorcerer abilities)
Accessory 3 - Daemonic Gift of Sustenance (Sorcerer gains +2 energy per kill, gains health equal to damage caused)
Commander - Icon of Summoning (+125 Health)

Let the Galaxy Burn is one of the most potent (and best named) area attacks in the game, this build pushes up it's damage creating a durable and potent Sorcerer.
6. Lord General


Sadly the Lord General both lacks a tank to drive him closer, and is fairly poor at hitting things with his sword. He does however have some interesting minion choices, a handy turret and a sniper rifle that makes other ranged characters weep with envy.

Pyro

Weapon - Flamer (area attack, ignores cover, Guardsmen also get flamers)
Armour - Master Crafted Carapace Armour (immunity to suppression, grants ability to deploy Heavy Bolter turret)
Accessory 1 - Medallion Crimson (+30% damage)
Accessory 2 - Honorifica Imperialis (+25 armour, +2 health regeneration)
Accessory 3 - Commissar (+30% minion damage)
Commander - Guardsmen (can carry flamers)

A strong anti-infantry build, the Turret suppresses enemies while you and your Guardsmen burn everything in sight. Choose either a sergeant or medallion depending on if you value your men or yourself.

Big Game Hunter

Weapon - Deadly Sniper Rifle (+1 energy regeneration, grants high powered shot ability)
Armour -  Artificer Carapace Armour (immunity to knockback, grants ability to deploy Missile Turret)
Accessory 1 - Medallion Crimson (+30% damage)
Accessory 2 - Sergeant (+100 minion armour, +2 minion health regeneration)
Accessory 3 - Commissar (+30% minion damage)
Commander - Ogryns (have more health than other minions)

The classic sniper General, with the medallion crimson he is capable of taking out annoying Zoanthropes in a single shot, meanwhile Ogyrns with both a sergeant and a commissar are fully capable of decimating enemies alone.



Can Opener

Weapon - Plasma Rifle (armour piercing, guardsmen also get plasma rifles)
Armour - Artificer Carapace Armour (immunity to knockback, grants ability to deploy Missile Turret)
Accessory 1 - Medallion Crimson (+30% damage)
Accessory 2 - Sergeant (+100 minion armour, +2 minion health regeneration)
Accessory 3 - Commissar (+30% minion damage)
Commander - Guardsmen (can carry plasma rifles)

The Plasma Rifle is a deadly tool, and this build is about getting them on the field and keeping them there. Very strong against armoured enemies.

Rocketeer

Weapon - Deadly Sniper Rifle (+1 energy regeneration, grants high powered shot ability)
Armour - Cadia Pattern Carapace Armour (+0.2 energy regeneration)
Accessory 1 - Medallion Crimson (+30% damage)
Accessory 2 - Honorifica Imperialis (+25 armour, +2 health regeneration)
Accessory 3 - Rocket Run (large area attack)
Commander - Storm Troopers (grants ability to fast retreat if in danger, Reduces cooldown on all abilities by 25%)

An unorthodox late-game build, the Stormtrooper's cooldown ability allows the General to cover an area with rockets, while strong armour protects him (and keeps his energy up). Some people don't even bother summoning the Stormtroopers when things start getting hard; the bonus abilities they bestow are enough.

These are the best builds we've found out there, but they're certainly not the only ones. What do you like to play as? Have you beaten wave 20 already? Honestly?
PC Gamer

It must be hard to be a Guardsman. You’re standing around staring at an uncaptured control point and a box full of something called Requisition, and suddenly an Ork appears three inches from your face. His name is Spookums, he is wearing a pirate hat, and now he has exploded. You’re killed instantly – that’s one of the worst parts of the job – but Spookums is merely flung by his own explosion into a bush.

Luckily, Dawn of War 2: Retribution lets you be the Ork.

If you’d asked me before I played it, I would have told you Retribution was all about making Dawn of War 2 closer to a proper strategy game. It’s standalone, and where Dawn of War 2 was all about micromanaging just a handful of units, Retribution allows you to build up your force from the headquarters you capture midbattle. In theory, the big change is that you’re now commanding an army instead of leading a squad.



As it turns out, that’s not at all what Retribution is about. And thank God. You can build up an army, certainly, but almost every unit in it would have several manually activated abilities to deal with. Quickly and accurately ordering that number of units to use cover and activate their abilities is the kind of manual and mental torture test you could use to find out if you have a heart condition. Dawn of War’s interface, zoom level and controls just weren’t built for battles of that scale.

Yet Retribution is startlingly good – it’s the best Warhammer 40K game I’ve ever played. Because it’s not really about numbers, it’s about diversity. If you played Dawn of War 2 and its first expansion Chaos Rising, you’ve spent upwards of 30 hours controlling some combination of the same seven units. Retribution lets you choose between six different factions, with a total of around 70 squads, vehicles and heroes to play with. It’s a massive breath of fresh air.

Joy of six

There are six campaigns of around eight hours each, all playable in singleplayer or co-op. One of the six races is largely new to the game, the Imperial Guard, and they’re also playable in competitive multiplayer. Then there’s a new map and a new hero for Last Stand, the superb three-player cooperative survival mode Relic added to Dawn of War 2 in a free update. And if you’re interested in any of these ways to play it online, there’s the enormously welcome news that it now uses Steam for matchmaking and friends lists, instead of the horrific Games for Windows Live.



Frankly, the last time anyone went this nuts with an expansion was, well, Relic – with Dawn of War: Dark Crusade.

These aren’t six completely unique campaigns, admittedly. Play two and you’ll find they have about ten of their twelve missions in common, just slightly repurposed to fit a different plot. That only really hurts the early missions: the first three are overly long and overly scripted tutorials, and replaying them as each new race gets painful.

But once you do fight through them, you have enough experience points to start customising your heroes, and that’s where Retribution suddenly turns around.



Dawn of War 2 was one great fight, repeated. You set up your heavy weapons in cover, snuck your scout in to snipe a prime target, tanked them with your commander, and jumpjetted your assault guys onto the enemy’s strongest shooters. It was satisfying, but by and large it was the same every time. It was often the same map every time.

Retribution comes up with five new formulae, composed of the same basic elements of stealth, suppression, jumps, melee and damage types. Formulae that evolve as you decide how to upgrade each hero, what you equip them with, and how you want to use them.

It’s still tactical and manually intensive – you need to move each hero individually and activate the right abilities just when you need them, preferably with hotkeys. You can bench heroes in return for a free squad or vehicle and an increased army size limit in the field. But for most races, each hero plays such an important role that it’s hard to see why anyone would.



So for the most part, you slip into playing Retribution much as you did Dawn of War 2: four heroes, each with special abilities that mix with each other in excitingly brutal ways. I added a few heavy weapons squads to support my biggest gunner, and the occasional vehicle when I could afford it, then spent the rest of my money on upgrading and reviving my heroes.

I mentioned the Orks earlier: as well as the commando/commander switcheroo (where Spookums can swap positions with Bludflagg), their ranged specialist Nailbrain is ridiculous. He can teleport into battle, and one of his perks causes him to explode every time he does anything. So when he teleports, he also explodes, flooring everyone. He can then turn on his force field so that incoming damage will drain energy rather than health when everyone gets back up. This causes him to explode. Damage taken to his forcefield also charges his static blast, an ability that causes him to explode. And since it is an ability, it also causes him to explode. In addition to the explosion.

That part of the Ork’s combat formula is a result of the way I’d specced my Nailbrain. Each hero of each race has three stats: health, damage and energy. Those can be upgraded from zero to five, and almost every upgrade comes with some ability or perk that changes the way the hero works. The static explosion is a perk for upgrading Nailbrain’s damage to level 3.



I was rude about Guardsmen earlier, and I will be rude about the rest of the Imperial Guard later, but for what it’s worth they do have a formula of their own. The Lord General is a terribly British chap who can call in free reinforcements for squads who’ve lost men. The Commissar is a more sinister officer who can spur a squad to fight harder by shooting one of them – not that the Imperial Guard need any help getting themselves killed.

I like to have my Commissar use Execute on a Stormtrooper to kickstart that squad’s damage output, then cast Draw Their Fire on my General, forcing enemies to attack him instead. The behatted Inquisitor can then cast a protective shield on the General so he survives the onslaught. And after the fight, he can have a new stormtrooper dropped off to make up their numbers so we can do it all again. They’re not going to make the Fortune 100 for best places to work, but it’s satisfyingly effective.

In fact, a sadistic number of the Commissar’s upgrades revolve around his Execute ability, including a perk which lets you use it on enemy squads to demoralise them. Nice, but at that point aren’t you just shooting the enemy? Is that really something that needs to be unlocked?



Heroes of chaos

The units, heroes and abilities of the Chaos faction are split between three of their four gods. The god of violence is represented by a heavy weapons marine, the god of magic and change has a chaos sorcerer on the team, and the god of decay gets a brilliant muckspreading Plague Marine as his representative.

Kinky porno-god Slaanesh doesn’t get a hero – he’s always been the black sheep even in a family of pitchblack bloodgargling daemon deathsheep who burn in perpetual agony with the searing fires of the warp. Instead, your commander is a Chaos Champion who can choose his allegiance: each branch of his level-up tree serves a different Chaos God. I levelled up his health, enabling him to channel disease-god Nurgle in what is presumably Relic’s idea of irony.

As well as the usual tanking abilities, this changes the way your Chaos Cultists minions work. With Nurgle, they can worship on the battlefield to heal nearby Chaos units, and even build shrines that can then summon reinforcements from the warp. If I’d leant towards Khorne, shrines would periodically spew out daemons, while Tzeentch shrines cloak your units and fire doombolts at enemies.



But the highlight of the Chaos roster is the Plague Marine. He can spread a disease that heals Chaos units and rots enemies, and even ‘detonate’ the infection to wipe out a whole squad in an instant – or bring a pestilent friend back from the brink of death. A whole set of late-tier abilities cause the enemies he kills to come back as Nurgly diseasezombies. One of the most beautiful sights in the game is this guy squirting his horrible plague spreader into a fortified bunker, corpses falling out of the windows, then getting back up again and joining in the siege as zombies.

There are so many wonky and exotic options in the new races that it’s hard to imagine someone picking the Space Marines. But that campaign is kept relatively fresh in a clever way. Rather than bringing back the increasingly corrupt band of increasingly crazy brothers we’ve been playing in the last two games, we get a new team with only one familiar face. Their commander is similar and their scout is the same, but they now have a Tech Marine hero who’s all about deployables. And their fourth member, called simply The Ancient, can be specced to play any of three heroes’ roles you fancy: heavy weapons if you level up his damage, jumpjet assault if you level up his energy, or tactical tank if you level up his health. It’s a smart way of saying “Who did you like in the last game?”

Surprisingly, the weakest campaign is for the most potentially interesting race: the Tyranids. They only get one hero, who can summon a few free units on the field without the need of a base. But the limiting factor on your army is almost never the expense, it’s your population capacity. Summoned units consume that just as much as the ones you requisition at a beacon, so that whole set of abilities is effectively moot.



Without three other heroes to level up, there are few interesting interactions between Tyranid units. You don’t have the dopamine drip of constantly unlocking exciting upgrades, and there are no tough decisions to make between missions. Loot is rare and poorly judged – almost everything I found required a minimum level I wouldn’t reach until four or five missions later. Even the units seem poorly judged: I never found any combination as effective as massing the low-level Tyranid Warriors – tough, fast, cheap, and good against everything. They render the whole campaign easy, even on Hard.

The other bum note is the Imperial Guard campaign. They have some fun abilities, as mentioned, and it’s still worth playing if you’re after a challenge. But it’s a challenge not because the missions are harder, but because the race is a walking catalogue of inadequacies. The tactics that work – such as using your fragile melee units to bait enemies into large groups of heavy weapon emplacements – are the tactics that work for every race. The Imperial Guard’s twist is that they don’t have anything else.

Still, four great campaigns is impressive – it’s three better than Chaos Rising managed. And as usual, they can all be played with two players. That’s the other time requisitioning extra units in the field feels useful: controlling only two heroes each, you have the control bandwidth to take on a few more squads and use them well.



When Dan Stapleton and I played the Chaos campaign together, I tried benching my Sorcerer and taking the Dreadnought instead. It was fun to be able to requisition some cultists to follow it around and repair it, and easy to manage. Resources are shared, so generally you’ll check with each other before buying anything. It makes the individual missions more fun, particularly on harder difficulties. The only drawback is that however many units you build in the field, each of you only has two heroes to level up, so there are fewer interesting long-term decisions to make about kit and abilities.

Parlour games

The adversarial multiplayer is mostly unchanged, except for the addition of the Imperial Guard to the playable race roster. They’re a fine faction for it, since their vehicles are easier to come by than in singleplayer, but the design of the mode itself is still completely unsatisfying.

It has almost nothing to do with actually killing your enemy’s forces – any squad in jeopardy can flee at ridiculous speed to their headquarters to heal. In Victory Point mode, it’s just a game of weaponised musical chairs over three control points, and an early lead almost always means victory. Once you’re ahead, it's too easy to hold enough of the map to win - even if your opponent manages his units and resources better.



Annihilation mode is better – you have to destroy each other’s bases – but it just takes hours to get the huge economic and military advantage you need to overcome the powerful home advantage a player has at his base. Most games drag out in an interminable stalemate.

Last Stand was always more successful: three of you control one hero each and slay waves of incoming enemies until you die – and level up. The new hero, the Imperial Guard’s Lord General, starts weak but suddenly becomes fun once he unlocks the ability to deploy turrets – the best of which is vast and absurd. The new map, bringing the total to two, is absurd in the other direction: frantic, desperate and brutal from the very first wave. Both additions work primarily because the mode itself is so smartly designed and endlessly replayable.

Dawn of War 2: Retribution is such a beast of an expansion that there’s room for some of its elements to fail without adversely affecting the ones that work – those being the four great campaigns, whether you play them alone or with a friend. For those alone, this is an essential purchase for anyone who enjoyed Dawn of War 2’s tightly focused tactical scraps – even if they were sick of them by the end. It’s a complete revitalisation of that format, and more fun than Dawn of War 2 ever was. Just don’t go in expecting a game that’s slickly designed for large scale conflicts, because that’s not where Retribution shines.
PC Gamer

THQ have announced that a closed beta for Dawn of War: Retribution will be launching at the end of this month. Anyone who's pre-ordered Retribution, or bought or registered a Dawn of War game on Steam will be eligible.

The beta will run between January 31st and February 24th, and will unfold in three stages. The first wave of invites will go out to global press and "key Dawn of War community members". Then, on February 1st, everyone who pre-ordered the game will gain access. Then on February 8th anyone who has bought a Dawn of War game through steam or registered a Dawn of War game on Steam well get an invite. The purpose of the beta is to test the multiplayer mode. All six races will be playable in the beat. At the end of the beta period Relic will use the information they've gathered to put out a day one balancing patch.

The details of the beta are all available on the THQ site. There's plenty more information on the Dawn of War 2: Retribution official site. The game's available to pre-order now, and will be released on 4th March.
PC Gamer

THQ have announced details of the collector's edition of the upcoming standalone expansion to Dawn of War 2, Dawn of War 2: Retribution. The special edition box will come with bonus in-game wargear for each of the six playable races in the game along with exclusive artwork. Preorders are also now available for the game. Read on for details.

There's a special pre-order version for each of the six races in the game. The pre-order versions contain four exclusive "unique ability and wargear items" for each race. The Tyranid pack is available exclusively through the THQ e-store, the Ork pack is available through Steam and the other packs can be bought from any digital distribution store. THQ plan to release all of the wargear items as purchasable DLC on Steam once the game is released in March.

The Collector's Edition of the game comes with all of the Wargear for every race, as well as a poster and bonus art cards for each of the game's six races. Full details of the pre-order deals and the collector's edition can be found on the official THQ site. Here's an overview of the bonus wargear on offer for each race.

Imperial Guard

The Emperor’s Executioners – Instantly kill infantry units with less than a fifth of their health remaining.
Blessed Carapace of Resolve – Friendly units within the area gain increased damage resistance.
Honorifica Imperialis – Friendly units within the area have their ability cooldowns reduce.
Helm of the Distinguished Imperial Officer – Friendly units within the area are healed and have their energy restored when you kill an enemy.

 
Space Marines

Holy Axe of the Honor Guard – this unique two handed power axe increases your defense against enemy attacks
Armor of the Martyr – Attacks upon Diomedes heal allied units around him
Chant of the Righteous – Enemies attacking Diomedes lower the cool down timer on his abilities
Helm of the Veteran – Increases the health and armor of the character that equips it

 
Eldar

Spear of the Ynnead – Attacks upon the enemy can now confuse them and cause them to attack each other
Guile of Cegorach – The death of allied units now increases the chance of you entering an enraged state that increases your speed and damage
Runes of Wisdom – Lowers the energy cost of using abilities
Helm of the War Host – Your hero gains immunity to knock back and suppression

 
Chaos Space Marines

Skull Breaker: Hits on the enemy with this weapon have the chance to cause an explosive area of effect attack
Armor of the Immortal: Gain the protection of an invulnerability shield when your character is critically injured
Herald of the Warp: Equipping this item significantly lowers your ability cool down timers
Mark of Chaos Favor: Your character gains the benefits of Chaos god worship from all the dark gods

 
Orcs

Kan Opener - Your attacks now have a chance to disable enemy vehicles
Angry Armour - Enemy attacks on the Warboss increases the damage he does
Lucky Teef - When your Warboss kills an enemy, friendly units in the surrounding area gain energy
Supa Flashy Boss Rack - Your Warboss now gains the benefits of both a boss pole and a trophy rack

 
Tyranids

Venomous Talons – Attacks upon the enemy now have a guaranteed chance to stun and poison them for a short duration
Poisonous Cysts – After taking a fixed amount of melee damage your Swarmlord will now spray a poison cloud that damages your enemies
Shadow in the Warp – When hit you now convert some of that damage to energy to power your abilities
Warp Field – Calls forth an energy shield to protect your character from damage
PC Gamer

The new general units for each race in Dawn of War 2: Retribution's single player campaigns will also feature in multiplayer mode. Relic have revealed some of the special abilities that will be available to the Tyranid Swarmlord and the Eldar Autarch.

Tyranid Swarmlord


Once you've upgraded your base to tier 3 you'll be able to deploy a Tyranid Swarmlord to the battlefield. In single player the Swarmlord has a direct connection to the Hive Mind, and is responsible for gathering Tyranids together to spawn an army. In multiplayer the Swarmlord won't be able to spawn troops personally, but units near him will move faster, and fallen allies can be reinforced without having to flee back to base. In addition the Swarmlord's four bone sabers make him devastating in close combat.

Abilities:
Leech Essence
The Swarmlord drains the life from surrounding infantry units for a duration which increases his health regeneration.

Blade Flurry
Unleashes the full strength of the Swarmlord, heavily damaging and knocking back adjacent infantry.
Eldar Autarch


Unlike the Swarmlord, Eldar players won't be able to train and deploy the Autarch from base as with ordinary units. Instead the Autarch takes the form of a special ability that can be activated once enough kills have been made. Upon activating the Autarch the play gets to hand place the landing points for a volley of grenades. Once triggered the grenades will be called in from the sky, once they've gone off, the Autarch crash lands to clean up the aftermath. Once the Autarch's work is done, she vanishes from the battlefield, ready to be called upon again at a reduced cost.

Abilities:
Fleet of Foot
Greatly increases the unit’s speed but reduces the Autarch’s damage output for the duration of the ability.

Leap
Soar through the air and land at the targeted location. Upon landing the Autarch increases the speed, damage, health and of nearby infantry units.

There's more information about the different units that will be available in Dawn of War 2: Retribution on Relic's Dawn of War blog. If you're interested in exactly how the Swarmlord will work in the single player campaigns, check out our preview of the Tyranid campaign.
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Anniversary Edition - Valve
Updates to Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War II®have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

Balance Changes
Chaos
Plaguemarine Champion
- Breath of Nurgle heal increased from 140 to 190 for the Plaguemarine Champion and 45 to 55 for nearby allies
Chaos Lord
- Blood sacrifice duration increased from 10s to 25s
Chaos Predator Tank
- Speed increased from 5.7 to 6.0

Space Marines
Predator Tank
- Speed increased from 5.7 to 6.0

Eldar
Wraithlord
- Shuriken cannon upgrade cost lowered from 100/40 to 100/25
- Brightlance upgrade damage increased from 60 to 80
Fire Prism
- Speed increased from 5.0 to 5.5

Orks
Kommando Nob
- Extra equipment health regeneration rate increase lowered from 0.5 to 0.3
Mek
- Waaagh! banner cost increased from 75 to 75/10
Shootas
- Big Shoota damage decreased from 37 to 33
- Shoota Nob shoota damage increased from 36 to 40
Looted Tank
- Speed increased from 5.5 to 6
Nobs
- Nobs are no longer immune to knockback under the effect of Frenzy
- Frenzy cost increased from 50 to 75 Waaagh!

Tyranids
Zoanthrope
- Damage increased from 60 to 75
- Blast radius damage modifier increased from 0.4 to 0.6 at the edge of the radius

Bug Fixes
- Fixed several issues where units would wind up in a stance inappropriate to their current weapon
- Fixed an issue that would cause commanders to get stuck in retreat mode while at their base
- Fixed an issue that would require the Ork Mekboy to setup before teleporting when he was equipped with a beamy Deffgun or a Dakka Dakka Dakka
- Fixed an issue that caused units to stop displaying their energy bars after being upgraded with a sergeant
- Fixed several issues that would prevent units from cancelling the setup process

Updates
- Now saving rank and Last Stand data to the Steam cloud
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Anniversary Edition - Valve
Take advantage of THQ's Weekend deal. The Dawn of War franchise is on sale for 50% off!









Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Anniversary Edition - Valve
Updates to Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War II®have been released. The updates will be applied automatically when your Steam client is restarted. The specific changes include:

New Features
- Free for All and Team Free for All are now available game modes in Find a Game
- The Player Stats screen has been updated to show FFA and Team FFA stats
- Find a Game FFA and Team FFA matches will give rank points
- New map added for both FFA and Team FFA: (FFA) The White Walls of Calderis
- Mods are now automatically loaded out of the mods folder
- Users need to create Mods folder in their “\GameAssets” folder
- Command line is no longer required
- Map Preference Selection
- Users can now select a number of maps they prefer in Find a Game
- Matchmaking will attempt to match users with similar map preferences but if searching takes too long, user will be matched regardless of their map preferences
- Added a reverb setting to the audio options. Enabling this will improve sound quality, but may have a dramatic impact on performance with low to mid-range CPUs.


General
- Garrison & transport changes
- Units should enter and exit buildings more quickly
- When giving orders to a squad that is exiting a building, they will now execute that last order given once they are done unloading.
- Units should now load into transports, webway gates & Ravener Alpha burrow tunnels in a more efficient manner
- Units should unload from transports, webway gates & Ravener Alpha burrow tunnels in a more efficient manner
- There is no longer a period of time where a unit is invulnerable when entering or exiting a building
- Stun effects will now disable all abilities until the stun wears off

Chaos
Global
- Improved the visibility of the Noxious Cloud effect
- Units killed by Noxious Cloud will now grant favour
Plague Champion
- Shrines of Nurgle no longer can resurrect unconscious commanders
- Icon of Nurgle now requires tier 2 instead of tier 3
- Plague Bolter scatter radius reduced from 20 to 3
Sorcerer
- Consume radius increased from 5 to 8m
- Dark flames will now telegraph when being cast
- Dark flames initial delay increased from 0.1 to 2.1
- Curse of Tzeentch knockback increased from 10 to 15m
- Curse of Tzeentch area reduced from 10 to 7m
Heretics
- Sword damage increased from 20 to 24
- Aspiring Champion upgrade reduced in cost from 100/25 to 80/25
Chaos Space Marines
- Bolter scatter radius reduced from 20 to 3
Havoc
- Heavy bolter setup time reduced from 4s to 3s
Chaos Dreadnought
- Added tracer fire to the Dreadnought’s torso guns
- Can now melee garrisoned buildings while in a Blood Rage
Plague Marines
- Plague Bolter scatter radius reduced from 20 to 3
Chaos Predator Tank
- Weapon type changed from autocannon_pvp to autocannon_tank_pvp
- Rotation rate increased from 75 to 100
Great Unclean One
- Cost reduced from 1400/250 to 900/220
- Health reduced from 8750 to 6125
- Level increases multiply health by 10% instead of 15%
- Plague sword damage decreased from 440 to 160
- Special attack damage reduced from 175 to 120
- Upkeep increased from 0.0765 to 0.0956
- XP points granted lowered from 2500 to 1000
- Population cost increased from 18 to 21
- Consume
Range increased to 15 from 8
- Swarm of Flies
Cost increased from 50 to 80
- Vomit
Cost increased from 50 to 70

Space Marines
Orbital Bombardment
- Outer ring damage of Orbital bombardment has been increased from 150 to 185
Force Commander
- Fixed an issue that allowed the Force Commander to have 2 melee weapons equipped
Apothecary
- Fixed an issue that caused the Apothecary to sometimes stop shooting after using Full Auto
- Master-Crafted Bolter scatter radius reduced from 20 to 3
Techmarine
- Bolter scatter radius reduced from 20 to 3
- Master crafted bolter scatter radius reduced from 20 to 3
- Concsecrated bolter scatter radius reduced from 20 to 3
Scout Marines
- Bolter scatter radius reduced from 20 to 3
Tactical Marines
- Bolter scatter radius reduced from 20 to 3
Heavy Bolter Devastators
- Will now reset their weapons to a set-up state after upgrading to a lascannon
Assault Marines
- Energy cost for jump lowered from 70 to 50
- Jump now has a minimum range of 15m
- Incoming ranged damage will be reduced by 90% while jumping
- Now are immune to suppression for the full duration of a jump
Razorback
- Rotation rate increased from 75 to 100
Librarian
- Attacks from the power sword will no longer grant energy to the Apothecary
- Now heals at the HQ at the same rate as a commander
Predator Tank
- Rotation rate increased from 75 to 100
Terminators
- Terminators and Assault Terminators now share the same cooldown timer
- Terminators cost changed from 650/350z to 650/100/350z
Assault Terminators
- Equipping lightning claws will now reduce the health of assault terminators by 300 per entity
- Assault Terminators cost changed from 650/350z to 650/100/350z
- Fixed an issue that caused the maximum health of the squad to drop when an individual Assault Terminator was killed
Venerable Dreadnought
- Damage increased from 150 to 175
- Health increased from 1600 to 1750
- Cost decreased from 700/400z to 600/300z
- New passive ability: Stoicism
- When the Venerable Dreadnought has been dealt his killing blow he continues to fight on for 10 seconds. While Stoicism is active the Venerable Dreadnought cannot be slowed or disabled and will continuously inspire allies around him. After Stoicism expires the Dreadnought is destroyed.

Eldar
Global
- Fleet of Foot will no longer refund energy and cooldown when retreat is used while it is active
- Garrisoned Farseer webway gates are now correctly revealed by enemy detector units
Farseer
- Levitation no longer effects units that are retreating
Warlock
- Improved the Providence ability visual effects
Falcon
- Rotation rate increased from 75 to 100
Fire Prism
- Pass_type changed from medium_crusher to heavy_crusher
- Acceleration increased from 6 to 7
- Rotation rate increased from 75 to 100
Avatar
- Cost decreased from 1000/230 to 800/180
- Health decreased from 7000 to 5600
- Sword damage reduced from 340 to 205
- Avatar no long randomly knocks back units on attack
- XP points granted lowered from 2200 to 1000
- Upkeep increased from 0.04 to 0.0956
- Population cost increased from 18 to 21

Orks
Warboss
- Now I’m Angry ability changed.
- This ability no longer requires the Warboss to take damage
- Now has a cooldown of 40s and requires 50 energy
- Increases the damage of the speed of the Warboss. The Warboss will also periodically stomp the ground while running, creating a crater of light cover.
Kommando Nob
- Health granted by Extra Equipment lowered from 200 to 100
- Explosive shot knockback has been changed from ability to weapon, making it ineffective against retreating units
- Shoota scatter radius reduced from 20 to 5
Mek
- Shoota scatter radius reduced from 20 to 5
Sluggas
- Slugga Nob leader weapon type changed from pvp_melee to melee_heavy
- Nob leader upkeep lowered from 0.02125 to 0.01275
Shootas
- Nob leader upkeep lowered from 0.02125 to 0.01275
- Shoota scatter radius reduced from 20 to 8
- Shoota Nob shoota scatter radius reduced from 20 to 8
Lootas
- Population cost decreased from 5 to 4
- Upkeep reduced from 0.02125 to 0.017
Stormboys
- Stormboy Nob leader weapon type changed from pvp_melee to melee_heavy
- Incoming ranged damage will be reduced by 90% while jumping
- Now are immune to suppression for the full duration of a jump
- Jump cooldown decreased from 60s to 15s
- Jump now has a minimum range of 15m
- Nob leader upkeep lowered from 0.02125 to 0.01275
- Stormboys equipped with a Nob leader will now briefly stun enemies when jumped on
Wartrukk
- Rotation rate increased from 75 to 100
- Health decreased from 500 to 350
- Cost reduced from 300/40 to 180/20
- Damage lowered from 45 to 20
- Upkeep lowered from 0.0425 to 0.02125
Weirdboy
- Now heals at the HQ at the same rate as a commander
- Fixed an issue that would cause Zzap to persist longer than intended
Kommandos
- Kommando Nob leader has upgraded his hammer to a rokkit launcha
- Kommando Nob leader upgrade now requires tier 3
Nobs
- Huge Choppa weapon type changed from sword_pvp to melee_heavy
- Size_override set to 1, allowing Nobs to path around each other easier
- XP granted reduced from 250 to 200
- Hammers no longer have a probability of knocking back units on a regular attack
- Hammers damage increased from 100 to 110
- Hammers now increase the Nobs damage output by 8% every time they attack stacking up to 4 times
- Hammers cost increased from 50/50 to 100/70
Looted Tank
- Rotation rate increased from 75 to 100

Tyranids
Lictor Alpha
- Flesh hook damage reduced from 180 to 140
- Flesh hook flight distance lowered from 30m to 20m
Ravener Alpha
- Devourer scatter radius reduced from 20 to 8
Raveners
- Devourer scatter radius reduced from 20 to 8
Genestealers
- Removed the unused energy bar from Genestealer broods
Lictor
- Now heals at the HQ at the same rate as a commander
- Scything Talons damage type changed from power_melee to melee_heavy
- Lowered cost from 500/50 to 350/50
Tyrant Guard
- Now affected by Lascannon snare effect
- Now affected by haywire grenades
- Added a visual effect when the haywire grenade hits a Tyrant Guard
Zoanthrope
- Focused Warp Blast energy cost reduced from 65 to 30
Carnifex
- Added a visual effect when the haywire grenade hits a Carnifex

Bug Fixes
- Added all retailer exclusive wargear to the wargear drop tables in single player
- Fixed an issue that would sometimes make squads unable to fire after being suppressed
- Fixed an issue that caused setup weapon squads to chase a unit after being given an attack order
- Fixed an issue that caused single members of a squad to pursue a target after being given an attack command
- Stances are no longer reset to their defaults when upgrading a unit
- Fixed an issue that was causing Khorne shrines to spawn bloodletters faster than normal when attacked by certain units
- Fixed an issue that caused extra bloodletters to spawn when heretics stopped worshipping at a Khorne shrine.
- Fixed an issue that caused infantry to automatically change stances from melee to ranged when garrisoning a building
- Fixed an issue that prevented Heroes from cancelling a wargear upgrade while retreating another upgrading unit
- Squad selection hotkeys will now always be assigned to the first available hotkey when a squad is created
- Fixed a targeting priority issue that affected setup weapon squads and other weapons, extending their range beyond their maximum
- Fixed an issue that would cause the cursor to become stuck as the directional indicator when issuing a right click facing order over a decorator
- Fixed an issue that would cause the cursor to become stuck as the attack icon when rapidly building power generators
- Fixed an issue that caused the health of the Chaos Sorcerer to be improperly displayed when the Sorcerer unlocked the Narcissistic trait in The Last Stand
- Fixed an issue that caused users to only have randomized starting location on one map side
- Fixed an issue that caused the output language to be incorrect when using a non-english keyboard
- Added an on/off toggle for convolution reverb to the audio options
- Fixed an issue that was preventing the sound effect for mini map pings
- Added a sound effect when a chat message is received
- We now require a certain amount of gameplay to occur before awarding rank points to a user to prevent user’s who were constantly conceding in order to rank up
- Fixed a number of missing audio effects
...